August 22, 2024 • 8 mins
The Athletic's Astros beat writer, Chandler Rome joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks about Alex Bregman starting to get work at first base and what could come of him playing that position. He also talks about what to do with Yordan Alvarez in the field. Plus, when we can expect Hector Neris to join the team.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Trying to bring in our good buddy, Chandler Rome of
the Athletic here on Sports Talk at seven ninety Chandler,
I feel like every single time we have you on
the program, there's something not bombshell. But I don't know
what the term is. I'm trying to look for to
describe what's going on with the team.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
This isn't it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
But I do think it's interesting that your last tweet
was talking about Alex Bregman taking ground balls at first base,
just because of the fact that his current situation is
murky at best. We don't know when he's gonna play
third base again, and he's a staple at DH all
of a sudden.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, And in this ballpark, that's not great. It's not
a great news because it means Jordan Alberts has to
play left field. This is a massive outfield, and I
think everyone's gonna be everyone with an Ashers uniform one
is gonna be holding their breath basically anytime a fly
ball goes to the left side. The good news is
that the Orioles have like seven left handed hitters in
(01:00):
our lineup today, so Joe Spot must be hoping that
they all just pull the ball a bunch and pull
it to right field. But yeah, it's a it's a
delicate situation they've got going on. It sounds like, you know,
Alex Bregman kind of let the cat out of the
bag yesterday that his elbows not in great shape. Nothing's damage,
there's no ligament damage or anything. But this is gonna
(01:22):
be something they're going to have to deal with the
rest of the year, and it's not something that's going
to be quickly fixed. So they're trying anything they can
to get him in the lineup somewhere other than DH.
It underscores how inflexible this roster has become just because
of Part of it is roster construction, part of it
is underperformance. Part of it is underperformance by guys that
(01:43):
you thought would be versatile on this roster to help
you out at different positions, and that just hasn't happened.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So Bregman was.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Taking ground balls a bit ago, he was not throwing.
Every other first basement that was taking ground balls was throwing,
So that kind of shows you where he's at throwing
one with Joe A. Spottas said today, wouldn't be surprised
if he plays somewhere defensively on this road trip, So
I wouldn't be surprised if you see him at first
base on this road trip when they do it, I'm
(02:12):
not sure. You've got two huge ground ball pitchers pitching
the next two days, and fromber Valdez and Hunter Brown,
you want your best defensive outfield out there, a defensive endfield,
excuse me. But at the same time, if you put
Alex Reregman at third base behind fromber Valdez, he's going
to get like eight or nine ground balls and that's
probably going to exacerbate the injury.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So maybe you see him at first base. I don't know,
it'll be fascinating to watch unfold.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
But just kind of where they are right now, you
can tell Joe Aspata is not enthused about playing Jordan
Alvarez in the outfield here, but he kind of gave
a deep sigh today and just said.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's where we're at, that's what we have to do
right now.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, it's a situation where you know when you have
to have a certain player at d H here honestly,
you're potentially or at first base, as we're talking about
with Alex. If Alex play first base, that also eliminates
both having both catchers in that day's lineup. Now you
relegated only one spot for the two of them, and clearly,
like today's lineup shows, this is a better offense when
(03:12):
both Diaz and Kartini are in it. Ds is betting
fourth at first Kartini's betting fifth at catcher. Though if
Bregman does play first base, the last time the Astros
had a first basement that was unable to throw the
baseball they played in the World Series, so we'll see
if there's a repeat of that back in two thousand
and five. The Astros should, at some point in the
next handful of days, maybe when they get to Philadelphia's
(03:34):
was reported earlier today have a new arm in the bullpen,
a very familiar face. What do you think about their
pursuit an ultimately unreported are unannounced acquisition of Hector Nares.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, nears saws the pass of physical It's like every
free agent signing, so they's got to see doctors some
I imagine he'll join them at some point when they're
in Baltimore, but it wasn't wasn't today. I don't know
if it'll be tomorrow, But yeah, I think in this
current iteration of the bullpen, it gives them another leverage
arm with with Presley on the il. You know, Hector
(04:07):
Harris has been okay this year. He hasn't been He
hasn't been great. He hasn't been as awful maybe as
everybody on Cubs Twitter or Cubs fandom suggests.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, he's been about what he is.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
He's got a d R a nearing four, got about
a one point five whip.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You know. Last year with the Astros, he did that
a lot. You know, he put a lot of guys
on base. He was just able to get out of it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And he's had wasn't able to get out of some
of them in Chicago. You know, maybe you see maybe
a change of scenery to a lower leverage kind of situation.
I don't think Hector Harris is a closer. I think
he's a guy that thrives more in the setup role,
in a fireman role, something like that, and the Astros
can can give him innings like that, maybe they can
(04:51):
set him up to succeed, but it's just another arm
that that allows them to shorten games, that allows them
to you know, maybe you look at some of these.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Guys that are in the middle relief.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
You know, Taylor Scott has been wonderful for them all year,
but he's had a little bit of a regression and he's.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Approaching career high workloadwise.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Caleb Ort while he's thrown the ball, well, this is
still the same guy that's been DFA twice this year.
Maybe a little bit more certainty, a little bit more
established presence in Hector and Nerris certainly, and you know,
he's beloved in the clubhouse. He's one of the leaders
of this team, was one of the leaders of this
team the last two years along with Martin Maldonado and
(05:32):
Michael Brantley.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
That that they let get away this winter. And you know,
Dana Brown I wrote about this today.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Dana Brown basically said they signed a leedinis Diaz for
his veteran presence and his leadership and basically said that
he wasn't going to play.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
He was just down there to be a veteran leader.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think Nerris is going to pitch more than a
leninis d has played. But make no mistake, this is
the same sort of signing. They wanted a veteran presence
in the clubhouse, a leader, and a guy that's been
around that a lot of these guys were amoting towards.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
They've obviously been paying very close attention to players that
have been DFA, players that have cleared waivers, et cetera,
and trying to fill in some of these holes they have.
Ben Gamble is an example of that. He'll play right
field today, so obviously curious about what they think they
might get in a player who's not been very good
for now several years, barely played at the major league
level for several years. But I also wanted to ask
(06:23):
you if you were had any insight on if they
were interested in other players. At times, Gio Orschella seemed
like a player that might have made sense. Amed Rosario similarly,
both of them have now been picked up by other teams.
You know, if the Astros were interested and just were
unable to bring either of those players here who seemed
like they might make sense.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I don't know if.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
For me, I guess the question would be when did
they know about Bregman's elbow? When did this come about?
When did the team understand how serious this was? Because
Amedrozario and Gio Orchella were both I believe before Bregman
came out and said that his elbow was a problem.
So I think if they were in this situation currently,
(07:07):
I think those two guys fit in very well. But
again i'd have to go back and look at the
dates and know exactly kind of when they were available,
what we knew about Bregman and so forth. You know
Ben Gamble, you know joe'spota. I didn't know this until
just Joe's Botta told us. Say, but he did have
him in New York when when Joe was the wash
on the Yankees coaching staff, so he's familiar with him.
(07:28):
Said they like his bats of ball skills, said he
controls the strike zone well. But again, this is again,
there's a reason he's been dfade, and there's a reason
that he was available this late in the season, And
at this point he's just another option. He's just another body.
I hate to I hate to be So I don't
mean that to demean Ben Gamble, who's seemed like a
(07:49):
very nice man from the two minutes we spoke with
him today, but just that they need any they need
to try anything. They're trying anything and everything right now.
They're playing their franchise Cornerstone, third Basement at first base
like this is as desperate times as the team can
have with a five game lead in the division very quickly.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Who wins the AL East?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think the Yankees win it. I think the Yankees
win it.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I don't like Baltimore's bullpen's That's about the gist of it.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
That's Chandler roam with the athletic. You hear him right
here on the A team each and every week. Chandler
appreciate the time as always.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
All right, thanks Cret.
Trying to bring in our good buddy, Chandler Rome of
the Athletic here on Sports Talk at seven ninety Chandler,
I feel like every single time we have you on
the program, there's something not bombshell. But I don't know
what the term is. I'm trying to look for to
describe what's going on with the team.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
This isn't it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
But I do think it's interesting that your last tweet
was talking about Alex Bregman taking ground balls at first base,
just because of the fact that his current situation is
murky at best. We don't know when he's gonna play
third base again, and he's a staple at DH all
of a sudden.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, And in this ballpark, that's not great. It's not
a great news because it means Jordan Alberts has to
play left field. This is a massive outfield, and I
think everyone's gonna be everyone with an Ashers uniform one
is gonna be holding their breath basically anytime a fly
ball goes to the left side. The good news is
that the Orioles have like seven left handed hitters in
(01:00):
our lineup today, so Joe Spot must be hoping that
they all just pull the ball a bunch and pull
it to right field. But yeah, it's a it's a
delicate situation they've got going on. It sounds like, you know,
Alex Bregman kind of let the cat out of the
bag yesterday that his elbows not in great shape. Nothing's damage,
there's no ligament damage or anything. But this is gonna
(01:22):
be something they're going to have to deal with the
rest of the year, and it's not something that's going
to be quickly fixed. So they're trying anything they can
to get him in the lineup somewhere other than DH.
It underscores how inflexible this roster has become just because
of Part of it is roster construction, part of it
is underperformance. Part of it is underperformance by guys that
(01:43):
you thought would be versatile on this roster to help
you out at different positions, and that just hasn't happened.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So Bregman was.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Taking ground balls a bit ago, he was not throwing.
Every other first basement that was taking ground balls was throwing,
So that kind of shows you where he's at throwing
one with Joe A. Spottas said today, wouldn't be surprised
if he plays somewhere defensively on this road trip, So
I wouldn't be surprised if you see him at first
base on this road trip when they do it, I'm
(02:12):
not sure. You've got two huge ground ball pitchers pitching
the next two days, and fromber Valdez and Hunter Brown,
you want your best defensive outfield out there, a defensive endfield,
excuse me. But at the same time, if you put
Alex Reregman at third base behind fromber Valdez, he's going
to get like eight or nine ground balls and that's
probably going to exacerbate the injury.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So maybe you see him at first base. I don't know,
it'll be fascinating to watch unfold.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
But just kind of where they are right now, you
can tell Joe Aspata is not enthused about playing Jordan
Alvarez in the outfield here, but he kind of gave
a deep sigh today and just said.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's where we're at, that's what we have to do
right now.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, it's a situation where you know when you have
to have a certain player at d H here honestly,
you're potentially or at first base, as we're talking about
with Alex. If Alex play first base, that also eliminates
both having both catchers in that day's lineup. Now you
relegated only one spot for the two of them, and clearly,
like today's lineup shows, this is a better offense when
(03:12):
both Diaz and Kartini are in it. Ds is betting
fourth at first Kartini's betting fifth at catcher. Though if
Bregman does play first base, the last time the Astros
had a first basement that was unable to throw the
baseball they played in the World Series, so we'll see
if there's a repeat of that back in two thousand
and five. The Astros should, at some point in the
next handful of days, maybe when they get to Philadelphia's
(03:34):
was reported earlier today have a new arm in the bullpen,
a very familiar face. What do you think about their
pursuit an ultimately unreported are unannounced acquisition of Hector Nares.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, nears saws the pass of physical It's like every
free agent signing, so they's got to see doctors some
I imagine he'll join them at some point when they're
in Baltimore, but it wasn't wasn't today. I don't know
if it'll be tomorrow, But yeah, I think in this
current iteration of the bullpen, it gives them another leverage
arm with with Presley on the il. You know, Hector
(04:07):
Harris has been okay this year. He hasn't been He
hasn't been great. He hasn't been as awful maybe as
everybody on Cubs Twitter or Cubs fandom suggests.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, he's been about what he is.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
He's got a d R a nearing four, got about
a one point five whip.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You know. Last year with the Astros, he did that
a lot. You know, he put a lot of guys
on base. He was just able to get out of it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And he's had wasn't able to get out of some
of them in Chicago. You know, maybe you see maybe
a change of scenery to a lower leverage kind of situation.
I don't think Hector Harris is a closer. I think
he's a guy that thrives more in the setup role,
in a fireman role, something like that, and the Astros
can can give him innings like that, maybe they can
(04:51):
set him up to succeed, but it's just another arm
that that allows them to shorten games, that allows them
to you know, maybe you look at some of these.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Guys that are in the middle relief.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
You know, Taylor Scott has been wonderful for them all year,
but he's had a little bit of a regression and he's.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Approaching career high workloadwise.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Caleb Ort while he's thrown the ball, well, this is
still the same guy that's been DFA twice this year.
Maybe a little bit more certainty, a little bit more
established presence in Hector and Nerris certainly, and you know,
he's beloved in the clubhouse. He's one of the leaders
of this team, was one of the leaders of this
team the last two years along with Martin Maldonado and
(05:32):
Michael Brantley.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
That that they let get away this winter. And you know,
Dana Brown I wrote about this today.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Dana Brown basically said they signed a leedinis Diaz for
his veteran presence and his leadership and basically said that
he wasn't going to play.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
He was just down there to be a veteran leader.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think Nerris is going to pitch more than a
leninis d has played. But make no mistake, this is
the same sort of signing. They wanted a veteran presence
in the clubhouse, a leader, and a guy that's been
around that a lot of these guys were amoting towards.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
They've obviously been paying very close attention to players that
have been DFA, players that have cleared waivers, et cetera,
and trying to fill in some of these holes they have.
Ben Gamble is an example of that. He'll play right
field today, so obviously curious about what they think they
might get in a player who's not been very good
for now several years, barely played at the major league
level for several years. But I also wanted to ask
(06:23):
you if you were had any insight on if they
were interested in other players. At times, Gio Orschella seemed
like a player that might have made sense. Amed Rosario similarly,
both of them have now been picked up by other teams.
You know, if the Astros were interested and just were
unable to bring either of those players here who seemed
like they might make sense.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I don't know if.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
For me, I guess the question would be when did
they know about Bregman's elbow? When did this come about?
When did the team understand how serious this was? Because
Amedrozario and Gio Orchella were both I believe before Bregman
came out and said that his elbow was a problem.
So I think if they were in this situation currently,
(07:07):
I think those two guys fit in very well. But
again i'd have to go back and look at the
dates and know exactly kind of when they were available,
what we knew about Bregman and so forth. You know
Ben Gamble, you know joe'spota. I didn't know this until
just Joe's Botta told us. Say, but he did have
him in New York when when Joe was the wash
on the Yankees coaching staff, so he's familiar with him.
(07:28):
Said they like his bats of ball skills, said he
controls the strike zone well. But again, this is again,
there's a reason he's been dfade, and there's a reason
that he was available this late in the season, And
at this point he's just another option. He's just another body.
I hate to I hate to be So I don't
mean that to demean Ben Gamble, who's seemed like a
(07:49):
very nice man from the two minutes we spoke with
him today, but just that they need any they need
to try anything. They're trying anything and everything right now.
They're playing their franchise Cornerstone, third Basement at first base
like this is as desperate times as the team can
have with a five game lead in the division very quickly.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Who wins the AL East?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think the Yankees win it. I think the Yankees
win it.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I don't like Baltimore's bullpen's That's about the gist of it.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
That's Chandler roam with the athletic. You hear him right
here on the A team each and every week. Chandler
appreciate the time as always.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
All right, thanks Cret.
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