The Next 15 Games Decide Whether The Astros Buy Or Sell

We watch the Astros get swept at home, spiral into a four-game skid, and fall to 47-54, and we’re done making excuses. We lay out why the next 15 games decide the trade deadline plan and what has to change right now for Houston to get back in the AL West race. 
• Orioles sweep fallout and why the games felt out of reach 
• buyers vs sellers urgency with the trade deadline approaching 
• accountability for coaching decisions and front office roster building 
• pitching as the top need and why an ace matters 
• Yordan Alvarez MVP-level production and why the lineup must help 
• underachievers and missed clutch chances from key bats 
• injuries and availability concerns, especially Jeremy Peña 
• what we need from the Marlins series and the week ahead 
I ask that you keep supporting the show. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome

Cold Open And Weekend Meltdown

SPEAKER_00 0:05

to the ice case. Cold facts like the ice face. Ice man with the bills about the open up the cold face. Talk about it in the cold joint. Ice man in the building top of the top of the cold pocket. So we can touch it. When it's blue's number out of pocket. And yes, I am in the ice. Hey, but the ice man in the world.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

It's another special Using Astro's edition. Weekend wrap-up.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

One over my shoulder in case I can get that.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

And that's probably what we need to do is just wrap up this weekend. Crumble it up. Throw it in the trash. Light the trash on fire. Then throw it in the fire pit. Light it on fire again. Just get rid of it. What a terrible start to the second half. I'm talking Charles Barkley, terrible. What a good start to the second half. The Baltimore Orioles come into Houston and sweep the Houston Astros. So Right took three games from us this weekend. A few of the games we were in today, I felt that we weren't in the game to wrap up the series. Don't look now, but the Houston Astros are on a four-game losing streak. We have lost six of the last seven games. The Astros record drops to 47 and 54. Terrible. Or terrible. Whatever you want to call it. The good news is we're only four games back. We're three games back going into the all-star break. We've lost one game over the weekend. Thanks to the Lord. The Rangers have lost a couple themselves. But the time is now. I mean, we're 15 games away from the trade deadline.

Trade Deadline Buyers Or Sellers

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I think this is the most significant time of the season to find out if we are buyers or sellers after these next 15 games. Last week I thought we were buyers for sure. Now I'm second guessing myself. It's going to be up to this team to play their best stretch of baseball that they played all season, that they've they haven't played all season. But the time is now. We can keep making excuses, injuries, clutch pitching, clutch hitting situations. The time is now to do it now. I mean, we need to start getting results. I mean, we're at the part of the season we need results. We need a 7, 8, 9 game winning streak. I said before the all-star break we needed to get off to a hot start. Well, that didn't happen. I mean, this weekend the hidden wasn't good. The pitching wasn't good. The coaching wasn't good. Lots of bonehead mistakes. Come on, Joe. Come on, Joe Espada. I'm pulling for you, man. But you're making it real hard. Dana Brown, our gender manager, it's on you too. No more excuses. No more. Oh, we've had lots of injuries. Everybody feels sorry for us. Everybody has injuries. Our pitching hasn't been what it's supposed to be. Well, you chose these guys. You had a whole offseason to build this team. We've lost some key players. I get it. That happens. We've got some young players. I don't think many of them have played up to their capability just yet. Some have shown some good baseball skills. But like I say, 15 games until the trade deadline. Are we gonna be buyers or are we gonna be sellers? We can't drop many more games back. We have to be more consistent. The results start now. We

Marlins Next And Podcast Plans

SPEAKER_01 5:02

got the Miami Marlins coming in tomorrow. They're 52 and 48. But the good news is they're on a six-game losing streak themselves. So something has to break tomorrow. Or as of today, when this podcast is released on Monday at 10 a.m. But most will get a sneak peek of the podcast released this evening. But it will be fully downloadable at 10 a.m. on Monday. I ask that you keep supporting the show. We're getting a lot of feedback now. We've been consistent weekly with these weekend wrap-ups. I want to do more podcasts as we get later into the season, but we all know baseball's a long season. There'll start being multiple podcasts as we get into September. Hopefully the Astros are part of it. Come on, man. Iceman's pulling for you. The city's pulling for you. Galveston County's pulling for you. That's my home county. Galveston Island shout out. We can do this. I'm mad. They're a hard watch again. But I will continue to watch. And I will continue to keep pulling for these Astros.

Pitching Needs And Roster Reality

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We do got right now Blanco coming tomorrow back onto the off the IR, and he will be starting pitching, our starting pitcher tomorrow. So hopefully he can get to back in his true form that he was back a year and a half ago. We definitely need pitching. We need pitching. I think the trade deadline is pitching, pitching, pitching. I want that left-handed bat, but I think we need to go out and get an ace. Hunter Brown's having his struggles. I mean, Lambert's been our most consistent pitcher on the offensive side. I mean, Alvarez is still my American League MVP. I think he's well on track to get that. Right now, I think he's leading the triple crown. I mean, he's batting 319. He has 31 home runs, 73 RBIs, leads in all those categories for the triple crown. He's getting walked a lot. They're pitching around him, and he's still getting his hits. The guy's a beast. We need more Alvarez on this team. His own base percentage is 429 because of the walks and him just killing the ball every chance he gets. But he can't carry this team. We need some key players to step up. Christian Walker has regressed. His average is down to 234. Went out with an injury on Saturday. He's struggling. He's in a swamp. We're going to need his bat. He showed signs early in the year to be to be in the Christian Walker a few years ago. Speaking of results, we're going to need results from you, Kristen. Isaac Perettis. He's been steady, but still batting 257. His own base percentage is at 349. He does draw a lot of walks. Jose Altuve. Jose, Jose, Jose. Man. I need the Jose from a few years ago. He's hovering around 230. Been around that area for a lot in that same area for a long time this season. Does have 12 home runs. Hit a home run on Sunday. But in the key moments that we needed him on the Saturday day, Saturday game. Late in the game, bases loaded, no outs. All to be just get the ball to the outfield. You were very dependable. You were very consistent when we needed you to come through. But no. Shallow fly ball to center field. We still try to tag. Make it to the plate. Nick Allen is gunned down at the plate. Basically loaded, no outs. Win and run at third, and we couldn't finish the job. We need our offense to come through. Jeremy Pina hurt again. News flash. Guy can't stay healthy. Great talent. I mean, the guy's batting 295. When he's in the lineup, he's a spark. He's our leadoff hitter. He goes, we go. And when I say go, I don't mean keep going to the injured reserve list, uh Pina. Come on, Jeremy. Suck it up, stay healthy. Now the news is that he is going to be in the starting lineup tomorrow. That's there's a very high high chance that happens. And we need him. So a lot of our key guys are just not doing what they need to do. The young guys, Cam Smith still at 210, batting average. Bryce Matthews still batting below 200. Yannair Diaz at 241. A lot of underachievers on here. Not even speaking of Jake Myers is not even in the major leagues anymore. He's down in AAA. Speaking of triple A, Jeff Keene would sit down to triple A. Because three out of these four losses, we had chances late in the game. We were either tied or had the lead, and Jeff Keene played a big part of blowing the lead. He was supposed to be our setup man now that Abreyu is underachieved. We have a lot of key guys on this team. A lot of guys that have shown that they can be go-to guys. Hunter Brown, we need you, man. We need the Aaron Getty of May. Hopefully Blanco can find the magic again. Hopefully, Javier can find the pitch and magic again. We did send the McCullers off to Milwaukee. He was a vital piece of our championship run. Hats off to you, Lance McCullers, but he's another guy that broke down on us. Lots of injuries. We have to August 3rd. Do we want to be buyers or do we want to be sellers? And when I say that, if you're a buyer, that means you're in the race. You're gone for it. You go out and find some good pitching at the trade deadline. You go out there and find that left-handed bat out in the outfield that we've been waiting to get. So Joe Espada, you're going to have to coach this team. Dana Brown. If you're going to remain the general manager of this team, you're going to have to make some moves, bro. We're getting to be a hard watch again. That happens when you go, when you lose six out of seven games. Frustrating weekend. But like I said, the good news is we're only four games back. We got to find that magic. We need you, Jose. Come on, Cam Smith. You have a lot of talent. You have a lot of pop in that bat. Christian Walker. We're gonna need you, man. Peter Lambert, young pitcher, leads the team in wins with eight wins. Leads the team in strikeouts, 91. Josh Hader is doing his thing. He had one little hiccup, but he's out there. He's mowing him down when he's in the game. Stephen Okert. He's been a bright spot of this team. He has 12 holds this year. So we need Tatsuya, Aaron Getty. I don't know if Mike Burroughs makes it back. He's on the IR instead of sending him to the miners. So they may think that there was something with his arm that needed a little bit of rest. And maybe Mike Burroughs comes back and contributes. We're gonna need him. We're gonna need the Hunter Brown of old. His ERA is over four now. Going into the season, he was our ace. Deles Santos was overachieved. Brian Abrayu underachieved. So there's no help coming in the immediate future. Until August 3rd, teams wait till the trade deadline to finally pull the trigger. Everybody's holding out for the best deal. But we may need to make a move before the August 3rd dread August 3rd trade deadline. Maybe the next week or so. This is an important week. Are we buyers or are we sellers? I want to be a buyer. I want to make the playoffs. We have to win the division. The American League is not strong at all this year. Starts with the Miami Marlins on Monday. Gonna need some good pitching, gonna need some timely hitting. We didn't get that this weekend. It wasn't good baseball.

Burn The Tape And Move Forward

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But the good news is baseball is a long season. Like when I opened the show up, let's throw this garbage in the fire, burn it two or three times. We're done with it. No more looking back in the rearview mirror. The things have happened, have happened. The injuries that happened, happened. The guys who have been underachieving has happened. Now it's going forward. Look through that windshield going forward down that one-way highway. Time to get them W's. Time to get a winning streak. It's on you, Joe. It's on you, Dana. We're not used to being in this position. We haven't been this many games under 500 since 2014. That's 12 years. If you remember the run started in 2017. Been a great nine-year run. But we're not ready for that run to end.

AL West Path And Week Ahead

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We still have enough on this team to win. The division is still there for the taking. Nobody's running away from the with the division. We can catch the Rangers. We got them in another week or so. We played them again. We got to start taking care of business this week. We finished up a three-game homestand with the Marlins. What was a six-game homestand, but we have three left at home. Then we're off to Chicago, play the White Sox, the first place White Sox in the American League Central. So that's not going to be an easy task. But at this point, you don't care what the records are, what the winning streak, what the losing streaks are. You just got to take care of business of your own self. And I'm ready for some wins, man. I'm ready for this team to start achieving. We got the damn MVP on our team. More than likely the triple crown player. Man, it's getting heavy for Alvarez to keep carrying us. We're getting heavy. Help him out, team. This week's gonna be a great week. That's the attitude I'm I'm going in with. We're gonna sweep the Marlins. Then we're gonna win the series with the White Sox. We need a five and two in the next seven games. Next seven games that we play, we I I need five and two this week. I can take four wins maybe out of the next seven games. Hell I'd I'd love six and one. I'd love seven and oh. It's time to make that run, man. Let's be buyers. Don't want to be a seller. Nope.

Predictions Shoutouts And Sign Off

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It's your boy Iceman. I've been in the cave with you again. This is a Houston Astro Edition. Hats off to Spain, winning the World Cup. Very good. It was a very good game today. Hats off to Argentina, but Spain was the better team today. Until we talk again. Next time I talk to you, hopefully we're back in this race. I don't want to be third in the AL West. I want to be first in the AL West. But it starts on Monday against the Marlins. I'll talk to you soon. It's your boy Iceman. And I am in the Ice K. Think I'm gonna need a few cold ones before I call it a night.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

I need to tell how you feel what you talk about it. Ice must open that. I put the end one. I call it the found in the mouth in the chain stuff. I can make stuff. Everything like the ice in the case. I to the cave. I send the cave I to the cave. I send the cave ice on the case I to the case of the