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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Houston Astros · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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  Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know we
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  recorded this Opposition Territory podcast on Monday, April twenty second, twenty twenty four.
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  By the time you hear this, some things may have changed here or
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  there, but we hope you enjoy the show. All right, folks,
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  welcome to Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest
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  running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. That's right, eleven years
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  strong. We've got a great discussion coming your way here on opposition Territory as
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  it pertains to one American League team, a team that we really haven't dove
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  into too much on our Opposition Territory podcast, and that is the Houston Astros,
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  a very interesting team that has had so much success over the course of
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  the past decade. Things seem to be a bit bizarre and little in stricken
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  with this team, as many of us who follow Major League Baseball. No,
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  we've got a great guest, it's his first time on the pod.
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  Let's get to the discussion right now. It is great to have joining us
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  from crawfishboxes dot com. You know we love our Espnation sites. Here at
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  the PST podcast show. We've got Bill Metzger. He's known as bilbos On
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  on crawfishboxes dot com. Buddy, it is great to see you here over
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  zoom, but it's great to have you on the PSD podcast show for the
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  first time. Thanks so much for jumping on. You have a myle honor
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  and I'm looking forward to talking to you absolutely. And you know, it
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  is really the first time I think we're getting getting into the Houston Astros on
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  our Opposition Territory podcast and as of us recording this Bill, the Astros,
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  they're at the bottom of the AL West. I mean, this is an
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  organization that's gone to the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons. They've
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  been to the ALCS seven straight years, won two World Series. I would
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  say that the expectations for this team are always very high coming into the season
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  in order to keep that success going. So what are the realistic expectations for
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  this team and what were they, I should say coming into the season,
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  And how the fan base is feeling right now? Is where kind of coming
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  to the end of April, and yet there's still a lot of baseball to
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  play, a lot of ups and downs with this team. Well, It's
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  not like a lot of teams that got to the playoffs, got to the
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  World Series and then it started a rebuilding process. This is the same team
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  they had last year. It's the same team they had two years ago.
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  There's a lot of sluggers on this team. There's a lot of good pitchers
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  on this team. But the trouble is almost every one of them's injured.
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  Yeah, and they're running a lot of minor leaguers in the rotation. The
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  expectations for the team are about ninety five wins, and that's what my staff
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  was thinking, that's what a lot of the prognosticators in the national media were
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  saying, and so this collapse is quite expected. I also don't think that
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  they're going to continue to play at three hundred level the rest of the season.
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  Fangraft just ran an article about that today and they prognosticate eighty three wins
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  and that would put them two games out of first place in the ALS.
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  But of course that's very rough estimates this early in the season. Yeah,
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  it's really interesting you how you mentioned the injuries here, this starting rotation.
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  I'm hoping we can get into it a bit here. I mean, this
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  is a crew again full of injuries right off the bat, you know,
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  Framber Valdez elbow and inflammation. Justin Verlander just coming back to the rotation as
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  well. Christian Javer is on the IL now with some neck discomfort. Five
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  starting pitchers have been on the IL so far this season. I guess some
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  long term of starting pitchers like Lance mccullors junior, yeah, to come back
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  this year. Luis Garcia should come back this year. We've got three All
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  Star pitchers that until Verlander finally got the pitch, haven't been on the in
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  the rotation. You take those five guys, Verlander, Valdez, Javier mccullars,
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  and Garcia, you've got a fantastic rotation for any team, and they've
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  all been out. Yeah part of the time that's been Yeah, that's been
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  the biggest issue here think for this team as we're talking about, But what
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  are the biggest concerns in terms of the rotation given these injuries. Is there
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  a concern possibly that some of these injuries bill are going to continue to persist
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  over these weeks and months here. You know, I don't know what the
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  medical staff is like down there, but just what is that concern with regard
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  to the pitching staff at this point, is there the expectation that they're going
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  to get back to full health? Yes, I think there is. None
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  of these injuries look well. In the case of Valdez and Javier, those
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  injurories don't look serious. Er Ketie, I forgot to mention him. He
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  didn't look too serious. I don't know. I don't know what the timetable
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  is on him. Luis Garcia is throwing. We won't see him before July.
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  But mccullor's that one. We never know about him. He's been so
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  injury prone. We may have made see him again. I don't know.
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  But I think one of the problems, though, more fundamentally, is there's
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  a very thin, very thin depth in the minors. You know, we
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  had big hopes on a guy named Hunter Brown. He was supposed to be
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  our next Verlander. Pitches like him, that was his hero. Well,
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  no, he's got something like a nine e r A. Our prospect is
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  a guy named Spencer Arraghetti. He's pitched two games and he's up there in
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  the eights and nines and his The Astros don't have much farm depth. That
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  comes from nine years of overpaying at the trade deadline, and that's maybe a
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  fundamental problem. They've got a great you know, five pitchers, three good
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  relief pitchers, most of the starting lineup. If any of them gets injured,
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  there's not much behind it. I was going to ask you about the
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  farm system. I'm glad you brought it up, Bill, because you know,
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  there have been some similarities over the years between the Philadelphia Phillies team that
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  we cover here at the PST podcast show, and I think with the Astros
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  farm system as well, because when you are investing and going over the salary
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  cap at the major league level, it really doesn't leave that much for your
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  farm system. And I find it interesting how that there's a correlation there between
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  both organizations, for sure. But you know, sticking with the pitching and
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  specifically with Justin Verlanders, we're moving along here, Bill. He allowed two
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  runs over six innings in his debut for the Astros just a few days ago,
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  and with the injuries to the starting rotation here, he's really going to
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  need to come through for this team when he's on the mound over these next
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  few starts here, for sure. In your opinion, what does Justin Berlander
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  mean to this Astros starting rotation and the team overall. As he is getting
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  up there in age. Oh, he's he's definitely getting up there in agent.
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  I don't think he want to push him more than one hundred and forty
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  innings. I don't really mind that he missed the first three four weeks of
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  the season, except that he was particularly needed at that particular time. But
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  he's not going to pitch the whole season, and not if we have any
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  hopes for having him in the playoffs. He's always been a great leader.
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  I mean, he's the Askers would not have gone to the would not have
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  made it to the World Series without him in twenty seventeen. They wouldn't have
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  made the playoffs last year if they hadn't traded to get him back. So
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  he's always lifted this team. And so yeah, he's a great leader.
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  He's not going to give up. I almost get the sense that there's a
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  feeling like this team is down in the dumbs and not playing with the kind
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  of spirit that they've always shown in the past, and guys like Altuve and
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  Berlander don't stand for that kind of thing. But they need that leadership for
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  sure. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, moving along here, you know,
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  if it's not just the pitching too that has been giving this Astro his team
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  some challenges. I mean, the Astros offense has been struggling out of the
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  gate as well. You know, Alex Bregman, JOSEA bray You, Chas
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  McCormick. You know, they haven't been hitting like we've been seeing them hit
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  in the past, for sure. I mean A bray You's been particularly brutal
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  when he's been in the batter's box. I was taking a look at his
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  stats recently, and it's like, whoo, holy cow, what are your
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  thoughts Bill on what happens with a bray You and some of the talent that's
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  really been in a slump rate here. Everybody's wondering just how much longer they're
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  going to put up with a Brave. I mean they they spent nineteen million
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  dollars a year over three years on him, and it's almost like they have
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  to put him in there. What a terrible acquisition. Now, he is
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  a slow starter historically, he did come on laste. He started slow last
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  year and came on at the very end of the season during the playoffs.
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  But I don't see it. He can't catch up to a fastball to save
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  his life. There. You know, you've heard of the Mendoza line hitting
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  two hundred. His ops is is bordering on that. So we're gonna have
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  to create a new the braill You line for an ops hundred. He is
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  just awful. And that's again the depth in the in the farm system.
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  We do have. One of our top prospects is a fellow named Joey low
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  Berfido who has ten home runs in Triple A this year, and there's you
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  know, he's the great hope that somehow he'll come up and fill in.
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  He's really a center fielder, but you know, we're clamoring for him,
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  even even Mauricio Dubon, who's a utility player without much power, but he's
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  hitting pretty well, and some people are saying, well, we're better off
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  with Dubon in there. As far as Bregman, he's always started slow,
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  but this is again his worst start ever. I just was looking. His
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  WRC plus is seventy six's and he's been hitting clean up. Yeah, that
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  makes sense for him when he's hitting because he's a contact hitter. He's not
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  going to strike at and leave people on base. But he's not getting it
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  done. And he will get better because he always does. But he's got
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  a long way to go to reach his career averages at this point. Chas
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  McCormick, you know, I'm not sure any of us really had bull faith
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  that the last two years really something we could count on in a long term,
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  so you know, but he's yeah, he's been streaky in the past,
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  so he could get hot as well. We also have a centerfielder called
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  Jake Myers. A couple of years get younger. I was gonna ask about
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  Myers too, because he's been struggling too. He's been struggling too, and
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  he reminds me a little bit of another Jake we used to have, Jake
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  Marisnik. I'm not just not sure about his his contact skills and yeah,
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  a lot of a lot of athletic town as far as speed and defense.
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  But I'm you know, we're in power like Morrisik had power when he hit.
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  But Jake Myers does too, but just don't see him making contact enough.
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  Yeah, it's uh, you know, thankfully that Jeremy Penya has been
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  a bright spot. He's bat in three forty four, jose L Twove,
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  who you mentioned, He's bat in three fifty one. Thankfully, those two
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  gentlemen are really kind of keeping keeping the offense. I would guess you would
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  say a float in a way. But it's interesting Bill, how you talked
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  about the cleanup spot too. I mean, up until the up until last
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  week, the Astros cleanup hitters had only driven in five runs since the start
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  of the season. Bregman, you know, he just really wasn't getting the
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  job done. And now Kyle Tucker he's been moved into that cleanup spot.
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  From my understanding, first I'm wondering is this going to work? And second
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  what happens if they're not seeing results over these next couple of weeks with Tucker
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  in that role. It doesn't matter where Tucker hits. He's super consistent.
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  A thirty to thirty guy two years ago, thirty, twenty nine, last
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  year twenty nine, hovers it'sad of thirty. He's very consistent. He can
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  hit there. The real problem is right where you wouldn't pick this. Of
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  course, we got Jordan Alvarez. I think Albares probably he's been a little
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  bit of flight slump last few gays, but you know he going to be
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  the nine hundred. Tucker's going to be bumping up against that this team,
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  actually you said that. They're they're struggling offensively overall, they're still fourth in
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  the league in w RC plus, just ahead of the Dodgers. However,
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  they're runs. That's a problem. They're not hitting in the clutch, and
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  another problem is they're giving up runs in the clutch. The so called dream
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  team back end of our rotation of our of our bullpen, Brian o'bray,
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  you, Ryan Presley, Josh Hater, they've been terrible. I mean,
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  Hater and and Presley both have e ras over eight. They can't hold a
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  league and it's just a problem. It's abominable. Yeah, yeah, they've
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  got it. I'm not sure about Presley. I think he may be over
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  the hill. Hater might just be in Islam getting used to a new team.
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  Whatnot a brave, he's wild, he's done that before. So I
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  give a braid hater a little bit chance to turn it around. I look
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  at Brestley just my iest says he just doesn't have it anymore. But hey,
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  I could be wrong. Yeah, it's a long, long season.
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  And again, folks, we are talking to Bill Metzger from crawlfishboxes dot Com.
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  Great sb Nation site. And to close us out here, Bill,
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  two part question for you that we'd like to ask here on our Opposition Territory
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  podcast. Outside of pitching, what is the biggest challenge do you think of
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  the season for this Astros team? Again, outside pitching, we know the
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  challenge is there, but what do you think the biggest challenge is going to
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  be for this team finding somebody to fill in at first base? You can't
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  have that power position in the lineup being absolutely less productive than a pitcher.
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  And the other one is this team has been competitive, fighting for places in
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  the playoffs and going through the going through the playoffs for so many years.
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  They've shredded high octane leaders over the years like Carlos Korea and George Springer.
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  And now that they're confronting a slump, I just don't know they feel tired.
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  I'm not sure they. I don't feel like they've they've somehow lost the
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  fight. The one really strong leader left on the team is Bregmant, but
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  he's in a slump ever since the cheating scandal. Bregman uh just hasn't quite
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  had the arrogance and the cockiness that he used to have. That Moxie yep
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  an absence of leadership. There's one thing I'd like to add if I could.
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  I like to spread this message. Too many people don't realize, and
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  they need to h Josel Tuve already has a Hall of fame resume when you
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  consider where he came from the streets of venezuela foot five. He's really five
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  foot five, not five foot six. And the whole story of how he
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  couldn't even get a tryout and had to come back when they told him not
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  to come back, and how much he has improved and made himself into the
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  player he is, and yet he goes from stadium to stadium in all years
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  is FL two a FL two by People need to know al tuo Ve did
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  not cheat when everyone around him was cheating, Altuve did not cheat. And
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  I'm just tired of people saying all these things about him that aren't true.
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  Not only did he not cheat, but he's got such humility that he won't
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  even defend himself because if he defended himself, he'd be throwing his teammates under
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  the busy. And I can spread that message wherever I can, because this
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  is not just an innocent person, but actually a person of great goodness besides
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  being a great player, and I wish he got the credit he deserves,
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  and it might impede his entrance into the Hall of Fame. That would be
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  terribly unjust. I appreciate you saying that. I really do, because being
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  a Philly sports fan here and doing this podcast show for the eleven years we've
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  been doing it, sometimes folks just get a bad name because they're associated with
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  a certain again a fan base, or a certain team, or they're hanging
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  out with certain individuals. So very much appreciate that. Just to close us
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  out here on the on the flip side of things, here we're talking about
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  the biggest challenge of the season for the Astros. What's an area of the
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  team where you just don't have any fears at all? Bill uh Your Don
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  Alvarez, all right, he's a monster, and he's signed for many years.
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  They got Altuve and Alvarez for many years. I hope that they extend
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  Tucker. I think they might let Bregman go. If you've got Altuve,
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  Alvarez and Tucker, you still have a strong core and so I don't think
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  this team needs to have a total rebuild. A many rebuilds, maybe a
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  retooling. That's what we'll call it, a retooling again, folks. Bill
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  Metzger from Crawfishboxes dot Com, Bill, Buddy, it was great talking to
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  you. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us here.
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  I'd love to have you back on the show down the Road, my friend.
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  I would love to It was great talking to Bill, and I do
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  want to say I'm not too sure what was happening with some of the audio
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  there, but I am glad that we had the opportunity to talk to Bill
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  for sure. And I think what's interesting, specifically, he was talking about
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  that fire, that fire that the Houston Astros have always had. I called
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  it, you know, the moxie, you know, when he was talking
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  about specific players on this team. But really that that undercurrent, that fire
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  that has always been prevalent with the Houston Astros, at least over the past
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  decade, it just doesn't seem to be one hundred percent there at this point,
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  probably because of all the injuries that have been sustained with their starting pitching
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  rotation. I mean, really, folks, I mean I can say right
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  now, if what was happening to the Philadelphia Phillies. You know what we're
• 19:11
  seeing, or I should say, what we're seeing with the Houston Astros.
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  If it was happening with the Phillies, I mean we'd be downtrod and as
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  fans, and it would take its effect on the team. I think you
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  would see a trickle down in terms of performance and in other areas. Quite
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  frankly, again, it's the sports psychology aspect of this stuff that we talk
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  about a lot on this podcast and that we bring up so fascinating and we're
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  certainly gonna be keeping our tabs on what happens with this Houston Astros team in
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  the future and specifically here in twenty twenty four. So it's gonna do it
• 19:41
  for us on opposition territory. Make sure you subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're
• 19:45
  on if you like the content. If you don't, just come back and
• 19:48
  visit us every now and again. You can even go to Philadelphia Sports Table
• 19:52
  dot com. That's where we've got all of our shows. There, you
• 19:55
  can head back in the archive take a look back at what we've done in
• 19:57
  the past. We got some PSD special podcast where we got into some music,
• 20:02
  we got into some movie reviews. The Eighties movie reviews, folks are
• 20:06
  fantastic. Eric, myself, our good buddy Mark really got into some awesome,
• 20:11
  awesome eighties movies. Head on over there and check out some of those
• 20:15
  reviews. And we are on the Twitter slash x at Philadelphia PST. You
• 20:19
  can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore Warren. We got more great content coming to
• 20:25
  you this week. Lots of Phillies talk coming your way. We got a
• 20:29
  great guest joining us for our regular show that's dropping Thursday morning, so you'll
• 20:34
  have to wait for that. All right, everybody, take care, We'll
• 20:37
  catch you next time.