Which Astros variables will loom LARGE in recovering from Houston’s FREEFALL!

Which Astros variables will loom LARGE in recovering from Houston’s FREEFALL!

Welcome to Stone Cold Stros. I’m Brandon Strange alongside Charlie Polo and Josh Jordan. You can follow them on X at Palo and Josh Jordan 975 respectively. Anywhere between our episodes here, you can read their blogs covering the Astros, Texans, and Rockets over on sportsmap.com. On today’s episode, the AL West has turned into a boat race to the bottom as the Astros, Mariners, and Rangers are all in freef fall mode. We’ll speculate on whose shoot still works. Does Houston have a froer problem? We’ll talk about Wednesday’s meltdown. On the bright side, Yordon’s return is looking more and more promising. Fingers crossed, and it’ll be not a moment too soon. Before all that, hit like on the video. Mash the subscribe button to see more of our content. Click the bell to be notified when our new content drops. And we’re also on all your favorite podcast apps if you prefer to listen. Charlie and Josh, welcome in. Uh just to recap for any Astros fans who’ve been in a coma since July. Firstly, congratulations on regaining consciousness. Secondly, the weeks that have followed that uh sweep of the Dodgers in LA have not been kind to Houston. They are currently on a 4-ame skid. Losers of 15 of their last 26, shut out in four of their last six, swept in four of their last 12 series. and yet against all odds still sit alone at top the AL West. Five guys with have zero hits since our last show. Jesus Sanchez who hasn’t had a sense since the second game in New York. Uh Victor Keratini, Chaz McCormack, Jacob Melton, and Taylor Trmell. Although Trel’s been hitting everything else hard, including things like the ground and wall. Uh, I feel like I can joke about that since it seems like the prognosis isn’t too serious, which all things considered is a miracle given how the season has played out. So, let’s start with the series in the Motor City. Um, and then we’ll step back and look more big picture. Charlie, what were your takeaways from the three against Detroit? Look, it’s one of the most humiliating four-day stretches in the history of the Houston Astros. Three consecutive games shut out and then down six nothing in the first inning of the fourth game. If the Orioles hadn’t spat up the game Saturday, maybe we’d be talking about a full week, one of the worst in the history of the Astros since we’d then include Friday night’s near-perfect game by the great Brandon whatever his name is. Oh yeah, who the Astros will see in Baltimore. But you media guys, they’re two and six in their last eight games. Yeah, they’ve grown their lead in the American League West over that stretch as the Mariners have stumbled to one and seven. So yes, boat race to the bottom. The SS’s Titanic dueling it out at this point. But this is where we can sing Kumbaya all take a deep breath and note the stretches of a baseball season are stretches. And if we’re going to judge the Astros with recency bias, this is one gigantic steaming elephant turd of a team soaked in rotten eggs. I mean, it’s been worse than brutal. It’s been pathetic. It’s been colossally complete in the collapse. And we’ll name plenty of the guilty, though we do have time constraints on this. You mentioned going back to those houseion days when the Astros went into LA, Brandon, and swept the Dodgers since then, right? this last few day stretch an ugly freaking nightmare, but it’s longer than that. They’re 14 and 23 over their last 37 games heading into Baltimore. Over that time frame, you know who’s better than the Astros? The Colorado Rockies, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Oh, yeah. Everyone in Major League Baseball except the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Washington Nationals, right? 27 of the other 29 teams in Major League Baseball have been better than the Astros over a 30 game 37 game stretch. That’s nearly one quarter’s worth of the season. But you don’t add it up and call the race after a 37 game stretch or a 15game stretch or a 50game stretch. It’s about 162 games. And while it’s more about Seattle sucking even worse than the Astros more recently than the Astros, those are the standings. Just to amplify on the numbers that if you’re an Astros fan, you’re you’re a combination of nauseous, furious, depressed, you know, has the longest winning streak in the American League this season. The Minnesota Twins won 13 in a row earlier this year. Uh the Kansas City Royals, conversely, the team that right now looms as maybe the biggest problem for the Astros if they’re going to miss the playoffs entirely. Mariners wind up winning the West. The Royals lost 11 in a row at home earlier this season. Now since the All-Star break going gang busters and whoa, they’re within three games of the Astros in what would be the third wild card spot if the Astros need to get in to the wild card right behind the Yankees now. Just about even with the Red Sox. So, as gross as as dispiriting as this week has been, well, you know, the Astros were 29 and 10 immediately before this 14 and 23. Am I forecasting that kind of finishing kick? No. But it won’t take that kind of finishing kick to at least get in the playoffs or more likely to win the American League West, which is a good thing. But that will record them scoring a run per baseball game at least. At least that’s my prediction. Check my math there. I could be wrong, but guys, it it’s all over the place. There’s, as Charlie said, we’re going to name a lot of people because everything’s going wrong right now. It’s when the starting pitching’s good, the bullpin has a bad night. When Frober’s terrible and gives up seven runs and the bullpen comes in and and doesn’t give up anymore, right? It’s just that they’re so offbalance right now. And and yeah, we got to get to some of these guys on offense that are just absolutely killing you. Jesus Sanchez guys, what is he? Oh, for his last 28 at bats, like Brandon said, been since the Yankee series since he’s done anything. I think Cam Smith is like on like a one for his last 16, something like that right now. Bottom line, your outfield is absolutely terrible. That’s what’s killing you. Yeah, you can take Yiner striking out and hey, he actually got a walk in this series. You can deal with that. You could take care. He’s been okay. Aluve has been slumping a little, but that’s fine. Pñena, too. Christian Walker, rough series, but he did hit some balls to the wall. I’m telling you, this guy would have like seven more home runs if they counted balls off the top of the wall. He needs to just hit the weight room a little more for next season, I think. But point being, your outfield’s just dreadful. Jacob Melton, great on defense, some great plays. Dude, can’t hit. You’re none of these guys in the outfield are giving you anything right now. And and that’s the big problem because you have to start three of those guys. So, right now, they got to figure out the outfield. Hopefully Yordon comes back which kicks Alt Tuve I guess to left field and then that takes one of those spots and then you just got to hope that Sanchez comes out of this because you don’t really have a lot behind him. You’re banking on a lot especially since he’s one of your few left-handed bats. So between him and Cam and and whatever you’re going to do in center and Chaz McCormick, he’ll get a start. He’ll even get some relief pitches but he’ll get pulled before he gets a chance to go for a pinch hit. So that’s the other concern. Yeah, Joe spotted. These guys may be left-handed and you can pinch hit because they’re left-handed. Doesn’t mean they can hit though, dude. It’s rough right now. And I think they’ll get through it, but they’re being challenged. No doubt about it. Sanchez in the the deepest of for freezes, but as we mentioned early in the week, the outfield is a joke. They’re playing all outfielders who are not legitimate major leaguers. And at this point in time, which stretches now well beyond a month, that includes Cam Smith. Maybe he goes on to a phenomenal career, but that Espatada still regularly has him in the lineup, including against right-handed pitching. It’s not that Espatada is a dumb dumb. I mean, you may think that, but it’s not that he’s a dumb dumb. He has no viable alternatives. Cam Smith 14 for his last 102 137 batting average. I believe Obama was president. The last time Cam Smith homered, actually, it was late June. 49 at bats ago. Taylor Trmell again, here’s to his health. Four for his last 37. A 177 lifetime hitter, finding his level. Chaz McCormack 601 OPS. He pitches better than he hits. And then there’s Jacob Melton, 9 for 53. That’s 170. 24 strikeouts in 53 at bats. Almost every other official at bat is a strikeout. And this is a withering indictment of the farm system that they have no one else they can even consider calling up to give a shot in the outfield. So absolutely Altuve has to man an outfield spot. Unless you’re saying Dubon is going to be in left field, Altuve at second, fly ball pitcher, ground ball pitcher. But to continue to run out of combination from among Chaz, Trel, Melton, Sanchez, Cam Smith is filling out a lineup card with both hands tied behind his back. But let’s factor in none of these guys have done a damn thing basically with any length to it in the major leagues. Sanchez mildly so. The guys who are supposed to be the heaviest lifters. Altuve three for his last 28. Eight games, 107 batting average. OPS for the season now has dipped below 800. Kareah last eight games batting 241, but he’s the Judy in punching Judy. One extra base hit, a double in his last eight games. Also only one walk drawn. So you’re batting 241. You’re walking once per week and you’re batting second. You’re on base percentage blows. It’s a top tobum bottom nightmare at this point. At this point, you mentioned Yordon. Look, I know it was just one game and I don’t care if he hit four home runs or if he struck out four times, but he was two for four, a single, a double. Who in the hell told him to try to steal a base even though he was safe? Yordon should be should be in the lineup in Baltimore. They’re going to face three lefty starters. Jordan’s track record against lefties is just fine. And you know what? if he still doesn’t have his timing down to really flourish against major league pitching. What? He’s going to give you worse output than you’re getting from your lineup now. So, uh, time is is a wasting in terms of wow, it’s all bunching up behind them that missing the playoffs entirely is becoming an increasingly plausible outcome on this. So, for Yordon to play Thursday and Friday, see how he handles backto-back games off day and then play Sunday if it goes well. While the Astros are off Monday, Yordon joins the team Tuesday. What in the hell are you waiting on that for? He should be in the lineup in Baltimore on Thursday. Okay. Off day, then Saturday and Sunday to see how he handles the off days. Uh, back-to-back days. Then the Astros have the off day Monday. And let’s go here. Why would you wait any longer if you’re on Alvarez didn’t Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning report? Ow, my hand. Well, I think that’s what they are waiting on is to see if there’s going to be any owies as he ramps up. And we’ll get to Yordon uh in a more in a little bit here. Um, was Cam Smith even born when Obama was president? I I digress. I just think what’s wild is that this lineup on paper before the trade deadline was worse and yet this is the results we’re seeing out of the stretch. So, it is baffling. So, it’s it’s one of those things where we knew they were overachieving for most of the season, but I don’t think this team is this bad or as bad as they’ve been during the stretch. So, I guess silver linings here. Um, first I’ll start with the scoreless streak finally broken at 31 on Wednesday. So, hey, 31 innings. That’s a lot. Um, they certainly aren’t peaking too early, so there’s that. Um I guess um well I’m assuming that they’re not peeking too assuming that the 20 games over 500 wasn’t the peak. Um the other bright spot Hunter Brown looked really great in his start in his duel with uh Scooble and they were a bad call from at least winning one of these games in in this series. Um but we do have to look at Far Fromer’s implosion on Wednesday. Um, five innings pitched, uh, seven runs on seven hits, four walks, uh, only two strikeouts. Five innings pitched, I think, is, I think, a miracle considering how this started out. He had five, he’d given up five runs before the first out of the game was recorded. Over his last seven games, he is 1 and3 with a 446 erra and a whip of 137. In your estimation, is this just a hiccup in Frost season or is this becoming more of a red flag that Houston has a serious issue with Fromber? I’m going with very poorly timed hiccup. The Astros won 13 consecutive Frober starts. Now they’ve lost five consecutive Frober starts. His RA was 1.84 over that stretch where Frober pitched the Astros won. Um, we all know that he’s prone to go mush between his ears. The game Wednesday was over in the first inning and he got squeezed on a couple of calls with the leadoff hitter, but then he threw one hanging curveball after another, another walk in there, two wild pitches in there. It was a disaster. And kind of like in his postseason career when Framber goes bad, he goes really, really bad. So unless we hear something about, oh, his his elbow is bothering him. Uh, I’m just going to go with this happens with Frober. He typically comes out of it. He needs to come out of it sooner than later. But, uh, this past week, 10 days, back a little farther than that. Between Frober and Kyle Tucker, who’s costing themselves more tens of millions of dollars? That’s a good point. With Frober, it’s it’s tough, right? Because in the month of August, he’s already made four starts. His ERA is over seven. So, I mean, this isn’t just a small sample size. Eric Getty’s RA over seven after three starts. It’s So, it’s not just Frober, but it’s a big issue. I I’m with Charlie. I I think I mean, A, what are you going to do about it? From one of your best pitchers. You’re just going to keep rolling him out there unless he’s not healthy. But B, you just have to hope it’s the dog day. I I do hate the correlation that he’s been this bad since Kareah joined the team and there was all that, oh, they’re going to miss Kareah’s leadership with all the mound visits with From all that kind of stuff. And man, Framber hadn’t very been very good since Kareah came back and all the mound visits in the world weren’t helping anything in the finale against the Tigers. That’s for sure. But I will point this out since Brandon were talking about our our silver linings, if you will. I don’t know if there’s a team that’s any better against Frober. They they have the secret against him. AJ Hinch talked about it in the playoffs last year how they were just firing curve balls in that machine over and over again. He was encouraging the guys, if you think it’s a curve ball, let it go. If you think it’s a fast ball, don’t try and pull it. If you’re a right-handed hitter, if Rober’s going to stay out there on the outside corner, if he can, it’s going to tail away. Just go with it. Don’t pull it to the shorts stop and hit into a double play. And they’ve kind of continued that. The Tigers do very well against Frober. They have a good game plan. And hopefully that’s just the thing with AJ Hinch that he knows what to do a little better than other ball clubs and that you know From will be on track the next time he starts cuz boy we know that the Astros need it more than ever right now. Yeah. And let’s note uh a pitcher can only control as best he can the defensive side when he’s on the mound. The five consecutive Frober starts the Astros have lost they’ve scored 1,24 and zero runs. So, not a lot of margin for error there. Even getting lit up recently, his for the season’s 3.32, which is top 10 in the American League. So, don’t be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But this stretch with the team’s fortunes intertwined with it, not exactly make Jim Crane think, “Yeah, six years, $200 million, we’ll contemplate that.” Yes. And speaking of Korea, we’ve already had our first players only meeting with Carlos. So, uh, that’s something, uh, as far as leadership goes. Uh, it’s it’s not just Fromber, that’s true, that’s struggling, but he’s been a part of this really important two-headed monster at the top of the rotation that you look at and you go, “Okay, if you got your two horses right, you can win a playoff series.” But the curveball being an issue for him, that’s his bread and butter. And that does not bode well. He’s got to get that figured out if they have any hope. And part of that hope is relying upon getting Yord on back as you mentioned Charlie. So let’s dig into that just a little bit. We talked about him progressing well in his uh in his rehab given what we’ve seen from this lineup or not seen from this lineup over this stretch. Can Yordon still be a needle mover? I mean, we talked about this a few weeks ago and we were like, absolutely. He lengthens the lineup. Uh, and he’s a dangerous hitter, but is he enough of a dangerous hitter to make this team dangerous again once he returns? can be and better be, but I think the standard shouldn’t be that Yordon needs to hit 295 career average give or take a couple of points and hit home runs that would be a 40 home run pace if he played an entire season among other reasons. Yordan’s never hit 40 home runs uh in a season. but just to be a good solid legit major league bat added to a lineup that has about three of them on a daily basis. Uh at this point, uh remember going into last season, Espado wanted as his best offensive player. Yordon in the two-hole. Uh I don’t know what the thinking will be. I I’ll go third and you’re dropping down. Kareah, I would think some Pñena won. Altuve too, although with Altuve 3 for 28 the last week. Uh, but one of those guys needs to drop because Yordon’s better than both of them if Yordon is right. But Yordon in addition to the thunder that he packs in the bat. He does take some walks and well, we know he’s frisky enough to steal an occasional base apparently. Um, so it’s not all on Yordon. It’s not like in peak giant headed Barry Bonds days, the Giants went to the World Series every year, right? One batter cannot carry a lineup for the long haul. He can do it in a playoff series. Adulles Garcia against the Astros ALCS 2023. Uh, but just for the quality of the lineup, Yordon is good. Too many of the guys getting played appearances are bad. I think it’s that simple. It is that simple. And it’s it’s a numbers game, right? Yordon lengthens the lineup in an important way. If you’re an opposing pitcher and you got to go through Pñena, Tuveet, Yordon, Koreah, man, that’s that’s a top four that’s pretty nasty. You don’t want to have to deal with that. But without Yord on, it’s kind of different because then you maybe have Christian Walker in the four spot. If you know, you don’t have Kareah there or Ala, whoever you’re batting for, it wouldn’t be Christian Walker, which is huge. And as good as Christian Walker has kind of been getting things going, man, for the month of August, he’s kind of back to his old tricks. He’s hitting 210 now. At least his OPS is 700. So, I’ll give him that. Some of the thump is there. We’re seeing a lot of hard contact with him. So, there is some encouragement, but a lot of strikeouts again with Walker and big moments. I mean, like, could he ever just hit a sacrifice fly? Does it always have to be a strikeout with somebody on third base? You know, I know, correct me in the comments, that’s fine. Just as a fan, it seems that way. But, you know, Yiner hitting almost 270. OPS isn’t very good, but at least he’s getting on base a little bit. So, point being, your lineup is just it’s actually going to be pretty good if everybody can kind of get back to what they’ve been. You know, Altuve, get back to where you’ve been a little more hot. add Yord on Christian Walker kind of get going again and then you’re on to something there. But right now it is rough and if you’re a pitcher, why would you give Koreah anything really to hit when you can pitch to Christian Walker and the rest of this line get to the rest of the Astros outfield and just think for how long Cam Smith was hitting cleanup in this lineup and he was actually doing a good enough job to where we were like, “Hey, maybe don’t move him out of that spot.” But man, how quickly things can turn in baseball. I mean, look what’s happening right now with Kyle Tucker. It’s It’s not just a rookie thing. It’s baseball. Yeah. The It’s funny now looking back at the Kyle Tucker trade. We were trying to, you know, debate who won that trade. It just seems like there are no winners of that trade now, like looking at it. I mean, Wesneski blowing out his elbow and uh Pretty L now and Tucker being benched. So, I I mean, it’s it’s been a wild season for sure. I just think, you know, when we’re talking about lengthening the lineup and people getting back to hitting the way we know they can. Korea for the season hasn’t been that great. He’s been better since the trade, but that’s been disappointing because Houston really hasn’t had he hasn’t really taken advantage of that. The team absolutely needs the additional power of Yordon in the lineup because this lineup has to string together hits and a lot of them to score and typically it’s only in in an inning or two that they’re able to do that. They just don’t have the bloop and a blast sort of makeup to be able to score runs in the way that other teams do. Um, and it’s just on display and and probably more so now than we’ve ever seen for the entirety of the season. Now, Houston starts in there real quick, Brandon, before get to that. Just one quick thing on the lineup on Koreah. That’s totally fair. I expected more extra base hits, too. But do you realize since the trade he leads the team in OPS at 859? I mean, out two at 732, just to give you some context there. He leads the team in batting average since the trade at 333. And I just have to bring up Jesus Sanchez swung at a curveball that hit him in the knee from Charlie Morton in the finale against the uh the Tigers. So if we’re talking about the difference in like Yordon getting in the line, especially when there’s left-handed pitchers and we’re going to see two of them against the Orioles, I know there’s no guarantee we see Yordon, we probably won’t, but just speaking for Sanchez, we know we can’t hit him against lefties and he’s swinging at pitches that hit him in the leg against right-handed pitchers. So we got to figure out something here, Brandon. I just had to bring that up. I don’t know if anybody else noticed that, but that was pretty peculiar. No. And I agree with you on on the Korea thing for sure. Like he’s been great, but what I’m worried about loaded for the first 10 days. Yeah. The last 10 days, not so much. But what I’m worried about is the fact they have not really taken advantage of his performance during this stretch. And also, I’m I am worried about him possibly regressing back to the player that he was prior to that trade. He had a hot streak. you know, rejuvenated by rejoining his old team. But I’m concerned about, you know, Yordon gets back and then maybe Koreah starts to taper off a little bit. So, you know, obviously we hope that doesn’t happen, but it’s a reality just given this of the productivity that he was putting out there prior to the trade. Now, Houston starts uh another series with Baltimore on Thursday, then the Rockies and the Angels. The Orioles just swept a two-gamer with Boston in Boston after taking three or four from Houston. Um coming into Wednesday, the Rockies had won their last two series including a sweep of the Diamondbacks and the Angels are, you know, they’re still angeling, but they did have a sweep of the Dodgers last week. So, they’re not going to roll over for you. Is this softer part of the schedule just not as soft as we anticipated? Obviously, like a team like Baltimore is playing uh much better over the stretch than they had previously. Uh you know, so is this schedule maybe not as soft as we thought or do you think Houston can and will write the ship enough to take advantage of the rest of the stretch? I think it’s fair to suggest that the schedule’s not as soft specifically to the Orioles friskiness. That the Rockies have had a month-long stretch of playing about 500 baseball. Well, unless you’re last year’s White Socks, pretty much every team is going to have a one month somewhere along the season where they play about 500 baseball. The Rockies are still awful. The Rockies on the road are even more awful. Um, so if the Astros have another lousy week, Seattle’s going to win a game or two somewhere the rest of the season. The Mariners get the A’s in Seattle this weekend. Then the Padres’s interesting series in Seattle to start next week. Um, you know, the Astros goes three out of four in Baltimore and then come home and lose a series to the Rockies and I guess that’ll be one little frumber litmus test. If he gets lit at home by Colorado, oh boy. Um, but the Astros biggest problem is the Astros. Uh, they’re not hitting, they’re not pitching. The defense hasn’t fundamentally abandoned them. They’ve given up still the fewest unearned runs allowed in the American League. But if you’re not going to score in half your games, you’re not going to win uh half your games. So, uh, as as bad as it’s been, I’ll go back to talking about since the Astros swept the Dodgers. The Astros have been trash. Well, immediately going into that series, the Dodgers had been rolling. The Dodgers went 12 and 20. A lengthy stretch of suckum. The Yankees had a window where they went six and 16. They’ve picked it up now. The Tigers just smeared the Astros into the turf at Kameri Park. Those three games, they’re 16-7 now. The Tigers in their last 23. Immediately before that, the Tigers lost 12 out of 13. So, as cataclysmic as it may appear in the here and now for the Astros, it is part an extreme part of the 162 game season, it’s all on the line in the remaining 35. I think a lot of this is just dog days of summer, Brandon. A lot of these guys are tired and part of it too I think is trade deadline ripple effect to think about all the major free agents this off seasonason that switch teams not just Christian Walker but Sodto like all these guys that kind of took a while to get started to kind of get acclimated to their new surroundings. I’m wondering a lot of these guys that got moved at the trade deadline. Jesus Sanchez is one I’m thinking of here. Some other guys too. Aras has been okay but not spectacular. I think maybe some of these guys are getting a new feel for their new hitting coaches, their new teams, and guys are just tired this time of year and and baseball is going to baseball. We know that it’s up and down. Astros have been swept a lot. But Charlie’s right. If you’re not going to score in pretty much half your games, you don’t have hardly any of a chance. So, they have to get the offense going there. That’s huge. And I I wish I would have brought this up earlier, but I think one of the things we’re missing is a that the team is kind of swinging at everything again. I I I you know that Pretty in the lineup that’s kind of gone. That’s the one thing I kind of like about Kareah. He’ll watch a few strike threes looking, but at least he’s not up there just swinging at everything. It’d be nice to have Pettis and Korea in the same lineup at the same time. How fun would that be? But hey, maybe next year, right? But I think the point I’m really trying to get to is Jake Myers. Can he actually rejoin the team, still be what he was in center field, but also return with that 300 type average to where he was actually a positive for you in the outfield this year? If you can actually get Jake Meyers back as you’re going through the dog days, hopefully he’s a little more fresh and that calf injury’s behind him when he returns, I think that could make a huge difference getting Jake Myers in center, assuming he hits like he did earlier in the year. You get some alt in left field and you you figure out right field. But I I think that would make a huge difference. We haven’t talked about Jake, but we’re missing him since he’s been down. Yeah, absolutely. I joked the last episode that Dana Brown was hoping for more returns than an Amazon warehouse. They’re going to need these guys to come back and be productive. Uh, and to your point about what would this team look like with Kareah and Pedes in the lineup, well, now that’s a really interesting question because they both play the same position right now. So, next year is going to be real interesting how they work that out. Um, won’t be Korea moving, I’ll tell you that. Well, um, we we’ll worry about next year’s problems next year. Um, final thoughts before out the door. It’s often said things are never as good as they are when they seem to be when they’re when they’re going well or as bad as they seem to be when they’re going poorly. I mean, this was pretty historic level in ethnos. But they’re in a race with the Mariners. And yes, the Phillies are really good. But the Mariners just finished a three-game series in which they struck out 46 times, more than 15 times per game. Each Philly starter struck out at least 10. First time a Philly’s staff has done that in a series, three consecutive games since at least 1893, before which the mound wasn’t even 60 feet 6 in away from home plate. So, while the grass isn’t always greener, sometimes the grass on the other side is dead brown as well. So, who pulls the head out sooner and enough between the Astros and Mariners before the series between the two rolls around and Dyken Park that maybe ultimately will decide this American League West in the back end of September. I’m curious to see how Lance McCullers is going to pitch on Friday night. I I think that’s big because, you know, we saw reports Luis Garcia got got rocked in his last his last start in the minor leagues and we were hoping that would be his last start before he returns, but kind of a bad sign when when you get, you know, rocked in the minor. So, you know, maybe McCullers is something you might have to depend on. Maybe a little more than you’re comfortable with. And it looks like JP France has wrapped up uh his rehab as well. I think Michael Schwab tweeted something about him returning to the team soon. I haven’t seen anything official from the Astros, so that that may not be uh happening immediately, but that’s something why and JP France hasn’t been great in his rehab starts either. So that that’s what’s And then we see how the struggles Aragetti’s had once he has reached the major. So even though these guys are coming back, uh it’s still going to be a little bit of a minefield to tip tiptoe through here. Yes. And uh speaking of guys who won’t be back, Taylor Scott, we barely knew ye this season. Um the famous quote from Andy Bernard from the office was, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve left them.” Let’s hope the Dodger sweep was not the good old days for 2025. Quick message. If you’re interested in advertising your service or product on our show, contact our friends on the sales team by visiting houston.sportsmap.com/advertise. The link is also in our description. And one last reminder, if you’re watching on YouTube, be sure to click 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. Next scheduled episode drops on Monday. So make sure you’re subscribed to this channel with those notifications on for Charlie and Josh. I’m Brandon saying so long. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend. And as always, go. [Music]

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