Cam Smith Makes Astros Opening Day Roster

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Cam Smith is on the Astros' Opening Day roster, a somewhat unprecedented move the organization is making. Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast break it down here.

Transcript

00:00So there's a 100% chance that Cam Smith will be on the roster opening day.

00:03Yes.

00:04Let's say 99.99 so we don't jinx it.

00:07Right.

00:08Something happens today.

00:09Before I have to get some blogger coming.

00:12Real baseball people know that there's a title 13, you know, but you could send them down

00:20to Sugar Hill.

00:21Yeah.

00:22Yeah.

00:23Uh, the, so I'm excited about it.

00:24I'm super, I was, I was waffling a little bit at 6 AM yesterday morning and then by

00:29about 6 0 4 AM you had convinced me that I was yellow and that I needed to embrace

00:35this with all this, with all the ferocity of a, of a new recruit.

00:39Yeah.

00:40And I am ready to go.

00:41I'm here for it, man.

00:42For radio.

00:43That's for sure.

00:44Um, and I think it's good for the Astros if, uh, I'm not expecting his, whatever is, you

00:49know, 1200 OPS wasn't spring training to carry over into the regular season or anything.

00:54But um, if you get, look, if you get average right field play, like offensively, I'm talking

01:00about defensively is going to be a work in progress.

01:03I think everybody needs to probably pump the brakes a little.

01:05And I think everybody has, they know, like he's not played essentially for all intents

01:09and purposes has not played right field before.

01:12Um, if he is, if he is an average to slightly above average offensive outfielder in his,

01:19in his rookie year, that's going to be better than anything else you had on the roster out

01:23there or that you were planning for when you made all these moves to trade Kyle Tucker

01:27in the first place.

01:28Uh, you know, one, one thing, no matter whether it's relevant or not, that that's exciting

01:35about this is that when he hit those two first home runs in spring training, who is it against

01:39against the New York Mets, you know, we had Jose Siri out there in center field.

01:46And so there's a little bit of familiarity there and that he's already faced the team

01:51wearing this uniform.

01:52Yeah.

01:53And there was some of these same major league starters who were starting that day.

01:59He hasn't at one point looked at any bit like the moment was too big for him or that he's

02:05having trouble adjusting to the level of competition or anything like that.

02:09I just, I, and I don't think it's not like people are going to freak out if he doesn't

02:13have a good day offensively on day one or anything, but, but I, but I'm also not going

02:19to be surprised if he has an incredible day on day one, there's no, there's no book on

02:23him yet.

02:24There's not a whole lot of film for all the pictures to break down and whatnot.

02:29So he might get some good pitches and the, uh, it's, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm predicting over

02:37under one and a half hits.

02:41Oh, you're in, you're in a daily fantasy mode right now.

02:45Yeah.

02:46Yeah.

02:47So I'll go under just because, you know, just cause yeah, that's hard to get.

02:50It's hard to get two hits in any major league game.

02:52Yeah.

02:53I'm a horrible handicapper, but I'm up here.

02:55I'm optimistic as hell as an Astros fan that I can subscribe to Seth.

02:59I think I might be like, I'm going to take these guys out.

03:03Oh no.

03:04Sorry.

03:05I'm doing pain pics.

03:06Yeah, I know.

03:07That is my blind spot with daily fantasy is I am a Homer hardcore Homer.

03:14This is how I go into all of my daily fantasy plays.

03:20I'm like, I say, all right, listen, I know I'm being a Homer, but what's realistically

03:26the best thing that's going to, who is probably going to perform the best.

03:30And then which players from the opponent opposing team are going to probably play the worst,

03:36but I'm already I'm looking at the whole board and finding out what genuinely is the best.

03:43I handicapped myself when I handicapped.

03:45Yeah.

03:46Yeah.

03:47Yeah.

03:48No.

03:49Like, and I, and there's, there's nothing, I don't know.

03:50There's nothing more energy sapping than betting less than on your own guys.

03:53Yeah.

03:54I don't like it.

03:55Yeah.

03:56It's fun.

03:57Especially when I read my pics on the radio, I'm like, I got to tell you everybody, listen,

04:02pump the brakes on Cam Smith.

04:04I'm taking, I'm taking less than on all of these.

04:07Yeah.

04:08All of them.

04:09Here was Cam Smith last night.

04:10In the dugout after he learned the news that he made the major league ball club, a back

04:15and forth short back and forth with the media.

04:17Yeah.

04:18I always thought it was, it was possible.

04:19You know, I think I had a great, great group of guys around me to, to help me out to get

04:25here today.

04:26So I always saw it as a possibility, you know, for it to happen.

04:31And you know, we're here today talking about it now.

04:34So I'm very blessed.

04:37I know this is very emotional for you, but just the special nature of having your mom

04:42deliver that.

04:43You said you broke down, but what kind of, can you just take us through the idea that

04:46she would be the one after all she did for you to tell you that you made the major league?

04:50Yeah.

04:51I mean.

04:52I'm sorry.

04:53It's okay.

04:54You know, at one point it was just me and her in the house.

05:03She struggled to take me to baseball games and practice and I'm just happy to do it for

05:09her.

05:10All right.

05:14So that was camp camp.

05:15Very emotional about, um, he, and I didn't remember when we met his mom, it was when

05:23he was, you know, he, it was the day he hit those two home runs.

05:28We met her, we met her in the parking lot.

05:32We were walking past a group of women who were trying to take a selfie in front of the

05:37Astros logo out in front of a cacti park.

05:41And one of them said, my arms aren't long enough.

05:44And I said, Hey, I'll take that picture for you.

05:45And we got to chat with them.

05:46Yeah.

05:47Yeah.

05:48Lo and behold, it sounds kind of creepy when he put it that way.

05:52Hey ladies, I got long arms, long legs, long, the appendages are.

05:58Yeah.

05:59So it wasn't, it wasn't like that.

06:00It was like, Hey, I'll take the picture for you.

06:02And we got chatting with him and lo and behold, it was cam Smith's mom and grandma and one

06:06of their family friends, I believe.

06:08And in talking to his mom at the time, she had seen a bunch of guff on social media about

06:15people who were down on the Kyle Tucker trade.

06:18And I, she seemed like it, you know, she was worried a little bit about the Astros fan

06:23base reception of her son because they didn't seem all that high on cam Smith and they were

06:28very down.

06:29Or at least the ones, the comments she was seeing were people that were down on the Kyle

06:31Tucker trade.

06:32I'm guessing that her experience on social media has changed a lot over the last few

06:36weeks.

06:37I would think so.

06:38And especially in the last 24 hours when the video ran yesterday that I've never seen this

06:44done for a major league baseball player, making the team now we admittedly, we get a lot more

06:50access to behind the scenes in this day and age than we ever had before.

06:54I would say more access during the Joe Espada year that he's previously with the Astros.

07:01We get a lot of in the clubhouse stuff on social media from the Astros.

07:05Now, at least we have during spring training, they had cam Smith's family there.

07:09It looked like his, his mom, what I'm guessing might be his, his stepdad or, or you know,

07:16her husband, whatever, either way the grandmother was there.

07:20And it was a very emotional scene of Joe Espada announcing that cam Smith had made

07:26the team.

07:27It got a lot of largely very good reaction on social media is what I, what I saw to it.

07:32I mean, it's, it is a, it is a cool thing that you don't get to see.

07:36I guess my question would be, and this is not to rain on the parade or anything is I

07:40do wonder what the rest of the guys in the clubhouse were thinking that, that probably

07:43never had a video about them making the major leagues before.

07:46It was a little bit of bringing in that, that college football dynamic of announcing that

07:52a guy gets a scholarship, except that you added onto it by having the family right there

07:57in the clubhouse.

07:58Yeah.

07:59Well, and except that in those videos, typically the team mobs, the guy who got the scholarship.

08:06That's where I think the unfamiliarity of the situation made it.

08:10It made it almost a little bit awkward to watch because there was a prolonged period

08:14of the mom walking towards the sun, both of them crying and it was just dead silent.

08:20Yes.

08:21To the point where I was just, please, somebody start clapping.

08:23Could somebody start clapping or mobbed them?

08:25But I think the players are probably thinking, okay, I don't want to interrupt this moment

08:28of a, of a guy with his mother.

08:31So out of respect before, right?

08:34Yeah.

08:35Everything was just a little bit different.

08:36Yeah.

08:37Yeah.

08:38You know, you didn't quite know until he started clapping, but it was after a whole lot of,

08:42it was a whole lot of crying, very, very audible and dead silence everywhere else.

08:48My biggest takeaway from that whole thing, cause it was very emotional and I thought

08:51it was, I, you know, I think obviously very cool.

08:53Like this is a goal that this kid has had.

08:56He's achieved that goal well before anybody thought he would achieve that goal, man.

09:00You learn the backstory of him and his mom and him just laying out there that, you know,

09:03single mom raising him hard time even getting him to practice in games.

09:06I mean, it's, it's, it, it, it's really, really cool.

09:10My big thing was like, you know who I want to just sit this one out today.

09:14All the people who wanted that fourth year of arbitration, like, you know what, this

09:17is cool.

09:18Just sit.

09:19If you still feel that way, just sit today out, you know, just sit, you can bring it

09:22up.

09:23If look, if, if it starts to turn into something where it's even a question, he should be on

09:27the team early in the season, bring it up then.

09:29But man, this is just really, really cool to have Cam Smith make this baseball team.

09:34I'll tell you what though.

09:35I think that if you look at the long history of the Astros from the first year of Jeff

09:40Luno to now, I think in a lot of ways, the fact that Cam Smith is being elevated when

09:45he is, is a little bit of the way the organization has changed from being one that was so cold

09:52and calculating in many respects.

09:54And even after the team got good, there were still elements of the way they operated that

10:00I think chafed against some of the people, the either in baseball or players themselves,

10:07where this is a way more, I guess it's weird to say that elevating a minor leaguer this

10:12fast as old school, because it's very, this is also, it's not the typical way of doing

10:16business, but they're guys service time strictly to try to get every last advantage over one

10:24of their own players.

10:25I mean, it's not, it's not look, George Springer never forgot that they messed with his service

10:29time.

10:30You know, that a lot of people point that out.

10:31It's one of those things where you feel like, Oh, all right.

10:35This is a hundred percent of business.

10:38This feels way more human.

10:39And I think Dan, you know, Dana Brown and being an old school baseball scout in a lot

10:43of ways is a lot different than Jeff Luna was as a, as a completely non-traditional

10:47baseball personnel.

10:48I 1000% agree with that part of it here.

10:50I do.

10:51I do wonder if this team were forecasted to either be a 70 win team or a hundred win team.

10:56If Cam Smith would have made the club, I think the fact of the matter is now this is a team

10:59that's forecasted to win about 85 games that needs all hands on deck to win 85 or 90 games

11:05and win this division.

11:06He gives you the best chance to win right now about out of all those guys.

11:10So, but, but that would have been the interesting part.

11:13If Jeff Luna were still the GM of this team and they were forecasted to be in a dog fight

11:17to win the AL West, would he have, I think this, I think honestly, and that's not shade

11:22at Luna.

11:23He just operates a different way.

11:24I think he would look at it and try to make it completely about the math and the long-term

11:29health of the organization and everything.

11:31And that, you know what, the long-term, what are we going to get out of him over the duration

11:35of his career?

11:36It makes more sense to just keep them down until, until we get that extra year of service

11:40time.

11:41How are you guys feeling about it?

11:42713-57246.

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