Houston Astros

When it came to like power, and this is not really a great comp, but, uh, Zobrist.

I mean, Ben was just like a line drive singles hitter up the middle when I first saw him, uh, with the Rays in, uh, he was a shortstop coming from the Astros.

And then he, we sent him out to the minor leagues for a bit and he came back and all of a sudden he's putting the ball in the seats.

Uh, never to the, to the level that we're talking about, but his slugging percentage, et cetera, really rose.

I mentioned the trade.

The New York Mets traded Javy Báez to-- or traded, uh, PCA to get Javy Báez, a trade deadline deal.

We're looking at a year in which the two MVPs likely were traded as young players at the deadline, uh, PCA and of course in the American League, Yordan Álvarez, who was in the Dodgers system, and the Dodgers traded him to the Houston Astros to get a middle reliever named Josh Fields.

So our years we were so used to Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge locking down these awards.

Uh, Red Sox, Rangers, Patrick Sandoval, TBD.

Royals, Astros, Michael Wacha, Hunter Brown.

Padres, Rockies, oof, ain't nobody watching that.

Uh, Walker Buehler, Kyle Freeland.

Big win last night for them.

The AL West is separated by one game.

The 75 and 75 Astros lead the 74 and 76 Texas Rangers.

Braves lead the Phillies by four and a half games.

when looking at, like, the projected postseason bracket, like right now it would be like five seed versus four seed, like Yankees versus Red Sox, and then the, the, the Rays waiting for them in the next round.

And then the top part of the bracket is like, would be Guards, Astros with the White Sox waiting for them.

And it's just like, dude, [laughs] there's just, there's levels here.

And, and yeah, the, the, the, the, the trio at the bottom of that bracket is definitely a, a lot more intimidating than the trio at the top.

Uh, the Rangers also still have the division path, and that's what makes this part kind of complex, too-

Yeah

... is if the Rangers get hot but these other teams are playing well, then it becomes an Astros conversation.

Um, so that's what's also a, a challenge in unpacking all of this.

But heading in to tonight's game to clinch a playoff berth, it's nine games, at least with the Guardians, 'cause the White Sox have the tiebreakers, or the Blue Jays or the Rangers.

If the Orioles or the Astros sneak in to that sixth spot, because there is a potential that the Astros drop out of the AL West, then they have the tiebreaker.

Uh, 10 games to win the division, 11 to clinch the number two seed, as Houston has lost three straight, with Texas sort of, uh, still hanging around.

So there's nothing wrong with obviously scoreboard watching the Blue Jays and the Rangers to make sure, you know, at least have your backup plan of at least getting a wildcard spot 'Cause I've heard, you know, AJ Perzinski was on Foul Territory yesterday saying it'll be a complete failure if the White Sox don't make the playoffs, if they don't win the division.

Take care of your business.

Win tonight.

You now obviously want the Astros to win the AL West because they got the tiebreaker, uh, over the White Sox, so again, if you want your backup plan, you don't want them sneaking in or the Orioles.

So what it is is you do need a lot of these teams to lose to whittle down their magic number, but the White Sox, they also need to take care of them business, and they started by doing it last night.

If you took Schlitter off the Yankees this year, where would they be? If you took Bobby Witt off the Royals, Bobby Witt Jr.

off the Royals this year, where would they be? If you took Yordan Alvarez, now this is a good one, if you took Yordan Alvarez off the Astros, where would they be? So in terms of the, the, the subjective most valuable part of this award, uh, Schlitter's right up there.

He deserves, he deserves definitely strong consideration.

Yeah, you know, just, look, I, I happen to side with, I think, a position, like unless you're having a Guidry/Gooden year, I do think it should be a, uh, position player.

... you're being positive there.

Yeah.

Uh, good for the, uh, Cubs and the Astros for making those trades.

And you know what? I, I like to see teams take chances.

We're gonna be talking a lot about Texas over the next few nights.

Not only are they a game and a half out of the wild card, but they're just one game back of Houston in the battle for first place in the AL West.

So the Red Sox taking on a team, uh, with the ground on the mound tonight, who absolutely, uh, is in the thick of everything.

From here on in, Lenny, it gets tough.

I'm Chandler Rome, joined by Tyler Stafford, and there have been no games played since the last time we spoke to you.

There will be one played, uh, tonight at Dyken Park when Hunter Brown opens a crucial three-game series against the Royals, uh, for the Astros.

Um, but we are here to talk because, uh, we're always honest on this show because, well, our schedules weren't gonna work to do, uh, to do one on Wednesday, [laughs] um, and we needed to get one out now.

So here we are, talking about, uh, nothing really since the last time we spoke to you guys, um, the Astros-

Well, you, you know how to sell an episode, don't you?

Yeah.

Please, please, please like the video.

Um, so I, I did, I did think, you know, it, it's gonna be interesting what we talk about today because what we're gonna talk about is a lot of, like, the future and what's next and 2027, 2028.

Now, Finn never had this kind of a year, but he was a really good player, and if you really look up Finn's numbers, they were outstanding.

When it came to, like, power, and this is not really a great comp, but Zobrist, I mean, Ben was just like a line drive singles hitter up the middle when I first saw him with the Rays, and he was a shortstop coming from the Astros.

And then we sent him out to the minor leagues for a bit, and he came back, and all of a sudden he's putting the ball in his seats.

Never to the level that we're talking about, but his slugging percentage, et cetera, really rose.

We're looking at a year in which the two MVPs likely were traded as young players at the deadline.

PCA and, of course, in the American League, Jordan Alvarez, who was in the Dodgers system.

And the Dodgers traded him to the Houston Astros to get a middle reliever named Josh Fields.

So our years, we were so used to Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge locking down these awards.

Harris County operates a community health and wellness division offering services to help women deal with postpartum depression.

The Astros start a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals tonight.

First pitch at Dyken Park is just after seven.

We have that heat advisory still in effect until seven tonight.