February 21, 2024 • 14 mins
The Athletic's Chandler Rome joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks about Justin Verlander throwing a bullpen session today at Astros Spring Training. He also talks about the adjustments that Jeremy Pena is making at the plate. Plus, offseason changes made by an Astros star.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Let's make our way out to FLAand bring in the Astros reporter for the
Athletic covers Major League Baseball. He'sChandler Rome. Always great catching up with
him. He's definitely not yet tiredof being in Florida. I am sure
of it. It's only been therea handful of days. Full squad workouts
continues. He's working on his baseTND. I have little doubt he and
(00:23):
the rest of the crew out thereis doing just that. We have fun
with it every day. Chandler hereon the radio on our program with the
Justin Verlander update. But truthfully,it is a daily occurrence with his trying
to make up for the weeks behindor a couple of weeks behind that he
said he was and he was outthere again today. I know you and
others were watching. If you couldgauge it, because I know that you
(00:45):
can. He was throwing at whatpercent of a full go? Would you
say? Fifty four and a halfpercent, sixty percent? Well, first
off, happy birthdays, Yeah,thank you, my man. He doesn't
get distracted at all. He knowswhat's up. I appreciate that. No,
you're welcome. You don't look atday over thirty five I am.
(01:06):
I think Jessein Verlander was throwing harderthan thirty five percent. I probably he
looked to me about seventy five eightypercent. He cursed a lot after a
few of his pigeons. I don'tthink it was due to pain. I
think he just wasn't happy with likesome of the shapes and some of just
the execution of what he was doing. But what was his preference? Where
(01:30):
did it start with? What aprofessional? Such a true It was kind
of funny. So I tweeted thepicture of Ryan Presley bringing his little boy
over to watch for a little bit, and literally the second he got there,
Verlander unleashed an expletive. I don'tthink he hasn't heard before. Yeah,
he probably can't understand it. Ihope he can't, but it was
(01:53):
it was hilarious time. But Ithink with all these things, like,
you don't really know until tomorrow.We'll see how he wakes up tomorrow.
But looking at the schedule that theyhave they put out, you know,
he's he's on the schedule throw anotherbullpen in four days, and he'll just
kind of go like that. Istill think, you know, when I
(02:14):
when I came on last time.I kind of my informed speculation was this
is going to be a situation wherehe probably won't make every start he's supposed
to in grape Fruit League play.But I don't think this is going to
be something, at least from myreading of it. I don't think it's
going to be something that he's goingto like start season, the il or
anything. I just don't think he'llbe built up to, you know,
(02:34):
seven innings and one hundred pitches onopening day if he starts opening day or
his first start of the season.So everything seems to be progressing pretty well.
There is and there are no redflags. Nothing's come up, so
I guess kind of no news isgood news on that front. You guys
have had a chance, even inthe last couple of days, to see
several sets of of live BP.Joe explained the reasoning behind that, the
(02:57):
timing of it, which is nodifferent than what they've done over last hand
full of spring trainings. Framber Valdez, Josh Hater, Hunter Brown among those
in the last couple of days ortoday that have thrown just that their progress.
All indications are these guys are areready to go. What have or
have you been able to hear fromothers, like the players that are either
there in the box or everyone's beengathered around watching this that that some people
(03:20):
have had to say about how thosepitchers, certainly the ones that matter a
lot to this team, how they'velooked so far. Well, Mauricio Dubon
was very upset that none of usgot video that he hit an opo home
run off of Fromberveldez today, Soradio to appease Mauricio, he did hit
an opo home run off of fromberVeldez today in live VP. Again,
(03:42):
take all of this with a grainof salt, but you know fromber Valdez
gave up some loud contact today.It was not it was not the crispest
live VP for him. But Imean again, it's it's February whatever.
Today is February twenty. First,I would not be alarmed by that,
but you know, you look,Spencer Aarraghetti had a big crowd today on
the other field, in the minorleague field. You know, Dana Brown
(04:02):
was there, Joe Spotto was there, a lot of the front office was
there watching, and then he seemedto impress through through a bunch of strikes.
You know, it was around thestrike zone. Josh Hater looked pretty
electric a couple of days ago.You know, at this point in the
year, though pitchers are ahead ofhitters, are supposed to be ahead of
hitters, So it's kind of supposedto go this way that the pitchers are
(04:24):
supposed to dominate and the hitters aresupposed to be a little bit behind.
But you know, Hunter Brown's working. You know, he talked at fan
fests and talked again a couple ofdays ago. You know, he's he's
now throwing a separate cutter and slider. It used to be a hybrid sort
of pitch. Now he's throwing both. He's throwing two different pitches, so
he got to use those. Seehow those went. I think the big
story a couple of days ago wasJeremy Paanea got to debut his new batting
(04:46):
stance in a live VP session andyou know, made some good contact off
Ryan Pressley. So there's little stuffto glean here and there. But really,
these guys are just trying to gettheir work in. I mean,
you know, a right of springtraining is every guy's gonna tink her with
his change up. You know,Josh Hader said he threw his change up
more than he would in the liveVP beforehand. And you know, look,
(05:06):
I mean, as long as everybody'scoming out healthy, it doesn't matter
who's giving up what. It doesn'tmatter who's doing what. It just kind
of get their work in. Alot of these hitters, honestly, are
just in there to track pitches.They're not even in there to take swings
or anything. I don't even thinkjord On Alvarez, Jose Abrau or Jose
al Tube have even participated in thelive BP yet. And that's it's not
(05:28):
the suggesting things wrong, it's justthat's their preference. They don't like to
go live yet. So maybe we'llsee them in the next couple of days
before the before the Great Free Leagueopener on Saturday. But yeah, just
typical spring training stuff. Nothing thatstands out is alarming. Talking to Channeler
Roam of the Athletic here on SportsTalk seven ninety and you mentioned Jeremy Paine
yea, And I know it's asmall thing, and I don't think it
(05:48):
was you that mentioned this, butit might have been. I've slept since
then. The fact that he tooka lot of the pre swing activity,
out of his batting stance. AndI know things like this get talked about
all the time and they're very Imean, this is it's kind of a
baseball thing. They're just so minute. But given the lack of you know,
(06:10):
home runs since July of last year, and everything else we know about
pain as season, how it wentlast year, how important is that little
stuff, especially this time of year, in getting him at least back to
where he was as a rookie man, Adam, Look, I don't think
this is a little thing. Imean, really, it is drastically different.
(06:30):
I mean, you look at thesetup now as compared to what he's
done the last two years. Imean, maybe it's because the bat wag
and wiggle was so pronounced his firsttwo years, but to see him,
you know, resting it and tobe as quiet and subdued as it is,
and it looks like a different stanceentirely now. You know. I
asked someone that knows hitting better thanme to kind of explain. You know,
(06:53):
Jeremy told us a couple of daysago. One of the things that
he wanted to do with it,he wanted to get true spin on his
line drop in his balls in thein his contact in the air. And
I didn't really know what true spinwas, but apparently what he's trying to
do when he had that, whenhe was wagging the bat like it was
it took him a while to geton plane, to get his barrel on
(07:14):
the swing plane. And when youtake when you take too much time you
get your barrel in the swing plane, you know, you don't know what
angle your barrel is going to enterthe zone. And that creates can create
top spin, can create backspin,can slice the ball, can top a
ball, whatever, like I thinkthey're they're eliminating that movement to get his
the barrel on the swing plane andto be able to have, you know,
some more direct spin to elevate theball war and I think that's that's
(07:36):
what he wanted to do here.You know, I think it is grossly
misrepresenting what pain you did last yearis that he had a battle for the
season. He his on base percentagewent up, his strikeout rate plummeted,
his walk rate went up, hisbatting average went up. He madeter swing
decisions. He was a more maturehitter last year. He just didn't sluck.
(07:58):
And I think if they can finda way for him to hit the
ball in a line a little bitmore to get the ball in the air.
He doesn't have to hit thirty homers, but get a couple more balls
in the gap, get some getsome more doubles, get a couple more
balls over the fence. I'm surehe would love that. But yeah,
I think this is a This isnot just one of these like spring training
stories. It's gonna go away afterthe first month of the season. I
(08:20):
think he's gonna stick with this,and I think it's certainly it looks different.
And you know, Penya even acknowledgeda couple of days ago that it
still doesn't feel right to him.You know that he had always his whole
amateur and professional career, he hadhad the wag in the batting stance he
had had he had been wiggling thebat around, and this is not natural
for him. So he's gonna haveto I wouldn't be surprised if he plays
(08:43):
a little bit more than other guyswould in spring, just to get more
of a feel for how that battingstance is going to translate in against live
pitching, against against other teams.So it's not I really, you know,
a lot of spring training as eyewashed. Lot of it is like,
oh, I lost this much weight, I'm tinkering with my change up,
I have this different grip on thisback foot page. But like, I
(09:07):
think this is actually something that needsto be monitored and certainly is something that
could have a profound impact not onlyon pay you, but maybe this lineup
as a whole, certainly something thatmight portend to a lot of appearances in
spring training games and a lot moreat bats or maybe additional at bats away
from the game action, just forall those reasons you suggested. The piece
(09:28):
you wrote today in The Athletic centeredaround Jordon Alvarez a little less about the
baseball and more about his presence andhis leadership. So kind of twofold you
just kind of describe Jeremy Paynea's secondseason, what he did last year and
saying it was not a down yearnecessarily, how would you describe Jordon's season
last year? And kind of withinthe article where his role inside this clubhouse
(09:52):
he is a big literal presence,but it seems his presence is a little
larger than we may see on aday to day basis. Well, I
mean, he had a great yearwhen he was on the field last year.
I mean, and that's the bigthing I think. I think he
understands that. You know, look, we've we've had this debate, especially
with some guys that used to beon this team that are elsewhere now about
(10:15):
like what can a leader be orthe or the merits or the characteristics of
a leader, Like, no,you don't have to be the most highly
compensated person. You don't have tobe the most skilled person in a clubhouse
to be a leader. You don'teven have to be on the field to
be a leader, as Michael Brantleypretty clearly demonstrated in his tenure in Houston,
especially in twenty twenty two. Butyou know, with Alvarez, I
(10:35):
think he understands that he has tohe has to be on the field,
Like availability has got to be topof mind for him. You know,
he talked about he he tailored hisdiet this offseason to you know, I
think the way he put it throughan interpreter was he ate less things to
inflame his body. I'm not sureif something got lost in translation there or
what exactly it was, but soundslike he didn't eat much at night.
(10:58):
Sounds like he said he came tocamp same weight, around the same shape
he's always in, but it soundslike his diet was a little bit better.
You know, I think he understandsin order for him to have the
full impact he can have on thisteam, he's got to be on the
field, and you know he's he'slong said that he wants to play more
left field. Joe Spotta seems towant to make that happen more of a
(11:18):
product of just wanting to get theDH open for more guys. But I
think, you know, jord On, this team does not have just a
ton of vocal leaders. This isyou know, Al Tuovey is certainly not
that guy Bregmant to an extent,can be. You know, mccullor's is
pretty outspoken and pretty vocal. Verlandercan be that. But by and largest
(11:41):
team doesn't have a ton of vocalleaders. And I don't think anyone would
ever mistake jord On for one.But you know, he's one of those
guys that, like, I mean, obviously, when he enters a room,
you kind of just like he commandsany room he enters. And you
know, as Mauricio Dubon said,you know, when he speaks, people
listen, and you know, youlook at last year, Dubon kind of
credits Alvarez for his season last year. And Dubon's three years older than Alvarez,
(12:03):
and for ala, for Dubon togo to him a player in baseball,
which is such a hierarchical sport whereseniority and service time is so treasured,
for Dubon to go to a playerthat's younger than him to get advice
and counseling, For jord On todo that, that kind of shows you
the gravitas he has in that clubhouse. And I think you know, with
(12:24):
Brantley leaving, with Maldonado leaving,with Naris leaving, I mean there is
a there is a small leadership voidin there. And I think you know
even more more than that. Youknow, Alvarez and al Twove are the
only two players under guaranteed contracts throughthe twenty twenty eight seasons. So there
could be a lot of guys leavingin the near future, could be a
lot of different new faces in here, could be a lot of changing of
(12:46):
the guard, But those two guysare going to be constant, and we
know, I mean al twove justby virtue of him being in the majors
for as long as he has,for just being around as long as as
we kind of know what he isand there and kind of how he's view
Alverarez. We don't you know there. There hasn't been you know, a
ton of reporting or a ton ofyou know, stories about that, So
it was it was refreshing and kindof instructive to hear kind of what weight
(13:11):
he carries in there and just kindof what he can be and he acknowledge
it. Yeah, he does feela responsibility to be a leader because of
the contract he signed, because he'sgoing to you know, there's gonna be
a lot of change. There couldbe a lot of change here in the
next twelve to eighteen months, buttwo things aren't going to change. You're
on Alvarez is going to be hereand Josel two is going to be here,
and those two guys are going tokind of be the face of there're
(13:33):
certainly the face two of the facesof this team, but they're gonna they're
going to also be the face ofthat next core as well. Games set
to change the the monotony a littlebit starting on Saturday, Chandler, we
always appreciate the time, appreciate thebirthday wishes as well, look forward to
what's next in the athletic from you, and have a wonderful time the rest
of the week, all right,don't party too hard left, you know
(13:56):
me. I'll be all right,all right, Chandler. Rome love catching
up with him each and every week, and it's only going to get better.
Let's make our way out to FLAand bring in the Astros reporter for the
Athletic covers Major League Baseball. He'sChandler Rome. Always great catching up with
him. He's definitely not yet tiredof being in Florida. I am sure
of it. It's only been therea handful of days. Full squad workouts
continues. He's working on his baseTND. I have little doubt he and
(00:23):
the rest of the crew out thereis doing just that. We have fun
with it every day. Chandler hereon the radio on our program with the
Justin Verlander update. But truthfully,it is a daily occurrence with his trying
to make up for the weeks behindor a couple of weeks behind that he
said he was and he was outthere again today. I know you and
others were watching. If you couldgauge it, because I know that you
(00:45):
can. He was throwing at whatpercent of a full go? Would you
say? Fifty four and a halfpercent, sixty percent? Well, first
off, happy birthdays, Yeah,thank you, my man. He doesn't
get distracted at all. He knowswhat's up. I appreciate that. No,
you're welcome. You don't look atday over thirty five I am.
(01:06):
I think Jessein Verlander was throwing harderthan thirty five percent. I probably he
looked to me about seventy five eightypercent. He cursed a lot after a
few of his pigeons. I don'tthink it was due to pain. I
think he just wasn't happy with likesome of the shapes and some of just
the execution of what he was doing. But what was his preference? Where
(01:30):
did it start with? What aprofessional? Such a true It was kind
of funny. So I tweeted thepicture of Ryan Presley bringing his little boy
over to watch for a little bit, and literally the second he got there,
Verlander unleashed an expletive. I don'tthink he hasn't heard before. Yeah,
he probably can't understand it. Ihope he can't, but it was
(01:53):
it was hilarious time. But Ithink with all these things, like,
you don't really know until tomorrow.We'll see how he wakes up tomorrow.
But looking at the schedule that theyhave they put out, you know,
he's he's on the schedule throw anotherbullpen in four days, and he'll just
kind of go like that. Istill think, you know, when I
(02:14):
when I came on last time.I kind of my informed speculation was this
is going to be a situation wherehe probably won't make every start he's supposed
to in grape Fruit League play.But I don't think this is going to
be something, at least from myreading of it. I don't think it's
going to be something that he's goingto like start season, the il or
anything. I just don't think he'llbe built up to, you know,
(02:34):
seven innings and one hundred pitches onopening day if he starts opening day or
his first start of the season.So everything seems to be progressing pretty well.
There is and there are no redflags. Nothing's come up, so
I guess kind of no news isgood news on that front. You guys
have had a chance, even inthe last couple of days, to see
several sets of of live BP.Joe explained the reasoning behind that, the
(02:57):
timing of it, which is nodifferent than what they've done over last hand
full of spring trainings. Framber Valdez, Josh Hater, Hunter Brown among those
in the last couple of days ortoday that have thrown just that their progress.
All indications are these guys are areready to go. What have or
have you been able to hear fromothers, like the players that are either
there in the box or everyone's beengathered around watching this that that some people
(03:20):
have had to say about how thosepitchers, certainly the ones that matter a
lot to this team, how they'velooked so far. Well, Mauricio Dubon
was very upset that none of usgot video that he hit an opo home
run off of Fromberveldez today, Soradio to appease Mauricio, he did hit
an opo home run off of fromberVeldez today in live VP. Again,
(03:42):
take all of this with a grainof salt, but you know fromber Valdez
gave up some loud contact today.It was not it was not the crispest
live VP for him. But Imean again, it's it's February whatever.
Today is February twenty. First,I would not be alarmed by that,
but you know, you look,Spencer Aarraghetti had a big crowd today on
the other field, in the minorleague field. You know, Dana Brown
(04:02):
was there, Joe Spotto was there, a lot of the front office was
there watching, and then he seemedto impress through through a bunch of strikes.
You know, it was around thestrike zone. Josh Hater looked pretty
electric a couple of days ago.You know, at this point in the
year, though pitchers are ahead ofhitters, are supposed to be ahead of
hitters, So it's kind of supposedto go this way that the pitchers are
(04:24):
supposed to dominate and the hitters aresupposed to be a little bit behind.
But you know, Hunter Brown's working. You know, he talked at fan
fests and talked again a couple ofdays ago. You know, he's he's
now throwing a separate cutter and slider. It used to be a hybrid sort
of pitch. Now he's throwing both. He's throwing two different pitches, so
he got to use those. Seehow those went. I think the big
story a couple of days ago wasJeremy Paanea got to debut his new batting
(04:46):
stance in a live VP session andyou know, made some good contact off
Ryan Pressley. So there's little stuffto glean here and there. But really,
these guys are just trying to gettheir work in. I mean,
you know, a right of springtraining is every guy's gonna tink her with
his change up. You know,Josh Hader said he threw his change up
more than he would in the liveVP beforehand. And you know, look,
(05:06):
I mean, as long as everybody'scoming out healthy, it doesn't matter
who's giving up what. It doesn'tmatter who's doing what. It just kind
of get their work in. Alot of these hitters, honestly, are
just in there to track pitches.They're not even in there to take swings
or anything. I don't even thinkjord On Alvarez, Jose Abrau or Jose
al Tube have even participated in thelive BP yet. And that's it's not
(05:28):
the suggesting things wrong, it's justthat's their preference. They don't like to
go live yet. So maybe we'llsee them in the next couple of days
before the before the Great Free Leagueopener on Saturday. But yeah, just
typical spring training stuff. Nothing thatstands out is alarming. Talking to Channeler
Roam of the Athletic here on SportsTalk seven ninety and you mentioned Jeremy Paine
yea, And I know it's asmall thing, and I don't think it
(05:48):
was you that mentioned this, butit might have been. I've slept since
then. The fact that he tooka lot of the pre swing activity,
out of his batting stance. AndI know things like this get talked about
all the time and they're very Imean, this is it's kind of a
baseball thing. They're just so minute. But given the lack of you know,
(06:10):
home runs since July of last year, and everything else we know about
pain as season, how it wentlast year, how important is that little
stuff, especially this time of year, in getting him at least back to
where he was as a rookie man, Adam, Look, I don't think
this is a little thing. Imean, really, it is drastically different.
(06:30):
I mean, you look at thesetup now as compared to what he's
done the last two years. Imean, maybe it's because the bat wag
and wiggle was so pronounced his firsttwo years, but to see him,
you know, resting it and tobe as quiet and subdued as it is,
and it looks like a different stanceentirely now. You know. I
asked someone that knows hitting better thanme to kind of explain. You know,
(06:53):
Jeremy told us a couple of daysago. One of the things that
he wanted to do with it,he wanted to get true spin on his
line drop in his balls in thein his contact in the air. And
I didn't really know what true spinwas, but apparently what he's trying to
do when he had that, whenhe was wagging the bat like it was
it took him a while to geton plane, to get his barrel on
(07:14):
the swing plane. And when youtake when you take too much time you
get your barrel in the swing plane, you know, you don't know what
angle your barrel is going to enterthe zone. And that creates can create
top spin, can create backspin,can slice the ball, can top a
ball, whatever, like I thinkthey're they're eliminating that movement to get his
the barrel on the swing plane andto be able to have, you know,
some more direct spin to elevate theball war and I think that's that's
(07:36):
what he wanted to do here.You know, I think it is grossly
misrepresenting what pain you did last yearis that he had a battle for the
season. He his on base percentagewent up, his strikeout rate plummeted,
his walk rate went up, hisbatting average went up. He madeter swing
decisions. He was a more maturehitter last year. He just didn't sluck.
(07:58):
And I think if they can finda way for him to hit the
ball in a line a little bitmore to get the ball in the air.
He doesn't have to hit thirty homers, but get a couple more balls
in the gap, get some getsome more doubles, get a couple more
balls over the fence. I'm surehe would love that. But yeah,
I think this is a This isnot just one of these like spring training
stories. It's gonna go away afterthe first month of the season. I
(08:20):
think he's gonna stick with this,and I think it's certainly it looks different.
And you know, Penya even acknowledgeda couple of days ago that it
still doesn't feel right to him.You know that he had always his whole
amateur and professional career, he hadhad the wag in the batting stance he
had had he had been wiggling thebat around, and this is not natural
for him. So he's gonna haveto I wouldn't be surprised if he plays
(08:43):
a little bit more than other guyswould in spring, just to get more
of a feel for how that battingstance is going to translate in against live
pitching, against against other teams.So it's not I really, you know,
a lot of spring training as eyewashed. Lot of it is like,
oh, I lost this much weight, I'm tinkering with my change up,
I have this different grip on thisback foot page. But like, I
(09:07):
think this is actually something that needsto be monitored and certainly is something that
could have a profound impact not onlyon pay you, but maybe this lineup
as a whole, certainly something thatmight portend to a lot of appearances in
spring training games and a lot moreat bats or maybe additional at bats away
from the game action, just forall those reasons you suggested. The piece
(09:28):
you wrote today in The Athletic centeredaround Jordon Alvarez a little less about the
baseball and more about his presence andhis leadership. So kind of twofold you
just kind of describe Jeremy Paynea's secondseason, what he did last year and
saying it was not a down yearnecessarily, how would you describe Jordon's season
last year? And kind of withinthe article where his role inside this clubhouse
(09:52):
he is a big literal presence,but it seems his presence is a little
larger than we may see on aday to day basis. Well, I
mean, he had a great yearwhen he was on the field last year.
I mean, and that's the bigthing I think. I think he
understands that. You know, look, we've we've had this debate, especially
with some guys that used to beon this team that are elsewhere now about
(10:15):
like what can a leader be orthe or the merits or the characteristics of
a leader, Like, no,you don't have to be the most highly
compensated person. You don't have tobe the most skilled person in a clubhouse
to be a leader. You don'teven have to be on the field to
be a leader, as Michael Brantleypretty clearly demonstrated in his tenure in Houston,
especially in twenty twenty two. Butyou know, with Alvarez, I
(10:35):
think he understands that he has tohe has to be on the field,
Like availability has got to be topof mind for him. You know,
he talked about he he tailored hisdiet this offseason to you know, I
think the way he put it throughan interpreter was he ate less things to
inflame his body. I'm not sureif something got lost in translation there or
what exactly it was, but soundslike he didn't eat much at night.
(10:58):
Sounds like he said he came tocamp same weight, around the same shape
he's always in, but it soundslike his diet was a little bit better.
You know, I think he understandsin order for him to have the
full impact he can have on thisteam, he's got to be on the
field, and you know he's he'slong said that he wants to play more
left field. Joe Spotta seems towant to make that happen more of a
(11:18):
product of just wanting to get theDH open for more guys. But I
think, you know, jord On, this team does not have just a
ton of vocal leaders. This isyou know, Al Tuovey is certainly not
that guy Bregmant to an extent,can be. You know, mccullor's is
pretty outspoken and pretty vocal. Verlandercan be that. But by and largest
(11:41):
team doesn't have a ton of vocalleaders. And I don't think anyone would
ever mistake jord On for one.But you know, he's one of those
guys that, like, I mean, obviously, when he enters a room,
you kind of just like he commandsany room he enters. And you
know, as Mauricio Dubon said,you know, when he speaks, people
listen, and you know, youlook at last year, Dubon kind of
credits Alvarez for his season last year. And Dubon's three years older than Alvarez,
(12:03):
and for ala, for Dubon togo to him a player in baseball,
which is such a hierarchical sport whereseniority and service time is so treasured,
for Dubon to go to a playerthat's younger than him to get advice
and counseling, For jord On todo that, that kind of shows you
the gravitas he has in that clubhouse. And I think you know, with
(12:24):
Brantley leaving, with Maldonado leaving,with Naris leaving, I mean there is
a there is a small leadership voidin there. And I think you know
even more more than that. Youknow, Alvarez and al Twove are the
only two players under guaranteed contracts throughthe twenty twenty eight seasons. So there
could be a lot of guys leavingin the near future, could be a
lot of different new faces in here, could be a lot of changing of
(12:46):
the guard, But those two guysare going to be constant, and we
know, I mean al twove justby virtue of him being in the majors
for as long as he has,for just being around as long as as
we kind of know what he isand there and kind of how he's view
Alverarez. We don't you know there. There hasn't been you know, a
ton of reporting or a ton ofyou know, stories about that, So
it was it was refreshing and kindof instructive to hear kind of what weight
(13:11):
he carries in there and just kindof what he can be and he acknowledge
it. Yeah, he does feela responsibility to be a leader because of
the contract he signed, because he'sgoing to you know, there's gonna be
a lot of change. There couldbe a lot of change here in the
next twelve to eighteen months, buttwo things aren't going to change. You're
on Alvarez is going to be hereand Josel two is going to be here,
and those two guys are going tokind of be the face of there're
(13:33):
certainly the face two of the facesof this team, but they're gonna they're
going to also be the face ofthat next core as well. Games set
to change the the monotony a littlebit starting on Saturday, Chandler, we
always appreciate the time, appreciate thebirthday wishes as well, look forward to
what's next in the athletic from you, and have a wonderful time the rest
of the week, all right,don't party too hard left, you know
(13:56):
me. I'll be all right,all right, Chandler. Rome love catching
up with him each and every week, and it's only going to get better.
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