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- [00:00]
A
Listeners, I want to tell you about a new podcast from Odyssey called Family Lore, where people tell interesting stories about their family history and then we investigate the truth behind them. Family Lore is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.
- [00:16]
B
All right, into the 9 o' clock hour we go. I am Sean Pendergast. He is Seth Payne. He is Cole Thompson. Cole, hanging out with us for a couple of days.
- [00:24]
A
Set friends.
- [00:24]
B
Yeah, it's a good week to hang out, man. Is, you know, hey, a lot of fill in the blanks going on with. With this, with the sports world. Kind of in a break right now.
- [00:34]
C
So it's earlier. Earlier I brought up Davenport, Iowa, like off the top of my dome. And I had no idea why. And then I remembered, oh, it was because the River Bandits. Davenport was one of the quad Cities for the Quad City River Bandits. Used to be in the Astros.
- [00:49]
B
They were an affiliate. Who they with now?
- [00:52]
C
What's that?
- [00:52]
B
Who are they with?
- [00:53]
C
The Royals.
- [00:54]
A
Okay.
- [00:54]
C
Big step down for them.
- [00:56]
A
Big step down for them.
- [00:57]
C
Yeah.
- [00:57]
B
Yeah.
- [00:58]
A
I mean, maybe if you're a fan of the Royals, at least you could see decent prospects.
- [01:02]
C
It makes more sense geographically, I guess.
- [01:04]
B
Probably. Probably.
- [01:05]
C
I.
- [01:06]
B
The Astro single is in Asheville, North Carolina right now. I've been to a game there.
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A
The Woodpeckers.
- [01:11]
B
Is it they the Woodcutter? Are they the Woodpecker? Which one? Isn't there one? That's the Volunteers. They are the Woodpeckers.
- [01:17]
A
I know that there's a Woodpecker because you remember that mascot.
- [01:19]
B
It's a fun. If you're ever down in the Smoky Mountains there in western North Carolina, go take in a game. Go see the future stars of the Houston astros and their 26th ranked minor league system out there, depending on who you ask.
- [01:32]
A
You seen Kylie McDaniel's rankings?
- [01:34]
B
No.
- [01:35]
A
They're still at 30.
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B
They're.
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C
Oh, okay.
- [01:36]
A
They're even worse.
- [01:37]
B
Okay, well, I like the ones where they're in the 20s.
- [01:39]
A
Yeah. Baseball America, we love you here.
- [01:41]
B
Lance McCullers, traded yesterday. What? Yep. Did you hear. Have you heard the news? Yeah. Traded to Milwaukee along with Colton Gordon and some cash for Jaden Fielder, who is the grandson of Cecil Fielder and the son of Prince Fielder. So if you're looking to feel old, there you go. He's an outfielder. So. So Lance McCullers is gone. And I guess my. My initial thoughts with Lance McCullers will I. I try to avoid thinking about the injuries, but it's impossible not to because of how badly it A derailed Lance McCullers personally or professionally, I guess. And B, how much money the Astros have paid for so few innings of actual major league baseball pitch. Yeah.
- [02:27]
C
Yeah. The amount of money per inning pitched. Yeah. That's a brutal one. At least with Verlander had the same dynamic, but obviously with better. Better overall feel about it.
- [02:37]
B
Yeah, well, he came back and won a Cy Young.
- [02:39]
C
Right. Right. Yeah. No, no, I'm not saying they're the same apples to apples or anything.
- [02:42]
B
Yeah.
- [02:43]
C
It's like with. With Lance, it's the exact opposite. It has just been a steady procession of like, hey, look at. He's coming back. Like, ah, he dropped a weight on his foot this year. This year, Cole, you brought up a man. He had a really encouraging start, but remember his first. If I remember correctly, the first medical issue this year was a fingernail. Like, he lost half his fingernail or something. So for his spike curve, he couldn't use his fingernail. Like, it just. It was unfortunately always something with Lance McCullough.
- [03:09]
A
It spin the wheel of injuries or ailments for every single.
- [03:11]
B
Everything. He looked like the operation board game guy with the. With all the different, you know, little you got to pick out.
- [03:18]
A
And if you touch the side and you were screwed, you.
- [03:20]
B
You're. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [03:21]
C
This is the biggest thing about the McCullers trade. Like, before we get into the actual McCullers legacy and all of that is all right. This is a year where, man, because there's so many contenders, people are kind of wondering how the trade market's going to shake out. And usually what happens with the trade deadline is, man, nothing really happens until 48 hours, 72 hours beforehand when the dominoes start to fall. So to pull off a trade where you're going to get a couple million dollars of salary relief, that doesn't really move the needle. Other than the big name involved there are getting out ahead of, like, okay, let's prime the pump and get ready for whatever moves we might be able to make. I like the fact that they did this a couple of weeks before the deadline. They're going to make some kind of a positioning. Yeah. Like, so it very much looks like they're positioning. And not to mention they for the second year in a row, annoyingly, we're almost looking at some of these returning pitchers as some of your trade deadline moves. It's like, okay, well, we got these guys coming back. Let's see how they do. They're gonna have to. It's almost like they're gonna be trying guys out well, and there's too many guys to also include Lance McCullough.
- [04:28]
B
That's the. You nailed it, Seth. That the bit. My big reaction to this was he was not in their plans even once he was healthy again. Like, he's just. There's no room, seats taken. You know, the bus is full and full force compartment. Well, there, there were no. But there's. They, they. There was no room for him. And so instead of when you dfa him, you got to pay him the whole salary.
- [04:49]
A
Right.
- [04:49]
B
This is at least Milwaukee picking up a couple million of it. I almost feel like. I almost feel like Colton Gordon and the cash are like the second round pick that the Texans had to staple to Brock Osweiler to get Cleveland to take. To take on the salary. Like, okay, we'll take on 2 million of Lance McCullers. We got to give us something else. Like, okay, here we go. This guy was. Don't look at how he's done in the majors. This guy was the minor league pitcher of the week last week for the Astros.
- [05:14]
A
Only pay attention to Triple A stats
- [05:16]
B
in the last seven days. You're getting a hell of a deal right here with Colton Gordon as part of it.
- [05:21]
C
Well, yeah, and I think that's where. Okay, so you know, they're. They're clearing some room to be able to do some kind of thing.
- [05:28]
B
Yeah.
- [05:29]
C
Do you feel good, bad, optimistic, pessimistic about the fact that it might also be an indicator that they're not going to be targeting a starting pitcher, but that this is to help clear some room maybe to go get an outfielder and that they think that the pitchers that are coming back from injury or working their way back in, like Christian Javier right now, are going to be the solution for starting pitchers.
- [05:52]
A
Yeah.
- [05:52]
B
I don't know if this move has me feeling one way or the other, Seth, about which. I hadn't thought about that, about which position it is. I just think it's. It indicates they're going to do something
- [06:00]
C
which, which to point out to people who didn't know or hear like, Fielder's a prospect. They're not looking at him as a guy they're going to plug in.
- [06:06]
B
Yeah, yeah. He on the major league.
- [06:07]
A
He's like 21 years old. Like he's got. He's got some time before he makes.
- [06:10]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [06:12]
A
I would say indifferent about this because of. It doesn't defer me from wanting to go target another starting pitcher with the right guys on the market, but it does allow me to feel confident if I'm Getting back a Ronald Blanco or I'm getting back a Hayden was Neski or. Or I'm getting more guys to come up from maybe the minors to where we feel confident on where we are. All right. The money that we're now able to use we can go splurge a little bit more on maybe getting that left handed power out. Feel bad that's so necessary. And Dana Brown's been talking about for. For weeks now about trying to add on it.
- [06:41]
B
I got excited about some of the names that I saw rumored to the Astros in the outfield while I was gone on vacation last week. A couple of the. The Colorado guys.
- [06:49]
A
Mickey Moniac is awesome dude. Like he like honestly. And what's so funny is, is that people were laughing at the trade rumor when it came up two years ago.
- [06:58]
B
Yeah.
- [06:59]
A
And then he goes to Colorado and immediately even when you throw in the luxury tax that is horse field in the elevation, he still is hitting well.
- [07:06]
B
Yeah.
- [07:07]
A
Like he still has done a good job of hitting for what you want in the six or seven hole of your lineup and a left handed bat. That would be great to be able to add in as a full time starter. That way you don't have to see a platoon of Jake Myers or Joey Leprfito or who you call on up.
- [07:21]
B
That would excite me for sure. I guess from Seth you brought up the word legacy. I guess from a legacy standpoint standpoint if I'm, if I'm trying to be positive about this with Lance because the injuries just are such a dark cloud over everything. Especially in light of the fact that he got a deal, he got, he got paid the 24 straight curveballs in Game 7. Will that be the thing for. I say long time Astro fans.
- [07:42]
C
You know, every time we talk about this, I can't, I still have to I remind myself that man McCullers was, has been with the organization his entire career. He was there from in 2015 when they first became a competitive baseball team again on through, up through this year. But what we remember, yeah most notably was against the Yankees in that in the playoffs there. And he was like a huge part of all of that. But because there are so many names and guys that did big things. Dallas Keiko is almost an afterthought in a lot of people's minds. And I feel like he's neglected in terms of people talking about they should have more emotional attachment to Dallas Keiko. But he also, he's been out of the organization which means we didn't have to worry about him being a drain on the organization.
- [08:30]
B
Yeah, it's not gone well since. For Dallas, since he's left here, that's for sure. Okay. So along those lines, Cole, you've got a little exercise for us.
- [08:38]
A
I thought. I thought this would be fun, because if I see this all the time, like on social media, and it's a fun way to go ahead and talk about. Where does Lance McCullough's junior rank in the legacy of pitchers for the Astros over the last 25 years? So it's called. It's called King of the Hill.
- [08:50]
B
King of the hill.
- [08:51]
A
What you're doing is Lance McCullough's junior is staying pat every single time.
- [08:55]
C
Okay.
- [08:56]
A
But you can knock him off of the hill by picking this other pitcher,
- [08:59]
B
and then once that other pitcher gets picked, he's now the king of the hill. He's now the king of the hill. Sorry.
- [09:03]
A
It goes.
- [09:04]
B
This is good. So we'll.
- [09:05]
D
And.
- [09:05]
B
And. And so is this in sort of an ascending order of how good guys are? Yeah. You're not going to put him up against Justin Verlander. That would make for a very short segment.
- [09:14]
A
He's, like, at number two. Number three. We can at least get one name in here.
- [09:17]
B
Okay, good. Yeah.
- [09:18]
A
Lance McCullers Jr. Or Brad Peacock.
- [09:20]
B
Okay, so Brad. Oh, Brad Peacock again. Brad Peacock, who got mentioned by name by Donald Trump when they visited the White House because someone had clearly handed him a piece of paper that listed the pitchers by number of wins that they had that year. And Peacock had the second most wins on the team behind, I think, Dallas Keiko that year.
- [09:39]
C
Ben, do you have the Jose L2? They drop. Is that still a drop? The. The Donald Trump saying, Altuve.
- [09:45]
B
Jose Altuve.
- [09:49]
C
It was awesome.
- [09:49]
B
The best was when they would freeze Altuve in a glare.
- [09:54]
C
Yeah, they did them. They did alt dirty there. No, they did.
- [09:57]
B
They totally did. It was really funny, though.
- [09:58]
C
Not. I have zero clue how anybody feels about anybody politically, except, like, that. It was like a classic still frame moment where it made it look like Altuve, where.
- [10:06]
B
So Seth Peacock versus McCullers. I say McCullers on that.
- [10:10]
C
I say McCullers.
- [10:10]
B
Yeah, McCuller. Okay, let me add this to McCullers finished seventh for the Cy Young in 2021. Like Lance McCullers before. Like, the second or third elbow surgery when he pitched was good.
- [10:23]
A
Yeah.
- [10:23]
B
Every time it was until like, 2025, and then he just. He lost it. So who's Next?
- [10:29]
A
Lance, Carlos Jr. Or Colin McHugh?
- [10:32]
B
Oh, Colin McHugh is underrated, but A very underappreciated pitcher. Very underrated. He had that kind of. He. He had the sweeper before. The sweeper was a thing back in the day. Like, he had some weird movement on his pitches.
- [10:43]
C
Yeah. But I feel like. Yeah, this is still the preliminary rounds, and this is a pretty easy.
- [10:46]
A
They're harder, I promise you.
- [10:47]
C
Yeah. Oh, yeah, I know. I know. I'm dreading it, Lance. With colors.
- [10:51]
B
Yeah, we'll go with colors.
- [10:52]
C
I don't know if you. Cole, I don't know if you have ever heard us do Circle of Trust.
- [10:55]
B
Oh, my God.
- [10:57]
A
I've paid attention to it before.
- [10:58]
C
It's painful for me. If Altuve ever comes up. Oh, my God.
- [11:01]
B
I'm going to guess what we're doing tomorrow.
- [11:03]
C
Oh, no.
- [11:05]
B
I just decided two seconds ago. Every week on the Moth Podcast, real people tell their stories live on stage.
- [11:13]
A
I burst into tears, and I wasn't sure if I was crying because I
- [11:18]
B
hadn't been kissed in a really long
- [11:20]
C
time or if I had just never
- [11:22]
B
been kissed like that before. To hear fascinating, heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious stories from astronauts, teachers, farmers, and people just like you. Follow and listen to the moms off wherever you get your podcasts.
- [11:37]
A
Lancer Colors, Junior, or go back to yesteryear. Wandy Rodriguez.
- [11:41]
B
I know Lance Wandi was underrated back in the day. What do you think, Seth?
- [11:45]
C
I'll go with Lance.
- [11:46]
B
Yeah, yeah, we'll go Lance on that one.
- [11:47]
A
Speaking of which, the former Cy Young winner himself, Lance McCullough Jr. Or Dallas.
- [11:53]
B
Okay.
- [11:54]
C
Hey, mister.
- [11:55]
B
Hey, Mr. Kykal. Mr. Kykal supporter over there.
- [12:00]
C
You know what I am? I'm like the guy who's like, oh, yeah, I love the Dead. I love Grateful Dead. Oh, yeah. What's your favorite song?
- [12:06]
B
Touch?
- [12:06]
C
Your concert you've been to. What do you mean?
- [12:08]
A
Like, you know, how long did you travel with them? Well, how many weeks are you on tour?
- [12:12]
C
Okay. I like the ice cream. I like Cherry Garcia. That's right.
- [12:16]
B
That's right. Thank God.
- [12:18]
C
Boy, you know what, Lance? By virtue of him being so devoted to the city of Houston and the organization, and it's a lot easier to be devoted when you've got a pile of money that they're giving you, too. But he. Look, he got Bury Me, Bury Me in the H tattoo as a young man.
- [12:35]
B
Oh, I didn't know at a time
- [12:37]
C
when it was harder to remove tattoos.
- [12:38]
B
I didn't know that it's a tattoo. I just thought he screamed it at the parade.
- [12:42]
C
I thought he got. I thought his tattoo says Barry I
- [12:45]
A
know he has an H tattoo.
- [12:46]
B
Fact check us on this.
- [12:47]
C
Oh, yeah. Fact check me on that.
- [12:48]
B
Yeah.
- [12:49]
C
So it's still. Though. As much as I think Dallas Keiko is underappreciated, I think Lance McCullers is more underappreciated. This is.
- [12:57]
B
This is the first one I've really had to, like, give it some time. I mean, Dallas Keiko won a Cy young award.
- [13:02]
C
Dallas Keiko may or may not have been one of the catalysts to Justin Verlander even being.
- [13:08]
B
There's no may or may not. He sold him on coming here.
- [13:11]
C
Well, the first but even the catalyst to trying to sign him was him publicly criticizing the organization for not making a move at the initial trade. That.
- [13:19]
B
Good point, Seth.
- [13:20]
C
So and then, yeah, the hurricane Harvey was going on. Kate and Justin were sitting up in their evil lair and wondering what the hell's going on in Houston. And Dallas Keiko assured him it's not that bad. Did he lie? A little, probably. But that's what you got to do sometimes just puddles.
- [13:37]
B
It's just there's some of the streets. You're going to splash some people on the side.
- [13:41]
C
Yeah. Dallas Kuykel, who we know lived in a high rise up the road, was just fine.
- [13:46]
B
Yeah.
- [13:47]
A
So for the tattoo, he has a Houston based tattoo, but it's the be someone sign over in the skyline of Houston with.
- [13:53]
C
Even better. That's even better.
- [13:55]
B
Houston right there. Yeah, yeah. Because bury me in the H could mean any number of things. Yeah.
- [14:00]
C
You know, super baller. If he found out who's responsible for painting that be someone's sign and actually had him do the tattoo.
- [14:08]
B
But, sir, I'm an accountant. That's okay.
- [14:11]
A
Okay, so you guys are going.
- [14:12]
B
We'll go McCollars, mostly because I want to keep the game going. I'm guessing these are going to get harder.
- [14:16]
C
I would have chosen McCullers, though.
- [14:17]
B
Yeah, yeah, McCullers.
- [14:19]
A
Lance Colors Jr. Or Andy Pettit.
- [14:22]
C
Oh, wow. Oh, you son of a. Oh, crap. Out of nowher.
- [14:29]
A
I'm telling you, these are going to get hard.
- [14:31]
B
Different eras, home.
- [14:32]
C
Literally homegrown. I mean, Pasadena grown.
- [14:34]
A
Because think about this for a second. Think of them as an astro, not in the longevity of the career.
- [14:39]
B
I wasn't here.
- [14:40]
C
So for.
- [14:40]
B
For me, Cole. Oh, two or like 01 to 06 is a big Houston blind spot for me because I was here from 94 to 01.
- [14:49]
A
Right.
- [14:49]
B
I moved away for six years and moved back here to get into radio. So I was here for zero of Seth's NFL career. I don't even believe he was an actual player. I think he's lying.
- [14:57]
C
But.
- [14:57]
B
But I. So I wasn't. I mean, I can look at the stats and actually. Do you have the stats for you?
- [15:02]
C
Yeah, I was. Yeah. And like here. I was playing for the Texans at the time.
- [15:05]
B
Yeah. Seth was here.
- [15:07]
C
No. And I've always liked and admired Andy Pettit.
- [15:09]
D
Oh.
- [15:09]
C
He's one of my favorite pitchers of all time. His career is sandwiched by the Yankees. And he's.
- [15:15]
B
He's a Yankee.
- [15:16]
C
He's 100% a Yankee.
- [15:17]
A
Here's what he was. He was 37 and 28 in three years with the Astros. He had a 338 ERA and 519.2 innings pitched.
- [15:25]
B
Okay.
- [15:25]
A
He had 428 strikeouts.
- [15:27]
B
Okay. He's already pitched more innings in three years than Lance did in 12.
- [15:30]
A
Yeah.
- [15:32]
B
So I. You know what? For the reasons that we shouldn't have even had to bring up the stats. He was a Yankee on this side of it. That's a Yankee on the other side. Lance McCullers is going to be buried in the H. Damn it.
- [15:43]
C
All right, we'll take McCullers. I want to. You know what, though? Like, what was he in the playoffs with Houston? I'm having stat cast sort it right now. 4, 26 ERA. No.
- [15:56]
A
24 curveballs.
- [15:57]
B
McCullers was a 263 ERA in the world Series.
- [16:00]
C
I'll tell you one thing, though. Like Lance said, bury me in the age. But Andy Pettit, you know, built a compound in Pasadena in his old neighborhood or in Deer Park. Excuse me. The. Yeah, sorry. Excuse me.
- [16:14]
B
I'm just heading off the Deer park, people.
- [16:17]
C
Yeah. You know, but Lance McCullers, that was a good one, though.
- [16:20]
A
Lance McCullers Jr. Or from Valdez.
- [16:23]
B
It's got to be from. Okay, this is where. This is where Lance gets pushed off the hill. And even though from her Felt like he wanted to bury Cesar Salazar in the H, I still got Frizzy burying in Detroit. That's the question I got from is and was for the Astros. So good.
- [16:40]
A
Yeah.
- [16:40]
B
You know, Lance never had a season like Robert did in 2022.
- [16:44]
C
And the opposite of what Lance has been from her would just eat up innings.
- [16:48]
B
Eat up in.
- [16:48]
C
You know, just that part of it. He was just an absolute horse. Yep. So a horse and a horse.
- [16:54]
A
Okay.
- [16:54]
C
It's hard to do.
- [16:55]
A
So. So these were the other four that were listed that we could have gotten to. Okay. I wonder. Just. Would you pick any of them?
- [17:00]
B
Let's Play. Let's rapid fire's king of the hill now. Let's rapid fire these.
- [17:04]
A
Okay. Framber Valdez or Garrett Cole?
- [17:06]
B
Framber Valdez.
- [17:07]
A
Oh, sorry, sorry.
- [17:09]
C
No, no, no. I thought he said. I thought he said Lance McCullough. Sorry. I forgot. I forgot the way the. I forgot the way it all worked. Yeah.
- [17:20]
B
Good job.
- [17:21]
C
I would go for From. Okay, you've made up for not having Trump's thing from. Yeah.
- [17:27]
A
Frau Valdez or Roger Clevins?
- [17:30]
C
I'm still actually a little bit scared of Roger Clevins.
- [17:32]
B
Roger might be listening. Yeah, no, we'll go.
- [17:35]
C
We'll go. Roger wouldn't know it. I never show it when I'm talking to him.
- [17:39]
B
I'm a little.
- [17:39]
C
Roger's one of those guys that's way bigger than you expect him to be.
- [17:43]
B
He's a horse. Yeah, he's a horse.
- [17:45]
A
Roger Clemens or the wizard of O. Roy Oswalt.
- [17:48]
B
Oh, boy.
- [17:49]
C
I would have to go with Oswald.
- [17:50]
B
I'd go.
- [17:51]
A
Yeah, I'll go Oswald and then Roy Oswalt.
- [17:53]
C
And don't tell. Don't tell Roger where I am.
- [17:57]
A
Roy Oswalt and future wearing a Houston Asher's cap in the hall of Fame. Justin jv.
- [18:02]
B
JV is the best pitcher in the history of the franchise. That. That's. That's that.
- [18:05]
C
I'm a little scared of Roy Oswalt, though.
- [18:08]
B
He's got a tractor.
- [18:10]
C
The whole thing about Oswald. Yeah, it has nothing to do with size or anything. He's that guy. No, Oswald's classically that guy. They're like, yeah, don't. Don't judge him by his stature. That's a. That's a dude you don't want to tangle with.
- [18:20]
A
Seth, Roy's got nothing to do right now. He can easily find you. Justin's got things to worry about at this point.
- [18:24]
B
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
- [18:26]
C
I would go with Verlander.
- [18:27]
B
That's true. All right, Payne and Pendergast with you. Cole Thompson hanging out with us. All right, coming up next, should this lady have to drive around with this as her randomly selected license plate on her car? Florida woman, we will have that for you. Coming up next.
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D
Life can feel overwhelming, but you don't have to go through it alone. On my podcast, from the Heart with Rachel Braethon, I share openly and vulnerably about everything life brings us and what we can learn by living with our hearts alone. A little bit more open. Every Friday, a new episode brings you a new story with topics on self care, motherhood, healing and more. You are enough just the way you are. This podcast is a reminder of that. Follow and listen to from the Heart with Rachel Braythen wherever you get your podcasts.