Geoff Blum on The A-Team: Perfect Timing For Mexico City Trip

Former Astro turned Space City Home Network analyst Geoff Blum joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks more about the Astros continued struggles this season. He talks about what this trip to Mexico City could do for this team. Plus, the Astros get some much needed pitching help coming back into the fold. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
You look at it. Look atit. Oh yeah, this is radio.
You listen to it. On SportsTalk seven ninety. Astro's broadcaster Jeff
Blum on seven ninety is brought toyou by Low D Center, Live from
Mexico. It's the birthday boy.Jeff Blum here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

(00:25):
What's up, Blummer? How areyou happy birthday? Uh? Glascius
mi amigo o la needles? Howis everything going? Boys? Fantastic?
I don't abla I abler. Ourlisteners probably don't, so we'll stick with
English. I mean, isn't isn'tthe fact that you're in Mexico the best

(00:47):
thing going right now for your neckof the woods, if you know what
I mean? Yeah, you know, it's something to look forward to,
and you know what you get missRutt, and this routine and this funk
that everybody's in right now and goinginto a foreign might be the best thing
for us. So it's kind ofI'm hoping that it kind of invigorates a
little bit. I was in whatwe need to make happen? Yeah,
no, I was going to askyou that because we've clearly never done a

(01:11):
show together where the Astros were awful. Because that's what they are right now.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it.Does it feel like that? Does
it permeate like the charter? Doesit permeate the hotel lobby? Is it
a feeling of malaise or whatever youwant to call it, or is it
like you can separate that and thenwhen you get to the field wherever you

(01:32):
may be, then it kind ofcomes back like, how would you describe
you personally your experience right now withwhat's going on with the team. Well,
I think it's pretty wild and itis kind of hard to understand because
you know, having done this beforein twenty thirteen fourteen when I started my
broadcast career, because you know,you know, as we talk about sports,

(01:53):
we always try and you always tryand draw from experience or draw from
a story you've heard, or getsome input in. In my playing days,
I never played on a team thatwas that was in this big of
a funk. I mean, maybeit happened in Juni or July where it
was less obvious when you only wonseven games in a month. I'm sure
I probably did that with the TampaBay Rays. You know, that was

(02:13):
one of the worst teams that Iever played on. But you know,
having this start out of the outof spring training, it obviously magnifies everything.
And now reminiscing about twenty thirteen andnow, and I can't even draw
the experience or draw the comparison fromtwenty thirteen to now because there were those
were drastically different teams. And Ithink what magnifies what's happening right now is

(02:38):
the quality of team that is takingthe field, because on paper, these
guys are contenders. They have thetrack record, they have the experience,
they have the reputation, and it'sjust not measuring up. And I think
that's what kind of shocks all ofus when we sit in the booth or
when we're on a bus and thenyou get around these guys and they're talking
to us, they're having a goodtime, and it's like nothing's ever changed.

(02:58):
So it's like the record doesn't evenaffect them until they get on the
field. But I would imagine atthis point, this late in April,
I think there might be a littlebit of concern obviously with us, who
are you know, we were punditswho talk about baseball and have concern for
our hometown team that we have ourconcerns. But I would imagine, you
know, in that clubhouse, unlessyou take this game incredibly selfishly, you're

(03:23):
going to have concern in light ofthe fact that you are on an MLB
International Series ballgame. And you mentionedthe two thousand and four Tampa team.
Did you play in their international gamethat season in Tokyo? Oh? Yeah,
I did. Yeah. We leftspring training hopped on a seven forty

(03:45):
seven and I think we had alayover in Denver or San Francisco because it
was so damned far away. ButI was on that plane flying to flying
to Tokyo. We had the misfortuneof having to open up against George time
Brenner's Tampa Bay or New York Yankees. We played a couple of games,
uh, you know, exhibition gamesagainst the Tokyo Giants. And I had

(04:10):
the misfortune of being in Tokyo withLoupenella. Yes, I was on that
trip. Is Lou Panella worse inTokyo than he is in America? No,
he was worse in America, andby far, you know, in
Tokyo. And you know, yougo on these excursions as these teams and
you go on you know, yougo to Mexico, city. They're talking

(04:30):
about going to London. You know, you go on these trips and you
know, like an ambassador for thegame, So everybody puts on a beautiful
face and does the right things andmeets the right people. And you know,
it was actually nice because lou wasdoing those kinds of things and I
could completely completely avoid him. Hewas putting, he was he was on
his best behavior, is what itwas. Yeah. No, and I'm

(04:53):
sure there were handlers out there andeverybody's pointing us in the right direction because
you had to meet people, youhad to. You know, there were
there were you know, luncheons andyou know galas and stuff like that.
But yeah, the only time Ihad to interact with them minimally was at
the field, thankfully. Do youthink the Astros will be better in Mexico
than they are in America? Dude? You know what, what's crazy to

(05:15):
me? Who would have thought thetiming of this whole Mexico City series,
which we're at seventy five hundred feetin the air, which is maybe two
thousand feet higher than we would beat the Montle High City in Denver,
playing one of the worst teams,and we have the same record. We
have two terrible, you know,pitching staffs that are struggling to start the
season. Yet we've got some offensesthat can go out there and hit the

(05:39):
baseball a little bit. And Ithink it's a perfect recipe for some three
hour, thirteen to ten games.It's going to be amazing in light of
one of the reasons why the Astroshave produced this record, an offense that,
certainly after the Chicago series and thethree games that were very listless offensively,
regardless of the results of these twogames, is it possible that you'll

(06:00):
leave Mexico City the offensive players willleave Mexico City feeling better about their swings
in hopes that the high elevation willbring more hits, more runs, and
more productivity. I tell you what, the eternal optimist of optimism of Wexler's
is incredible, because you know,I'm sitting here looking at numbers and wondering

(06:23):
what's going to happen next, andyou know, anxiously awaiting this team to
open up. But I think that'sa really good point because you know how
that's how I know on teams weplayed I played on if we had a
trip going into Denver and we hada little bit of the funk going.
We were like, man, thestadium is elevated, the ball is going
to fly. The gaps are huge, So let's go out there and see

(06:43):
if we can't pat our numbers alittle bit or start to build a little
bit of confidence. Because even ifyou mishit a baseball, it'll still go
an extra thirty forty feet in thesealtitudes, even if the humand oor is
in effect. So I think that'sactually a really good point. Maybe something
we should be, you know,manifesting. What we do these days is
we manifest the idea that these guyscan go out there and start to pad
some members and then hopefully they canput that in the suitcase and travel it

(07:06):
back to Houston when we're done withthe series. I think that's a great
idea and a definite possibility with someof the pitching that they're going to see
against the Colorado Rockies outside of MinuteMade Park and the other stadium that was
outside the country in Montreal. Yourmost career home runs were in Colorado.

(07:30):
Yeah, oh man, I lovethat place. I would chomp at the
bit, I'd be I knew exactly. There were two things I knew exactly
where to go in Denver. Itwas home plate and the manager's office because
I would go in there and belike, hey, bro, you have
got to put me in one ofthese games. I would just be standing
there with the bat in my handand batting gloves on, ready to go
because I loved hitting at that place. Who was sitting at the manager's desk
in those days. I had FelipeAlou the first time, and then I

(07:56):
had Bruce Bochie a couple of timesthat we went through there. Yeah,
and you know what, even laterin my career, I think my last
home run was number ninety nine,was hit at Colorado in course field and
Kurt Gibson poking the line at thatday. That is awesome. That's definitely
a great memory. And again we'removing through these subjects so brilliantly, smoothly
here on professional radio. Here onSports Talk seven ninety Speaking of the manager,

(08:22):
he had the top of the ninthinning off in his most recently managed
game. As he was ejected forthe first time in his managerial he was
escorted out of the dugout, asmore like it, he came out of
the dugout on his own and hadwhat appeared to be a polite conversation with
the homeplate umpire in between innings,and then almost as politely was given the
thumb and obviously had his explanation withour listeners heard yesterday. What did you

(08:46):
think about Joe just basically saying I'dseen enough. Well, I mean,
I'm sure he has seen enough,but he actually has seen enough of that
umpire and crew too, because Ithink throughout the course of that series there
were some discrepancies in the strike zone. I spoke to that, and I
you know, obviously I'm I'm I'mas frustrated as the Astras are. It's

(09:07):
hard enough to go out and wina ballgame and then you have some of
these strike zones being called, andI know it probably it probably precipitated from
that point when Justin Berlander had Ibelieve it was Nico Horner in a two
two or three two count and threwa slider off my head, you know,
just on that outside edge, didn'tget the call, ended up giving
up a base hitting that at bat, and that's where the frustrating kind of

(09:28):
frustration kind of mounts. And thenyou get Kyle Tucker up there. Alex
Bragman's up there, and these guysare they know the zones so well?
If they if the umpires knew thezone as well as some of the players,
this would be a better ball game. But they missed a couple of
pitches off the edges and it waskind of funny. I'm sitting there in
my mind, I'm going back.We just had this crew in Kansas City,

(09:48):
and I felt like it didn't govery well, and I think that
that kind of led into the anticipationof Joe getting frustrated after seeing another poor
strike zone. But how about justthe casual nature of going out there.
You know what, I could comeout arms rays, yelling and screaming,
but I'm going to casually tell youthat I could care less for your strike
zone. And obviously being on radioand we are professional wex and I'll hold

(10:11):
back on the profanities because he probablytold him that his strike zone was a
certain, you know, a certainmess that he didn't want to deal with
anymore and didn't want to watch,so we took off. He threw him
out, Yeah, but we wereall joking. Did he ask to be
ejected there? Frash Davis on theumpire or anything like that. You know
what, you know what, thereare moments like that for players and managers.

(10:33):
Yes, they will go out there. I don't know if that was
the you know, I think ifJoe really wanted to be ejected and kind
of fire up the team, thatwasn't one of those moments. I think
he was truly frustrated with that thing. But you can we've all heard of
the unintentional intentional walk. I thinkthis was the unintentional intentional injection because there's
certain touch phrases that you can usetowards a human being to start a bar

(10:58):
fight. There's certain words you canuse towards an umpire to get ejected,
and I think that Joe kind ofwent out there with the intent of getting
ejected, and he used the appropriateburbage in a very calm manner and made
it happen. So that's funny becauseI've been using this similar verbiage at the
screen every time I've watched an Astrosgame lately, So it all works out.
Yeah, Well, well, youget the luxury of sitting at home

(11:20):
doing that, while I have theluxury of having two buttons on my headset
to be able to do that.So I've learned. According to that,
I'm very mature now that I slamthe buttons down and say those things out
loud when I can't say him onair. You've evolved. Look at you,
all right? The Birthday Boy continuinguntil four o'clock with us here on

(11:41):
a Friday edition of The A Team. He is live in Mexico. Well,
where as you heard, the Astroswill be taking on the Colorado Rockies
over the next two games. Willcontinue to discuss all things Astros and Major
League Baseball with Plummer. When wecome back touchdown Texas Coast Stark here back
to the eighteen with the Adams,Adam Wesler, and Adam Clinton on Sports

(12:03):
Talk seven to ninety Houston's home ofLonghort Football. Plummer, is this the
first birthday you have spent out ofthe country. That is a really good
question. I yeah, it is, because you know, having that having
that April birthday and playing baseball themajority of my adult life, it has

(12:28):
lent itself to being in other cities, but out of their countries until this
time. Well, good, that'sthere's there are absolutely worst places to be.
Yeah, no, there are likeTampa. No, I'm just kidding.
You're not kidding about that. No, I can't even imagine. I
know, I can't imagine what thescenery is like outside your hotel room right

(12:50):
now. Though that's not bad.I mean, it's a little overcast right
now, and the weather is inthe eighties, which is a hell of
a lot better than it was atWriggling Field, which that was kind of
getting the psyche watching some tough baseballand freezing my nads off. But it
was a joke. So I'm veryhappy to be looking at my window a
little pool time, and then Iget to see the great city of Mexico

(13:13):
City. Man, it's pretty unbelievable. We know that cold weather can impact
certain people during baseball games, sincewe know all about the JMI. But
for the players on the field,guys are wearing ski caps over their hats
and over their faces, guys haveyou know those pull down scarfs around their
neck, et cetera. It didn'tappear for the layman like me that from

(13:35):
a pitching standpoint, I mean,maybe there was a pitch here or a
pitch there over the several hundred thatwere thrown over the three days that maybe
they'd have the greatest grip on.But did you think there was much of
an impact either way either side fromthe temperature versus the obvious impact that the
wind had all three days basically doingthree different things. Yeah, it was

(13:56):
a lot going on. You know. I actually got a chance to get
down there and to a couple ofthe pitchers, you know, none of
the starters, but I talked toa couple of the relievers out there in
that bullpen, and I was justtalking to them about coming into these games.
And it's kind of interesting the waybaseball's kind of you know, they
they rub up the baseballs, they'reunder you know, they've got there under
MLB security the entire time. Whenthey get rubbed up, they get put

(14:18):
in humidors, or if they don't, they're stored in to put someplace,
and then they come on the field. And the time between when the mud
is rubbed onto the baseball and whenit gets to the pitcher's hand in that
cold weather, that dry environment,the wind that you're talking about, it's
basically dusting. You know, it'sdried up mud on top of the baseball.
So you see the guys rubbing thisthing up, you know, spit

(14:39):
in their hands, will try andget some moisture onto the baseball to create
that tack. So it's kind oftough in the in the in the winter
or some of these early games whereit's dry, it's cold. Uh,
you know, you want to havesome sweat so you're barely sweating when you're
out there playing. So there's notmany opportunities to try and create that tack
on the ball. And to theseguys credit, they're all professionals. They've

(15:01):
dealt with these conditions. They allfind ways, whether it's going to the
rosin bag or you know, chewingon a sticky gum to try and get
that sugary stick, you know,on the hands to create that spin.
But I think we saw it.You know, it was most evident just
watching some of the spin because weknow so much about justin Berlander. There
were a couple of breaking balls upin the zone that we saw and then
all of a sudden he figured itout and you know, it got a

(15:22):
good baseball with the scene that hecould really rip on and throw it down
in the zone. That was effective. But you know, these guys are
professionals. They won't complain. Weall try and find ways to get through
it. But this day and age, when that ball comes out kind of
dusty, that's not actually conducive.But they did a good job trying to
battle through that. No, itwas I mean the latest frustration series of

(15:43):
frustrations. Obviously there in Chicago.The weather probably didn't help that at all.
But you're just you're talking about likehistorically bad aspects of this start,
and I just I keep saying thisin our wild imagination, like name everything
that could possibly go wrong. Idon't think we thought we would be uttering

(16:04):
the line here at the end ofApril. It's the worst start since nineteen
sixty nine in franchise history. Yeah, that's not something you want to hear
if you're a ballplayer or a fanof a team that has done so well
and still has a very good roster. I can only imagine the angst of
Jim Crane recognizing he's a top fivepayroll and he's only got seven wins in

(16:26):
the month of April. So there'sthat concerned on top of it. But
at the same time, if you'vegot a team that's swinging a bat well
and they've got the numbers, butthey're just not scoring the runs, which
is odd, and then you've gota pitching staff that is giving up a
ton and I mean there's actual datato back a lot of this up.

(16:47):
They're giving up a ton of softcontact. I can only imagine the frustration
of some of these pitchers that goout there. And I know, you
can't defend the walk, and walkshave been a little bit of an issue
for the Astros. They need toclean that up. But the walk,
then the blue pit, and thenanother blue pit, and then a rocket,
and all of a sudden, you'retwo three runs in the first inning,
which they can't get out of withoutgiving up a run. These days,

(17:10):
it feels like and you're automatically onthe road, you know, fighting
for your life. And as anoffensive player, when you're trying to fight
back into games just to tie itup and try and extend the game,
it makes it incredibly an incredibly dauntingtask. So they haven't gotten a lot
of breaks. It feels like theumpires are against them. It feels like
the baseball gods are against them.But there's at some point inside that clubhouse

(17:33):
you've got to, you know,just say enough is enough and we can
go out there and overwhelm the game. And I think these guys are talented
enough to go out there and overwhelmsome of the circumstances they found themselves in.
But it's very frustrating to see sevenwins. It certainly is. Maybe
we focus in on the two pitchersemerging from that series that started that are
still with the team with the moveregarding JP France. We know what the

(17:53):
results are. What did you thinkof the way Spencer Arraghetti both threw the
ball and mbled? What took placeduring a start? I think that there
there's I'm always You're always going totry and look for the positives, you
know, And then you think aboutthe situation that Spencer's kind of thrust into
a team struggling. You're their numberone pitching prospect and you're expected to come

(18:15):
in and just you know, shovedfor six innings and then hand it off
to a bullpen. That's that's atough task. And then you get into
that environment where you know we're ina bad place. The clubhouse is kind
of quiet, we're you know,we're trying to find our way. But
I've been kind of encouraged with whatI've seen with Spencer, just because if
you go back to that start,against the Chicago Cubs, and we talked

(18:37):
about this at length after the gamewith TK, myself and Julia. Is
the fact that Astros actually would havewon that game, and it's this is
the point we're at too where we'rejust kind of nitpaying, But we're to
the point now where we look atif he doesn't throw that cutter that backs
up to Dansby Swanson and give upthat three run home run, and the
Astros are able to just give upthat one run and through the game they

(19:00):
win that game. But I feellike that's what we're doing throughout the course
of these games, through the monthof April is going Man, if this
didn't happen, if only we wouldhave done this, or if that hit
didn't drop, or if that pitchwould have broken the way I wanted to,
we wouldn't be here right now.But that's part of the frustration.
But I thought Spencer handled it well. I think he had seven k's in
that game when he actually got tosee him give a little bit of that

(19:22):
Arrogetti strut after he struck a coupleof guys out. So the fact that
he's out there competing tells me alot, because some of these situations are
tough for young players to kind ofget overwhelmed by, but he doesn't look
like he's overwhelmed by it. Doyou think the offensive woes are I mean,
because I know it's easy to saythis when they give up multi run
first innings, for example, whichwas the case multiple times in the last

(19:45):
week since we've spoken with you.Do you think that's as simple as you
know, what's going on with theproblems at the plate, because again,
the guys for the most part arein that lineup. Yeah, there's some
holes, there's some guys that youlike to be performing better, I guess
I should say, but the onesat the top of the lineup, it's
just kind of baffling to me thatpitching or no pitching, they're performing the

(20:10):
way they are right now. Yeah, you know, Al two days off
to a career start after signing thatfive year deal, So you really can't
complain with him. And I mean, if you really want to dig on
numbers and complain or nitpick, Imean, he's only had fourteen or fifteen
opportunities with runners in scoring position andhe only has one hit. You know,
it's kind of tough to put thaton Jose Altuba because he's been on

(20:33):
base as often as he has andhe should be scoring more runs. But
you know, some of the glaringthe glaring ones and shocking ones to me
are yourd On Albarez hitting around twofifteen with runners in scoring position because the
idea was put him in that twospot, give him as many opportunities as
he can, and our team's goingto score runs. But that hasn't actually
worked out. And it's not Joe'slineup. It's the fact that you know,

(20:56):
the players aren't performing in key situationslike they have in the past.
I mean, he's a two toseventy five plus guy with runners in scoring
position in his career and if hejust you know, performs up to who
he is, and he will someday, the Astros are going to be fine.
And then Yeiner Diaz, as muchas we love love him and understand
the power potential, he's in arun producing spot in that lineup, sometimes

(21:19):
in the fifth and six spots,and he just hasn't been able to come
through in some of those hitting withrunners in scoring position type places. But
the hard thing for me to lookat is how the Astros are middle of
the road with the batting average andrunner in those situations with runners in scoring
position, but they only have twohome runs. That's really kind of the

(21:40):
shocking number to me, because ifyou hit, you know, six or
seven more home runs in that situation, all of a sudden, you've got
a two running, you've got athree run inning, and you're starting to
put pressure on the opposing team andthey just haven't done that. It's certainly
not asking for a time. Thatnumber of two is just remarkably low.
There's no team in baseball with viewerhome runs with runners in scoring position.

(22:00):
You mentioned al Tuvey. In thesituations where there are not runners in scoring
position, he's hitting three ninety six. Obviously, his overall season is incredible.
You've got a guy like Mauricio Dubonwho's unfortunately exactly the opposite of that.
He's been incredible with runners in scoringposition eight of thirteen. It's the
best batting average in baseball. Butwhen runners aren't in scoring position, either

(22:23):
base is empty or a runner onfirst, he's under two hundred. He's
in the one eighties. And yousaw that again in the games over the
weekend when he was in the lineup. It's just we keep going back to
that. If it isn't one thing, it's another. Those numbers obviously make
no sense, the fact that youhave too many guys with a track record
of being so good in these situations. It would be one thing if a
guy or two was not doing well, But it's the nine guys in whatever

(22:48):
lineup Joe spot has put out thereon any given day. They had two
hits with runners in scoring position overthe three days in Chicago. New team
on the horizon. That's where wewill pick the conversation back up. It's
the Colorado Rockies and what will betermed home games for the Astros in Mexico
City, two teams that would liketo see their seasons head it in a
different direction. We will discuss thatnext with the Astros welcoming back a pitcher

(23:11):
from the IL for the second gameof those two series, those of those
two games. Looking forward to thatand Blummer, I know that even though
you're in Mexico, when you're backhere in the States, you know as
well as I do that Exfinity isthe way to check in on the Astros
at any given time and not haveto worry about the fact that you might
not have a reliable connection or fastspeeds or even power for all the devices

(23:33):
in your home. The Astros andExfinity are like peanut butter and jelly.
They really are. And you gotthat wall to wall Wi Fi from Exfinity.
You don't have to worry about deadspots in your home and you can
always check in on the game oranything else you need to, even if
everyone else in the house is alsoonline. You know what, That's absolutely

(23:53):
correct, and I would love youto bring up the reliability of it,
because that's why we went to Infinity. They obviously have the bandwidth to handle
the opportunities that I have having fivewomen in the house, between the shopping,
the school, and the actual workthat we're doing in that house.
We need that bandwidth and it's alwaysbeen there for us, and even now

(24:14):
with just having the kids out ofthe house, my wife and I obviously
have ridiculous speeds and we're able todownload stream It's always nice to come home
after a ballgame and throw on theTV and stream whatever we want. Because
Infinity's wall the wall Wi Fi hasbeen fantastic, and of course being able
to speak to my TV is thebest I don't have to remember any TV
channels. I just tell the Exfinityremote what I need and it's there.

(24:34):
And I love it. I thoroughlyenjoyed it like you have, Adam,
absolutely. And now through June twentyfirst, customers can get started with gig
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(24:57):
Infinity proud sponsor of your to Astros. You don't have to be a pep
to get your lady to work atyour command. Mister Bonbee. That's right,
Jess, that's just my device toplay Sports Talk seven ninety on a
harp radio. It is the eighteenhere on Sports Talk seven to ninety as
we continue with Jeff Blum live fromMexico, the Astros and the Rockies getting

(25:21):
together. By the way, youwent from one extreme to the other with
this schedule, and I know youfeel this as much as the players.
Even though you're not playing the gamesday to day, you're calling them just
no off days at all forever,and now you've got like an off day
after every single series lately. Yeah, well, they run the gauntlet,

(25:41):
what was it, twenty games,twenty one days or trying. You know,
they're facing teams that are well aboutfive hundred contending teams and that turns
into a tough stretch and all ofa sudden, you go on the road
and they build these days off andtrying to protect these guys, I guess
from the travel days that they're havingand knowing they're going into Mexico City for
a couple of days, and youknow, it makes it tough to pick

(26:02):
up a rhythm. But I thinkthey're kind of beneficial, to be honest
with you, because it allows someof these guys that are going to play
every day and we know that youknow this, this roster is going to
use their top nine every single dayas often as they possibly can. You
know, maybe the bench isn't asdeep as it has been in the past
with you know, the eletmus dsis the Marln Gonzalezes and some of these

(26:25):
pieces that you can move around.So Joe's going to have to throw these
guys out there on a regular basis, So I think that having these days
off on this road trip are kindof key and they're taking advantage of them.
There's minimal workouts or no workouts onthese days off, so these guys
can kind of get off their legsand unplug a little bit, and hopefully
at some point they start to payoff a little bit when these guys show
that they've got some fresh legs andcan put some swings on it. But

(26:48):
I'm okay with them right now.But it is kind of bizarre to go
so long without a day off andthen he slammed four days off into a
road trip basically as wild it is, and I think they have been able
to kind of manipulate some of theways they've trotted out starting pitching because of
it. You know, they aregetty coming back. With Verlander now making
a pair of starts to open upthis trip and two of those first six

(27:10):
games to start it, and thenagain yesterday to wrap up his work on
the road, You're gonna have FramberValdez back for a Sunday again. That
is the expectation. With Renel Blancogetting the start on Saturday, end up
being about a three week stint.On the injured list, which is remarkable
in a good way for one ofthe aces of your staff. And I
pointed this out the other day,Jeff, and it still seems hard to

(27:32):
believe for a team that is aseven and nineteen team, they have the
ability and whenever one's healthy, ifthe way they've pitched continues to have a
pretty good starting rotation, and notjust at the top, I mean with
most of the guys who are goingto get the ball different amounts of innings
for each of these four, butthe two to nineteen era that Framber has

(27:56):
is the worst era between him,JV, Christian h and Renel Blanco.
If they can get and stay healthy, those four guys are definitely in the
rotation and can help turn this seasonaround, I would imagine. No,
I completely agree. And you know, one thing I overlooked in talking about
those days off is how it helpsthe bullpen too. You can kind of

(28:18):
reset every three games and you canuse your guys accordingly and not worry about,
you know, blowing them out ornot having them available for some of
these starts. But I think you'reright with I think this once this rotation
kind of figures itself out, andyou get Chris hopefully you get Christian Javier
off the injured list here relatively quicklyas well. But you start to put

(28:40):
a little bit of rhythm into thisrotation because you start to have JV who
expects to go six Bromber loves goingsix plus innings. You know, Renel
Blanco's shown the ability to go sixplus innings, and it starts to kind
of filter through the back end ofthe bullpen. You know, rag Getty
would love to be one of thosetwo and being around all those guys will
hopefully benefit him. And understanding thatin order to be a successful team,

(29:03):
you've got to have a pitching staffthat can get you six innings before handing
it off to the bullpen. Andonce you start to back things up,
get some good offense, feel comfortablewith some leads, and use the back
into your bullpen appropriately. Hopefully thingsstart to trend in the right direction.
But I know that you know,it can play on the psyche of a
team a little bit their mentality whenyou have kind of a mix and match
rotation. But when you start tosee Frommer coming back, which is phenomenal

(29:26):
news, and then you start toyou know, have Renelle Blanco become guy
JV's already in there. I thinkyou're right in the sense that you know,
once you start to see those guysback to back to back consistently starting,
it might change the psyche of thisball club a little bit, knowing
that they're going to go out thereand compete and fight every single time those
guys are out there. You mentionedgetting six innings, you know, best

(29:48):
case scenario out of a starter,and although that was I guess infamously not
the case yesterday for justin no harm, no foul so far, I guess
all systems go, things look goodas far as from a health standpoint.
He just was pretty frustrated. Ithink everybody was frustrated yesterday that he couldn't
get that out, especially after that. Well, there was a it was
a close pitch, but there weresome others that probably went his way as

(30:11):
well. It was not a verygood zone yesterday, as we've already discussed.
Yeah, I wasn't a good zone. And you know, I think
if he had to do it again, walking Mike Talkman three times probably wouldn't
be in the game plan. Sohe had to work around some traffic,
but he always he always does.I mean, he is the ultimate competitor,
you know, as crazy as itsounds, I enjoy watching him kind

(30:32):
of work through those ballgames because hemay not have his best stuff, but
he finds a way to keep histeam in contention in those games. So
I do appreciate that. But itjust kind of sucked that, you know,
Joe Spata, the manager of theAstros, had to kind of play
the voice of reason because it's notcomfortable going out to the mound with Justin
Erlander in his mind saying I cankeep going, when in reality, the

(30:53):
reason Joe brings him out of thatgame is to protect him for starts in
the future. And that was areally, really tough situation because we all
know who the better picture at thatgiven moment was. He was standing right
there in front of Joe A Spada. But Joe at the same time had
to go out there and respect thehealth of Justin Verlander, and the idea

(31:14):
is to get as many starts asyou can out of Justin Verlander. And
you know, that's where that madethat situation really tough and maybe a little
bit awkward, But that's what Joehad to do, just in light of
the fact that it was so weirdyou brought up the Talkman at bats.
There's not any real history between thetwo. It was the first time he'd
ever faced him. Talkman obviously hadn'tdone much this year until he had his

(31:37):
two homer games, so there's notmuch behind it. But it was just
weird that he wasn't really even closewith a lot of his pitches to him.
Over the course of your career onboth sides of it, was there
a matchup just kind of random againsta pitcher who might have been great or
might have been just a guy thateither he had your number or vice versa,
where it just seemed like every timeup there, no matter how you

(31:57):
were going or how he was goinggoing, you knew what kind of ab
it might be. Oh yeah,I mean, Jeff Soupon looking back,
probably should have walked me a coupleof times in situations, but he kept
throwing me, you know, offspeed or fast walls out of the plate
that I would just you know,take advantage of. But at the same
time, I had a situation inoddly enough two thousand and four, as

(32:20):
a Tampa Bay Ray we go intothe Oakland Coliseum to play the a's and
I have a start against Mark Moulder, you know, a great left handed
pitcher at the time, and heproceeded to walk me three three straight times.
It was the funniest thing. Bythe third one, I just kind
of threw my bat back at thedugout and I looked at Molder and kind
of shrugged my shoulders, like whatare you doing, dude? I'm hitting

(32:40):
like two ten, you know,attack me. But for whatever reason,
he couldn't get a pitch on hisown. I took three walks and it
was a great day for me becauseI didn't do much. Always amazed by
the recall of athletes like yourself.Jeff soup On is one of the ten
pitchers you have exactly two career homeruns against. There is one pitcher you

(33:01):
have three career home runs against,the leader in the clubhouse, and presumably
we'll stay there. Is what pitcherthat you took yard more times than any
other man? That's a tough question. I thought it would be soup On.
Jeff Soupons, just like Carrie Woodand Levon Hernandez and Chanho Park.
He's nothing special, just two homersa piece against those guys. Some cy

(33:23):
young contenders. I like that.I appreciate that. How to be like
somebody like Braiden Looper or stop stopstop talking. That's unbelievable, somebody like
braiden Looper. Was that your wayof trying to not be super smart?
Of course you nailed it one guesshow about it? All? Right?
Yeah? He would dude, Thatguy would hang me a singer every once

(33:44):
in a while. That's too funny, man. I don't know if the
numbers overall were good, but Iknow that when I make contact on him,
it was pretty good. Yes,very good. Pretty good over the
fence on three different occasions. Thatis very cool stuff. We'll see what
transpires with I do expect the offensefor both teams, just because of where
they are probably to pick up.The Rockies have gotten off to a start,
even without a ton of promise,still underwhelming and under what they thought

(34:07):
they might do. And clearly weknow what the story is with the Astros.
It's a story we hope we stopwriting as soon as Saturday afternoon when
they are playing the Rockies in MexicoCity, right here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety one. More segment herewith Jeff Blum here on the A team.
Yep, one more opportunity for meto tell you about Primeway Federal Credit
Union very quickly as you head intothe weekend. If you're swiping that debit

(34:29):
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In One of those ways is withthis new checking account and all the features
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(35:36):
the month of May the right waywith Primeway Federal Credit Unions Checking Account PRIMEWAYFCU
dot com Today, PRIMEWAYFCU dot com. There's a space City Home Networks,
Todd Kallis, there's the ATM.You got them. Its Adam Clinton and
Adam Webfler Clanton stop impersonating me onSports Talk seven nine. Oh blummer.

(36:02):
The text messages are just outstanding.I gotta tell you, all right.
Wex doesn't even know why that's funnyyet, but he will during the break
anyway, it is the eighteen year. Oh so you don't have any idea.
You have no idea how glad Iam, and Wex will be too

(36:22):
once he starts, once he finisheslaughing at me during the break, because
he's really going to enjoy that.All right, we got one more segment
to go. Yeah, I knowit's well, I'm trying to multitask,
and that's what happens by the way. Happy birthday again in case we forget
to tell you it is Blummer's birthday, so give him some love on social
media. But hopefully you do geta couple of wins there, not just

(36:45):
one. I need a sweep forthis to be a successful trip. Is
that too much to ask in lightof what's happening in all aspects of this
Astros team right now? Yeah?I mean, I'm always going to be
the gaturnle up to miss, justbecause I understand how hard this game is
and I also understand how good thisball club can be. So here's the

(37:07):
sales pitches. Ronel Blanco showed mesomething to that last start. He kind
of battled through lack of command,really didn't have the fast fall he wanted,
but still worked a very good curveballslider, change up mix, and
that changeup has been fantastic for him. He's a beast, he's a horse,
he's got broad shoulders. I thinkhe can go out there and compete.

(37:27):
I also think that he understands thathe's pitching well and the team needs
him to pitch well, and he'sgoing to go out there and do great
against this rocky lineup. And thenyou are going to see this Astros lineup
take advantage of you know, CalQuantrel and some of the pitchers coming out
of that bullpen for the Rockies.And then you have the return of fromber
Valdez, who's ground ball ray ina high altitude ballpark could prove to be

(37:49):
beneficial keeping that ball out of theair. So I think Fromer is going
to be great. It's gonna bea good series, and I know that
we all want the Astros to bein first place, but I think if
we're able to save that a coupleof wins in Mexico before we start the
month of May would actually do alot of these guys psyche and get things
going for the rest of the season. Hopefully. We're handling the tenth inning
show after the afternoon game yesterday anda caller was wondering how you reward Alex

(38:14):
Bregman's poor start with a bump upin the order. As I explained to
him, it clearly is not areward, but much like what's been happening
over the last several years, thereare opportunities in between or in front of
certain other hitters in your order you'dlike to see. Maybe this can't help
a player, and that's where AlexBregman is now. He's batting second behind
Jose Altuve, in front of Alvarezand Tucker. Two parts to this,

(38:37):
do you think this is something theymight just go ahead and stick with for
a bit unless I guess Bregman doesabsolutely nothing? And secondly, do you
think this might ultimately actually help theguy who was hitting second? Jord On
it just in a terms of beingcomfortable, probably seeing a lot more pitches
before his first at bat than hehad been seeing batting second behind mister Ambush

(39:00):
Jose al Tou. Yeah, it'sinteresting because you know what you know,
watching your Don's routine over the years, he likes to, you know,
get as close as he possibly canin that on deck circle and kind of
track the picture and see what they'redoing and get a better a better visual
on the ball out of the hand, and also get some really good timing,
make sure he gets that foot downand he's ready to smash. And

(39:22):
I do think that, you know, hitting in that third fourth spot,
I think you know your Don's apower guy, he's an RBI guy.
He takes a lot of pride inthose opportunities. So I do think that
he is comfortable, you know,kind of relaxing and having that picture throw
several pitches before he steps into thebox, because you're right, Josel two
by can ambush and swing at thefirst pitch and all of a sudden,
you barely get your bangles on andyou're standing in the box and you take

(39:44):
a couple of pitches and you're downon two that you know, that's that's
part a part of the issue thatcould happen. But I do think that
Joe might stick with Alex Bregman inthat two hole. To your point,
So I'm saying, you know,Josel Twovey is obviously a threat this season
at the top of the every seasonat the top of the lineup. Put
the way he's swinging the bat,so there's going to be a lot of
intensity and focus on the first hitterof the game. And then Alex can

(40:06):
go ahead and do his work andnot be you know, not be relied
on to be able to drive inruns like he was being expected to in
that four spot and he wasn't doingit. So the idea was, if
he's not driving in runs, we'llput him in the two spot. Let
him have his you know, lethim put together some good at bats.
Hopefully he takes his walks and getsbase hits and gets on base in front
of the thunder of Alvarez and Tuckerand the offense starts to go a little

(40:30):
bit. I definitely do think that'sthe idea, because having yord On Albarez
hitting behind you will either lend itselfto getting on base or seeing some better
pitches because they're trying to get letyou get, you know, get yourself
out. And we'll just have towait and see what happens, because once
that month turns to May is usuallywhen Alex turns it on. But a
couple more days in April, Isaid this before they went on their eight

(40:51):
game trip. There are two gamesremaining, and they're there in Mexico City.
Alex Bregman would return to Houston witha home run. He's not yet
hit one this year. Do youthink this statement will be proven true after
Saturday and Sunday's game, at leastone of the five Astros who have not
yet homered this season will change thatover the next two days. John Singleton,

(41:14):
Jose Bray, You, Chaz McCormick, Alex Bregman, and Greg Cassinger.
At least one of them will Homerover the next two days starting tomorrow.
Yeah, it's going to be Braggie. Braggy's going to be my first
guy, and then I think ifI had to pick a backup, it
would be Oh man, I wishi'd want to say Chaz, but some
of the swings I've seen haven't reallykind of dictated that he's going to be

(41:36):
able to elevate the ball in thesecircumstances. But I think Alex Bregman at
least gets you one in the nexttwo days for sure. How far does
ord one hit one there? Ohman, I can't wait to see that.
I hope that they've got somebody thatthrows one hundred miles an hour in
their bullpen and then he challenges themand Jude just squares it up because I

(41:57):
want to see it. The oneword that I love is malevolence, and
I haven't seen an act of malevolencethis season, and I want to see
some serious anger and you know,pent up aggression in some of these swings.
And if your Don's able to goout there and clip one, I
would imagine it's going to get closeto five hundred feet in this altitude,
I cannot wait. Well, theyshould just come to my house during some
of these losses and they can justbottle some of that malevolence because it'll be

(42:21):
there for you. Hey, Blummer, We appreciate the time, especially on
your birthday, have a happy one, and of course, as always we
appreciate the people who make it possiblefor your weekly visits. Yeah, I
always appreciate the Witzed Vision Group.Jeff Witzeit over there does a very good
job and their mission is to goout there and provide the highest quality of
comprehensive eye care from technical, surgical, clevelandical personal perspectives. So they all

(42:45):
of their patients are going to betreated professionally and caringly in a very friendly
manner. And of course they specializein Lasik and cataract surgery. And on
the other hand low T Center.You know, I champion them because they
go in there and make me feellike a warrior coming out of there and
ready to go. The energy isthere, the ability to recover from some

(43:05):
of my workouts is there, andof course you know time is of the
essence and getting in there in tento fifteen minutes, getting my low tee
shot and getting out of there withgreat people is what it's all about.
So go to low tcenter dot comand check them out, and of course
there will be many a taco andmany a surveys of being had receiving in
preparation for tomorrow's game. Looking forwardto it, have fun there south of

(43:28):
the border, and look forward tocatching up with you when you get back
to the States. Happy birthday,Thanks Bellows. I appreciate you. Thanks
for having me on absolutely Jeff Blomhere on Sports Talk seven ninety live and
in living color from Mexico, andwe will transition into pre draft coverage.
There's gonna be lots of that,and then during draft coverage and then post
draft coverage all night long here onSports Talk seven ninety. But Wax is

(43:51):
going to give you who the Texanswill pick tonight with the forty second pick
when we come back