No Angels in Our Outfield

The Astros season is officially over, and we’re taking a moment to reflect, grieve, and look ahead for hope.

In this episode, you’ll hear us:

• Share our emotional takeaways from the Angels series and what it revealed about this team
• Look forward to what’s next for the Astros and how they can make moves in the offseason
• Talk about how we'll spend our extra free time in October
• Make our picks for who we think will win the World Series

This season was an absolute rollercoaster. Come grab a seat with us as we mentally digest what happened.

Follow us on X @CrawfordOutpost for hot takes and constant unfiltered emotion.

Transcript

Speaker 01 0:18

Hey buddy.

Speaker 00 0:19

How you doing? I'm good. I I am. I I actually am. I my congestion is gone for the first time in like three weeks we've recorded a podcast.

Speaker 01 0:33

So now I just sound so sexy. Yeah. And our listenership is gonna go through the roof at a at this time, at this point in time.

Speaker 00 0:44

I mean, it would make sense for the podcast to take off right now. I just think there's a lot to listen about.

Speaker 01 0:49

Listen to so funny. Ow. Hey, John, you need to get a hobby. Yeah, you're right. Uh like the Astros, I think that it's a pretty good bet that we'll be having some pretty good pods in October.

Speaker 00 1:09

Yeah.

Speaker 01 1:10

And yeah. Dang, I've I so badly want to sing that song now, but but you can't because it's copyright issues.

Speaker 00 1:29

All right. So when we come back to listen to this, whenever whenever we come back and we unbury, so we're gonna put all these uh podcasts in a time capsule someday, and people a hundred years from now are gonna come back and listen to it. And so we need to clarify for the time capsule listeners. All the time capsule. There's gonna be a lot. So many. It's gonna be it's gonna be a historic thing.

Speaker 01 1:56

So in the time capsule, we just need to clarify the Astros season is over.

Speaker 00 2:03

And I I'm talking to Danny, John's wife, right now. Like it's it's actually over.

Speaker 01 2:09

Yeah.

Speaker 00 2:09

We're not we're not being dramatic. You know, she said that the season's over.

Speaker 01 2:13

You know, she said that three times.

Speaker 00 2:15

To this year?

Speaker 01 2:16

Yeah, just now. Like in the past, in the past. So Saturday happened. Me and you were on the phone late at night after the infamous hit by pitch. Uh um, and she's telling me, Hey, come to bed. I said, Nah, I'm talking with Chandler, like we gotta sort this thing out. Chandler's like, let's just catch up on Monday. She was yelling at you. Yeah. And Sunday rolls around, and kid you not, I we were, I think we were getting ready for bed or whatnot, about to turn something on, and she said, Um, is there an Astros game tonight? I said, No, they played earlier. I was like, She said, Oh, well, is there is there gonna be one tomorrow? I said, No, they're done. She was like, Really? Did was she a little bit excited? No, I think that she she was like, I couldn't tell if she was like excited or not excited. I think I think deep down she really likes those October runs so that friends could get together. Um you know, have fun over that. I think she was more surprised because for as long as she's known me, right? She has known that October happens. Same for us. I mean, we got married in 2016, so miss we missed the playoffs that our first uh fall.

Speaker 00 3:43

And then but then from that point forward, won a world series, and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, ALCS. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Speaker 01 3:54

I don't even know what to talk about right now. I don't know. I don't either. No, we're gonna get into it. We have we have an agenda, don't worry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, right now, well, it just kind of like we're just sitting in it. A little shell-shocked, I guess. Yeah, which we before before we even started recording, we were talking about it.

Speaker 00 4:12

So we've been we've been talking through things, and I think it's just now you're recording this podcast that's all about the Houston Astros, and the amount of times in my closers for this pod that I talked about getting hyped up because we're gonna go win the diamond series. That was like the first three episodes. Then we could probably go back and look at all my closers and hear like I kept them optimistic.

Speaker 01 4:36

I think the first three were like, we're gonna win the World Series, and then as we were like, We're we're gonna get to the playoffs, we're gonna make a deep run. Like, I kind of changed the words, the verbiage that I was using. You lowered the you lowered the standard each other, if unintentionally. If we really we'll get into it, but if you really think about it, deep down in your gut, probably I wouldn't say July, because going into the trade deadline, we were when we started this thing, we were super hyped. We were also at the top of the AS.

Speaker 00 5:11

Yes, we were we were up there.

Speaker 01 5:13

So you had something we knew that we were gonna have content, especially you bring Korea back. Everything is hype, and then it just tanked. I don't think we're as disappointed right now if we didn't get Korea.

Speaker 00 5:27

I think that kind of elevated the excitement for our season because after all the injuries, yeah, we were like, we need to go get somebody, and then we actually did for once, other than Verlander. We got him at a deadline.

Speaker 01 5:40

You got him, and then you got other people that you know exciting. I saw I mean you got other people that were supposed to be exciting. I saw a tweet that said Jesus Sanchez was a legitimately good player in Miami. I don't know what happened when he went to Houston. Yeah. And so I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 00 5:57

There's an adjustment.

Speaker 01 5:59

Maybe clubs is it's not a but we started this thing with with like a lot of momentum as far as as content goes. And I think it it would have been a really funny episode if we would have just recorded Saturday night based off of our exchanges.

Speaker 00 6:15

That would have been great.

Speaker 01 6:16

I think I shocked you walking in this morning that I was like pretty pretty.

Speaker 00 6:20

You're very chill. So let's well then let's go into that. So let's talk about specifically let's focus on the Angel series because we we went into that series still with a chance to make the playoffs.

Speaker 01 6:31

It was a long shot, but if we had I I ran the numbers and I didn't have the the data a hundred percent with every single scenario in, but I I probably had 90% of the scenarios, and in all of the different scenarios of the four teams winning and losing, so Red Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, and us, between all of that, there were it was eighty-nine percent if we swept and then forty-nine percent chance. So I might have missed one scenario, so maybe it was like an eighty-five percent, but regardless, if we had swept the our odds were actually pretty solid of getting in. Um 46%, and then 46% if we went two out of three. If we went to yeah, yeah, yeah. Which but yeah, I think it was I don't know if that was true or not, but I mean so less than a coin flip. Yeah, and low odds, but and and obviously you're on the wrong side of that 46%.

Speaker 00 7:32

Um yeah, so expla what explain um your emotions about the uh as the games were going on. So Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Speaker 01 7:42

I was already pissed off and like ready to just the whole problem with this season, and we'll talk about markers to look at next season to tamper expectations because I went through that. Chandler got a whole text message thread full of it. Um, I was already pissed off because you had six games to go and you just like couldn't get it done against the A's. And so going into that series, I was like, man, this sucks. Because it looks like every other team is like, oh, we need to win and turn it on, backs against the wall. All right, let's do it. Right. And it looked like we were like, oh no, we gotta win. I'm scared.

Speaker 00 8:23

They did.

Speaker 01 8:24

And so going into the Angels series, it's like you and I were talking during the middle of a workday, and you're like, This is it. Like, here's these scenarios. I was having a hard time to get hyped up about it. I was. And then Friday night happened, and the stars started to align. And once again, like an insane person, I told myself that maybe it could. The delusion started to settle in, but then we scored three runs, like pretty scrappily. Started great. Yeah, started off great. And then Ben Verlander had a good tweet about it. Whether they did this or not. When you look at a lineup, you circle one guy, you say, I don't care if anybody else beats us. That's the guy that we're either gonna we're we're just not gonna let him beat us, whether whether it's a pitch around, walk, make sure you're not throwing it into his heat zone, which this is a very different trout than what it used to be. I got buddies who had who played in the bigs who said the scouting report for him, what it used to be pre-injury was like good luck. Like his his heat map's everywhere. But he's he's kind of a he's kind of a shadow of who he used to be. So you're like, you're just not yeah, you don't feel as threatened. Regardless, in that lineup, that was the guy you circled. Lo and behold, two we are we are two trout home runs away from being able to play in October. And so it was 3-0, and I was like, man, this game's probably good. Like, you know, so I I started it felt that way. Yeah, I mean, all that we had all the momentum. It did. But the it's but what turned out to be the theme of the entire season just came into play, and like, bruh, it just wasn't meant to like it just wasn't meant to be. The most angry that I felt out of the and I said it was when you drop that game, and now you're like, oh, okay. You need two other teams to like you need you need two other teams to lose out and you need to win out. And Saturday Cleveland uh Detroit wins, and then the guy uh Garcia hits a batter to Cleveland wins. Yeah, mathematically eliminated.

Speaker 00 10:51

It was the Rangers, which makes it even more painful because it looked like it for whatever reason, it looked like the Rangers were going to be our savior. Well, you know it seemed like they were gonna save our game. I even I wrote down in the notes on well, I think it was Saturday the Saturday game. Yeah, yeah, it was the Saturday game because Adolis had its home run to tie it.

Speaker 01 11:17

Yeah. And I wrote down in our notes Adoles the hero question mark. I saw getting excited for today, like having that ready. Oh man. Oh man. And yeah, and then the so the Rangers, it was the tenth ink, right? No, it was bottom bottom. They didn't even get to actually. Was it bottom nine? No, it was bottom nine. Bottom nine bases are loaded for the Rangers and Brian King. I mean wait, wasn't it Brian King? Who are you talking about? Golly, what am I even saying? Brian King gave up the home run to Trout. My bad, my bad. Brian Roccio or whoever. I'm blending trauma. Yeah, trauma blender. No, Garcia hit Rocchio, or I don't know how to pronounce his name.

Speaker 00 12:04

Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 01 12:05

Like bad. Thank you. And then he they win. Drilled him. And then you notice what happened after that? We scored a bunch of runs. Mm-hmm. That's been my fear.

Speaker 00 12:16

On Sunday, we scored a bunch of runs.

Speaker 01 12:18

So pressureless baseball, we're so good. We're great. That is what I'm mad about. That's that that's that's soft. It hurts. And now I get it. It hurts. It's on Saturday, I would have probably been more fumed about it.

Speaker 00 12:34

Yeah.

Speaker 01 12:34

But you talked about it. And how real, let's let's see. How real do you think that is? How real do you think the scenario of like actually losing momentum because of injuries, because of an unprecedented amount of injuries, which we'll talk about, they're gonna have to deal with how they're gonna deal with that. Um, do you think that that is a true factor in actually killing momentum and then making them press? Because obviously when the pressure was off, they were they were great. Yep. And that was a and none of our guys were even playing. Right. Yeah, I think I I will say yes, it is a factor throughout 162 games having that many injuries. I think it's a mental beat down for the players just time and time again. I think I told you this earlier. I think when Hader, when he got hurt, it felt like something done, something switched where it was like, wow, really? This this one other guy. Now, what makes me see the other side of that argument is the fact that we at the at the end of the season, we had a chance. Like we were we didn't just have a chance, we were in the driver's seat to make the playoffs two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, we we talked about it and we both were like, yeah, I think we're we're gonna make the playoffs. Because of I was confident the regular. Because of how many teams were in the mix and how the schedules lined up because we played the A's and the Angels, and then I knew Detroit had to play Cleveland and Boston. And so I felt which it should it should have worked out.

Speaker 00 14:18

And but but yes, to answer your original question, I do think the injuries play a significant role throughout the entire entirety of the season. Because that's just you you get this adrenaline that you're you get hot, you're on a roll, somebody else gets hurt, and then it's kind of repeat, and that's what we saw all season.

Speaker 01 14:41

The trend of the season was a roller coaster. It was we'd get hot, but they were short bursts. It wasn't like we had seen in 2022, 2019, 21, 2017, even 2018, probably pretty much all years except for the COVID year, uh, where we had these like 10 game win streaks, sometimes multiple times a season. We never saw that. We saw uh lots of we'd maybe we'd string together three wins, like and it usually it wasn't a sweep. Typically, it wasn't a sweep.

Speaker 00 15:15

It was like you'd pick up two on the back end of a series and then you'd win the first game on the next series, we'd feel good, and then you'd lose the next two. It was a lot of that.

Speaker 01 15:25

Um I think I saw a stat somewhere that said we only swept seven times.

Speaker 00 15:31

No, that could that has to be that's well we we swept the Phillies, we swept the Dodgers.

Speaker 01 15:36

Is that a is that feel like a lot or not a lot? Regardless.

Speaker 00 15:40

That doesn't feel like a lot. Okay. If you're a for a playoff team for a playoff team, you gotta take more of those.

Speaker 01 15:46

Well that like that I just I have trouble with the in all the postgame interviews. I really I like the fact that Carlos Correa apologized and said, Houston fans are used to October baseball. We're sorry. You know, we'll get back there. Next year's gonna be special. But Christian Walker had a better one. He said, good teams find a way. So this this stinks and I get it.

Speaker 00 16:16

I didn't see that one.

Speaker 01 16:17

Yeah, he said it him up, you know, and and he was kind of a there's so many things wrong with the 2025 season. I think the reason I'm walking in here chill is because I'm I'm relieved.

Speaker 00 16:30

The yeah, that's that we don't we don't have to be stressed now because I think if we're going to play a series tomorrow, like what? Let's see, which of course it would have been a day game because that's what all when is when's Detroit and Cleveland playing? It of course they're playing the day game. They're playing it one game because they're saving Red Sox Yankees, which okay.

Speaker 01 16:52

That make that makes sense. Money wise, it's yeah, and then Dodgers Reds, which is that's hilarious. That's hey, how about them getting a buy with a billion dollar payroll? Just that mark. Well, yeah, because like Tigers Guardians, I've got to think that's gonna the Midwest is gonna be fired up about that series, but I'm sure the Dodgers alone carry more viewers than both those series. No, I was just talking about how they have a billion dollar payroll and they can't get get into a buy. They're in a wild card round. Right. But uh you know, but yeah, so we would have been playing at noon tomorrow. 12 08 is Tigers Guardians game one. And I mean, just think about with this team, we're going in. Who would we be playing? We'd be playing the Guardians at had the had the weekend went the way Cleveland. Yeah. We'd be playing, we'd be playing Cleveland in Cleveland. I mean, I don't know. I feel like I'm I it I'd be fun to see because it's playoff baseball, but I think but then but then we're like oh this is gonna sound I'm about to say something pathetic. Just say whatever you want to say. I'm not I won't, I won't. I've said some crazier things.

Speaker 00 18:06

No, no, no. This is gonna be this is gonna be a pathetic fan thing of somebody that doesn't sound like he cheers for a for a dynasty.

Speaker 01 18:16

Going into no, no, no, no. Where we sit today. Oh, here we go. When you start pointing down, no, it's not gonna hype you up. And you start going like this?

Speaker 00 18:27

This is not gonna hype you up. This is a dejected thing. Okay.

Speaker 01 18:31

Where we sit today, it's kind of like bait the baseball world and the majority of fans have already forgotten. Like they, I think when we first got eliminated Saturday night, people are like, yes, Houston, finally. Yeah. Houston's not in there. Yeah. But now people have moved on already. Whereas you get to the playoffs, we do what we did last year. Yeah. I think that's even that sounds so weird to say. That's not that bad. I see what you're saying. It almost is more painful because now it's on a national stage. It's playoff baseball. More people care or pay. Like, I think more people are like, look, Astros got swept again. First round. Honestly, the noise hasn't been so bad. I told you, I saw in Yankee community, someone's the Rangers. They I mean they're not saying anything because the only Rangers aren't saying anything because not only did they not make it, but their owner just came out and said they're gonna slash payroll because they have you confirmed it. Yeah, that's uh yeah. Yeah, he came out and he said, We're gonna since we can't make it to the postseason, we're gonna slash payroll this winter.

Speaker 00 19:35

Glad that's not us.

Speaker 01 19:37

Something that no team who doesn't make the playoffs wants to see. It's like, oh, yeah, so we're probably gonna get even worse. So they'll probably just descend back into the place that they were before. They just got their one world series and they're just that's it. And then New York, there was a New York uh Twitter community fan guy who was like, you know what, as much as I like to see this, the Astros will be back. Uh because there was 30 plus guys on the I. And 18 were you know on the shelves. Right. The only community that I'm like, and I've seen a couple of them, and I just gotta get off Twitter because it makes me mad, is the Mariners community, who is like they're relentless, and they're like 24 years of never winning, and this is what y'all get, and just like firing away. And uh I'll blame them. I mean that's a long drought. Sure, sure, but it says something when they win the division, and rather than being more celebratory for your own team, they're paying attention to another team that's not even in the playoffs.

Speaker 00 20:40

Yeah.

Speaker 01 20:41

It's silly. It's silly.

Speaker 00 20:43

Yeah.

Speaker 01 20:45

Um and that's uh that I think that's why I I'm now okay with it because I had another I had another realization that we've talked about a lot of reminding myself of this the playoffs are hard to make it.

Speaker 00 21:02

The playoffs are hard to make it into. But again, we talked about this probably three weeks ago, three or four weeks ago.

Speaker 01 21:09

But we had we've just gotten so used to it, yeah, and not sneaking in. We've like solidly been in, except for except for the COVID year again. Totally. We've been not even a question. And I I guess you can't say that.

Speaker 00 21:25

When when was that?

Speaker 01 21:26

What what's not even a question? Was it two years?

Speaker 00 21:28

Was it 23 that we kind of snuck in? We started. Or we just snuck into winning the division. Yeah, I mean like our play.

Speaker 01 21:36

We were never not, yeah, yeah. I mean, we were never not. I don't I I they've been coming closer and closer to the game 162. I mean, like the last year. Yeah, like in and so But it was sealed before like five games to go. I think you had like I think I think everybody knew who I think in 23 it was like you knew who was gonna be in there, but you didn't know which order. And at the time, you didn't want the sixth spot because you were gonna go up against a 99-win Tampa Bay team and then a hundred win Baltimore team. Yeah. Uh, which felt like a gauntlet, and then neither of those teams won a game. Yeah. Um no, I can't I think the biggest piece two things you didn't want him like you wanted to get him, you wanted to get in because October is October. Right. But with the way that this season has gone, and and you're and it's kind of foggy because you're like, okay, is it injuries or is there something really wrong? Regardless, something needed to be looked at. Yeah, the chances of something being looked at when you make October go slim. So there were people, and that's where ultimately I have more peace about is like, okay, they didn't make it in. So maybe now things will get examined, i.e., medical staff, strength and conditioning, Dana's ability to build a roster that actually holds up. Joe's job, did he actually have the respect of that entire clubhouse? Like, there's things. Did you see, you know, AJ Hinch, if he loses, he's on he could be on the chopping block because he lost a 15 and a half game lead. Yeah, you know, and if and if he is, there's rumors that they may have that the strows may go after him.

Speaker 00 23:26

Um the Tigers looked like the most sure thing a month ago.

Speaker 01 23:30

Fell apart, and you gotta you gotta have a fall guy for that. And so it's like that's one thing now you know that's and then the second, I would have been I walked in here feeling more at peace because I also saw a couple different like inside guys that we you know on Twitter that are that are confirming that that is the case, that is the case now, like that there's a potential that Jim Crane goes scorched earth, which I love. Anytime you get a mediocre result, you're like, heck yes, flip the table, like go figure out what's wrong. Yeah, but on the other hand, if I'm sitting, if I'm Joe Espada and I'm sitting across from Dana and Jim, and they're like, hey, buddy, I mean, he does have a lot to negotiate with as far as like what did he have to deal with? But like really, in the scheme of things, like I think not getting turns out, like you were afraid, not getting arms at the deadline was a problem. It was that should have happened.

Speaker 00 24:30

Yeah. But we also couldn't foresee the all the additional injuries.

Speaker 01 24:34

So then you gotta look at the medical staff, which they're investigating. They're like looking into that. Like, why did we have five times the the amount of of injuries uh compared to any other team? And then like like the yeah, just like the competitive level is not there, but at the same time, it sucks because you were seven games up and you had some form of momentum, like you swept a Dodgers team with a triple A team, so it's like you gotta fill those spots. Is there something to be said about just like plugging and playing? Is the trade deadline more overrated?

Speaker 00 25:13

It's it's hard to get guys in there that can mesh. Yeah, like a Reya was a great pickup because he already had relationships with all these guys, but uh, but yeah, I mean obviously Sanchez, it didn't really work out when he got here. He just was swinging out of his shoes every time.

Speaker 01 25:30

And he didn't let back. No good, not good.

Speaker 00 25:32

Never saw a ball, not a single time, whenever he was he was playing.

Speaker 01 25:36

And then this. And then I said something that you it seemed like you didn't really like. I said, I feel I'm still on the Correa train. I feel like if you give him a full year, like a full 26, you're even making a face now. I feel like he can he can lead the pack. Let's see it. Yeah, I'd love it.

Speaker 00 25:58

Let's see it. So what I mean, what do we have to look forward to for the offseason? Yeah, let's think through that. Uh so as far as obviously we need pitching.

Speaker 01 26:09

Yep.

Speaker 00 26:10

What are we gonna do there?

Speaker 01 26:12

I think that there's a couple arms that you can go get. If you wanted to get into the details of those guys, I can I can I can break it down.

Speaker 00 26:19

What I just just give me names. I mean, who who's there? I think he's on the market.

Speaker 01 26:24

Ranger Suarez, it's it's kind of bare, so you're gonna have to swing some trades too. Uh, but the the probably if you want a durable guy who doesn't get hurt, Ranger Suarez coming out of the Phillies, he's a guy. I think that he's a free agent. Yeah, he's a free agent. Okay. I I think Cease, I think I don't know if Cece has an option or not. I think he's a free agent, and I I don't he's gonna be too expensive.

Speaker 00 26:49

Well, because that was the that was the thing, is they were trying to negotiate the deal at the deadline.

Speaker 01 26:54

Oh, yeah, to keep him and to and they wanted all this stuff and we're like he's just a rental.

Speaker 00 27:00

But we're not gonna give you all these total prospects for a rental.

Speaker 01 27:03

I think I think I think that with the full line, I think barring everyone's healthy, you can you can stand to trade some guys from the farm like Melton. I think you could trade a guy like Melton. Um I think you try and go get a guy like Sandy Alcantara from Miami who's who's controllable through 28. He's a guy who ended the season well.

Speaker 00 27:30

Uh that hurts. What because he early in the deadline talks, he was his name was thrown out there.

Speaker 01 27:36

I know.

Speaker 00 27:37

I know that could have been helpful.

Speaker 01 27:39

So those are like two two horses that you can go get. Um there's a guy, I think he's gonna be a free agent, but once again, I I think Andrew Abbott is gonna be a free agent. He may or may not. I I but he's with the Reds. That's a problem, right? Because they just made like any team that you see sneaks that sneaks in, you're like, are they gonna want to hold on to some guys? Yeah, um, or extend some guys. You saw, but it it's like, but what you should do, so those are some of the starters, and and I need to double check with Andrew Abbott's contract, but he's a guy. Uh the Mets, all those guys are gonna be gone. So you could purge their bullpen if you really wanted to, and invite Stanic back. You could get Helsley for cheap because he was trash the the last part of uh of the season, but he's got the prototypical Astros fastball, which this is like ride. And he throws 112. And so you could get him. They picked up a guy named named I think it's Tyler Rogers. I I get he has a twin named Taylor, so I get both of them mixed up. I think it's Tyler is the one that throws submarine. You pick him up, and then a guy that's also becoming a free agent, uh, who did well in the 2024 World Series. He's kind of injury prone. Once again, you could probably get him for cheap, is Michael Kopek, who throws 112. Like that, like, like I want, and I get it. Yeah, I said it. The bullpen this year, they were great. They were a DFA duct tape bullpen.

Speaker 00 29:16

Absolutely.

Speaker 01 29:17

But what I want De Los Santos, I and he and De Los Santos threw hard, but he didn't have like as good of Vert fastball. What I want Chandler, Chandler, do you know what I want? I want the guy that can that can come in throwing cheddar cheese 98. I'm sick of this, like 91 with a little rinky dink hook. Like, no disrespect. I want a guy that people are afraid of. Yeah, and I want four of them. And I want to be able to come in and hand the ball off. And hey, we need three punch outs right here.

Speaker 00 29:53

Yeah.

Speaker 01 29:54

Too hard to ask too much to ask. Is it too much to ask? No, it's a good one. I I think everybody wants that. And then and then I want I want Thump in the lineup. Like I want threat. Do we already have it? So we got Hunter Brown. Obviously, he's our ace. Fromber. Oh, piss. Yeah, he gum. Uh, yeah.

Speaker 00 30:14

And I think I think that's fine. It's time to move on. He had a great his

Speaker 01 30:18

Last game of the season was great. No, I'm and I'm being I'm being dead serious. All all credit to him. He finished out the season strong. He started off the season well, uh, but was just rocky there. Hey, who knows what with that drama that happened with Frommer whenever um he threw the wrong pitch at who was catching? Cesar Salazar. Yeah, Salazar. When Salazar was catching, does that have an impact on things down the stretch? Is there a little bit of clubhouse drama that was going on? We do know that whenever that happened, that there were that it was heated. So did that linger? Who knows? He had a 691 ERA before that last start, so that's probably gonna be an issue for teams. I yeah, but I mean he wants to as far as as far as our focus, he moves on. Yeah, yeah. We have Hunter Brown, he is our ace. I I am of the opinion we need to go ahead and lock him up. We need to go ahead and pay him. He's proven himself. I think he's just gonna get better. Yeah. Uh so then who all we need? I I've I've got to think we need at least two other guys because you need two. I do not have faith in the ability to do that.

Speaker 00 31:28

I don't want faith in Luis Garcia, staying healthy. Well, he's done. Javier.

Speaker 01 31:33

Is he? He's done till 27, which is also the there you go. Which is also the year that he becomes a free agent. Okay.

Speaker 00 31:41

So he's out of the equation.

Speaker 01 31:42

Uh-huh. Uh McCullers, we obviously need to move on from that. Well, the problem is we're still paying him through 27. It's fine, but he doesn't need to play. I think he need he bring it, put him in the bullpen. That I I that that's exactly what I said is like the problem with this year, the the the overarching problem and theme with this year was there were moments where we were putting stock in him to to carry weight. Right. And I think he's okay to stay on the team if he wants to. Yeah. Or just like his or his his his resume and tenure. Like he was a you know, he was a guy. He's no longer a guy. Right. Put him in the bullpen, you give him you, you you you have him there to eat innings if he's even if he's healthy. Yep. Um he needs to be a one-inning guy. I don't want to see him for more than that. Or if we're winning like 13 to nothing. Right. So could that dissuade management from locking up Hunter Brown? Why? Do they have a bad taste in their mouth from the McCullers deal? I think there probably could be an argument made that McCullers was never in the top five of Cy Young. And Brown's gonna be too, which will get our PPI pick. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, true. McCullers was a little bit more of a bet, wasn't it? It was they they like what they saw. He had been clutch in big moments. Yeah, when did they sign in? And so then they bet on him. Uh was it 18 or 19? I think it was 19. He didn't pitch 18 or 19.

Speaker 00 33:15

It wouldn't have been that he came back on 20. Right.

Speaker 01 33:20

Three years. Well, maybe it was he did well in 21. I remember he did well. The years he did well is he pitched a full year in 16, he did well in 17, and then he did well in 21. Yeah, and then outside of those years, he may have had one good start in 2020 when he was coming back from one of his many injuries. Yep. And then outside of that, like the last time that I remember him pitching like a high leverage game was 2022 when he got rocked.

Speaker 00 33:44

Yes.

Speaker 01 33:45

And he gave up seven bombs.

Speaker 00 33:46

He did. All right, how do you feel about the lineup?

Speaker 01 33:49

Real quick.

Speaker 00 33:50

Yeah.

Speaker 01 33:52

Real quick.

Speaker 00 33:53

Okay.

Speaker 01 33:53

Bring it. Um, so there are a couple options, free agents, that are gonna be coming out, and you could throw out a bunch of names, and none of them the problem is is none of them are gonna be like just barn burner, like horses.

Speaker 00 34:07

Like those are gonna be through trades.

Speaker 01 34:10

Yeah, probably. I mean, but there is one guy who finished off the season better than any, I think any traded pitcher, any traded pitcher in the major leagues, meaning like we could have gone out and got him and he would have added war to our team, and that was Justin Bertlander. Wow. He finished off with like a 1-6 in the past like seven or eight starts. So yeah, dialed in. He's free age. He's an old man, 42 years old.

Speaker 00 34:40

Can you imagine if we signed him about to be 43 and we signed him?

Speaker 01 34:44

Yeah, I mean, there's like a bunch of just like, you know, there's a bunch of guys, but I mean for cheap. I mean, yeah, I mean, you Ranger Suarez, Zach Gallon's another guy you could probably get for cheap because he's struggled. But once again, like you're you're naming all these guys that have struggled. They have been at once good, but there is no like, and maybe that's better. Maybe you want to get a guy that you can develop, but it's just like it's not, it's not it's not what you want to see. I mean, yeah, you're gonna have to make a trade to get a horse because as we talked about before, when you look at the past two World Series wins and then the time and the teams in between that, you had two horses. Yeah, you know, 22 you had Verlander and Framberg, 19, you had Cole and Verlander and 70s always two. There was there, y'all you had two horses, so you need two horses, and then the lineup. Do you feel like a healthy lineup? There's people that feel like a healthy lineup doesn't need any change. What do you think? I mostly agree with that.

Speaker 00 35:53

I actually really like I like what we've got if we can keep everybody healthy. I obviously love Pena. I love Altuve, not necessarily where we were utilizing him.

Speaker 01 36:06

Put him like you've said, put him further back, maybe six. I think if he's I think if you change his role, he's great.

Speaker 00 36:14

Yeah, he's he's still got plenty in the tank, just not in the same capacity.

Speaker 01 36:18

You can't you can't ask him to carry. He should not be the second leader in home runs on our team. Right. Jordon, obviously. Wrap him in a bubble. Uh love that Christian Christian Walker. I guess that's the biggest question mark. Christian Walker just never fired me up, not a single time this season. Uh, I think he had one two homer game, maybe two. And even those games, I just was like, eh, it's gonna fizzle out. Yeah, Jake Myers. Um I love what I'm seeing. I've always liked Jake Myers, even when because in the past there wasn't much pressure on him.

Speaker 00 36:52

He was a he was an eight or nine hole every game. Yeah, and he's a great outfielder. You can hide him.

Speaker 01 36:56

So I always loved him for that. And then I I felt like he delivered in some big moments even when he wasn't supposed to. Yeah. And then now he statistically has really improved. So yeah, I like most of it.

Speaker 00 37:08

I do not, I never, I never bought into the Jesus Sanchez uh fan club, never got into that. Uh he I understand you like that he swings hard. I liked it in the world.

Speaker 01 37:25

And he was just kind of I mean, that's what it was. Even his face afterwards was he was he was just kind of goofing. He really was, and so I yeah, I I yeah I put stock into him. I think this is what I've learned. Can I tell you what I've learned? You can I would throw out big, bold, optimistic predictions far too often. And when you do it far too often, it means much less. And so tampering expectations for next year, I'm going to be far less optimistic starting off and making bold predictions like so-and-so's gonna do this and this and this. I'm actually started doing the opposite. And I was like, they're gonna probably descend. Yeah. Um go into it with well, I wouldn't say low expectations, just pretty like middle of the road.

Speaker 00 38:21

Well, I think go into it on like yeah, let's see what happens the first month.

Speaker 01 38:25

Well, the well start to it's like what we talked about before we even started. I think that this year we were in week-to-week delusion that somehow despite having a sub-20 run differential, we were gonna go on some crazy run, which like we said, really only happens very like what the Guardians did, very rare. So to tamper expectations, let me let me look at that. I think still in the negative. I think they were negative, but let's see how far. Uh yeah, they finished with a negative six run differential. We were plus 21. And pay attention to that. Yeah, pay attention to that, how that plays out in the postseason. I mean, you may not have much to pay attention to because they may go two and out. But like the thing to pay attention to is if you look at, I went back and looked at every year that we had a deep run or did well. And we started, and this is part of like, okay, I'm excited that they're looking at something because something changed in 23. The streakiness, the waves, like the the the slump waves were longer and less consistent starting in 23. Whereas previously, if you're the slump waves. Uh meaning meaning um sorry, I'm just bad vocabulary. Um like the like like if one month they went if one month they went fourteen and ten in that month, yeah. You know, barely over five hundred, and then the next month they went fifteen and twelve, and then the next month they went fourteen and eleven. Like they just like like that means in that month they like went on a little three or four, and then boom, boom, boom, four or five.

Speaker 00 40:20

I was this season.

Speaker 01 40:22

Started in twenty-three.

Speaker 00 40:24

Gotcha. That's what I'm saying. This is what I'm other seasons we would have. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 01 40:30

Yes. Or if you had a month, like, like, like to start the season, I think in 22, April was awful. It was like 14 and 11. It's not me, you're still winning, but you're just like very mediocre. And they came right back, and I think they won 20 games the next month.

Speaker 00 40:46

Yeah.

Speaker 01 40:46

That was in 22. But in 23, it's just like something you could feel like offensive numbers didn't really dip as much in 23, and you had a full team in 23 and 24. But the problem was is like you just like weren't winning games on streaks and beating teams like you were supposed to. And so it's like that started in 23. So that's why I'm excited that they're gonna take a look at least at like, hey, has the hitting philosophy become you know ancient in regard to like the dynamically changing world of baseball? Like, look at that. Um, do you need more thump in the lineup? But like to tamper expectations for next year, pay attention to run differential. And we did the calculation, and like, yeah, you want 18 to 30 a month. You want you want plus eighteen to plus eighteen to plus thirty a month. 18's on the low end. That'll give you like, I think that'll give you like it basically 90 plus wins. Yeah, but then it goes upwards of like but but for the full season, your run differential would be at like 120 plus.

Speaker 00 41:49

Yes. If you're doing that, yes, yeah.

Speaker 01 41:51

Which which just puts you in good position.

Speaker 00 41:54

Which let's look at the keep talking, but I'm gonna the playoff teams this season.

Speaker 01 41:58

Yeah, it like so since 2016, the average run differential of a World Series winner was 185 because you had so many different years. Like in 22, ours was 219. The Red Sox in 2018 was stupid, and so and then you had some teams like the Rangers, they had like 120. And so it's like it balances it out, but that's of that's of most recent, right? And this year it's gonna be all-time low. This year's gonna be all time low. Yeah, that's why I'm shocked over here. Well, that's that's I'm looking at it right now because and you see it with record too. That's all these teams are tight. The the best in the AL was plus 164, the Yankees. Nobody else is even over a hundred. No one else. That's what stinks about not missing the playoffs this year, is it really was anybody's game. It's parody. But I mean, we have no idea who's gonna make it for the AL. It could be Detroit. I mean, it's there is a what's the separation? It's a no, it's a it's seven games. We were wrong earlier. Seven game gap between first place and sixth place. Toronto finished with 94 wins, Detroit finished with 87. But still, I mean, that's tighter than I can ever remember. Yeah. A playoff race. Yeah, yeah. No, usually first place has like 108 seven wins. That's what it stinks about this year. It was it was kind of anybody's game. But if you want to tamper expectations next year, you could figure out what kind of team you're looking at. If there aren't an enormous amount of injuries by May, you can look and be like, okay, are we plus 30 a month? And like sometimes it it it you know it teeters and you have bad months, but like the biggest thing is staying away from double digit losses back to back to back months. Like that's what will kill you. Like, you need to you need to keep you need to shoot for like single single-digit loss months and 18 to 30 plus run differentials. Yeah. And like the question is, is the the team that you field if everybody's healthy, are they capable of that? And that's the biggest question.

Speaker 00 44:02

Right.

Speaker 01 44:02

So, Zach Cole, where does he come into play in all of this? I think that if if you want my I I know everybody was really hyped, and it's not that I'm not hyped.

Speaker 00 44:14

No, say whatever.

Speaker 01 44:15

I think that you're gonna see this is always what happens, so it seems. And he may still, you know, he may still find a lot of success. These guys that come up without video, whether they're hitters or pitchers, they don't have the data on them. Yeah, they always do well. The Yankees have a guy named Cam Schlitter who's done really well. I would not be surprised if he came back next season. He had a four or five ERA. Uh, I would not be surprised that if Zach Cole starts the season hot and then hits a slump, and you gotta be ready to have somebody in there. And, you know, I mean, that that was that was the case with Cam Smith. He started off, he was what he was hitting four hole at one point. And then he and then he dipped because they figured him out.

Speaker 00 45:02

Yeah, and so well look at look at Peñas' career so far. Yeah, rookie year was on the other hand.

Speaker 01 45:07

And it's almost like you it's almost like these vets that stick around, they pass this threshold and figure it out. Like there's so many late, like late blooming guys, like Jake Myers is one of them. You could probably look at Kevin Gossman of the Blue Jays, who like it since 21, but if you look at his numbers before that, he was very mediocre with with with Baltimore. Yeah. Uh it's it's it's you have a special, it's something special if you got somebody coming up hot and they stay hot. Yeah, like I'd be curious to see if Paul Skeens keeps it up, keeps up what he's doing. Hunter Brown's a great case.

Speaker 00 45:41

Yeah, but Skeens is a little bit different.

Speaker 01 45:43

Yeah, he's superhuman.

Speaker 00 45:45

Yeah, he's he's really good.

Speaker 01 45:46

But but Brown's a Brown's a good case. He came up in 22. I saw his first start. He was great. He's been good. And then 23, he was like trended up. Yeah, 23, he was like, uh, and then 24, he started off bad, and then he threw in a sinker. Yeah. And he started to really learn how to pitch. And then from that after that one time he got shelled in Kansas City in 24, since then he's been a different pitcher. Solid. And so it's like, yeah, who makes it, you know, whether you weather the storm of like getting figured out via video. I mean, he yeah, he I bet I'm sure he will go through some regression, but I'm excited that he's now he's gonna go through an entire offseason getting to work out focused on being a major leaguer. Yeah. I mean, that's different, the resources that are gonna be thrown at you, the coaching that you're gonna have, and then he'll go into spring training, probably still like to an extent having to earn a spot. I would think. I don't think he's like solidified himself yet. Ah, I think second and save young is pretty dope. No, no, no. I'm talking about Zach Cole. Oh, oh, oh, oh yeah. No, I was like, really? Yeah, Hunter Brown. We're gonna send Hunter Brown too. We're just gonna send him to double A. No, I think about Zach Cole. I think spring training, he'll have to re-earn that spot. I don't think it's gonna, he's not. Here's where I stand with Zach Cole. I think our team is in trouble if he starts the season as a starter.

Speaker 00 47:15

Maybe.

Speaker 01 47:16

I think that that means we didn't do our jobs by getting depth. I want him on the bench. Maybe. I want him on the bench and then getting to work his way into one start a week. Yeah, I mean, like, or you know, just like getting some time. Like, I just think that, yeah, like I think that they pulled him up because he was on fire and they wanted to feel some of that and catch some of that, and they did for you know a couple weeks. I mean, there was a couple series where it was him, yeah. Um, but eventually you come slamming down to earth and you got to deal with like you know, people actually getting stuff on you. Yeah. And so um I yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, but I but I like I like that we have that. We kind of have a prospect.

Speaker 00 48:01

We we have some decent prospects. I know our we get slammed all the time that our farm system isn't very deep, but we do have some exciting guys like Zach Cole came out of nowhere.

Speaker 01 48:11

Uh Matthews, Bryce Matthews, Bryce Matthews, Jacob Melton came really didn't get it rolling. Yeah, but um But there's there's some things to be excited about blue ball? Yeah, blue ball. Wow. That's a guy that actually I don't I wouldn't be mad if he was in the rotation. He was great. Wouldn't be mad. Oh no, not at all. Yeah, throw him out there fifth in the rotation. Fourth fifth guy. Sure. Yeah, I'd be happy with that. But could also, I could also use your same argument with Zach Cole. 1000%. Do we does that mean that we didn't make the moves we needed to make? You know what? You're right. Off season. I changed my mind. I want him to be a reliever.

Speaker 00 48:47

With Fromber leaving, I mean we got we have a lot of spots to fill. So Ericetty should he's not, he's Luis Garcia, you said's not playing next week. He's done. He's gonna be back. Ericetty should be back. Yeah.

Speaker 01 48:58

And Javier.

Speaker 00 48:59

I hope, I hope Ericetti can come back healthy.

Speaker 01 49:02

I hope the offseason he'll have plenty of time to recover, rehab.

Speaker 00 49:06

Uh, because I because I genuinely like seeing him whenever whenever I see he's starting, I I feel I feel decent, like we have a shot to win.

Speaker 01 49:17

You have him, you have Javier, and you have Brown. And that's it. Javier's gotta, I think, earn the fan base's respect again. Oh which he can't. No, no, no. Really? Is that a bold take? I just I feel like after 22, everybody was like, man, that guy can do no wrong.

Speaker 00 49:37

Yeah, but he's he's just it coming back from these injuries. Makes you feel a little bit different. Uh yeah, it's like I never whenever whenever he came back after his injury this season, I never felt like he was gonna lock in. He had one start that was amazing.

Speaker 01 49:53

Yeah, no, maybe he had yeah, I think he had two pretty good starts. One was incredible, the no-hitter no hitter. Another was decent. But then the rest was was not just proves your point. If you're feeling shaky about that and you hear Jim Crane is going scorched to earth, like let's spin the money. Yeah, make trades. But a Javier, like I what what I what I feel shaky about is him being a top three rotation guy.

Speaker 00 50:21

If he comes out top three rotation, I'm not feeling I'm not feeling good.

Speaker 01 50:25

You want him? If he's throwing four or five, yeah, I'm great. I'm great with that. Put him out there, give him plenty of opportunities. I think I'm right there with you. I think I want some I want some fresh faces, I want some new horses, I want, yeah, I want my 2026, and I feel good about it because of all the comments that have been coming out as far as like, hey, and it and it could be it could be that they're just talking and nothing happens. Yeah, but we'll see. Is I want legit thump threat in the lineup, meaning like scary dudes that could change the game. I want two horses, and I want a stable full of cheddar cheese coming out the bullpen that at any moment you could throw him into a six inning leverage situation, he gets three punches punch outs. And you might have had that like a little bit with Brian King, but I'm just kind of sick of the like the like he doesn't throw hard, he's got a nice curveball, but like it just maybe still bad taste in my mouth, even though he didn't he had a great season. Yeah, um did you know Jacob Melton? You probably do know this.

Speaker 00 51:35

He uh hit 945 in triple A. OPS.

Speaker 01 51:41

So great. That's that's that's exciting. It never translated. It didn't translate, but he did that all year. And I I all I would see on Twitter was him just smashing, and then he'd come up and he'd look like he didn't know what he was doing. But that but that was the narrative.

Speaker 00 51:58

Whenever we were playing the when we had the Space Cowboys out on the field for a good month, there was always the talk of are these like are we bringing these guys up too early? But we didn't have a choice. Didn't have a choice.

Speaker 01 52:13

We had we had to Zach Short. No documentary. Everybody, everybody kind of knew like uh he shouldn't he shouldn't be up here yet. So and Melton's a perfect example of that. Yeah, probably. If he keeps stringing together in trip, he just needs more more reps, more reps in triple A.

Speaker 00 52:29

He'll come back. So I mean, what are you I'm transitioning?

Speaker 01 52:34

What are you gonna do with all your extra free time in October? I think when the game, when I knew that we were done, I was in a fit of anger and I was like, I'm not gonna watch baseball at all because I'm so mad. Yeah. Uh I think you did say that. That surprised me. Yeah.

Speaker 00 52:53

I thought you were gonna be because I was being optimistic. Like, uh, dude, playoffs are actually gonna be fun this year.

Speaker 01 53:01

Well or not I think as fun as it can be. I think objectively it's gonna be a good one because there's no clear runaway. So you're gonna see some actually really good competitive baseball. Am I gonna race home to be like, ooh, let's turn this game? No. No. Like I'm gonna it's and that's you know, we'll we'll probably take to all the listeners out there, probably take the month because there's no point in coming up here talking about other teams.

Speaker 00 53:31

The other teams playing, unless something juicy happens.

Speaker 01 53:34

If you wanted, I mean talking about something juicy with the asterisk.

Speaker 00 53:39

Oh, with the asterisk.

Speaker 01 53:40

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think that that's what I was gonna say is I think fired on the medical staff or something. I think if you if there is enough to talk about for sure, then you just drop a surprise one. But I think probably first week of November you're gonna start to see some stuff. Because normally that's when it all ends and then all the you know transactions happen. And so you're telling me with your free time you're gonna watch other teams win playoff baseball games? No, I that's depressing. No, you're gonna do it. Uh, I am going to um just hang out with the fam, enjoy the cool weather. That's great. That's a good answer. I love that answer. Uh that's good. Not that I I mean we we already hang out. That was the whole point of this, was like we already hang out with the family a lot. That's true. It's like go get a hobby, go talk with go talk with your friend on Monday night, just another Monday night. Can you get out of the house so I can watch Secret Lives of Women? Well, that's that was the biggest frustration was like, hey, you need you know, it's faith, family, and work. Let's you figure something figure something else out that you love. And I was like, yeah. Even Danny was like, you should play golf. And I was like, feels like a big commitment. And I just like so far behind on that. And so I was like, you know what? I look up meaningless stats all the time. Might as well get them to put put them to good use and speak them into the microphone.

Speaker 00 55:09

Use that brain power.

Speaker 01 55:10

But guess what? We did see the playoffs, and we did that up to the edge, and then didn't finish them off.

Speaker 00 55:17

I mean, if they had listened to your email about swinging earlier and uh attacking the fastball, we'd be in the playoffs. We'd probably listen.

Speaker 01 55:26

And look at the Twitter. But yeah, so this is what are you gonna do? They should not do that.

Speaker 00 55:32

Oh, probably just like eat ice cream sandwiches and just sit around.

Speaker 01 55:35

You were waiting to say that. Just go to Brahms. Yeah, get a membership to Brahms. Get a membership. I like that. I like that. No, I mean it's gonna be it's gonna be a great fall. We're gonna have incredible weather. We're gonna hang out.

Speaker 00 55:51

I just got a one of those trailers that goes behind my bike that I can haul the kids in and they love it. It's fun. I took them out in it tonight. I didn't know. And they're they're so pumped.

Speaker 01 56:02

It's like one of those little uh covered things, and they both sit there and they just like sing behind me as I'm riding my bike around the neighborhood, which is perfect because it's good with bumps in the house. Like, is it good if you ride over bumps?

Speaker 00 56:14

Well, that's the best part because it you turn when I link them up in the house.

Speaker 01 56:17

I know a bumps coming. I turn around, I turn around to watch and see what they do, and they love it. Actually, most of the time they're completely unfazed.

Speaker 00 56:25

It's like it's like it never uh or they'll like laugh and think it's funny. Uh so yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. I also like I get into you know college football and all that.

Speaker 01 56:38

So we should just like get into Thunder the Thunder.

Speaker 00 56:41

We'll start again in like November.

Speaker 01 56:43

Let's just get into jujitsu, me and you, and like and then just do MMA. I think I actually think I'm gonna do CrossFit. I'm not kidding. Would you do it?

Speaker 00 56:52

Yeah.

Speaker 01 56:53

You would? I'm kind of doing something like that right now.

Speaker 00 56:56

Over there? Shout out to Iron Horse.

Speaker 01 56:58

Well, no, you were doing the climbing. You were climbing. You still do it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I I realize like that's just not the I don't know that it's gonna be what I need. What I I I need I need to be I need something that I get a good sweat in and I get my heart rate up. That's why I think CrossFit will be good because it's strength and and you get we can go to Defender Outdoors and just shoot guns all day. That's terrible, and just grow big old bellies and eat McDonald's and dude. We could just eat, we could eat Wendy's. You know, that's just what we do. Just go eat Wendy's. I would love that. Hey, Wendy's by far the most underrated uh fast food hamburger. I might I might stop by Wendy's on the way home. Sounds good. Oh, what time is it? It's 9 32. Yeah. I'm not getting well after so I didn't tell you this. After our podcast, I get like, you know, I get amped. Uh you know, in the past, I think the last one we got amped because we were like, we might be able to do this thing. Yeah. Um, and I get hungry and I try not to eat at night, but I go home and I like hammer out Reese's puffs, like just bowl after bowl. You keep Reese's puffs around? Not the Danny keeps it around. Yeah. Yeah. And you just you just like big ol' bowl? We yeah, yeah, yeah. Big old bowl home. I don't play around. When I get backed into a corner, I actually do something about it. Oh shoot. All right. Nobody's listening, so dead fair.

Speaker 00 58:37

Who do you hey? That's not true. Who do you think's gonna win?

Speaker 01 58:42

Yeah, I mean, people are, but like the people that I just insulted aren't listening. So good point. Who's who's gonna win the World Series? Toronto Bordeaux Series prediction predictions. Toronto Blue Jays. Old George. That's a great pick. Old George. I would love that. That's who I want to win the World Series.

Speaker 00 59:01

This is the Toronto Blue Jays. I love Guerrero. I love George Springer a lot.

Speaker 01 59:08

Uh he he was actually my first Astros jersey I ever bought. It was sad whenever he moved on. So then I went safer and got Altuve with the second because I was like, that guy's gonna be an Astro forever. Uh, but let's go. I'm gonna go a little more outlandish uh on World Series champ. I believe your 2025 World Series champion is gonna be the Boston Red Sox. Whoa. Which both teams I'm like totally cool with. The only is there are only three teams that I just really I'll hate watch, and if they lose, I will be pretty I wouldn't yeah, pretty happy. Not like happy to the level of like watching the Astros win, but can I try to guess them? Yeah, guess them. Seattle? Yes, sir. New York, yes, sir, LA. Yeah, I mean it's pretty easy. So easy. It's so easy. I mean, like you just have you know, the Rangers aren't in it, so it's like that's one taking off. But I mean, like the the four teams that I dislike the most is New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Texas.

Speaker 00 1:00:10

I mean, if you if Cincinnati went on a little run, that'd be pretty fun. I mean, which would that mean they knock the Dodgers out. So cool. I'd Be fun Padres would be kind of fun too. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 01 1:00:20

That'd be a fun team to watch. Super fun. Go for a lore. Padres. I mean, most of those teams I really don't have a problem with. Like the Padres, Cubs. Yeah. Uh, even if the Brewers, but they're just they're not, they're gonna lose. They're gonna, they're they will not win a game. I don't I don't know why, but they're just like they I wouldn't even be mad if the Phillies won. I hope they lose like two games all postseason and just like dominate destroy everybody. That which would actually be that'd be that'd be entertaining. All right.

Speaker 00 1:00:50

All right, this team was legit.

Speaker 01 1:00:52

My college catcher at Nichols State is their bullpen catcher.

Speaker 00 1:00:57

That's sweet.

Speaker 01 1:00:58

So I texted him and I was asking him what it's like to catch their closer, and he's like, dude, he throws gas. Yeah, does he eat Wendy's? Uh me and him actually you know what's really funny? Me and him after practice, used you we used to tear it up. Big old Wendy's guy? Yeah. Does it was the Wendy's the one with the big old round circle table? You know the old Wendy's old Wendy's when they still had the yellow wrappers on the burgers, yeah. And it was like all their furniture was that light wood, big old round table. Oh, that was the best. Now they're all modern and clean looking. Yeah, I don't what happened to fast food places? What happened to places like that? Well, the good ones shine, yeah, and the mediocre ones have fallen. Maybe, maybe, maybe that's what we'll do. Maybe we'll do live recordings going from fast food place to fast food place and just like talk about anything but what this podcast is supposed to be about. That would be fun. Just talk about fast food. Yeah, yeah. Just talk about each bite and just like the flavor and uh uh yeah, no, I mean Brahms is number one. You're gonna do it. Yeah, Brahms is it really? Oh, it's Brahms is so good. What about Whataburger, bro? No, I'm not a huge Whataburger fan. Why? They do have that new burger that I tried with you when we went to the Rangers. Yeah, you loved it. That was very good. That was a good but like fries are very dude. Can I tell you the reason why you don't like it? Okay, because the closer in you go to the city, the worst fast food restaurants are. Yeah. So you so every time I go to Whataburger, I book it 30 minutes away to go get me one of them out in the middle of nowhere. That's great. Yeah, you know, the best Whataburger in the nation is Sagine, Texas. Get out of town. Never been to it, but I bet us. How far is Sagine from here? Uh that's one of those cities that I come like, is it north north? Is it Saginaw? Is it close to Austin? Is it East Texas? Is it is it here? Is it there? I don't know. But I think but I think it's a great place. I think we should. That's what we're gonna do.

Speaker 00 1:03:12

We're gonna go on a road no matter how far it is.

Speaker 01 1:03:15

It could be it could be in El Paso. We're committed. I am committing us right now. We're going to be able to do that. I just need you to like water burger. I just need you to like I need you to be like dislike it. It's just like it's definitely not top three in fast food, fast food burgers. We're about to talk about it. I oh we're going we're going off the rails now. What are you talking about off the rails? Well, I thought we were about Mexican burgers. I thought we were talking about burgers. Oh, just fast food. Just fast food. Uh Mexican pizza, burger. What's your number one? I got I gotta think about mine for a second. Man, like are you talking tough when you're on the spot. Yeah, yeah. Um I'd I'd probably say like a not the one over here. I'm not gonna call it out because I don't want to, you know, destroy somebody's business. But like not the one over here, uh, but a good Whataburger is like is like the candy of all You love it.

Speaker 00 1:04:18

Yeah, of all what's your go-to order?

Speaker 01 1:04:21

Oh, number two, number two with cheese. So double double meat with cheese. Uh I'll either do that. Double meat with cheese. Yeah, I'll either do that. And no seasoning whatsoever on the meat. What are you talking about? The water burger just seems like that. Oh, you're you're a big burger guy.

Speaker 00 1:04:35

They don't season their meat. Yeah. Dip it in ketchup, bro. That's why if I go to Whataburger, I have to get their specialty things.

Speaker 01 1:04:42

Like, the specialties are fine. Because they smother it in this sauce. Yeah. I'm good with that. I actually the your affinity for Brahms, actually, I just like I'll I just I I can't get on board with. I get it. No, I I seriously get it. I like I like Brahms. That was easy, but I'm not I thought you were gonna fight on that one. I'm not saying it's I just I like everything about Brahms. Yeah, best best drink you can just go pick up on a weekend is Brahms, a limeade. It's the best thing ever. I don't think of that.

Speaker 00 1:05:16

It's uh get get one. It's they're incredible. It's probably ice cream's good. It's probably just like just the whole experience of it is great.

Speaker 01 1:05:23

The ice cream's good. Their burgers are solid, but like, yeah, they're not. I do like if you're just going to a plain like a plain cheeseburger with all the fixins on it. Yeah. I do think a Brahms burger is better than a What just the basic, the basic sandwiches. It's more filling, the ingredients are fresher. Let's do that. Let's grab one. You gotta go to this one. No, dude, you gotta go to the right one. I'll take you to the right one. Segine. No, we're going to Sagine. And I'm and Taco Bell. You keep changing the subject. We are going on a road. I gotta figure out where Sagine is. I don't know where it is.

Speaker 00 1:06:04

It could be eight hours away, it could be 30 minutes away. I don't know. But we're going. Uh S-E-G-U-I-N. Sagine. Why'd I put that in binders? Not in my borders.

Speaker 01 1:06:16

No, I I really like, oh gosh, if we're going any fast food, yeah, that's pretty tough. Um it's gotta be a burger place, though. I I really like In N Out Burger three hours and 36 minutes.

Speaker 00 1:06:32

Oh, sweet. Is it by kind of by Houston? I feel maybe it's close to Houston. Actually, yeah, uh In N Out Burger.

Speaker 01 1:06:40

In between in between Houston and San Antonio. Maybe that's the one we stop at. Um, is that the one? That's the one you're talking about? No, I don't I I might have stopped at that one. No, I don't know. I'm talking there's one down Chisholm that I'll that I'll go to, kind of like in a new developed suburban area. I bet you Weatherford has a great water burger. 4th of July. We went to we went to a Dairy Queen. Not bad. In Weatherford. Ooh, and they like those steak fingers. Whew. Hey, hey. They were fried to a crisp. Canes. Yeah, canes is good. Canes up there. Canes is good. I but yeah, canes is good. You don't like canes. I gotta tell you, I'd put canes, I'd put canes in my top five of fast food. But it wouldn't be my number one. Can I say you know what's overrated? Chipotle. Is that fast food? It's like yeah. It's kind of in the middle. Fast cast. Are we stretching it now? Yeah, we're salsa limon? Drive-thru window. Has have a drive-thru window. I think there's a Chipotle down chisholm that does. Chipotle down. Yeah, because they were experimenting with that. They're putting a white castle over here. I don't know. I've never had that. Seriously. But apparently those are good. Absolute garbage. Oh, it's not good. I keep seeing that. Why was I just about to say that? I was just about to say, I keep seeing culverts. I've never had culverts in my life. We're advertising it hard. Why? So culverts was like, and I could I could be wrong about this, but I like feel very confident in what I'm gonna say. Culver's I think was like Brahms for the Midwest, as far as not as not as um not as just amazing as Brahms is. Like Brahm, everything at Brahms is from their farm. All of it. That's all their milk. I in 2018, you that's what you had told me. You were like, hey, you need to go. And like I I liked it. I did. Um I get it. I I also think that like and it's not a Houston thing, it's a Texas thing, obviously, but like we just I got a lot of Whataburger memories. And it's because I don't know. Table tents. We just what is that? The table tents you take this. I mean, there was one across across the neighborhood that we grew up in, and that's like baseball. Like we're driving through Whataburger. Yeah. Um what? You know what's very underrated? What? Freddy's. I don't think I've had Freddies. We'll go to the one in Segin. We'll go to the James Coney Island. James Coney. You know James Coney? I was I was expecting you to get it question mark off Mason Road in uh in Katie.

Speaker 00 1:09:37

Oh James James Coney Island. Yeah, me and my dad would we'd go golf.

Speaker 01 1:09:42

Bro, why don't they do hot dog places? Why don't they do more hot dog places?

Speaker 00 1:09:46

They're disgusting.

Speaker 01 1:09:47

That's not true. I I like you don't like that. I like a hot dog, but like I'm not gonna go to a restaurant to eat a hot dog. Are you serious? I'm dead serious. Are you trying to trying to hurt my feelings? I'm not gonna go to no, I'm not gonna go pay money for a hot dog. Like we just did we went to Rangers game. Oh, you didn't eat a hot dog. Did you eat did you eat a hot dog? Uh no, I had nachos. I'm a nachos. What's the best ballpark food? Hot dogs. Hot dogs. A hot dog is the best ballpark food. Hot dogs. We went to Dollar Dog Night, like uh Oh, we went with Matt and Annie, the Kellys. Dollar Dog. You need to get him on here. 2017, back in the day. Kid you not, green. Green wieners. What are you talking about, green wieners? The wieners were green. What on purpose? For Dollar Dog Night. On purpose? I no. Not on the show. Oh, just like mass produced. Not on purpose. Like there was something wrong with these things. They're green like green, like a hue of green. And this was here? Yeah, uh the old the old stadium. I'm not it was bad. Yeah. We went and got like five of them for five bucks. What what when you come back and they're green. What do you put on them? On a dog? Yeah, on a doggy. Uh I have changed dramatically. I used to eat them like a kid. You put mayonnaise on your hot dog. Oh. Uh not mayonnaise. Sometimes when I'm when I'm like to have fun, I will do kind of I don't know if I get it exactly right. Sort of a Chicago dog kind of thing.

Speaker 00 1:11:20

Yeah, like put tomato on it.

Speaker 01 1:11:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Load it up with some peppers. Yeah, exactly. Peppers too relish. Typically, hot dog is uh diced onion, um, mustard, yeah, and maybe like a little bit of relish on top. Dill relish. You like hot dogs more than you just described to me that you actually do. Yeah, but I'm gonna make them at home. I'm not gonna go to a fast food restaurant to get a hot dog. I mean, this I feel like the same could be said for cheeseburgers, though.

Speaker 00 1:11:53

Cheeseburger?

Speaker 01 1:11:54

I mean, I think you've made a cheeseburger that's better than probably most cheeseburgers that I've had out in fast food. Nobody can cook better than me. Dang, that's bull. I'm just I'm I'm just looking at I feel like the world could do better with fast food. What I put on my hot dogs.

Speaker 00 1:12:12

Yeah.

Speaker 01 1:12:12

Um you're chili guy. Dang, I was just about to say, no, I mean, I used to be. I used to be like, uh, you know, you know, you know what would kill me is like people would fix up their hot dog like as if the default was ketchup mustard relish onions, yeah, and then go chili and cheese on top of that. Yeah, yeah. I I I never got that. If I was gonna go chili and cheese, like I was gonna go chili, cheese, and onions and just like smother it. Just smother it. Uh, but no, I'm a big relish, big, like big relish guy. Um, you don't like relish?

Speaker 00 1:12:47

No, no, no. I like ice. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I uh what else on it? Just relish?

Speaker 01 1:12:52

I'll go relish. Uh I'll go ketchup mustard. Um, dude, I like um I'll throw some hot sauce on there. Like, you know, some Frank, some Franks. Yeah, let it saturate the buttons. Um, you know, let it let it soak in. It soak in the like it's kind of drips a little bit. A little bit, a little bit. Kind of like fall. Like I load it up enough to where it's like cracking. You like hot dogs way too much. Bro, I mean, that's the that's the best ballpark food out there.

Speaker 00 1:13:25

You know what sounds good? What sounds good if you like chili on a hot dog, I think you'll agree. Frito chili pie. Yeah, it's fall.

Speaker 01 1:13:32

Yeah, let's this could be great. Yeah, let's get our families together on Sunday. Yep. And let's have Frito chili pie. Friendship. Yeah. Have you have you ever had a little baby dipper bowl? No, but I will, I'm just totally gonna like sidestep you. Okay. The gut pack is like one of my favorite gut pack's good. Gut packs are good. So gut pack, uh, for those of you still listening, which is probably nobody at this point. Nobody at this point. Uh, if y'all are listening, uh you like 20 minutes ago, you should put it on like 2x speed or even 3x speed. Uh but I think this is kind of fun. Season finale. This is season finale where we this is like we're hitting it hard. This is what happens when they don't make the playoffs. We talk about hot dogs. We talk about better things. Uh Gut Pack. So it's definitely got some chopped brisket. It's everything. I mean, it's sausage, right?

Speaker 00 1:14:30

Some like cut-up sausage.

Speaker 01 1:14:31

Chop chopped brisket, sausage, fritos, onions, jalapenos.

Speaker 00 1:14:36

No, it's not chili. It's like all the meat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it makes chili.

Speaker 01 1:14:39

It's not like a chili. It's like yeah, it's like a it gives you sauce, cup. Yeah, that's dude. Gut gut. V-Tex and Waco Texas. That were that's what we're talking about. And cheese. We'll we'll do that one too. You know, do you know about the run?

Speaker 00 1:14:52

The gut pack run?

Speaker 01 1:14:53

Yeah, you you and then you run a mile or something like that. Or maybe it's like a I thought it was a half marathon. Maybe it's a half marathon. Like I think I think you run the first half, then you eat a gut pack, and then you run the second half. Oh, okay. Which is that we need to start our crossfit before we do that.

Speaker 00 1:15:09

Dude, let's do CrossFit. Seriously. I'm actually I'm actually heavily considering it. I'm thinking about like Iron Horse? Yeah, because that's kind of over by the office, and I know they do a 6 a.m. class.

Speaker 01 1:15:20

Dang, you're gonna do 6 a.m. I if they have a seven, I'd be interested. What about lunch? I don't know if they do. Nah. I can't get the flow all sweaty and go back to work. It's good flow. Not a bad, not a bad thing, though. What a pathetic thing to say. No. Um but yeah, all right. We're gonna go to Segine and we'll let you guys know how it goes. It's three and a half hours away. That's gonna be such a good road trip. We'll do we'll do Segine. We'll do Seguin. We'll do Segine.

Speaker 00 1:15:49

Let's stay that let's we could take the families, stay one night down there. We'll just go down. I think it's a pretty area. I didn't even know where it was.

Speaker 01 1:15:56

We'll just no plan, just drive. All right, let's do it and then just like book a motel or something. Yes. All right, Stroh's fans. We'll hold oh okay. I'm not closing out yet. Not yet. I was gonna prep you before the closeout. All right. So this was the first season. It didn't end the way that we wanted to end. No. Are we going month to month from here?

Speaker 00 1:16:20

Yeah, so we're we're gonna debate that. We're gonna think about um kind of what we're gonna do with the podcast for now. We're not podcast is not going away. We're trying to figure out what is necessary.

Speaker 01 1:16:34

Do we really wanna come and talk Astros when all these other teams are having these moments? But anyway, we were we were gonna have we were gonna have this conversation regardless, even if they went all the way to the World Series. It's just we're having this conversation a month earlier because it was like, what were we what were we gonna do November, December, January, February, in most of March? Yes. And I guess you could start in March because it's spring training, but I just feel like it's gonna be a long season. If we're gonna do 162 weeks, or not. Well, we should go to start spring training next year. Um I'm down. Interview some folks. Yeah, yeah. If we're gonna do how many weeks is um how many weeks is in six months? Yeah, good quick. 24. 24. Like 24. If we're gonna do 24 straight weeks, probably starting six. Six months? In six months, yeah. It's 52 weeks in a year. Ah, dude, you're good at math. That's why you're a numbers guy. Um 26. So so so next season we'll be looking at 26 episodes, or do you want to do like November? Hey, this is what's happening with Dana Brown got fired. Joe got fired, they hired Hinch, they hired Lundford.

Speaker 00 1:17:46

More to come, more to come. We'll figure it out.

Speaker 01 1:17:49

Figure it out, we'll figure it out. All right, cool. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 00 1:17:50

So I'll say don't expect an episode next week for sure. Um we we're gonna figure that out. We we're gonna play around with some other ideas, maybe of doing a podcast with some uh other subject matter, uh like hot dogs.

Speaker 01 1:18:04

Maybe uh that was like a little test round. We're thinking about it. Um but yeah. So first season didn't end the way that we wanted to end it. We had fun doing it, kind of stinks that it ends this way. The exciting thing is if you know you accept the pain now, you put more work into what we're gonna do next year, and hopefully if the payoff. Here's what I would be excited for. In 2026, if we win the world series, I don't even know what's gonna happen on this podcast. What do what would what do you what do we do if we win the world series? Yeah, but we lose our minds. Yeah, okay. I just that's the vision I want to pay. Yeah, yeah. We lose our minds, we're we're partying, having a good time. Anyways, just want to say all that, and then yeah, with that, yeah. So with that, just be on standby.

Speaker 00 1:18:57

We're gonna figure out exactly what it's gonna look like. So, Astros fans, we love you. Thank y'all for hanging in there with us. We've had a ton of fun doing this podcast this season. Um, just gabbing, having a good time, messing around, talking Astros, trying to keep hopes high, and uh we're ending on a rough note here. Um, yeah, we're ending on a really rough note. Slayer. It's tough.

Speaker 01 1:19:24

It's tough. But we're gonna come back strong in 2026. Stay optimistic, stay in it, keep chanting the chance that you chant. Get fired up, be excited. 2026. We're gonna be the World Series champs. John and I are gonna be at game seven next year, 2026. John is gonna be a hot dog with chili on it, and it's gonna be a great win. Glorious. It's gonna be the best World Series we've won yet. So, y'all have a good off season. Uh, we'll keep you updated as we figure things out. Follow us on X. We're uh we're on there. Active and emotional. Having a good time, active, unfiltered emotion, always. That's what you can expect out of us. Signing off. All right, see y'all.