Kyle Tucker's return is looking FURTHER and FURTHER away...while Lance McCullers is done for 24?!?

Saturday Joe asata said this about Kyle Tucker it sounds worse than the last time that we heard an update on Kyle Tucker from either Dana brown or Joe SP off the top of my head I forget essentially they said well he should be back by September this time it sounds a little murkier whether or not he will be back this month Joe SP quote it'd be great but I'm not going to sit here and say that it's going to happen Kyle Tucker rejoining the team before the end of August it's kind of dayto day see how he feels and how we build him up but it'd be too aggressive for me to say that we'll have him by the end of the month it's a possibility but not going to go there okay so he possibly could be back in August he possibly could be back in 2025 that's kind of what I'm hearing right now you're hearing the ladder a little more huh they just it doesn't seem like he's making any fundamental progress like has he run yet I don't think he has I think at most he's thrown a baseball swung a bat he he has yet to hit or run on the field since his injury he took ground balls on the Astros last road trip but his onfield activity for the past few days has just been playing catch he is doing exercises indoors with a medicine ball but not exercises that include a baseball or glove I didn't know there were exercises that include baseballs or gloves other than throwing the ball more from Joe as spot on Kyle Tucker quote we are having a conversation with him how we're going to handle the next couple of weeks because I think he's getting close for us to kind of push him out there and start doing more active more intense stuff next couple of weeks means he's not going to be back by mid August I don't like that kind that's in there either where like they just don't it's just I don't understand how they have nothing more definitive going on right now I mean at some point he's got to go for a rehab start he's just got to start running the bases to see I mean that's what like is where I I don't expect KY talker to play this season at this point because they don't even know how running to second base will feel like like in terms of setbacks they don't even like we're not even close to getting into setback terrs for cuz he's just doing nothing so I I just and what are you going to do put like a mechanical shin guard on him to make sure he doesn't do this again I don't know I mean if he hits it again he might have to chop it off so it's just going so slow at this point I don't I I don't want to bank on Kyle Tucker coming back this season so that's Kyle Tucker what about the other injured Houston Astros well we've been waiting to hear this officially from somebody in the organization Joe spot it was all also asked about Lance McCullers here's what the Astros Skipper had to say uh I've been talking to Lance a little bit um and you know where he's at right now um I think he's safe to say that I don't think he'll pitched this season um you know it'd be almost um too much to ask for him to ramp up and get him back this season you know everything is moving in the right direction but just where we at right now the number of games I think it's uh that's where we that's where we at at least it's official now I'm actually breathing a side of relief here you know what we don't even have to talk about Lance McCullers the rest of the year yeah until we get to so we'll get to November and this and then we're going to follow the same timeline we follow this year I'm going to I'm just going to I'm going to bank on it I'm going to be super negative over these injury reports I guess cuz last year in November December Lance McCullers told everyone that he was going to be able to start ramping up in January and then we got to spring training and he had a major setback and he's missed 2024 that's what we're on schedule for right now is he's going to be ready for spring training in 2025 we hope we hope this feels very Steven strawber to me where I just he can't I it's been two years I I I saw this floa around social media yesterday it was very funny Martin malado has more pitching appearances for the Houston Astros in the last two seasons than Lance of colors I mean think about it your POS any position player who's pitched for the Astros has more pitching appearances than your $17 million year Lance McCullers I I feel bad for him it's not his fault it's not his fault I I think the people that slam him for still being hurt you're missing the point it's the Astro's fault that they gave out this contract much like it's the Astro's fault that they gave out that contract to Jose Abu much like it's the Astros fault that they gave out this contract to rapael Mono it was a lot of money at the time I remember having a conversation on the air before with Jeremy brandham and Jeremy actually liked the contract I don't know if he would still feel the same way about it after a year and a half what I do know is that contract was not a good one from the start just given the guy had minor issues before it if I'm not mistaken he had some good moments iconic moments as a Houston Astros pitcher but yeah we're not going to see him this year no one is surprised by that no no at all so that was something you expected but we do have also updates on one Justin Verlander and two Luis Garcia the Garcia ones are confusing so let's try to make sense of this one he had soreness in his elbow Friday after playing catch Thursday which meant that his rehab assignment which was supposed to begin this weekend has been placed on hold but he felt better on Saturday okay you need a flow chart for that one so he soar the next day but it was gone the following day so he's just not he's just not feeling you know it's like you get back to the gym the first time in a long time you feel awful the next day that's kind of where he's still at right now I they they said they did an x-ray and there's no damage so that's a positive but he's like Lance at some point I'm actually kind of surprised Joe Spa didn't just say the same thing in terms of ramping up and whatnot I I guess there's still an outside shot that they think Luis Garcia could be a bullpen pitcher you know for the team this year but it it feels very eerily similar to Lance where it's just the calendar is just is what's hurting Luis Garcia at this point and then the last one Liars Liars Liars wow I mean they're being intentionally vague so that they aren't 100% Liars they're 100% Liars with this coming one oh with Justin Verlander yes interesting well I know what Verlander said the live batting practice that he threw went great and he expects to be back with the Astros after two rehab starts why are they Liars Joe because he ad berlander saying that because he admitted that he's been doing shoulder rehab he hurt his shoulder he said he's he said he's been doing shoulder and neck rehab okay they tried to say it was just a neck injury oh that's what you meant okay yeah they're just liars like they just lie about injuries it's just annoying like it's awesome Hipp they they got to lie I know you don't you don't have yes you do Joe lying is key to life it's okay to say his shoulders hurt faking it until you make it that's how this works that's how all of it works at least this one feels encouraging because he gave a real timeline and I think maybe because it was he was speaking not a spot of speaking for him it makes you feel even better yeah but like JV will be back soon that's good that's good yeah go you're focusing on the negatives come on they in a segment where it doesn't seem like Kyle Tucker's going to be back in August Lance McCullers will be back ever or Luis Garcia will be back this year we should focus on the positive that Justin f is going to be back soon we hope yeah two rehab starts as long as he's feeling good today just like as long as he's feeling good today two rehab starts are next uh I don't know if that be in Sugarland or in Corpus but so we're you know two weeks away from Justin verer being back on the Astros that's okay he is right you know when he talked about it he talked about not wanting to rush back getting that pitch count back up it's better to have him do that in the miners even though you could use him on the major league roster right now like at at least he's going to pitch this season that's positive one out of four 25% positivity right for the Houston Astros right now we have a text focusing on Kyle Tucker this person says I think Kyle Tucker is Holding Out for a new contract another texter asks should we have looked into what we could have got for Tucker before the trade deadline no to that one that's reckless speculation on the first one a lot of people seem to feel that way though based off of a couple of YouTube posts that we have had on the ESPN Houston YouTube channel about Kyle Tucker there's this weird tinfoil hat conspiracy going on that this is Tucker's doing it's almost like uh because Josh hater was so public and we had to have those discussions that like we've like since it's like oh Josh hater wouldn't do this because of his contract now everyone's like conspiracy theory about Kyle Tucker in a similar manner I don't I don't believe that um I think everyone's just confused on how they said it was going to be a couple days and now we're in month three you know it's we went from 3 days to three months of Ky Tucker like it's it's just it's hard to wrap your brain around when they tell you one thing and it's just so dramatically different it opens to it opens your mind to conspiracy theories mhm yeah pinch Tucker's a disgruntled employee he tanked last postseason see this is how it starts you throw one out there everyone's like you know what interesting