April 10, 2024 • 10 mins
The Athletic's Astros beat writer Chandler Rome joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talk about what we can expect tonight from Spencer Arrighetti, in his Major League debut on the mound. Plus, the concern level with Alex Bregman and Jose Abreu at the plate.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
On Wednesdays during baseball season. That'swhen we welcome Chandler Roman to the conversation
on the Houston Astros, the athleticbeat writer for the Astros in Major League
Baseball. This team has dropped tofour and eight, a five hundred team,
after they got slapped around by theYankees. Second time this trip.
There will be a major league debuton the mound. The last time Blair
(00:21):
Henley was delivered a two run lead, he delivered an out. The Astros
will give the ball to Spencer Arraghetti. This time, we all knew he
would make his way to the majors, most likely this year. What are
your thoughts about the arsenal that hedisplayed in front of the management team personnel
this spring and what might make hima successful Major leaguer and maybe one that
(00:41):
is here to stay. Yeah,I mean, well, first of all,
I think he's here to stay forat least the immediate future. I'd
imagine he's going to stick in therotation at least for as long as from
Berveldez remains on the injured list.So this is not, you know,
the Blair Henley situation. You know, I felt pretty bad for the young
man, you know, it wasjust a just so happened to be his
day to pitch. The starter reportedsoreness the night before, and it was
(01:06):
just kind of a scramble situation,and it was it was a tough look
for him. But you know,I think Arraghetti obviously has a lot more
upside, a lot more just prospectpedigree. And I think the thing that's
going to carry him through tonight,you know, talking to scouts that have
watched him, you know, thestuff is probably not like high end,
like great stuff, but it allkind of just compliments each other. Like
(01:29):
he knows how to pitch, heknows how to use his stuff and sequence
his pitches. This isn't this isn'tgoing to be a guy that I don't
think. He's not gonna go outthere throwing ninety seven. This isn't gonna
be elite just elite elite stuff,but knows how to pitch. He's very
cerebral, studies the yard of pitchingvery well, kind of really knows himself,
knows his repertoire. And then look, I think, you know,
we just talked to Joe a spotabout this. This is a guy that
(01:53):
carries himself with a lot of confidenceand with a lot of poise and professionalism.
But I also I you know,he he understands that he belongs here.
This is not I don't think thestage is going to be too big
for him. I don't think thisis gonna be he's gonna get nervous and
throw ten balls in a row ornot know where the baseball's going. You
know, he may walk some guys, he may not, he may give
(02:14):
up some hits, but I don'tthink this is gonna be a situation where
the moment is too big for him. So Joe Spatas said just now that
it sounds like he's only going tobe capped around eighty eighty five pitches,
so probably not going to go tremendouslydeep. But I think if he could
give them five or six innings,they'd be thrilled. Why is the stage
always too big for Jose Abrey youat this point, I mean, it's
(02:38):
it's been tough to watch, andyou know what, we had this discussion
last year while he was going throughthis. You know, it is not
for lack of effort, It isnot for lack of work ethic, It
is not you know, any ofthat. He is working his tail off.
He is revered in that clubhouse forhow hard he works, for his
professionalism, for just the presence hebrings. But I mean, all that
(03:00):
stuff's great, but he's paid toproduce and it's not happening. He's going
to hit eighth tonight for the firsttime in his major league career. Joe
Spota said a little bit earlier thathe did have a meeting with him to
kind of let him know that thatwas how it's going to happen. Also
did talk through you know, hegot pinch hit for last night in a
pretty big spot in that game,and you know, without looking it up,
I can't imagine Josea Brady's been pinchhit for much in his career.
(03:23):
So that's another kind of kind oflow mark for him. And look,
it's it's April tenth. You justlike with every other player, you never
want to overreact to thirty or thirtyfive at bats, but it's looked pretty
dire and it's you know, becauseof the season he authored last year that
only kind of magnifies what's happening.Now. You know, the leash is
(03:46):
still long. I mean they're notthey're not eating the contract, right now
they're not. This isn't a situationwhere anything's imminent. I mean, they're
going to give him time to workthrough this, you know. But also
I don't have many other options.I mean, John Singleton's behind him,
and you know, he probably inspiresless confidence right now than jose O Brahu.
And you know, I know everyoneloves Joey lo Berfido. I know
(04:10):
he's the topic du joor and hedoes have five homers down in sugar Land,
but he's also striking out in halfof visit bats and really has not
played first base at a full timelevel. So they need to give him
time just to get acclimated to theposition, get some of the swing decisions
a little bit better, you know, curtail to strike out rate a little
bit. So, I mean,jose Brady has got a runway here and
(04:31):
he's going to have to start producingto make to make the most of it.
Jayler Roma of the Athletic covers theHouston Astros and joins us weekly here
on Sports Talk seven to ninety.I've tried to shift some of the offensive
issues this team has up in thelineup to the four spot. He had
any recent conversations with Alex Bregman abouthow he feels about how things are going.
(04:53):
We know how very technically into hisswing that he is. He has
had some days where it's been nothingbut hard hit balls and nothing to show
for it. He's also had abunch of other days where it just wasn't
a good day at the plate,and the numbers do bear that out,
and in that four spot it hasmagnified some of their offensive issues. Yeah.
I haven't talked to Bregman specifically inthe last couple of days, but
(05:15):
you know, Joe Spatta said today, it's just looking like he's having problems
repeating his swing. His hands area little bit out of whack, and
that stuff that Bregman knows like Imean, he's he like you mentioned,
he's as technical and as meticulous andas self aware of his mechanics and swing
as any player I've ever covered.So he knows exactly what's wrong. I
think it's just a matter of youknow, and acting and putting into practice.
(05:36):
And you know, I don't needto tell you guys that he's this
is what he kind of does.He's always been a slow starter. He's
never gotten off the fast starts.It's being magnified now because the team's four
and eight. But yeah, they'vegot to get him going. And you
know he's gonna say in that cleanupspot, I don't think a change is
coming there. I mean, yousaw a little bit of lineup shifting today
(05:57):
and the back half of the lineup, but those top four pretty much entrenched
up there. So you know,the thing with Alex, you know,
as we've always said, you know, he's he's going to swing at strikes.
He's not going to swing at balls. You'll get on base just via
the walk. But but I meanthey need a little bit more than that
from the cleanup man. They needany bass hits, any balls in the
gap. They especially with the wayal Tuvey and Alvarez are swinging the bat
(06:19):
right now, they've got to getThey got to get regularly going to spots
below. It's you know, it'scrazy as we sit here and the code
OFFI Twitter account put this out aboutabout a day ago. The guys on
the Astros injured list right now,my goodness, and it's a picture of
Verlander fromber Lance mccullors, Luis Garciaand Jose Orchidi. And yet it's not
(06:41):
the pitching that we're talking about rightnow. Uh, it may be the
pitching that you're talking about, becauselook, right now, they're pitching well.
The starters have given them adequate starts. The bullpen, you know,
beside the three guys that you thoughtwere going to be good, the bullpen's
pitched pretty well. But the problemis, as I wrote this morning,
(07:01):
and as I think everyone with halfa brain could have seen this winter,
is that they've got a lot ofinnings to cover, and they've got a
lot of guys that just haven't throwna ton of innings. So if they
get to June and July and theseguys are already fatigued, then then you're
gonna be talking about the pitching becauseyou're gonna have tired arms that can't cover
a ton of innings. I mean, you look at what they did on
(07:24):
Monday to Brandon Beilak, who threwsixty three pitches on Friday and then came
back and threw twenty five more onMonday. Seth Martinez threw more than thirty
pitches for the sixth time in hisin a seventy two game major league career.
They're gonna wear these guys out becausebecause as they should, they don't
want to pitch their high leverage guysin games that they're down or trailing.
(07:46):
So they've got a bunch of youngarms that don't have a lot of tread
on the tires that they're gonna askto eat a lot of innings. And
you saw last year that you HunterBrown through a career high innings, JP
France through a career high endings,Christian Hoavier through a career high innings.
They're all coming off of those careerhigh workloads. Spencer Arraghetti's up. You
(08:09):
know, if you think he's goingto be a mainstain in the rotation,
He's never thrown more than one hundredand twenty four innings in a professional season.
So they need they need Justin Berlanderto come back and be good and
pitch deep into games. They needto hope that from ber Val does his
elbow heels that he's back in arelatively quick timeframe. But I mean,
(08:30):
this was all this was all envisionablein the off season, when you knew
you weren't going to have Luis Garciaor Lance mccullors until after the All Star
break. Justin Verlanders, I canassure you that Justin verlanders shoulder hickup was
detailed to the Astro's front off asfar before he came out on February fourteenth
and told the public about it.You knew you had guys coming off of
(08:52):
career career high innings the workloads,and you knew that you lost two hundred
seven and one third innings from yourbullpen. And in response, she signed
one major league believer who has beenpretty adamant that he only wants to throw
one inning every time he pitches,So it's going to be a tough grind
for them. I think the inningsare going to catch up with this team.
And look, we kind of sawthis last year too, didn't you
(09:15):
Like. The pitching was really goodthe first half of the year, and
then you get to the second halfand the starting rotation as a five era
because Christian Hoavier is tired, JPFrance is tired, Hunter Brown's tired,
and they had to go trade twoof their best prospects to get Justin Berlander
in here to give them some inningseating at the top. So a situation
that is probably not going to getmuch better, but that was totally could
(09:37):
have totally been foreseen this winter andcould have been addressed one last thing for
you quickly, and Ojo Spot hadnoted it you were talking about. Verlander
had his bullpen session today. Stillno word on which affiliate he will join
in, either Frisco at the DoubleA level or Albuquerque at the Triple A
level this weekend. I have aneducated guest that he ain't going to pitch
(10:00):
abe Hi the same because that isa bandbox, and he ain't going to
pitching Albank, so I'd be surprisedif it's not Frisco. But no,
they haven't made a decision yet.It sounds like Jose Orkidi is still progressing
well. He's not throwing off ofmound yet, but still playing catch.
And Joe Spott did say he talkedto Farmer Valdez today. Farmer said he
(10:20):
felt better, said he got sometreatment in Houston. And again take it
with a grain of salt that JoeSpot has said maybe in the next day
or two they can start thinking abouthim picking up a baseball and maybe start
building him up again. Chandler Homeof the Athletic covering the Astros in Major
League Baseball. Great to have youwith us throughout the year. Great to
have you with us today, andthe Astros will try to at least get
(10:41):
another win in this series. Wealready know they're gonna get the wind tomorrow.
Let's get away day. That's whatwe do. And hopefully they can
get the series if Spencer Araghetty canhelp lead them to victory today. Thanks
Chandler, all right, thanks us
On Wednesdays during baseball season. That'swhen we welcome Chandler Roman to the conversation
on the Houston Astros, the athleticbeat writer for the Astros in Major League
Baseball. This team has dropped tofour and eight, a five hundred team,
after they got slapped around by theYankees. Second time this trip.
There will be a major league debuton the mound. The last time Blair
(00:21):
Henley was delivered a two run lead, he delivered an out. The Astros
will give the ball to Spencer Arraghetti. This time, we all knew he
would make his way to the majors, most likely this year. What are
your thoughts about the arsenal that hedisplayed in front of the management team personnel
this spring and what might make hima successful Major leaguer and maybe one that
(00:41):
is here to stay. Yeah,I mean, well, first of all,
I think he's here to stay forat least the immediate future. I'd
imagine he's going to stick in therotation at least for as long as from
Berveldez remains on the injured list.So this is not, you know,
the Blair Henley situation. You know, I felt pretty bad for the young
man, you know, it wasjust a just so happened to be his
day to pitch. The starter reportedsoreness the night before, and it was
(01:06):
just kind of a scramble situation,and it was it was a tough look
for him. But you know,I think Arraghetti obviously has a lot more
upside, a lot more just prospectpedigree. And I think the thing that's
going to carry him through tonight,you know, talking to scouts that have
watched him, you know, thestuff is probably not like high end,
like great stuff, but it allkind of just compliments each other. Like
(01:29):
he knows how to pitch, heknows how to use his stuff and sequence
his pitches. This isn't this isn'tgoing to be a guy that I don't
think. He's not gonna go outthere throwing ninety seven. This isn't gonna
be elite just elite elite stuff,but knows how to pitch. He's very
cerebral, studies the yard of pitchingvery well, kind of really knows himself,
knows his repertoire. And then look, I think, you know,
we just talked to Joe a spotabout this. This is a guy that
(01:53):
carries himself with a lot of confidenceand with a lot of poise and professionalism.
But I also I you know,he he understands that he belongs here.
This is not I don't think thestage is going to be too big
for him. I don't think thisis gonna be he's gonna get nervous and
throw ten balls in a row ornot know where the baseball's going. You
know, he may walk some guys, he may not, he may give
(02:14):
up some hits, but I don'tthink this is gonna be a situation where
the moment is too big for him. So Joe Spatas said just now that
it sounds like he's only going tobe capped around eighty eighty five pitches,
so probably not going to go tremendouslydeep. But I think if he could
give them five or six innings,they'd be thrilled. Why is the stage
always too big for Jose Abrey youat this point, I mean, it's
(02:38):
it's been tough to watch, andyou know what, we had this discussion
last year while he was going throughthis. You know, it is not
for lack of effort, It isnot for lack of work ethic, It
is not you know, any ofthat. He is working his tail off.
He is revered in that clubhouse forhow hard he works, for his
professionalism, for just the presence hebrings. But I mean, all that
(03:00):
stuff's great, but he's paid toproduce and it's not happening. He's going
to hit eighth tonight for the firsttime in his major league career. Joe
Spota said a little bit earlier thathe did have a meeting with him to
kind of let him know that thatwas how it's going to happen. Also
did talk through you know, hegot pinch hit for last night in a
pretty big spot in that game,and you know, without looking it up,
I can't imagine Josea Brady's been pinchhit for much in his career.
(03:23):
So that's another kind of kind oflow mark for him. And look,
it's it's April tenth. You justlike with every other player, you never
want to overreact to thirty or thirtyfive at bats, but it's looked pretty
dire and it's you know, becauseof the season he authored last year that
only kind of magnifies what's happening.Now. You know, the leash is
(03:46):
still long. I mean they're notthey're not eating the contract, right now
they're not. This isn't a situationwhere anything's imminent. I mean, they're
going to give him time to workthrough this, you know. But also
I don't have many other options.I mean, John Singleton's behind him,
and you know, he probably inspiresless confidence right now than jose O Brahu.
And you know, I know everyoneloves Joey lo Berfido. I know
(04:10):
he's the topic du joor and hedoes have five homers down in sugar Land,
but he's also striking out in halfof visit bats and really has not
played first base at a full timelevel. So they need to give him
time just to get acclimated to theposition, get some of the swing decisions
a little bit better, you know, curtail to strike out rate a little
bit. So, I mean,jose Brady has got a runway here and
(04:31):
he's going to have to start producingto make to make the most of it.
Jayler Roma of the Athletic covers theHouston Astros and joins us weekly here
on Sports Talk seven to ninety.I've tried to shift some of the offensive
issues this team has up in thelineup to the four spot. He had
any recent conversations with Alex Bregman abouthow he feels about how things are going.
(04:53):
We know how very technically into hisswing that he is. He has
had some days where it's been nothingbut hard hit balls and nothing to show
for it. He's also had abunch of other days where it just wasn't
a good day at the plate,and the numbers do bear that out,
and in that four spot it hasmagnified some of their offensive issues. Yeah.
I haven't talked to Bregman specifically inthe last couple of days, but
(05:15):
you know, Joe Spatta said today, it's just looking like he's having problems
repeating his swing. His hands area little bit out of whack, and
that stuff that Bregman knows like Imean, he's he like you mentioned,
he's as technical and as meticulous andas self aware of his mechanics and swing
as any player I've ever covered.So he knows exactly what's wrong. I
think it's just a matter of youknow, and acting and putting into practice.
(05:36):
And you know, I don't needto tell you guys that he's this
is what he kind of does.He's always been a slow starter. He's
never gotten off the fast starts.It's being magnified now because the team's four
and eight. But yeah, they'vegot to get him going. And you
know he's gonna say in that cleanupspot, I don't think a change is
coming there. I mean, yousaw a little bit of lineup shifting today
(05:57):
and the back half of the lineup, but those top four pretty much entrenched
up there. So you know,the thing with Alex, you know,
as we've always said, you know, he's he's going to swing at strikes.
He's not going to swing at balls. You'll get on base just via
the walk. But but I meanthey need a little bit more than that
from the cleanup man. They needany bass hits, any balls in the
gap. They especially with the wayal Tuvey and Alvarez are swinging the bat
(06:19):
right now, they've got to getThey got to get regularly going to spots
below. It's you know, it'scrazy as we sit here and the code
OFFI Twitter account put this out aboutabout a day ago. The guys on
the Astros injured list right now,my goodness, and it's a picture of
Verlander fromber Lance mccullors, Luis Garciaand Jose Orchidi. And yet it's not
(06:41):
the pitching that we're talking about rightnow. Uh, it may be the
pitching that you're talking about, becauselook, right now, they're pitching well.
The starters have given them adequate starts. The bullpen, you know,
beside the three guys that you thoughtwere going to be good, the bullpen's
pitched pretty well. But the problemis, as I wrote this morning,
(07:01):
and as I think everyone with halfa brain could have seen this winter,
is that they've got a lot ofinnings to cover, and they've got a
lot of guys that just haven't throwna ton of innings. So if they
get to June and July and theseguys are already fatigued, then then you're
gonna be talking about the pitching becauseyou're gonna have tired arms that can't cover
a ton of innings. I mean, you look at what they did on
(07:24):
Monday to Brandon Beilak, who threwsixty three pitches on Friday and then came
back and threw twenty five more onMonday. Seth Martinez threw more than thirty
pitches for the sixth time in hisin a seventy two game major league career.
They're gonna wear these guys out becausebecause as they should, they don't
want to pitch their high leverage guysin games that they're down or trailing.
(07:46):
So they've got a bunch of youngarms that don't have a lot of tread
on the tires that they're gonna askto eat a lot of innings. And
you saw last year that you HunterBrown through a career high innings, JP
France through a career high endings,Christian Hoavier through a career high innings.
They're all coming off of those careerhigh workloads. Spencer Arraghetti's up. You
(08:09):
know, if you think he's goingto be a mainstain in the rotation,
He's never thrown more than one hundredand twenty four innings in a professional season.
So they need they need Justin Berlanderto come back and be good and
pitch deep into games. They needto hope that from ber Val does his
elbow heels that he's back in arelatively quick timeframe. But I mean,
(08:30):
this was all this was all envisionablein the off season, when you knew
you weren't going to have Luis Garciaor Lance mccullors until after the All Star
break. Justin Verlanders, I canassure you that Justin verlanders shoulder hickup was
detailed to the Astro's front off asfar before he came out on February fourteenth
and told the public about it.You knew you had guys coming off of
(08:52):
career career high innings the workloads,and you knew that you lost two hundred
seven and one third innings from yourbullpen. And in response, she signed
one major league believer who has beenpretty adamant that he only wants to throw
one inning every time he pitches,So it's going to be a tough grind
for them. I think the inningsare going to catch up with this team.
And look, we kind of sawthis last year too, didn't you
(09:15):
Like. The pitching was really goodthe first half of the year, and
then you get to the second halfand the starting rotation as a five era
because Christian Hoavier is tired, JPFrance is tired, Hunter Brown's tired,
and they had to go trade twoof their best prospects to get Justin Berlander
in here to give them some inningseating at the top. So a situation
that is probably not going to getmuch better, but that was totally could
(09:37):
have totally been foreseen this winter andcould have been addressed one last thing for
you quickly, and Ojo Spot hadnoted it you were talking about. Verlander
had his bullpen session today. Stillno word on which affiliate he will join
in, either Frisco at the DoubleA level or Albuquerque at the Triple A
level this weekend. I have aneducated guest that he ain't going to pitch
(10:00):
abe Hi the same because that isa bandbox, and he ain't going to
pitching Albank, so I'd be surprisedif it's not Frisco. But no,
they haven't made a decision yet.It sounds like Jose Orkidi is still progressing
well. He's not throwing off ofmound yet, but still playing catch.
And Joe Spott did say he talkedto Farmer Valdez today. Farmer said he
(10:20):
felt better, said he got sometreatment in Houston. And again take it
with a grain of salt that JoeSpot has said maybe in the next day
or two they can start thinking abouthim picking up a baseball and maybe start
building him up again. Chandler Homeof the Athletic covering the Astros in Major
League Baseball. Great to have youwith us throughout the year. Great to
have you with us today, andthe Astros will try to at least get
(10:41):
another win in this series. Wealready know they're gonna get the wind tomorrow.
Let's get away day. That's whatwe do. And hopefully they can
get the series if Spencer Araghetty canhelp lead them to victory today. Thanks
Chandler, all right, thanks us
Popular Podcasts
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com