Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast discuss the fan response to Sean's poll asking if they'd be cool with the Astros being sellers at the deadline totally reversing course after the team swept the Orioles.
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00:00All right. Payne and Pendergast with you. The Astros sweep the Orioles this weekend
00:05and in a big way, they outscored them 27 to 13. Pitching was great. Starting pitching
00:11was great, especially Saturday and Sunday. Really, really good. Good to see the bats
00:17come alive. So now the Astros are sitting at two games under 500 for the first time
00:21since early, early in the season. They are two games under 500. They're six games back
00:26of the Mariners, I believe four and a half back of the wild card. So they're, they're
00:32in this thing. I mean, you still got a week left in June here and they're playing pretty
00:36well. The starting pitching is kind of on skates right now, just cause you've only got,
00:41I don't even say, I don't want to say four reliable starters. I don't know that Spencer
00:44Arroganti qualifies as reliable at this point. It's just the four guys that are nominally
00:49starters. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Yeah. And Verlander is not going to likely
00:53be back by the time they start that blue J series on July 1st when they need, they'll
00:58need five pitchers going into that series. Uh, that's the, and I don't want to push Verlander
01:04back at this point. So you just need to, uh, the, this offensive resurgence that we've
01:09seen as of late. I mean the, the bottom of the sixth on Friday was the five doubles in
01:14that inning, nine runs crazy, man. Um, you know, it just, it was, it was, it was a breath
01:21of fresh air in a lot of ways. They, but then by the same token in the seventh inning,
01:27you see them start to squander a 14 three lead. And at one point, I think it was on
01:31Friday that the Orioles announcer said, Houston, you've got a problem. It was, uh, yeah. First
01:37I'm hearing of this. Oh yeah. Yeah. It was, somebody sent it to me early this morning.
01:42It was a pretty original by them. They, they've got the, they've got, they've got world series
01:47caliber announcer pretty bold to do it too. In a game where you still, the closest you
01:51got was three runs. It's not like, you know, they, like they cut a 14, three deficit to
01:5614 to 11. I, uh, okay. Um, first time in a while they'd been back in the race these last
02:03couple of years, I'm going to cut them some slack. Um, and I know it was actually refreshing
02:07watching a good team play the Astros that I didn't really have any, uh, uh, like hatred
02:13in my heart for, it wasn't like when they're playing the Yankees and the Yankees are doing
02:18something good, you just get, you get so angry. Well, uh, I never felt that way with the Orioles.
02:23Give it time. You know, they, they were, they, they burst back on the scene last year and
02:27they won a hundred games, but they were disappointment in the post season. But if there's a postseason
02:32series between these two, it's a little heated. You get a few more Houston, you have a problem
02:37or whatever it is. Well, I didn't even go back to 2017 versus the Yankees. I remember
02:42just, uh, I remember thinking like, you know what, I got to give it to him. The Yankees
02:45have a lot of likable guys on that team. It was, I didn't really feel that way, but yeah,
02:50it did within a couple of years I wanted them blotted off the earth.
02:54The being better than everybody else scandal amp things up with a lot of teams. I think
02:58the Astros the last couple of years and kind of the way the Yankees fans throwing a beer
03:02bottle at that Astros fans had, well, he was just trying to take a whiz part of it too.
03:08That was not good. Um, so it's funny, you know, people literally last Friday, um, we,
03:15we put up a poll about, uh, the Astros fans and were, were they up for selling off good
03:22players for high level prospects? You know, are you in seller mode with the Astros? I
03:26think we did it. I think I put it up on Twitter when, when the deficit hit 10 games against
03:31the Mariners. And I said, all right, this is rock bottom. So where are you right now?
03:35Are you okay with the Astros trading off big names for good prospects? And in the end,
03:40I believe it was 68% of the people said, yes, we are cool with that. 22% said no. 10% said
03:49need more time. You were in the need more time crew need more time. And I think that's
03:52a reasonable answer. Even 10 games back is, I mean, obviously now they, you know, they're,
03:57they're only six pack.
03:58Now they've made a lot of headway, man. They, they got favors from the Marlins this weekend
04:01against the Mariners of all teams. Um, one good weekend of baseball has flipped things
04:07around for a lot of people. Uh, we go from 68% saying yes, sell to 23% saying yes, sell.
04:17We go from 22% saying no, do not to more than double 47% saying no, do not. And then the
04:26need more time crew, which this is the most logical one to me has tripled. You know, there's
04:31not, it's gone from 10% to 30%. Now people saying, all right, well let's now I'm willing
04:34to sit back and kind of see how this thing plays out a little bit.
04:37Yeah. They, uh, the, and this is, you know, what we'd said all along was all right. When
04:42they were on this stretch of a relatively easy schedule, except you've got the Orioles
04:48sitting there right there in the middle of it, what do they do versus the Orioles? It'd
04:53be one thing if you came out of that soft schedule with a winning record, but got swept
04:58by the Orioles or something that wouldn't feel like a team that was worth making a push
05:02for. I feel like them, that the Astros showing up and showing up magnificently in a three
05:08game series versus the Orioles. It's a good reminder that all right. Yeah. On paper, on
05:13paper, even with all the pitching woes and what have you on paper, this is a team that
05:18should turn it around at some point. And this very much felt like a team that potentially
05:23could have turned the corner. This might, this might be the series you look back to
05:27like in 2022 as a series versus the white Sox and the Yankees in the middle of the summer
05:31where you're like, Oh, okay. This is where maybe the tide starts to turn this. This very
05:36much could be that series, which started two games prior with a Cesar Salazar day, but
05:42it's still, you know, yesterday. Yeah. Who, by the way, is going to be in our lives for
05:46a while here. Uh, carotene he's going on the IL, uh, for, he's going to be out for at least
05:51four weeks. It sounds like with the leg, the leg injury, probably a contusion. I don't
05:56know if you were, it was before the game was out of hand last yesterday. Uh, Salazar took
06:00literally took one on the chin and, uh, shook it off ball bounced up, up into his chin underneath
06:06his mask and Nope, Nope. First start. He's not, uh, he's not leaving. That ain't knocking
06:10out Cesar Salazar. You got to do better than that. Salazar baseball guy that turned everything
06:14around for the Astros, man. That's it. Um, so yeah, man, it's, it's, uh, good to see.
06:20Good to see Bregman Bregman with four hits yesterday. That was nice. Pena Pena with four
06:25hits on Saturday and Sunday combined. Um, after, after taking the day off on Friday
06:30was for me, one of the more encouraging signs of, of a potential Astros. Yeah. He's been
06:36terrible at the plate for the last three or four weeks. You know, he started with a lot
06:40of the old habits were creeping in. He just remember he'd calmed down his swing with less
06:44movement, but some of that movement had started to creep back in, but he was chasing sliders
06:49like the bad Pena of old. So just that one day off where he could re recollect himself
06:55seems to have done a world of good. This is probably, this probably would have been
06:58a better question last week when a majority of Astro fans were ready to start trading
07:02off pieces. Fewer, fewer fans are willing to do that now, but it's relevant. There's
07:07an article in the New York post from Joel Sherman who has covered the Yankees for years.
07:12He was, he was actually a prominent part of the documentary I was just talking about earlier
07:16that Bronx zoo, which by the way, I'm reminded by a listener, Amy and upper Kirby that, uh,
07:22who I'm married to, um, peacock, not prime. If you want to watch that Yankee documentary,
07:26it's on peacock, not prime. I said prime earlier. I'm a mess today. And I told you the Orioles
07:31got swept by the Astros. Um, so, uh, but this Joel Sherman of the New York post, he's got
07:37one of these articles where he's got his greasy mitts all over Astro assets from over the
07:42weekend. Like, Hey Yankee fans, this is why you need to keep rooting against the Astros.
07:47Here are the guys that will be great for the Yankees to get their greasy mitts on.
07:52And he listened to Bregman and Presley are the most prominent too, which I think is hilarious
07:57that the, the writer for a fan base that I'm assuming they boo Bregman a lot because he
08:02was such a cheater back in 2017 that now all of a sudden, you know, they could use cheater
08:07Alex Bregman. They would love to have him on their team. They would love to have Bregman,
08:11the guy, one of the guys that's still most lustily booed. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah.
08:16So, um, so that, that's another reason the Astros need to keep winning just so the Yankees
08:20can't get in on some of this stuff. I mean, if they, if they continue to surge or they've
08:25been playing at a, you know, plus 600 win percentage clip since May 8th, uh, then there's
08:32no way in hell they trade away Bregman regardless of what's, I mean, you think back to various,
08:37uh, whether it's Springer, Correa, uh, Garrett Cole, anybody that's left on an expiring contract,
08:44the Astros are not in that business if they think they got a shot. Yeah. Again, I guess
08:48my question was going to be for those of you granted a dwindling number of people after
08:53a sweep over the weekend. Um, but are you cool with the Astros being a seller just unilaterally
09:00or does it matter to whom they sell? Like I would imagine like there's probably a lot
09:04of people out there that are going that within the last few weeks and said, dope, you gotta
09:07move on from Bregman.
09:08You got to trade Bregman for pieces. Okay. The Yankees are on the phone. Do you still
09:13want to trade Bregman? Do you want to, do you want to watch Alex Bregman and Yankee
09:16pinstripes? Um, and again, this is a more relevant question probably last week than
09:20this week because the Astros have made a ton of headway in three days, four days. Um, but
09:25I, for me there is a little bit of that. Like, okay, I am a little choosy as to who they
09:29do business with. I don't want to watch out. There are certain teams I can stomach watching
09:34guys on the Astros play for in October. Um, that aren't the Astros, the Yankees ain't one
09:40of them, man. The Yankees ain't one of them. No, no, that would be that. That feels like
09:44one of those ones is just bad mojo. If you, if that, no matter what happened, the Astros
09:49cause we lose every game between now and the trade deadline. But to trade away to the Yankees,
09:53it just feels, it feels dirty. No, don't do it. Don't do it. Um, someone asking, is it
09:59time to reconsider Trevor Bauer? Oh gosh, I was just going to ask that Sean. Yeah, that's
10:04a, okay. So listen, Trevor Bauer got a lot of traction this weekend because he had a
10:12really good outing in the Mexican league, which, uh, which a Mexican league where, uh,
10:18various other former major league baseball players who should not be playing major league
10:23baseball do really, really, really well. Um, no record. Yeah. He set a record this week.
10:29Yeah. 19 Ks in it. You want to hear what it sounded like? Here's what it sounded like.
10:44Yeah. That's what it sounded like on the broadcast. It is.
10:49The thing about Trevor Bauer is that, um, he's like almost universally despised. And a lot of
10:58the things, uh, with his recent legal troubles, it's, it's very, very easy for me to lump that
11:05into the category of, okay. Um, the it's, it's, it's still very ugly and you can, you can, you
11:14can call it, call it whatever you want. I like, in my mind, he has not been exonerated from being
11:18a dirtbag like whatsoever as a teammate or as a person or, or through like various legal
11:26maneuverings, like not, not one bit. When you talk about Mojo and just like Jose Abreu, who is
11:32a resoundingly an awesome dude, uh, like universally regarded as an awesome dude. He was
11:38still, there was a, there was a, there was a, it brought something into that clubhouse that was
11:44just, uh, affecting the entire team. So now take, take a guy who's universally regarded as not an
11:51awesome dude and bring him into your clubhouse. Not to mention where he's publicly lambasted the
11:56Astros at various times during his career. No, I just got, I've got no, no appetite. They're not
12:02going to do it. Like this team has never been more desperate for starting pitching than right now.
12:06And Brad Bowers, the guy who said he would play for the minimum. So, you know, it's not a financial
12:11thing. It's not as though Bauer has all these options that are getting ready to pay him 30
12:15million a year. No, by the way, major league baseball has spoken on Bauer. He's pitching in
12:19the freaking Mexican league. It's not like he's, it's not like he he's took a minimum salary with
12:25a bad team and he's pitching well. And now they're just looking to flip him like an asset.
12:28Like he's already in MLB. He's not an MLB. Like he's not, he's like baseball. The Astros,
12:34if you're frustrated, the, that the Astros are not going after Trevor Bauer and texter,
12:38I'm not saying you are, you're just asking the question, but I've seen people that are like,
12:41Hey man, you got to bury your pride and you need pitching and you got to win and blah, blah, blah.
12:46Um, the, you know, who else isn't signing him right now? The other 29 teams in baseball,
12:50like the Astros are not an outlier here. It was like when the, it was like when
12:53Earl Thomas was out there at the end of his career, after the Ravens as a team had voted
12:59to inject him from the team, people were mad at the Texans that they weren't signing Earl Thomas.
13:05And my response was always like, okay, you're mad at the Texans for not being like every single
13:11other team in the league. At that point, we were disgusted with the Texans were trying like hell
13:15to not be like every other team in the league and they couldn't do anything right. But somehow
13:20signing Earl Thomas, whose life was in disarray at that moment. Um, like likewise, Trevor Bauer's
13:26life is in disarray and you can try to, if you're a sucker for his victim card, good for you, I guess,
13:33but you're a sucker. Like you're a sucker for Trevor Bauer's victim hood card. Uh, like of
13:39all the guys that don't deserve a victim hood card, it's Trevor Bauer. It's just, it's, that's
13:43just the flat out fact of the matter. And there's not another team in baseball right now that's
13:47falling for it. So don't be a sucker yourself. We're late. This is a text message. We're late.
13:52We being the Astros, I guess, are late on Trevor Bauer. Just like we were late on getting rid of
13:56a Bray. You know, late on Trevor Bauer, none of you, you're going to love the rest of this.
14:02None of you talking heads have a moral high ground. Bring him in. I hope he sues the league.
14:06He should be in the league. He's blacklisted. Yeah. Okay. Great. I feel awful for him. I feel
14:13awful for him. Yeah. That's just a, how horrible for poor Trevor Bauer. Who's like basically
14:18divorced himself from humanity long before any of the legal allegations. Sure. Yeah.
14:24Follow-up text, not from the same texter, but here's another text. Doesn't Bregman hate Bauer?
14:28Yes. Everybody hates Bauer. Everybody hates Bauer. Everybody hates him. Yeah. It's not
14:32even a matter of moral high ground. Like I just like, no, he's flat out despised. He is despised
14:39more late to the park. Late to what nobody is signing him. Like how are the Astros late?
14:45If they're in second place, they're still right on time for, for Trevor Bauer late to the party.
14:51He's in Mexico. Um, the, uh, text mess. How are you like, what are you, how are you,
14:59how are you allowing yourself to be a little, a little slut for Trevor Bauer? Right. You know?
15:04Yes. Yes. Um, Astros have a big 10 game road trip coming up. Six game homestand before the
15:11all-star break. They need to go 10 and six. I late to the party for Trevor Bauer.
15:16What the hell does that mean? He's in Mexico. I don't know.
15:22Should assign him a month ago. I guess. I don't know. I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's late to
15:25this party because there is no power party is, is empty. Yeah. Nobody's late to the party. There
15:31is no party. The first person there, there is no party. The first team there is looking around
15:35going. I thought there was a party here. Um, I, uh, the text I just read about, they need to go
15:3910 and six over that stretch from the next homestead. So it's, I don't, I'm, I'm kind of
15:43taking this thing in bite-sized pieces. I'm looking at the next, I think the next five games
15:48this week is what to look at here. Cause you got two against the Rockies and three coming up against
15:54the, um, against the Mets. Those are, those are two of the worst teams in baseball, right?
15:59I know the Mets have come on a little bit. The Mets have surged back a little bit. They're not
16:02one of the worst teams in baseball anymore, but they're not a good baseball team. The Rockies are
16:06awful. And you, you've destroyed them in Mexico city, you know, whatever it was two months ago,
16:11something like that. You need to do the same thing again, man. They are, it's a big opportunity this
16:16week, man. You, they, they've done a good job. The Astros is setting themselves up for something
16:20nice here. They're late to the party. If they don't sign to Sean Watson, Jim in here, that was
16:25right. Look at it. Look at the Browns. They did it. You know, they, they went out on a limb and
16:29they signed to Sean Watson and it's worked out brilliantly for them because they were not late
16:32to the party on Deshaun Watson. No, no. Were there? Yeah. All right. Um, pain and Pendergast
16:38with you. Uh, let's do some acknowledgement. We got a lot of acknowledgements to get to this week.
16:43Um, we acknowledge big performances from over the weekend. We acknowledge big news from over the
16:50weekend. We got some Astros mixed in here. So this is an easy, easy segue. He, uh, let's start
16:55with, well, let's explain the segment for those that are new. We're going to read names here.
17:00After each of these names, Ben plays Roman reigns, pain's possible former teammate with the Jacksonville
17:05Jaguars, Roman reigns back in 2007 screaming, acknowledge me. And, um, and then we'll lay out
17:11why exactly they're being acknowledged. Ronell Blanco,
17:17Ben, Ronell Blanco, um, respect him, Ben, respect him. You will respect Ronell Blanco. He should be
17:24in the all-star game and they were making a big deal out of a big deal out of that on the broadcast
17:28over the weekend as they should. It's the Astros broadcast. Um, but he is in the top three right
17:34now in ERA and the American league. I like, I, you know, in the end, I honestly think like,
17:41if we're just doing the, if we're doing the sort of the story of Ronell Blanco season so far in a
17:47weird way, the suspension to me for the sticky stuff inside his glove actually becomes a bit
17:55of a validator for me because he's come back from it and he's pitched practically every bit as good
18:00as he pitched before he got suspended for the sticky stuff. You know, it's almost, it's,
18:05it was kind of proof like, okay, here's this guy who all of a sudden is this amazing starting
18:09pitcher. Um, you know, it's almost kind of like proof like, Hey man, yeah, they suspended him for
18:15that, but he's come back from that and he gets checked out every time and he sweats his ass off
18:19and he's still out there tossing seven innings of one run ball against the best offensive team
18:24in baseball. Yeah. The, like, I don't think there's anybody in baseball and remember the,
18:30the pitchers are selected by the managers of the all-star team. Um, that I don't think anybody in
18:36baseball probably batted an eyelash at that whole scenario or situation. So it's, uh, and I guess
18:43it was kind of refreshing that it didn't become some kind of big controversy around baseball
18:48itself, uh, because it was the Astros that it happened to. It was just the very unfortunate
18:55situation. That's all it was. I don't think that'll harm him one bit. I, um, yeah, I mean,
19:00the main thing for him is he just, he doesn't have a reputation yet. You know, as far as like
19:04all-star, like he doesn't have the pelts on the wall. Like the T you know, the, when, when they
19:08pick the all-star staff, it's probably going to go to guys who've been brand names a little longer
19:13and may, and maybe there's a spot for him even with that he deserves to be there. And I love
19:17the fact that in the last week, two of these guys, you know, Hunter Brown and Rennell Blanco have been
19:24in, I'll call them playoff type match-ups. I'm not saying the Tigers are a playoff team,
19:29but, uh, Tarik school ball is a, is an ACE level pitcher. No doubt about that. He's the favorite
19:35for the Cy Young right now in the American league. I think it's really cool that you have two year
19:39guys to your least experienced guys, Blanco against Corbin Burns being the other one on Saturday
19:45in these pitchers duels. And they came out not just on top, but like noticeably on top,
19:50like they were clearly the better pitcher in both of these games. Yeah, it was cool.
19:54Yeah. And, uh, it's, uh, boy, Bloss, I wonder what will happen with Bloss. So Bloss didn't
20:01seem to think his issue was much at all. It was just a little bit of soreness or what have you.
20:05Uh, and we know with the Astros, when you hear discomfort or soreness that it can sometimes
20:10blossom into much, much more, uh, this, this one seems to be real that it's, it's not necessarily
20:15a big deal. And I would say Bloss too, like Bloss had bad luck on his first two, his first two hits
20:20he allowed in that first inning. Um, first one just caromed off his own glove when he tried to
20:25swipe up at it. So he just allowed soft contact the entire time, but being just to see, I'm saying
20:33interesting. It's kind of like deathly important that, that, that perhaps he comes back quickly
20:38and healthy and, and is some kind of a prodigy. Yep. Um, okay. Alex Bregman had a good weekend,
20:46but right here, I'm going to acknowledge Knox Bregman. That is Alex Bregman's almost
20:53two-year-old son who is, uh, well on his way to being a prodigy. Take a listen.
20:58Got a couple of Bregman cuts here. You're going to hear a little voice in the background at the
21:03beginning of this answer to the question. There was the energy a little bit different today. This
21:08is following yesterday's game. So talk about a different energy, attention to detail,
21:13none of those things sort of manifest themselves. No, it was great attention to detail all series
21:18long. I thought the guy showed up every single day. Um, and when we compete like that,
21:24we know what we're capable of and, uh, just super proud of the guys.
21:28Um, so you heard at the beginning of that cut, I mean, it's just the generic answer. Good answer,
21:32Alex. Um, you're dad, dad, dad, dad. So, uh, kind of milling around next to Bregman's leg there,
21:38walking around in the media session was Knox Bregman, Alex's son, who's almost two years old
21:44on the next question, Knox Bregman goes into full hijack mode and he is on brand for being,
21:49for being a Bregman. What do you say about that first inning, the way y'all
21:53kind of attacked and were able to jump in the Merlin? Well, I think it starts with
21:56Fran we're coming out and giving us a zero. Then I'll, I'll, I'll too.
21:59Yeah. It starts with, it starts with Frambo.
22:08Yeah. We're going to go to the cage. Frambo. Frambo started it for us big time today. And
22:12then after that, um, uh, I'll see if I set the tone with the Homer and then everybody else just,
22:16uh, just passed the torch all game long. It was really good and thought we swung the bat
22:20really well. Now he's been begging all, all weekend. He wants to go to the cage and the
22:30dugout. So we're going to take him to the dugout. Okay. Knox Bregman still hasn't said mom yet.
22:39Uh, those are his first words, cage and dugout. I mean, this somewhere Marv Marinovich is smiling
22:47right now. Like Earl woods is like, absolutely. Oh, that's funny. That is funny. Yeah. I could
22:58see this being more of a Earl woods type of scenario where it's like, you know, like the
23:02son is hungry for it. It's not like some Marinovich was a father forcing himself on his son and making
23:09him do all this stuff where they're all in tiger woods. It was very much tiger was eager for it.
23:13And you know, it was about the interpersonal side of everything, whatever. Uh, but as far as like
23:18actually cultivating somebody who's passionate about it, I feel like Alex, uh, Knox, Knox was
23:24probably born into the right family. He's going to have a very good resource for him. He's hungry
23:30to get to the cage. He's not making him bring his own birthday cake to parties. Remember Marv
23:34Marinovich did that? Like Todd, Todd Marinovich had to bring his own, but he wasn't allowed to
23:38Big Macs stuff. Come on, man. Let the kid be a kid. I'm talking to Marinovich,
23:43not you, Alex Bregman. I think you're doing a hell of a job.