The Athletic's Chandler Rome Joins The Show

The Athletic's Chandler Rome hops on with Wex and AC to talk all things Astros heading into the return to Lance McCullers

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
About a half hour from now, we will get into
the Astros on Deck show. Before we get there, I
want to welcome in our weekly guest here on a Friday,
That is Chandler Rome Astros in Baltimore with Lance mccullors
Junior on the mound making his return from the latest
stint of his on the IL and Chandler very typical,
still unfortunate. You and Joe a spot and the rest

(00:24):
of the assembled media had to have a conversation about
another player situation on the injured list as Bennett's SUSA
heads there. What did Joe have to say about where
things stand and why this move was made with Bennett?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, it sounds like he felt something in his elbows
doubting on Tuesday in Detroit and they saw it or
they pul during his you know, maybe give them a
day or two off from throwing.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
What would help it?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
To think We're going to stop the conversation where we're at.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Why does this always happen with him? This is also
on the Bingo card. By the way, iHeart phones screwing up.
That was on the Bingo card.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
To better serve our guest who's nice enough to join us,
We're gonna prevent you from hearing him in that manner.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
As a chipmunk. Yes, I want to see what I
want to see what happens when he gets him back
on the phone. If it happens again.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well you're not gonna like you're setting it up like
if it happens again, I am gonna well this share
into that monitor.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
No, that's con.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Got five nice monitors in here. I'm gonna keep them
all safe and sound.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Do you dare go to him again?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
There was a technical difficulties on our end. You weren't
sounding quite correct. If you wouldn't mind, what did Joe
a spot I have to say about Bennett Sussay.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Some elbow stuff and his and his outing on Tuesday
in Detroit, and they saw it. Giving him a couple
of days off would allow it to settle down a
little bit. That did not happen. So he's flying back
to Houston right now to get further evaluation. I play
a doctor on the radio, but having elbow pain with
thirty something games left in the season, even if it's

(02:07):
best case scenario, I think it would be difficult to
envision SUSA, you know, returning quickly. Perhaps if it's best
case scenario, they could do something where he's back for
the stretch run and maybe a potential playoffs thing. But again,
they're working against the clock here, they're working against the calendar.
So just another injury for a team that can't afford it.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Two bullpen arms off the roster with he and Van
way Van Waye optioned down. One bullpen arm added to
the roster. What did what did Joe have to say,
if anything, about the addition of Craig Kimbrel And what
are your thoughts about the addition of Craig Kimbrel.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
I mean from from strictly a track record and a
guy that has done it before. I think it makes
a lot of sense because you look down in that
bullpen and there's not a lot of guys a lot
of service time. There's not a lot of guys that
have done this at the major league level, a lot.
Even a guy that you would think, you know, Caleb
Art's been around and been on a few teams, He's

(03:03):
only got a year of major league service time. Brian
Kings don't had a year of major league service time,
like they needed some experience down there. What Craig Kimber
is not what he once was, but they think they
think the breaking pitches are still are still playable. He's
learning how to pitch with deepriests fastball velocity, just as
he's gotten older, and I think they think he has

(03:25):
learned a little bit about how to pitch with ninety
three ninety four instead of the ninety six ninety seven
he once had. It's a flyer, like they're hoping that
they can just kind of catch lightning in a bottle
here that he you know, kind of his half of
the guy he once was. But they got him maybe
more for his experience and just him pitching in a

(03:46):
ton of leverage games and getting so many meaningful outs
in his career, maybe more than the production and then
the stuff.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
So you mentioned the latest injury we've got. You know,
we've had enough of those all season long. Lance mccullors
comes back tonight. That was like the largest blister. Ever,
how do you how do you characterize his latest time
on the shelf and why should anyone watching be optimistic
that he'll be able to get the job done tonight?

Speaker 3 (04:16):
You know, I can't characterize it because we didn't quite frankly,
we didn't speak to Lance at all the entire time
he was on the injured list. We would, to be
quite frank with you, we barely saw him, and so
without talking to him and without getting his perspective of
what was going on and how it transpired, I really can't.
I can't describe why he went on the injured list,

(04:37):
what the blister was like, just because I had not
spoken to him. But as far as tonight goes, you know,
I would expect to see him throw a lot look
for a balls. It's something that they have been trying
to get him to do for a while now. It's
something that Joe Spota mentioned he did in his rehab
outings asked with his blister. The Orioles have a lot
of left handed hitters in their lineup. This is their

(04:58):
lineup that would be susceptible to the curveball. So I
would imagine you see a lot more curveballs from Lanson
polish site. But the curveball can only work if he's
ahead in the count, and that's going to be throwing
a sinker for strikes, throwing a slider for strikes, getting
ahead of one, one two, things like that. See falls
behind in counts, as we've seen, it can be a
difficult run for him, So the key for him is

(05:21):
going to be getting ahead in pounds and using his
curtain ball a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
He leads into a trio of games being started by himself,
Christian Xavier, and Spencer Araghetti. So hopefully even into a
day off, they'll manage their way through this. From a
pitching standpoint, the leadoff hitter tonight and batting and playing
left field for the Corpus Christy Hooks. Is Jordan Alvarez
his third rehab game, He's gotten five hits and his
nine plate appearances. What do you think is it a

(05:47):
guarantee that he's in a lineup on Tuesday? Is there
a possibility that he flies to Baltimore to play Saturday
or Sunday.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
I do not think he will be in Baltimore. I
think that would. I think there be something drastic that
changes for him to come to Baltimore. I think they're
they're fine with how it's going now. They are pleased
with how he has played. They're pleased with how he's feeling. Look,
they're not looking at the results obviously, like it's great
that he's got a bunch of hits and he's run
around the bases. That's an awesome but like they're trying

(06:17):
to make sure that when he wakes up in the
morning his hand isn't hurting. They're looking at the swing
and missus a couple of swings, and missus he's had
the foul balls, because those are what hurts the hand
more than just you know, hitting a ball off the
sweet spot and going into the gap. So they're they're
cautiously optimistic. They like how it's going. I would be
surprised if he comes to Baltimore for anything. I don't

(06:39):
know what that means for him, whether he would playing
Florpos on Sunday or whether they would just shut him
down and wait until Tuesday against the Rockies. I'm playing
him against the Rockies is pretty much continuing his rehab assignment,
so you can look at it that way. But I
would expect, again, barring something barring something unforeseen, I would
not expect Albares be in Baltimore, but I would expect

(07:01):
them to be able to line up on Tuesday against
the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Did the Astros do anything differently with their approach in
last night's game? Really not relevant to who pitched. It's
not a very good pitcher who also handled them very well.
But are they did they try to do something differently
with how they approach their their offense or did they
just get hits?

Speaker 3 (07:19):
I mean, I didn't really see much of a big
approach change. There were still they spun a lot early
in the counts too, but this time when they swung
early in the counts, they got big hits. It's, you know,
that's the jecko and hide of this thing. This is
an aggressive team. They swing a lot early in the
count They can be too aggressive at times, but it's

(07:39):
when you're able to swing early in the account and
you get hits. But also, like I'll have like you
shouldn't remember, like Brandon Young last night through I believe
like seventy nine or eighty pitchers through four innings, which
is a lot. That's a lot for a starting pitcher
when you tax them for an average of twenty pitches
per innings. So in some respects they did their job.
There was an at bat last night. Jacob Melton got
down one to two, battle back to a nine pitch walk,

(08:02):
which is something that is very rare for this team,
and then the lineup turned over. Kara hit the two
run single and they were off and running. So it's
those kind of at bats, like they don't really need
like nine to ten pitch at bats up and down
the lineup. It's more of just like my thing with
them has been, they've got to be a little more
I guess, aware of kind of what's going on in

(08:22):
the game. They've got to be aware of like, you know,
if if Rober just had a twenty five pitch inning,
don't go swing at the first pitch the first two
hitters at the next end and give them some that
The awareness has been the thing for me that's been interesting.
But this is what they are, Like Houseal two B
is not going to start taking ten pitches per at
bat like Yinrdeas isn't going to start become a patient

(08:44):
hitter overnight. This is this is what they are. They
They tried this winner to address their aggression by getting
east oct paradus towards hamstring, so they don't have most
patient hitter and baseball in their lineup. So that's kind
of the trick amount effect. But no, I didn't see
anything different a pro wise. I just think Brandon Young
didn't command the ball as well as he did a
couple of days ago, and he kind of pitched to

(09:06):
what he is.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Forty three years ago. This week, the Compact disc was debuted.
Do you remember the first CD you purchased?

Speaker 3 (09:16):
I'm going to embarrass myself on a major market radio
show right now. Do you want to really know what
the first CD I purchased? Yes? You know Britney Spears
is from Louisiana, right, Yeah, so she was like a
big deal when I was growing up. Whatever one of
her CDs that hit Me Baby one More Time on it.
I think that was the first CD I ever purchased.

(09:36):
I think I was in my first grade. But yes,
I just embarrassed myself on a major market radio show.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
So Britney Spears's debut album was Chandler Rome in a
first grade. First grade Chandler Room's first CD.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
YEP, I love that.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
I love everything about that.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Are you guys impressed that I knew what a CD was? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (09:55):
I was actually gonna ask initially if you even had
any CDs?

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Oh I did, Yeah, I yes, I noticed. I don't
worry about this.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
All right, good stuff as always, both baseball and non baseball.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Chandler All right, thanks guys, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Your source for bubblegum pop. Here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
Chandler Ome joining us, also from the Athletic and he
writes about baseball.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
That makes me so happy that that was his first CD.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
I love that The

Speaker 2 (10:23):
A T on Sports Talk seven ninety