Latest / Foul Territory / Astros trade Lance McCullers to the Brewers - CCT Instant Reax

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Astros trade Lance McCullers to the Brewers - CCT Instant Reax · Foul Territory

0:08
Speaker 1: What's up? Everybody.
0:09
Speaker 2: Welcome into an emergency edition of Crush City Territory. M
0:12
Speaker 2: chandlerome joined by no one, because well, emergency pods don't
0:16
Speaker 2: wait for anyone. They don't wait for Josh Reddick, who
0:19
Speaker 2: is currently in Hawaii doing far more entertaining things than
0:22
Speaker 2: talking to me, and they don't wait for Tyler Stafford,
0:25
Speaker 2: who is on vacation without any Wi Fi and oh Man.
0:29
Speaker 2: Once he gets Wi Fi back, he will be very
0:31
Speaker 2: surprised to see what the Astros' pitching staff looks like, because,
0:34
Speaker 2: for the first time in a very very long time,
0:39
Speaker 2: dating back really to twenty fifteen, that Astro's pitching staff
0:42
Speaker 2: will not include Lance mccullors Junior, who was traded today
0:47
Speaker 2: along with Colton Gordon, to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange
0:51
Speaker 2: for Jaden Fielder. If the name Jaden Fielder sounds familiar,
0:55
Speaker 2: well yes, he is Prince Fielder's son and he is
0:58
Speaker 2: Cecil Fielder's grand son. So that gives you a moment
1:02
Speaker 2: to all feel very old. He's twenty one years old.
1:05
Speaker 2: That can make you feel even older, but we'll get
1:08
Speaker 2: to him in a minute. I think that's I think
1:10
Speaker 2: that's far down the Astro's list of concerns and your
1:13
Speaker 2: list of concerns is getting a scouting report on Jaden fielders.
1:16
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of different ways we could go
1:19
Speaker 2: with this, with the decision, with why they did it,
1:23
Speaker 2: with how they did it, the machinations behind it, with
1:26
Speaker 2: Lance mcculler's legacy in Houston.
1:29
Speaker 1: But you're taught in journalism school not to bury the lead.
1:31
Speaker 2: And the lead today and the lead for most of
1:34
Speaker 2: you why you're tuning into this podcast is you're asking
1:36
Speaker 2: yourself why they did this, Why did the Astros do this,
1:40
Speaker 2: and where did.
1:41
Speaker 1: This come from? So at its core.
1:45
Speaker 2: This is this is a payroll saving move.
1:50
Speaker 1: This is a salary dump.
1:51
Speaker 2: Like let's let's be very brutally honest here, like this
1:55
Speaker 2: was a salary dump. Lance mccullor's junior is making seventeen
1:59
Speaker 2: million dollars this season, the last year of his five year,
2:02
Speaker 2: eighty five million dollar contract extension that he signed before
2:06
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one season. I have not done the
2:09
Speaker 2: exact math to know what is left on that contract
2:12
Speaker 2: for the last sixty four games of this season. I
2:14
Speaker 2: believe it's around seven million dollars. But there are people
2:19
Speaker 2: that do this math. That are a lot smarter than me,
2:22
Speaker 2: so I would listen to them. I believe it's around
2:25
Speaker 2: seven million, but I don't have that information right off hand,
2:29
Speaker 2: accurate confirmed what his actual pro rated salary is for
2:33
Speaker 2: the remainder of this season. I do know through sources that, uh,
2:37
Speaker 2: the Brewers are going to pay a little bit north
2:39
Speaker 2: of two million dollars of that salary.
2:43
Speaker 1: So before the Ashers traded.
2:45
Speaker 2: Mccullors, they were around ten million dollars under the first
2:50
Speaker 2: CBT threshold. Presuming my reporting is accurate and what my
2:55
Speaker 2: sources have told me are accurate, that gives them another,
2:59
Speaker 2: you know, two to three million dollars to work with
3:02
Speaker 2: as they head into the trade deadline. So you look
3:04
Speaker 2: at it, they'll be about thirteen million dollars under the CBT.
3:08
Speaker 2: We have discussed the many, many needs this team has
3:12
Speaker 2: at the deadline.
3:13
Speaker 1: It's starting pitching.
3:14
Speaker 2: It's maybe a right handed leverage reliever, and as Dana
3:18
Speaker 2: Brown has said on numerous occasions recently, their main need
3:22
Speaker 2: is a left handed hitting outfielder. So they've got a
3:24
Speaker 2: lot to address. They've got a lot of holes to fill,
3:27
Speaker 2: and quite frankly, they don't have a ton of money.
3:32
Speaker 2: They didn't have a ton of money under the CBT
3:33
Speaker 2: to do it, and they don't have a ton of
3:35
Speaker 2: prospects to offer up in any of these bidding wars.
3:38
Speaker 2: So what's going to be the most straightforward way for
3:40
Speaker 2: them to acquire talent. It's going to be taking on
3:43
Speaker 2: some maybe bigger contracts, some bigger deals of some players
3:48
Speaker 2: for some other teams. You know, being the beneficiary of
3:52
Speaker 2: a salary dump as opposed to being the people that
3:55
Speaker 2: are dumping salaries. So this will help them in that regard.
4:00
Speaker 2: This will help them be able to take on some
4:03
Speaker 2: more money at the deadline without going over the CBT,
4:07
Speaker 2: because I think, you know, this trade really does solidify
4:12
Speaker 2: that they don't want to pay the luxury tax for
4:14
Speaker 2: a third consecutive season. They've paid it in twenty twenty
4:17
Speaker 2: five and twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five. They
4:19
Speaker 2: don't want to pay it again. They're going to do
4:21
Speaker 2: everything they can to remain under it. This is part
4:24
Speaker 2: of that. This is part of that, the means to
4:29
Speaker 2: do that. So that's one that's the that's the payroll
4:32
Speaker 2: part of this. The other part of this is that
4:35
Speaker 2: they've got a crowded forty man roster, and they've got
4:39
Speaker 2: at least three pitchers in Ronel Blanco, Hayden was an Eski,
4:43
Speaker 2: and Bennett Susa that are currently on the sixty day IL.
4:47
Speaker 2: Bear in mind, the sixty day IL does not count
4:49
Speaker 2: against the forty man roster, so when these guys are
4:53
Speaker 2: ready to be activated, they're going to have to be
4:55
Speaker 2: added back to the forty man roster. Those guys are
4:59
Speaker 2: going to be ready to be act activated. Ronel Blanco's
5:02
Speaker 2: probably ready right now, Bennett Susa as well is very
5:06
Speaker 2: very close, and Hayden was an Esky's probably about two
5:09
Speaker 2: weeks behind them. So within the next two or three weeks,
5:13
Speaker 2: you're going to see all three of these guys get
5:14
Speaker 2: activated off of the sixty day IL and put onto
5:17
Speaker 2: the forty man roster. Because the Astros knew that was coming,
5:23
Speaker 2: they have been, excuse me, they have been feverishly trying
5:28
Speaker 2: to trade from the back end of their forty man roster.
5:31
Speaker 2: They have, according to people I talked to with other teams.
5:34
Speaker 2: According to people I had talked to just within the
5:36
Speaker 2: within the within the team itself, Dana had made a
5:41
Speaker 2: good bit of pitching available just on the open market,
5:44
Speaker 2: just to try to get some value back so you
5:47
Speaker 2: don't have to expose these guys to waivers and get
5:51
Speaker 2: nothing for them if you're going to take them off
5:52
Speaker 2: the forty man roster. There is there is inherent value
5:56
Speaker 2: to that to be able to get something back for
5:58
Speaker 2: these guys, whether it's a twenty one year old prospect
6:02
Speaker 2: like Jaden Fielder, or whether more importantly it's salary relief,
6:06
Speaker 2: it's financial flexibility, and that's what they were able to
6:09
Speaker 2: get with Lance McCullers. Now throwing Colton Gordon into the mix. Again,
6:14
Speaker 2: that's another player that was on the Astros forty man roster,
6:17
Speaker 2: so now he's off. So they have two open spots
6:19
Speaker 2: in their forty man roster now. But throwing Colton Gordon
6:23
Speaker 2: in was a sweetener for the Brewers. You really could
6:26
Speaker 2: look at this deal honestly, as Colton Gordon was really
6:31
Speaker 2: the centerpiece, and I use centerpiece very very lightly, but
6:37
Speaker 2: think about what Colton Gordon has that Lance mccullor's doesn't.
6:40
Speaker 2: Colton Gordon has five more years of team control left,
6:43
Speaker 2: he has I believe two option years left. If not,
6:46
Speaker 2: if not two then one, he certainly has minor league
6:49
Speaker 2: options left. And as We've talked about when teams are
6:53
Speaker 2: looking at value, when teams are looking at what they
6:56
Speaker 2: value the most with guys they're bringing in. Its optionality,
7:00
Speaker 2: it's flexibility, it's being able to move them up and down.
7:03
Speaker 2: Colton Gordon provides that, and he's cost controlled. He's here,
7:07
Speaker 2: he's with the Brewers now for the next five years,
7:10
Speaker 2: for the next two he's gonna make the league minimum
7:12
Speaker 2: before he gets into the arbitration process. That was the
7:15
Speaker 2: most valuable piece, and from if you're looking at this
7:18
Speaker 2: from a Brewer's perspective, that's perhaps the most valuable piece
7:22
Speaker 2: they acquired today was Colton Gordon. Throwing him in was
7:25
Speaker 2: kind of a sweetener to get them to take on
7:29
Speaker 2: Lance mccolors, to get them to take on however much
7:32
Speaker 2: of the contract they're going to take on, that was
7:34
Speaker 2: a little bit of a sweetener and the Brewers. We're
7:36
Speaker 2: not going to get too heavy into the Brewers portion
7:39
Speaker 2: of this, but the Brewers have been desperate for left
7:41
Speaker 2: handed pitching. They don't have a ton of left handed
7:43
Speaker 2: pitching at their upper minor leagues. They don't have a
7:46
Speaker 2: ton of left handed pitching on their on their staff
7:49
Speaker 2: as it is, so they were looking for left handed
7:52
Speaker 2: pitching and the Ashers were just able to match up
7:55
Speaker 2: with them in that way. So as far as Lance
7:59
Speaker 2: himself goes, the Astros had been trying to trade Lance
8:04
Speaker 2: now for about a year year and a half. I
8:08
Speaker 2: reported it earlier today. It's something that I had known
8:10
Speaker 2: for a while but just never found the right time
8:12
Speaker 2: to really report it, but reported it earlier today that
8:15
Speaker 2: that Lance was in one of the potential packages that
8:20
Speaker 2: the Astros were going to send to the Saint Louis
8:22
Speaker 2: Cardinals last season for Nolan Arnado. And as you'll remember,
8:26
Speaker 2: Nolan Arnado vetoed has no exercised his no trade clause
8:32
Speaker 2: to veto the agreed upon deal that the Astros had
8:35
Speaker 2: with the Cardinals. So and it didn't stop there. The
8:38
Speaker 2: Astros were trying to trade Lance, you know, at points
8:43
Speaker 2: during the season last year.
8:45
Speaker 1: And then obviously they had.
8:46
Speaker 2: Been shopping him around for the last month or so
8:49
Speaker 2: as they knew all these returning rehabbing guys were gonna
8:53
Speaker 2: come back, they knew that they were going to have to,
8:57
Speaker 2: you know, find some way to get him off of
8:59
Speaker 2: the ross. And in some ways, I think this is
9:03
Speaker 2: I think this is.
9:04
Speaker 1: A more noble and kind of a more.
9:06
Speaker 2: This is a more what's the word I'm looking for,
9:09
Speaker 2: it's it's just a nicer way to do this, because
9:12
Speaker 2: if we're being honest, if we're being honest with ourselves,
9:15
Speaker 2: if they would have not found a partner, a trade
9:19
Speaker 2: partner to give to dump mccullors on like, they would
9:23
Speaker 2: have probably had to designate him for a signment. And
9:26
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that that's how they wanted this to end,
9:31
Speaker 2: because we'll talk about it after this break, but Lance
9:34
Speaker 2: McCullers leaves a pretty indelible legacy here. I understand that
9:40
Speaker 2: his last three or four years have not gone the
9:43
Speaker 2: way that certainly Lance wanted them to go, have not
9:46
Speaker 2: gone the way the fans wanted him to go. I
9:48
Speaker 2: understand he has become a lightning rod for fan vitriol,
9:53
Speaker 2: for he's kind of become just a punching bag like
9:56
Speaker 2: and there's no real more delicate way to put it right.
10:00
Speaker 2: But I understand the contract did not age well. The
10:03
Speaker 2: five year, eighty five million dollar extension did not age.
10:07
Speaker 1: Well at all.
10:08
Speaker 2: When you when you look back, and when you think
10:10
Speaker 2: back as far as quite frankly, some of the worst
10:15
Speaker 2: contracts of this era, that one will be up there
10:19
Speaker 2: all that, notwithstanding what this guy did for the franchise,
10:24
Speaker 2: what he did before his body betrayed him. Because that's
10:27
Speaker 2: what happened here, Like, this is not a situation where
10:30
Speaker 2: Lance mccullors wasn't trying hard. It's not a situation where
10:34
Speaker 2: he wasn't putting in the requisite work. But this is
10:37
Speaker 2: not a situation where he was doing anything himself that
10:40
Speaker 2: diminished his value. His body just did not hold up,
10:43
Speaker 2: like he could not. His body broke down on him.
10:46
Speaker 2: And that's a tough thing to witness. It was a
10:48
Speaker 2: tough thing for me just to witness up close and personal,
10:52
Speaker 2: because this is a guy that really cares, he really
10:55
Speaker 2: cares about and I mean, I'm sure all the fans
10:57
Speaker 2: listening can appreciate this. Like he cares about this city,
11:00
Speaker 2: he cares about this organization, he cares about this franchise,
11:03
Speaker 2: and I know it tore him apart inside that he
11:07
Speaker 2: could not be of more help to this team recently
11:11
Speaker 2: when he signed that contract. So I think this is
11:15
Speaker 2: this gives Lance, It gives him a fresh start. You know,
11:19
Speaker 2: as far as we know, he is healthy, He's made
11:23
Speaker 2: all his minor league rehab starts coming off of his
11:25
Speaker 2: shoulder injury, he's built his pitch count up to eighty.
11:28
Speaker 2: The Brewers, again, I don't know the inner workings of
11:31
Speaker 2: the Brewers. I don't know the inner workings of their rotation,
11:34
Speaker 2: but I would imagine they're going to give him an
11:37
Speaker 2: opportunity to start and who knows, maybe a change of scenery,
11:41
Speaker 2: maybe a different voice in his ear, maybe some different
11:44
Speaker 2: pitching coaches, maybe that can help him. But this gives
11:47
Speaker 2: him that opportunity. If they would have just designated him
11:51
Speaker 2: for assignment and no one would have claimed him on waivers,
11:56
Speaker 2: just given the size of the contract, no one was
11:58
Speaker 2: going to take that on. So it would have been
12:01
Speaker 2: a situation where he would have been designated for assignment,
12:04
Speaker 2: he would have passed through waivers unclaimed, and then it
12:07
Speaker 2: would have been a situation was does he go to
12:09
Speaker 2: Triple A, does he accept an assignment to Triple A,
12:13
Speaker 2: or does he just go to free agency, And it
12:15
Speaker 2: would have been just a that would have been a
12:17
Speaker 2: tough look just for everyone. This was in my opinion,
12:21
Speaker 2: this is solely my opinion. You can disagree on this.
12:25
Speaker 2: I think this was the right way to go about
12:28
Speaker 2: things with him this was a situation that was never
12:30
Speaker 2: really going to end well, just given everything around it,
12:34
Speaker 2: like it was never going to end perfectly.
12:37
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12:40
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Speaker 3: the organization. I need help.
12:44
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12:54
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12:58
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13:37
Speaker 3: twenty seven, twenty twenty six.
13:39
Speaker 2: So in twenty twelve, when the Astros, I'd say they
13:45
Speaker 2: shocked the baseball world by taking Carlos Korea number one.
13:50
Speaker 2: A lot of people wondered to themselves, why did they
13:53
Speaker 2: take Korea one to one in that draft? Because that
13:57
Speaker 2: was not that was not on the bingo card, right.
13:59
Speaker 2: There were so many different guys Carlos was going to
14:01
Speaker 2: go in the in the top ten, top five of
14:03
Speaker 2: that draft, but one one was never really on anybody's radar. Well,
14:09
Speaker 2: they took Carlos Korea first overall in the twenty twelve
14:12
Speaker 2: draft because Correa had agreed to sign to an underslot
14:16
Speaker 2: value bonus at at he had agreed to sign for
14:20
Speaker 2: less than what the slot value it was for the
14:23
Speaker 2: one to one pick, and they used the money that
14:26
Speaker 2: they saved on Carlos Correa to draft and sign a
14:31
Speaker 2: kid from Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida, a right
14:34
Speaker 2: handed pitcher named Lance mccullors. Went forty first overall in
14:38
Speaker 2: the twenty twelve draft, got a two and a half
14:41
Speaker 2: million dollars signing bonus going there. The money that they
14:45
Speaker 2: used to sign him was coming off of Carlos Correa's bonus,
14:49
Speaker 2: and that's how much they valued Lance mccullors, was, you know,
14:53
Speaker 2: we're willing to go underslot on this one to one
14:55
Speaker 2: guy to be able to sign you, to pry you
14:58
Speaker 2: away from your commitment to I believe he was committed
15:01
Speaker 2: to Florida. Correct me if I'm wrong in the comments.
15:03
Speaker 2: I'm sure you all will, but probably away from your
15:07
Speaker 2: college commitment and get you onto the professional stage and
15:10
Speaker 2: then really from there. When Lance debuted in twenty fifteen,
15:15
Speaker 2: and I'm not I interned for MLB dot Com the
15:18
Speaker 2: second half of that season, so I was not around
15:21
Speaker 2: for his debut. But I think we can all remember
15:25
Speaker 2: just the swag and he had the Batman cleats, and
15:30
Speaker 2: he just brought an edge that that team really kind
15:34
Speaker 2: of needed. Because George Springer is a great dude, Josel
15:38
Speaker 2: Tuv is a great dude, Carlos Korea is a great dude.
15:41
Speaker 2: But they don't really play with a ton of at
15:43
Speaker 2: the time, at least, they did not play with a
15:46
Speaker 2: ton of edge, a ton of like just kind of
15:48
Speaker 2: swag and kind of an f U kind of mentality.
15:53
Speaker 2: Lance pitches like that, and Lance is always pitched like that,
15:56
Speaker 2: even as the injuries have come stockpiled on him, even
15:59
Speaker 2: as he got old and matured a little bit.
16:01
Speaker 1: He's always kind of had that edge about.
16:03
Speaker 2: Him, and I think that was something that I think
16:07
Speaker 2: that was something that really that twenty fifteen team needed,
16:11
Speaker 2: and you saw, you know, he got under other team's skin.
16:16
Speaker 2: I believe it was Mitch Morland that he did the
16:18
Speaker 2: throat slash at when he pitched against the Rangers once.
16:22
Speaker 2: I know the Royals got very irritated with him in
16:25
Speaker 2: the Alds in twenty fifteen. But this was a guy
16:29
Speaker 2: that just had premiere stuff and had the personality and.
16:33
Speaker 1: Had the swag to back it up. Right.
16:36
Speaker 2: This was a guy that in twenty fifteen twenty sixteen
16:40
Speaker 2: looked like he was on his way to being a
16:44
Speaker 2: real like foundational pillar of this team. Remember, Lance mccullors
16:49
Speaker 2: was twenty one years old in twenty fifteen. This twenty
16:53
Speaker 2: one year old kid in twenty fifteen had a three
16:56
Speaker 2: two two ERA and a one twenty one ERA plus
17:00
Speaker 2: in twenty two big league starts. That's a twenty one
17:03
Speaker 2: year old pitching for a playoff team. That team got
17:05
Speaker 2: to the playoffs and probably should have gotten a lot
17:08
Speaker 2: further than they did. I don't need to bring up
17:10
Speaker 2: the Tony sip ground ball and the six singles in
17:15
Speaker 2: a row by the Royals at Minute Made Park that
17:17
Speaker 2: that night. I don't need to remind you of that,
17:19
Speaker 2: but this was a guy that at his peak looked
17:24
Speaker 2: like he was going to be an ACE for the
17:28
Speaker 2: foreseeable future. And look, I get those teams, that twenty
17:32
Speaker 2: fifteen team he came up and debuted on. Dallas Kichel
17:35
Speaker 2: was on that team, right, he won the Cy Young Award.
17:37
Speaker 2: They had other guys around that were older and more veteran,
17:41
Speaker 2: but you looked at him as maybe that next face, right,
17:44
Speaker 2: the next face of the Astros rotation, the next the
17:48
Speaker 2: next you know, one of the next faces of the
17:51
Speaker 2: next Asher's core. And he embodied that in such a
17:55
Speaker 2: way that I think few others maybe vocally have done.
17:59
Speaker 1: Right.
18:00
Speaker 2: We had the Bury me and the h stuff we had.
18:03
Speaker 2: I think he's got a couple tattoos that have Houston
18:07
Speaker 2: or h.
18:07
Speaker 1: Or h Town on them.
18:09
Speaker 2: This was a guy that embraced this city a lot
18:12
Speaker 2: more than most players you will see. And I think,
18:16
Speaker 2: and I'm not a fan, I'm not gonna sit here
18:18
Speaker 2: and claim it to know how fans think. But if
18:20
Speaker 2: I'm a fan, that's what I want, right, Like, I
18:23
Speaker 2: want a guy that is just going to embrace this city,
18:27
Speaker 2: embrace the place he plays in, and really put on
18:30
Speaker 2: for him. And that's what he did for eleven years here.
18:34
Speaker 2: I mean, it's so I feel like I'm aging myself.
18:36
Speaker 2: Like eleven years he was here and you know, did
18:42
Speaker 2: everything off the field that the ashers ever asked him to,
18:46
Speaker 2: whether it was charity stuff, whether it was you know,
18:48
Speaker 2: he was in the HGV commercials, Like this was a
18:51
Speaker 2: guy that really embraced being an astro.
18:54
Speaker 1: He embraced being in this city.
18:56
Speaker 2: And that's something that matters that, Matt, because you don't
18:58
Speaker 2: get that everywhere else.
19:00
Speaker 1: Like there are.
19:01
Speaker 2: Guys that play in this league that have played for
19:04
Speaker 2: a team for teams for a long period of time
19:07
Speaker 2: that really just view this as a job, and they
19:09
Speaker 2: view their city as just a place that they live,
19:12
Speaker 2: and they live there for six seven months a year,
19:14
Speaker 2: and then they go off to their off season home
19:16
Speaker 2: and they don't really get involved in the cities that
19:19
Speaker 2: they're in. Well, like Lance McCullers lives here, like he
19:21
Speaker 2: built his home in Houston. He and his wife Kara
19:25
Speaker 2: obviously met their high school sweethearts, so they met in Florida,
19:28
Speaker 2: but both of his children were born here. Like all
19:31
Speaker 2: of his seminal moments and his fundamental moments of his
19:35
Speaker 2: maturation into a man and into a father happened.
19:38
Speaker 1: In Houston, and he really values that. And I think
19:42
Speaker 1: that's something that can.
19:43
Speaker 2: Get lost when all you look at and all you
19:47
Speaker 2: talk about is how much money he's making or how
19:51
Speaker 2: poorly he's performing or how poorly he's pitching. That matters,
19:55
Speaker 2: and it's unique like that. Trust me when I tell
19:59
Speaker 2: you that does not happen everywhere. And so I think
20:03
Speaker 2: that's something that as you start to kind of think
20:05
Speaker 2: back and we start to I don't know if this
20:08
Speaker 2: golden era is ending. You never know how this season's
20:11
Speaker 2: going to go, but certainly with the not going to
20:13
Speaker 2: the playoffs last year, you do kind of start to
20:16
Speaker 2: see that this golden era is maybe in its waning months,
20:20
Speaker 2: waning year, I don't know, but we will remember Lance
20:25
Speaker 2: mccullors as a figurehead of this golden era. And look,
20:31
Speaker 2: I wrote it exactly this way in the story that
20:34
Speaker 2: I wrote today. He threw twenty four of the most
20:37
Speaker 2: consequential consecutive curve balls this franchise will ever see, the
20:43
Speaker 2: Astros do not win the Pennant in twenty seventeen without
20:46
Speaker 2: Lance mccolors. They do not get to the World Series
20:50
Speaker 2: where Lance mccullors started Game seven of the World Series
20:53
Speaker 2: for them that year, didn't factor into the decision.
20:55
Speaker 1: He had an RBI.
20:56
Speaker 2: He will always he'll always want to tell you that
20:59
Speaker 2: he had an RB in Game seven of the twenty
21:01
Speaker 2: seventeen World Series. But this team does not win the
21:04
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen World Series without Lance mccolors. I understand the
21:10
Speaker 2: end of his career was not what he had in mind,
21:14
Speaker 2: was not what Astros fans had in mind. I will
21:18
Speaker 2: fully say that, you know, having him making as much
21:21
Speaker 2: money as he was having as he was making and
21:23
Speaker 2: ham strung a couple of their roster decisions.
21:25
Speaker 1: As far as what they can do.
21:27
Speaker 2: But it's not as if, you know, he forced the
21:31
Speaker 2: Astros to give him this money, right, Like, the Astros
21:33
Speaker 2: made this conscious decision to give him this contract, and
21:36
Speaker 2: at the time that they gave it to him, it
21:38
Speaker 2: was a very fair deal for both sides. Like, if anything,
21:42
Speaker 2: this was a team friendly kind of deal that at
21:45
Speaker 2: the time the Astros because go down the other road
21:49
Speaker 2: with me here for a second. If Lance stays healthy,
21:54
Speaker 2: and if Lance pitches to the level that we have
21:59
Speaker 2: seen him pitch when he's been at his best, when
22:02
Speaker 2: he's been healthy, you're talking about he's making seventeen million
22:05
Speaker 2: dollars this year, Like that is a bargain. Like froberval
22:09
Speaker 2: does is making forty million dollars for the Tigers. Justin Verlander,
22:12
Speaker 2: who's retiring this year, is making thirteen million dollars from
22:17
Speaker 2: the TI from the Tigers. It would have been highway
22:21
Speaker 2: robbery and a bargain if Lance McCullers would have stayed
22:25
Speaker 2: healthy and would have pitched to the efficacy that we
22:28
Speaker 2: know he can pitch to at the end of this contract.
22:32
Speaker 2: And I think that's something that doesn't really get talked
22:35
Speaker 2: about a lot because the contract has aged so poorly,
22:37
Speaker 2: and again we're not here to do what it could
22:39
Speaker 2: have should have. It went the way it went and
22:42
Speaker 2: it did not go well, and it's something that the
22:45
Speaker 2: Astros had to reckon with. They had to work around it,
22:48
Speaker 2: they had to work around it and how they acquired talent,
22:51
Speaker 2: how they boosted their roster.
22:54
Speaker 1: But bart keep that.
22:56
Speaker 2: In mind too, that if if it would have gone
22:59
Speaker 2: the other way, everyone would have been looking at this
23:02
Speaker 2: as one of the more team friendly contracts in baseball,
23:05
Speaker 2: just like everyone now looks at Jordan Alvarez his deal
23:08
Speaker 2: as one of the more team friendly contracts in baseball.
23:11
Speaker 2: Because I mean, I know, no one wants to go
23:14
Speaker 2: down this road, but let's go down that road. Like
23:16
Speaker 2: if you're looking at paying Jordan Alvarez the money he's making,
23:20
Speaker 2: now let's.
23:20
Speaker 1: Say he he's.
23:22
Speaker 2: You know, beset by injury or he's not performing the
23:25
Speaker 2: way that he's performing, Now you're looking at that as
23:27
Speaker 2: an albatross contract.
23:30
Speaker 1: So I think it was a risk.
23:31
Speaker 2: It was certainly a risk to give Lance that contract
23:34
Speaker 2: because at the time that was the longest and most
23:37
Speaker 2: lucrative contract ever given to a pitcher under owner Jim Crean.
23:41
Speaker 2: That's since been surpassed by Josh Haterer's deal, But at
23:44
Speaker 2: the time was that was Jim Crane stepping out of
23:47
Speaker 2: his comfort zone. That was a risk, but it was
23:50
Speaker 2: given to someone that wanted to be here. Lance wanted
23:54
Speaker 2: to be here. He went out of his way to say,
23:57
Speaker 2: you know, in I know we talk about Boris a
24:00
Speaker 2: lot on this podcast, but Lance has been represented by
24:04
Speaker 2: Scott Boris. His entire career and could have very easily
24:08
Speaker 2: told Scott Boris, go get me the most money I
24:11
Speaker 2: can in free agency. But no, he he instructed Scott
24:14
Speaker 2: boys that I want to stay here. I want to
24:17
Speaker 2: stay in Houston.
24:18
Speaker 1: Make it work. And they made it work. And I
24:20
Speaker 1: think that's admirable.
24:21
Speaker 2: I think that's something that again, when we when we
24:25
Speaker 2: start talking about where Lance fits into the kind of
24:30
Speaker 2: storyline and trajectory of this era, that's something that we
24:32
Speaker 2: don't really talk about a lot.
24:34
Speaker 1: So I get it.
24:36
Speaker 2: You guys want results, you want I wish it would
24:39
Speaker 2: have gone better. I wish the end of his career
24:41
Speaker 2: would have gone a lot better than the last.
24:43
Speaker 1: Two years have gone.
24:45
Speaker 2: You can't sugarcoat how bad the last two years have
24:48
Speaker 2: been for him. He had a six six' five era
24:50
Speaker 2: in his last ninety four and two thirds endings like.
24:52
Speaker 1: That that's not. Good like he.
24:54
Speaker 2: Was he was at times, unpitchable and it's why it
24:58
Speaker 2: would have created a very difficult conversation For Jim, Crane Dana,
25:03
Speaker 2: Brown Joe, espada a lot of people would have created
25:05
Speaker 2: a lot of difficult conversations if they were not able
25:09
Speaker 2: to find a trade partner to match up with and
25:12
Speaker 2: he would come off the injured list in a week or.
25:14
Speaker 1: SO i don't know what they would have done with,
25:17
Speaker 1: him to.
25:17
Speaker 2: Be quite, FRANKLY i think they probably would have had
25:19
Speaker 2: no choice but to dfam just given the roster, construction
25:23
Speaker 2: given you, know he is not suited to go to the,
25:26
Speaker 2: bullpen and they're at a point now where they can't
25:30
Speaker 2: have guys on the roster just to say that they're
25:32
Speaker 2: on the roster like they need to win, games like
25:35
Speaker 2: they're four under five hundred and they're three and a half,
25:38
Speaker 2: out like they've got to win. Games and having him
25:42
Speaker 2: on the roster in any capacity other than being a
25:45
Speaker 2: competent starting pitcher would not have helped them to do.
25:49
Speaker 2: That and so it was gonna be a tough, call tough,
25:52
Speaker 2: decision but The ashers did what they had to.
25:54
Speaker 1: Do and got him To.
25:55
Speaker 2: Milwaukee so let's talk real quick about seat geek because
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27:10
Speaker 1: Later i've been rambling way too.
27:12
Speaker 2: LONG i woke up this morning with one hundred degree
27:14
Speaker 2: fever and my voice sounds.
27:17
Speaker 1: Terrible so we're going to wrap this up pretty.
27:18
Speaker 2: Quickly But Jaden fielder seems if it was any other,
27:24
Speaker 2: prospect we would have gotten through this entire podcast without
27:26
Speaker 2: talking about the throw in prospect in a salary. Dump
27:29
Speaker 2: But Jaden fielder nonetheless has the last name in the
27:32
Speaker 2: pedigree that warrens us to talk about. Him he Is
27:35
Speaker 2: Prince fielder's. Son he Is Cecil fielder's. GRANDSON i don't
27:41
Speaker 2: think it's one of these situations where he's maybe as
27:45
Speaker 2: good as, Them not THAT i think anyone was expecting
27:48
Speaker 2: him to be as good as a six Time All
27:50
Speaker 2: star In Prince fielder or a three Time All star
27:55
Speaker 2: In Cecil. Fielder you don't want to put that kind
27:57
Speaker 2: of pressure on the. Kid but he was an Undrafted
28:01
Speaker 2: he did not get. Drafted in twenty twenty. Four he
28:03
Speaker 2: signed with The brewers as an undrafted free. Agent has
28:06
Speaker 2: put up.
28:06
Speaker 1: Some okay numbers in a ball this, year.
28:09
Speaker 2: His hitting two thirty with a three to ninety slugging,
28:11
Speaker 2: percentage but has a four to fifteen on base. Percentage
28:15
Speaker 2: just looking at his slash, line just looking at The
28:17
Speaker 2: Baseball reference, stuff seems like he has a good idea
28:20
Speaker 2: of the strike. Zone has walked thirty three times and
28:23
Speaker 2: struck out forty three. Times seems like the swing decisions
28:25
Speaker 2: are pretty. Good The ashers called him an outfielder and their,
28:29
Speaker 2: release so, hey the left handed hitting Outfielder Dana brown's
28:32
Speaker 2: been searching. For but in his brief professional career with The,
28:37
Speaker 2: brewers he played left, field second, base and first. Base,
28:41
Speaker 2: again The ashers called him an, outfielder SO i would
28:44
Speaker 2: imagine they're going to give him the most run in the.
28:46
Speaker 2: Outfield but as these situations go with deals that are
28:51
Speaker 2: primarily salary, DUMPS i, think if you guys remember The
28:55
Speaker 2: Carlos correa deal last, Year i'm gonna look this guy
28:59
Speaker 2: up BECAUSE i don't want to get his name. Wrong
29:00
Speaker 2: but The ashers threw in a. Prospect The ashers threw
29:05
Speaker 2: in a prospect that they sent to The, twins and
29:08
Speaker 2: they sent a guy Named The ashers threw into the
29:13
Speaker 2: deal a left handed pitcher in the minor league's Named matt.
29:16
Speaker 2: McCluskey The twins released him four months.
29:21
Speaker 1: Later he was not a good.
29:23
Speaker 2: Prospect it was a warm body throw. In i'm not
29:26
Speaker 2: sitting here Suggesting Jaden fielder is. That but normally in these,
29:31
Speaker 2: deals normally in salary dump, deals you're not getting a premier.
29:37
Speaker 2: Prospect you're not getting the best prospect, Available you're not
29:40
Speaker 2: getting anywhere close to a top thirty. Prospect you're getting
29:44
Speaker 2: kind of a shot in the. Dark you're Getting, hey
29:46
Speaker 2: maybe we hit on him and maybe it goes. Well and,
29:49
Speaker 2: Look Jaden fielder's got enough of a bloodline to where
29:52
Speaker 2: he's got to have. Something he's got to be pretty,
29:54
Speaker 2: talented like when you come from that, bloodline we come
29:57
Speaker 2: from that. Pedigree there's pictures floating everywhere now that the
30:00
Speaker 2: trades official of him being alongside his Dad prince late
30:04
Speaker 2: in his. Career SO i don't know that he grew
30:06
Speaker 2: up around, clubhouses BUT i would imagine he. DID i
30:08
Speaker 2: would imagine he grew up around a lot of big
30:10
Speaker 2: leaguers and that.
30:12
Speaker 1: Helps that is. Helpful and he's only twenty one.
30:15
Speaker 2: Years, old so maybe The astros can develop him and
30:19
Speaker 2: get a little bit more value out of this.
30:21
Speaker 1: Deal but make no mistake about. It this. Deal the
30:25
Speaker 1: main tenant of this deal was Getting.
30:28
Speaker 2: Lance mccullor's In Colton gordon off of The astros forty man,
30:31
Speaker 2: roster getting as much Of lance mcculler's as money off
30:35
Speaker 2: of THEIR cbt payroll as they.
30:36
Speaker 1: Could and they succeeded in.
30:38
Speaker 2: That and it was something THAT i didn't think they'd
30:42
Speaker 2: be able to. DO i did not think they would
30:43
Speaker 2: be able to find a taker For lance mcculler's, contract
30:46
Speaker 2: even if The ashers paid a majority of it. DOWN
30:49
Speaker 2: i didn't think they'd find a. Taker and they found
30:51
Speaker 2: one of The Milwaukee. Brewers the team that.
30:54
Speaker 1: They found that very much surprises.
30:55
Speaker 2: Me but, again something tells me That Colton gordon is
31:00
Speaker 2: going to be the guy that you look. At And
31:02
Speaker 2: i'm not Saying Colton gordon's gonna turn into you, know
31:05
Speaker 2: Prime Josh, hater but something tells me That Colton gordon's
31:09
Speaker 2: the guy that they had their eye on that they
31:11
Speaker 2: can maybe tweak a couple of, things fix a couple
31:14
Speaker 2: things with. Him he can slot in and be that
31:16
Speaker 2: left handed depth that they. Need so maybe we'll look
31:20
Speaker 2: back down the road and call.
31:21
Speaker 1: This The Colton gordon.
31:22
Speaker 2: Trade one, day but for, now it's gonna be The
31:24
Speaker 2: Lansome Colors, trade And i'm glad that you all bared
31:27
Speaker 2: with me to talk about it for thirty.
31:28
Speaker 1: Minutes this was.
31:29
Speaker 2: Tough i'm GLAD i got through. It if you liked,
31:31
Speaker 2: it please like the video and subscribe to the YouTube.
31:34
Speaker 2: Channel that really helps us. Out you can also subscribe
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Speaker 2: On apple And, spotify and either one of them will
31:40
Speaker 2: let you know anytime we post a new. Podcast we'll
31:42
Speaker 2: be back later this. Week hopefully somebody is back to
31:46
Speaker 2: help me talk SO i don't have to do this
31:48
Speaker 2: for thirty straight minutes and you don't have to sit
31:50
Speaker 2: through this. Again but until then WE i GUESS i
31:54
Speaker 2: will talk to you. Soon thanks for listening to the