Steve Sparks Assesses The First Half Of The Astros Turnaround Season

Finishing their last series against the Rangers, the Astros have turned things around drastically. Falling ten games behind five-hundred at the beginning, to just one game from division leaders, Steve analyzes the Astros first half of the season along with a few pointers to note moving forward.  

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We're about there for the Sewn SalisburyShow, continued Steve Sparks, Astros broadcaster,
for his weekly visit here on SportsTalk seven ninety Steve, welcome in.
Let me just start right now andput it on you right now.
If I'd have said six weeks ago, knowing what we'd seen, that the
Astros were going to be one gameout of first place and have won what

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seventeen to twenty three somewhere in thatrange, and go into the All Star
Break one game out of first placeand have a chance to play Seattle coming
out of it, what would yousaid to me, Well, I would
have been surprised on the second partof that because I didn't see Seattle falling
apart like they did right, especiallywith their pitching right. So the wins
and losses for the Mariners is surprising. But for the Astros, we looked

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at it sean at the time.It saw that the schedule in June was
going to be softer. So ifthere's any time for the Astros to make
up some ground, it was goingto be in June and early July.
So they took care of their business. Seattle, fortunately for the Astros,
took care of their business as faras getting the Astros back into the race,

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and now I think the Texas Rangersare in this. Sean, I
don't know. I said the samething, Steve. They're not going away.
They're just Evaldi's a monster depending onwhat they do at the trade deadline.
With pitching. We know Bochie's impacted. I'm not telling you anything you
don't want. You don't know becauseI'm one hundred percent with you, and
their bats are gonna get hot andthey're going to score runs. I'm with

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you. I don't think they're disappearing. I agree, no, And I
think everybody has their awards. Youknow, everybody's got, you know,
something that's a little bit better thanthe other teams in the division. But
I think the Rangers are in it. Tyler Mallley and Jacob Degron will be
shots in the arm if they getthose guys back. So they were talking
about the same thing in spring training. They said, if we can just

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keep our heads above water in thefirst half of the season, we feel
like this team is built for thesecond half. And here we are now
they're in it. Uh So,I think it's going to be a three
horse race, all right, Steve, what is going into the second half
of the season, And maybe it'sshifted at times depending on health and all
that, But I'm going to startfirst with this question. What is the
biggest concern as we sit today inthe second half of the season. I

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think it's how many innings that alot of the pictures have logged and appearances,
So not just the starters with HunterBrown, Spencer Arraghetti, and Ronel
Blanco, but it's also the pictureslike Brian Abray, you and the guys
that are closing in on forty fivefifty appearances already in the season. So
whatever you have to do to alleviatea lot of that to get to the

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finish line I think is foremost whenyou get to the trade deadline. All
right, Steve, Then what's yourbiggest comfort? The one thing that you
are absolutely sure you have zero worryabout zero The offense? You know,
you get frustrated from time to timeand games like all this weekend with the
bases loaded, no outs, allthat stuff. I get it, but

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that's baseball. I mean, thisstuff happens, and guys get mentally tired
from time to time. People justdon't realize how hard This is to be
on top of your game day afterday after day. So it gets it
does get frustrating it as a viewer, you know, as a player all
those things. Everybody gets frustrated whenthey don't get the jobs done when they

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have winnable games. But the offense, and I've been saying this since spring
training, is the least of myworries. You know, you get Tucker
back into this lineup and it's formidable. I mean, they've got the highest
batting average they're up there and runscored ops, all those those categories that
you love to see, and theyhave options. You know. The one

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thing I love about this team rightnow is not only can you play the
hot hand with low Perfito and Cabbageand some of these guys off the bench,
but now you're starting to look ata real weakness the first month and
a half half two months of theseason and John Singleton all of a sudden,
he's got an OPS of around eighthundred since of Bray he was let

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go. So it's kind of beena question answered. I know it's a
very short sample, but it's notnumber one priority as you get to the
deadline. Now, man getting morereps is a novel concept. You start
to see the ball a little bitbetter and things go well. So,
uh, clearly it is. Imean it usually works that way for most
people in Singleton. Obviously, withhis aggressives and good fastball hitter. Steve

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Sparks, Astro's broadcaster, joins ushere on Sports Talk seven ninety for his
weekly visit Steve, We've had somepeople call in. I was wondering the
same thing over the weekend, andon Friday, Thursday and Friday you use
your your your pressley. You're abray you pressley hater Saturday, rightfully,
So after two straight days you're notgoing to put him in, uh and
with all the rest up until nextFriday, and you hope they're in a

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closing situation and they're going to usethem. Why not yesterday? Well,
why two days in a row,in a leverage situation, in a game
that you'd like to win, Whywould you leave them? Why would you
leave them for warming up and atleast giving them an opportunity? Well,
I wish I had the answer,so here here's my answer. Though.

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My answer is we don't know everythingthat goes on, and these guys all
have a baseline as far as strengthtests and things like that. And you
get to this point of the season, especially going into the All Star break,
you want to take inventory what youhave. And you might have some
guys that are really weak in theirin their you know, rotator cuff or
whatever like that, and you cansay, all right, there's my yellow

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flag. You know, if youcan stay away from Ryan Presley before we
get to the All Star breaking,he gets four more days. This is
gonna this is going to pay offbig time in August or September. So
if you can do it, youknow, if you have to punt,
you know, you don't like topunt any game, especially against the division
rival, but if you can keephim out of there, we can keep

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him up right for the for theduration of the season and keep him effective.
And this is where we are.So that's the one thing that we
don't know, Sean, is whereeverybody is physically, and they stay on
top of that. So there andI can just look at the numbers,
I can look at the staff pageand know that some of these relievers,
especially with how many times they getup and knock into a game, needs

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some rest, right and Steve,I'm a big believer in guys that are
closer to the situation know a littlebit more than we do, and they
talk and they verbalize it to eachother all the time, and they see
it all right, Steve, withthat in mind, Okay, Dana Brown,
and you know you see him andtalk to him all the time,
and he's on every week as youknow, on Wednesday, and he is

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set on this show that he believesthat as they sit today, they're a
postseason team, that they're good enoughto make the postseason. But he thinks
that there'd have to be something donefor them to be a World Series team,
and that they are, you know, always looking for pitching and to
do everything they can. But yougot to have somebody who wants to work
with you in a trade, right. So are you on the same page.
Is this team a World Series teamas they sit? Or does something

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have to happen in the next coupleweeks before that deadline hits for them to
go from postseason two world Series caliberin your mind? Well, I've told
you a few times, I don'tfeel like you want to feel like you're
pressed to make a move. Nothingdesperate, right, Steve, Nothing,
Nothing desperate, right? I willI will say this. You look back
at twenty twenty two when the Astroscoasted through the postseason with an eleven to

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two record, and the biggest reasonwas because they were so fresh and they
had the six man rotation for morethan half of the season. They were
able to get guys and extra dayrests every turn. They were able to
push them in those outings, maybeanother out or two in those games and
give them to maybe one hundred andfive hundred and ten pitches, and that
took a little bit of pressure offthe bullpen at the same time. So

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with that being said, with Verlanderstill on the shelf, with Luis Garcia
still on the shelf, with lastPacolors still on the shelf, I think
they need another starter, and Ithink they need a six man rotation for
the bulk of the second half toget to where they want to go,
and that's to hoist the World SeriesTrophy again, Steve, if they do
go get a picture that you're talkingabout, which I think we all.

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I mean, if I was abetman, and I am, I would
bet that there is going to beanother body pitching on this roster by the
time August hits okay with that,And do you think that is it going
to sting for the guy that they'regoing to go get. Will it sting
thinking oh, we had to givehim up? Will we get that's not
the desperate part we're talking about.Maybe, but they don't need to be

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that way, as you said,But will it sting to the point where
it's like, damn didn't want topart with him? Yeah? Maybe,
you know. And the only reasonI say that, Sean, is because
there's so many buyers at that positionright now. So you're going to have
to outbid people. And are thetrades going to be fair. No,
they're going to favor the guys thatare getting rid of players because there is

(09:01):
so many people bidding for the samething. I think you got to live
on the margins as far as lookingto be creative. And I don't know
if it's you know, maybe lookingat a long reliever that you might think
about getting stretched out, you know, just think outside of the box about
some guys that maybe be able tocome in and you know and do what

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you think you thought you were doingwith Sean Dubin, perhaps, you know,
stretching out see what he might looklike in the rotation. Is he
the answer? You know? Andthere's some guys out there I think,
you know, I start to lookat some of the teams that look like
they're going to be sellers, andI think that, Okay, here's one
guy and this isn't this isn't atrade room or by any means. But

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there's one guy named Paul Blackburn who'sbeen in the division for quite a while
with Oakland, who has hasn't pitchedsince the first month of the season because
he has a stretch fracture in hisfoot. But he's about to come off
the the injured list here pretty soon. How fresh is his arm? You
know, he's going to make hisrehab starts and he's going to jump back
in and it's going to feel likeApril and May the last two months of

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the season. So that's somebody thatyou could push and somebody who's been around
the game a little bit. Ithink he's thirty years old now, who
can give you some maybe some qualityinnings to just rest your other guys and
give yourself a chance to win onthose days. So little things like that,
Look on the injured list, seewho's coming back, And I don't
know however, you can get created. There's a lot of guys who do

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this for a living that are waybetter at this than I am. But
start to look at things that way. Sometimes fresh arms will matter. Steve
before we go, I don't knowanything. I mean, I've seen highlights
on him and I've heard about him, but I don't know about overall strength
of his game. There what thetwenty eighth pick the Astros took. And
I'm not putting you on spot ifyou don't know, I get it.
But Sam Houston Catcher, the sameHouston State walker, Janic. Anything you

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can tell us about him that wemay not know, well, yeah,
there's one thing you might not know. It's Janick. Oh it is okay,
I there you go. The reasonI say that is I was on
the press conference call last night.I wanted to get a chance to hear
him and hear him talk about theAstros being the team that he grew up

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loving. His grandfather, who passedaway a couple of years ago, William
Biannick. He felt like it wasespecially proud that his grandson's going to get
a chance. He grew up veryclose to the ballpark and Corpus Christy,
the Astros double a affiliate watching alot of these guys come through the organization.
But I don't know if you've seenthe highlights, but he's a sub

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one point eight pop time down tosecond base and that's elite. He seemed
very sharp, very smart, andvery excited to get started in his professional
career. So I think it's probablysomebody that the Astros can push push through
the organization. And being from SamHouston and me being the Sam Houston guy
too, I was especially thrilled toget another bear Cap in the system.

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Say this act when you see itand there's no sound on. I didn't
see the pick, I mean Ididn't hear the pick, and grateful because
I had have called him Janik tillnow you got me thinking Yannick, no
hockey player. I love it.See that's where the expertise comes in.
Thank you, And I'm not goingto call him Janeck ever again. If
you'd have said, just pronounced wakerYannick, that I what it's walker Yannick.

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And any power in the bats,Steve or is it just great defensive
catcher? Now there's a lot ofpower. There's a lot of pole power
because into the Crawford, the Landers, Crawford boxes. So that's a good
thing. He's a he's a gap, the gap guy. They were thinking
probably offensive first, you know,from one point. But he goes down
to uh the Cape Cod last summerwith the wood Bats and facing high end

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competition. That's one thing you worryabout, you know, just the Sam
Houston face, a lot of guysthat are throwing mid upper nineties like they
do in the SEC and the AC. Right, he went down and held
his own and actually performed very verywell down in the Cape Cod against the
nation's best. So I think theash was right, you know, and
I think they were pretty giddy.They were talking about they felt like eight

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or nine picks. Even before that, they were crossing their fingers that Yanick
was going to fall to them.That's awesome, Walker, Yannick and Steve.
When when Sam Houston Bearcats get together, you throw it all, You
throw at all the records. Youjust have to. That's a great point,
you know. That's you know,it's like me and my wife.
Yeah, that's like me and mywife. You throw out all the statistics

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you do when you two get together. You got to push you see.
I found that girl from Crosby Uhat Sam Houston back in the eighties,
and I've tricked her everything. Sowhen Crosby and Sam Houston State get together,
you throw out all the records,especially when it comes to husband and
wife. Is what you're telling me. That's exactly right. She was groomed

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at the Crosby stop. That's thenight all across at the K and C,
the Knights of Columbus and Cross begroomed. Yes, you are frigging
classic Walker Yannick catcher, gap thegaper, great defensive catcher and great pop
time. And Steve, Uh,what a blessing it was to get you

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on today because I didn't know ifwe would because the All Star Break great
stuff and great insight, and Uh, enjoy the All Star Week and we'll
look forward to hearing from you onFriday night on the broadcast. Brother.
I appreciate John, Thank you aboutYou're the best man. Steve Sparks.
I love it. See Janet,I even heard when people were talking about
called him that I like it.So you need an expert on to make

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sure you get the name correct likeyou would if you were doing hockey right.
A lot of different names Walker Yanit great stuff by Steve Sparks.
We'll come back and discuss nine o'clockhour. We are going to unload on
Football Talk and the Texans Sports Talkseven ninety