Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Day.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey, it's straight up four o'clock, which means an hour
earlier than normal. We catch up with Chandler Rome of
the Athletic. That's because the Astros on Deck show is
starting in his normal time, because the Astros are over
on the East Coast taking on the New York Yankees,
the lovable New York Yankees in the Bronx tonight and
(00:24):
speaking of level, Chandler Ome joins us our good buddy,
Chandler Rome. Hey, Chandler, what's going on with you?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Man?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
How's how are things over in Astros world?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's going well. Man.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Look if you guys have to drop me because another
textan gets arrested, I completely understand Orfitextan gets arrested for
a second time. If we got to cut the segment short,
I'd get it.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
What if the same one gets arrested a third time?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
But don't worry.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
He didn't know that drinking was against probation, as if
that's something that should be pretty common knowledge when you
get arrested for I don't know, domestic violence.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But who are we to say?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Have I told you I love you lately?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
This? The content did just now just now?
Speaker 5 (01:03):
I mean I was going to ask you if you
wanted to pedal your brand new product. But man, you
coming in breathing fire today, but you can please by
all means, why don't.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
You Chrush City Territory open the merch, open the merch
shot today. If you want to stainless steel water bottle,
if you want a Duffel bag, if you want a
lightweight hoodie, we have all of that with the Krush
City Territory logo on and presented by Foul Territory Network.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Please do they have any any hoodies with your face
on them? I don't wear that.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I think I think we can make that work if
someone really asked, but I don't think that's available at
the moment.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Okay, Week one of Take two of Carlos Korea was
what to you?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I mean it was it was certainly interesting. I said this.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Actually I've said this on the pod I think two
episodes ago. It was surreal at times to like look
down there, or like when I walked in the clubhouse
at Fenway Park for the first time and he was
in there, like it kind of is surreal.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And I kept to.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Remind myself, at least in Boston, you know, this isn't
a rental, like he's not here for two months, like
he's here for like the next three years. And it's
still pretty surreal that he's back and that it worked
out the way it did. I wouldn't say like the
teams play on the field matched, like the vibes and
the energy that was present in Boston. Obviously they got swept,
(02:22):
and then they went to Miami and played a little
bit better. But Korea himself, I mean, the swings have
looked really good, especially in Miami. I mean he was
hitting the ball to right field with authority. He was
the direction of the of the swings look good. His
plate discipline was good. The third base transition is probably
the thing I'm most intrigued by, but at the same
(02:43):
time least concerned about, just because of how elite of
a defender he is and his baseball IQ and just
how savvy he is on the baseball field. I think
that won't be an issue. But again, I think it's
a little more difficult than people are giving it credit
for moving from shortstop to third base. But I think
if anyone can do it, Carlos Korea can do it.
(03:05):
So it was it was it was fun to watch
him for six games. He looks happy. He looks laid back,
he looks it looks like he never left.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
It looks like he's just a little bit older.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
If he looks happy, then what does Haesus Sanchez look like?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
He's he's a trip man. He's you know, everyone's still
getting to know him a little bit. Coaches, players, everybody.
But I mean, the one thing you can say about
him is he never stops smiling. I mean, you can
tell he's really happy to be here. I think going
back to Miami so quickly after the trade, obviously he
was happy to see a lot of his old friends
and guys like that. That maybe contributed a little bit
(03:40):
to it. But I mean his energy is infectious, His
positivity is infectious.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know. It's the Ashers didn't need maybe that.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I'm not trying to insinuate that their clubhouse was not,
you know, positive and happy. But anytime you add another
person like that into it, it can only do good.
And I mean at the plate, I mean, he doesn't
get cheated on his swings. He takes some healthy hacks.
He had some good at bats, you know, obviously batting
from the left side and giving that balance to a
(04:10):
lineup that really needed.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
It is gonna be helpful.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
I think we all saw that he's not maybe a
plus defensive outfielder. I think there needs to be some
work there. And I think the other thing, you know,
he hasn't played much in left field, like at all
in his career, and that's where he's gonna be mainly
playing here just given the roster construction, So they're gonna
have to work with him in the outfield a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I don't think it's.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
It's not terrible by any means, but but they've got
to get him better at a couple of things. But overall,
I mean, they didn't acquire him for his defense. They
acquired him for his left handed bat to crush right
handed pitching, and he showed that he can do that
this week.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
The Astros has also got a new pitcher that he
pitched on Wednesday. Well, he's not really new. We've had
Spencer Arraghetti around for a season and change, but not
much of this season. He did not look good. There's
no other way to put it. Pitch count was high,
location was bad, giving up too many hits, and the
traffic turned into inevitable runs. Is this just a matter
(05:10):
of rust. Is this somewhere in between, give me your
crystal ball on what Spencer ari gett. He's gonna be
the remainder of the twenty twenty five campaign.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
You know, it's hard to say, Look, he gave eleven
hits in three and two thirds innings like that on
it in and of itself is not good. But he
got sixteen swings and misses, which is the third most
he's ever gotten in a big league game. The villa
was there, the breaking balls and the spin were doing
what he wanted it to do. It's hard for me
(05:42):
to look at that outing and just say it was
an abject disaster. But again, at the same time, he
had eleven hits, he only got eleven outs. That's not
going to work going forward. Yeah, I think it was
a little bit of rust. I think it was just
a little bit. He looked like a guy that had
not pitching the big leagues in one hundred and twenty
three days. The problem is there's forty seven games left
(06:02):
in the regular season. Like if he did that in May,
you'd be able to just like, oh, okay, it's Russ,
Like he's got a couple starts and he'll get his
feet back under him, Like no, like you're in a
battle for your life in the division, and the Mariners
are now a game and a half back, and the
runway to just be like, oh okay, like he'll get
his feet under him at some point, like that doesn't
exist anymore. And I think they are hopeful, and look,
(06:24):
you saw it. It's in there, like it's not one
of these situations where it's you know, just completely gone.
But it's gonna takehim a little while to get reacclimated.
Same thing with Christian Javier when he gets back. Same
thing with Lauis Garcia when he gets back. And both
of those guys have missed more than a year. What
you have to worry about if you're an Ashros fan,
is that doing that with the calendar that they have
(06:45):
with you know, like I said, they have forty seven
games remaining in the regular season.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Do they have enough time?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Do they have enough time to get these guys firing
on all cylinders in games that not every game from
here on out is a must win. But when you
got the Mariners a game and a half back, you
can't just be every every third or fourth day and
be like, oh, we got a guy that's you know,
it's only gonna go three innings today, and he's his
command's not great and he's still rusty and still getting back,
but we'll get him.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
We'll get him sharp sooner or later.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Like, that's a tough way to live in the middle
of August in a division race. So it's what the
Astro signed up for when they didn't acquire any pitching
at the deadline, and they're gonna have to maybe live
with the consequences.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Chandler Rome covering the Astros in Major League Baseball for
the Athletic, joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
to that same topic. I think people might even lose
sight of it. Yeah, that day so and so Javier
pitch did not pitch. Well, it's it's a lost game,
it's a lost cause. But it certainly has much bigger
impacts on that And we saw that when the Astros
would go through a day or two where you barely
(07:45):
got anything out of your starting pitching. Their bullpen's effectiveness
is tied to not having to over use them and
not having to constantly shuffle who's in the bullpen because
you got to bring up a guy and send down
a guy. Almost every other day because you just don't
have arms. Is there a different way to go about
it to combat that, or is that just the obvious
secondary problem they're going to face when they're almost constantly
(08:06):
giving the ball to somebody who may or may not
get more than ten or eleven ounce.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Aj blue ball looked pretty good, didn't he?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
He sure did.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
I was wondering why it took so long to get
him here. Quite honestly, all throughout the season, I brought
it up.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Well, I mean, and I know he didn't.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Have a get season at A.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, that's the thing. You looked at his Triple A stats.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
I watched him pitch on Tuesday, and I wondered to
myself how he has the Triple A numbers that he
has if he's been throwing that stuff in Triple A.
But look, he's a He is one of the possible solutions,
a guy that you know if you get him up.
And Joe Spotty even mitched on Wednesday when they sent
him out, said he can fill that Ryan Gusto role,
(08:45):
or if you're if you are a previous Astros fan,
the Brad Peacock role of swing guy, let him go
three or four nings, do exactly what he did on Tuesday,
and Blueball is a guy that could do that. You
look at some other guys they have down there, do
they go to miguelu Yoa for something similar to that?
Like they have got ways that they can do it
(09:07):
when it's not so where it's not just throwing all
of their one inning guys for two innings and overworking them,
Like they've got ways to go about it. I think
Blah is going to play a pretty crucial role down
the stretch, especially if he's touching ninety eight and sitting
ninety six and these short spurts like that's valuable, so
he'll help that. I mean, at some point they are
(09:29):
going to have to get length from starters not named
Valdez or Brown, and I think Aragetty. Again, I'm not
as worried about Ragetty as I probably will be about
Garcia and Javier, just because they're coming off of reconstructive surgeries.
Javier hadn't pitched a game in fourteen months, Garcia hadn't
pitched a game in twenty seven months. And I don't
(09:50):
want to say that it's going to go exactly this way,
but the Astros saw on Monday what a first season
back from Tommy John surgery looks like. With Sande al Contra,
who they absolutely lit up for five innings, he's got
an ERA approaching seven. He had a seventeen month recovery
between his last big league outing and this season when
(10:12):
he started back up.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Hobby Are will be at fourteen months.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
I'm not sitting here telling you that Jabier and Alcantra
are going to have produced identical numbers, but that is
the risk you run when you don't fortify your rotation
with just guys that have been pitching, guys that have
been doing it at the big league level. They had
the chance to do that at the trade deadline, they
found the price is too high, and now they're going
to have to just hope and pray that the injured
guys coming back get effective pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Real real quick. Before we let you go, does Christian
Walker have a pulse?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Oh yeah, I think him and Yiner Diaz have been
the biggest eye openers past month. You know, Walker's ops
is at seven hundred, Diez is right above seven hundred.
They keep that going, then this lineup all of a sudden,
It's a lot longer, a lot Scarier Walker especially.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Has looked really really good on this road trip.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
If they can keep going, I think that's gonna offset
a little bit of the pressure that we just talked
about on the starters.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That's Chandler roam of the athletic. He joins us each
and every week. Sometimes he joins us an hour earlier,
like he did today. Chandler, we appreciate you as always
have fun covering astros Yankees.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
All right, Thanks guys, The a T on Sports Talk
seven ninety