Chandler Rome Of The Athletic Joins The A-Team To Talk Player Issues

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Episode Transcript

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The Houston Astro Astro Astro. Thisexclusive Astro's segment on Sports Talk seven ninety
is brought to you by Exfinity tenG, the Next Generation Network. Yes,
let's go, Hey, let's go, guys. Well, we start

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in the third and final hour fromout here at Mini Made Park Football at
five with Channel of Rome. Whoyou got Ole? Miss Alabama easily the
most popular guy in the building.Who you got ls U Arkansas? Oh
Els? Who's gonna kill him?Is this the end of the Saban dynasty?
Though? Oh Texas at the wheelsin motion? If Lane, if
Lane goes in there and they andthey win in Tuscaloosa, that could be

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that. That really could be theend. Does anyone talk more trash in
Nick Saban's general direction than Lane Kiffin? I don't even think it's trash.
I think he's just trying to getin his head. But I also don't
think Lane probably doesn't understand that Sabandoesn't read you that. Do you like
Lane? Did? You don't dealwith him at all? I know because
so the offensive coordinator and I coveredAlabama was Brian Dable. Oh my god,

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National championship at Bama. Five titleswith the Patriots and now he's with
the Giants. Pretty good run he'shad. He's had a better three weeks
I think than has past three weeksof them. But yeah, I didn't
really deal with him. I Ienjoy that, like he's great for the
brand, Like if you hire him, he's great. And you know,
he seems to have like settled downa little bit his personal life, which

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I don't I don't think his personallife is ever a huge problem, but
he does seem to have like settleddown, figure some stuff out and grown
up a little bit. But theTwitter, his Twitter account hilarious. As
you know, this could be agreat conversation, but we will segue into
Astro's conversations. I could talk toyou for three hours every day, bed
right. It for the Astros,for the Athletic the final home series of
the season, three games against KansasCity, a team they just lost to

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two out of three, three straightseries where they've done that two out of
three. It seems intentional, andI'm sure it is that the rotation was
set up as such to have FranberValdez get the ball today and have he
and Justin Verlander be ready to pitchin Seattle. Obviously they need to take
care of business starting tonight. Framberhas looked better. You know, seven

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innings has become a fairly regular occurrencefor him, the last nine starts six
times. Yeah, but I thinkthe reason they wanted to pitch tonight is
the guy that they're going against,Cole Reagan's, has been really, really
good. The Astros got to himin Kansas City. I think they scored
four or five runs off of him, But that's the outlier. Cole Reagan's
a guy that this is the guythat the Rangers traded to the Royals to
get a roll as Chapman. Sowhat sort of karma would it be if

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Cole Reagan's comes in and shuts theAstros down today and helps inadvertently helps the
Rangers. Well, rollis Chapman's notgonna help him? Well? Probably not,
but yeah, so I think thathad something to do with it too,
that they knew that it's gonna betough to score off Reagans, and
they wanted their best guy to beopposite him to keep the Royals, or
hopefully for the Astros, keep theRoyals subdue. But yeah, Farmers look

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better. The home runs are stillkind of perplexing to me, just as
a sinkerballer. Some of it isvelocity. He needs to get his velo
a little little bit down so it'snot as easy to elevate the ball.
And when the when the velo's high, that he doesn't get the downward movement
on his sinker. When you don'tget the downward movement on your sinker just
kind of stays up, then thatallows you to elevate. So but with

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Frombert, like every fromber start,if he can keep his head in check,
if he can keep his emotions incheck, they can stay focused,
then it should be it should bea good matchup for them, because the
Royals are not very good. Justa minute ago, our listeners ourselves got
to hear what Dusty Baker told youand the rest of the assembled media regarding
Jordon Alvarez. A couple of questionsabout his availability, being that he has
been a DH fairly regularly over thelast handful of games. This response was

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that it was what's best for theteam right now. Do you think anything
is going on with Jordon. Wedid note earlier with Jeff that I didn't
see him out there earlier. Ihonestly didn't know who it was because it's
normally the pictures that are out therethrowing early. But it was actually your
don which again I'm not here everyday, but it didn't seem like a
normal occurrence for him. Yeah,that's not normal. And then it certainly
wasn't normal that head trainer Jeremiah Randallwas presiding over the throwing session, you

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know, pretty intently. So Dustywas asked straight out if he's hurt,
and all he replied with was it'sbest right now that we d h him.
If he is compromised in some waythat he cannot play left field,
that is a tremendously bad development forthe Astros because what it does is it
essentially means he's got a DH everyday, and that removes almost any place

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to play yiner Dias. Well,it removes any place to play yiner Dias
as the Astros are currently constructed andas they want to go forward. So
I think that's a huge question thatJordan's probably have to answer at some point.
Is he healthy? Can he goout there and play left field if
they ask him, and you know, I'll be honest with you actions to

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especially when it comes to injuries.With this team. You know, actions
to me speak louder than words.If they can't put him out there in
minute made parks left field behind oneof the one of the sports most high
rated groundball chers. Something's wrong andthat he can't be out there for whatever
reason. I don't know what itis. I don't know what body part.

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It'll probably take me six days tofigure that out. But it's just
if this is going to be somethinggoing that extends in October, it's not
good. Yeah, And when yousaid it, because I was. My
next question was gonna be is therea worst possible time on the calendar,
And I suppose a week from nowcould be worse, seeing as how that's

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just later and closer to a potentialplayoff start wherever that's gonna be, if
it's even gonna start that soon,because if they win the division, they're
gonna have a little bit more timeoff, which would be good news.
But like, you don't want tobe hearing any of this kind of stuff
in late September about a guy thatis important to what you're trying to do
as he is. Well, yeah, but I would actually I would also
add that like and Dusty says,it's all the time, and he's right

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like this time of year, ifyou're not battling through something, then you're
not playing hard, you're not playingyou're not playing intense enough. So at
this stage, everyone is battling forsomething. The fact that Jordan something is
apparently limiting him defensively is a problem, and it's something that you know that

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they're gonna have to either change thedust. He's gonna either have to change
his rigid not gonna pinch it fromAldonado before the eighth or ninth inning,
or they're gonna have to maybe seeif he can the Yiner can play some
first base to get Yaner Diaz isbad in there because otherwise I don't see
a place for him. Hey,we were talking about that with Blummer.
Is Yiner at first base just likethat much of a kryptonite or is it

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like something that is because it looksBut I know what you're gonna say.
You're gonna talk about a brave Butyou know, we all know the answers
to all of these questions. Opposingscouts, Scouts that are advancing the Astros
right now for potential playoff situations,Scouts that are here to see free agents.
You know, I asked them,and they tell me that Yiner Diaz

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is not good at all at firstbase. Oh boy, And I asked,
you know. I mean, becauselook, I see the same thing
you guys see. He can feelthe groundball, he can catch it.
It's more of like when there's aball hitting to the gap, where does
he go for the cut in therelay? A lot of times he's late
to those cuts and relays. It'sa lot about holding guys on first base
and then getting in the position afterto be ready for the next pitch.

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There's a lot of nuance that opposingsin. This is not me just pulling
this out of thing there. Thisis what I've heard from scouts that watch
a lot more and know a lotmore baseball than I do. They are
not impressed with the iron Das atfirst base. Now, could there come
a point when his offense is justtoo great and the value he provides offensively
is just too great that he's gotto be in there. Maybe, But

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we're nine games left in the regularseason and it hasn't reached that point yet.
I don't know that it's going toreach that point. Going yeah,
we've seen him over at first alittle, certainly in warmups, and there
have been some issues even there.We've seen him with do you mentioned,
you know, throws from the pitcherpickoff throws? Two of those that got
by him, though I don't thinkeither one of'em was particularly good.
And I'll ask this again knowing theanswers. Is the chance of you asking

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Justin Orlander before his first postseason starta zero point zero percent that one of
your questions will be, what willit be like throwing to Yiner for the
first time ever? No? Helook, Yer, Yanner's not catching Verlander
or Valdez. And if if,if Alvarez is supposed injury or whatever is
compromising, and if he's not ableto play left if he's not able to

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play left field, Yin Er dealswill not start the first two playoff games
if the Astros get there. Andpresuming that Verlander and Valdez are there to
start those first two games, howdoes it feel to know that hearing you
say that makes me die inside?I mean I maybe would point you to
and look, this isn't gonna makeanybody happier, But like Malda NADOs,
it's not. He's been hitting he'shit a lot. He's he's been hitting

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better, like this is not Imean he he is Yaner the better hitter,
guess. And look the same opposingscouts that tell me some stuff about
Yiner first base, they're not soldon his catching either. And look this
guy still has And I know Dusty, he's been saying it, and he's
right, and he is right.He's got a long way to go.
This is not a finished product.This is not a guy that I think

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could handle right now. You know, catching one hundred and twenty hundred and
thirty games in the big league,says the everyday guy. And you know
he has he gotten better, yes, But and again all the public all
week and consume is the framing metricsis the pop time is the throws.
And I hate to be the bearerof like kind of bad news. But
like the other day when Hunter Brownwas had his bad start, didn't the

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Orioles steal four basses off of their Das? Like everyone thinks that putting
the iron Das back there, allof a sudden, no one's gonna run.
I just want to also have thesame thing to balance that out with
who's who is the base stealer,really stealing the bass off. Right,
there's there. They're stealing off thepictures if their pictures are terrible at holding
runners. And that's something that Dustyis acknowledging. It's something that the Orioles.
You just saw the Orioles exploited herea minute made part. If they

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play the Rays in the postseason,he's are going to exploit these guys.
Yeah, I mean the rule.I mean by WIT's gonna have fifty stolen
bases in this series this weekend,right, and it's not and everyone every
time someone steals a base, it'sall the look who's behind the plate,
Like, no, the pictures haveto be quicker to the plate. They
have to hold runners better. Couldthe catchers make better throws? Sure yes,

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But to say that putting the Iin ideas back there would eliminate the
running game is just not true.Because there are three pitchers on this staff
for Keatie Javier and Hunter Brown.You could put Johnny Bench, you could
put Mike Piazza, you put putj. T. Real Muto, but
whoever you want back there. Theydon't give the catcher a chance to throw

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a guy out. Having gone througha lot of different things that they've dealt
with heading into these final nine games. Looking at the opposition over the final
three series, the way they playedat home, the way they play on
the road, the fact that they'replaying Seattle and Arizona and the Rangers and
Mariners remaining schedule, the Astros sitin first, they went out, they
win the division. What do youreally realistic I think their chances are from

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claiming this division title. I thinkthey do end up winning the division.
I think I can't see and maybelook, maybe I get proven wrong,
but I don't think I think thatMariners Rangers series these seven games, I
think it's gonna be like a fourand three. One team's gonna go four
and three. I don't see oneteam running away with six and one or

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seven and zero. You know,I just maybe it's because I just watched
them for six years, Like Irefuse to believe that this team can play
this poorly at home, and youjust kind of keep waiting for them to
flip the switch. You know,you saw it in the twenty twenty postseason.
You know when they played that sixtygame season, they just played like
garbage for sixty games, like noone. It didn't look like anyone wanted

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to be here, Like it wasa tough situation for a lot of people.
Nobody was here. But then butthen they get they get in the
playoffs, they flipped the switch,and they go like you've seen it in
other times too, when like they'velooked, they've looked down, they've looked.
I mean, look at the twentytwenty one ALCS when I don't think
after Game three at Fenway, anyonethought that team had a chance. They

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flipped the switch. They had really, they had no starting pitching left.
They flipped the switch Fromber pitched thegame of his life, and then they
won and went to the World Series. So I think there is a switch
there to be flipped, and Iwould bet that they're going to do that.
But again, like i'd be disingenuousto say, like actions to me
speak louder than words, And watchinghow this team's played in September, it's

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they're gonna have to play better.I mean. And everyone can hand ring
and I wrote this the other day. Everyone can hand ring about Alvarez sitting
out the game on Wednesday. Theycan hand ring about Dusty's yiner Das decisions
and all like they've got a pitchbetter. Yeah, they're starting pitching in
the second half and especially in Septemberhas been awful. Like they're going no

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way. It doesn't matter who Dustyputs out there in the lineup. They're
going nowhere if they don't pitch better. And I think it's got to start
with Fromber tonight. I think youknow it's they're gonna go overlooked a little
bit, but I think getting goodstarts from France and Brown the next two
nights are crucial because I mean,you kind of expect to win with Fromber
on the Mountain tonight, and youknow they're facing two lesser pictures on Saturday

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and Sunday. But it puts areal tough It makes it real tough for
an offense when they get behind early, like you saw that Oriol series.
They were behind early in every gamelike three or four nothing like. That's
tough on a lineup to think,man, we gotta go out there and
score ten runs. And that's whenyou start pressing, That's when you start
swinging too big. And that's maybesome of what you've seen from the offense

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and why they're so inconsistent. SoI think we can we can talk to
her blue in the face about whetheryin or DS should play, what the
lineup should look like, any ofthat. Like, they need to pitch
better, and they need to pitchbetter starting tonight. Chandler Rome of the
Athletic. He is a fantastic writerand I don't care what anybody says in
this building. He's a fine Americanand a great human being. You can
catch him on Twitter at Chandler underscoreRomie into each and every week. Chandler,

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I appreciate the time. We'll doit next week through the Jags cover
on Sunday. I think there's apretty decent chances. Then you do say,
smash the over. Will cow begrilling steaks or burgers after that game?
Well, that's a great day tobe a Texan either way. How's
my cow? I like Ross's better? Ross. Ross is his Forrest Gump.
Well he's kind of his Forrest Gump. And that's why Chandler is the best