June 5, 2026 • 11 mins
Friday on The A-Team, Chandler Rome joined Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler to discuss Jose Altuve’s surprisingly quick recovery and what it means for the Astros moving forward. Rome also shared his outlook on Hunter Brown’s potential return to the rotation, along with the ripple effect his comeback could have on the club’s pitching plans.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Chandler Rome, the athletic who joins us via the
phone lines as promised to talk all things Astros baseball. Chandler,
we were at the game last night. It was not
something write home about. And that's kind of been the
Astro season, kind of one step forward, two steps back,
a thrilling come from behind victory that I'm sure you've witnessed,
(00:20):
like on a hand, like one hand, you could count
how many games you've seen like that covering the Astros.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
But it just still a series loss.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And now you've got an A's team coming to town
that's kind of had your number recently. I don't even
know what to make of this Astros team, but I
do know that they're happy to get jose L Tuoba
back in a lineup at an astronomically faster paced than
they probably thought they would astronomical.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I see what you did there, Yeah, good job, good job.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I mean, Dusty used to call him a medical marvel
all the time when he managed the team, and it's
right on point. I mean, his recovery from this thing
really surprised a lot of equal just within the organization.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Usually again, as Alsuve is demonstrating not everybody is created equal,
but usually the Grade two oblique strain is like a
four to six week recovery. Al Twovey missed seventeen games
in twenty days. That's pretty remarkable if you're an a
stute listener of the A team, which you should be.
I told you last week that he wasn't gonna go
(01:22):
in a minor league rehabitsiment, yep, and.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
He did not.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
They brought in a couple of pitchers to face him
in live vps at dyk In Park and that was
all he needed.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And he's back in there. And look, he.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
I don't think his numbers are near up to his standards,
or at least they weren't before his injury, but just
I mean just his presence and just the ability that
he has to lengthen the lineup. His upside is far
greater than either Nick Allen or Bryce Matthews, Whomever's gonna
whoever is playing second base uh in his stead. So
it's good to get him back, but they do need
(01:56):
him to kind of round in the form a little
bit to get closer to what you expect to see
from Josel two Vay numbers wise.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
That's what we were talking about earlier, is does it
hope that he can or is there a reason that
he can just considering his age, And I mean it
is the fact that he didn't play for three weeks
of significance that he's fresh.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
No, I think that'll help, because I'm not trying to
start anything here, But I do know he was dealing
with some other stuff too before the oblique thing happened
against the Rangers. I know he was dealing with a
couple nagging things. If you'll remember, like I think right
before that game, he got a kind of a random
day off that didn't really seem to be planned or anything,
But yeah, he had been dealing with a couple of
(02:37):
little nagging things. So I think, just again, getting three
weeks off getting not the way you want it. Obviously,
he never wants to get hurt. He wants to be
on the field all the time. But I think it
could be a little bit of a blessing in the
skies that he got a couple of weeks to decompressed,
a couple of weeks to get everything healthy, feeling right
and getting back in there. But I mean, also, like
(02:59):
the thing you said, like I mean age does come
for us all. You know, you can't deny it. But
if there's anyone I would, if there's anyone I would
bet on to defy aging for a little bit longer.
It says a l two they So we'll see. We'll
see if he can keep that going as he gets
back into line up.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
What was divulged from Joe a spot about Hunter Brown
in his future.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
I'm gonna be completely honest with you. I'm not at
the ballpark today. I've got a family obligation this weekend,
so I will not be in attendance to watch the
Sacramento whatever they are and new shirts. But it sounds like,
just from looking at the people that are there, it
sounds like there's a decision to make. Sounds like he
could come back and make his next start in the
major leagues. That would be a little bit aggressive. I
(03:46):
don't think it'd be completely out of the quest. I
don't think it'd be completely crazy. He just probably wouldn't
be built up to be a traditional you know, you
probably wouldn't see him pitching into the seventh inning. It
would probably be a truncated start, and and you know
they probably would have him on a pitch count of
around sixty five to seventy five pitches, and then maybe
you know, they do have as of this moment, they
(04:07):
do have a pretty large starting pitching surplus, so they
could do it to where they piggyback him with another guy.
If whether that's you know, Mike Burrows, whether that's Emi,
whether that's Kaiwai Tang who is used to coming out
of the bullpen. I think that would maybe be the
most likely option, would be Kaiwai Tang, just giving his
ability to come out of the bullpen. But you know,
(04:29):
there's a lot of different things they could do, but
one thing appears clear that Hunter's he's good. He's rare
to go on the filo, looked good last night, the
results look good. He just it's just a matter of
do they want to build his pitch count again in
Triple A or they are are they okay with saying,
you know what, you can only probably give us seventy
seventy five pitches tonight and go do it at the
big league level.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Since you brought his name up. I know there's just
a little less than one hundred games left in the season,
but this is not gone the way either. Mike Burrows
or the Astros hoped it would have. What do you
think his future, you know, in Houston? What can he
kind of snap out of this? Is this just a
down year because it's not that he's not having innings
(05:10):
where he's not pitching well, and then it seems like
he has the dreaded Burrows inning where he totally burrows everything.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, it's been really weird.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Well, first of all, his future and his future in
Houston is being in Houston.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
He's got last four years of team control.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And that's why, and that's part of the reason why
they coveted him so much is that this was not
someone that necessarily they acquired to be the centerpiece of
the twenty twenty six rotation. It was someone that you
look down the road and this can be kind of
a constant, a mainstay. Now they do need him to
be better in twenty twenty six. But yeah, it's interesting
watching him because I've watched he's made I think thirteen starts.
(05:48):
I think I've I've watched eleven of them in person,
and it doesn't feel like he has a five to
six era, but he does. And it's no debating that
he's got to find a way to keep the ball
in the ballpark. But you say that, and there's plenty
of pitchers that have gone that have you know, given
up a lot of home runs and been successful. Justin
(06:08):
Verlander is at the top of the list. He was
constantly at the top of the home run leaderboard every
year and he still was winning Cy Young's as one
of the best pictures of this generation Justin Verlin. Most
of Justin Verlander's home runs were solo home runs. Mike
Burrows's problem is that he tends to it's his home
runs tend to come a lot of runners on base,
(06:29):
so it's eliminating the walks, it's eliminating, you know, trying
to get a little more missing a little missing a
few more bats, to try to not be so contact reliant,
because there have been times this year where, quite frankly,
he's just been unlucky. He's gotten some soft contact that's
just found holes, he's gotten some broken bat hits, he's
been Crawford boxed a couple times. So I don't think
(06:53):
it is as much of a disaster as the numbers
would indicate. But the numbers are what the numbers are.
At this point, you kind of are what your numbers are,
and the numbers aren't good, so he's got to find
a way to you know, maybe it's sequencing his pitches differently.
You know, when he pitched against the Rangers and pitched
so well, he pitched backwards a lot, you know, a
lot of spin and off speed early in the count
(07:14):
and then fastballs at the end of the count. So
maybe they go back to that. But I think it's
just more a way of he's got to find a
way to limit the base runners because I think the
home runs are just going to be a thing. The
home runs were a thing in Pittsburgh. I think they're
going to be a thing here too. It's just finding
a way to limit base runners when he does and
give them up.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
The last gow on the mound for the Astros, number
fifty two. A little bit different look with his socks yesterday.
But curious what you thought of what he did in
this particular game, and that some could look at it
and say, oh, great, one base runner, three k's all good.
I think that's a foolish way to look at it.
But where do you think things actually stand with him?
And we've heard from Joe again, we've heard from Dana
(07:54):
Brown again. Dana was on with us here in the
morning on Wednesday, talking about a lack of conviction or
confidence going after hitters and really letting it loose. Things
like that were two plus months into the season. All
the peripherals, exit velo, fastball velo, chase with percent, all
those things clearly are different than last year, and the
results are too. Where do you think they are with
(08:15):
the brand and where should they be?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I'm gonna say this, and it's independent of the answer
I'm going to get. I thought he looked better last night.
I thought the fastball velo was up. He was like
pretty constantly ninety five to ninety seven, like it looked like,
oh like it could still be in there. But that
was one outing and every one of them before it
did not match that. So look, Josh Hater's back now,
(08:41):
So the need to try to thrust Brian abrad You
into a leverage role is non existent. Alin Bersonta keeps
pitching very well. I think, you know, I don't think
you're going to see him pitching the eighth inning anytime soon,
but I think he's certainly working his way up to
throwing more important innings. Look as long as Brian A.
Brady's on the roster, he's going to have to pitch.
(09:03):
They can't just ignore them altogether, because that would be
detrimental to the other guys on the team. They would
be overthrowing, over exposing them. He's just they're going to
have to find spots to pitch him where they feel
okay throwing.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Him out there.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
And the way that this team plays that they don't
play many blowout games.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
We've talked about this before. They score a lot of runs.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
I know the offense hasn't been as good as it
was early in the season, but still this is one
of the top run scoring teams in the league. I
know the pitching staff has been better than it was
in April, but this is also still one of the
pitching staffs with the highest eras in baseball. So this
is a team that gives up a lot of runs
and scores a lot of runs. That is the recipe
for not having a ton of blowout games to pitch
(09:48):
Brian A.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Brady in.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
So, I don't know if there is a threshold that
Joe Aspata has in his mind of if we're down
this much, if we're up this much, this is when
I want to throw him, but it's clear that they're
there are other guys on the in the bullpen that
have passed him in the leverage pecking order, and I
think it'll stay that way. And it only it only
made it more, you know, noticeable when Josh Hater is
(10:10):
back now and you can really kind of stretch those
back end guys and it it makes the it makes
it makes Joe able to use those guys in different roles,
and there's just more than to choose from, and Brian
and Brad he's not among them.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Real quick, about thirty seconds, what'd you think about Josh Hater?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It looked good to me.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I was like, I it was weird because like I
barely watched him pitch because I was trying to write
about that frantic comeback.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
But I mean, look, he walked.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
A guy, But I mean, god, I mean he looked
like Josh Hater to me, which is all you can
all you can say after being ten months away, that's
all the astros want to hear. He looked exactly like
you would expect Josh Hater to look.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
All right, Chandler, we appreciate the time as always good stuff,
as always enjoy the family obligation, and we'll see you
when you get back to town, all right, Thanks guys,
It's Chandler Rome, the athletic who joins us via the
phone lines as promised to talk all things Astros baseball. Chandler,
we were at the game last night. It was not
something write home about. And that's kind of been the
Astro season, kind of one step forward, two steps back,
a thrilling come from behind victory that I'm sure you've witnessed,
(00:20):
like on a hand, like one hand, you could count
how many games you've seen like that covering the Astros.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
But it just still a series loss.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And now you've got an A's team coming to town
that's kind of had your number recently. I don't even
know what to make of this Astros team, but I
do know that they're happy to get jose L Tuoba
back in a lineup at an astronomically faster paced than
they probably thought they would astronomical.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I see what you did there, Yeah, good job, good job.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I mean, Dusty used to call him a medical marvel
all the time when he managed the team, and it's
right on point. I mean, his recovery from this thing
really surprised a lot of equal just within the organization.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Usually again, as Alsuve is demonstrating not everybody is created equal,
but usually the Grade two oblique strain is like a
four to six week recovery. Al Twovey missed seventeen games
in twenty days. That's pretty remarkable if you're an a
stute listener of the A team, which you should be.
I told you last week that he wasn't gonna go
(01:22):
in a minor league rehabitsiment, yep, and.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
He did not.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
They brought in a couple of pitchers to face him
in live vps at dyk In Park and that was
all he needed.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And he's back in there. And look, he.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
I don't think his numbers are near up to his standards,
or at least they weren't before his injury, but just
I mean just his presence and just the ability that
he has to lengthen the lineup. His upside is far
greater than either Nick Allen or Bryce Matthews, Whomever's gonna
whoever is playing second base uh in his stead. So
it's good to get him back, but they do need
(01:56):
him to kind of round in the form a little
bit to get closer to what you expect to see
from Josel two Vay numbers wise.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
That's what we were talking about earlier, is does it
hope that he can or is there a reason that
he can just considering his age, And I mean it
is the fact that he didn't play for three weeks
of significance that he's fresh.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
No, I think that'll help, because I'm not trying to
start anything here, But I do know he was dealing
with some other stuff too before the oblique thing happened
against the Rangers. I know he was dealing with a
couple nagging things. If you'll remember, like I think right
before that game, he got a kind of a random
day off that didn't really seem to be planned or anything,
But yeah, he had been dealing with a couple of
(02:37):
little nagging things. So I think, just again, getting three
weeks off getting not the way you want it. Obviously,
he never wants to get hurt. He wants to be
on the field all the time. But I think it
could be a little bit of a blessing in the
skies that he got a couple of weeks to decompressed,
a couple of weeks to get everything healthy, feeling right
and getting back in there. But I mean, also, like
(02:59):
the thing you said, like I mean age does come
for us all. You know, you can't deny it. But
if there's anyone I would, if there's anyone I would
bet on to defy aging for a little bit longer.
It says a l two they So we'll see. We'll
see if he can keep that going as he gets
back into line up.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
What was divulged from Joe a spot about Hunter Brown
in his future.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
I'm gonna be completely honest with you. I'm not at
the ballpark today. I've got a family obligation this weekend,
so I will not be in attendance to watch the
Sacramento whatever they are and new shirts. But it sounds like,
just from looking at the people that are there, it
sounds like there's a decision to make. Sounds like he
could come back and make his next start in the
major leagues. That would be a little bit aggressive. I
(03:46):
don't think it'd be completely out of the quest. I
don't think it'd be completely crazy. He just probably wouldn't
be built up to be a traditional you know, you
probably wouldn't see him pitching into the seventh inning. It
would probably be a truncated start, and and you know
they probably would have him on a pitch count of
around sixty five to seventy five pitches, and then maybe
you know, they do have as of this moment, they
(04:07):
do have a pretty large starting pitching surplus, so they
could do it to where they piggyback him with another guy.
If whether that's you know, Mike Burrows, whether that's Emi,
whether that's Kaiwai Tang who is used to coming out
of the bullpen. I think that would maybe be the
most likely option, would be Kaiwai Tang, just giving his
ability to come out of the bullpen. But you know,
(04:29):
there's a lot of different things they could do, but
one thing appears clear that Hunter's he's good. He's rare
to go on the filo, looked good last night, the
results look good. He just it's just a matter of
do they want to build his pitch count again in
Triple A or they are are they okay with saying,
you know what, you can only probably give us seventy
seventy five pitches tonight and go do it at the
big league level.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Since you brought his name up. I know there's just
a little less than one hundred games left in the season,
but this is not gone the way either. Mike Burrows
or the Astros hoped it would have. What do you
think his future, you know, in Houston? What can he
kind of snap out of this? Is this just a
down year because it's not that he's not having innings
(05:10):
where he's not pitching well, and then it seems like
he has the dreaded Burrows inning where he totally burrows everything.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, it's been really weird.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Well, first of all, his future and his future in
Houston is being in Houston.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
He's got last four years of team control.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And that's why, and that's part of the reason why
they coveted him so much is that this was not
someone that necessarily they acquired to be the centerpiece of
the twenty twenty six rotation. It was someone that you
look down the road and this can be kind of
a constant, a mainstay. Now they do need him to
be better in twenty twenty six. But yeah, it's interesting
watching him because I've watched he's made I think thirteen starts.
(05:48):
I think I've I've watched eleven of them in person,
and it doesn't feel like he has a five to
six era, but he does. And it's no debating that
he's got to find a way to keep the ball
in the ballpark. But you say that, and there's plenty
of pitchers that have gone that have you know, given
up a lot of home runs and been successful. Justin
(06:08):
Verlander is at the top of the list. He was
constantly at the top of the home run leaderboard every
year and he still was winning Cy Young's as one
of the best pictures of this generation Justin Verlin. Most
of Justin Verlander's home runs were solo home runs. Mike
Burrows's problem is that he tends to it's his home
runs tend to come a lot of runners on base,
(06:29):
so it's eliminating the walks, it's eliminating, you know, trying
to get a little more missing a little missing a
few more bats, to try to not be so contact reliant,
because there have been times this year where, quite frankly,
he's just been unlucky. He's gotten some soft contact that's
just found holes, he's gotten some broken bat hits, he's
been Crawford boxed a couple times. So I don't think
(06:53):
it is as much of a disaster as the numbers
would indicate. But the numbers are what the numbers are.
At this point, you kind of are what your numbers are,
and the numbers aren't good, so he's got to find
a way to you know, maybe it's sequencing his pitches differently.
You know, when he pitched against the Rangers and pitched
so well, he pitched backwards a lot, you know, a
lot of spin and off speed early in the count
(07:14):
and then fastballs at the end of the count. So
maybe they go back to that. But I think it's
just more a way of he's got to find a
way to limit the base runners because I think the
home runs are just going to be a thing. The
home runs were a thing in Pittsburgh. I think they're
going to be a thing here too. It's just finding
a way to limit base runners when he does and
give them up.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
The last gow on the mound for the Astros, number
fifty two. A little bit different look with his socks yesterday.
But curious what you thought of what he did in
this particular game, and that some could look at it
and say, oh, great, one base runner, three k's all good.
I think that's a foolish way to look at it.
But where do you think things actually stand with him?
And we've heard from Joe again, we've heard from Dana
(07:54):
Brown again. Dana was on with us here in the
morning on Wednesday, talking about a lack of conviction or
confidence going after hitters and really letting it loose. Things
like that were two plus months into the season. All
the peripherals, exit velo, fastball velo, chase with percent, all
those things clearly are different than last year, and the
results are too. Where do you think they are with
(08:15):
the brand and where should they be?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I'm gonna say this, and it's independent of the answer
I'm going to get. I thought he looked better last night.
I thought the fastball velo was up. He was like
pretty constantly ninety five to ninety seven, like it looked like,
oh like it could still be in there. But that
was one outing and every one of them before it
did not match that. So look, Josh Hater's back now,
(08:41):
So the need to try to thrust Brian abrad You
into a leverage role is non existent. Alin Bersonta keeps
pitching very well. I think, you know, I don't think
you're going to see him pitching the eighth inning anytime soon,
but I think he's certainly working his way up to
throwing more important innings. Look as long as Brian A.
Brady's on the roster, he's going to have to pitch.
(09:03):
They can't just ignore them altogether, because that would be
detrimental to the other guys on the team. They would
be overthrowing, over exposing them. He's just they're going to
have to find spots to pitch him where they feel
okay throwing.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Him out there.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
And the way that this team plays that they don't
play many blowout games.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
We've talked about this before. They score a lot of runs.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
I know the offense hasn't been as good as it
was early in the season, but still this is one
of the top run scoring teams in the league. I
know the pitching staff has been better than it was
in April, but this is also still one of the
pitching staffs with the highest eras in baseball. So this
is a team that gives up a lot of runs
and scores a lot of runs. That is the recipe
for not having a ton of blowout games to pitch
(09:48):
Brian A.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Brady in.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
So, I don't know if there is a threshold that
Joe Aspata has in his mind of if we're down
this much, if we're up this much, this is when
I want to throw him, but it's clear that they're
there are other guys on the in the bullpen that
have passed him in the leverage pecking order, and I
think it'll stay that way. And it only it only
made it more, you know, noticeable when Josh Hater is
(10:10):
back now and you can really kind of stretch those
back end guys and it it makes the it makes
it makes Joe able to use those guys in different roles,
and there's just more than to choose from, and Brian
and Brad he's not among them.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Real quick, about thirty seconds, what'd you think about Josh Hater?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It looked good to me.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I was like, I it was weird because like I
barely watched him pitch because I was trying to write
about that frantic comeback.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
But I mean, look, he walked.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
A guy, But I mean, god, I mean he looked
like Josh Hater to me, which is all you can
all you can say after being ten months away, that's
all the astros want to hear. He looked exactly like
you would expect Josh Hater to look.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
All right, Chandler, we appreciate the time as always good stuff,
as always enjoy the family obligation, and we'll see you
when you get back to town, all right, Thanks guys,
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