Opening Day Letdown: Astros’ Bats Go Silent in 3-0 Loss

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What's up, everybody?

Welcome into another edition of Crush City Territory.

I'm Chandler Roam joined as always by Tyler Stafford

on what is the end of opening day.

Hope everyone enjoyed opening day.

There's still some games happening right now.

If you went to Dyken Park today,

I'm not sure you enjoyed opening day

as much as others around the sport

will enjoy opening day of the Astros.

Really no other way to say it.

They laid an egg, just completely laid an egg today.

A three to nothing loss to the Los Angeles Angels

who are not very good.

I know Mike Trouts on their team.

He hit a ball that hasn't landed yet,

but they are not very good and the Astros look.

It's easy when a team gets three hits

and only advances one runner to third base.

It's easy to say, oh, lifeless and things like that.

And look, they gave effort.

This was not a situation where they went in here

and dogged it and weren't trying,

but on a day that is supposed to be filled

with pomp and circumstance and happiness

and rejuvenation because of a new year man.

They laid an absolute egg this afternoon at Dyken Park.

Yeah, that was not fun.

I will say far and away,

the biggest reaction of the crowd was the eagle

before the game.

That was cool.

They had a whole eagle flying around

and that was very fun.

And that was the loudest that I think the crowd got.

It was, yeah, like you said, lifeless,

not by effort standards,

but it just, it was dead the whole time.

There was nothing to cheer about.

There was nothing, you know,

even the biggest threat that they had in the,

was it the seventh inning when Yordon came up

with two on was one pitch.

And then it was like the tension builds

and then there wasn't even like a long at bat

or anything, it was just over.

Yeah, it was, it was not fun to watch that one.

Hope that doesn't happen 161 more times.

So before we get into the baseball,

you went to the game today as a fan.

You were roaming around the stands,

roaming around the concourse.

I saw you got a bon mi hot dog.

I sampled one of those when they did their like media

showing us all the food and the bon mi hot dog is very good.

What were your observations from walking around the ballpark

being among the people?

You got to see the eagle fly.

Did you see the mural like tell me about what the,

tell me about what the atmosphere was like down below.

Yeah, I will say, you know, it was full

like by first bit like, you know, normally it's,

it's tough in Houston.

I don't know if it being an afternoon game helps at all

with that that there's, you know,

not like crazy rush hour traffic getting there.

But I mean, I got there, I walked into the stadium

about two, it's like an hour and 10 minutes before first pitch

and it was full.

Like there, there were lines for everything.

The line for that $25 LTPO Margarita was ridiculous.

I mean, it was, it was packed.

People were excited.

I saw a lot of EMI jerseys.

I also saw, and I guess they have this in the team shop,

but I saw the like Japanese lettering one,

which is really cool.

I saw some people wearing that.

That was fun.

The Bon Mi Hot Dog was excellent.

Highly recommend that one.

But yeah, you know, it just, once the game started,

it just was, was kind of dead in there.

But you know, it was full, it was a lot of fun.

Seeing people, I hung out with, you know,

a lot of the, you know, the people from Astro's Twitter,

friends of the program, the Apollo Media Group,

I hung out with them quite a bit.

And actually, here's a new fun game.

We've done this once before, but I was with Dez,

the guy from Apollo.

We went into the team shop back there in center field,

not the big like Union Station, one with the other one.

He got a sick Polo, big fan, cool little stripeys on it.

Chandler, what do you think the price tag said

on a Houston Astros Polo in the team shop?

I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say 70.

It was $110.

What?

$110.

Sorry Dez, if you told your wife that it was cheaper than that,

but it was $110.

I mean, $110 American dollars

is one in Astros Polo costs.

Emi's deals only one guaranteed year.

Like, they don't have to say Emi Polo.

I know, it's still.

What do they need the money for?

They're not crossing luxury tax.

What do they need the money for?

$110 Chandler.

Now, this was not just, this was not just your, you know,

this wasn't just Navy with, you know,

it's kind of the Tim Robinson sketch.

It was, there were so many stripes and stuff on it

that the fabric may have been $110 is what that cost.

But you know what, it worked because Dez bought it.

Any looked great in it.

So, and I want one, so I get it.

But yeah, it's a little different

out of the ivory tower down there.

The Bami Hot Dog was great.

It was like $21 with tax, but it was good.

I do like, I don't know if you know this,

but they've instituted, I think last year's

when they started this, I've had a few kids,

so I can't, I can't remember.

But last year they started the like self-serve soda fountain,

which just means if you buy one souvenir cup

and just bring it with you every time,

you can just get free drinks, which is very nice.

But yeah, it is a lot of money to go to these.

I did some parking checks.

I took a look around out there

like past the Dynamo Stadium, still like $20 parking

way out there.

Yeah, it cost quite a bit to come to a game

and watch what was effectively the Joey Loper Fido show.

Yeah, thank God for him, right?

Christian Walker looked good.

You know what that swing reminded me of?

You know who that reminded me of?

That short compact doubles alley swing.

Off the bat, I was in the,

I was like standing back there buying the Crawford boxes.

Off the bat, it looked a lot like Alex Breggman,

that that swing.

So just do that, just hit like Breggman.

And then, you know, all of this will be solved.

Can we talk a little bit about the game?

I mean, if you want to, if you want to, we can.

How's your precious infield surplus looking now, dummy?

We gotta, got to pinch run for Walker.

You got to do that was an interesting few pitch shuffle.

That was really interesting.

That was interesting.

Like the one, the one thing of that game

that I found interesting was like a managerial move

in the seventh inning.

It makes sense.

Nobody, nobody out, you're down one.

Like you gotta have speed.

And you know that you can move parades over.

Seems nice to have all these infielders, doesn't it?

Well, I will remind you that they did not have

an infielder today.

Yes.

Well, he was, he was there.

They, they, you know, but yes.

Yes.

What, what is, he just had Ford bats.

And then what, what is that?

What happened?

So, with Jeremy Pena, basically,

if to distill it down into one simple explanation,

he's not injured enough to where he needs 10 days off.

He does not want 10 days off.

The Astros do not want him to have 10 days off.

But he's also probably not ready right now

to be in a big league game.

So the best of both worlds is you put him on the roster

so you don't have to put him on the IL

and you're, where he's automatically

has to be out for 10 days.

And you play him when you feel he's ready.

I believe this is informed speculation.

I believe he will play tomorrow against Use Kakuji.

I think he will be back in the lineup tomorrow.

This is not the end.

Yeah, I don't know that I'd want to take

100 mile an hour sinkers off the hands either.

That makes, okay, I'm with you there.

That is 100% why, not 100.

It's about 95% of why the decision was made today.

If you watched Jose Soriano pitch today

and we will talk about him a little bit and a bit,

it is 100 on your hands as a right handed hitter.

He is running that sinker in on you.

Look, they never play scared.

They don't want to play scared,

but I'm not sure a guy coming off of that fracture

with his hand, no less.

You don't want to risk him getting blown up

by a 100 mile an hour bowling ball sinker

from a right handed pitcher.

So that had something to do with it.

Yeah, so Jeremy Paine has spent this morning

in Sugarland where he took live at bats against

the AAA team.

They had to work out there.

He took some live at bats.

He took some live at bats yesterday on Wednesday.

The team had an optional workout at Diakin Park.

He took some at bats and by all accounts, he's okay.

He's fine.

He's just got to get,

it's a thing about getting his timing back.

And again, I'm not sure you want to get your timing back

against Jose Soriano who,

no one seemed to have timed up today.

And we will talk about that

and we'll talk about the Astros offense

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All right, so if you watched the 2025 Astros at any point

and you were frustrated by their lineup,

you were frustrated by the tendencies that happened

with their lineup, they swung too much,

they swung out of the strike zone too much,

they did not do much with runners in scoring position

and then you went into this offseason

and you got all excited, right?

Because the culprits were gone,

the boogeymen were gone,

an Alex Centrone and Troy Snicker,

they got them out of the way,

they have an offensive coordinator now,

friend of the pod Dan Hennigan,

they've got Anthony Ioposi,

they've got Victor Rodriguez,

these guys were going to save the day, Tyler, is that right?

They were gonna save the day.

Well, it turns out if you watched any of this game,

it looked a lot like the 2025 Astros offense

and it boils down to what I try

and I think we both were pretty unanimous on this whole offseason

when we talked about hitting coaches and philosophy and things,

you can bring in all the new coaches you want,

you can bring in all the new sets of eyes

and a fresh perspective and look,

that is beneficial, that can be beneficial.

Things had gotten stale in there and I think,

Joe Aspada has said that, Dana Brown has said that

there is nothing wrong with bringing in a fresh perspective

in a new set of eyes.

However, when you return the exact same personnel

that did everything that frustrated you last year,

it's not gonna be fixed overnight

and it's not gonna be one of these things

that they're all of a sudden going to be seeing,

six pitches per plate appearance, a piece,

working 10 walks, never striking out, never chasing.

The coaches can be whoever you want them to be,

the offensive coordinator can be called

whatever you want, call the offensive coordinator.

This is still a lineup that is full of free swingers,

that is full of guys that swing early in the count

that are very aggressive.

They got rid of two guys that were problematic

in that area in Mauricio Dubon and Jesus Sanchez

but both of those guys were not regular everyday players.

Dubon played in a part time role, Sanchez

by the end of his tenure was barely playing.

So you run it back with this lineup

and you got predictable results, Tyler.

I mean, they got three hits.

I think one of them, no, two went for extra bases.

Walker doubled, Lopofito doubled and Lopofito singled.

Now, it was not good.

Like, it was not easy to watch.

They cha, I mean, Carlos Corea said after the game,

we swung too much.

We chased outside the strike zone too much.

Joe Aspada said after the game,

we needed to make an adjustment.

We needed to make an adjustment quicker.

It sounds like every post game quote we got

for the last three months of last season.

But we can talk about all this but we can also say,

who's a Soriano is disgusting?

Like that was, he's an opening day starter for a reason.

Like, that was disgusting.

So you've got to give, you've got to tip your hat to him as well

but this was not an encouraging offensive performance

from a team that you hoped after this whole winter

of talking about how things had changed.

This was discouraging if you thought things had changed.

The Astra swung on 46 of Jose Soriano's 91 pitches.

They whiffed 19 times, which is 41% of the time.

That's not going to work.

They whiffed eight of 19 times on his sinker.

He got eight whiffs on his sinker.

That's crazy.

That 100 brown got one and 100 brown

was a very good sinker but eight whiffs on a sinker is nuts.

Yeah, I mean, he looked, he was dominant.

I mean, from the beginning, he looked really, really good.

There was one interesting part that I would like to hear

what was explained to you up in the press box.

Walk me through the Yordon foul ball into the roof.

First off, I will say I was sitting down

the right field line at the time.

It hit, I've never seen a ball hit the roof that far down there.

I mean, it was probably 30 feet in front of the right field fence

where it hit the roof, which is crazy.

And then all I heard was the umpire say,

we're reviewing if this is a foul ball or a homerun

and then Wi-Fi is rough in there.

So I actually have no, what could have made that a homerun?

What were they reviewing?

I don't see how that could have been anything but a dead ball.

You're right.

There was not there and I was listening to four.

I was listening to Robert and Steve during that

and Robert was right on it.

Like he said, they can review it all they want

but this can be nothing but a foul ball.

Yeah, unless I assume if you hit the roof

over the fence, some, you know, that would count

but it clearly wasn't.

I think it's more about if you hit it in play.

If you hit, if it hits the rafter when the rat,

when the baseball is in play, then you would have,

they would have played it basically as a lie.

Like, you're not what I've got in a double.

I believe if I, again, don't quote me on that.

I believe he would have gotten a double

if he would have hit it.

If the ball would have been fair and hit the rafter.

When it landed or when it hit the rafter.

When it hit, when it hit, I believe.

Again, don't quote me on this.

I don't have the ground rules in front of me

but it's a moot point because it hit in foul territory.

That's a plug, foul territory.

Hey, we're good at this.

But yeah, I thought the more interesting

Yordon Alvarez involved play today came two innings later

with two outs in the third inning of a scoreless game

with a runner on second base.

On opening day, Kurt Suzuki intentionally walked

Yordon Alvarez.

Smart, I would do that too.

He sure good.

Do you wanna know why that typifies everything

that's wrong with this Aster's lineup?

Please.

Because he's the only left-handed hitter in the lineup

that gives them any sort of fear.

Look, he's the best hitter in the lineup.

He stokes fear anytime he steps out of the dugout.

But the fact that Kurt Suzuki is going to intentionally

walk Yordon Alvarez in the third inning

of a scoreless game on opening day.

Look, for all we know Yordon,

this is not going to be the case,

but for all we know, Yordon Alvarez could be broken.

He could go out there and have a 650 OPS this year

and have forgotten how to play baseball.

And to do that on opening day,

when you have no back round on what's he been like,

you have no kind of, all you have is what he has done

in the past.

He played 48 games last year.

To do that, to me, and I wrote about this

in the story just posted on the athletic,

it demonstrated to me how much confidence the angels have

in their right-handed pitching,

going against a fully right-handed Aster's lineup.

And that Joe Aspada on the other side

was powerless to combat it.

Like, he had Esok parade is sitting behind

Yordon Alvarez, which was great.

Esok came up, drew a seven-pitch walk, loaded the bases,

and then Korea got a 99-mile-an-hour sinker

in on his hands and popped it up.

Like, it's hard to make a living that way.

And you're probably, you know, if you listen to this,

you're thinking, you know, like, it's one game,

like, might I remind you that the Aster's

are in a division that has Jacob DeGron,

Nate of Aldi, Brian Wu, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert,

and Luis Severino.

Off, that's off the top of my head.

Those are six elite right-handed pitchers

that they are going to have to face multiple times.

And don't know if you followed me there.

Three of them play for the Seattle Mariners,

the team that you are going to be chasing in the division.

This was a problem last year.

It is going to be a problem this year.

It is why Dana Brown has been so bullish and adamant

that it's been trying to get another left-handed bat.

Because as you saw today, ignore your dawn.

If Joey Lo Perfito beats you,

tip your hat to Joey Lo Perfito.

I don't think they were that scared of Joey Lo Perfito.

The fact that Joey Lo Perfito hit sixth today

over your $20 million first basement

and Yiner Diaz showed that Joe needed

to get a left-handed hit or up in that lineup

just to have some sort of balance to break it up.

And look, it worked.

Joey had two hits.

But what it does is it allows right-handed pitching

to just, you can pitch every guy the same way.

If all you have to do is go sinker in,

slide her down in a way.

Like, look, the ashrers have some very good right-handed

hitters in their lineup.

But what a dusty always used to say,

good pitching beats good hitting.

Like, you got Jose Soriano

out there throwing a hundred mile an hour sinkers.

Like, you're gonna see Jacob DeGrom in a couple weeks.

In a couple weeks, you're gonna see the Mariner's rotation

as all these right-handed hitters.

And it's why, again, we're gonna get to the...

This is why they were trying to trade East-Sac Paradeus.

Because they needed a willier-abray-you type,

a Jaren Duran type.

Joey Loper-Fito's a fine young player, but he ain't that.

They needed an established left-handed bat

to hit anywhere from fourth to sixth in this lineup

to give it some balance to where they're not just gonna

take the bat out of Yordon's hands every time he's in,

he's in a clutch at bat.

And today, on opening day, the first game of the season,

three innings in, you saw the biggest problem

with this Asher's lineup.

Yeah, and I think, you know, we've talked about it a few times,

but if you just think about it as a pitcher, you know,

like, the reason that it's so nice to pitch

to the same-handed hitter over and over again,

like you said, as you can pitch the same way,

but it also means you can lock into that rhythm

because you're throwing in the same spot every time,

you know, you're not having to change it up that much.

You're not having to go to the other side of the plate

with anything, and you can just lock in, right?

Like you're just throwing that same thing over and over again.

And, yeah, I mean, that's why they've needed a lefty.

It was good that, and those weren't cheap hits either.

Those were a couple of hard hit balls,

a couple over 100 miles an hour, exit Velo.

But, yeah, I mean, we've talked about it forever

that they're gonna need somebody.

No, I don't know.

We did mention at some point, O'Neill Cruz.

I'm not sure if you saw his outing in center field today.

So, that might not be who you're looking for,

certainly to play center field, but, yeah,

just having pitchers have to switch sides

and mix up how they're attacking

helps your lineup throughout the course of a game.

And as we're recording this, Brendan Donovan

hit a home run in his first plate appearances

as Seattle Mayor.

The Asher tried very hard to acquire him.

He's a left-handed hitter that could play left field

for this team, but I digress.

And to be fair, and to be fair,

like this whole offseason had an expectation

that Zach Cole would come into spring training

and win a job.

He's a left-handed hitter.

He hits them all very hard.

He's got a lot of athleticism.

He struck out 20 times in 50 of bats in spring training.

And Dana Brown and Joe Aspada both today said,

he's gotta go down in the triple A

and he's gotta learn how to make more contact.

Like, we need more contact.

They can't, they already have enough free swingers

and quick at bats in this lineup

that they don't need another kind of,

another thing to add to that.

So again, it's one game opening,

the thing about opening day that's always seasons over.

Yeah, the thing that pack it in.

The thing about opening day that's always,

I don't wanna say frustrating, like it's,

look, opening day's great just in terms of pomp

and circumstance and it kind of first day of school feeling,

like you get all excited,

but it is designed for overreactions.

Just because, you know, look, the OGs,

the people that are gonna watch this team

from game one through 162, like they watch today

and they let it roll off their chest.

But there's people that watch today's game

and to be frank, there's some media that covered today's game

that will not watch another Astros game

until either they're playing the Yankees

or they're in the playoffs.

So it's why it's kind of incumbent on a team

where you don't call a one game a must-win game,

but like you kind of wanna look good, right?

Even if you lose kind of one.

And they did forever, what they win,

like 12 opening days in a row or something.

Right, and it helps to start off on a good foot.

It helps to, you know,

put a good taste in everybody's mouth.

If this is gonna be the one time

a fan catches an Astros game this year,

like make it a good one,

this was not a good one to catch.

So, but again, it's one of 162,

they win the next three days

and everyone forgets about this.

But it was concerning, the offense was concerning.

I'm like, it's not gonna get any easier.

Like you face, you say Kakuchi tomorrow.

He's a left-handed pitcher, which is better.

So you're all right-handed, but I mean,

we saw that Kakuchi can do here.

And then the Red Sox are about to roll in a towel

with Garrett Crochet and Ranger Sfora is ready to go.

Like, they're gonna, yeah, lefties, but they're good.

Like, you're gonna face good pitching, but again.

Well, you're one and about how right-handed this team is.

Maybe they were designed to beat these guys.

You don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

They were designed to be,

well, they're designed to take on the Tigers

in the ALCS with Scooblin and Fromber.

Yeah, of course.

They'll be able to hit them, no problem.

Everyone hits Scooblin and Fromber, no problem.

They're so easy.

Fromber in the playoffs, especially.

Anybody hits Fromber in the playoffs.

We'll talk about whether the angels

could hit Hunter Brown or not,

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I feel really weird that I keep bringing this like, ending up.

But it was going to be hard for Hunter Brown this year

to replicate what he did in his first start last year,

just because we all remember how incredible that first inning

was against the Metz, how electric he looked

kind of announcing himself to the world.

I thought Hunter was, he was good today.

I didn't think it was by far, I would not say it was

one of his best like elite outings, but he had good stuff.

Just was really inefficient.

Needed 43 pitches to get his first six outs.

Sprayed the ball a little bit.

Walked Mike Trout three times and had another walk.

So four walks in the game.

A lot of foul balls.

Just Joe was spotted set after the game

that the Angels are usually a team that chases up a lot.

They chased a lot of elevated fastballs

and they just didn't today.

They did a nice job of laying off

of like the upper quadrant top rail fastballs.

So, you know, look, he grinded.

He got him into the fifth inning.

He was a pitch away from finishing five innings,

goes four and two thirds innings,

throws 102 pitches, which is, I mean,

I don't want to say it's unheard of,

but very rarely do you see a pitcher

throw more than really 95 in his first start post

in his first start of the season.

To see them run Hunter up to 102 pitches

was a little bit surprising to me, but, look,

it's probably, I mean, he was scoreless.

I mean, he didn't allow a run.

It struck out nine.

The curve ball was disgusting.

Again, all in all, like, I bet if you would hook Hunter

up to Truth's here, I mean, say,

he wanted to spread those hundred pitches

through six innings instead of four and two thirds,

but a good outing for Hunter Brown,

but maybe not the dominant six, seven innings outing,

you may be expect from an opening day starter.

Yeah, 59 strikes and 102 pitches.

He just, you know, whether it was trying to get chases

or just, you know, general ineffectiveness,

you can't throw 59 strikes out of 102 pitches

and expect to work too far in.

That fifth inning felt, that's an ace mentality.

I don't know if you saw, but I noticed after the,

you know, I think he had one out at the time,

he lets a guy on, gets the second out,

and he's, he looked over, this was at like 95 pitches

and he looked over at the dugout and, you know,

I don't think he said anything,

but it clearly felt like, don't you come out here,

like I'm trying to get through five,

I'm trying to get us out of here,

wasn't able to do that.

And then AJ Blueball came in and just embarrassed,

embarrassed Moncata.

He threw three straight fastballs just down the middle

and that, that man had no chance against that.

That was, that was impressive,

but yes, Hunter Brown, still looking for the double digit

strikeout game, you know, he ends up around 8 or 9

most of the time there, but I mean, look,

that to me, we've talked about it before,

but that type of game says more about an ace

than I think those games where you just go off.

To me, an ace is a guy that just can get you through any game

even if they don't have their best stuff

and he didn't have his best stuff today,

and he still got four and two thirds scoreless,

almost got through the fifth inning on, you know,

first start of the season.

Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't exactly what you would want,

obviously, but to not have your best stuff

and still be able to do that,

it just speaks volumes to how good of a pitcher

Hunter Brown is.

Yeah, and the fact that he was able to rebound,

I mean, 43 pitches through two innings,

like you're in a world of hurt at that point,

just because like, I mean,

you got to get that thing back on track,

and I think he had 15 pitches in the third inning,

so like, all right, like he stabilized

a little bit, got back on track.

You know, I think the thing with him and when we had Hunter

on the podcast, I see even mentioned this,

like he's trying to miss more bats,

though with the kind of stuff that he has,

you would think this is a guy that strikes more people out.

You know, 11 whiffs on 43 swings today,

again, it's just not,

it's something's not adding up there with like,

you look at the stuff and you look at what he has,

you would think that he can miss some more bats.

And look, maybe it was the Angels had a good day.

Maybe it was they just, they had a plan,

they had a collective approach,

they went up there and they stuck to it.

Maybe you just tip your hat to them,

but I think we may see more bats being missed

as the season goes on,

I know that's something that Hunter Brown is really focusing

on trying to get some more whiffs,

trying to get some more swing and miss,

but you know, all in all,

just what you expect from him,

just in terms of kind of the competitor,

the grinder material, just a really, really solid,

but not spectacular outing.

And I think it's, I mean, again,

you're living a life of luxury when you say that about a guy

that strikes out nine and it is a pitch away

from getting through five innings and it's scoreless.

And let's also add to it too,

that he had some horrific bad at ball look.

Yeah, I was gonna say,

do you want me to read off the expected batting average here?

Well, I was gonna read off that he gave up,

the average ex of velocity,

he surrendered on his 10 balls in play

where 81.1 miles an hour.

Yeah.

So the Moncata single in the fourth

was a 280 expected batting average.

The Joe Adele single was 210.

And then Logan O'Hoppy was also 210.

So, and then even the solar one was only a 320.

So, I mean, none of them were rockets, you know,

like none of them were,

to put it, to put that in perspective,

ESOC Parades had two outs today.

One was a 570 expected batting average

and the other was 720.

So, these were all 320 and under for 100 brown.

So, yeah, I mean, that's just,

yeah, that happens sometimes,

especially when you create such low exit velocity swings

like Hunter does.

I mean, he was in the 97th percentile

last year in average exit velocity.

He averaged 86.1 exit velocity,

which is, I mean, absurd.

But, you know, that's kind of the picture he is,

which is interesting because again, he feels like

he should be just this strikeout machine,

but the way that he pitches is more akin to,

or the results that he gets is more akin to like, you know,

the Sion Dallas-Kykel years,

where it's just like everybody is just grounding

into the dirt or, you know, whiffing on stuff,

but it's not these like crazy high strikeout numbers.

But again, he gets out and doesn't give up runs.

So, you know, you'll take it.

I do have a question.

Are you ready to apologize to me

about one AJ Blueball?

Look, I would have liked to see that in the first sitting too,

but man, is it nice to have a guy

that can just come out throwing darts?

Darts?

That dude was, I mean, that was impressive.

That was, that was very exciting.

I mean, he did give up quite, quite a long ball.

Yeah, that ball hasn't landed yet.

You know what?

That was a middle-middle fastball that just,

still have a lot of other people, you know.

Maybe don't throw 95 down the middle to Mike Trout.

That would be my one suggestion.

But outside of that, I mean, he just,

he was moaned.

Like I said, to come in with, in the fifth inning

with two guys on, the game kind of feels like, you know,

this is obviously a huge bat right here.

And I mean, he just pumped three straight fastballs

down the middle.

Let me see if I can pull up the,

the Savant page for that at bat.

He bought 99.

It was 98.8.

Like, it was, it was pretty good.

Let me let hold on, let me find that one.

Cause that, I mean, that, that bat was just hilarious.

I mean, he just, he mowed him down, very, very impressive.

Yeah, I have a feeling, I have a feeling

that we will not be talking about,

AJ Bluebaugh is a depth starter for much longer.

And look, he threw, how many pitches do you throw today?

I don't know the box score in front of me, but 41.

Right.

So they've got him in a position where if they would want

to do that, if they would want to say,

hey, we're going to send you to AAA

and want to get you back in the rotation

in a, in a stretched out role.

Like they've got that option, but I don't know

how you look at what he did today.

Putting him in the, in the situation that they put him in,

coming in throwing 99, and then he goes back out in the seventh

and it's just, or in the six, excuse me,

and it's just as easy.

I kind of thought they were going to, you know,

maybe take him out, I thought they were going to go

to somebody else in the seventh.

Maybe if they would have scored a run,

maybe if it would have been a tie game

or it would have been a one run game,

like it would have been a little bit different,

but I don't know how you look at that

and you don't want to just see, hey, let this kid let it eat

for 25 to 30 pitches.

If he can get us three outs, if he can get us five outs,

like that's great, but I think, and again, I've been saying it,

like the Astros believe his value,

he will provide more value as a reliever.

And I think you saw that today.

Again, against a lineup that, look,

the angels are not me good, but like to do that

on opening day, on your first opening day roster

to come in and relieve for the ace

and make you on Moncada who is a,

I mean, he's a, he's a big leager,

like this isn't like some minor leager

that's made his first roster either,

like this guy's been around.

And to do easy, it was, it was disgusting.

And yeah, I think there certainly is a path

where you could see AJ Blueball become like a leverage kind of,

you know, maybe like again, like in a spot today,

but maybe they don't send him back out for the seventh.

It's, you come in, get the last out of the fifth,

go back out, get us three outs in the sixth,

and then you got your set up for seven, eight, nine,

presuming you have a lead or presuming the game's tight.

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Well, yeah, because so much of what you want

from that fireman reliever is somebody

that can get strikeouts and then provide you length

if you need it.

And I mean, that's just, that's exactly what he does.

He just, he looked great.

And even the single that he gave up that Joe Adele single

was a 130 expected bad average.

So, you know, he just, man, it looked very good.

And you know, somebody pointed out like,

if you look at his, if you look at kind of the pitch,

the pitch distribution, like he really only went,

you know, four seems, four seem sweep, four seem and sweep

or he threw a couple of changeups, but like,

it was really like, he's got five pitches.

Like, it's not one of these things where he's only

a two-pitch pitcher, like, he's a starter.

So, he's got five pitches.

So, he's got different ways.

I mean, he, he was brought up as a starter.

So, he's got a starters arsenal.

So, again, like, as he, in a game,

it's not, I mean, he came on here and told us.

He was a closer in college and he's done this before.

It's in his head to where he can relieve,

but I think, you know, as he maybe refigures out

or reacclamates to the role and how to use

his entire arsenal, he's only gonna get better.

I thought, I mean, look, on a day

where there wasn't much to get excited about,

on a day where there wasn't much

at major rager eyebrows, A.J. Bluebob shines

as the biggest positive to come out of today.

Yeah, Chris Walker made a good catch.

That was impressive.

Over in foul territory.

Again, shout out.

I mean, I'll say this, he turned on 99.

The first, first pitch of the,

when did that kick come in the seventh inning?

Like, turned on 90.

As a rocket.

Right. And I mean, a couple more feet.

That's a homer.

You know, you have to be in, I mean, again,

you were, it's like, we don't want to overreact one game,

but we're taking what we can get here.

He got 99 at his letters, turned it around,

hit the crap out of it, 108 off the bullpen.

Like, that's encouraged.

So they need more of that or they need more of that.

It would be more, it would be advisable

if they got more of that and maybe they will.

Maybe they will.

They'll listen us and open the roof.

We would have seen a Yordon 600-foot home run

as far as I'm concerned if the roof hadn't stopped him.

And maybe it would have pushed Trout's homer back in.

Maybe.

I don't think that would have happened.

If there was a hurricane force win,

right as he swung, maybe.

Yeah, but maybe they'll open the roof tomorrow.

It's a seven, it's a nine, it's a nine,

it was, the roof was open.

So when we got back up from the clubhouse

after doing interviews and everything,

they opened the roof tonight.

So the roof's open right now and it was beautiful.

Beautiful.

You don't think it's because of the eagle, right?

No, I would figure the eagle would want.

I figured the eagle would want.

Like, you know, animals get scared and like, I don't.

But you don't want him to leave.

I guess, well, I guess they do these at like football games.

That thing is trying to come up with an excuse.

That thing is so highly trained.

Like, I think don't care where it's at.

It just knows to go fly to the woman that had the glove on it.

Go fly to that thing with that.

Just go land.

I was very worried because like, it kept flying around

and it got really close to like where the ashes

were lined up for the anthem.

I was like, if this thing lands on one of these guys,

like, this could be like coolest thing ever.

I mean, it would have been like,

it happened at James Paxton a couple of years ago.

James Paxton was warming up in the outfield

and it landed on his shoulders.

And he's Canadian, James Paxton's Canadian.

So it didn't really.

That's why it was trying to instill some freedom into him.

He didn't know.

What are you talking about?

Canada is the 51st state.

They'll love that.

They'll appreciate that.

I mean, they're not very good at hockey.

That's for sure.

Yeah, it's fun to be back at the park.

The best part about baseball season is that it just keeps going.

And it's there every day.

And it is just a constant.

It's my favorite part about baseball season.

It's just always that that might be your least favorite

as someone who does this professionally.

But as someone that is just in this office all day

trying to make phone calls, I love that baseball is just on

all the time.

And look, weird things happen.

Paul Schienz is probably going to get out of the first inning.

Like, I don't think that is going to be an issue for him.

And I don't think the offense is going to look this hapless.

You've faced a really good pitcher.

You're missing Jeremy Pena.

It happens.

Poor Jeremy.

He's already lost his 162 goal for the year one day.

And he can't do it.

I think Livy Dunn is taking a hit out on O'Neal Cruz right now.

Yeah.

That was something.

Those were options of a route to run, for sure.

We should hear Josh Reddick's thoughts on those.

But yeah, I mean, for the people that are asking,

that want video of the media day of taking flyballs of Shaq.

Go look at what O'Neal Cruz said.

Oh, come on.

That was me.

If you know, I'm telling you, no, go look at, I'm telling you,

go look at what O'Neal Cruz did today.

That is for me.

I made, I got hit five flyballs.

I think on two of them, I broke in, set a breaking back,

and then just completely whiffed them.

Like, you go look at what O'Neal Cruz today just put me

and O'Neal Cruz's body and maybe give me some of his money.

And that is what I looked like on the back fields

a couple of weeks ago while trying to catch flyballs.

So it made me feel good that I looked like an idiot

and a guy that is paid to do this very handsomely

can also look like that.

So I think he probably has a little bit better exit

velocity than you and BP.

But Joe Aspada's already at the U of H game.

Good for him.

Oh, did they put him on TV?

I don't know.

Someone took a picture of him.

How do you look?

He's being candidly photographed.

So I can't read too much into that.

But he's in a Cougar's sweatshirt, little hoodie action there.

You know, just supporting the local squad.

What do you want?

Yeah, good for Joe.

Good Joe's a, Joe.

Remind me to rotate Burrows tomorrow, then Burrows.

Yeah, Burrows will pitch on Friday against Yusaka Kuchi.

Tetsuya Emi will pitch on Saturday.

And Christian Javier will pitch on Sunday.

And we will have so excited to watch Emi.

I can't wait.

That's going to be fun.

I mean, I'm excited to watch Mike Burrows.

After we saw on spring training, I'm excited to see how that goes.

Today was honestly probably like the most boring pitching

matchup of the weekend.

Oh, that reminds me.

This was my hot take during player introductions.

They did the angels starting lineup.

And Mike Trout got cheers from the fans.

And that to me is what you do when you think, as the kids say,

your goat is washed, right?

Like you cheer, you boo somebody who's just amazing, you know,

like the Astros fans boo air and judge

by all accounts, a very nice man, very good.

But you boo him because he's awesome.

When you cheer Mike Trout, to me, that signals you think it's over.

And then he just comes out and just has an 800 OBP and hits one.

Did it hit the tracks?

I was in the standing behind the Crawford boxes.

Where did that thing hit?

I don't think it hit.

I have not watched a replay.

So I don't want to spit it out there.

It may have bounced off the train tracks.

I don't know if it stayed up there, but it was over.

The only way you can tell is you look in the Crawford boxes

and you can just see everybody looking up.

No one tried to catch it.

Everyone just looked up.

So I don't know if it stayed up there or just balanced,

but that ball was destroyed.

It sure was.

He's done that quite a bit.

But yes, you cheer for the guy that you think

is you're giving the, hey, congrats on all the greatness

that you've done.

And that's, it's your fault.

It's everyone there who cheered.

That's the problem.

If we've learned anything, you got a boomer.

I think that's what it was.

You heard it here first.

If you go to the ballpark on Friday of boomer,

and when people ask you why you're doing it, tell them,

I'm trying to help.

Tell them to listen to Crush City territory,

part of the foul territory network.

And you can also tell them to follow me on X at Chandler

underscore room.

You can tell them to follow Tyler at Tyler C. Stafford.

Please rate and review us on Apple and Spotify.

Please like the YouTube channel.

Subscribe to the YouTube channel.

So you get notified every time we post a new podcast.

We are not going to do post game pods

after every game opening day is a different story.

But we will be back on Sunday to recap the remainder

of this angel series and look ahead

to what the Boston Red Sox will bring to town next week.

But until then, thank you for listening

and hope you enjoyed opening day.

And we will talk to you soon.

Bye.

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