Chandler Rome on The A-Team: State of Astros Play and JV's Next Step

Chandler Rome, Astros beat writer for The Athletic joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks about how the Astros have looked on the field in this rough six-game stretch. Plus, what is next for Justin Verlander (Bonus, When JV could return to the Astros). 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Our buddy Chandler Rome here on SportsTalk at seven ninety he of the Athletic
stopping by for his weekly visit.Geez, this guy isn't falling enough for
you to make your visit this week, Chandler, is it? I'm not
gonna ask you if it's panic time, but I know a lot of people
are not exactly thrilled with how thingshave gone down. My question to you,

(00:20):
is it a series of tough luck, bad luck type situations, or
is the astro is just not verygood right now. I don't think they're
playing poorly. That's probably my firstpoint. Like, I don't they they
had the ending against the Yankees,or they threw the ball around. They

(00:40):
made a couple base running mistakes lastnight, obviously, and those are gonna
happen. But as a whole,I don't think they're playing poorly. I
think there's been some tough luck.I think there's been some guys not producing.
When Alex Bregman is four for twentythree and Jordan Alvarez is three for
twenty four, that's gonna be hardfor this for this team to overcome that.
You know, they've they've gotten goodenough starting pitching I mean, they

(01:06):
have one of the lowest starting pitchingeras in baseball, but you know,
the starters haven't gotten them that deepinto games. And the bullpen. We
kind of talked about it before theyear. The middle relief was always going
to be a question, and itcertainly has been. And then you know,
Josh Hater has had a couple ofyou know, blips, Uh had

(01:27):
a couple of hiccups. Ryan Presleyhas had a couple of hiccups. So
I mean, again, I don'tthink this is panic. I don't think
it's like they're playing poorly. Idon't think it's they're being outclassed every night.
I just think they're I just thinkthey're running into some good teams too.
And I think that's probably the thingthat maybe concerns me a little bit
more, is that there's no letup coming up, especially in the next

(01:49):
three weeks. They're gonna play sevenof their next ten games against the Rangers,
and then after that seven out often stretch, they come home and
play the Braves for three. Soit's not gonna get any easier coming up,
and they're gonna have to. LikeI said, I think they're playing
okay, but they're gonna have totighten up, they're gonna have to play
better, and they're just gonna haveto win because you know, I can
say all I want about that they'rethey're playing okay, that things aren't as

(02:13):
bad as they seem, but they'restill one in five and that's you know,
it's only six games, but onein five is not a good place
to be on hater in his nowmultiple appearances all a week's worth of appearance
is when the amount of times he'sbeen out there, we've seen quite a
bit. Is there anything of concernabout what he's throwing? The speed that
he's throwing. Clearly his location wasoff last night, especially on the pitch

(02:36):
to Schneider that was smashed, Butare there other things to actually be concerned
about? Specific I guess to hiseither spin rate or more specifically the pitch
speed is velocity, Yeah, velocityis down a little bit, but I
mean he says he feels fine.Usually early in the season, relievers aren't,
you know, throwing top peak velocitythat they did last season. And

(03:00):
I know Brian A. Brady's hada couple appearances where his velocity is a
tick down. He was like thatin the spring training as well. Ryan
Presley the last few years has hadthe first few starts, his velocity has
been down. So I don't thinkvelocity is that big of a deal.
You know, against the Yankees,he just got beat by a generational talent
in Won Soto. I mean,that's that's as good of it at bat

(03:20):
as you'll ever see. Left onleft an elite hitter against an elite closer,
and the elite hitter won. Andthen last night, I mean,
obviously he hangs the slider to DavidSchneider, but I think he'd rather have
back the walk to Justin Turner thatpreceded it two out walks or or never
your friends. So and you know, Josh Hater's paid nineteen million dollars to

(03:43):
close that game out. You know, you can't kind of make excuses for
him. But you also look atthat game and it probably should have been
more than a one to nothing league. You know, the Astros had first
and third with nobody out and didn'tscore a run. Josiel two Bay got
picked off a third base chas McCormickwas out trying to stretch your single to
a double early in the game.So you kind of look at areas where

(04:03):
they maybe could have gotten some runsin things like that, and it maybe
shouldn't have been a one to nothinggame. But still, I mean,
Josh Hater is here to close gameslike that out, so I'm not concerned
about him, but certainly not thedebut I think he was envisioning. Probably
didn't expect some of these numbers thatwe've gotten through six games with the starting
pitching. You've got five guys thathave made a start, Frambers made two.

(04:25):
Four of them have had an outingwhere they didn't allow any earned runs,
including yesterday with Valdez. Only JP, who has not made his second
start yet, though probably will thisweekend if all goes well. He's on
the paternity list. But starting pitching, for the most part, definitely after
the opener, has been exceptional.Is this something that, and you can

(04:46):
add in what we learned about Verlandertoday, share that with our listeners.
Is that something that is at leasta mild surprise that they're so good this
first time through. I was mildlysurprised at Ronald Blanca through an Yes that
more than mildly surprised, But Imean Christian Hobber looked good. All spring,

(05:12):
and I think we kind of thoughtthat last year was maybe a little
bit of a bullip. He camein looking thinner, like really really had
had a nice spring, and hecarried that over in his first start fromber
was much better last night than hewas an Opening Day. But even on
opening Day, he saw the sinkerwas back, he was getting ground balls.
There wasn't a ton of line drivecontact, and he just wasn't commanding

(05:34):
it well. Last night, hecommanded it well, and he had the
sinker the movement and the depth thathe wants on it to get ground ball
outs. And then you know HunterBrown again, another guy that had a
really good spring. He's still gotto find a way to get deeper into
games and be more efficient. Butyeah, I'm not that surprised that those
three guys pitched well. You know, JP Frantz kind of did what JP

(05:56):
France does against the Yankees. Gavethe team a chance to win. Was
not dominant by any stretching the imagination, but was also, you know,
not bad either. And then youknow, Renald Blanco kind of had an
out of body experience on Monday,And that's what I wrote about the athletic
this morning, just kind of Ithink a lot. Maybe Ronel Blanco his
his task has only become harder nowbecause when that's your first start of the

(06:19):
season and you got to follow thatup, and you know, this is
a guy that's only made eight majorleague starts. His next start will be
on national television on Sunday Night Baseballin Arlington, so he'll have another big
stage to try to conquer there,and it'll be interesting to see how he
responds. Whether he's a legitimate,viable member of this rotation, whether they
can stretch to six when Justin Berlandercomes back and you know, Ronel Blanco

(06:44):
is that sixth starter, or whetherhe's just more of a swingman kind of
profiles as a bullpen guy. Butit'll be fascinating to see how he responds
to that, because you know that'she's had a lot going on in the
last forty eight to seventy two hoursjust with media requests and everything that went
on. His life has changed dramatically, So it'll be interesting to see how

(07:04):
he follows that up. And thenyou mentioned Verlinder, sounds like he's going
to start a rehab assignment on Sundaystart in Sugarland. Joe spot Up said
today that Verland will probably throw aboutseventy or seventy five pitches in that first
start in Triple A. They'll wantto get him another minor league start to
get him up till about eighty eightyfive pitches, and then they they're optimistic

(07:28):
he'll be ready to rejoin the rotationafter that. And if he stays on
schedule and if he pitches every fifthday, that would make his return against
the Braves here at minute may Parkthe last game of that series on April
seventeenth, which would be one heckof a matchup in Berlin. Are coming
back to the big leagues to facethat Brave lineup? No pressure in your
first outing of the year. ChandlerRoam of the Athletic joining us here on

(07:51):
Sports Talk seven to ninety. Allright, I'll say it does Dusty Baker's
statement about Jiner Diez look even worsein light of how he has started the
year individually. What do you makeof a guy that everybody thought it was
obvious he needs to play more.He's he's the better option. And I
know it was argued to death adnauseum and all of that last year.

(08:13):
But he's definitely doing his part moreoften than not here in the early going.
No, he is, And butI also would I guess I would
reply that my Twitter mentions every timethe bullpen gave a game up last year
or the pitching wasn't good, wasto blame the catcher. And you know,
are we not blaming the iiner Diasfor the bullpen having an ad r

(08:37):
A through seven through six games.I mean, you can't have it both
ways when you're doing and I thinkeverything that went on last year, Look,
he needed to play more. Theyneeded to find they needed whether it
was at first base, whether itwas at DH, whether it was left
field, at Minute Maypark, theyneeded to find a way to get a
bat and the line up more.They didn't. That's water under the bridge.
Now he's he's doing everything offensively thatI think we saw last year,

(09:01):
and he's doing a little bit moretoo. He's he's already drawn three walks
in the first six games of theseason. He had eleven walks total last
year, which is mind blowing.And I think part of that is,
you know, he's learning a littlebit more how pitchers are going to pitch
him when he's going to get,you know, chase breaking balls, when
he's going to get breaking balls onthe zone, how pitchers are going to

(09:24):
sequence stuff against him. And he'slearning to be a more situational hitters to
when he should swing out of hisshoes, when he should swing aggressively,
and when he should maybe take acouple of pitches. And see what this
guy has. So I've been moreimpressed at the plate discipline and just the
working the walks. And I meanlast night, I was talking to somebody
in the organization today and I said, and I think this is true.

(09:48):
Like I've already seen Yiner Diaz gettingmore three to zero counts in the first
six games of this year than Iprobably saw in the first four months of
last season. And it's been reallyinteresting to see how much he's grown in
that aspect. And if he canrefine that, then I mean, there's
no stop in this guy offensively.And look, he's been fine behind the
plate. You know the starters youmentioned, I mean, they they pitched

(10:11):
very well. The bullpen has not. So I don't know how much does
he deserve blame for that, howmuch does do the pitchers? How much?
I don't know because last year,all I was told on social media
every time that the Astros pitching staffstruggled was that it was all the catcher's
fault. One positive to talk about. We haven't seen Jordan in the outfield
a ton, although a couple ofgames here and there. I think it's

(10:35):
probably what Joe had in mind.Maybe a little more as the season progresses.
But he was out there last night, and he was the front side
of the relay that got to Bregmanthat got Bashett out at the plate?
Could are we underestimating how he couldactually help the team because he has such
a good outfield arm. It's clearlybetter than Chaz's or Jake's. And curious,

(10:56):
if I missed it in the courseof the game, why didn't the
Blue Jays ask for a replay challengeon that play at the plate to argue
that Karattini had blocked the plate.I don't know. They probably should have
because that's one of those rules thatseems like it comes into play a lot
and seems like it's something that theyprobably had a good shot that at least
get a decent look at. ButI don't know why they didn't review it.

(11:18):
But yeah, Jordones always had astrong, accurate throwing arm, so
has to work on some of hisreads off the bat. He's not He's
not slow by any means. He'sathletic, but he's not fast, and
he's you know, when you've gotChas and Chas and left field and Myers
in centerfield, you probably have abetter chance of running down balls in the

(11:41):
gap, things like that. Butyou know, Ordon as confident out there.
They're not just putting him out thereand praying that nothing gets hit to
him. As you saw last night. They're fine with him out there.
Now do they want him out therein bigger ballparks? Do they want him
out there on turf like they're goingto be in Arlington for the next four
games where it could mess up withhis knee and his legs. You know,
the guys, and this is notjust a Yordon thing, like a

(12:03):
lot of the guys in that clubhousesay that the turf in Arlington is among
some of the worst in the league. So they don't love playing on it,
and I wonder if, and Iwonder if they'll avoid playing on it
at all. But that notwithstanding,he's a fine outfielder, but their best
defensive group is still Chas McCormick andleft, Jake Myers and center, and

(12:26):
Kyle Tucker and right. So Ithink you'll see jord On and left.
More win guys like Fromber and HunterBrown, pitch guys that generate more ground
ball ground ball outs than anything,Guys that aren't necessarily going to get a
bunch of stuff hit to the outfield. Chandler, We always appreciate the time,
of course, the Astros writer forthe Athletic and Major League Baseball.
The Astros in search of their secondwin of the season tonight as they close

(12:48):
out the week's worth of games atMinute Made Park, their home ballpark where
they're the home team that supposedly hasthe advantage. Will revisit that topic down
the road if warranted. Appreciate it, Chandler, M all right, thanks guys,