But let's begin with the seismic
news out of Houston.
Jeff pass first to report that
the Astros and Premier closer
Josh Hader in agreement on a
five year $95 million contract
pass, explaining that haters
deal for 95 million exceeds that
of Diaz in present dollars.
And Joel Sherman, our own Joel
Sherman getting into that as
well.
So you take the deferrals out
the total value of the contract
million dollars and plus you
throw in the fact that josh
Hader no longer or doesn't have
to deal with the state income
tax.
There's no state income tax in
Texas.
So a big big deal.
A reunion of sorts, josh Hader
was with the Astros and they
traded him away for carlos Gomez
and Mike fires back in 2015 huge
news a lot to unpack Ron.
Where do you want to start
first?
Well, my first thought, I'm, I'm
looking at Joel Sherman and Jeff
pass and you really need a, an
accountant on referrals when we
do these contracts.
But, um, boy hater, um, with his
hater rules and one of the best
relievers in the game.
Um, you're thinking, when is he
gonna get that contract.
Everyone knows what he can do.
And it didn't seem like a lot of
teams were out there, or at
least there wasn't a lot of
noise.
Um, I didn't hear a lot about
Houston being in play for hater
and this just a great team that
has been great now for a half
dozen years or more is gonna be
even better than seven straight
A L CS s. Uh, to extend the run
clearly cliff.
Yeah, we, we was in spring
training last year with them,
Dana Brown, the general manager
took over and now this is a big
move because now you have a
first year manager in Joe spot.
So these are the, now, now you
have to have him have this tough
decision, a tough conversation
with Ryan Presley, right?
Because ryan Presley has really
good for this team at the back
end of that bullpen and, and,
and closing out games.
I don't think it's gonna be a
problem because Ryan is a
winner.
He's won.
He, he understands what that
feels like.
And this is all speculators.
This is coming from me, what
I've seen on the outside looking
in, he's a gamer.
He wants to be one of the best
postseason closers of all time,
all time and, and look, II I
know you have to go there and
you, you, you, you have to pat
him on the back.
You have to show him from love
because you know, while, while
you getting ready for the season
, you believe in you to close.
Now, if you bring in some other
guys, some military relievers,
that's what you're looking at
this right here.
Speaks to you're not closing the
ninth inning Ryan, so you don't
have to like it, you accept it.
And I think we've all been in
that seat where it's
uncomfortable.
It, it's, it's something that
you have to accept.
we had, you know, you, you have
things that happen through the
course of the season and you
don't know what's gonna derail
you from your spot.
You have no idea.
Listen, Dana Brown's a smart
man.
He knows at the end of the day,
the more great players you have
the better chance you have to
have a good team.
So, and you know, ryan
Pressley's been around for quite
some time, you know, he's 35
years old, I believe and, you
know, haters gonna be around for
quite a long time also knowing
the way the game works, guys
don't work three or four days in
a row anymore.
There's gonna be plenty of
chances for both those fine
relievers to have big years.
So you've got Brian Abreu Ryan
Presley, Josh Hater.
Where does this bullpen stand
now in terms of best bullpens in
the league?
Uh not only American League but
entire major league baseball.
You know, when I look at them, I
was a little startled because of
the losses before the signing of
hater.
You know, you're talking about
hector Nare.
Uh, you're talking about, uh,
Meon, they lost, uh Ryan Stan.
Ryan Stanick, they lost.
That's a lot of innings.
So it's about 250 to 300 innings
for them last season.
So they needed to make a good
push in that bullpen.
And boy did they, the Dana Brown
with this sign of hater.
Uh, you know, they've got depth
of a rotation started with
Justin Verlander and all of that
frame Valdez on and on christian
Xavier, but now they have the
depth of the bullpen as well.
I thought that maybe with this
money, 100 million, let's just
say, uh there were a lot of
different ways they could have
gone, you know, they lost
Michael Branley, they lost that
great bat even though he was
hurt a lot of last year.
So they could have looked for a
left handed bat or another bat,
maybe split up some of this
money.
But when you have a player,
relief pitcher as good as hater
, sometimes it's hard to say, no
, I like the offense.
I do.
I like they gonna score runs.
They, they're, when you look at
production a across the board,
um you know, with these teams,
they're the one I worry about
the least as far as just scoring
runs.
The one the only thing you have
now to worry about and we start
in camp road flow is keeping
guys healthy.
You, you need more, you need
more games out of, you're done.
He has to play more, you know,
he needs 100 and 40 games.
I'm not worried pen needs to
bounce back and be the guy that
we saw in the past so
offensively, you know, I, I like
it now you can start starting
pitching, starting pitching for
me, you know, might be a
problem.
But if you can shorten the game
like they just did with this
move, it just makes more sense