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00:00The Athletic came out with their power rankings this week,
00:02and the Astros are as high as they've been all year.
00:05They were seventh in the Athletic power rankings, Seth.
00:07The two teams they're playing this week are both ahead of them.
00:09The Phillies are, according to the Athletic, obviously subjective,
00:13the second-best team in baseball right now behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers.
00:20And then the Cubs are the sixth-best team.
00:22The power rankings go like this.
00:24The Dodgers won, Phillies two.
00:27The Detroit Tigers, who have the best record far and away right now
00:30in the American League, are three.
00:31Then the Yankees at four.
00:33The Mets at five.
00:33The Mets are in a tailspin right now.
00:36And then the Cubs at six.
00:37And then there sit the Houston Astros at seven.
00:41After this, I know they play the Dodgers next week.
00:45They play the Rockies, the worst team in the rankings,
00:47and the Dodgers, the best team in the rankings.
00:50After that, the rest of the season, and I'm talking like all the way through,
00:55it's really just they got a series against Detroit.
00:58They got a couple series against the Yankees.
01:01And other than that, it is all teams that are bottom half of the league
01:05for the most part.
01:06Like this is a – this is – this is part of the Astros' schedule.
01:11Like when I – and I say part, I mean like chunks, like 10, 15 games,
01:15not individual series, is in the rearview mirror right now.
01:18Like the schedule lays out really, really nicely for them moving forward.
01:22Yeah, even with the tough challenges in the next couple weeks,
01:25they still have the easiest schedule remaining in Major League Baseball.
01:29And if you can put in a good showing here, it's going to have to –
01:33it's essential to have a good showing here because whether it's –
01:37if it's good, you feel good about it regardless.
01:40If it's bad, then there's nothing they can do in the second half of the season
01:44aside from if they really start tearing the cover off the ball as a group,
01:48not just Jordan Alvarez.
01:49It's going to be hard to not remember these couple of series versus the Phillies
01:54and the Dodgers without really feeling like you've got a genuinely good
02:00and solid foundation.
02:00The Dodgers, I'll throw the Cubs in there too.
02:03The Cubs, yes, yes.
02:03Yeah, these series.
02:04But really the Dodgers next week.
02:06Like three of the next four series are against top six teams in baseball.
02:10If they don't perform well over those, I guess it would be nine games
02:15against those three teams, then the things we'll be saying in October
02:19if they were to run up against those teams,
02:20and they would only run up against those three teams if it were the World Series.
02:24So obviously you'd be playing with some confidence already.
02:26We wouldn't be having that conversation anymore by that point.
02:28Right, maybe.
02:29But if they got swept by – let's say the Cubs sweep them or the Dodgers,
02:33if they're unconvincing against the Dodgers, then what we will be saying is,
02:37well, we didn't have Jordan for those games.
02:38Or the schedule lined up where only Hunter pitched one game,
02:44but the other two games were pitched by the Gusto, Gordon, and Waltz,
02:49that kind of thing.
02:50And the fun thing is they might see Shohei Ohtani, old friend,
02:53in the Dodgers series as he starts to pitch again.
02:56Ooh, yeah.
02:57I hadn't thought about that.
02:59I don't like Shohei.
03:00He screwed me on a prize picks lineup this weekend.
03:03Oh, really?
03:03I got four out of five.
03:05The only one – I needed Shohei to hit a home run.
03:07He didn't.
03:08And then he hit one the next day.
03:10You think the interpreter is pulling the strings from behind the bars?
03:13Maybe.
03:14He probably had no on Shohei hitting a home run.
03:17Yeah.
03:17I hadn't thought about that.
03:18As I hit send on my lineup, I should have thought of that.
03:20I'm like, ah, Shohei would be so proud.
03:22But you know who would be even prouder?
03:23Ipe Mizuhara, his interpreter.
03:25Yeah.
03:26Currently incarcerated.
03:26Currently incarcerated.
03:27Yep.
03:28As of last week.
03:29So, yeah, so the Astros – if you look at the power rankings in the athletic, the average ranking of the teams they play the rest of the season,
03:39and this includes the Yankees and the Dodgers after this week, is around 18th, which the 18th ranked team happens to be the Guardians.
03:47So the Astros are basically playing the Guardians the rest of the season, you know, a team at that caliber.
03:53So, yeah, that should have people excited about things moving forward.
03:58But in the meantime, eat what's on our plate this week.
04:02Colton Gordon and Zach Wheeler tonight over at Minute Maid Park.
04:08The barrel racers are getting a lot of love right now, Seth, on the text page.
04:13My least favorite character is on Yellowstone, and I made sure to point out I'm not talking about barrel racers, the actual barrel racers.
04:19The characters on Yellowstone were annoying as hell.
04:21Apparently the actual barrel racers, and maybe the ones on Yellowstone, they're crazy, but it translates well into me.
04:30Well, I would imagine they're kind of crazy.
04:31Yeah, I could see where they came up with the character for the barrel racers.
04:35Because, yeah, you could envision them having personalities like that, but just a risk-taking mentality.
04:42Yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep.
04:44So that's – they're getting a lot of love.
04:46They're called barrel racers.
04:47They're all crazy.
04:48That's from Brent in the Heights.
04:49So they are genuinely crazy?
04:53Okay.
04:53I guess.
04:54Now I've got to look into barrel racing more so than just watching it once a year.
04:58Yeah, yeah.
04:58I like it.
04:59It's an underrated event at the rodeo.
05:021923, the Yellowstone prequel is getting some love as well.
05:06People agreeing with your assessment of Yellowstone, but 1923 –
05:09I don't – yeah, I have a hard time with any of those series now by the – who's the guy that creates all of them?
05:15Oh, Taylor Sheridan, I think.
05:16Taylor Sheridan.
05:17It just – it felt like he went into streamlining formulaic mode too much.
05:21So they all feel like the same shows to me.
05:24I can't – I'm just like, oh, they took the same show and they put it in a different setting, and then here you go.
05:30So I just thought – I appreciate – I think they're – if there were only one of each of those series –
05:36because what was the original one, 1870-whatever it was?
05:3918 – yeah, 1887 or 1870, yeah.
05:42I've never wanted the main character who was supposed to be the hero to die more quickly than I did her.
05:49Yeah.
05:49I was so happy when she died.
05:50Yeah.
05:51And I was so happy that her father was through with the burden of being her father as well.
05:54That was Tim McGraw who played her father, yeah.
05:56Yeah, I felt happy for Tim McGraw that he was done with this burden of a daughter
05:59who couldn't even not be a pain in the ass when she died.
06:04Yeah.
06:04She was an inconvenience.
06:06Yes.
06:06Yeah.
06:06Yes.
06:07She was a mess.
06:09It was 18-something.
06:11I know 1923 is the one with Harrison Ford.
06:14Yeah.
06:14He plays one of the Duttons on there.
06:17People weighing in on the Astros.
06:20Last night included the last two Astro games I've been to.
06:22We've scored a total of three runs.
06:25The Astros are 2-0 in those games.
06:27It's just that kind of year.
06:28That's true.
06:29You can go to an Astros game and there's no offense going on,
06:32but there's a decent chance you're walking out with a victory.
06:34Yeah.
06:34I think they've gotten better.
06:36Remember that stat earlier in the year?
06:38I think when they were like, I don't know, 50 games in,
06:41it felt like 30 of the 50-some-odd games they played,
06:44they'd scored three or less runs.
06:46I was tracking it much closer at the beginning of the year.
06:48It feels a little better now.
06:50It feels like they're having at least a few more capable offensive performances now
06:54than early in the year.
06:55It's too far out to really just think about which guys they might trade for
06:59if they trade for a lefty before the trade deadline.
07:02What are you going to do?
07:04I mean, so much of the actual, like the real hope for a more solid base
07:11is obviously the pitchers and which pitchers can come back
07:14and be healthy and effective.
07:15And then Jordan Alvarez on the offensive side of things.
07:20But we still have to wait and see exactly what Jordan Alvarez looks like
07:24when he comes back.
07:25And it's just such a weirdly long stretch of him being ineffective
07:29that if it was simply that he had some kind of hand issue the entire time,
07:35I'd feel better about that,
07:37but I still have to actually see it when he comes back.
07:39If this hand issue with Jordan lingers into July
07:42and into the All-Star break,
07:44and you come back from the All-Star break,
07:45and that's really when the trade deadline thing starts churning.
07:49One of the teams that is actively out there looking for not just a left-handed bat
07:53off the bench, but like a decent left-handed bat
07:56that feels like an everyday guy,
07:58that probably tells me that the Jordan thing is either something
08:01where he's still going to be out for a while
08:03or they're nervous there's going to be a reoccurrence of it.
08:05Because I think if you look, it's easy to say,
08:07well, they need a left-handed bat.
08:09They're a very righty-heavy lineup.
08:10But I look at the lineup, I go, okay, well, where do you put,
08:13once Jordan is back, where do you put the guy?
08:15Because Jordan and Altuve are going to kind of split the left-field DH duties.
08:21Your catcher, you know, Yiner's not hitting great right now,
08:23but you know your catcher platoon is Yiner and Victor Caratini.
08:27And then you go around the infield, you're not benching Paredes,
08:30you're not benching Pena.
08:32I guess second base Dubon still needs to keep hitting,
08:34but that's a very specific left-handed bat to go get,
08:37a left-handed bat that can play second base.
08:39I don't think Christian Walker's getting benched just based on what he's getting paid.
08:43And then your outfield has kind of solidified itself.
08:45As I said, left field, once Jordan's back,
08:47is going to be some combo of him and Altuve.
08:50Jake Myers has established himself, at least in 2025,
08:53as an everyday center fielder that you can put out there and not feel bad about.
08:56And I don't want to see them benching Cam Smith right now.
08:58I want Cam Smith to be playing every day.
09:00So we sit here and just say, well, they need a left-handed bat, and that's great.
09:04And they do, they need more lefties.
09:05But I think this is just the position they put themselves in.
09:08They put together a roster that was righty-heavy,
09:11and they were relying heavily on Jordan Alvarez, and he's hurt.
09:14So Jordan, as we await the news that he swung off a tee on Sunday,
09:18he was supposed to be in the batting cage yesterday.
09:21So now we just await any kind of news about him feeling good or just still.
09:27I don't know.
09:27There's no news.
09:28We don't know.
09:29There'd be a minor league assignment.
09:31We have very little information other than that he has at least progressed to the level of a four-year-old,
09:37and he is hitting balls off the bat.
09:38Yeah.
09:39Espada has said a couple times that they don't think there'll be a rehab stint for Jordan,
09:44that it'll be straight back to the major league roster.
09:46I can promise you whatever he gets asked today about it, Espada,
09:50that the answer will be he's feeling good.
09:52That will be the answer for sure.
09:53Now, to what degree they say the hand is healed,
09:56but they'll never say, well, the guy's, you know, like he's been feeling good this whole time,
10:00and yet he's been out for, you know, almost two months now.
10:03If Jordan plays in Sugar Land, we have to, you and I have to go take that in.
10:07Oh, yeah.
10:08We can get tickets.
10:08We can get tickets.
10:09And sit on the grass so we can chase home run balls around,
10:14so we can shove little kids out of the way to get home run balls.
10:17I like that.
10:18I'd rather just steal a ball from a little kid.
10:20That's a lot easier.
10:21Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:22I want to go viral, Sean.
10:24Yeah, so I'm going to steal a ball from a little kid in my local ballpark.
10:28Choke slamming a little kid into the fountains.
10:30Oh, no, no.
10:31Let's not bring violence into it, but yes.
10:33I'll strong arm him.
10:34I'll strong arm him.
10:35Just steal him.
10:35I got you.
10:36All right, more people weighing in on the KD.
10:38I'd never be dumb enough to do that on camera, what you suggested.
10:41Right, right.
10:42And there's never any cameras around either, so that'll be fun.
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