RoFlo! Robert Flores Joins The A-Team: "Dusty's Got His Work Cut Out For Him."

MLB Network's Robert Flores joins The A-Team to talk Minute Maid Park's batter's eye and Chas McCormick/Dusty Baker.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Big, big fan of his workand obviously he is a product of our
fair city. Robert Flora is joiningus from MLB Network here on the A
team Sports Talks seven nineties. Weget the five o'clock hour underway, wex
and ac with Euroflow. Thanks fortaking the time obviously, And Man,
I was texting with you about thisas morning, you and Mark de Rosa
talking about Chas McCormick and is heunder the radar in your opinion? Like,

(00:24):
how did more people not recognize whatthis guy's not only doing but turning
into. I guess, well,I think, you know, it's probably
a combination of of a couple ofthings. You know, his he's not
one of the big names in alineup filled with big names. He hasn't
been you know, he hasn't beenof the league for a long time.

(00:46):
And then obviously he's been kind ofthe playing time has been a bit sporadic,
shall we say so. I knowthat is a source of great,
great discussion among Astro fans in Astro'stwitter, him and Jan Diaz. The
fact and the fact that you knowwhat Astro's twitter is his fantastic man it

(01:07):
is, I mean it is.I have never seen something like this with
a team that is as good asthe Astros are and have been for this
sustained amount of time, which,by the way, is you know,
better than anybody. Is not normalin Major League Baseball. It's just not.
But the thing, it's almost likepeople think that some portion of Astro's
Twitter just wakes up and wants tofind something to complain about. But I

(01:32):
think that is true. I thinkthey've got a gripe in not only this
case, but maybe if you wantto talk about Janter Diaz, well yeah,
I mean and look, let me, let me how how can I
put this? Okay, you guysremember Jim Moore, right, the old
football coach in that gayoff playoff?Right, But there's also another one that

(01:53):
I think is amazing and it doesn'tget as much run. Maybe maybe Dan
can find it. When when we'redone here, he says, and he's
you know, is when he's talkingwith the media and he's kind of given
the message to the media and thefans, and I think this is it
fits perfectly with what I'm saying,so stick with me, he says.
He's talking to the meeting, andhe goes, you guys think you know,

(02:14):
but you never ever will. AndI think that is part of as
someone that is a fan and memberof the media, I think that's something
I'm guilty of, and I thinkthat's something that you know, us as
a whole are guilty of a littlebit. In this case. You know,
you get some people on Astro's Twitterand people driving around town right now

(02:37):
on the Loop and stuck in theirstuck in traffic. You know, maybe
they want maybe they play MLB theshow a lot, or maybe they coach
their son or daughter's travel team andthey've taken them to the district playoffs and
stuff like that, and they thinkthat they know, you know, more
than what a eventual Hall of Famemanager in World Series manager knows. And

(02:57):
that's not the case. There's alot of information and knowledge and intuition that
Dusty Baker has that we do not. There are a lot of things that
happen in a clubhouse, in adugout, behind the scenes that we don't
know, That media doesn't know,and fans certainly doesn't know. So when

(03:19):
I read things on or hear thingson talk radio or read them on Twitter
about get Dusty out of here,he's an idiot. He's an old man.
He's seen a relax. The guys, we're less than a year removed
from him winning a World Series title. He knows more about baseball than all
three of us, and everyone drivingin their cars more often than not.

(03:42):
Well, well we'll know that beingsaid. That being said, there needs
to be away from me. Yes, to get more, to get more.
Abs. Dan's killing you right now, isn't he. Yeah, yeah,
play play it Dan. You guysreally don't know when it's good or

(04:04):
bad. When it comes right downto it. Will you make a promiss?
Will you tell us? And I'mpromising you right now that you don't
know when it's good or bad.You really don't know because you don't know
what we're trying to do. Youguys, don't look at the films.
You don't know what happened. Youreally don't know. You think you know,
but you don't know. And there, Yeah, that's it. I

(04:28):
feel that's it. I feel likethat said. Yeah, yeah, that
being said, diazm McCormick need tofind a way to get in the lineup
for how much that is I don'tknow. I don't know, but I
know that McCormick. When you lookat the side by side graphics that we
put up of Chas McCormick and JulioRodriguez. Chas McCormick needs to be your
everyday outfielder with a sprinkling of MauricioDubon playing infield, playing outfield. Vercio

(04:54):
Dubon's a heck of a player,has real value. McCormick in that center
field position, with those numbers inthat pop man, I would find a
way. But again, we don'tknow what Dusty knows, or what he's
been told or what he's seeing.Maybe there's something personal with him in Chas.
I don't know. Chas McCormick dida great job of deflecting it when

(05:15):
he was asked in Chandel of Rome'sarticle in The Athletic. He's like,
Hey, we're good. We're tryingto win games here, we're trying to
win playoffs. Is thisn't about me? So credit to him. Jiner Das
situation justin Verlander and from ber Valdez, like pitching to Martin Maldonado, So
what do you tell them? Sorry, guys, I know your aces,
your co aces on the team,but sorry, I mean like that matters.

(05:39):
I don't I don't know what you'resupposed to do in that situation.
So Dusty's got his work cut outfor him. But I think sometimes we
just kind of missed the full context, in the full picture way more than
meets the eye. Pretty much everytime we get into these discussions about lineup
issues or who's flaying and who's not. And again of late really over the
past two and a half months,for both Diaz and Chas McCormick, they

(06:02):
are playing the lion's share of thegames. They do not play to hundred
out of a hundred games, andthey do get a day off here and
there, and there are some movesbeing made that people will question, but
yes, they are playing a lotof the time. I'm a little bit
surprising all of your talk about thepeople that are, you know, coaching
their games and sitting in the loopand not really knowing what they think they

(06:23):
know. Why don't you just callhim ham and Eggers. Well, I
mean because I'm a Hammond Egger too. Look, I play MLB the show
all the time, and I thinkI know everything. So I'm just like
everyone. I'm I'm looking at thelineups or I'm watching the game unfolds and
I'm like, what does he do? And how could they unfold? How
could they let this happen? Orwho's in the lineup? Why isn't they
you know? So hey, I'mjust like everyone else. So but the

(06:46):
good news is, hey, they'replaying a lot better. They seem to
be, uh, you know,playing a little bit more consistently, especially
offensively. My only worry is nowthey go back home this weekend, and
their struggles at home have been mindboggling. I can't explain that, and
I don't think anyone can. Isthe batter's eye over blown as a actual

(07:09):
potential reason. That's a great question. You know, the the jose A
Brayu and you know what he toldEduardo Perez of ESPN. I had not
heard that. That's very interesting.I'm not sure. Is that Budweiser party
deck is that recently installed or hasthat been there for a while. Twenty

(07:30):
seventeen, they did a lot ofchanges. Obviously, Tal's Hill was scrapped,
the party deck was out there,the IVY was put up. It
looks great unless you're trying to geta hit. Apparently. Yeah, well,
the Mariners didn't seem to have tooman and the Cincinnati Reds didn't have
too big of a problem with it, and the Yankees go ahead, Yeah,

(07:50):
the Yankees, they didn't have aproblem with it, So, I
mean, I don't know. Obviously, jose A bray Us struggles have been
another one of those head scratchers.But man, hopefully he can, you
know, take what happened over thepast few days in Arlington and move forward,
because if you've got him going somewhat, if you got Uncle Mike going

(08:13):
somewhat, man, that lineup reallybecomes scarier and and it really lends LinkedIn's
out in a way that hasn't beenthe case really all year. The two
biggest things that concerned me the rotation, the depth of the rotation, and
a few spots in the bullpen.That that's for me right now is the
biggest question mark. Yeah, ChristianaHunter Brown and a few spots in the

(08:39):
bullpen, those for me are thebiggest questions moving forward. And just since
you brought it up, and ifanybody's been listening for the last several minutes,
you already know this guy is legitas Houston as it gets. Robert
Flores, I mean, have youever taken your any sort of perceived homerism
aside, and I'm not accusing youof that at all. Have you ever
seen a dismantling destruction like the lastthree days and Arlington was between the Astros

(09:03):
and Rangers. Yeah, you knowthat that was that was unusual. And
you know, I went back in, I went back and looked at some
of the games in twenty fifteen becauseprior to this year, I like that
race between the Astros and Rangers.In twenty fifteen, remember that was the
year where the Astros were just kindof ascending. That was when they got

(09:24):
into the playoffs ultimately lost to theRoyals, and you know, the governor
sending out the tweet that they wonthe World Series and the games was still
going on that that whole time.But the the Astros were chasing the Rangers,
and I remember they went into alate season four games set in Arlington
and got swept. But the gamesI looked back, they were kind of
close, excruciating games. These gameswere not close at all. And Max

(09:50):
Scherzer, I think, is goingthrough it a little bit healthwise. Native
Aldi did not look right. Iwas. I was a little perplexed why
he didn't go through a rehab assignment. Before making his return on the mound.
But yeah, the Rangers, they'vegot some real big issues right now,
and their bullpen is it's taxed andit's struggling. And yeah, they

(10:16):
do got the Oakland Days this weekend. But remember, I think they finished
their season with seven games against theSeattle Mariners. So while the Astros have
questions, they're not anywhere in comparisonto what the Rangers questions are right now.
Yeah, seven of the last tengames of the year. I have
the Mariners and Rangers facing one another. As we walk you out the door
of the next couple of weeks leadinginto the playoffs on MLB Central and de

(10:37):
Row, and you and Lauren andyour rotating crew of guests will be contemplating
your postseason predictions, your American Leaguepredictions. Is it inevitable if one of
the six American League playoff teams isthe Astros, that y'all are going to
have to pick the Astros again,that's a great question, you know,

(11:00):
I think that the Look, there'sa handful of teams right now that can
win it all right now, offthe top of my head, Braves,
Phillies, Dodgers, Blue Jays,Mariners, Astros. Who am I missing
Orioles? So you know, kindof just throw them up there, and
I think that we're kind of we'regoing to be in store for one of

(11:22):
the greatest postseasons we've ever had,just because the competition is so hot.
It is such a narrow margin betweenall the teams. But look, if
the Astros win the division and theyget a few days off to get their
pitching and bullpen set and rest andget ready to go, I mean it
would be hard to pick against themjust because of what they've done. I

(11:43):
mean, sixth straight ALCSS, that'sunbelievable. And I still go back to
twenty nineteen, they couldn't win adamn home game. You've got three World
Series titles that year. I mean, this is it's the golden age of
Astro's baseball. This is the arguablythe greatest franchise the city has ever had,

(12:05):
especially over an extended period of time. So I mean, yeah,
look, this group is battle tested, obviously, but man, if they
find a way to get in,especially as a division champ, they're gonna
be a tough out, no doubt. And by the way, before we
let you go, and we sincewe've got you here. I haven't had
a chance to thank you on theair for narrating that championship recap last year.

(12:28):
That was incredible. Oh yeah,that we had a good time.
We had a good time doing that. I had a good time writing that,
and I enjoy it. You know, our our group, that our
editing crew and the production staff,they did a really good job of putting
that together. So I'm glad peopleenjoyed it. I love Like I said,

(12:50):
I mean, I still got photosof me in an old Astro's Buddies
T shirt back in nineteen seventy eight, So yeah, I mean, I
grew up in Houston, grew upgoing to Astro games at the old Astrodome,
So to see where this franchise isnow to where it was at points
of time when I was growing up, it's unbelievable and it's remarkable, and

(13:13):
I hope we can all appreciate itbecause it doesn't happen very often, and
who knows how long it's gonna last. Yeah, it's absolutely true. Well,
send our best to Mark de Rosaobviously as well. We're going to
try and get him on the showin the next month or so. He's
fantastic both of you guys are,and then send our very very very best
to Lauren Shahati. I don't knowhow she puts up with you guys.

(13:33):
Yeah I will let her know,and yes she does. She does a
great job. She's a pros profor sure. Thanks so much, Robert.
We appreciate the time. All right, guys, have a good one,
have a great weekend. Gokugs absolutelyRobert Flores here on Sports Talk seven
ninety from MLB Network. You catchhim there and you'll know exactly why we're
such big fans of his