April 15, 2024 • 41 mins
Space City Home Network's Geoff Blum joins The A-Team for a pair of visits this week. He talks about why Astros fans didn't see him on TV this weekend. Plus, what this weekend's series against the Rangers oculd mean for this Astros team going forward.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
You look at it. Look atit. Oh yeah, this is radio.
You listen to it on Sports Talkseven ninety. Astro is broadcaster Jeff
Blum on seven ninety is drawn toyou by low T Center. He's here,
He's in the flesh. It isJeff Blum here on Sports Talk seven
(00:22):
ninety, joining us for his doubleweekly visit. Oh, I gonna make
up for lost time. That's right. I kind of burned Friday last week.
Well you were. You had avery good reason. Let's just jump
into it. Yep, you've beenhanging out at the Masters. I have
been in Augusta, Georgia, Georgiafor the last three days, and it
is If you've ever been, youknow what I'm talking about it. But
if you haven't been, and youhave an imagination of what it might be,
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it will exceed your expectations because everythingyou've seen on TV, everything you've
heard about it. For a weekin Augusta, that is the only week
you want to be in Augusta.But it's it's it's amazing. Three of
the top five restaurants I think inthe entire city are only open a week
a year, and they're at thegolf course. But it's as glorious as
you would imagine it to be.The conditions were crazy, the golfers were
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playing amazingly well, and UT's favoriteson, Scotti Scheffler, won his second
green jacket. So that was alot of fun to watch. But at
the same time, what a lotof people don't know is the reason I've
been to Augusta about three or fourtimes now. And if you watch Real
Housewives of Beverly Hills, which Iknow Clinton has seen maybe an episode or
two or twenty five thousand, oneof the stars of that is Sutton Strack
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and I've literally known her since ourkids went to school together in junior kindergarten
man. So we established this relationshipwith good fifteen sixteen years ago. And
she's a native Augustine and she's alwayssaid, if you get a chance,
come out to Augusta, we'll putyou up at our house, which is
an unbelievably gorgeous and massive house withplenty of room. And she has tickets
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through family to Augusta and the Master'sChampionship, so we ride those coattails generously
and we're on scholarship in Augusta.And it was fantastic, like knowing old
money like that. It's incredible.And you know what's even crazier is like
the lineage in Augusta and the likethat southern accent, that true Southern accent,
Like, come on down here,son, I want to show you
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what it is like to go toa golf tournament. I'm like, yes,
ma'am, and it's a blast.But no, there's some serious legacy
out there and it's it's a lotof fun to be around. And it's
even better to be on the coursebecause you don't have a cell phone,
so you're literally forced not forced,but you're you're encouraged to talk to other
people or be in awe of what'shappening, talking to that person next to
you. Where are you from?Is this your first time? How many
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times you been? That kind ofstory, So it kind of it kind
of opens itself up to communicating withpeople. And if you hear a roar
on the other side of the course, you literally have to watch the manual
scoreboard to see what the heck happens. So that's even more fun. Among
the list of all these awesome thingsthat you saw experienced, all these Masters
related items hit us with one.What's one this song, I'll never forget
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that, or this just was ultimatelycool, and then we'll get to the
Astros dominating the Rangers. Okay,So in twenty nineteen, we were actually
at the Masters. That was theyear that Tiger won. In twenty nineteen.
What a fifth sixth jacket? Idon't even know what it is.
But there was a moment where allthe concession stands are kind of tucked back
behind the golf course a little bit, so you don't see them in camera
shop whenever they show any of thecourse, so it's kind of sneaky.
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But we were sitting at the eighthgreen in the stands with a bunch of
friends and we said, hey,we're going to get three dollar beers.
Who wants one? And everybody raisedtheir hands. So my wife and I
took off. We crossed the secondfairway to get to the concession stand.
We load up. I've got aboutfour or five beers, pimento, cheese,
egg salad, all of this stuff. Hands are full. My wife
is the same way, and weare the last people trying to cross the
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second hole, so you know,they open up the little barrier, there's
a walkway. We're hustling across andthe guys like yelling at us. It's
like, because we were literally thelast two before they closed the rope to
let these guys play through. AndI stop and I look to my left
up at the tea box, andmy wife is like what, and I
go, babe, stop, Igo look at the tea box and there's
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a dude leaning on his driver witha red shirt on and black pants.
Tiger Woods is on the tea box, mad mugging us. Oh it was
awesome. And I'm like, babe, oh that's Tiger Woods. He's waiting
for us. Okay, wait asecond. What was more intimidating when he
mad mug you or when Randy Johnsonwanted to kill you on a diamond?
Oh well Randy Johnson. I enjoyedthat. Well, that was like that
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was like personal, intentional and likeI made a Hall of Famer mad.
So I was like, that wasawesome. I was a little more like,
oh, crap, he's got achance to win and we're sitting he's
waiting with us. You know,if we ruin his rhythm and he implos
after the second hole, we cansay hey, no, yeah. But
it was awesome. That was probablylike one of our more memorable moments other
than just you know, watching greatgolf and seeing some great sights. Yeah,
Cheffler ends up winning going away.He was awesome down the stretch.
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Nobody else was. Thus the gapgot bigger and bigger as he wrapped up
five starts at Augusta for Scheffler,and he's won two of them, nearly
one here in Houston missed a putton eighteen which would have forced a playoff.
He's having another sensational season and is, as the win suggests, the
number one player in the world.Improved it on that very course there in
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Augustin soon with will be a father, as he everyone was asking about that
all week or you're gonna have toleave, in which he said he absolutely
would have if his wife, Meredithmade the call, probably about two weeks
out from scheduled delivery date. Butas he called it, he said,
pregnancy is weird. Anything could happen. You never know what's gonna what's when,
the date might be here, whateverthe case may be. So all
that took care of that great weekendfor you. Back in the booth with
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TK for the series against the Braves, the games you were not here for
he scored a lot of runs.A lot of guys contributed to scoring a
lot of runs. It wasn't yourdOn going eight for sixteen with four bombs.
It was on any given day anybody, truthfully, anybody in that lineup
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the last three days contributed well.And that's what's good. I'm actually looking
forward to, you know, preppingfor today's game against the Atlanta Braves.
The Atlanta Braves number one offense,I mean arguably in the National League.
So you've got two of the bestoffenses going in these ball games here,
and you both have teams in similarsituations as far as starting rotations. Yeah,
you know Darius Vines going tonight.I mean, I had to do
a little bit of work to tryand figure out who this guy was and
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what he did last year. So, I mean, you've got some young
pitching going in these games against verygood offenses. But it was very encouraging
to watch the Astros go out therekind of read the box stores and see
who was doing what. But theone thing for me with the Astros is
is the runs per game is stillkind of low for me considering how good
the offense is. But I thinkall of that will catch up eventually by
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the end of the season, we'llbe back to four and a half five
plus runs per game. But atthe same time, it's encouraging to watch
them score early and then score often. And I think that's the biggest thing
is watching them score often will helpthis pitching staff kind of get its feet
back under him too. Yeah,to your point, just one quick thing
on Statistically speaking, there's four teamsin Major League Baseball with seven eighty ops
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are better. The Astros are oneof them. They have eighty runs scored.
Each of the other three are atninety one or better. And that's
a considerable mount this early in theseason. Seventeen games being behind by eleven
runs, that's a lot of runs. Well, and that's okay, So
that's how they lost. Like forexample, the first game against Kansas City,
they scored early, and that firstweek or the first four games against
New York by right, and thenthey would just stop, you know,
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and so and that was a problembecause then when you need to mount that
comeback or that rally, you can'tnecessarily do it. But you know,
listen, if there has ever beena scenario where there would be early season
panic button mentions or actual pushes ofthe button by either the fan base or
people, and you know, whatever, this has been it because it's relative
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to what you're expecting from this team, where they were last year, how
that season ended, all that kindof stuff. How much did you allow
yourself to get because as someone thatlike went through the grind every single year,
you've seen it all. How muchwas it easier for you to just
be like, Okay, hang on, because I know what we've got here,
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and are you still I guess isthe main question? Well, I
was always saying, you know,around that fourteen to or you know,
fourteen to twenty games, you cankind of start multiplying and start exact,
you know, kind of you know, extrapolating out a little bit and saying
this is who they might be.But I still don't think that's real.
In April, We've always said youcan't win a maybe you can't win a
championship in April, but you canlose one, or you can fall out
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of contention. But I just stilldon't think that they fall out out of
contention of anything, because they're fortunateeven if. But that's why I feel
like everybody else is kind of beatingup and on each other or getting off
that slow start. I think,Man, I can't realize a row,
which is weird. Well, didn'tsomebody write an article in the Athletics say,
and the astros are you know they'rerisking their streak in the alcs?
You just wrote that on April fifteenth, And I'm side to Ken Rosenthal.
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That's who it was. Okay.I didn't want to say his name because
I wasn't sure who it was,but it was Ken Rosenthal. And I
mean, I appreciate the research andthe effort that goes into that kind of
stuff. But knowing that you're twoand a half games back and all you
have to do now two wild cardsto get into the playoffs, all you
got to do is get to thedance. How many wild card teams have
we seen play well and win WorldSeries or get the Championship Series? So
I kind of discount all that,and I understand how two vas probably the
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voice of reason. And I lovethe fact that once you've played long enough
in the big leagues, because allof us have had a slow start at
one time or another. If youplay more than five or six seasons,
you're gonna have a junk April thatyou're just frustrated with personally, and you
realize by the end of the season, the back of the baseball card still
adds up to what you've been ableto do and be consistent at throughout the
course of the season. So itall kind of evens out a little bit
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as far as you know my talentlevel and what I'm able to do throughout
the course of a season. AndI think that's where al Tuve was too,
was saying, you know what,we've had slow starts. I've had
slow starts. I believe in thisteam we're gonna be there, And I
think he's right. And you alsothink about the adversity he's played through his
entire last four years. But what'sgonna phase that guy. He's not gonna
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be phased. He's used to twowins in the first two weeks exactly seemingly,
it's so ridiculously different, even thoughhe's been through the losing, the
literal win loss part of it.Yeah, he's like, this is nothing
like for those teams. He's like, Yeah, I'm not surprised. This
is who we're going to be.I know what we have here and that's
what makes this year so different,which he was also trying to say,
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I do know who we are andthis ain't it, and what we've done
over the last couple of days isstarting to show you that's more like and
how they pitched when they were herefor the last home series against Toronto,
that's probably more like what they expectto have where they could have easily won
all three of those games. Thestarting pitching was excellent, and obviously they've
had some issues. They've used morepitchers than anybody else in baseball already this
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season, and based on what JustinVerlanders said today here at Minute May Park,
basically leaving it up to Joe Spota. If he gets the ball on
Friday against the Nationals for his firstmajor league start, that'll push the Astros
total to twenty two pitchers used.And we're will be three weeks into the
season. I'll show you some thingsthat have happened here. Spencer Arraghetti gets
the ball today, so we'll startour conversation back up on the other side
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about his first outing and today's firstouting at home literally for Spencer Arigaty back
here in Houston. Jeff Blum herewith us on a Monday at Minute May
Park right here on Sports Talk sevenninety You like free stuff. We all
like free stuff. Guess what ouriHeartRadio app is free and free never sounded
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so good back here inside Minute MadePark, which is now closed unlike what
it was when we spoke earlier onthe Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas,
but we are joined here on theeighteen Live for a Minute May Park by
Jeff Blum, Astro's TV analyst forSpace City Home Networks. Sliding back in
the booth tonight for this three gameseries against their former National League compadres.
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They've had a good start, notan overwhelming start to their season, pitching
like everybody else, suffering through thesame types of things. The odds on
favorite for National League Cy Young Awardwill not win the Cy Young Award this
year Spencer Striders. The season unfortunatelyhas already come to a close after just
a couple of starts due to armsurgery, though opting for non Tommy John
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surgery, still gonna be out forthe year, but hoping for a slightly
quicker recovery. Injuries to the Astrospitching staff, most notably Framber Valdez caused
the Astros to make two moves lastweek and have two pitchers make their major
league debuts, first Blair Henley,who was sent back down after and then
Spencer Arraghetti, who pitched against theKansas City Royals. Two strong innings a
third inning, a big time struggle, knowing the situation the team was already
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in. He probably threw more pitchesin that inning than he would have otherwise.
But now he's rested and ready tomake his first start back here in
Houston where he's from for his hometownteam. What you think about how he
threw and reacted to his first outing, and then how you think he might
like things here pitching in his hometown. I love the first two innings,
but I think there was a littlebit of an adjustment made by the Kansas
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City Royals. We saw a goodfastball in the mid, you know,
load to mid nineties, and intrying to figure out what that cutter was
doing, basically, I'm talking toSteve Sparks and I actually got a scattering
report from somebody else that kind ofsaid that his cutter is more like a
Gyroe ball. I had to getsome clarification on a gyro ball, considering
I don't know what a gyro isother than a sandwich, and it's basically
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a slider that he or a changeor a cutter that he developed. It
kind of turned into a backup slider. And if you talk to a lot
of hitters over the years, theysay the best pitching baseball is a slider
that backs up because you're anticipating apitch that's going to break across the plate.
But when you have a slider thatspins and then just does not break,
it usually jams a guy. Youget soft contact, and it sounds
like Spencer Arraghetty along with some otherpictures of his generation, have found out
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a way to get the spin tolook like a slider, but it doesn't
break like a slider, so it'stough for these guys to pick up and
adjust to. He threw some goodones early on, struck out the first
two batters of his big league career, and you're saying, okay, he
creates some swing and miss like hetalks about. And then I think Kansas
City kind of figured out that hespent a lot of time if you're facing
home plate, he spent a lotof time on the glove side, that
outside portion of the plate to righthanded hitters, and I think the hitters
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started to lean out there a littlebit and started to get base hits.
He didn't get crushed. I thinktwo of the seven hits he did give
up were hit hard by today's standards, So it was a lot of soft
contact, but it was a lotof traffic out there and eventually led to
that inning that blew up. Andobviously, with the way the pitching staff's
gone, it's put Joe a spotin a very tough spot to leave a
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young pitcher out there just to basicallytake it on the chin. But I
think he handled it very nicely.Considering postgame, he didn't say terrible things
about the team or the performance.He just said, I've got some things
to learn and I'm looking forward tomy next opportunity. So I think today
will be interesting against a very goodteam. Well, that's the funny thing
is you've got the similar situation withthe Braves right now. Because of that,
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like you, they're not gonna getany sympathy from the Astros and vice
versa, so you have a youhave potential to have an explosive series here.
Considering who the starters are for bothteams. Yeah, it could be
very interesting because there are back endsof the bullpen that are good for both
teams. But you're so like you'resaying, how do you get from the
starter to the bridge to the backend of the bullpen? And do you
have enough runs? Or are yougonna have to go out there and win
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a twelve to ten game. Arewe gonna be sitting here for three and
a half hours as it turns intojust this slug fest, which you know
as well as I do, allof us watching enough baseball, that's what
we could anticipate, and that verywell could not be what happens. That
we could have some very good baseballgames because both these teams are high caliber
World Series challenging type teams that playgood defense. So if these pitchers can
actually pitch to contact and use thedefense, it could be a little bit
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of a different game. But it'sgonna be very tough to attack that zone
early and get ahead of some ofthese Braves hitters for arraghetti, And I
know we're talking about the Braves now, but just looking back a little bit
simply because this came up, youknow, earlier in the hour. The
reason that it's not as much ofa panic situation for the Astros is because
of what else is going on theend of the division, including with the
team that just left town. Yeah, with its tail between its legs after
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getting I mean, I know FridayNight happened. But the Astros are like,
and they did that to Nathan Valdi, their ace. Well, I
know that they're beat up too.They've got to de Grom and Sures run
the injured list, But at thesame time they have a history with Valdi
and they want to sash him.Yeah, I call him a bum on
this show because against the Astros heis okay. And he proved it again.
Yes, he didn't even text meback because he knew I was right.
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You guys put up the graphic hityesterday. It somewhat would play out
this way for obvious reasons. Whatis Evaldi against the Astros in his wins?
What is Evaldi against the Astros inhis losses? Obviously there's some well
we know what they're gonna be toa certain extent, but these were so
far in one direction to the other. Either he's going to dominate them or
he's going to get shelled and especiallywell, it's crazy. What have Aldi
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said after the game is why people, I hope by this point, decade
plus into his career, in hispursuit for three thousand hits, will realize
it's he's such a good hitter inthis way is, I think is the
best way to describe it. Novaldisaid it because it's hard to get him
out. The pitch he hit outin the opening ab not a strike,
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not in the zone and pretty muchexactly where Ivaldi wanted it way out of
this. Why would he even swingat this? And even if he does
great, he's gonna weakly hit itor he's gonna swing through it because it's
in his eyes and I'm all said, on to the next battle, and
he crushes it above the sea inthe chicken sign on the foul pol I
don't even think people realize how farhe actually hit that first home run because
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he was standing there at the boxlike Carlton fisk Old reference and making sure
it stayed fair and that's where ithit the foul pel on as I wouldn't.
It's not a pitcher's pitch, it'sa pitch he intended to throw to
not get hurt by and he hitit out of the park. No.
I read some of his comments fromNathan Valdi about that game, and he
was going basically at bat to abat and pitch by pitch against Josel Tuove.
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It sounded like he was just kindof having this career summary in the
in the matchups that they had.But you could read the pain, the
disdain, the frustration, and theword he said after the second home run,
oh yeah on TV, dude,bleep yeah truck starting with a yes
exactly. But the fact that hesaid that he can do damage in it
and out of the zone, Becausehow do you pitch somebody that can do
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damn it, not just get ahit, right, But to your point,
when extra pitch up out of thezone and hit a three hundred and
ninety five feet if you're doing damagein the zone, you tip your cap
because he got a strike. Butif he does damage outside the zone,
you're going, what the hell doI have to do to get this guy
out? I gotta throw a threefeet off the plate, But he's pumping
ninety six up out of the zoneand he can still get to it and
keep it fair. That's what's astonishingto me. But I thought it was
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funny that one that he f bombedat second home run. He was say,
al two, A f bombed him. I guess because it was a
pitch right down the middle. It'salmost like Ifaldi said screw it, I'm
just gonna chuck it. See whathappens this way. Well, that's what
they always said about Tony Gwynn.They said, he's such a good hitter,
I'll throw it down the middle.He won't know what to do with
it, but what to do withit, Yeah, it's it's actually but
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there was comical how good he isright now? Well yeah, but also
against Evaldi because they put a graphicup of you know, guys that have
this amount of home runs versus eachgrind it's like a thing. He doesn't
have more than three homers against anypitcher he's ever faced the history of his
major league career, except if Aaldi. He's got seven against Nolan Ryan.
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There's not a pitcher in the historyof the game that has more than four
to oh hitters except for Noling,He's got seven. Nobody has a fifth
day, he's got a seventh.So he's hit four more home runs against
one pitcher. Granted, he's seenhim a bit. I'm sure it's not
the guy he's seen the most.I'm sure he's seen him quite a bit.
But yeah, the two he hityesterday, it's only two. Nothing
after those hits, those horrors.But these are things that I think put
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the Astros in a little bit differentframe of mind as it would for any
team. When your guy, yourtable setter, your George Springer sets the
table in that way. And asmuch as two three, four, two,
three, six and seven in theorder recently have been hitting well,
they are still driven by that guyat the top. What he is doing
is usually how this team goes,and he's gotten off to an incredible start,
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and the team will look for athird consecutive win. They're six and
eleven after winning the series against theRangers. They've now won two of their
series so far this season, andthen they do have the season series edge
on Texas a little more than halfwaythrough the season series, a little more
than halfway through their season series withthe Rangers, after seventeen games, they
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only a little like left against them. I like the balance schedule a little
bit, but I can't stand thatyou're almost I mean, you're basically done
with them for the rest of theyear. That's just why. Well,
I don't like their face, soI like it. Say you're gonna be
done with him on what July?Or I love August? See a face
planting out there and right trying tocatch that ball. My daughter sent me
that video. It was great,so funny. I'm like, what is
(20:25):
this and they're like, oh,Dad, you're gonna love this. That's
awesome. Yeah. You know whatelse is awesome is watching it on Infinity
And you know what, anytime youwant to hear Todd Kallis scream Train number
twenty seven has just left Union Station, you gotta watch it on Infinity because
well you'll hear Blumber as well.And you're gonna get Walla Wall Wi Fi
only on the Infinity ten G networkand Blom. You have been speaking for
(20:48):
them for a long long time.You know better than anyone that you're not
the only one in the house usingit. Oh man, everybody's on that
thing. No. I put themto the ultimate test, you know,
the Walla Wall Wi Fi. Whenwe started to work with them, we
were wondering how we were gonna beable to have four high schoolers a wife
who works from home, and obviouslymyself who's just greedy and wants to watch
a lot of sports and get mywork done. And it worked out extremely
(21:10):
well. We were but Wi Fispeeds were extremely good and I was able
to download, get all the prepdone, you know, print everything off,
and still watch the shows I wantwhen I wasn't at the Masters.
But at the same time, Waldawall WiFi has been great, great for
us. Exfinity has been a trooperfor us. I absolutely love watching and
talking into my remote. Yeah,that's the best part is the convenience factor
(21:30):
and you know, fast speeds throughoutyour home, reliable connection in every room,
all of it. And the goodnews is this isn't just something that
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(21:53):
to do is go to Exfinity dotCom one eight hundred Exfinity or visit a
store today. Infinity proud sponsor ofyour Houston Astros. Back to Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler eight on Sports Talkseven nineteen for the corner and that home
of your Astros. Back out hereminute May Park who x AC on the
(22:15):
eighteen, joined by Jeff Blum,Astros analysts based City Home Network three with
the Braves beginning this evening Spenseraghetty,Hunter Brown, JP Franz set to throw
for them. Justin Verlander speaking alittle bit earlier out here is second of
his two rehab appearances now in therear view through Saturday as a member of
the Hooks against the rough Riders.Very similar outing statistically speaking. Threw a
(22:38):
lot of strikes and they hit alot of them in one of the three
innings that he pitched. But healso said today everything that he wanted to
do took place, feels good aboutwhere he is, kind of leaves the
decision in the hands of his managernow if in fact he will make his
major league debut when the Astros arein Washington for their upcoming road trip,
which begins on Friday. I talkeda little bit about Joe spot and his
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you know, first couple of weekshere, don't want to make any grand
decisions, but I was applauding himfor what he's doing with the lineup.
He also feels pretty convicted about whatone, two, three, and four
when all healthy will be and hasmade no changes there. But the rest
of the lineup five through nine prettyclearly is based on matchups and performance,
and today's a really good example ofthat. You're one through seven hitters.
(23:23):
If McCormick's yesterday is a sign ofthings to come, if pain his hitting
streak is a sign of what's goingon, Bregman's now back in the lineup,
that's what lengthening the lineup is.That's what giving the picture no opportunity
to breathe with what they've tried itout there today. No, I love
the fact you brought u Joan.I actually believe it was one of the
first conversations we had to start theseason was would Joe have the guts to
(23:47):
maybe move or massage that first basearea, or if Jiner Diez, who
started the season in that seventh spot, if he was swinging the belt,
what would he move him up?And we kind of speculated that he would,
and Joe has gone out there andbasically kind of proven to us,
maybe not in so many words,but saying how the lineup is constructed,
that I will put guys in betterpositions if they play better, because we
need to have all those bats goingat the same time. We've always talked
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about the length of the order.If everybody is who they are, this
is a great lineup and we stillhaven't seen what we hope possibly could be
a jose A Brady, but we'renot sure how that's going to turn out.
But moving him down to that eightspot for Joe Aspota a rookie manager
with a veteran player, that isnot easy to do. And I know
it has a lot to do withpersonality of Joe, his ability to communicate
(24:30):
and obviously a previous relationship with joseA Bray to bring him in the office
and kind of have that understanding goingback and forth, because that's hard to
do to an All star, anMVP from back in twenty twenty. It's
really hard and not to innerrupt,but like, no, do you think
because it was his first year lastyear and it was a new deal and
(24:51):
you didn't have the prior relationship,and I'm not This isn't even Dusty versus
Joe. This is just the scenariothat it was. But Joe was there
that plays into this? Or isthis just a matter of Look, I'm
just gonna do it's best with myfor my team. Well, how much
easier would it be to hear thatif you're a ballplayer, even in your
normal job, if you get calledin and you get reprimanded because you're not
(25:11):
performing up to the quality that Iexpect you to, and I got to
say, I gotta do something betterfor my my business or for my organization,
and I have a better option,and then guess how. And I've
always told this to my daughters.I had this told to me. If
you don't like it, change it. Isn't it funny? Or if basically,
if you don't like a play betterlike all of us, if we
were getting paid a lot of money, yeah, if well someday I didn't
(25:37):
mean for it to sound like that, but yeah, never like if you're
if you're getting paid a ton ofmoney relative to the lack of production.
But at the same time, abread could be under a lot of pressure
saying I have up to this contractit's a new city up this all of
this would be like, ah,yeah, you're you know, yeah,
none of us would get the amountof the same time. I mean at
the same time I would have.I would hope that if you paid me
(26:00):
that you'd have the expectation put onme to go out there and perform as
well. And I think that's whereyou kind of have that tough issue because
you don't want to You don't wantto break the guy. You don't want
to just bury him. You wantto say, hey, we know you
can do it. We got tofind a way to get you to do
it. So let's work together tomake this happen. And if it means
going down in the order to getyou warm, get you hot, I'll
move you right back up as soonas you're swinging the bat. Well,
we just want to try and finda way to get you going. I
(26:22):
can't help but think of some ofthese comparisons to you know, Joe pencil
Pusher and Bob Briefcase, Like whenyou're going to good like when you're going
to work and trying, you're writinga report, you're handling a case,
you're whatever effort is you're doing.There's not someone taking your pencil away,
ripping up your first draft. There'sa picture on the mound trying to make
Jose Obray or any jobs there,continuing to try and trying to make you
(26:42):
awful. There you're figuring it outthere, making you try again a totally
different way. It's and it's baseballof all things, where man, you
failed seventy nine percent of the time, you're two to ten hitter. If
that well, if you fail sixtynine percent of the time, you're a
three ten hitter, you're awesome.But your fam you failed seventy five percent
of the time, it'd be better. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
(27:04):
it's it's it's hard to say,you know. I mentioned this when we
were out here about two fifty.The first Astros position player on the field
today getting in some early VP onthe field, and I presume he does
that a lot underneath anyway, ButJose Bray was out there, does Victor
Karattini. They underestimate that he doeswork his stale off well for sure,
and by all accounts a really goodclubhouse guy. Yeah no, I don't
know how much interaction you've had,but he is one of the more pleasant
(27:26):
guys i've ever seen in my life, and I didn't know him until last
year. He's great. That's whatsucks about this, And that's why you're
still kind of cheering for him too, because you want to see him turn
around because for that reason, andyou know how damn good this offense already
is, you add that to it. Okay, So he got a couple
of days where he wasn't in thelineup Saturday and Sunday. He was obviously
out there. Prior to Saturday's gameagainst the Rangers. He had four hard
(27:48):
hit balls that's balls hit at ninetyfive or better. He had five in
the two games Saturday and Sunday.Several of them were groundouts to first.
They probably got around late on,but still basically barreled up. You can
look at it any way you want. It's not necessarily a forecast of things
to come. And he's still mixedin. You know, a slider over
the plate that he swings through orover, and you know guy overpowering with
(28:10):
a fastball in the lineup tonight playingfirst base the Astros. We'll try to
again with a third straight game withSpencer Araghetty getting the start. A lot
of different things we've already talked aboutsome of the guys that could be on
their way back. I mentioned Verlanders. So one last thing and when we
come back, if we could,Jeff is kind of our thoughts on what
that might mean with his return,and your thoughts on what minor league pitching
(28:36):
rehab appearances might mean, if anything. So we'll do that as we continue
here on a Let's see, it'snot Friday, it's a Monday edition of
the A Team here on Sports Talkseven to ninety. Of course, this
is the A Team Wex and AChere with, you know, the two
of us like talking to you aboutall the great things going on over classic
Elite Chevy surey Land or a classicElite Chevy Highways. No better place for
(29:00):
you to go find that brand newvehicle of your dreams. I was actually
over at Classic Elite Chevy Highway sixover the weekend, and again they're open
for you on Sundays as they alwayshave been since. Jeff and Tiffany Sebastian
want to make sure the opportunity foryou go find that vehicle is what's there
for you on a Sunday if that'swhat best suits your needs. Zero percent
(29:21):
interest on Silverado's for seventy two months. How about fifteen thousand dollars off select
Silverado's right now employee pricing for everyone, seventy five hundred dollars off twenty twenty
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to go visit the GM Dealer ofthe Year. They've been the GM Dealer
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(29:42):
When you make your way on overto either Classic Elite Location, Classic Elite
Chevy Sugarlander, Classic Elite Chevy Highwaysix, you tell them, madam Weorkxer
sent you by. We are backhere with you live from minute May Park
one additional segment with Jeff Blum herewith us. We'll be back with us
on Fridays. Team makes their wayout on the road. And as we
went to break there, I mentionedthat Justin Verlanders should be done with his
(30:06):
appearances on his Texas tour of theAstros. Top Affiliates, pitched in Frisco,
pitched in sugar Land, and hopefullywe'll next pitch in DC for the
Astros. Whether it's Friday or Saturdayor I guess Sunday, he's undetermined,
but we know the statistical results.And we heard from JV after his start
(30:26):
with sugar Land and then earlier todayfollowing his start from the weekend against Frisco
in Frisco, so we know thoseparts of it. He maintains that this
is exactly what he hoped would happen, same as he did through all his
bullpen sessions. Granted, of coursehe'd love to see the results a little
different. But if he says everythingthat he wanted to be in line for
him to pitch and help this team, then is it just a matter of
(30:47):
he knows what he's talking about,he will be ready to face major league
hitters. Yeah, you know what. It's interesting, and I'm kind of
on that same idea with Justin Verlanderbecause basically those are just spring training starts.
If he'd have done this in springtraining, guess what we do,
we'd be like, Okay, he'son track to start Opening Day or whatever
it was. But now it's youknow, and now it's Friday of this
week, hopefully in Washington, dC. Depending on how everything goes and
(31:10):
how the conversations, but or whateverJoe Spott wants because Justin basically said I'm
ready if you need me, andI think we might have an idea of
what that means. But at thesame time, this being like a spring
training start, I don't think we'dbe phased if this was happening in March.
We'd just be like, Okay,it's just another start. He's healthy,
Let's get him out there and gethim playing again. And it's just
a matter of time and the thingsyou want to hear from a guy like
(31:33):
Justin Verlander that's a veteran, understandshis physicality, understands what he's trying to
accomplish to get back to the bigleagues. He's saying all the right things.
How's the ball coming out of myhand, how's the shape on my
breaking ball, how does my pitchgo? How do I feel making that
quick step off the mound to coverfirst? Just simple things like that,
and then how does he feel thenext day? And everything that he's saying
how he feels the next day asa forty one year old is all trending
(31:56):
in the right direction. So Ithink that he's healthy, he's happy,
his mind is right, he soundsgreat, and maybe a little bit of
recognition, knowing that this team coulduse a leader in that rotation might be
helping him, you know, speedthings up a little bit, all right.
So I saved this firm about anhour ago when we almost first brought
it up with something that took placeon Friday night, Astros Rangers. Astros
(32:16):
are four and ten and losing twelveto three, and it's seventh inning and
Brock Burke is on the mound.It's pretty obvious he's throwing at Jordon Alvarez
over and over, and he'd alreadybeen hit in the game, mind you,
And then he succeeded and buried afastball into his front elbow. Jordon,
unhappy, didn't do anything over otherthan stand there like, why are
(32:38):
you trying to hit me with anine run lead after nothing's happened over the
first four or three plus games ofour four plus games of our season series?
And he went down to first anda couple of pitches later, Kyle
Tucker took Burke over the fence,way over the fence, stared him down,
gave an emphatic Untucker like bat flipto show everybody in the building,
(33:00):
including all the Rangers on the bench, all the Rangers in the bullpen,
all the Rangers fans, and thepitcher and catcher. I do not like
that. This is what I'm gonnado about it. And then I was
worried. For the next two atbats of the Rangers in that game.
There weren't any more hbps. Thereweren't any more incidents the rest of the
weekend. There four and ten atthe time they fall to four and eleven
(33:22):
in that game. Is that atough spot for this team and the way
things were going to handle? Didthey handle it properly by answering it with
a baseball play, Yes, onehundred percent. And I want to know
why it keeps happening. I mean, you're gonna throw out the best player
in the game of baseball. Iknow you're upset about a dolars Garcia,
but come on, I mean,I think we're kind of past that point.
You've got that isn't the big enoughlead, the big lead enough.
(33:44):
And I don't understand why you goout there throwing it guys, trying to
harm them in that way, especiallywhen it's bad for the game of baseball,
when you don't have your done onthe field, when you don't have
a Dolas Garcia on the mount.I feel like the Astros after Brian and
Bray who paid his fine of two, you know, two game suspension,
we're all past set. We movedon. But there's a certain angst and
a certain envy, I will sayof the Rangers towards the Astros, and
(34:07):
maybe they're just disappointed. They don'tknow how to handle it. Otherwise we're
just gonna throw it them. AndI don't think that's a really good baseball
way of going out and do it. I think, in a baseball way,
if you really want to announce yourpresence, you go out there and
win ball games. You've got thetrophy, you you stole a quote for
your championship parade party. You know, you keep taking things or trying to
get things from the Astros, andit makes you look terrible, not to
(34:28):
mention your big home run hitter actslike a petulant child when he gets hit
and Jordan didn't. Yeah, Jordan, But that's the maturity of it too,
is Jordan's like, I understand,I'm the best player, one of
the best players I know. There'sfrom Lacuna Juniors in the building tonight.
There are other guys out there thatare equally as good as Jordan Alvarez,
but he understands I am one ofthe best. I have a target on
(34:49):
my back every single time I goout there, not in the sense that
you're gonna drill me, but inthe sense you're gonna pitch your best pitch
against me. And I still goout there and succeed. So I understand
Giordana is understanding that I have thatkind of attention. But when you start
drilling me, you know what thattells me. It tells me you've quit.
It tells me that you don't wantto challenge me, and you're just
gonna throw at me and try andmake me mad. But I'm gonna take
my hit by pitch. I'm gonnatake it slow. I'm gonna let you
(35:12):
understand that I do not appreciate beinghit, but I'm gonna go down to
first base. I'll let one ofmy other boys pick me up. And
that's what Tucker did, and Ithink that's kind of cool. Even though
they didn't win the game. Ithink it really spoke about the Astros team
and what if That's one of thoseseminal moments that we look back on in
the middle of August. I hopeit is when the Astros take the lead
and they're like, you know what, they kind of they poked the bear.
Well, Evar got pissed. Yeah, everything about what took place from
(35:34):
that moment on suggests exactly what you'retalking about. They outscored the Rangers twenty
two to seven the rest of theseries, won the final two games of
the series. Scored eight or morein every game of that series, including
that being the start of a fiverun inning which they never got a hold
of handling controlling the Astros offense.After that, they actually lost a pair
of lefties over the last handful ofdays. They lost Bradford, who'd gotten
(35:57):
off to a great start. Hewent to the eye l with a back
injury. The picture we're talking about, he Mayton himself. He punched a
wall after that incident and oh youdidn't know about that is going on.
You know what's crazy to me stillis they have the trophy in their back
pocket. They just got their ringsand they're still acting like look at the
pin the parade they're talking about AlexBregman, like they're just the most they're
(36:20):
so predictable. There's such is oneof those respectable probably the reason they finally
got their bleep together too. Absolutely, I completely agree. I can't even
enjoy it because rent free, whichyou have to explain that to Wex.
He doesn't understand what rent free meansto this day. Well, in their
situation, that's a really good example. I think they just won the World
(36:40):
Series. You don't play the Astrosin the World Series, you play an
ash So why are you thinking aboutthem? The Astros comment that they stole.
I mean, they've been winning thedivision over the four teams in the
division. They've won the division overTexas one time last year. They weren't
winning it technically over them any other. So the comment that Bregman makes really
(37:01):
doesn't have much to do with theRangers. It's you know, yes,
and and it makes sense was morenationally yes, of course, But then
again, you're celebrating your championship twoweeks after even facing the Astros, and
who put the attention back right?Yeah, the Diamondbacks are the last team
he played, not the Astros.But okay, whatever you need man oh
Man, Yeah they are. Theyare full time squatters inside if you're saying
(37:25):
doing something when said what he saidabout everybody wondering. That's accurate. People
were like, get these guys outof here. They're not gonna win.
They're not gonna win. Nobody waswondering if the Rangers were gonna win the
World Series. And comic after that, what was said there after Seeger finally
got his first real ring after theydestroyed the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, he
didn't have to like worry about playingin front of placards after sixty games.
(37:49):
Yeah, honestly, it was areal season and they I mean, it's
it's amazing. I mean, winningthe World Series is something special no matter
who you do it against. Butat the same time, you will there
is no there are twenty nine otherteams, but there are plenty of players
who have played with the Astros,but that you will never understand the scrutiny
or the pressure of playing in anAstros uniform since the seventeen champions they've dealt
(38:15):
with And I think that kind ofgoes back to Hose how two Bay's comments
saying, you know what we getup to, slow starts, We'll be
fine. We got a good ballclub. We can score. But understanding
what they go through on a dailybasis everywhere. That's what we talked about
last week. The slow starts isnothing right in the idiot fan the casual
would say they brought it on themselvesand they didn't even get punished. Exhibit
(38:35):
A. The draft picks that theylost are finally catching up to them.
Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, like it's to say that. But
even if you did want to saythat and be stupid, which you would
be, that was collectively bargained forthe millionth time. The layers that are
mad about that union voted for it. They paid the dues to the union
that protected them, and that's whyyou have a union. I really hate
(39:00):
people sometimes because they're so dumb.Well, it's hard for us because we
keep ramming into that wall yeah,of stupidity, and you're like, okay,
they're not gonna let us through.I just forget. Like even the
fan base, like any fan basearound the country, wouldn't have been able
to take what Astros fans have hadto just claw off of them for at
no fault of their own because theirkids did something. It has spawned a
(39:21):
unique fan base here in Houston,Man, and it's that's life stuff right
there. There's kids that we're dealingwith that like that that makes you bitter?
I like it. Yeah, geton man, Yeah it's good,
it's good fuel. All right,you've got to do your day job.
We'll get you over to that.But we we appreciate you as always.
Blummer, glad you're back in fromthe masters. Yeah, and everything that
(39:44):
came with it. I wish Icould say it was rested. We know
you're not, man, but atleast we we can thank the people that
make it possible as well. Yeah, Jeff Witz and his Vision group have
been very good. Obviously. Youknow, he is at the forefront of
all of the technology and all ofthe in innovation as far as trying to
make that your make sure your eyehealthis what it should be. He has
been at the cutting edge with everybodythat is trying to make you a better
(40:07):
human. And of course that kindof tails into low T Center, who
I've been working with for quite abit. Low Tcenter dot com. Fellas,
I trust me, get out there, figure out what they can do
for you. Not only have theyhelped me maintain my ability to to still
feel like a professional athlete at moments, not at this given moment, but
they make me feel like I canstill go out there and do it.
(40:28):
And a lot of it's because theygo in there, they take my testosterone
levels, they make sure I'm performingat the appropriate levels. And they can
also help you with sleep, apneaor high cholesterol, all that kind of
stuff. Little low T Center dotcom a lot of places around here in
the greater Houston area to go checkthem out. So low Tcenter dot Com
and the Jeff Witch at Vision Groupare my people. All right, Blummer,
you're our people, and we willsee you Friday. Right here,
(40:49):
you guys kind of fired me uptoday. I'm ready to go. I
think we'll be in that room,but I can't promise anything. All right,
Well, are you gonna get onthe plane or are you gonna stay
here to do the show? Yeah, I'll be on the plane. Oh
you know what, but I thinkwe'll talk to you on the phone instead.
I just changed my mind. I'llbe an hour ahead. It's all
right. You guys know I don'tlook any like further ahead at the schedule
than tomorrow. No, that's oneof the funniest things about sports, Like
(41:12):
what's today? I always say tothis guy's got I wish someday, I'm
gonna do a screen grab of justthe schedule this maniac puts together. And
I have no excuses. I havenone. Look at it. Turn your
monitor around and show him right now. Just get your OCD fill in.
Oh dear God, that's a spreadsheet. Yet and yet I say stupid ass
things rockets games, I do someTV games. We got a show to
(41:35):
do, we got guests to fillin with a lot of information. And
yet I'm like, we'll be back. You're afraid you and I are better
because of WEX and TV. Surewe're the same. Idiots. Sometimes stick
for yourself over there there, Wewill let you go. Thank you,
You look at it. Look atit. Oh yeah, this is radio.
You listen to it on Sports Talkseven ninety. Astro is broadcaster Jeff
Blum on seven ninety is drawn toyou by low T Center. He's here,
He's in the flesh. It isJeff Blum here on Sports Talk seven
(00:22):
ninety, joining us for his doubleweekly visit. Oh, I gonna make
up for lost time. That's right. I kind of burned Friday last week.
Well you were. You had avery good reason. Let's just jump
into it. Yep, you've beenhanging out at the Masters. I have
been in Augusta, Georgia, Georgiafor the last three days, and it
is If you've ever been, youknow what I'm talking about it. But
if you haven't been, and youhave an imagination of what it might be,
(00:44):
it will exceed your expectations because everythingyou've seen on TV, everything you've
heard about it. For a weekin Augusta, that is the only week
you want to be in Augusta.But it's it's it's amazing. Three of
the top five restaurants I think inthe entire city are only open a week
a year, and they're at thegolf course. But it's as glorious as
you would imagine it to be.The conditions were crazy, the golfers were
(01:07):
playing amazingly well, and UT's favoriteson, Scotti Scheffler, won his second
green jacket. So that was alot of fun to watch. But at
the same time, what a lotof people don't know is the reason I've
been to Augusta about three or fourtimes now. And if you watch Real
Housewives of Beverly Hills, which Iknow Clinton has seen maybe an episode or
two or twenty five thousand, oneof the stars of that is Sutton Strack
(01:30):
and I've literally known her since ourkids went to school together in junior kindergarten
man. So we established this relationshipwith good fifteen sixteen years ago. And
she's a native Augustine and she's alwayssaid, if you get a chance,
come out to Augusta, we'll putyou up at our house, which is
an unbelievably gorgeous and massive house withplenty of room. And she has tickets
(01:52):
through family to Augusta and the Master'sChampionship, so we ride those coattails generously
and we're on scholarship in Augusta.And it was fantastic, like knowing old
money like that. It's incredible.And you know what's even crazier is like
the lineage in Augusta and the likethat southern accent, that true Southern accent,
Like, come on down here,son, I want to show you
(02:13):
what it is like to go toa golf tournament. I'm like, yes,
ma'am, and it's a blast.But no, there's some serious legacy
out there and it's it's a lotof fun to be around. And it's
even better to be on the coursebecause you don't have a cell phone,
so you're literally forced not forced,but you're you're encouraged to talk to other
people or be in awe of what'shappening, talking to that person next to
you. Where are you from?Is this your first time? How many
(02:34):
times you been? That kind ofstory, So it kind of it kind
of opens itself up to communicating withpeople. And if you hear a roar
on the other side of the course, you literally have to watch the manual
scoreboard to see what the heck happens. So that's even more fun. Among
the list of all these awesome thingsthat you saw experienced, all these Masters
related items hit us with one.What's one this song, I'll never forget
(02:57):
that, or this just was ultimatelycool, and then we'll get to the
Astros dominating the Rangers. Okay,So in twenty nineteen, we were actually
at the Masters. That was theyear that Tiger won. In twenty nineteen.
What a fifth sixth jacket? Idon't even know what it is.
But there was a moment where allthe concession stands are kind of tucked back
behind the golf course a little bit, so you don't see them in camera
shop whenever they show any of thecourse, so it's kind of sneaky.
(03:19):
But we were sitting at the eighthgreen in the stands with a bunch of
friends and we said, hey,we're going to get three dollar beers.
Who wants one? And everybody raisedtheir hands. So my wife and I
took off. We crossed the secondfairway to get to the concession stand.
We load up. I've got aboutfour or five beers, pimento, cheese,
egg salad, all of this stuff. Hands are full. My wife
is the same way, and weare the last people trying to cross the
(03:40):
second hole, so you know,they open up the little barrier, there's
a walkway. We're hustling across andthe guys like yelling at us. It's
like, because we were literally thelast two before they closed the rope to
let these guys play through. AndI stop and I look to my left
up at the tea box, andmy wife is like what, and I
go, babe, stop, Igo look at the tea box and there's
(04:00):
a dude leaning on his driver witha red shirt on and black pants.
Tiger Woods is on the tea box, mad mugging us. Oh it was
awesome. And I'm like, babe, oh that's Tiger Woods. He's waiting
for us. Okay, wait asecond. What was more intimidating when he
mad mug you or when Randy Johnsonwanted to kill you on a diamond?
Oh well Randy Johnson. I enjoyedthat. Well, that was like that
(04:27):
was like personal, intentional and likeI made a Hall of Famer mad.
So I was like, that wasawesome. I was a little more like,
oh, crap, he's got achance to win and we're sitting he's
waiting with us. You know,if we ruin his rhythm and he implos
after the second hole, we cansay hey, no, yeah. But
it was awesome. That was probablylike one of our more memorable moments other
than just you know, watching greatgolf and seeing some great sights. Yeah,
Cheffler ends up winning going away.He was awesome down the stretch.
(04:50):
Nobody else was. Thus the gapgot bigger and bigger as he wrapped up
five starts at Augusta for Scheffler,and he's won two of them, nearly
one here in Houston missed a putton eighteen which would have forced a playoff.
He's having another sensational season and is, as the win suggests, the
number one player in the world.Improved it on that very course there in
(05:12):
Augustin soon with will be a father, as he everyone was asking about that
all week or you're gonna have toleave, in which he said he absolutely
would have if his wife, Meredithmade the call, probably about two weeks
out from scheduled delivery date. Butas he called it, he said,
pregnancy is weird. Anything could happen. You never know what's gonna what's when,
the date might be here, whateverthe case may be. So all
that took care of that great weekendfor you. Back in the booth with
(05:35):
TK for the series against the Braves, the games you were not here for
he scored a lot of runs.A lot of guys contributed to scoring a
lot of runs. It wasn't yourdOn going eight for sixteen with four bombs.
It was on any given day anybody, truthfully, anybody in that lineup
(05:55):
the last three days contributed well.And that's what's good. I'm actually looking
forward to, you know, preppingfor today's game against the Atlanta Braves.
The Atlanta Braves number one offense,I mean arguably in the National League.
So you've got two of the bestoffenses going in these ball games here,
and you both have teams in similarsituations as far as starting rotations. Yeah,
you know Darius Vines going tonight.I mean, I had to do
a little bit of work to tryand figure out who this guy was and
(06:16):
what he did last year. So, I mean, you've got some young
pitching going in these games against verygood offenses. But it was very encouraging
to watch the Astros go out therekind of read the box stores and see
who was doing what. But theone thing for me with the Astros is
is the runs per game is stillkind of low for me considering how good
the offense is. But I thinkall of that will catch up eventually by
(06:36):
the end of the season, we'llbe back to four and a half five
plus runs per game. But atthe same time, it's encouraging to watch
them score early and then score often. And I think that's the biggest thing
is watching them score often will helpthis pitching staff kind of get its feet
back under him too. Yeah,to your point, just one quick thing
on Statistically speaking, there's four teamsin Major League Baseball with seven eighty ops
(06:57):
are better. The Astros are oneof them. They have eighty runs scored.
Each of the other three are atninety one or better. And that's
a considerable mount this early in theseason. Seventeen games being behind by eleven
runs, that's a lot of runs. Well, and that's okay, So
that's how they lost. Like forexample, the first game against Kansas City,
they scored early, and that firstweek or the first four games against
New York by right, and thenthey would just stop, you know,
(07:18):
and so and that was a problembecause then when you need to mount that
comeback or that rally, you can'tnecessarily do it. But you know,
listen, if there has ever beena scenario where there would be early season
panic button mentions or actual pushes ofthe button by either the fan base or
people, and you know, whatever, this has been it because it's relative
(07:38):
to what you're expecting from this team, where they were last year, how
that season ended, all that kindof stuff. How much did you allow
yourself to get because as someone thatlike went through the grind every single year,
you've seen it all. How muchwas it easier for you to just
be like, Okay, hang on, because I know what we've got here,
(07:59):
and are you still I guess isthe main question? Well, I
was always saying, you know,around that fourteen to or you know,
fourteen to twenty games, you cankind of start multiplying and start exact,
you know, kind of you know, extrapolating out a little bit and saying
this is who they might be.But I still don't think that's real.
In April, We've always said youcan't win a maybe you can't win a
championship in April, but you canlose one, or you can fall out
(08:20):
of contention. But I just stilldon't think that they fall out out of
contention of anything, because they're fortunateeven if. But that's why I feel
like everybody else is kind of beatingup and on each other or getting off
that slow start. I think,Man, I can't realize a row,
which is weird. Well, didn'tsomebody write an article in the Athletics say,
and the astros are you know they'rerisking their streak in the alcs?
You just wrote that on April fifteenth, And I'm side to Ken Rosenthal.
(08:43):
That's who it was. Okay.I didn't want to say his name because
I wasn't sure who it was,but it was Ken Rosenthal. And I
mean, I appreciate the research andthe effort that goes into that kind of
stuff. But knowing that you're twoand a half games back and all you
have to do now two wild cardsto get into the playoffs, all you
got to do is get to thedance. How many wild card teams have
we seen play well and win WorldSeries or get the Championship Series? So
I kind of discount all that,and I understand how two vas probably the
(09:05):
voice of reason. And I lovethe fact that once you've played long enough
in the big leagues, because allof us have had a slow start at
one time or another. If youplay more than five or six seasons,
you're gonna have a junk April thatyou're just frustrated with personally, and you
realize by the end of the season, the back of the baseball card still
adds up to what you've been ableto do and be consistent at throughout the
course of the season. So itall kind of evens out a little bit
(09:28):
as far as you know my talentlevel and what I'm able to do throughout
the course of a season. AndI think that's where al Tuve was too,
was saying, you know what,we've had slow starts. I've had
slow starts. I believe in thisteam we're gonna be there, And I
think he's right. And you alsothink about the adversity he's played through his
entire last four years. But what'sgonna phase that guy. He's not gonna
(09:48):
be phased. He's used to twowins in the first two weeks exactly seemingly,
it's so ridiculously different, even thoughhe's been through the losing, the
literal win loss part of it.Yeah, he's like, this is nothing
like for those teams. He's like, Yeah, I'm not surprised. This
is who we're going to be.I know what we have here and that's
what makes this year so different,which he was also trying to say,
(10:09):
I do know who we are andthis ain't it, and what we've done
over the last couple of days isstarting to show you that's more like and
how they pitched when they were herefor the last home series against Toronto,
that's probably more like what they expectto have where they could have easily won
all three of those games. Thestarting pitching was excellent, and obviously they've
had some issues. They've used morepitchers than anybody else in baseball already this
(10:31):
season, and based on what JustinVerlanders said today here at Minute May Park,
basically leaving it up to Joe Spota. If he gets the ball on
Friday against the Nationals for his firstmajor league start, that'll push the Astros
total to twenty two pitchers used.And we're will be three weeks into the
season. I'll show you some thingsthat have happened here. Spencer Arraghetti gets
the ball today, so we'll startour conversation back up on the other side
(10:52):
about his first outing and today's firstouting at home literally for Spencer Arigaty back
here in Houston. Jeff Blum herewith us on a Monday at Minute May
Park right here on Sports Talk sevenninety You like free stuff. We all
like free stuff. Guess what ouriHeartRadio app is free and free never sounded
(11:13):
so good back here inside Minute MadePark, which is now closed unlike what
it was when we spoke earlier onthe Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas,
but we are joined here on theeighteen Live for a Minute May Park by
Jeff Blum, Astro's TV analyst forSpace City Home Networks. Sliding back in
the booth tonight for this three gameseries against their former National League compadres.
(11:37):
They've had a good start, notan overwhelming start to their season, pitching
like everybody else, suffering through thesame types of things. The odds on
favorite for National League Cy Young Awardwill not win the Cy Young Award this
year Spencer Striders. The season unfortunatelyhas already come to a close after just
a couple of starts due to armsurgery, though opting for non Tommy John
(11:58):
surgery, still gonna be out forthe year, but hoping for a slightly
quicker recovery. Injuries to the Astrospitching staff, most notably Framber Valdez caused
the Astros to make two moves lastweek and have two pitchers make their major
league debuts, first Blair Henley,who was sent back down after and then
Spencer Arraghetti, who pitched against theKansas City Royals. Two strong innings a
third inning, a big time struggle, knowing the situation the team was already
(12:22):
in. He probably threw more pitchesin that inning than he would have otherwise.
But now he's rested and ready tomake his first start back here in
Houston where he's from for his hometownteam. What you think about how he
threw and reacted to his first outing, and then how you think he might
like things here pitching in his hometown. I love the first two innings,
but I think there was a littlebit of an adjustment made by the Kansas
(12:43):
City Royals. We saw a goodfastball in the mid, you know,
load to mid nineties, and intrying to figure out what that cutter was
doing, basically, I'm talking toSteve Sparks and I actually got a scattering
report from somebody else that kind ofsaid that his cutter is more like a
Gyroe ball. I had to getsome clarification on a gyro ball, considering
I don't know what a gyro isother than a sandwich, and it's basically
(13:05):
a slider that he or a changeor a cutter that he developed. It
kind of turned into a backup slider. And if you talk to a lot
of hitters over the years, theysay the best pitching baseball is a slider
that backs up because you're anticipating apitch that's going to break across the plate.
But when you have a slider thatspins and then just does not break,
it usually jams a guy. Youget soft contact, and it sounds
like Spencer Arraghetty along with some otherpictures of his generation, have found out
(13:28):
a way to get the spin tolook like a slider, but it doesn't
break like a slider, so it'stough for these guys to pick up and
adjust to. He threw some goodones early on, struck out the first
two batters of his big league career, and you're saying, okay, he
creates some swing and miss like hetalks about. And then I think Kansas
City kind of figured out that hespent a lot of time if you're facing
home plate, he spent a lotof time on the glove side, that
outside portion of the plate to righthanded hitters, and I think the hitters
(13:52):
started to lean out there a littlebit and started to get base hits.
He didn't get crushed. I thinktwo of the seven hits he did give
up were hit hard by today's standards, So it was a lot of soft
contact, but it was a lotof traffic out there and eventually led to
that inning that blew up. Andobviously, with the way the pitching staff's
gone, it's put Joe a spotin a very tough spot to leave a
(14:13):
young pitcher out there just to basicallytake it on the chin. But I
think he handled it very nicely.Considering postgame, he didn't say terrible things
about the team or the performance.He just said, I've got some things
to learn and I'm looking forward tomy next opportunity. So I think today
will be interesting against a very goodteam. Well, that's the funny thing
is you've got the similar situation withthe Braves right now. Because of that,
(14:33):
like you, they're not gonna getany sympathy from the Astros and vice
versa, so you have a youhave potential to have an explosive series here.
Considering who the starters are for bothteams. Yeah, it could be
very interesting because there are back endsof the bullpen that are good for both
teams. But you're so like you'resaying, how do you get from the
starter to the bridge to the backend of the bullpen? And do you
have enough runs? Or are yougonna have to go out there and win
(14:54):
a twelve to ten game. Arewe gonna be sitting here for three and
a half hours as it turns intojust this slug fest, which you know
as well as I do, allof us watching enough baseball, that's what
we could anticipate, and that verywell could not be what happens. That
we could have some very good baseballgames because both these teams are high caliber
World Series challenging type teams that playgood defense. So if these pitchers can
actually pitch to contact and use thedefense, it could be a little bit
(15:18):
of a different game. But it'sgonna be very tough to attack that zone
early and get ahead of some ofthese Braves hitters for arraghetti, And I
know we're talking about the Braves now, but just looking back a little bit
simply because this came up, youknow, earlier in the hour. The
reason that it's not as much ofa panic situation for the Astros is because
of what else is going on theend of the division, including with the
team that just left town. Yeah, with its tail between its legs after
(15:41):
getting I mean, I know FridayNight happened. But the Astros are like,
and they did that to Nathan Valdi, their ace. Well, I
know that they're beat up too.They've got to de Grom and Sures run
the injured list, But at thesame time they have a history with Valdi
and they want to sash him.Yeah, I call him a bum on
this show because against the Astros heis okay. And he proved it again.
Yes, he didn't even text meback because he knew I was right.
(16:03):
You guys put up the graphic hityesterday. It somewhat would play out
this way for obvious reasons. Whatis Evaldi against the Astros in his wins?
What is Evaldi against the Astros inhis losses? Obviously there's some well
we know what they're gonna be toa certain extent, but these were so
far in one direction to the other. Either he's going to dominate them or
he's going to get shelled and especiallywell, it's crazy. What have Aldi
(16:29):
said after the game is why people, I hope by this point, decade
plus into his career, in hispursuit for three thousand hits, will realize
it's he's such a good hitter inthis way is, I think is the
best way to describe it. Novaldisaid it because it's hard to get him
out. The pitch he hit outin the opening ab not a strike,
(16:49):
not in the zone and pretty muchexactly where Ivaldi wanted it way out of
this. Why would he even swingat this? And even if he does
great, he's gonna weakly hit itor he's gonna swing through it because it's
in his eyes and I'm all said, on to the next battle, and
he crushes it above the sea inthe chicken sign on the foul pol I
don't even think people realize how farhe actually hit that first home run because
(17:11):
he was standing there at the boxlike Carlton fisk Old reference and making sure
it stayed fair and that's where ithit the foul pel on as I wouldn't.
It's not a pitcher's pitch, it'sa pitch he intended to throw to
not get hurt by and he hitit out of the park. No.
I read some of his comments fromNathan Valdi about that game, and he
was going basically at bat to abat and pitch by pitch against Josel Tuove.
(17:33):
It sounded like he was just kindof having this career summary in the
in the matchups that they had.But you could read the pain, the
disdain, the frustration, and theword he said after the second home run,
oh yeah on TV, dude,bleep yeah truck starting with a yes
exactly. But the fact that hesaid that he can do damage in it
and out of the zone, Becausehow do you pitch somebody that can do
(17:56):
damn it, not just get ahit, right, But to your point,
when extra pitch up out of thezone and hit a three hundred and
ninety five feet if you're doing damagein the zone, you tip your cap
because he got a strike. Butif he does damage outside the zone,
you're going, what the hell doI have to do to get this guy
out? I gotta throw a threefeet off the plate, But he's pumping
ninety six up out of the zoneand he can still get to it and
keep it fair. That's what's astonishingto me. But I thought it was
(18:17):
funny that one that he f bombedat second home run. He was say,
al two, A f bombed him. I guess because it was a
pitch right down the middle. It'salmost like Ifaldi said screw it, I'm
just gonna chuck it. See whathappens this way. Well, that's what
they always said about Tony Gwynn.They said, he's such a good hitter,
I'll throw it down the middle.He won't know what to do with
it, but what to do withit, Yeah, it's it's actually but
(18:37):
there was comical how good he isright now? Well yeah, but also
against Evaldi because they put a graphicup of you know, guys that have
this amount of home runs versus eachgrind it's like a thing. He doesn't
have more than three homers against anypitcher he's ever faced the history of his
major league career, except if Aaldi. He's got seven against Nolan Ryan.
(19:00):
There's not a pitcher in the historyof the game that has more than four
to oh hitters except for Noling,He's got seven. Nobody has a fifth
day, he's got a seventh.So he's hit four more home runs against
one pitcher. Granted, he's seenhim a bit. I'm sure it's not
the guy he's seen the most.I'm sure he's seen him quite a bit.
But yeah, the two he hityesterday, it's only two. Nothing
after those hits, those horrors.But these are things that I think put
(19:22):
the Astros in a little bit differentframe of mind as it would for any
team. When your guy, yourtable setter, your George Springer sets the
table in that way. And asmuch as two three, four, two,
three, six and seven in theorder recently have been hitting well,
they are still driven by that guyat the top. What he is doing
is usually how this team goes,and he's gotten off to an incredible start,
(19:44):
and the team will look for athird consecutive win. They're six and
eleven after winning the series against theRangers. They've now won two of their
series so far this season, andthen they do have the season series edge
on Texas a little more than halfwaythrough the season series, a little more
than halfway through their season series withthe Rangers, after seventeen games, they
(20:04):
only a little like left against them. I like the balance schedule a little
bit, but I can't stand thatyou're almost I mean, you're basically done
with them for the rest of theyear. That's just why. Well,
I don't like their face, soI like it. Say you're gonna be
done with him on what July?Or I love August? See a face
planting out there and right trying tocatch that ball. My daughter sent me
that video. It was great,so funny. I'm like, what is
(20:25):
this and they're like, oh,Dad, you're gonna love this. That's
awesome. Yeah. You know whatelse is awesome is watching it on Infinity
And you know what, anytime youwant to hear Todd Kallis scream Train number
twenty seven has just left Union Station, you gotta watch it on Infinity because
well you'll hear Blumber as well.And you're gonna get Walla Wall Wi Fi
only on the Infinity ten G networkand Blom. You have been speaking for
(20:48):
them for a long long time.You know better than anyone that you're not
the only one in the house usingit. Oh man, everybody's on that
thing. No. I put themto the ultimate test, you know,
the Walla Wall Wi Fi. Whenwe started to work with them, we
were wondering how we were gonna beable to have four high schoolers a wife
who works from home, and obviouslymyself who's just greedy and wants to watch
a lot of sports and get mywork done. And it worked out extremely
(21:10):
well. We were but Wi Fispeeds were extremely good and I was able
to download, get all the prepdone, you know, print everything off,
and still watch the shows I wantwhen I wasn't at the Masters.
But at the same time, Waldawall WiFi has been great, great for
us. Exfinity has been a trooperfor us. I absolutely love watching and
talking into my remote. Yeah,that's the best part is the convenience factor
(21:30):
and you know, fast speeds throughoutyour home, reliable connection in every room,
all of it. And the goodnews is this isn't just something that
Blummer or myself or anyone else can. Anybody can get it now through twenty
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it, but you still have time. New customers can get started with gig
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and free Wi Fi equipment included whenyou add unlimited mobile. All you've got
(21:53):
to do is go to Exfinity dotCom one eight hundred Exfinity or visit a
store today. Infinity proud sponsor ofyour Houston Astros. Back to Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler eight on Sports Talkseven nineteen for the corner and that home
of your Astros. Back out hereminute May Park who x AC on the
(22:15):
eighteen, joined by Jeff Blum,Astros analysts based City Home Network three with
the Braves beginning this evening Spenseraghetty,Hunter Brown, JP Franz set to throw
for them. Justin Verlander speaking alittle bit earlier out here is second of
his two rehab appearances now in therear view through Saturday as a member of
the Hooks against the rough Riders.Very similar outing statistically speaking. Threw a
(22:38):
lot of strikes and they hit alot of them in one of the three
innings that he pitched. But healso said today everything that he wanted to
do took place, feels good aboutwhere he is, kind of leaves the
decision in the hands of his managernow if in fact he will make his
major league debut when the Astros arein Washington for their upcoming road trip,
which begins on Friday. I talkeda little bit about Joe spot and his
(23:00):
you know, first couple of weekshere, don't want to make any grand
decisions, but I was applauding himfor what he's doing with the lineup.
He also feels pretty convicted about whatone, two, three, and four
when all healthy will be and hasmade no changes there. But the rest
of the lineup five through nine prettyclearly is based on matchups and performance,
and today's a really good example ofthat. You're one through seven hitters.
(23:23):
If McCormick's yesterday is a sign ofthings to come, if pain his hitting
streak is a sign of what's goingon, Bregman's now back in the lineup,
that's what lengthening the lineup is.That's what giving the picture no opportunity
to breathe with what they've tried itout there today. No, I love
the fact you brought u Joan.I actually believe it was one of the
first conversations we had to start theseason was would Joe have the guts to
(23:47):
maybe move or massage that first basearea, or if Jiner Diez, who
started the season in that seventh spot, if he was swinging the belt,
what would he move him up?And we kind of speculated that he would,
and Joe has gone out there andbasically kind of proven to us,
maybe not in so many words,but saying how the lineup is constructed,
that I will put guys in betterpositions if they play better, because we
need to have all those bats goingat the same time. We've always talked
(24:08):
about the length of the order.If everybody is who they are, this
is a great lineup and we stillhaven't seen what we hope possibly could be
a jose A Brady, but we'renot sure how that's going to turn out.
But moving him down to that eightspot for Joe Aspota a rookie manager
with a veteran player, that isnot easy to do. And I know
it has a lot to do withpersonality of Joe, his ability to communicate
(24:30):
and obviously a previous relationship with joseA Bray to bring him in the office
and kind of have that understanding goingback and forth, because that's hard to
do to an All star, anMVP from back in twenty twenty. It's
really hard and not to innerrupt,but like, no, do you think
because it was his first year lastyear and it was a new deal and
(24:51):
you didn't have the prior relationship,and I'm not This isn't even Dusty versus
Joe. This is just the scenariothat it was. But Joe was there
that plays into this? Or isthis just a matter of Look, I'm
just gonna do it's best with myfor my team. Well, how much
easier would it be to hear thatif you're a ballplayer, even in your
normal job, if you get calledin and you get reprimanded because you're not
(25:11):
performing up to the quality that Iexpect you to, and I got to
say, I gotta do something betterfor my my business or for my organization,
and I have a better option,and then guess how. And I've
always told this to my daughters.I had this told to me. If
you don't like it, change it. Isn't it funny? Or if basically,
if you don't like a play betterlike all of us, if we
were getting paid a lot of money, yeah, if well someday I didn't
(25:37):
mean for it to sound like that, but yeah, never like if you're
if you're getting paid a ton ofmoney relative to the lack of production.
But at the same time, abread could be under a lot of pressure
saying I have up to this contractit's a new city up this all of
this would be like, ah,yeah, you're you know, yeah,
none of us would get the amountof the same time. I mean at
the same time I would have.I would hope that if you paid me
(26:00):
that you'd have the expectation put onme to go out there and perform as
well. And I think that's whereyou kind of have that tough issue because
you don't want to You don't wantto break the guy. You don't want
to just bury him. You wantto say, hey, we know you
can do it. We got tofind a way to get you to do
it. So let's work together tomake this happen. And if it means
going down in the order to getyou warm, get you hot, I'll
move you right back up as soonas you're swinging the bat. Well,
we just want to try and finda way to get you going. I
(26:22):
can't help but think of some ofthese comparisons to you know, Joe pencil
Pusher and Bob Briefcase, Like whenyou're going to good like when you're going
to work and trying, you're writinga report, you're handling a case,
you're whatever effort is you're doing.There's not someone taking your pencil away,
ripping up your first draft. There'sa picture on the mound trying to make
Jose Obray or any jobs there,continuing to try and trying to make you
(26:42):
awful. There you're figuring it outthere, making you try again a totally
different way. It's and it's baseballof all things, where man, you
failed seventy nine percent of the time, you're two to ten hitter. If
that well, if you fail sixtynine percent of the time, you're a
three ten hitter, you're awesome.But your fam you failed seventy five percent
of the time, it'd be better. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
(27:04):
it's it's it's hard to say,you know. I mentioned this when we
were out here about two fifty.The first Astros position player on the field
today getting in some early VP onthe field, and I presume he does
that a lot underneath anyway, ButJose Bray was out there, does Victor
Karattini. They underestimate that he doeswork his stale off well for sure,
and by all accounts a really goodclubhouse guy. Yeah no, I don't
know how much interaction you've had,but he is one of the more pleasant
(27:26):
guys i've ever seen in my life, and I didn't know him until last
year. He's great. That's whatsucks about this, And that's why you're
still kind of cheering for him too, because you want to see him turn
around because for that reason, andyou know how damn good this offense already
is, you add that to it. Okay, So he got a couple
of days where he wasn't in thelineup Saturday and Sunday. He was obviously
out there. Prior to Saturday's gameagainst the Rangers. He had four hard
(27:48):
hit balls that's balls hit at ninetyfive or better. He had five in
the two games Saturday and Sunday.Several of them were groundouts to first.
They probably got around late on,but still basically barreled up. You can
look at it any way you want. It's not necessarily a forecast of things
to come. And he's still mixedin. You know, a slider over
the plate that he swings through orover, and you know guy overpowering with
(28:10):
a fastball in the lineup tonight playingfirst base the Astros. We'll try to
again with a third straight game withSpencer Araghetty getting the start. A lot
of different things we've already talked aboutsome of the guys that could be on
their way back. I mentioned Verlanders. So one last thing and when we
come back, if we could,Jeff is kind of our thoughts on what
that might mean with his return,and your thoughts on what minor league pitching
(28:36):
rehab appearances might mean, if anything. So we'll do that as we continue
here on a Let's see, it'snot Friday, it's a Monday edition of
the A Team here on Sports Talkseven to ninety. Of course, this
is the A Team Wex and AChere with, you know, the two
of us like talking to you aboutall the great things going on over classic
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you to go find that brand newvehicle of your dreams. I was actually
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When you make your way on overto either Classic Elite Location, Classic Elite
Chevy Sugarlander, Classic Elite Chevy Highwaysix, you tell them, madam Weorkxer
sent you by. We are backhere with you live from minute May Park
one additional segment with Jeff Blum herewith us. We'll be back with us
on Fridays. Team makes their wayout on the road. And as we
went to break there, I mentionedthat Justin Verlanders should be done with his
(30:06):
appearances on his Texas tour of theAstros. Top Affiliates, pitched in Frisco,
pitched in sugar Land, and hopefullywe'll next pitch in DC for the
Astros. Whether it's Friday or Saturdayor I guess Sunday, he's undetermined,
but we know the statistical results.And we heard from JV after his start
(30:26):
with sugar Land and then earlier todayfollowing his start from the weekend against Frisco
in Frisco, so we know thoseparts of it. He maintains that this
is exactly what he hoped would happen, same as he did through all his
bullpen sessions. Granted, of coursehe'd love to see the results a little
different. But if he says everythingthat he wanted to be in line for
him to pitch and help this team, then is it just a matter of
(30:47):
he knows what he's talking about,he will be ready to face major league
hitters. Yeah, you know what. It's interesting, and I'm kind of
on that same idea with Justin Verlanderbecause basically those are just spring training starts.
If he'd have done this in springtraining, guess what we do,
we'd be like, Okay, he'son track to start Opening Day or whatever
it was. But now it's youknow, and now it's Friday of this
week, hopefully in Washington, dC. Depending on how everything goes and
(31:10):
how the conversations, but or whateverJoe Spott wants because Justin basically said I'm
ready if you need me, andI think we might have an idea of
what that means. But at thesame time, this being like a spring
training start, I don't think we'dbe phased if this was happening in March.
We'd just be like, Okay,it's just another start. He's healthy,
Let's get him out there and gethim playing again. And it's just
a matter of time and the thingsyou want to hear from a guy like
(31:33):
Justin Verlander that's a veteran, understandshis physicality, understands what he's trying to
accomplish to get back to the bigleagues. He's saying all the right things.
How's the ball coming out of myhand, how's the shape on my
breaking ball, how does my pitchgo? How do I feel making that
quick step off the mound to coverfirst? Just simple things like that,
and then how does he feel thenext day? And everything that he's saying
how he feels the next day asa forty one year old is all trending
(31:56):
in the right direction. So Ithink that he's healthy, he's happy,
his mind is right, he soundsgreat, and maybe a little bit of
recognition, knowing that this team coulduse a leader in that rotation might be
helping him, you know, speedthings up a little bit, all right.
So I saved this firm about anhour ago when we almost first brought
it up with something that took placeon Friday night, Astros Rangers. Astros
(32:16):
are four and ten and losing twelveto three, and it's seventh inning and
Brock Burke is on the mound.It's pretty obvious he's throwing at Jordon Alvarez
over and over, and he'd alreadybeen hit in the game, mind you,
And then he succeeded and buried afastball into his front elbow. Jordon,
unhappy, didn't do anything over otherthan stand there like, why are
(32:38):
you trying to hit me with anine run lead after nothing's happened over the
first four or three plus games ofour four plus games of our season series?
And he went down to first anda couple of pitches later, Kyle
Tucker took Burke over the fence,way over the fence, stared him down,
gave an emphatic Untucker like bat flipto show everybody in the building,
(33:00):
including all the Rangers on the bench, all the Rangers in the bullpen,
all the Rangers fans, and thepitcher and catcher. I do not like
that. This is what I'm gonnado about it. And then I was
worried. For the next two atbats of the Rangers in that game.
There weren't any more hbps. Thereweren't any more incidents the rest of the
weekend. There four and ten atthe time they fall to four and eleven
(33:22):
in that game. Is that atough spot for this team and the way
things were going to handle? Didthey handle it properly by answering it with
a baseball play, Yes, onehundred percent. And I want to know
why it keeps happening. I mean, you're gonna throw out the best player
in the game of baseball. Iknow you're upset about a dolars Garcia,
but come on, I mean,I think we're kind of past that point.
You've got that isn't the big enoughlead, the big lead enough.
(33:44):
And I don't understand why you goout there throwing it guys, trying to
harm them in that way, especiallywhen it's bad for the game of baseball,
when you don't have your done onthe field, when you don't have
a Dolas Garcia on the mount.I feel like the Astros after Brian and
Bray who paid his fine of two, you know, two game suspension,
we're all past set. We movedon. But there's a certain angst and
a certain envy, I will sayof the Rangers towards the Astros, and
(34:07):
maybe they're just disappointed. They don'tknow how to handle it. Otherwise we're
just gonna throw it them. AndI don't think that's a really good baseball
way of going out and do it. I think, in a baseball way,
if you really want to announce yourpresence, you go out there and
win ball games. You've got thetrophy, you you stole a quote for
your championship parade party. You know, you keep taking things or trying to
get things from the Astros, andit makes you look terrible, not to
(34:28):
mention your big home run hitter actslike a petulant child when he gets hit
and Jordan didn't. Yeah, Jordan, But that's the maturity of it too,
is Jordan's like, I understand,I'm the best player, one of
the best players I know. There'sfrom Lacuna Juniors in the building tonight.
There are other guys out there thatare equally as good as Jordan Alvarez,
but he understands I am one ofthe best. I have a target on
(34:49):
my back every single time I goout there, not in the sense that
you're gonna drill me, but inthe sense you're gonna pitch your best pitch
against me. And I still goout there and succeed. So I understand
Giordana is understanding that I have thatkind of attention. But when you start
drilling me, you know what thattells me. It tells me you've quit.
It tells me that you don't wantto challenge me, and you're just
gonna throw at me and try andmake me mad. But I'm gonna take
my hit by pitch. I'm gonnatake it slow. I'm gonna let you
(35:12):
understand that I do not appreciate beinghit, but I'm gonna go down to
first base. I'll let one ofmy other boys pick me up. And
that's what Tucker did, and Ithink that's kind of cool. Even though
they didn't win the game. Ithink it really spoke about the Astros team
and what if That's one of thoseseminal moments that we look back on in
the middle of August. I hopeit is when the Astros take the lead
and they're like, you know what, they kind of they poked the bear.
Well, Evar got pissed. Yeah, everything about what took place from
(35:34):
that moment on suggests exactly what you'retalking about. They outscored the Rangers twenty
two to seven the rest of theseries, won the final two games of
the series. Scored eight or morein every game of that series, including
that being the start of a fiverun inning which they never got a hold
of handling controlling the Astros offense.After that, they actually lost a pair
of lefties over the last handful ofdays. They lost Bradford, who'd gotten
(35:57):
off to a great start. Hewent to the eye l with a back
injury. The picture we're talking about, he Mayton himself. He punched a
wall after that incident and oh youdidn't know about that is going on.
You know what's crazy to me stillis they have the trophy in their back
pocket. They just got their ringsand they're still acting like look at the
pin the parade they're talking about AlexBregman, like they're just the most they're
(36:20):
so predictable. There's such is oneof those respectable probably the reason they finally
got their bleep together too. Absolutely, I completely agree. I can't even
enjoy it because rent free, whichyou have to explain that to Wex.
He doesn't understand what rent free meansto this day. Well, in their
situation, that's a really good example. I think they just won the World
(36:40):
Series. You don't play the Astrosin the World Series, you play an
ash So why are you thinking aboutthem? The Astros comment that they stole.
I mean, they've been winning thedivision over the four teams in the
division. They've won the division overTexas one time last year. They weren't
winning it technically over them any other. So the comment that Bregman makes really
(37:01):
doesn't have much to do with theRangers. It's you know, yes,
and and it makes sense was morenationally yes, of course, But then
again, you're celebrating your championship twoweeks after even facing the Astros, and
who put the attention back right?Yeah, the Diamondbacks are the last team
he played, not the Astros.But okay, whatever you need man oh
Man, Yeah they are. Theyare full time squatters inside if you're saying
(37:25):
doing something when said what he saidabout everybody wondering. That's accurate. People
were like, get these guys outof here. They're not gonna win.
They're not gonna win. Nobody waswondering if the Rangers were gonna win the
World Series. And comic after that, what was said there after Seeger finally
got his first real ring after theydestroyed the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, he
didn't have to like worry about playingin front of placards after sixty games.
(37:49):
Yeah, honestly, it was areal season and they I mean, it's
it's amazing. I mean, winningthe World Series is something special no matter
who you do it against. Butat the same time, you will there
is no there are twenty nine otherteams, but there are plenty of players
who have played with the Astros,but that you will never understand the scrutiny
or the pressure of playing in anAstros uniform since the seventeen champions they've dealt
(38:15):
with And I think that kind ofgoes back to Hose how two Bay's comments
saying, you know what we getup to, slow starts, We'll be
fine. We got a good ballclub. We can score. But understanding
what they go through on a dailybasis everywhere. That's what we talked about
last week. The slow starts isnothing right in the idiot fan the casual
would say they brought it on themselvesand they didn't even get punished. Exhibit
(38:35):
A. The draft picks that theylost are finally catching up to them.
Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, like it's to say that. But
even if you did want to saythat and be stupid, which you would
be, that was collectively bargained forthe millionth time. The layers that are
mad about that union voted for it. They paid the dues to the union
that protected them, and that's whyyou have a union. I really hate
(39:00):
people sometimes because they're so dumb.Well, it's hard for us because we
keep ramming into that wall yeah,of stupidity, and you're like, okay,
they're not gonna let us through.I just forget. Like even the
fan base, like any fan basearound the country, wouldn't have been able
to take what Astros fans have hadto just claw off of them for at
no fault of their own because theirkids did something. It has spawned a
(39:21):
unique fan base here in Houston,Man, and it's that's life stuff right
there. There's kids that we're dealingwith that like that that makes you bitter?
I like it. Yeah, geton man, Yeah it's good,
it's good fuel. All right,you've got to do your day job.
We'll get you over to that.But we we appreciate you as always.
Blummer, glad you're back in fromthe masters. Yeah, and everything that
(39:44):
came with it. I wish Icould say it was rested. We know
you're not, man, but atleast we we can thank the people that
make it possible as well. Yeah, Jeff Witz and his Vision group have
been very good. Obviously. Youknow, he is at the forefront of
all of the technology and all ofthe in innovation as far as trying to
make that your make sure your eyehealthis what it should be. He has
been at the cutting edge with everybodythat is trying to make you a better
(40:07):
human. And of course that kindof tails into low T Center, who
I've been working with for quite abit. Low Tcenter dot com. Fellas,
I trust me, get out there, figure out what they can do
for you. Not only have theyhelped me maintain my ability to to still
feel like a professional athlete at moments, not at this given moment, but
they make me feel like I canstill go out there and do it.
(40:28):
And a lot of it's because theygo in there, they take my testosterone
levels, they make sure I'm performingat the appropriate levels. And they can
also help you with sleep, apneaor high cholesterol, all that kind of
stuff. Little low T Center dotcom a lot of places around here in
the greater Houston area to go checkthem out. So low Tcenter dot Com
and the Jeff Witch at Vision Groupare my people. All right, Blummer,
you're our people, and we willsee you Friday. Right here,
(40:49):
you guys kind of fired me uptoday. I'm ready to go. I
think we'll be in that room,but I can't promise anything. All right,
Well, are you gonna get onthe plane or are you gonna stay
here to do the show? Yeah, I'll be on the plane. Oh
you know what, but I thinkwe'll talk to you on the phone instead.
I just changed my mind. I'llbe an hour ahead. It's all
right. You guys know I don'tlook any like further ahead at the schedule
than tomorrow. No, that's oneof the funniest things about sports, Like
(41:12):
what's today? I always say tothis guy's got I wish someday, I'm
gonna do a screen grab of justthe schedule this maniac puts together. And
I have no excuses. I havenone. Look at it. Turn your
monitor around and show him right now. Just get your OCD fill in.
Oh dear God, that's a spreadsheet. Yet and yet I say stupid ass
things rockets games, I do someTV games. We got a show to
(41:35):
do, we got guests to fillin with a lot of information. And
yet I'm like, we'll be back. You're afraid you and I are better
because of WEX and TV. Surewe're the same. Idiots. Sometimes stick
for yourself over there there, Wewill let you go. Thank you,
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