May 9, 2024 • 11 mins
Kicking their three game series off against the Yankees on Tuesday, the Astros still reluctantly cannot pull out wins. Sean and Brian take time to judge have the Astros now entered a chase mode or not. Rolling further and further into the season, can the Astros make a comeback before its too late?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Saulisbury old by Houston. Okay,let's do this. Sewn Salisbury to usc
truth, longtime friend, Shawn Salisbury, Bryan Lima, go Lobos. This
is the Seawan Salisbury Show. That'sa two tonzing series lead for the Knicks
(00:24):
in the Eastern Conference semifinals. NicolaYokich wins the MVP in the NBA in
the third one in four years.Sorry, before we get back out to
these callers, let's talk about afew things here. Smetterri Getty got ruffed
up. Justin Verlander got rouffed up. Alex Bragman got moved down in the
lineup, which we spoke to DanaBrown about yesterday. He is still struggling.
(00:46):
Your Donna is still struggling. Theygot some injuries, and optically speaking,
Joe Spotta looks lost. So there'sa lot of things going on with
the Houston Astros right now. That'swhere we end up at twelve to twenty
four. Bats have not been good. They seem like they're pressing right,
so all of that compounds into wherethey are right now. We played but
(01:11):
right yeah, other than that,it's great. Uh. We played a
fifteen second clip of Joe Spotter earlierin the six o'clock hour kind of talking
about Jordon and Bregman and the strugglesand things like that. Would you think
I was full of crap or wewere full of crap If we said,
hey, man, everything's gonna begreat. Yeah, no, that's all
we'd be homers. Yeah, it'snot even just Homers, would be basically
(01:33):
we'll we overloaded our mouth with ourass. Well, apparently to some people
I see on Twitter that all wetalk about, all we've talked about since
six fifteen is Joe Spota. Yeah, we've talked about numerous things. We
played one fifteen second clip. Well, we said Bregman's become a detriment correct
offensively. Yeah, the Jordon isnot the same guy. Uh huh.
We talked about that the back endof the line is producing more than the
(01:53):
front end. Not named Alto vanPaigna. Yep, that we can't that
you got it. We're spotting teamsruns early when there's Joe Spottle. Well,
I know those I don't know who'ssaying it, but I can assure
you this that if the guy whomanaged your last year, Dusty Baker,
was doing it, they'd say youdidn't talk about him enough. We need
four hours of it. So it'snot Listen, this isn't just Joe Spot
(02:15):
at all. I believe I saidyesterday. If we're burying Joe Spot and
wanting fired forty games in or thirtyfive games in or thirty six games in
now, then we wouldn't. ThenKyle Tucker wouldn't be here after one hundred
at bats when he first started.If people want remember, oh guy can't
play, yeah overet trade. Hum, well, no, it's going to
(02:36):
take a little longer that. Butthe signs that say if this is the
way it's going to be or bothersome. I'm far more accountability on a guy
holding the bat in his hand andpitching the baseball and closing out a game
or fielding the ground ball, farmore. But if we're going to tell
us that the manager deserves credit witha win because he made a great pitching
change, then he also deserves criticismwhen it's not going the way it is.
(03:00):
Because I've been told that you takeon the personality of your head coach,
or it starts at the top.Well, he's the manager, yeah,
so it filters down. But theaccountabilities on a player, I don't
need a guy to get me movated, motivated. That's temporary. I'm gonna
be disciplined, but you've got tobe able to push the right buttons in
game and whatever that button is thatgets people feeling confident to the ballpark,
(03:23):
that's your job. And then ingame you got to do what a manager's
supposed to do. But he can'tgo pinch hit for anybody. So but
if if we're setting here saying noneof this is on the manager, then
then you're not watching the same gameI'm watching. Yeah, he's He's part
and parcel to what's going on,as is more so the guys that are
playing on the on the on thefield. He didn't spot him. He
(03:45):
didn't walk six last night. Thepitching staff did, okay, So he
didn't give up a ball that wentfour hundred miles an hour to left to
the upper tank and left field.Yeah, that was so. But Joe
a spot also as the leader whenthings are going good, man, anybody
can manage this team. Look,Joe's spot is great. Joe's spot at
(04:05):
thirty six games in, the juryis way out on him, and it
should be. He's only thirty sixgames in and we need to have that
patience with that. But I alsoassure you that if they end up winning
seventy games this year, that therewill be questions about this position, about
that position, just like there wouldif somebody hits one ninety eight. You
(04:26):
questioned Maldonado, didn't you. Yeah, okay, uh. Let's look at
the this real quick. Astro ispitching on the road this season. In
the first inning they have an eighteenERA and an opponent batting averager of four
to thirty and the second inning itdrops to a four or five ERA.
In the third inning it goes backup to a five point zero six.
A fourth inning is three point threeeight. The opponent averages in the second,
(04:50):
third, and fourth inning two seventyseven, two thirty three, and
two sixty two. I mean,those numbers are concerning, to say the
least. In the first inning thereeighteen in the first inning. Well,
with that, you're not beating anybody. You can't spot them that much leeway
(05:11):
good teams, especially because right nowthey haven't shown the the ability to come
back from down seven again. They'vewon one run run game this year,
right and when they've beaten people,they've they've distanced themselves and beat them pretty
good. But the other team's doingthat more often. When you're era to
start a game in the first inningseighteen that that you and are a complete
(05:34):
chase mode. And no matter whatyou say, people don't stay the course.
When you're in a constant chase mode, you do, you think different.
You put pressure on yourself to haveto perform and win it with one
swing of the bat. It's hardto grind out wins in small ballet when
you're an eighteen era from your pitchingstaff. So they're to blame for that
(05:55):
as well. And I don't thinkJoe a Spoted threw one pitch last night.
He did not. But getting team, pitching staff, hitting coach,
they they have to be accountable aswell. We do it in every sport,
right, Yeah, there you go, Well, I mean yeah they
did, Yeah, definitely, Dennis, good morning, Hey, good morning,
Fellas one scenario I haven't heard anybodydiscuss yet, and I've seen it
(06:17):
before, Sean. If you rememberthe Vikings back in nineteen eighty three,
Bud Grant retired, yep, theyhired Las Steckel, who turned a winning
franchise to a three and thirteen team. Overnight fed Yep, yeah, overnight
they fired him. They brought backBud Grant for one season to write the
ship, and then he helped theteam hire Burnsey to go forward. Do
(06:39):
you see that scenario ever happening?If the team feels like Jola Spott has
totally lost the franchise, that theycould possibly bring back Dusty Baker for one
season, help him rite the shipand help him find a coach going forward.
And do you see them being sellersat the trade deadline for any of
their major pieces if the struggles continue. I'll hang up listen to see you,
guys. A couple of things thatDennis. One One is Dusty Baker's
(07:01):
never going to manage here again.Now you say never in sports, always
and never, we probably shouldn't usethe phrase. I don't think it would
be a I don't not that youwouldn't want him back. I just don't
think he'd come back at this stage. I don't, do you, Brian,
No, I think that ship hassaled. But I get why you'd
think that too. Is if thiscontinues and they're not sellers at the deadline,
(07:24):
then you'd have to question the thoughtprocess in a big way. And
then you'd have to question who's pullingthe strings and what's this decision and why
are you doing this if you're allabout winning, which Jim Crane has been
all about winning since I've been here. And if you're not selling to improve
(07:45):
your roster, and you're fifteen gamesunder five hundred and ten games out of
first place at the trade deadline andplaying like you're playing, you know,
a couple games up and then fourgames down and getting hammered when you get
beat and can't win close games,and you're not a seller, then you're
telling me at the deadline that Ishould not be interested in you the second
(08:07):
half of the season. That's whatyou're saying to me. And you're also
saying to me you're going with theback of the baseball card thought, oh,
we'll come around because guess what,we've done it before, not with
these optics. So you will betelling me if this continues and you don't
get to the trade deadline and startto sell and try to improve your roster
for the right reasons, not onlyjust this year, but for the future,
(08:30):
then you're basically telling your fan basethat you don't care about winning this
year, and you're asking me thelast eighty games to stay my ass home.
Am I right or wrong? Idon't think you're wrong? Well,
how am I not right? Ifyou're not selling? How's it not right?
How are we not right? Ora fan not right to say if
you're playing like this and you're notin the market of selling to get I
(08:52):
don't mean fire sale, No,I'm just talking about pieces that you say,
Okay, how are we going toget something for this guy Bregman?
And how are we going to startto build this so we get so so
we don't stay down for three years, we're right back at it in spring
training or the second and we seeimprovement in the second half. If you're
not willing to make a move,if you're not willing to do something,
why should we That's my point.Yeah, I mean I believe that,
(09:15):
like what Denna said, that youhave to at least consider it. Yeah,
because well my next question was goingto be, if you're not doing
that, then what are you doing? It's a lost cause. I just
you know what they're doing. You'rerelying on history and regardless of the Joe
as Spota and what happens the restof the year, if you go and
win seventy games, you would havejust I'm a big You got to evaluate
(09:37):
everybody every year. That's called job. People do it. You got to
evaluate did we get better? Why? And you go through the evaluation Jim
Crane to Dana Brown, to JoeAspota, to hitting instructor to pitching coaches,
to write down to every player onyour team. They got to be
evaluated at the end of the year. And if that happened, do I
believe that you would consider it beinga possible one and done? Sure?
I do. I don't know ifit's fair, But in this day and
(10:00):
age, what is we see alot of one and done in pro sports?
And well, when I say alot more than you're used to sing,
if you got that kind of patienceand you're telling me that he wasn't
anything responsible for the way it wentfrom here down here. Yeah, So
I'm a big guy on evaluating fairlyand we'll see where that goes. Too
early to say, well, wegot to fire the man. In my
(10:20):
opinion, I get why people arefrustrated, but I'm not firing anybody thirty
six games, and unless, ofcourse, he did something so heinous that
players wanted to fight him in theclubhouse, and it was. But that's
not happening. It's the opposite.Quite frankly, matter of fact, I'd
almost like him to want to fighta player right now, not literally,
but that that that feeling towards likeit's a wake up call because right now
I believe that, I still believethat. I think I think they look
(10:41):
too comfortable to me, Yeah,they do. It looks just looks too
comfortable. I don't know much,but I know, I know I'm just
a simple caveman. Look too comfortableto me. I just feel like there's
no sense of urgency right now,like when does that kick in? When
does this win? Does it becomean It goes into even just the at
bats, like the at bats arejust just not good, and then the
clutch like where the hell did theclutch team go? All right, let's
get to break seven one three two, pine two five, seven ninety.
(11:03):
Keep talking about these astros. RenelBlanco on the mountain, uh tonight or
excuse me, this afternoon against theYankees. That's next on Sports Talk seven to eighty
Saulisbury old by Houston. Okay,let's do this. Sewn Salisbury to usc
truth, longtime friend, Shawn Salisbury, Bryan Lima, go Lobos. This
is the Seawan Salisbury Show. That'sa two tonzing series lead for the Knicks
(00:24):
in the Eastern Conference semifinals. NicolaYokich wins the MVP in the NBA in
the third one in four years.Sorry, before we get back out to
these callers, let's talk about afew things here. Smetterri Getty got ruffed
up. Justin Verlander got rouffed up. Alex Bragman got moved down in the
lineup, which we spoke to DanaBrown about yesterday. He is still struggling.
(00:46):
Your Donna is still struggling. Theygot some injuries, and optically speaking,
Joe Spotta looks lost. So there'sa lot of things going on with
the Houston Astros right now. That'swhere we end up at twelve to twenty
four. Bats have not been good. They seem like they're pressing right,
so all of that compounds into wherethey are right now. We played but
(01:11):
right yeah, other than that,it's great. Uh. We played a
fifteen second clip of Joe Spotter earlierin the six o'clock hour kind of talking
about Jordon and Bregman and the strugglesand things like that. Would you think
I was full of crap or wewere full of crap If we said,
hey, man, everything's gonna begreat. Yeah, no, that's all
we'd be homers. Yeah, it'snot even just Homers, would be basically
(01:33):
we'll we overloaded our mouth with ourass. Well, apparently to some people
I see on Twitter that all wetalk about, all we've talked about since
six fifteen is Joe Spota. Yeah, we've talked about numerous things. We
played one fifteen second clip. Well, we said Bregman's become a detriment correct
offensively. Yeah, the Jordon isnot the same guy. Uh huh.
We talked about that the back endof the line is producing more than the
(01:53):
front end. Not named Alto vanPaigna. Yep, that we can't that
you got it. We're spotting teamsruns early when there's Joe Spottle. Well,
I know those I don't know who'ssaying it, but I can assure
you this that if the guy whomanaged your last year, Dusty Baker,
was doing it, they'd say youdidn't talk about him enough. We need
four hours of it. So it'snot Listen, this isn't just Joe Spot
(02:15):
at all. I believe I saidyesterday. If we're burying Joe Spot and
wanting fired forty games in or thirtyfive games in or thirty six games in
now, then we wouldn't. ThenKyle Tucker wouldn't be here after one hundred
at bats when he first started.If people want remember, oh guy can't
play, yeah overet trade. Hum, well, no, it's going to
(02:36):
take a little longer that. Butthe signs that say if this is the
way it's going to be or bothersome. I'm far more accountability on a guy
holding the bat in his hand andpitching the baseball and closing out a game
or fielding the ground ball, farmore. But if we're going to tell
us that the manager deserves credit witha win because he made a great pitching
change, then he also deserves criticismwhen it's not going the way it is.
(03:00):
Because I've been told that you takeon the personality of your head coach,
or it starts at the top.Well, he's the manager, yeah,
so it filters down. But theaccountabilities on a player, I don't
need a guy to get me movated, motivated. That's temporary. I'm gonna
be disciplined, but you've got tobe able to push the right buttons in
game and whatever that button is thatgets people feeling confident to the ballpark,
(03:23):
that's your job. And then ingame you got to do what a manager's
supposed to do. But he can'tgo pinch hit for anybody. So but
if if we're setting here saying noneof this is on the manager, then
then you're not watching the same gameI'm watching. Yeah, he's He's part
and parcel to what's going on,as is more so the guys that are
playing on the on the on thefield. He didn't spot him. He
(03:45):
didn't walk six last night. Thepitching staff did, okay, So he
didn't give up a ball that wentfour hundred miles an hour to left to
the upper tank and left field.Yeah, that was so. But Joe
a spot also as the leader whenthings are going good, man, anybody
can manage this team. Look,Joe's spot is great. Joe's spot at
(04:05):
thirty six games in, the juryis way out on him, and it
should be. He's only thirty sixgames in and we need to have that
patience with that. But I alsoassure you that if they end up winning
seventy games this year, that therewill be questions about this position, about
that position, just like there wouldif somebody hits one ninety eight. You
(04:26):
questioned Maldonado, didn't you. Yeah, okay, uh. Let's look at
the this real quick. Astro ispitching on the road this season. In
the first inning they have an eighteenERA and an opponent batting averager of four
to thirty and the second inning itdrops to a four or five ERA.
In the third inning it goes backup to a five point zero six.
A fourth inning is three point threeeight. The opponent averages in the second,
(04:50):
third, and fourth inning two seventyseven, two thirty three, and
two sixty two. I mean,those numbers are concerning, to say the
least. In the first inning thereeighteen in the first inning. Well,
with that, you're not beating anybody. You can't spot them that much leeway
(05:11):
good teams, especially because right nowthey haven't shown the the ability to come
back from down seven again. They'vewon one run run game this year,
right and when they've beaten people,they've they've distanced themselves and beat them pretty
good. But the other team's doingthat more often. When you're era to
start a game in the first inningseighteen that that you and are a complete
(05:34):
chase mode. And no matter whatyou say, people don't stay the course.
When you're in a constant chase mode, you do, you think different.
You put pressure on yourself to haveto perform and win it with one
swing of the bat. It's hardto grind out wins in small ballet when
you're an eighteen era from your pitchingstaff. So they're to blame for that
(05:55):
as well. And I don't thinkJoe a Spoted threw one pitch last night.
He did not. But getting team, pitching staff, hitting coach,
they they have to be accountable aswell. We do it in every sport,
right, Yeah, there you go, Well, I mean yeah they
did, Yeah, definitely, Dennis, good morning, Hey, good morning,
Fellas one scenario I haven't heard anybodydiscuss yet, and I've seen it
(06:17):
before, Sean. If you rememberthe Vikings back in nineteen eighty three,
Bud Grant retired, yep, theyhired Las Steckel, who turned a winning
franchise to a three and thirteen team. Overnight fed Yep, yeah, overnight
they fired him. They brought backBud Grant for one season to write the
ship, and then he helped theteam hire Burnsey to go forward. Do
(06:39):
you see that scenario ever happening?If the team feels like Jola Spott has
totally lost the franchise, that theycould possibly bring back Dusty Baker for one
season, help him rite the shipand help him find a coach going forward.
And do you see them being sellersat the trade deadline for any of
their major pieces if the struggles continue. I'll hang up listen to see you,
guys. A couple of things thatDennis. One One is Dusty Baker's
(07:01):
never going to manage here again.Now you say never in sports, always
and never, we probably shouldn't usethe phrase. I don't think it would
be a I don't not that youwouldn't want him back. I just don't
think he'd come back at this stage. I don't, do you, Brian,
No, I think that ship hassaled. But I get why you'd
think that too. Is if thiscontinues and they're not sellers at the deadline,
(07:24):
then you'd have to question the thoughtprocess in a big way. And
then you'd have to question who's pullingthe strings and what's this decision and why
are you doing this if you're allabout winning, which Jim Crane has been
all about winning since I've been here. And if you're not selling to improve
(07:45):
your roster, and you're fifteen gamesunder five hundred and ten games out of
first place at the trade deadline andplaying like you're playing, you know,
a couple games up and then fourgames down and getting hammered when you get
beat and can't win close games,and you're not a seller, then you're
telling me at the deadline that Ishould not be interested in you the second
(08:07):
half of the season. That's whatyou're saying to me. And you're also
saying to me you're going with theback of the baseball card thought, oh,
we'll come around because guess what,we've done it before, not with
these optics. So you will betelling me if this continues and you don't
get to the trade deadline and startto sell and try to improve your roster
for the right reasons, not onlyjust this year, but for the future,
(08:30):
then you're basically telling your fan basethat you don't care about winning this
year, and you're asking me thelast eighty games to stay my ass home.
Am I right or wrong? Idon't think you're wrong? Well,
how am I not right? Ifyou're not selling? How's it not right?
How are we not right? Ora fan not right to say if
you're playing like this and you're notin the market of selling to get I
(08:52):
don't mean fire sale, No,I'm just talking about pieces that you say,
Okay, how are we going toget something for this guy Bregman?
And how are we going to startto build this so we get so so
we don't stay down for three years, we're right back at it in spring
training or the second and we seeimprovement in the second half. If you're
not willing to make a move,if you're not willing to do something,
why should we That's my point.Yeah, I mean I believe that,
(09:15):
like what Denna said, that youhave to at least consider it. Yeah,
because well my next question was goingto be, if you're not doing
that, then what are you doing? It's a lost cause. I just
you know what they're doing. You'rerelying on history and regardless of the Joe
as Spota and what happens the restof the year, if you go and
win seventy games, you would havejust I'm a big You got to evaluate
(09:37):
everybody every year. That's called job. People do it. You got to
evaluate did we get better? Why? And you go through the evaluation Jim
Crane to Dana Brown, to JoeAspota, to hitting instructor to pitching coaches,
to write down to every player onyour team. They got to be
evaluated at the end of the year. And if that happened, do I
believe that you would consider it beinga possible one and done? Sure?
I do. I don't know ifit's fair, But in this day and
(10:00):
age, what is we see alot of one and done in pro sports?
And well, when I say alot more than you're used to sing,
if you got that kind of patienceand you're telling me that he wasn't
anything responsible for the way it wentfrom here down here. Yeah, So
I'm a big guy on evaluating fairlyand we'll see where that goes. Too
early to say, well, wegot to fire the man. In my
(10:20):
opinion, I get why people arefrustrated, but I'm not firing anybody thirty
six games, and unless, ofcourse, he did something so heinous that
players wanted to fight him in theclubhouse, and it was. But that's
not happening. It's the opposite.Quite frankly, matter of fact, I'd
almost like him to want to fighta player right now, not literally,
but that that that feeling towards likeit's a wake up call because right now
I believe that, I still believethat. I think I think they look
(10:41):
too comfortable to me, Yeah,they do. It looks just looks too
comfortable. I don't know much,but I know, I know I'm just
a simple caveman. Look too comfortableto me. I just feel like there's
no sense of urgency right now,like when does that kick in? When
does this win? Does it becomean It goes into even just the at
bats, like the at bats arejust just not good, and then the
clutch like where the hell did theclutch team go? All right, let's
get to break seven one three two, pine two five, seven ninety.
(11:03):
Keep talking about these astros. RenelBlanco on the mountain, uh tonight or
excuse me, this afternoon against theYankees. That's next on Sports Talk seven to eighty
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