Geoff Blum on The A-Team: Scoreboard Watching Is Happening

Astros TV analyst Geoff Blum joins the show from Kansas City. He talks about the Astros need for some wins this weekend. Plus, reacts to Kyle Tucker pushing him further down the home run list.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
You don't have to be a pippto get your lady to work at your
command. Mister Bunbi, that's right. Jeff acts you some more device to
play Sports Talk seven ninety on ourheart radio. You look at it,
look at Oh yeah, this isradio. You listen to it on Sports

(00:23):
Talk seven ninety. Astro's broadcaster JeffBlom on seven ninety is brought to you
by Low Tea Center. And justlike that, Blumbs on the phone with
us. It is the eight teamhere on Sports Talk seven ninety and it
is Jeff Blom live and in livingcolor from Kansas City, Missouri. Hey

(00:47):
Blumber, what's the temperature now?Because this morning when you posted the sixty
degrees you are I know what youwere doing. You always know what I'm
doing. You look at it.But yeah, we got done talking about
this. In the first segment,they're on the road. But as you
know, my in laws are upthere and they've already they've already gifted us

(01:10):
six wins. According to them,They're like, God, we're going to
fatten up the Astros. I'm like, no, you haven't been watching the
Astros this year. I just hopethat the good version of the team is
in full effect, not only forthis three game weekend set, but of
course when these two teams come backhere to Houston later next week. Yeah,
you just hope that everything sets upright. It's good to be all
with you guys, and it's goodto be on the road. And that's

(01:34):
where we kind of anticipate where theAstros are gonna play really good baseball because
there's such a massive discrepancy between whatthey do at home and what they do
on the road. So I thinkthe combination of playing another team that has
a hundred losses and playing on theroad in a ballpark where they have a
tendency to actually put up some prettygood numbers. I mean, sitting in
my seat, one would have toassume that they're going to have a good

(01:56):
three game series against these Kansas CityRoyals. But they still have to play
the game well. They do getone break, I guess you'd say when
you're trying and it's not like CalebWilliams is the number one overall pick and
this year's Major League Baseball draft andthere's no lottery, because both of those
things aren't true. But Kansas Cityhanding the ball all season long in a

(02:19):
starters role to both Jordan Lyles andZach Granky, both of whom will face
the Astros this series. Granky goestonight. I mean, there's no better,
sure far away to make sure youget off to an awful start than
sending a sixteen game loser and fifteengame loser out there, both of whom
have VRA's at least in the midfives, if not worse. Yeah,

(02:42):
things are definitely putting in the directionthat the Astros should be able to do
the damage. Which interesting too,is it? So both ex Astros and
one has been in the league anextremely long time, the other one's been
in the league a very long time, yet there's a vast age discrepancy between
the two of them. But atthe same time, I think having Grank
you start tonight, you know,I wouldn't I wouldn't doubt if Zach wanted
to start this game against the Astros, just because of the history that he

(03:05):
does have with the Astros. Iactually think, and I'm hoping, I'm
anticipating that it's going to be anentertaining start for him, depending on how
long teams in there. But Ithink you're going to see some pitches that
maybe sub sixty miles an hour,You're gonna see some interesting pitches, some
smiles and things like that. Butyeah, when you've got two starters with
a combined thirty with one losses betweenthem, he would imagine the Astros are

(03:28):
favored in this series to get atleast two games out of this because in
between Cole Reagan's is actually pitched prettywell. Is it bad that I'm openly
hoping for zach Granky to throw sixtymiles an hour at Jordan Alvarus. I
can see what he does with thatdeposit? Well, isn't that the idea?
Though? I feel like that somethingwith zach Ranky would actually entertain is
throwing three straight pitches of fifty eightfifty nine sixty miles an hour and actually

(03:51):
seeing how far Gordon could actually makethat deposit. I'm down for it.
I would not shock me one bitwas zach Ranky his attitude and understand I
think how the season is gone,but if he doesn't give the chads,
it's a go ahead hit it.But yeah, I just I mean the
I think I feel like the lasttime the Astros were up at Kaufman,

(04:12):
they and I'm this last year,there was like a barrage. I feel
like it was a multi home runat least one of the games. And
they typically during this stretch of playedvery well up there, and of course
that coincides with the Royals being notvery good. But then again, you
just had an A's team come inthat although they were scrappy and although they
were you know, given fits tothe Rangers before them, I just thought

(04:35):
the Astros would take care of businessbetter. What is it in your opinion,
because we've talked about this a lot, what's going on at home?
Why is this a thing? Andif it is something physical with the stadium,
why hasn't it affected them in priorseasons where they've had no problem winning
at home. Well, I'll letyou take it one step further. I

(04:56):
mean, if you want to talkabout the physical I know what you're saying
by the physical attributes A minute madepark. I mean, the one thing
that we've heard is the batter's eye. So the one thing for me is
the fact that the offense is muchless at home. But like you said,
in years previous, they've been verygood at home and dominant at home.
Why has it changed now? Intwenty twenty three. I don't know

(05:17):
the answer to that, because atthe same time, opposing offenses that have
actually put up great numbers as well. So when the Astros actually get into
Minute Made Park, and I'm sureguys inside the clubhouse or maybe if we
really started to dig a little bitdeeper, might be able to find a
reason why. The interesting thing tome is it's not just the offense at
Minute Made part it's also the pitchingstaff. The pitching staff hasn't employed at

(05:41):
the ra at Minte Made Part two, which kind of raises a little bit
of concern for me. It maynot necessarily be the bullpen guys, but
I know for a fact that thestarting rotation their ra at home is much
larger. And then if you goand look at the numbers for the ashtrows,
we kind of broke it down asfar as left and right, at
least on my own I did.I looked at left handed pitchers, right
and pitchers, and the Astros againstleft handed pitching are hitting two seventy or

(06:03):
better at home, but against righthanded pitching they're hitting around two forty two
forty five against right handed pitchers athome. So you know, go figure.
I don't know what it is orwhy that is, or if they're
hitting the ball art and the positioningis actually killing them. But at the
same time, everything that they're doingon the road is so exemplary in comparison
to what they're doing at home.And that's why we kind of wonder what's

(06:25):
happening at home, especially when theyhave a thirty seven and thirty six record
at home, I think, andthey're about they're about to amass three million
fans coming into that ballpark. Thosenumbers don't match up. You just answered
the question with this. The answeris baseball. You just rattled off the
Astros crushing left handed pitching at home. Why didn't they win the first two

(06:46):
games of the series against the A'sbecause they couldn't hit the A's left handed
pitching. It does not make sense. Walde chuck it kind of. I
wouldn't say he embarrassed them, butsix no hit it inks against the team
that was hitting the way they wereis pretty awesome. So or of a
hat tip to him than a knockon Houston. And then obviously JP Sears
got out of trouble early in thegame and never got back into it and
those two lefties helped the A's winthe first two games of that series,

(07:11):
and that's why I do think theanswer is yes. But obviously I'm going
to ask you more than most timeswhen the Astros trying to make it a
happy flight with an end of serieswin, was the win on Wednesday maybe
a little bit more important than manyothers that have preceded it. Yes,
And I'm gonna also to answer itin the sense that you know, I

(07:31):
think, and hopefully this comes truewhen they finally clinch a postseason spot,
when we see them play postseason baseballin Minute May Park, which around the
league, if you take a consensus, they have said that is one of
the loudest, most most crazy environmentson the road. With the lid on
the juice box, that place getsloud, it gets raucous, it gets

(07:51):
crazy. It's an intense environment,and a lot of it is because of
how good the team is, andit's also how good the fans are in
reacting situations on the field. Sothat being said, what you just mentioned
about them losing the first two gamesagainst Oakland and then saying on Sunday,
Man, we gotta win, oron Wednesday saying man, we gotta win
this ball game. Let's lock thisdown. Go out there and play well.

(08:13):
You've got a great pitching performance forfive innings, and this might be
how it plays out for that thirdfourth starter in the postseason. Two is
go out and give me five ofyour best innings. Hunter Brown went out
there and absolutely politerated that lineup andallowed the astrost of confidence enough time to
figure it out, score some runs, and go out there and win.
But at the same time, Ilove the fact that they understood that that

(08:33):
was almost a must win situation andthey can focus, they can lock down,
they can win in that ballpark.It's just a matter of being in
that situation where you're forced to goout there and focus a little bit more,
because maybe that was a situation before. Mad You've got good pitching from
the Oakland A's, but maybe alittle bit of a lackluster effort in the
first two games. So hopefully thatchanges a little bit the closer we get
to the postseason. Blumber with ushere and sell four thirty live from Kaufman

(08:58):
Stadium. You've already posted video ofyour arrival at the well both stadiums technically,
because of course the h it's Imean, I don't well, I
can't tell if you're being sarcastic.Now, uh yeah, they're you know,
they're trying to build new stadium there, but it is it's very cool
when you when you walk up oryou drive up and you see a football

(09:20):
stadium right next door to a baseballstadium. So that's where you're at.
And we'll continue to discuss the Astrosseries there in Kansas City this weekend.
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Eighteam continues with Clintons, Plummer andan Ass on Sports seven ninety. You
know, I'm pretty sure all threeof them are asses, though. The

(11:00):
obligatory question for our guest Jeff blumusin Kansas City today and join your season
every Friday over the course of thebaseball season, Astros and Royal's coming up
Tonight, Javier gets the ball forthe Astros and Zach Granky will throw the
ball to the Astros when he's standingon the mount and they're in the batter's
box. I'm not going to askyou what place you must visit when you're

(11:20):
there for Kansas City barbecue, Iwill ask you what must be on your
plate when you make your order ofKansas City barbecue. I'm a little more
rib guy here in Kansas City,and obviously with my connections here through Adam
Planty, i am a Queue thirtynine type guy. Yeah, Ribs and

(11:43):
QUE thirty nine go hand in handfor me when I'm in the Kansas City
area. Last time I was inKansas City was for a University of Houston
Cougar basketball trip to the regionals andwe ate a Q thirty nine in the
snow in March. Oh Man.The sauce they make on site that they

(12:03):
can't bottle because of some of theingredients, like they'll it'll you know,
it doesn't work that way is sogood. I think it's a cilantro something
about the you can't bottle that,but is it's absolutely off saying our shows
on Friday, you just can't bottlethis. You can't, you can't.
You'd like to blum, but youcan't bottle us. No, And I
wish I heard what you just said. For whatever reason, my phone cut

(12:24):
out, So I'm gonna say,yes, you're right. We were talking
about the magic of the three ofus together. It's so magical. You
just agree. You can't bottle it. No, you can't bottle it.
You can only put a number onit. It's still not going to be
big enough. No, it's lookgoing up there to Kansas City has there's
many uh Midwest charms, if youwill. And just just to wrap up

(12:48):
the barbecue portion of the discussion,I didn't know what burnt ends were until
I started dating my future wife.Had you were you aware of burnt ends?
And how that's a that's a aprileof barbecue up in Kansas City.
Well, you know what's interesting aboutthat is we had a conversation about this
on our broadcast the other day,and I didn't realize it was a Kansas

(13:11):
City thing either until I had atalk with Todd Tallis about it because somebody
asked, us, well, youknow, what's your favorite eats at the
ballpark? A minute made and obviouslythere's some great stuff out there, but
I always go up into the rightfield corner and a killing killings is up
there, But there burn ends upthere are phenomenal, and literally that's the
only place I've ever had him whenI've been in Houston, so I didn't
realize it was a Kansas City thing. But now that it is a Kansas

(13:33):
City thing, it goes right nextto my ribs. I'm good to go.
Yeah, see, Killings Is that'sthe first place I've ever heard that
actually does that, and he's Idon't know of any other place, and
there's lots of places, but likeit's it's presumably it would be an easy
thing to do. I mean,you have the ingredient right there in front
of you, just burn them.Yeah, yeah, I've mastered that.

(13:54):
Yeah, well, good on themfor doing that. And yeah, I
did hear that discussion of the factthat you have to go from one end
of the other to the other toget your favorite food versus your favorite beverage.
I knew exactly what you were talkingabout. Oh yeah, well,
most people who know the geography ofMini Made Park and my habits and tendencies,
Yeah, you know exactly what Iwas talking about. Kansas City hosting

(14:16):
the Astros for the next three lineupfor the Astros today will put Brantley in
left field, and thinking about KaufmanStadium, is that something at all meaningful
in that you know, one ofthe two left fielders provided it is either
Brantley or Jordan, and Jordan isdhing today does have quite a bit of
ground to cover. Is that Imean to me, that's a good thing

(14:37):
that the confidence from Dusty is theredefensively, which is something he always champions,
that he would have Michael Brantley outthere for a game in Kansas City.
Yeah, I actually think it's agood thing too, because I mean,
we're all kind of curious. Youknow, we know Michael plays a
very good left field at Minimey Park, but you put him out here in
space and Kaufman Stadium and you getto see him run around a little bit.
And I think that actually, mightyis part of the idea is he's

(15:01):
played a ton of baseball here inthe American League Central, so he's pretty
comfortable here at Kaufman Stadium. Andlike I said, there's plenty of room
to roam out here. There's notgoing to be some perky outfield or you
know, the stands down the rightfield line are going to come out and
jump at him a little bit.It's a pretty wide open space that he
has a good field for, soI think with Christian Javier on the mound,
you're gonna get plenty of fly balls, so they'll give him an opportunity

(15:24):
to at least see how those legsfeel a little bit. Let him move
around and go out there and havesome fun. And left field, I
think this is a great spot tobe able to let him go out there
and play some left field. You'vealso got Chazz out there in center field
who will protect him in that leftcenter field gap also, so I think
you're just gonna put Michael out thereand say, hey, you're comfortable here,
get a get read our ball,and you've got everything from right at

(15:46):
you to the right side, goget it. Christian Javier, of course,
means that I probably complimented him alittle too early before he you know,
had his last outing, which wasagain it's I just can't believe this
is the same guy that was soinsanely good last year and he's had his
moments this year. But man,it is like you look at his starts

(16:10):
and it's like it's bipolar. Becausehe was arguably far more effective in a
loss to the Yankees and then hisouting against San Diego, you know,
where the team actually won but heonly goes four innings, and it's just
I don't know what to make ofthe guy. I don't know which guy's
going to show up, kind oflike Hunter Brown. You got the good
Hunter Brown against the A's the othernight, and but you know, was

(16:33):
that because it was the A's orwas it because of Hunter you know,
fixing some things, And so Ikind of go into this one looking at
that similarly, where you've got aguy who's had his struggles, you've got
a struggling team. He's going opposite. Maybe he can get right tonight.
Yeah, you would like to thinkhe'd be able to get right. Obviously,
there's gonna be a couple of pitfallsin this lineup, just because number
one, you don't know these guysand their tennecees maybe too much. You've

(16:56):
got a Bobby Witt junior in there, who's a pretty pretty electric young players.
So you've got to be careful ofsome guys. But at the same
time, you're right about the bipolarness. And it's almost first time through the
order, second time through the orderfor me, because much like Hunter Brown,
we've figured out that Christian Hobber andHunter Brown can be hyper effective when
they're aggressive in the zone in thefirst two pitches. I know that we

(17:17):
want them to throw that first pitchfor a strike. We hear it all
the time. It's become cliche.But at the same time, the reason
people keep saying it is because itis affective. And if you have stuff
that is effective in the zone,like a Christian Hobbier or a Hunter Brown,
why wouldn't you want to try andget ahead and command me at bat.
I think it's when they stop commandingme at bat they fall behind and

(17:37):
they're forced into predictable counts as faras what pitch is going to come.
That's when they start to get hurt. And I feel like when these guys
try to throw strikes over the plate, that's when they get hit hard.
And that's why i'd like to seetonight see Christian Harber be hyper aggressive with
the fastball like we know he can'tbe, and I want him to rush
that thing through the top of thezone. If that thing starts to play,

(17:57):
I want to see that confidence buildand not to see him through that
early first pitch strike or second pitchstrikes. I want to see him do
it the second time through the orderbecause if you go back and look at
the numbers early on in these startsfor guys like Christian Javier, they look
great for the first two or threegames, and then it all falls apart
when they try to nip pick theedges and maybe the mix the sequences up

(18:18):
a little bit. I want tosee them find the fastball location and pitch
off the fastball. I think that'swhere Christian Navier could really build and build
some confidence and maybe start trending inthe right direction. To that end.
I always love when you send mein that direction. The Wexler Research team
unfun Christian Javier stat of the day. First ten starts of the season,

(18:38):
Xavier had zero three walk games.Zra was two point eight four at that
time. He's had three walks ormore in five of his last seven games,
and in the fifteen games since thosefirst ten starts. His era is
satan like six six six. Hey, now, as Blum said, throw

(18:59):
strikes and you can rise up fromhowever many hundred feet under the earth you've
been residing next door to Satan.Well, I have boy with Jeff Blum
coming up here on the EIGHTEAM anotherhalf hour ago with Jeff as Christian Javier
gets set to take the ball inKansas City against the Kansas City Royals.
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(20:38):
one ended with another couple of segmentswith our own Jeff Blum, eighteen t
Sportsnet astro's broadcaster on the Call toNight in beautiful Kansas City, Missouri,
opener of a three game set betweenthe Royals and your Astros with Christian Hobbier
on the mound against former astro's pictureZach Granky, And you know, kind

(21:00):
of looking ahead a little bit.In this series, we talked about JP
France, and I feel like Iask you a similar question each and every
week. But there's a weird partof me that's like, when is this
guy going to turn into a pumpkin. This is not normal. This guy
has been You could argue Blum thatJP France has been the most consistent astro
starter the entire twenty twenty three campaign. Yeah, I don't. I don't

(21:25):
think you could do much to reallyargue that unless you really want to go
back maybe in the last four orfive starts where he's had two games where
there's been a little bit of ahiccup, But it was also interesting to
watch him kind of have you hadthat hiccup against the Boston Red Sox.
I believe that then facing the followingweek and Fitch extremely well, and I
think that kind of gives me alittle insight into maybe the mentality and maybe

(21:47):
a little bit of a heart andwork ethic of a guy like JP France,
because he doesn't have the stuff thatyou're going, oh my gosh,
he's got that ninety six mile andhour fastball. Oh my gosh, did
you see the shape of a slideror the shape of his curveball. He's
a guy that you know, tohis credit, has worked hard in the
minor leagues, spend a lot oftime down there, and finally got his

(22:10):
opportunity and he's maximized it. AndI think a lot of it is because
he is a little bit older,a little bit more mature, and he's
not afraid to adapt. He's notafraid to try something new, he's not
afraid to make adjustments because he wantsto beat here so bad, and that's
kind of speaks to maybe the mentalityin the heart of this guy, because
he is willing to make those adjustmentsand he's not fearful of making mistakes and

(22:30):
getting blown up because he knows he'sgoing to get another opportunity. But I
think that's a credit to Josh Millerand Dusty Baker continuing to give him those
opportunities. But I agree with youas far as consistency, because even though
he's had a couple of hiccups,he's bounced back. And that's probably the
biggest thing is you want to havesomebody that's going to go out there and
compete. I think when you startfacing playoff teams, when you start pitching
in September, you've got to havethose starters that go out there and compete

(22:52):
for you. And if you hadto get past j V and Drombert and
he said who's going to be thatthird fourth guy JP France, I think
is legitimate. He pitched himself intothat opportunity. And again, you know,
depending on what the astros want todo in those you know, in
those series where they need that thirdfour starter, give me five intings and
we'll get to our shutdown bullpen.But JP France has been a lot of
fun to watch, and I thinkthat he's actually a guy that, even

(23:15):
though he's exceeded a lot of hispitch in his pitched numbers, I think
he's one of those guys just continuingto work and grind through that and he'll
come out better on the other sidefor it. I think there's a pretty
decent chance he starts his his postseasonin Arlington when the Rangers emerge from their
Wildcard series as the sixth seed toface the Astros, and by Game three,

(23:38):
the Astros would have two games tonone lead. JP France v.
Dane Dunning. I'll give that asmy click, so it's a click come
the postseason. But I'm curious aboutyou mentioned Josh Miller and some of the
other parts of the staff. Whenyou have multiple pitchers, you know,
reaching the major leagues over the lastthree four years that have spent tons of

(23:59):
time in this organization, France,Hunter Brown, Javier Luis Garcia and all
the professionalism stuff that you mentioned withFrance, can you separate or is it
all one thing where the credit shouldgo to the pitcher, the player the
person that he is that's allowed himto, you know, not be phased
by what ever's happening to him onany given day when he gets the start

(24:21):
or is it a little bit ofa combination over the years, learning those
things through how the Astros get themto work, get them to work on
their pitches, get them to focuson certain pitches that they favor, and
are going to help them out,because it seems like this is even killed
success or no success each of thosefour pictures I mentioned, maybe with Luis

(24:41):
Garcia being the shakiest of them,from that standpoint, they all do seem
to share that same characteristic and Iwonder if a little bit of that comes
from the system a little bit inHouston versus well, this guy just has
that makeup. No, I thinkit has a lot to do with it,
you know, And it's I thinkit's a credit to the Astros organization
and for why they've been so goodfor so long, because I get that

(25:02):
question all the time, what arethey doing? You're not going to have
guys like JP France or Hunter Brownor or the Cavier or some of these
late signings as far as Latins areconcerned, As far as age. You're
not going to have these guys succeedif they're not developed well. And I
think it's something to be said aboutthe USN organization. They know what guys
they want in their system. Theyknow what guys are going to perform well
at the big league level, butthey also know how to develop them and

(25:26):
get them ready to pitch at thebig league. You've got to have the
talent that you've got to have certainattributes, whether it be as a pitcher,
you've got to be able to havevelocity, you've got to be able
to add high spin. But theyalso figure out how to take that attribute
and maximize it. And I thinkthat's where you see these guys understand what
the coaching staffs trying to give them, and then they get to the big
leagues or they battle in the minorleagues to get to the big leagues.

(25:48):
But at the same time, allthe coaching and all the talent is no,
you can't replace that with experience.You know, you can't replace that
with experience. Experience goes along waywith these guys. It's using that stuff
and certain to that is going tomake these guys better in the long run.
Now, JP France. Just totake him as a single case.
He has experience in the minor league. That's why he's appreciating and working hard

(26:10):
to stay here in the big leagues. On the other hand, in two
or three years, we might betalking about Hunter browning or remember some of
those issues he had his second yearin the show, his third year in
the show. That's why he's sogood now. So you're kind of combining
the development the player and the experience, and that's where you get guys that
were able to go out there,compete and continue this winning tradition that the
Astros have created well. And inthe case of Hunter brown you're always going

(26:33):
to hear the same thing when heeven when he does struggle, which is
that he has the stuff. Imean, that guy, it's electric.
But I just you know, givenwhat you just got done talking about,
are you because you're so close tothe organization and a former player at the
same time, do you look at, you know, the rankings of the
minor league systems and kind of laughedyourself sometimes at how many times the Astros

(26:56):
have been, you know, rankedlow or just not in the top.
You know this this team has thissystem and it's highly touted because of what
you just got done talking about,they keep churning out these players that are
not only effective, but are contributingto a winner. Yeah, and again
it goes to the organization too,because you start sending a lot of these
scouts out there. They may theymay not be turned on by the talent

(27:18):
level. They may not be turnedon by age or certain movements of a
player. And you know the factthat the ass had to they had to
draft well, draft well enough toput guys in the big leagues, but
also to be able to trade forsome key freeations along the way is what's
depleted that. But at the sametime, they get overlooked because the guy

(27:40):
that they have in the minor leaguesthat may be highly touted inside their organization
and may be able to you,you may be able to prognosticate that they're
going to fill avoid in a yearor two or even this year, may
not register to the overall you know, greatness of a player or an organization
or a farm system. And Ithink you know, throughout the course of

(28:00):
it, I think early on evenJeff Luno was kind of coveting some of
these guys and like the idea ofbeing ranked highly as a farm organization,
but I think he kind of grewinto the fact and understood that being better
at the big league level and havinga less fortunate farm system actually pays bigger
dividends. And I think that's whatwe're seeing right now with the Astros is.

(28:21):
And I know our fan base lawsgoing out there going, hey,
your farm system's cute, it's great, it's beautiful, looks great on the
shelf. But tell you what,I'd rather have a World Series trophy on
the shelf. And that's where theAstros have been for the last six or
seven years as far as the bigleague level is concerned. Because once I
do have that talent that might becoveted and move their farm system up in
ranking, they put them in thebig league and they win. I think

(28:42):
that's a better idea. Yeah,they've had enough players as a part of
this. And again you look atthe roster that they're going to trot out
there today, Altove Peenya, Alvarez, Bregman, Tucker McCormick. That's five
of the nine guys out there.They're lifers, they're Astros's never been anywhere
else, and they all grew upin this system where they're just obviously spent

(29:03):
a short time in the system whenthey've been so good that they got to
the major leagues, and that's justa small fraction of what has allowed them
to do what they're doing during thisperiod of time where it obviously has been
the Golden Era. I do think, because how things look in the American
League, they are going to bethe favorites to win it, provided all
the players that are healthy today arehealthy when they get to the postseason.

(29:26):
Total respect for Baltimore, total respectfor Tampa and anybody else among the other
five teams that are na the AmericanLeague playoffs, but none of them will
have had the experience of winning inthe playoffs. The Mariners were here last
year, and the Rays have beenthere a few times, some of them
at least. But it is stillgoing to be a somewhat of the same
story, just not quite the sameAstros team. And that's where we'll pick
the conversation back up on the otherside, the differences between the team that

(29:49):
we think is entering the playoffs thispostseason versus the ones that have all found
residents the American League Championship Series.Now six consecutive years, and they're just
a handful of wins way from makingit seven consecutive years. Handful of playoff
wins still to get, obviously there, and there is not a team in
the American League yet that has clincheda playoff Berth Jeff Blum with us from

(30:11):
Kansas City. One more segment willcontinue that conversation with him on the other
side here on the A Team.Hey, it's the trilog bunby. The
A Team continues with Clintons Blummer andas on Sports ste you know, I'm
pretty sure all three of them areasses. Though you know what that music

(30:38):
means. It means we are bumpingStone Cold Locks to five fifteen today our
signature segment. We will do thatfrom a Texans college game of the week
which is here in town. Bothof those games our Texans will play on
Sunday. The Cougars will play onSaturday night over TDCU, and that is
our Stone Cold Lock game of theweek. Cougars seven point dogs. We've

(31:00):
got Jeff Blum for another segment herewith the Astros on the road, not
a lot left in the season,there are five series to go. I
guess this is a road trip.You took a trip, you got on
a plane, and you'll get onit again to come back. But this
is the only city you're going to. The last trip of the season takes
the Astros to Seattle and then toArizona. Baltimore is obviously also on the

(31:22):
schedule, and as it looks currently, the games that are not against Kansas
City are likely against teams that arestill playing for something. Baltimore is still
trying to win their division, Seattleis still trying to make the playoffs or
win the division, and Arizona isright there in the mix for one of
the wildcard spots in the National League. And to that end, how this
team has played against that caliber competition. They don't have some sparkling record against

(31:48):
above five hundred teams, but theycertainly don't seem to have as many of
the letdown games. You're a ballplayer. We talked about this the other day,
Jeff, I think it can beseen on the basketball court. I
think it can be seen on thefootball field when you feel like this team
isn't bringing it today, or maybeeven that they're flat. I don't think
it's so easy to see or evenhave it happen in baseball because the dynamic

(32:12):
of being successful against that day's pitcherand all the other things is so dramatically
different. Do you think I'm seeingthose comparisons correctly? Would you describe it
a different way? Yeah? No, I think I think you're right.
You know, I think it's easierfor a football game to kind of be
perpetuated in that flatness if the otherteams just dominating you, and then the

(32:32):
same way in basketball, if youget down early trying to battle back,
sometimes it's just a monumental feat.I think, you know, the other
team just hunts and they move onto the next game. But at the
same time, baseball is a littlebit different because on any given innings,
you know, a picture can blowup, lose command Lee pitches out at
the play, and it takes oneguy like Jordan elbros That we saw in
that other game of the Getaway DayWednesday against the Blackburn where you got a

(32:57):
pitch you could handle and shoots itout of the ballpark, just takes one
swing to kind of turn innings around. Or on the other hand, you
can have a picture go out thereand dominate that first two or three innings
you're going, hey, man,we got a chance. This guy's dealing
today, Let's back him up withsome offense. So it's a little bit
harder to read. I think.You know, there's gonna be days where
you just do not have it andyou just kind of go, Okay,

(33:17):
you give into the fact that you'regoing to show up the next day.
But at the same time, youknow you can turn things around relatively quickly
in a baseball game, depending onwhat the old team is doing. The
Alvarez home run from the moment ofcontact, did it take a nano second
for you to think that's got tobe one of the hardest hit balls he's
ever had. Yeah, that onegot out in a hurry, you know,

(33:38):
until you actually put put the numberto it and try and understand what
that thing was doing. I wasjust shocked at how far it went,
But at the same time, atthat low trajectory at one hundred and seventeen
point seven or whatever it was,kind of gave you the understanding of why
it got out so quick and whyit ended up, you know, deep
into the second deck and didn't reallyhave a chance to go foul because it

(33:59):
was moving at such a rapid rate, but to have it be the hardest
hit home run and the stack assthere, but the assualts doesn't shocking at
all. Yeah, and they wereboth hit at minute made they being that
one and the one he hit towalk off the Mariners last year in the
postseason in Game one. I wasobviously there for that one. I wasn't
for the other nights, And Iremember thinking to myself, other than you

(34:23):
know, a million other things,like, holy crap, they just won
that game. How fast that homerun, which was an upper deck shot
left the batter's box, And soI don't I actually don't remember. I'm
sure WEX could find it in likea nanosecond, but I don't remember the
exit velocity of that particular home run. But when I saw one seventeen there,

(34:44):
I knew it was far because andI saw four twenty and I look
above it on the graphic you guysput up, and I was like,
one seventeen nearly one eighteen. Thatwas an absolute, you know bomb.
And it was funny because it waskind of to the general vicinity of where
he hit that bomb that Todd losthis mind on a few years back.
And I think that was also againstthe A's. No, it was against

(35:07):
the A's. It might even havebeen against blackburning is that this fourth home
running hit off this guy and they'vebeen just, you know, monster blasts,
you know. But at the sametime, if he just got a
little bit of elevation off that ball, it might have gone up into those
killing burn ends that we were talkingabout earlier, because that ball was hit
so freaking hard. I'm gonna askyou a did you know? Question about

(35:28):
last game the Astros played was onWednesday, and you're good, buddy,
King Tuck put one over the fence, circled the basis to complete the one
hundredth major League home run of hiscareer. The did you know is?
Did you know that that home runpushed you down to nine hundred and ninety
ninth place all time in career homeruns. I had no idea nine hundred

(35:54):
and ninety ninth place on the alltime home run list. That's now where
you were. Now that he gothis cool, the reaction that the reaction
that I expected a hundred more homeruns, and I guarantee you a lot

(36:15):
of the population of America thought that, ever, did No, I don't.
I don't say it as a asa number down there and every time
I'm actually proud of it. Youshould be. And the home run that
is always added to the ninety nineregular season home runs is an absolute sense
of pride and absolutely should be theidea that this group of Astros, Tucker,

(36:37):
Bregman, Altuve, Alvarez and maybesome of others of the younger players,
maybe even McCormick maybe paining you ifthat stroke comes back. That's something
that this group of astros is alsogoing to show over the course of time
there they they're going to hit forpower. This this this offensive explosion they've
enjoyed during this time is because itis up and down the lineup. He's

(36:59):
being fifth again today. This hasbeen pretty standard for Dusty one through five
at least, or maybe even onethrough six when a Brave is in the
lineup, which is normal. Doyou think that kind of has cemented what
Dusty likely trot's out there for thepostseason one through six in the order,
Yeah, I do you know,it could be altered depending on, you
know, how many left handed pitchersthey have in the rotation or how many

(37:22):
left handed pitchers they have in theirbullpens. Because he's actually mentioned that he
goes. He's said, if youknow opposing teams have that left handed starting
there can go deep, will separateand put a right hander in between and
just kind of mix things up.And then if they don't have too many
left handers out in that bultpend,he's not afraid to put those guys back
and back as far as you know, the Tucker and Alvarez or the the

(37:43):
Tucker at Brantley's, just because itkind of forces the opposing manager to pick
with you know, how early inthe game do they want to bring in
that left you to face Alvarez andTucker, which could hamstring them later in
a ballgame. So I think it'skind of interesting that dynamic and the way
that sets up. But again,when you start to have that kind of
production in a lineup that is wonthrough nine, and then you add into

(38:07):
the fact that you've got to doBond coming off the bench, you've got
a younger Diaz coming off the bench, I think it offers a lot of
weapons for Dusty to be able togo out there and manipulate because we know
the first two games of any ofthe series, if you get to pick
the rotation, Maldonado is going tobe catching jav and Framber. So you've
got you've got potential weapons on thebench, which actually kind of helps you

(38:28):
down the stretch if you're willing togo out there and pinch it from the
seventh inning all you know. Goingtalking about Tucker the other night after that
that hundredth home run, he wasbeing interviewed, and I think, if
I'm not mistaken, the question cameup about watching the scoreboard, watching the
standings, that kind of thing.Now, it's this is an obvious question
at this point on September fifteenth,because I would think that anybody would be

(38:50):
if you're even remotely in contention atthis time. Here you're talking about the
last couple of weeks handful of gamesof the season. But when you were
playing, when did you allow yourselfto start doing that? Did you really
pay attention throughout the year? Didyou wait till September? You know,
in a situation like this, thisis this is kind of uncharted waters for
the Astros because they're always just youknow, boat racing. The competition in

(39:10):
the aos very different dynamic this year. When did you allow yourself to start
looking at the scoreboard every single nightfor example, you know, and it
was usually around this time, likethe middle of September, because I played
on Padre teams in five or sixoh seven, where you know, it
was literally game to game down thestretch, you know, and you had
to knock out the Diamondbacks and thenall of a sudden you had to knock

(39:32):
out the Dodgers and try and winthat division like we did in five and
oh six o seven. You know, it was kind of interesting because we
got down to game one sixty threeand we were watching that scoreboard and it
with Colorado Rockies went on some ridiculoustwenty game run and we couldn't fend them
off towards the end of the season, eventually losing to them in Game one
sixty three. And then it wassimilar m oh five when I got to

(39:53):
Chicago, you know, we hada fifteen game league, and then all
of a sudden it was the MinnesotaTwins. It couldn't be beat. So
Cleveland Indians at the time, nowthe Guardians, it couldn't be beat.
And we're sitting there going, man, this gap is starting to shrink a
little bit. And it's not panic, but I think the panic, you
know, translates into listen, fellows, we need to take care of our
own business and we'll worry about thatscore later. But I think you know,

(40:16):
once you took care of your business, you were a little more willing
to look at that scoreboard and seewhat was going on behind you, because
hopefully that's where you tempted was behindyou. Yeah, no, for sure,
and I think you know to thatend, that's probably some of what
was said when when you know,Justin to trusted the team the other night.
I don't know if that was overblownbecause of how Chatz characterized it,

(40:36):
just saying that Justin spoke to theteam. I don't know if it was
like some formal thing or if itwas just like a little chat. But
you know, Wex has been sayingit for weeks. You take care of
your business. You're going to bein good shape if you're the Astros because
of where you are right now inthe league. Yeah, and I mean,
ultimately that's what every team says.You know, you've just got to
be able to go day by day, especially this late in the season with

(40:57):
all the bums, all the bruises, it's easier to toss those out of
your mind when you understand that youare in contention because you do have something
to play for it, so youkind of relish in the fact that you
do have these games to play for. You're playing with purpose, You're not
making plans for October like a lotof these teams are. So go out
there, play the game as hardas you possibly can and kind of take
these at back or these innings thatyou pitch at team innings that team at

(41:17):
that's how am I going to helpthe team this inning? How am I
going to help the team with mybat that I have right now? And
that's usually the teams that come outon top of that, play that good,
good team baseball down the stretch andthen let the other stuff take care
of itself while you go out thereand win your ball games. Jeff Blum
always appreciate you joining us here eachand every week from Kansas City this time

(41:37):
around, and we certainly appreciate thepeople that make it possible. Yep.
I'm a big fan of low teacenters, not just because they get me
on air with you guys, butalso because they keep me rolling every single
day. And I kind of appreciatethese quick trips because it allows me to
stay in my routine of going intoLow Tea Center every week. I go
in about every month, month anda half. I'll have my levels checked

(41:57):
and we'll make sure that we're onthe right program. They do a wonderful
job of taking care of me.Again, it's only a ten to fifteen
minute visits every time I go inthere to get that shot and make sure
I'm right. They've got other productsin there. Be twelve shots are great.
Some of these other things that theycan do for you. So go
to lowcacenter dot com. Check themout, find that location nearest to you.
They're all over Greater Houston. Allright, Blumber, get us,

(42:19):
get some burn ends, get someribs, and get us three wins while
you're at it. While you're upthere in case, yeah, if we
don't get at least two ws,I'm burning someome ends. Sounds good,
Blumber. We'll talk to you nextweek and you get back to town all
right later, boys, appreciate you, all right. Jeff Blum here on
the eight Team Sports Talks seven ninetyhis customary weekly visit on a Friday.
Always good catching up with Blumber.