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.
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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.