When Will Current Production Trump The "Back of the baseball card"?

Yesterday afternoon in the final game for their series against the Braves, unluckily the Astros fall to Atlanta resulting in a sweep for the series. Posing questions as to what's the issue, the only answer ever seems to be the referral of ones previous accolades or 'baseball card' in response.  

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is an agreement. Shannon forSalisbury continues, Now Sports Talk seven ninety
Huh for your Rockie, you're listeningto the Shawn Salisbury Show. Sean Brin
and Tripoli here with you. NBAplayoffs right around the corner. You had
more playing games of seventy six ers, took down the heat. They will

(00:24):
play the Knicks as the playoffs arehere in the NBA. All right.
Talking about these Houston Astros, JoseBrayu continues to struggle. Last night.
His average dropped to point zero seveneight. He was zero for two with

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a walk. His on base percentagespoint one five eight. His slugging point
zero nine eight ops not even Imean not even three hundred barely. What
is that? Not good? Iswhat it is? Two fifty six Joe

(01:11):
Spott was asked about Jose bray youand those struggles after the game, and
this is what the manager had tosay, how are those things you're seeing?
Maybe not the game, more gamebraid. That gives you confidence that
he can pull out of this offense. History, you know the back of
his baseball card, you know hecan do it. You know the back

(01:38):
of his baseball card. You knowhe can do it the back of his
baseball card. Is what we heardfrom uh actual general manager Danon Brown right
here on the Shawn Salisbury Show yesterday. If you missed that, it's up
on our blog at Sports seven ninetydot com. That was in regards to
Josh Hater. We have heard thisphrase about Jose abra you in the past,

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and now the manager, the skipper, Joe Spot is saying the exact
same thing. Obviously, this phraseis used quite often in the organization for
whatever reason. I don't know whereit came from, but I believe it's
been used from Jeff Bagwell and ithas been tossed around now down to the

(02:23):
manager. This is the most frustratingstart to a season, or probably the
most frustrated I've been. I'm gonnatake my broadcasting hat off for a second
and just be a fan, becauseI grew up being a fan of this
organization for as long as I canremember, going to games in the Astrodome,
sitting front row when they were losingone hundred games a year, all

(02:46):
through those horrible years. Then youfinally see the tide turn and you see
this golden run, and now herewe are. The Astros are six and
fourteen. They're four and nine athome, they've been swept three times,
and we're talking about the back ofa base ball card. Yeah. Now
listen, as you noticed by afterI hear that sound, you see me
se if the TV cameras were onhere, they just shaking my head of

(03:09):
I'm just gonna say a few thinkso you're gonna be the fan. I'll
take it from I don't live inHouston. I'm going on MLB network as
a national analyst. From my vantagepoint, now, anybody else, never
personal, never personal, I don't. I don't make it personal, and
I think it's pretty fair to sayI root for people's success to win,
and I don't hold anything against them. Also for me, I'm just looking

(03:30):
at what I see. I don'tcare about three years ago. If we
look at the back of the baseballcard, Dusty Baker should still be the
manager here and you should have increasedhis pay double Okay, that's what you
should have done. If if we'regoing by that, Dusty Baker should still
be the manager here, if ofcourse he wanted to stay in and they
didn't. Because I bet you missedme. Now, there's some saying that

(03:53):
early on the season. I've heardthat we're absolute naysayers on him. That's
not the point of this conversation.The point of this conversation is that I
get the history of the back ofthe baseball card. To me, it's
still as you saw him to getthree strikeouts. It's not Josh Hater's back
of his baseball card. It's thathe's still got stuff that can get people
out. I'll assure you, ifJosh Hater in the next three years,

(04:17):
next couple of years, what doyou signed? What was his deal?
Three years? Four years? Fiveyears? Was hate? Yeah? Okay,
now they may to if he allof a sudden blows fifteen saves and
his velocity falls off, do youthink, sorry, five years, that's
what I think. Okay, yeah, five years. So let's say in
three years, I'm talking about dude, it's falling off to the point of

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listen, Milwaukee Sandy. He's honestthirteen Now, not that he's not great,
but I mean there are some peoplewho either didn't want to pay him,
couldn't afford to payhim, or thoughtokay, it was time whatever.
And free agency gives you that freedom. Josh Hater can pitch. But if
you saw fifteen blown saves in twoyears and going into third year, velocities

(05:00):
down three miles an hour and controlthe strikes on. You think you're trying
to move in, Well, whywouldn't you just lean on the back of
the baseball card. He's still young. You get my point. This team's
great organization. They win. Iunderstand last year getting close, didn't close
it out the year before winning theWorld Series. I understand the history back
of the baseball If that's the casethis whole, we should have never changed

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the body in the dugout because morethe camaraderie works last two years is getting
close and winning one of them.If your decision, when it comes right
down to it, is twenty twentyfour production. When it comes to players
that names aren't Jordan or al Tuvey, and you're leaning to the back of
the baseball card, they're not winningthe World Series. And if joa'spot is
decision making is based on the backof a baseball card, which I can't

(05:45):
fathom it is. I'm just goingby what I heard. I remember,
I'm doing this Nash. I'm notlocal right now, correct, but from
a standpoint that I'm not around hereand it's not personal. If I heard
that, you know what I hadjust said on the set coming off it.
If they're managing by the back ofthe baseball card, Joe's spot,
it will not be long for thisgig, let alone another managerial job in
baseball. I assure you with that. And so for me, I get

(06:09):
the history. When you say itabout guys twenty eight al two as hitting
one ninety seven halfway through the season, you know who's gonna play second base
two And you know why because whenhe does bust out of it or if
he does hell it two twenty justhis presence alone. Still right now,
you're you're hitting with eight guys.When a brave is in a lineup,
you just are. And there's someother guys right now that I don't care

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about the back of their baseball cardeither. The back of the baseball card
during the regular season, for JeremyPaine would say, oh, as average
is low, we need more.He wasn't carlos Kree, But when you
look at the whole body he works, screw the back of the baseball card.
The guy's a frigging ballplayer, right, So I just have for me,
you're not you can't. You willnot survive back of the baseball card

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to win a World Series, right, You can't keep referring to that if
if deep in your soul, that'show you feel. I'm just talking about
on the surface. Remember I'm sittingMLB Network right now. I'm not local.
I'm nationally just giving you how Ifeel. I don't hang around the
astros if I was on a nationalshow about this, And I will tell
you another thing. You're disappointed inthe start, right, A lot of
fans are. We know the potentialof this team, and we know the

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past production of this team last eightyear, seven years, and the potential
is through the roof. And whenpeople say it's too early to panic,
you want me to tell you whenyou should exactly panic is when decisions are
being made by the back of abaseball card. If that's the case,
panic your ass away. To panicyour ass away eighteen games into a season.

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If it's just talk and they're managingand making decisions based on the best
for this team this day, thislineup, going forward. But if the
decisions are made by that, don'tbe disappointed. You should panic. If
managers or coaches across the world aremaking decisions based on that when it comes

(07:55):
to twenty now, because you gotabout a week left in you if this
can hinges with Jose Bray, Idon't know how you can run him out
there anymore. He has become anon factor. You can't keep going up
to plate with seven hitters. Doesthat make sense? Yeah? You have
to fix this. And so forme, you you ain't going anywhere if
that's how you're going, and youcan start to panic, if the back

(08:16):
of the baseball cards, the decisionmaking process panic away because you ain't going
where you want to go. Iassure you back of the baseball card?
Where did this term come from?We'll discuss the next on Sports Talk seven ninety