The Athletic's Chandler Rome Joins The Show!

The Athletic's Chandler Rome hops on the program to talk about Christian Walker's struggles, the Astros' pitching and their matchup with the Padres in a must-win series at the Ice Box

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We slide into some Astros talk with the team back
in town this weekend, welcoming in the best team in baseball,
and no, the Dodgers aren't here. The San Diego Padres
are here with their fifteen to four record, their elite
pitching staff, and their unbelievably strong offense, all to go
up against the eight and ten Astros. To that end,
Chandler Rome joins us here on a Friday afternoon. The

(00:20):
eight and ten Astros technically the last place Astros, but
Chandler of the Athletic who covers Major League Baseball and
the Astros and has for several years. Now, let me
ask you about one of these subjects over your recent articles.
Christian Walker. And before he arrived here in Houston, I
had looked back at what he did post injury, and

(00:41):
then obviously he had a similar injury in spring training.
Didn't seem like he was quite the same hitter for
his final month of baseball last year, missed August, played September.
Just didn't quite seem like he was producing the same way.
He was lower slug, lower average, just all those things. Obviously,
and he's had a very poor start here, which he's
readily acknowledged, and he wrote about quite a bit of that.
What do you think snaps a player like that out

(01:03):
of it when there's been very few stretches of his
healthy career the last four years where he's gone through
anything like this.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, I mean it's gonna sound cliche, but I think
he just needs to get some hits to fall seeing
and having success because you know, I mean, I can't
crawl inside his head. I'm not good enough of an
evaluator to look at his swing and tell you what's
wrong and what's not. I can see that the chase
rates up, but the chase rate has gone down a
little bit in the last week. He's swinging a better pitches,

(01:31):
he's getting on base, like I think it's mental. I
think at this point, you know, talking to him, he is.
I mean, I've only known him for about three months now,
but to talk to him, he's one of the more
just kind of you know, self critical players I've been around.
Just really takes it hard and he wears. I mean,
if you guys have watched the first eighteen games of
the season, you can tell how much this is braiding

(01:53):
on him, just because it's visceral, it's physical like you
see the knees been, you see the head go back,
you see you know he spiked his helmet in Saint
Louis on Monday. I think it's I think it's now
getting to the mental side of it, and he's pressing.
That's pretty obvious, and he has acknowledged that that he's
pressing trying to impress a new team on a big contract. So,

(02:14):
I mean, the easy answer is, like he needs some
hits to fall. He needs a line drive into the
gap to fall. He needs you know, doesn't even have
to be a line drive, Like at some point, it's
like a blue kit would help, just to like maybe
calm him down and let him take a deep breath.
But yeah, it's a rough go for him right now.
And it's not all on him. I mean, Jordan Alvarez
has four extra base hits all season. Yiner Diaz has

(02:37):
been abysmal. I mean, I don't even have his numbers,
but I know he's got an ops in the threes,
which is not what you want. Joseel two bays cooled
down Cam Smith is breaking news. Cam Smith is not
the best player in baseball app despite what his spring
training stats would say. So it's not all on Christian Walker.
But if you're gonna keep hitting him clean up every day,

(02:59):
if he's made and the money he's making, and if
he's your big off season acquisition, then yeah, he's gonna
get the brunt of the criticism and the brunt of
the blame.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, I guess the meanest way to talk about Janer
Diaz his start. I think I took care of that
earlier when I mentioned Marty Martin Maldonado was in the
lineup tonight for the Padres and far far, far far
fewer at bats this year. They have the same number
of hits. They both have seven hits this year. It's
it's kind of jarring when you consider that, and kind
of from the way he wears it attitude of Christian Walker.

(03:32):
And we brought this up to you the last conversation
we had here on the show. It's totally opposite for
jan A you really, except for his you know, after
he gets around the bases or after he's driven around,
you clearly see him smile with his teammates like anybody would.
But you know, going up and back from the plate
as often as he has without success, you can't hardly
tell although I'm sure he's changing things, his approach, his attitude.

(03:54):
He's he's had some downturns before, many of them in
his short brief career. Most of that seemed like came
from lack of consistency being in the lineup. He's in
the lineup every single day. In going through this, it
sounds I'm sure the answer is still the same. He's
not gonna get out of it by sitting him.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
No, he's not. And I mean, to be honest with you,
who else would they play if they did sit him.
I mean, they have Victor Carrottina, but they don't have
a third catcher on this roster. I mean, he's gonna
have to play it. So, I mean he's have to
play his way through this. And you know, to be
honest with you, I'm probably a little more worried about
Yiner Diaz than I am Christian Walker. Just give him
the track records, right, Like, I'm not going to bring

(04:31):
up back of a baseball card. But you know, Christian
Walker has a more substantial, lengthy track record than Yinder Diaz,
who I mean, for all the good things Jiner Diaz
has done, he's really only put together one full major
league season, and as you said, in that one full
major league season where he was really good, you saw
slumps like this, Like I think he went his last

(04:51):
one hundred and thirty played appearances last year without Homery
still hit three hundred, But he's gone through stretches like this,
So I'm a little bit more concern maybe about him. Look,
I don't think he's gonna have a three hundred oh
ps all year, but certainly it's something that I if
I'm looking at it from a ten thousand foot view,
as the sample size gets bigger, I would probably be
a little bit more concerned about Yainer than I would

(05:14):
Christian Walker.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
It forced, as I am from time to time, to
be much less of a wet blanket. What would you
point to offensively or individually offensively or kind of a
team wide philosophy if there is one of something that
has been a good thing with this team's offense.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, I mean, first and foremost is they're taking more pitches.
They're in the top ten walks, they're seeing more pitches
per plate appearance this year than they did at any
point last year. It's pretty clear that whatever they told
the team in spring training or what they did this
offseason to see more pitches to take better at bats.
That's been the weird thing about this whole offense. Like
the bats have looked good. There are very few six

(05:55):
pitch innings when it seemed like every other inning last
year was an eight to ten pitch inning when they
were going bad. Like, the bats look good, like they're battling,
Like estoc Paratus is doing exactly what they thought he
would do. Jordon Alvarez is seeing almost four and a
half pitches per plate appearance. Like the bats look good.
They're just they just don't have the results right now.
And I know, you know, you can't just you can't

(06:17):
just say that and say, oh, it'll come. Like there's
some underlying stuff that's concerned. They're hitting the ball on
the ground way too much for a team that is
very slow and very old position player wise. You say that,
and they're seeing more sinkers than any team in baseball,
so you would expect most of the stuff to be
on the ground. You know, the all right handedness of
this lineup minus Ordon Alvarez, Like, I think that's gonna

(06:39):
be a problem going for it. I think they're gonna
have to find some way to inject some balance into
this lineup, because you know, you can't pitch everyone the same.
But when you get every when you get eight of
nine rieties up there, like becomes a little bit easier
to navigate. So, I mean, look, there are some positives,
like I said, the walk rate, the amount of pitches
they're seeing. The bottom of their has been okay, Like

(07:02):
Jake Myers is having a nice start to his season.
Cam Smith for the Ops not looking great again. Yeah,
bats look all right, it's just yeah, they need to
slug like I mean, just playing and simple like they
need to hit doubles, they'd hit homers, and that is
not gonna come from the bottom of that order. It's
gonna come from Christian Walker, from Jiner Diaz, from Jordan Alvarez,

(07:23):
from the guys that are scuffling the most.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, it's a pretty simple philosophy. If this team's gonna
go and as same as any other year that they've
been really, really good, it's gonna come from the guys.
You need it to come from the top four in
their order or five most days with Jiner, that's where
they're going to win games. That's where they're going to
score runs. That's where they're going to slug and it
simply has not happened yet. It's Ryan Gusto, Hayden Wiznsky
from ber Valdez getting the three starts in this San

(07:45):
Diego series beginning tonight. What about the immediate future for
Gusto and having seen him now throw against major league
hitters now the six times that he has, what do
you like about what his future might hold?

Speaker 2 (07:58):
You know, Look, he throws strikes, which which they like
a lot. He's not afraid, he's not nibbling around the zone.
He's around the strike zone, which they that's why they
like him as a long reliever. And to be honest
with you, I think he's gonna stay on this club
as kind of that long relief role because you've seen
their bullpen get upside down a couple of times already
this season, and it's because either Gusto was in the

(08:20):
starting rotation already or that he had been used and
they just didn't have him available. Like putting one guy
out there that can throw strikes and gets you nine
or ten outs after a short start or any game
that's lopsided, that helps you so much going forward, especially
in these long stretches a game, so I can see
him sticking around as a long reliever, but tonight it's

(08:41):
gonna be a big challenge for him. This is a really,
really good Toddre's lineup that makes a lot of contact.
They don't swing and miss, they don't strike out, And
the biggest thing for him is he's gonna have to
control the running game because I fear that this team
is going to run all over them this weekend, just
with all three starters. And it's not even just running

(09:03):
on the battery, it's you know they're tonight in left
field and the center field. You don't have much confidence
in the arms. Cam Smith's got a fine arm and
right field, but he's a guy that's in his first
month as a full time outfielder, so you could see
a lot of first to third tonight. You can see
them putting a lot of pressure on Ryan Gusto, a
guy that, while every game in TRIAA matters to the

(09:27):
team that's playing, I doubt Ryan Gusto has ever had
to think about the running game as much as he's
gonna have to think about it tonight, because this is
a Padres team that, with a lot of their guys
on the il, they're having to play a little bit differently.
They're putting a lot of pressure on teams and go
on first to third, they're stealing a bunch and if
we've seen anything from this Astros team through eighteen games
is that they cannot control the running game.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, it's been pretty disappointing when they're fully aware of
the issue, and it's not a new issue to this
year's team, but it's an overwhelming one and yet they're
unable to do much about it in any given game.
Twenty four steals on twenty seven attempts is what Padres
have already put together among the leaders in stolen bases,
and I like you expect, unfortunately more of that this weekend,
provided they have base runners, and they likely will. They're

(10:09):
an unbelievably strong offense, pitching staff, and obvious league team
best in baseball at fifteen and four. Chandler certainly appreciate
the time, enjoy the rest of the weekend, and always
appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
All right, thanks, Chris, You got it.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Chandler Roma of the Athletic covering the Astros and Major
League Baseball. Gusto was Nesky fromber Valdez and Gusto's case,
he'd just like to go a little bit deeper in
the game, and was Nesky's case, he'd like a repeat
of his domination and his ten strikeout performances last time out.
And absolutely a bounce back performance is what fromber Valdez

(10:43):
is looking for. Hopefully, it's an opportunity to claim the
series of nothing else. If they can grab a win
on either of these first two days, then maybe you
beat a National League team. It's the best National League
team and the Astros. I've mentioned it a couple of times,
even in this conversation. It sounds like we're talking about
a four or five win team. They're eight and ten.

(11:04):
It's not awful.