Astros Look Back and MLB Playoffs

Astros Look Back and MLB Playoffs

Well, it’s playoff time and we’re going back to the bullpen. We’re going to look back a little bit on 25, look ahead to 2026 with the Astros and talk about the wild wildcard series where three of four are going to a game three. [Music] Pedestrian. It’s in your wood house. We swing for the fence. You know it’s money around here and I ain’t talking expense. Strike one. He alone in the way. You can’t hit it. Know you want to start a rally, but you better forget it. Strike two off speed. Same spot your car looking. Get ready at the plate. This time you’re not cooking. Strike three. Swinging out of the zone. You ain’t even touching first. Tell me how they going to drive you home. Walk it back. Walking back looking like we ain’t cooling. Game’s over. Might as well put them back to the bullpen. Oh yeah, that’s right everybody. And we are here back to the bullpen. We are in the bullpin with the bullpin king himself, Mike Stanton. You like that? I don’t think I’ve ever been called the bullpin king. I’ve been called a lot of things, but king ain’t one of them. Well, hey, you know what? I think that your resume speaks for itself. And so, you know what? For tonight, you’re the bullpin king. Mike, tell everybody where they can find you. I got big shoulders. I can handle it. So, so where can they find you? all over social media, right? Yeah. All over. Well, X, there you go. And I don’t even know if it’s all over Mike Stanton 29. That’s the only place you can get me. But, uh, well, you know, this is going to be an interesting uh interesting podcast just simply because, um, we’re going to talk about the Astros in a situation that we haven’t seen them in like over a decade. Um, I mean, you have to go all the way back. I know 2016 they didn’t make, but 2015 they did. um make the playoffs. That was when Dallas Kel absolutely shoved in Yankee Stadium to knock the Yankees out. That was part of the uh that’s the beginning of the hatred that the Yankees have for the Astros. Yeah. Um but yeah, this is a situation we just really haven’t been in uh with the Astros over the last, you know, what, eight, nine years. Yeah. No. And it has been quite a run. And I don’t I don’t think the Astros are outside of a window of where they can’t get back to the playoffs next year, but there are a lot of question marks this year coming out of the season that they haven’t had to deal with. Now, we have had the typical you have a superstar that comes to the end of his contract and he leaves or let me step back. a superstar that’s ending his contract and says I want to come back to Houston, i.e. From Valdez, i.e. Alex Bregman. You know, a lot of guys said they wanted to come back and they didn’t. They didn’t come back, right? Um, so this team’s going to look a lot different next year. I think there definitely has to be some roster moves and we’ll talk Hold on. Hold on. Let’s We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s Let’s talk about the 25 season, right? No. Yeah, I was going to say Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say we’re going to hit that on the back end of this podcast. Um, but right now looking back, what is your assessment of this team overall? Did they overachieve with what they I I kind of have mixed feelings here. Okay. And we’ve had a little bit of time to think about this and I still really haven’t got a real grasp on how I feel one way or another, you know, because I I look at first I look at how they ended the season. I look at the fact that, you know, they had a they were at one point they were 20 games over 500. They had just swept the Dodgers in LA. you thought this team was on the verge of going on a big-time run and they played very well until you got to September. So you when you know the bitter taste of how everything ended, you know, having a chance even you know the third to the last game if you could have uh um or I is it third or fourth? Yeah, it was it was the third because to the last game if they win that game, you never know what’s going to happen. Um but they just couldn’t score runs. You know, they ended the season scoring three uh four runs or or I’m sorry, scoring less than four runs in over half of their baseball games. Um yeah, that that kind of it it kind of sticks in my craw a little bit, but you know, then you turn around, you look at the big picture. You know, yes, okay, they didn’t score runs like we’ve seen them score in the past, but they dealt with crazy number of injuries. I think the only team that had more injuries in Major League Baseball were the Dodgers. And the Dodgers didn’t live up to expectations either. They were supposed to walk away with the whole league and not even not even have a postseason. Just go ahead and give it to the Dodgers. Well, that didn’t happen either. They are on the verge of going to the divisional series to beat the beat the Cincinnati Reds. They’re up right now in game two after winning game one. But you look at everything that went on this year. Yes, they played well. It’s at at one point, you know, they were one of the better teams in the American League. We were all scratching our heads figuring out how exactly are they doing this? Um, so, you know, to start off with, yes, I’m, you know, little bit of a bitter Betty here just just because of how it ended. But when you take a step back and you look at the big picture because you talk about go all the way go, you know, people go back to our spring training podcast. Yeah. I did not think that this was a great offensive team to start off with. I thought the pitching staff was going to be okay. Um, you know, especially if some of the guys that were supposed to be coming off the IIL, well, actually did that. Uh, most of that didn’t happen. Thank goodness for Javier. Um, it’s just so when you I I look at the big picture and I go, “Okay, you know what? This team overachieved. I don’t think there’s any doubt in in most experts minds that this team should not have been this good.” Why were they? Well, you know what? The success they’ve had, the confidence they’ve had in themselves, uh, their ability to play as a team, ability to deal with adversity, all that uh, that they’ve put that they’ve done in the past. I think it showed up here this year. I think Joe Espatada did a very very good job. Even though there were times that, you know, people were saying he’s lost the clubhouse, he’s lost. Well, listen, you know what? For a manager that has been, you know, this is only his second year. I mean, I think he’s done he he did an outstanding job of both dealing with the media and dealing with the clubhouse and dealing with with everything that goes on, all the injuries, the front office, all of it. Not an easy job. So, I think he did a pretty pretty good job. Yeah, definitely. Ben says here, he says, “Yeah, they overachieved when all the DFA players and rookies were winning. When guys started coming back, it took him a while to get going. You’re on the exception. Pitching carried them.” Pitching might carry them the whole first half. And remember, and we’ve talked at Nauseium about what is the number, the magic number was four this year. And they scored three runs or less in more games than they scored four runs or more. Actually, I kept my Astros notes. Okay. Okay. So, go ahead and I’ll when I get it all loaded up here, I’ll Yeah. And and so to back that up, Ben also says yes, they did set a record for IIL stints in Major League history. A spat wasn’t the problem. He said he made chicken salad out of chickenish all year. So, he was basically grinding up the parts of the chicken. You know, there were beaks and there were talons in there and there were It’s not It’s not going to load. It It was over I think it was like 83 games this year they scored they scored less than four runs. Here we go. Right here. And then and then on the uh and then on the other side of it, they scored four runs. Uh they were like almost like high 600s winning percentage. I mean, it was really crazy how good they were when all they needed to do was score four. Yeah. At what point I think it was 21 to 52. It It I think it was 22 I think they Yeah. Yeah. So So yeah, it was pretty it was tough to win that way. Not impossible, but tough to win that way in today’s game because look, I mean, you’re looking at these wild card games. You know, the Tigers won Tuesday two to one. Um Scooble on the mound just absolutely 14 strikeouts. Did we see like the the creme de la creme of left-handed pitchers at the beginning of this wild card? I mean, Scubble was incredible. 14 punch outs. Uh Crochet was outstanding. Yeah. For the, you know, beating the Yankees in game one in Yankee Stadium. He shoved Blake Snell. Oh my gosh. He threw seven really, really strong in innings for the Dodgers. Um you know, he’s usually a five and dive guy. I mean, it was it was pretty impressive to see u and and the crazy thing is, you know, Scubble was throwing he didn’t throw a pitch under a 100 miles an hour in the in the seventh inning. Yeah. Now, he was empty in the tank, but oh my goodness, that I mean, the first uh the first day of this wildard uh postseason, this wild card series, man, my goodness, the pitching was just outstanding. Oh, yeah. Outstanding. And you know, the reason why I mentioned that is because it’s not like you have to come in here and beat the brakes off of a team, unless you’re the Dodgers, but what counter would the Astros have had they face the Tigers in the wild card? You know, would they had the same fate they did in 24? Because that was part of the problem. They faced Scooble and then Brown and both Brown and Valdez didn’t have their best. They chose not to use Kikuchi in 24 and and I I still kind of wish they would have. Yeah. But in 2025, you never really had a full team vibe. And I think Joada mentioned it at one point. He goes, “Everybody in the clubhouse wasn’t all on the field, all in the lineup at the same time. You had Parades who was heating up, was on fire, and you’re like, “Okay, you know, Yordon’s out. Maybe when he comes back, but by the time he comes back, Parades is out.” And then by the time Jeremy Pena has taken over that leadoff spot, boom, oblique strain. I mean, and it was just one thing. I wish I wish the notes would have uh would have would have loaded and I could probably find the a couple older notes. Um, you know, listen, Joe Espatada used like 140 plus different lineups this year. I mean, a lot of that is because of the injuries and it just shows the versatility uh and the creativity that he and his coaching staff and the analytics department and Dana Brown, all of them have just trying to put a team on the field, much less, you know, winning the division up until the last couple days of the season. So, uh, it really was it really was a g a an interesting um roller coaster season. Didn’t end the way we wanted to, but this team played over their skis. So, the official So, the last media notes that was put out on on September 28th, Lance McCullers um versus um Aldereggi, uh the the Astros put out going into that game, 153 different batting orders. That’s 153, folks. You got to remember the team only plays 162. That is incredible. Oh, that is 153 different lineups. Well, okay. I know I know you and I have talked about this before and I know you say that that it like it doesn’t really matter, but when you’re in I just I feel like when you’re in the last two or three weeks, doesn’t it help though consistently going to the ballpark knowing that you know this guy’s hitting in front of you and he’s gotten a couple knocks or or I don’t know. I just 153 different lineups. It can. This was out of necessity. It wasn’t because he wanted Well, that’s true. No, right. If you had, you know, if you had, you know, you had Yordon and Pñena and now you would still had some mixing and matching at the back end because you had guys coming off the guys going on the IIL, you know, the back and forth. But, you know, if you had your horses, uh, you had your thoroughbreds at the top of the lineup, in the middle of the lineup, then you wouldn’t have had Now, listen, they probably even with those guys, you probably still would have had well over a hundred. But 153, that’s a that’s just a remarkable number. Well, hey, why don’t we do this? Because you remember AJ Hench when he was coach, okay, in 2017, he was manager. He was he was manager. They had they had 143 different lineups. I just looked that up. I just looked that up. The last game of the season, Astros. You know what would be interested I would be interesting in this is if I maybe I’ll uh make some phone calls. I wonder what the average number of li different lineups across Major League Baseball is. I bet it’s pretty high. It’s there’s not very many teams that just have nine guys they run out there every single day. So in 2022, Dusty Baker rolled out 130 different lineups the last game of the season. And I and I remember I remember you know people complaining about why is he changing lineup so much. Well, heck, he was I mean he was low at 130. Yeah, it won’t it won’t let me go back to 2015, but I was just trying to see. It basically starts my notes start at 2017. Okay. Um and yeah, but that’s You know what? I didn’t even realize I even got game game seven World Series notes here. 2017. There you go. Look at that. Look at that inside access. Um so let’s let’s talk about this because there’s there’s been a lot of a lot of talk, a lot of water cooler talk. Joe Spata returning, Dana Brown returning. Um, what do we what is your confidence of Joe Easpatada coming back for the 2026 season? That’s the last year of his contract. I think that he is probably going to come back. I I don’t see any any risk. Now, listen, I don’t have any inside information, right? Um, I you know, I don’t know what the conversations behind the closed doors are, but I think that, you know, he has been the right man for the job the whole time. And you know, even though there has been some hiccups here or there and there’s some moves that you question, you know, a lot of times these guys don’t, and I say these guys, I’m talking about all big league managers. They don’t always get to make the moves that they want to move make. You know, sometimes it is some of these moves are made by the analytics department, some of these are made by the medical staff, meaning okay, you know, our closer can’t go tonight. You have to go somewhere else. you end up getting a blown save and you have to answer the questions in the post game. Well, why didn’t you know why didn’t your closer pitch? Well, you know, Dusty Baker was the one that always said, “Well, I had like five guys that I couldn’t use.” He had no problem pulling punches to to throw somebody under the bus. Joe doesn’t do that. He would always kind of just grin and bear it and take it on himself. But, you know, I thought I thought Joe has done a a really nice job. Um, you know, he’s still learning. You got to remember he’s been a he’s been a big league coach for a long time, bench coach uh for AJ, but you know, you turn around, you look at he’s only been managing for a couple seasons. So, you know, he’s still he’s still getting his uh his sea legs underneath him. Yeah, definitely. I know Martine Maldonado announced his retirement from baseball after this year and everybody’s like future Astros coach and um you know someone you know and and and I actually joked the other day I was like can we can we hire um Bruce Bochi and Dusty Baker to joint manage together and then we put maybe Martine Maldonado on the bench or Omar Lopez at third, Dave Clark at first. If we’re going to go away from a spot, can we have like a super conglomeration of like great, you know, managing talent? But the but at the end of the day, no matter who the skipper is, whether it’s Brian Snick or whether it’s Dusty Baker, heck, whether it’s Sparky Anderson, right, the players have to execute. The player like like Aaron Boon, Aaron Boon to every Yankees fan should have been fired five years ago, 10 years ago, right? I mean, there’s a lot of Yankees fans, they just want Boon out and he they get beat by the Red Sox tomorrow. I’m just saying if they don’t win, if they don’t win, but you know, the thing is he got criticized for pulling Freed in game one. But it wasn’t that he put Weaver in because Weaver his last six outings had not given up a hit or a run, right? And so the guy Yeah. He put Weaver in and then Weaver loses it. Well, the guy’s got to execute. So, that’s not that’s not on the coach. But just like when I coach, I tell my players, if we lose, I’ll take the blame. If we win, I’ll give you the credit. Like, I don’t need the credit. That’s your job. Right. and and but you know it’s just it’s just one of those things where now with Joe Espada coming back and I I have heard throughout the year um rumblings here and there about there not being a lot of cohesion in the clubhouse between the players and the spata but I don’t know like what that is right there was also talk about and that you know what that may just be scuttlebutt that may just be people talking uh listen Joe Espada was loved for years and years as the bench coach. Okay? It’s not like he doesn’t know these guys. It’s not like and that’s the thing, right? And so when I hear that, what do you need? But here’s the question. What does a player need from a big league manager? Okay. Protection from the media, protection from the front office, and you know, stay positive as much as you possibly can, right? make the right moves that you you know but uh you know and give me some examples where Joe just completely and totally missed the boat. I don’t know of very many. Yeah. Right. And and and of course you have your people that are your classic Monday morning quarterback. Well, they were nitpick and it’s easy to criticize from afar, right? Sure. It’s easy for me as a fan to look at that player and go, “How did you let that How did you let that ball go down the plate?” Well, you know what? The ball’s coming at 97 mph. You have in your mind what pitch you’re sitting on. When he doesn’t throw the pitch that you know that he’s going to throw on that fifth pitch, and he throws a heater down the middle, that jellys you almost every time. Um, but but going into Dana Brown, is Dana Brown more at a crossroads of being not here because of his job is more involved? His job is about constructing a roster. And the return on investment that Jim Crane’s gotten on these players that he’s gotten, they haven’t really panned out. Jesus Sanchez, Christian Walker, I mean, these guys, we know what their ceiling is. We know what they’re what they’re capable of, but could we see Dana Brown possibly being let go? Personally, I don’t think so because you’re you’re talking about a guy, wasn’t this really his first full season of being a general manager? I mean, um, and and I’m not talking about just for the Astros. I’m talking about being o overall. He’s never done this before, right? But, you know, last year, two seasons ago for the Astros now, um, yeah, he was the general manager, but he wasn’t general manager all the way through the offseason when you’re that when your team is built. So, this was really the first time. I don’t really see Dana leaving. I don’t I I I don’t I mean, could it happen? Of course. you know, anything can happen. But I think that um you know, this is a situation that Dana just really hasn’t had uh just all that much time to to really figure out exactly who he is. And you have to remember Dana Brown isn’t making all the moves by himself. All these moves and just like same thing with Joe Espatada, you know, a lot of the moves that are being made are organizational moves. I mean, there’s other people that have voices even in the the day-to-day operations on the field. There’s other people that have voices in this. And Dana Brown is the same thing. Now, he may be the guy standing at the podium, you know, telling you, you know, you know, telling you who they’re bringing in or who they’re not bringing in or whatever, right? But as far as who’s actually making the decisions, that’s a much more complex answer. Yeah, definitely. Um, now Astros future. Um, my friend Jimmy actually put this out today. He said, um, the Astros will have a first round pick in the teens next year, their highest pick since 2017, which is huge. They should also receive a comp pick if or when Hunter Brown finishes top three in Sai Young. Hopefully he does. Now, is there still compensation if Frober leaves? If From leaves, they will get they will get a compensation pick. They will. Yes. And then so next summer, the draft is going to be crucial to add another strong crop of talent to the system. Well, hold on. Now, that is where Dana Brown, this is why to me, this is one of the main reasons why Jim Crane brought him in was to rebuild the minor league system. that was he, you know, everything that’s happened in Atlanta over the last decade, Dana Brown had his hand in all of that. And I think that was one of the big reasons why the Astros, you know, had had this long run, but their minor league was were depleted. And I think that that’s, you know, that’s where that’s supposed to be Dana Brown’s forte. Yeah. No, and and maybe it’s like what do they do with the draft this year? What players do they acquire? Um, what players do they go get at the trade deadline? Be and look, at the end of 2026, unfortunately, there’s more than likely going to be a work stoppage. I don’t I don’t Oh, don’t go there. You don’t Well, I Well, okay. I understand where you’re going. Okay. Now, remember, I have I have been through this many, many times. Okay. Okay. Um, you’re not talking about a small industry. You’re talking about a what 11 to 12 billion dollar industry now, right? Okay. Baseball is now big big big business. Okay. Okay. And I know there’s a lot of talk about that, but we start off with we’re way too soon because they’re not even really negotiating yet. True. True. Um, you know, I I went through I was the, you know, when we almost lost the sport in 1994 when we uh, you know, we had to go on strike and then there was a lockout, we lost the World Series, we almost lost this sport. Okay, I agree. It actually took 1998. Um, and the the as far as the players were concerned, the home run chase between Mark Maguire and Sammy Sosa. Um, you know, that was big parts, the Yankee team I was on, you know, we we won 114 games and won the World Series. One of the best teams ever to to to uh to walk on a field. um you know 75 games over 500 by the end of the World Series. Um you know that’s what really took to put baseball back on the map right now. Are there issues? Of course there’s always issues and there’s always everybody’s thinking Armageddon. But what you have to try and keep is a is a calm, cool, collected mind that um that those are the that they’re going to get it done. Will it go down to the deadline? Of course, it’ll go down to the deadline. It always goes down to the deadline. You know, I was involved in the 2002 negotiations with the first time that we did not have a work stoppage in Major League Baseball, and we haven’t had one since. So, I think that um So, you think that trend continues, man? And I think you’re talking about an industry that is just too big and there’s too much on the line um for both sides. Well, right, because you have them talking about wanting to do realignment eventually. You’ve got two teams potentially coming in. Um, Ben Verlander with Flipping Bats just just put up a bunch of numbers of like record numbers and attendance and viewing for Major League Baseball. I think Major League Baseball is starting to get things right. I still wish MLB.TV was not If you live in Iowa, you’re blacked out from like nine different teams, which is insane. Listen, there there’s um you know those things those are all things but those aren’t really negotiations with the players association. No, exactly. Now, now I mean player association is involved in that stuff, but that’s not the stuff. It’s more about the luxury tax and all that kind of, you know, the floor, the ceiling, right? You know, you know, basically what happened in 1994 with the player the the owners, which was Major League Baseball, uh the owners had decided they’re going to try and break the union. And um you don’t really want to challenge professional athletes and that’s what they did. They challenged us. Well, it didn’t work out very well for him. Exactly. You know, that 1994 season, um the Expose, there’s a new series coming out. Um on I can tell you right now, nobody was beating that team. I was with the Atlanta Braves. Yeah. Uh, and um, I mean they had they had like a nine-game lead over everyone and they were stacked. And to tell you the truth, here’s the unfortunate thing about that situation and it probably come whatever documentary you’re talking about, right? Um, that strike is what killed baseball in Montreal. They went ahead, they went and won the World Series. They probably get a new stadium and and and who knows. And to tell you the truth, Montreal is on the short list of expansion teams for Major League Baseball. You know, there’s only one team in Canada. The Blue Jays are the only team that have a whole country behind them. Exactly. And um Montreal has been pushing hard. They already have financing for a new stadium and they’ve had it for a couple years now. That’s a stadium that’s downtown. That’s a you know, be a baseballon stadium, right? Right. You know, the Big O was was a brutal brutal. It was in a terrible place. Um, it was it was a brutal stadium, you know. So, did you pitch there? Oh, many times. Wow. So, was it was it a was it a pitcher ballpark or a hitter ballpark? You had to hit it to hit a home run, but the turf was lightning fast. Okay. So it was kind of So ground so grounders were literal worm burners. I mean Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. That makes thing that stopped him was the Alfield wall. Yeah. Yeah. No. Well, that and then you had you had you had the Superdome in Seattle. Y um you you had that thing. I remember I remember in 98 Maguire hit an upper deck shot there. Oh many Yeah. Um, golly, that just, you know, uh, Safe Go Field, that’s the field that Junior built. Yeah, there you go. There you go. That’s true. That’s true. Not safe anymore, but that’s what it was, right? Yeah. I I think it’s T-Mobile Park now um is what it is. But, you know, we’ve got a lot of former Astros um that are that are in the playoffs. You know, the Blue Jays have Miles Straw, they have George Springer, they have Joey Lopeido. you know, um I’m sure they’ve got some other farm hands or someone in there in the Oh, they’re all over everywhere. I just watched Kik Hernandez just made the last out a couple an inning and a half ago and people forget he started with the Astros. He did. He did. You know, and then you’ve got you got the Padres’s has Martine Maldonado who’s announced he’s going to be hanging it up. The Padres’s won today three to nothing. Um you know, Machado um um Luis Arise and then um Fernando Tatis Jr. came through for them where they didn’t they were like 0 for 0 for 11 in game one and today they were three for seven. Kyle Tucker over there with the Cubs. Um Red Sox Alex Bregman. Alex Bregman tried to play hero again tonight and it was a big part of yesterday’s win. He was he was so you know Bregman postseason hero. the guy’s good in the postseason, but Kyle Tucker, he, you know, he wasn’t known for his postseason contributions offensively. And yeah, the first two games he hasn’t really done much. Now he did. Well, to tell you the truth, nobody has really done a whole lot. Well, that’s true. I mean, when you look you look at I mean, it has been a pitching dominated postseason. No, we’re only talking about a handful of games, but um Well, absolutely. The Reds the Reds and the Dodgers. Yeah. Yeah. Reds and Dodgers, but the the Reds scored late. They were already down 10 nothing. The Dodgers scored 10 in game one. The other three games, nobody scored more than three runs. So, they were all pitchers dus. And then today wasn’t much difference. The Guardians, yeah, they scored six runs, but five of them were in the It was what the bottom of the eighth. Yeah. You know, they just Yeah. But um you know Padres’s scored three, Cubs didn’t score at all. Yankees Red Sox was four to three. Great baseball game. Um yeah, it’s been it’s been dominated and it’s not really that much different than what’s happened all season. Pitching has been very good this year and it’s so far so good keeping that pitching at the top rung in the the postseason here. Exactly. So, knowing that the Astros aren’t there, looking ahead, we’ve got yet another star, Frober Valdez, who’s at the end of his contract, who says, “I want to come back to Houston.” There’s people that have told me, they think, well, gosh, I just don’t know that Framer’s going to thrive in another city. You know, he’s got all the like, you know, he breaks down on the mound mentally and he’s comfortable here. He’s got a camaraderie. Are there chances that his ego lets him sign a deal that would be team friendly for the Astros? Or is there even a chance the Astros don’t even really offer him a deal? I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s an ego thing. I think it’s a business thing. You know, when you you know, you work very hard as a player to get to free agency. Okay. And it’s really the first time, especially when you’re you’re a good a really good player and and have lots of value like Frober does. uh you’re the for the first time in your career, you have the hammer. You get to decide where you play. Okay? And that’s not something that a lot of players ever get the chance to do. I was lucky enough to do it a couple times, but um so I don’t think it’s really an ego thing. And I I don’t I listen, will the Astros make an offer? They may. Um we know it’s not going to be a long-term deal. Yeah. I mean, and just simply because the Astros just have not done that, especially with pitching, they may try to make a qualifying offer or a little bit over. Oh, he’ll get he’ll get a qualifying offer 100%. And if they if he takes the qualifying offer, it’s because it’s probably going to be I don’t know 21$22 million. Yeah. Um, which is a ridic, you know, crazy amount of money, but he’s probably looking for 30 plus per year easily. and a multi-year deal. So, I mean, the Astros, the qualifying offer, I think, is a shoe in. Okay. Um, that’s the whole type A person or type A free agent situation and you get, you know, draft pick compensation and all that kind of stuff, right? Um, you know, so the Astros will absolutely do that. Uh, but as far as a long-term deal, I, you know, what is the longest time term we’ve seen, you know, we saw him sign Lance McCullers Jr. and that hasn’t, that hasn’t worked out. other than that has been three years, right? And you know what I’m wondering is if From’s not resigned, which I don’t think he will be. I think it’s unlikely. Um, you know, can they get someone like a Ranger Suarez or is Ranger Suarez going to want too long of a deal, too big of a deal? Because if you could bring in a Suarez now, yeah, bear with me. I know Justin Verlander’s a little old, but his last seven starts were phenomenal. Yeah. What are the chances of them bringing him back on a one-year deal being a number four or five starter where you know that he’s not one of your main guys, but he’s had a couple runs here. Jim Crane and the Verlanders are close. You bring in Suarez, you bring in Verlander. I mean, that’s not a bad two, three, or two, four punch to throw in there with Hunter Brown. Yeah. So, I I listen, Suarez, you know, we’ll have to wait and see. The one thing we have, we we don’t know. We don’t know what the markets are going to look like. Okay. Now, the problem is if the Astros are going to go to the top of the free agent market, there are long-term deals that that’s what it’s going to take. And we’re talking about five, sixyear deals. And I just don’t think that Jim Crane’s willing to do that. He hasn’t, you know, he hasn’t done that with, you know, some of the big hitters, much less pitchers in the past. I love the idea of bringing back Verlander. Okay. Even even if he is just mediocre, um, you know, when you when you bring on a future Hall of Famer, you know, there’s mystique that goes with it. You know, he’s still Justin Verlander, even if he’s not Justin Verlander that’s winning Sai Youngs. But you got to remember, he won a Sai Young just a couple years ago. I know he’s older and and you know, but and then and he that’s he’s not the same guy, but it wasn’t like, well, he hasn’t won a Sai Young in seven years. It hasn’t been that long. No. Right. It has been. And and and just just I mean I’ve I’ve been in the guy’s presence and he he commands a room. And Mike, I’ve been around a lot of Hall of Fame players and I know that you have been in the presence and in the company of great players and you just know there’s those certain guys that there’s just something about them when they walk into the room. There’s the the feeling is different. It’s the energy changes and that’s what it’s like with him. And so he could be someone because I don’t think people are saying he would cost too much. I don’t think he’s gonna be that much at his age. Well, I mean, it depends on if you’re talking about monopoly baseball money or if you’re talking about, you know, uh because it’s still it’s he’s not going to play for nothing. He’s not play for nothing. But but then the Astros could get him for could you get him for 10 or 12 or maybe 15 million? Probably. Yeah. So, but yeah, look, um, someone goes, “Third times a charm.” Why not? Why not? Justin, if you talk to any oldtime baseball expert, they’ll tell you there’s no such thing as a bad one-year deal. There you go. Okay, you heard it here first. And see, here’s the thing. This is why we like discussing these things, Mike, because you have the experience. You You have You bring that expert analysis that I can’t bring. I mean, I could read all the books. I could go to all the websites, but you’ve lived it. And so, um, you know, I think we will continue to assess the needs of the Astros. I think we will continue to assess where we think this club is. Maybe in a few days there’s some definitive statements from the owner. Hey, they’re here. And, you know, Dana’s like, I’m still the GM. Joe’s like, I’m still here. Right. So, you know, it was it was interesting, you know, because the press was like, “So, do you basically, do you think you’re gone after this year?” Like, well, as far as I know, I’m still the GM and I’ll be here tomorrow and the next day. So, until I’m not I’m here until I’m not. Until I’m not. That’s right. But, and you know, I think I think the playoffs are going to be really fun whenever we get the number one and number two seeds involved. um the guys that are waiting in the wings, the Mariners, the teams like that that that haven’t yet played because wow, there’s going to be some fireworks out there. Tell you the truth, so far it’s been it’s been fun because there’s tight baseball games and you know that’s what you know who am I rooting for? Nobody in particular. Okay, what I want is I want every series to go to the very last game. I want the World Series to go to game seven, the ninth inning of game seven, maybe the 10th inning of game seven. Wow. Okay. And because as soon as it’s over, that’s it. Baseball’s done until till springtime. And so I want but I want, you know, good competitive series. I want to watch, you know, on the edge of my seat to make see if the pitcher is going to be able to make the pitcher or whatever. I don’t want blowouts. That’s not fun. No. Well, and and I think I’m still going to do it. I’m just going to hang my hat with the um with the with the Blue Jays. And maybe you can wear your Padres’s hat again. Oh. Oh, no. And you mean my Pirates hat? Pirates? Not Padres’s. Pirates hat. Yeah. Yeah. But hey, look at this 70th World Series patch. I mean, look at that patch. Is phenomenal. That is a great 70th World Series patch. It’s a stained glass edition from the Hat Club. And so I wore that tonight and everybody thought I had jump shipped to Lock on Pirates. So, well, hey man, uh this has been a great show. Um, oh look, someone says this is trash. They must be they must have come in from a time machine from 2017. Um, wow. Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. We appreciate it. All right. Well, hey, um, we will be back. Um, we’ll be back, you know, probably this weekend. I know our schedule is a little off. Um, but oh, we do have we we will we will have um an interview with a current Astros player next week and so we’ll let y’all know who it is next week. That’s all they tease. That’s right. So y’all make sure y’all come back and join us. But just make sure the notifications are on, subscribe, share everything. We would love for you to return. Share with your friends. Go get your Back to the Bullpin shirt. The QR code’s right there. The most comfortable shirt on the planet. You can work in it. You can sleep in it. You can go on dates in it. You can do whatever you want in this Back to the Bullpin shirt. It is versatile. So, y’all make sure you do that. Um, someone said, Brett, tell us. I will tell you he has a pulse and he played on the 2025 Houston Astros. So, was a big part of the 25 was a big part. Well, you know, for myself, for Mike, for everybody here at Locked on Astros, we appreciate y’all. We’re not locked on Astros. Wait, we are back to the bullpin. I’m sorry for Mike, for Brent, and everybody here at Back to the Bullpin. You know, I can’t let that go. Oh, no. That was ter That was a really bad miss. Swinging miss. Kind of like Aaron Judge in the postseason. Um, but anyways, yeah. All right. Well, hey, see, I had to get that little dig in. So for all of us here at Back to the Bullpen, y’all have a good one and we are out. Adios. I’m looking to the bullpen to bring my left in. Keep the lead and make your team look pedestrian. It’s in your wood house. Will swing for the fence. You know it’s around here and I ain’t talking. Strike one. He alone in the way. You can’t hit it. Know you want to start a rally, but you better forget it. Strike two off speed. Your car looking. Get ready at the plate. This time you’re not cooking. Right. Three. Swinging out of the zone. You ain’t even touching first. Tell me how they going to drive you home. Walking back. Walking back. Looking like we ain’t cooling. Game’s over.

Mike and Brett look back on 25, also talk playoff baseball. Who won their first games of the playoffs.

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