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Speaker 1: Okay, we had a lot of stuff to get to

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so let's get serious here. Brian McTaggart MLB dot Com,

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Astros dot Com, our weekly guest here on Sports Talk

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seven ninety. Uh, we've been talking about that, Like I said,

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a million things to get to you. Let's know what's tattoom.

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I looked pretty good. Uh yesterday. There have been a

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lot of talk about not necessarily the velocity of his fastball,

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but the shape of his fastball. How do you think

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that's looked so far in spring? And obviously the results

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were good yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he uh yeah, he looked Uh, he looked really good.

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I mean, faced nine hitters and what he struck out

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for four I believe. Uh yeah, I mean he's he's

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looked better than I probably had anticipated. And I know

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the Astros were sort of, you know, trying to get

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a feel for him and his routine and you know

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all that stuff. But uh, you know, I think they

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got to be very happy. It's going to be really

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uh fun to watch here as he gets stretched out

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at you know, last couple of weeks of spring that

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he gets up to five and six innings, to see

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what he's capable of doing. But he's got a lot

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of weapons. Uh, you know, got the reverse slider, which

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you know drew Raves early in camp. And it certainly

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looks like they might have really done a really nice

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job getting this guy and getting him in the rotation

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because it looks like he's going to be a big,

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big part of that rotation this year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and and same thing with Mike Burrows. Just your

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thoughts on what we've seen from him, and then follow

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up to that, if you had your crystal ball out

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just at this moment, how the rotation would slot starting

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opening day.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Burrows has been great too. I mean he's looked better

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than I thought he would as well. I mean he

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works at a really good pace. He throws strikes, and

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I think he's going to be fun to watch because

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the defense has to be on their toes. Mean, he

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kind of reminds me of Oswald, you know, back in

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the day, at the pace that he works at. So yeah,

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I mean I think they're close probably the setting the rotation.

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We all know Hunter Brown's going to go Game one.

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I still don't know hope they're going to go with

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a four or five i mean five or six man rotation.

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I know they will do six for a lot of April,

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but I think for the first week or so they

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might be able. They won't need they won't need a

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six starter for a while, So I mean, I guess

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it will probably be Emi in the second game, m

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Colors Game three, or Burrows. You know, I'm just sort

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of guessing here, but I guess the better way to

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put it is, there's four guys that are locks in

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the rotation right now, and that's Im, Burrows, Brown and

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the Colors and Hobby Aer. So I think those five

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guys are locks in the rotation. I think Arrighetty, even

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though he pitched really well yesterday, is probably not guaranteed

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a rotation spot yet. And you know, if they go

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to six man, he's probably the sixth man. But they

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have to feel really good about their their starting pitching

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depth at this point.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy, Brian, and I know everything we say,

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here's what the caveat of It's it's only spring training,

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but I mean, I don't remember a spring where you've

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had this many good arms just putting up goose eggs,

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and you know, am I with the goose eggs yesterday?

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But Righetti, yeah, gives up the home run yesterday, but

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six strikeouts over three innings. I mean, you know, even

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Jason Alexandria had one bad outing but then a really

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strong one and then they already sent him to the

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minor leagues, like all right, you're gonna be one of

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the best arms in sugar Land. So it's it's crazy

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how this competition is shaping up. And you know, I

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think we all thought, Okay, you know, we're gonna be

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optimistic about this pitching staff, but I mean i've been wild.

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But what they've done so far this spring.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was their goal in the off season was

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to go out and add pitching depth, and they added,

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you know, six or seven arms. And the fact that

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they were able to send Jason Alexander to minor league camp,

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you know, three weeks before open a Day, despite him

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pitching really well in a couple of games in the spring.

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I mean, that's that's what they wanted. They wanted that

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quality of starter at Triple A that they can bring up.

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And the same with Colton Gordon, another guy who pitched

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pretty well. He was he was among the first cuts

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of camp, so he's gonna be in a Triple A rotation. Uh,

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there's so there's two guys right there that you feel

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good about that they can call upon that. Yeah, they

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really did a nice job adding even some of the

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guys that we don't talk about, but you know, a

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non roster guy like Peter Lambert has really put himself

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in position to make the team as a long reliever.

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You know, they added Tang who is going to get

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the start on Friday, and he's in position as well

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to give them multiple innings out of the bullpen. So

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they they've got a lot of arms, a lot of

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quality arms. And the important thing is they have a

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couple of guys in the bullpen who can pitch two

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or three innings. They're also optionable the guys they can

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move back and forth between the minor leagues all year

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without any problem.

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Speaker 1: Brian McTaggart MLB dot com, astros dot Com with us

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here on a Sports Talk seven ninety. Let's go to

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the position player side. It's with the outfield now. Three

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weeks into games. We had a lot of questions about

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how things would possibly slot coming into spring, and I

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just don't know, how does it look to you, Brian,

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because it doesn't seem like a lot of those questions

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are really getting answered.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, the outfield is still still

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a mix of guys, and I think that's probably the

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area on the club that's probably the biggest unknowns. I mean,

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there's still a chance Jake Myers could get traded, and

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that's why Joey Spota hasn't yet saying hey, Jake Myers

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is my starting centerfielder because he might not be. And

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then beyond that, you know, you got the young guys.

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You got low Perfido, you got Cam Smith, you got

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Zack Cole. All three of those guys can play all

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three positions. So and then Taylor Tremell has had a

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really nice spring as well, swinging the bat, running the basis,

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so he's put himself in the mix. And I think

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if they broke camp today, Tremall probably makes the team. So,

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you know, the injury to Panya probably opens a roster

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spot maybe for Bryce Matthews. You know, he can play

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some second in some outfield. But yeah, I mean, I

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think the outfield is just we're gonna take this down

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to the wire. And you know, you gotta remember they

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still could make another trade if they trade Myers. You know,

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they still would like to trade Peretis, and if they do,

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they'll get a left handed bat which is going to

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be an outfielder. So this roster could still look different

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here in a couple of days when they get to open,

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a couple of weeks, when they get to open a day.

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Speaker 3: How concern Brian should fans be with the the overall

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spring numbers? And I get it's it's small sample size.

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You're talking starters playing you know, half the games, guys

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who are going to be working at target in a year,

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you know, coming in the later innings. So it's it's

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not a full easy samples hae to look at. But

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I mean dead lasting home runs worse than baseball batting

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average one eighty nine, slugging two ninety seven, ops at

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six twenty. I mean, it's some ugly offensive numbers. How

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concern should we be?

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Speaker 2: I don't think very concerned are all? I mean? I

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mean these guys, these guys are that the established pay

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players are down here working on their swings, tinkering with things.

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So guys, I know Albarez has struggled in the spring.

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I mean I would not be worried the guys that

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the guys that need to hit a little bit in

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the spring are the you know, the youngsters competing for spots.

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And we've seen the bats come around a little bit.

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We know Cole hit a home or yesterday low Berfido

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swinding a little better. But the position players Walker Alvarez,

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I mean going on, Alvarez could go low for thirty

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in the spring and have four hits on opening day

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and everything's right. So you know, it's these these games

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are so weird. You're facing pictures late in the game

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who are in in Class A ball, So I mean

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half the bats are going to guys from minor league camp.

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So it's not anything to worry about it. I mean,

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if you want to worry about, you know, maybe some

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of the younger guys competing for a spot that aren't hitting,

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but uh, the overall numbers mean mean nothing. In the

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star players, if they're not hitting, you don't worry about that.

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They'll be ready to go, you hope on opening day.

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Speaker 1: Obligatory infield question. What's the latest on Jeremy Painia's status

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and just the logjam we've been talking about for months now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, status quo, and you know it's sort of resolved

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itself a little bit here for the short term, because

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Penya is going to open the season on the il.

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I mean they haven't announced that yet, but I mean,

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you know it's going to happen, So so they'll be

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able to put Peretis at third and create a short

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for opening day. Corey has been playing short here the

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last couple of days in great Fruity Pay play. So

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Hanya is you know, he suffered the injury a week ago,

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So he's a week away from getting reevaluated, which I

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guess would mean another X ray to see where he's at.

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So but he's out there on the field doing all

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the drills. I mean, he's out there with the short stops,

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fielding the ball and flicking at the second base with

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his glove and and the only the only thing he

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really can't do is get the ball and throw and

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swing a bat, which are two major things. But it

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certainly looks like this is not going to be a

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long term injury that goes deep into April. I think

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he'll be back sooner than later. And yeah, I mean,

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I don't think this changes a whole lot. They still

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if he comes back healthy, they still have one too

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many infielders, and they still need a left handed bat

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because their lineup is so right handed. So I think

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that's still going to be something to watch.

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Speaker 3: Is that.

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Speaker 2: You know, I think we'll still to see a trade

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here in the next two weeks. On the infield, he.

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Speaker 3: Quick quickly Brian with the hater news that he's going

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to open up on the injured list. Give me your

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you know, opening day, let's say they're up three nothing

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heading into the seventh, who's your seventh, eighth, ninth inning, guys.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'll go backwards. I mean, obviously a Bray

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is going to be the closer because he's you know,

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he's your best reliever. You know, Brian King did a

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really nice job in sort of a seventh inning setup role,

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so you know, I think he's in there as well.

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You know, seventh inning might come down to matchups. You know,

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you got you got Steven Okirk, Bennett Suza Para lefties.

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You know, if Peter Lambert makes it, he's a guy

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that can come in and throw really hard. You know,

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Tang's going to be in the bullpen as well, is

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and Dela Santo is going to be in the mix.

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I think, you know, I think the ninth and eighth

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inning roles are pretty set. I think beyond that, it's

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going to come down to matchups where they are in

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the game, and there's a lot of different ways they

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can go because they have you know, they have a

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lot of versatile arms down there and guys that can

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throw multiple innings.

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Speaker 1: Great first meeting with Brian mctagger. We're going to have

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him every week here throughout the Astros season, bringing you

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coverage like nobody's business. Brian, let the folks know what

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you got going on the website.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of good stuff on the website. We

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got I'm gonna have an opening day roster projection coming,

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uh coming tomorrow, so you know, keep an eye out

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for that, and that always gets a lot of clicks,

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so it's something that changes daily and uh yeah, so yeah,

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just go to astrons dot com and uh, you know,

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we got a lot of good stuff in there.

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Speaker 1: All right, thanks a lot, Brian, appreciate it, and we

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will talk to you every week throughout the season.

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Speaker 3: You're welcome, all right, thanks guys.

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Speaker 2: All right, there you go.

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Speaker 1: Brianmick Taggart Astros dot com, MLB dot com great with

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stuff with him as always,