Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
You look at it at us.Oh yeah, this is radio, and
you listen to it on Sports Talkseven ninety. Astro's broadcaster Jeff Blaum on
seven ninety is drought to you byLow D Center. Nice. I mean,
(00:25):
I will admit that this is justas much for Blumber as it is
for the weekend at hand as theMariners come to town for some Star Wars.
Yeah, it's gonna be good.Yeah, I like the Star Wars
intro. This is like your favoriteweekend of the season, isn't it.
It is? And I can't believeit's turned into a weekend because there was
(00:46):
a while back when we'd had StarWars Weekend and I was all super stoked
about it. Might have been twentyseventeen when TK and I first started and
I got to do more home games, so I actually got to be here
for Star Wars Weekend. Was allfired up about it. Darth Vader's out
there, Garrett Cole and everybody staringhim down and pissed off because Darth Vader's
taking a sweet time getting off thefield after the first pitch, so that
(01:08):
was kind of entertaining. And theysaid, hey, we're gonna bring a
couple of them up to the boothand I'm like, yeah, let's do
it. This is gonna be great. And Obi Wan Kenobi came in,
and whoever, this dude that playsObi Wan Kenoby couldn't have been a worse
interview. Oh no, it wasawful. The dude was just I think
he was nervous. He was sweatinghis brains out in that tart that he
(01:29):
was wearing or that that potato sack, and it was just like I was
like pulling teeth and I just finallysat there staring at him, and I
gotten talked back, and I toldmy producer, I'm like, we can
end this any minute. Wait asecond, all right, let's peel the
curtain back. How many of thoseI'm not gonna call them forced interviews,
because sometimes you guys probably have ahand in booking some of these people that
(01:49):
come in the booth. I amnow a salty veteran at this, yeah,
because when I first started, youknow, I was doing everything on
the road the first four years withthe Astros, and so we didn't have
any guess except maybe we had MikeScott one time. And yeah, yeah,
that's true. We had Mike Scottand I was just fascinated to talk
to Mike Scott. That was greatbecause he's awesome. And then you get
the job full time and you understandthere's certain obligations that you have to give
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to to to people in the booth, and early on I was like,
what are we doing? Why isthis person here? What? How long?
How many things? What do wegot to do? You were in
such a rookie. Yeah, andI'm looking at t kN. I'm giving,
you know, the hand across thethroat like I'm out kind of thing,
and tk's got to do the restof it. And I felt terrible.
Yeah, that's why all the time. Yeah, I mean, I
(02:35):
try and do better at it,and I mean, and I'm I'm and
I always ask for talking points beforehandso I can kind of be a little
more, Uh, I can understanda little bit more where we want to
be and make that interviewe a littlemore comfortable too. But yeah, no,
it's I mean, it's it's anart form obviously. Yeah, all
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the elements of what you know youguys do, And boy, I really
I think I felt that a littletoo much when you were talking about I
just do this gesture that the youknow, the hand over, the the
slashing, the throat esture. Yeah, because it starts out with like,
hey, well, ping pong backand forth, you go one, I'll
go one, and well we'll knockthis thing out. And I mean it
starts it's it's pong in my way, and I'm like, I'm out,
I'm out, I got nothing,I gotta go. Yeah. Yeah,
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that happens sometimes. But uh,you know what else happens sometimes is the
Astros take two out of three froma really good team and they win back
to back series for the first timeall season. Amazing, right, Yeah,
I think, so there's no waythey won two in a row.
Well, they won three in arow. And when you sit back and
you say they've won three in arow for the first time this season,
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you're going, oh, my dearlord, what right? And I was
like, we're celebrating this, andI was celebrating this because I wanted it
so bad. Yeah, but atthe same time, we want them to
go on that twelve game terearor andjust get back into the mix so we
can talk about these kinds of things. But it does kind of start slow.
And I mentioned it at the endof our broadcast yesterday. You've got
to take these things slowly. Youstill have a plenty of unsaw much one
(04:02):
hundred and thirty, hundred and fortygames left and you're or one hundred and
thirty games left, so you're tryingto work your way back. And it's
like a hitter who's in a slump. You can't go out and get four
hits every at bat. You've gotto go out there and try and just
get the get get one hit,and then go to the next sit bet
try and get a hit and keepmoving forward. That's all it is is
just take that step, just keepgoing left. Foot in front of right,
(04:24):
right foot in front of left.And that series against the Cleveland Guardians
was very good. You want towin the series every time you go out
and I think winning against you know, at the time it was the American
best record in the American League,right, so you beat the best team
in your league. And I thinkthat speaks volumes for these guys that got
great pitching. We saw some timelyhitting, The defense was off the charts.
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I thought was a lot of funto watch. Yep, except for
maybe a couple of adventurous plays outthere in the outfield. But at the
same time, I think that thisseries kind of sets up well in the
sense that you've got a very goodhitting team in the Astros, confident going
up against a very good pitching deafand the Seattle Mariners. But you also
have your rotation set up in thesense that you've got, you know,
some key guys going against a pooroffense that swings and misses. Yeah,
(05:09):
I don't. I mean, look, first of all, I want to
say off the bat and I owehim this as much as anything, because
of how we ended the show yesterday, and I wasn't bagging on him.
I just I just wasn't confident inSpencer Arroghetty because of what we had seen.
And he hasn't. He's given youflashes of brilliance, but to your
point, he hasn't given you thatconfidence that he's going to go six.
Last night. He looked great,he looked phenomenal. He may have made
(05:30):
some serious adjustments. So he's aguy that kind of he likes he's got
good extension on his fastball and likesto use it, but he needs to
use that thing up in the zoneand then throw spin. All of his
spin pitches down on the zone,and I mean that in the zone,
land them at the bottom third ofthe strike zone, and that's exactly what
he did. But he attacked earlyand was way more efficient in the zone,
and that's why he was able toextend himself a little bit. Yeah,
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I mean I had kind of youknow, we had seen what he
had done in spurts and it wasI think, honestly, Wex, who's
obviously out today in case I didn'tsay that off the top of the show,
but he'll be back on Monday.But no, like I think Wex
said five and two thirds innings aswell, he's gonna go because we were,
Wow, we were bouncing around,you know, his last three starts.
(06:15):
He hadn't he hadn't done that,And it was as much, you
know, kind of what Wex hadto say. It was it was kind
of as much that the Astros didn'tnecessarily want him to go as deep into
a game as it was he justcouldn't for whatever reason. But last night
and we were here as a family, so admittedly I wasn't When you got
a five year old, you're notreally taking in every pitch as you would
maybe if I was sitting at homelistening to you and Todd and don't have
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as many distractions. But you know, I'll tell you this. The minute
that kid walked over to the tothe fencing over by the home run pump
is when the Astros started completely obliteratingthem. They found that sweet spot.
I mean this, this guy saysto him, you can't go now,
because we were on our way out. He was getting tired. It was
that kind of thing. And wewere on our way out the door.
And he walks over there and JohnSingleton goes yard and the guy standing next
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to us goes, you're not leavingnow. Yeah, he just walked up.
He was that guy because he hadbeen there all night. And Carson
walks up and he's like loving itbecause he's like, oh, I can
actually look over the railing and thefields right there. That's pretty cool.
And then the whole play that cameto I think it was arius right there
was was happening right below where hewas staying, I mean, and he
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goes, wow, He's like,why are their tire tracks on the warning
track? He wants to know,like about stuff that has us Yeah,
exactly what acquiring minds want to know. But yeah, it was it was
a good way to end that series. And again you mentioned it. The
Mariners are fascinating and I was goingto ask you this right off the bat.
This is the team I think Astrosfans especially, but just in general,
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Al West observers and Baseball prognosticators andwhatever, I think this is the
team that everybody thought you were gonnaget last year with Seattle and for whatever
reason. Now, of course Wexand his most Wexian way, they were
right in it until the last dayof the year. We know, semantics,
but they weren't running away or butthat's not what we thought they would
be like, not at all,not at all. We definitely didn't see
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the Rangers coming, not that fast. Nor did we see the the Astros
kind of having that kind of competition, in a three way competition as it
were. But you know, they'rethey're phenomenal pitching, as you mentioned,
and this guy tonight, George Kirby, is the best of the best.
He scares the Bejesus out of me, especially with some of the slumps we're
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having right now down there. Mygosh, like I need jord On to
take him yard, like, youknow, as soon as possible. Tonight
to just immediately get out of thatslump. But the thing is their lineup's
not what it was even a yearago. No no team that. What's
even more weird about the whole situationis is they trade away guys like Aohennio
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Suarez, uh I can't remember whowas playing second base, but they bring
in Jorge Polanka to play second base, uh Luke Raleyan left field, Channiger
coming back to the team and rightfield. These are all well. Before
this season, they were all quoteunquote high contact guys, and Jerry Depoto,
the GM of the Seattle Mariners,said I need a team that's not
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going to strike out as much aswe have been. And those were the
guys that were gonna come in.They were gonna get move Josh Rojas over
to third base, Polonka was gonnaget second base, and then I told
you about the two outfielders, andyou're gonna have this high contact team that
was gonna put the ball in play, run around a little bit. But
for whatever reason, these guys havemoved in and they're striking out more than
they did last year. So that'swhat's killing these guys is to swing and
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miss again, So they're basically thesame offense with the same pitching staff,
and they just can't figure it outfor whatever reason. Because this is a
top tier EL and those tier battingaverage not a great combination. And yet
here they are leading the division.Yeah, but and to your point,
like they're leading the division, butthey have what a plus nine or something
or plus twelve As far as rundifferential, it's tough to live at that
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run differential being so close to evenfor that long in a sea. The
aos isn't very good this year,by the way, isn't it crazy?
They're just not very good, Likethere's no you can dress it up all
you want, but at the endof the day, I'll be honest,
they're just not very good. NowI'll congratulate the Astros on not being in
last place finally, my goodness.And the team that was ahead of them
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and is now in last place,they'll get them soon, sans Mike Trout.
Oh man, so who can't evenwe didn't even talk about that guy,
because I know he's he's like themost he might be one of the
most fascinating baseball players in the historyof the game, maybe for all the
wrong reasons. I agree, youknow what I mean, because all world
generational talent. I just hate thatby the end of his career, we're
(10:39):
gonna go, what if he washealthy or what if he didn't play in
Anaheim? Man, if he didn'tplay an Anaheim, yeah he probably good.
Otani was like, I'm not doingthis my whole career. Yeah,
he saw it, he saw itand he had the opportunity. I'm not.
I mean again, we're not gonnafeel sorry for a guy who signed
a three hundred million dollar Corrout's notgonna ask you to be feel sr for
him either. I mean, he'smaking he's gonna end up making, you
know, five hundred million in contracts. But if he was in New York
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or actually in LA where the Dodgersare playing, then who knows, I
mean off the field stuff, he'dprobably be making millions as well. It's
crazy. It's just insane. Anduh as I mentioned that it'll be the
end of the month when they andwhen they play the Angels here, but
it's coming up. But yeah,Seattle's on deck tonight. Then you go
to New York and Detroit, twoof your favorite places. The road trip
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ain't bad. Well, I dolike going to New York. I think
we're actually missing a game with broadcastout there. I think Friday Night might
be an Apple game. So that'sall good. Those, yes, just
I mean, I'm just trying tofire you up for the rest of the
guy. I love those. Imean I want to kill myself anyway.
Yeah, so we'll have a coupleof games in New York and then those
are always entertaining just for you know, the fan and the astro ability to
(11:46):
go out there and make them.I bet they boo the one guy who
didn't cheat. Yeah, I betthey do that stuff. That drives me
nuts, it really does. Imean, it just shows blatant ignorance and
just okay, there's number twenty seven, I'm gonna boo him for no reason.
You know, they've got they've gotthis high octane lineup and they're actually
having things go their way and theydon't even have Garrett Cole for a change,
and you know they're still going toconcentrate on all the wrong things as
(12:07):
a fan base because that's what theydo well. They don't focus on their
team. Yeah, that's what killsme. We're so focused on the opposing
team. That they lose sight ofwhat's actually happening in front of them.
So we shall see. We'll discussall of that because there's a lot to
get to, as there always iswhen Blummer stops by. It's a third
time I've been to the stadium thisweek. I'm like on a Blum schedule
right now. So yeah, we'vegot a lot to get into, the
(12:28):
time to at least two of them. Right, what was Tuesday? Did
they win that Gaesday? Tuesday?Yeah, they did win that game,
because Wednesday they Tuesday, Wednesday theylost Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, the
one they say they bookended wins inthat series. So yeah, I I
will, I will continue my streaktonight. We'll see, all right.
(12:48):
So before we do anything, though, Blummer and I always love talking about
Exfinity for all the right reasons becausewell, basically, you're never gonna worry
about your your fast speeds, you'rereliable connection, any of that and stuff.
When you're talking about your house andhowever big or small, it is,
a lot of people have the sameissue. I know you've experienced this
at times. I definitely have,especially in a one story that kind of
(13:11):
spreads out where you have that onespot you can't get that Wi Fi connection
to be where it needs to be, the level it needs to be,
the reliable connection, or maybe youknow you're pixelating in the picture. You
don't have to worry about any ofthat with Exfinity though, No, you're
exactly right. It's kind of funnythat you bring that up, because there's
two most important parts of my dayat home or in the morning and in
(13:31):
the evening when I get back froma ballgame. In the morning, I'm
prepping for the game, and theway the weather's been lately, I like
sitting out in the backyard. We'vegot a great patio. My dog loves
coming out there with me. ButI can bring my computer an iPad go
out there, and I've got fullcoverage all the way out into my backyard.
So it's kind of nice to beable to not worry about if I'm
going to be able to download anyof the data that I need to go
(13:52):
out there and prep for a ballgame. And of course when I get home
at light, like Clinton is talkingabout, I just speak to my Infinity
remote and poo, all of asudden, I'm streaming the show that I
want to watch. And binge watchwith my wife hanging out next to me.
So, wall to wall Wi Fiby Exfinity has been fantastic for me.
It's always fantastic and you can getit. It's not like it's special
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(14:16):
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(14:37):
of your Houston astros and if youhave any requests, shout them out.
Play that same song, all right, same song. Here we go.
It's Star Wars weekend here inside minuteMay Park. So do with that what
you will, I'd tell Dan earliervia text. I'm like you and Blumber
(15:01):
are such nerd nerds nerd alerts.I'm in my Leila outfit for you guys.
Oh nice? Where your where areyour buns? Ross is here?
Hy Ross filling in for uh wextoday. We just decided we would work
you to death today. Okay,can I do it? Adam Wexler,
impressman for three seconds. I'll doit. Let's see, let's see how
(15:24):
yours is. What were you thinking? Why would he do that? I
just argue with you and everything yousay. Oh I thought, you say
my research team? Yeah, theWexler research team. You know right now
he's listening. You know, Iknow he's listening. I saw him in
the rundown earlier. Stop. It'sa Google doc right so you can see
writing, I go, wex you'reoff today. That's the most on brand
thing ever for you to be.Got to keep an eye on you.
(15:46):
Somebody's got to It's it's hilarious,all right. So the A team continues
sort of guess who doesn't listen toany of our broadcasts when they're off?
You? This guy? Yeah,yeah, I don't listen to the Matt
Thomas show, went off of it. I will never like I was in
sand with a show when I'm onit. That's true. Actually he's proven
it because he'll say as much.Now. I'll never forget. When we
(16:07):
were in San Diego, a coupleof years ago, and you were out
for that series because Bagwell was inand I didn't get to see it because
I was in San Diego, butI was listening on the iHeart app to
all the games. You know,I don't think I was supposed to be
doing that, but anyway, wefixed that issue, and I uh,
I didn't realize you were out andthen you Jeff was giving you some good
(16:29):
natured ribbing at the time. Ithink was that series, Oh my gosh,
why would he do that? Idon't know. Let's get into it
right now. Well on the socialmedia, Wait a second, Jeff Bagwell
made a decision that didn't play nevermind. So you know what's funny about
that is we were out here Tuesdayand it was supposed to be Joey Lo
Perfito Day and it turned into bray, you's not here anymore day instruction.
(16:56):
I had to ask you this becausewe haven't talked to you since that all
happened. That was the crazier.It was weird transaction days. Even with
Greg Kessner's going on the injured list. I was like, wait, what
and all of a sudden, weyou know, Jacob Amaya and I've got
to study, But I have noidea what's going on. I gotta find
this guy. But uh yeah,I've never I I know that Major League
(17:18):
Baseball is clamping down on the quoteunquote phantom injured list situation. Huh,
but that I mean, it wouldhave been easy to play a little bit
of a you know, funding gameswith the injured list, maybe a back
injury like he's had in the past. But I know it's it's It was
surprised me that they gave him theoption to to stay with the team or
take the money and run. Ifelt like it was kind of a gutsy
(17:41):
decision because a boot you could havebeen like, you know what, I'm
not playing well here, I don'twant to be here, and he would
have just taken the checks and ran. That would have that would have been
really interesting to me. So Imean, I'm glad. I'm glad he's
still here. Hopefully he works itout. If he does work it out,
can he come back? That's theultimate question right there. It always
tells me a lot about whoever you'retalking about, whether it's a player,
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whether it's a manager, part ofthe staff, whatever. When universally everybody
that talks about them regardless of what'shappening on the field, almost like precursors.
I'm going to tell everybody that thisguy's the best guy ever when something
like this happens. And I didn'thear anybody say anything negative about Josea Bray,
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you I have. My interaction withhim has been fantastic through in the
last two years since we've gotten him, and I've heard great things about him.
And obviously he showed a good workethic. He was good in the
clubhouse. Guys liked him, theywere you know, everybody was cheering him
on. And of course when he'son your team, you want to cheer
the guy on because you want himto do well. And if he does
do what he normally does, he'dbe a great fit in this ball club.
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But him handling it and taking it, you know, kind of taking
it on the chin and saying I'mgonna take the option, I'm gonna go
down and try and work this thingout, says a lot about the character,
because he could have just been youknow, you know, here,
here's the here's the number one sign, and I'm gonna take the money and
get the hell out here and maybetry it somewhere else. But the fact
that he's staying here and respecting thecontract and trying to work it out,
I think says a lot about thecharacter of the person. But now we're
(19:11):
going to actually find out, youknow, does he have the will and
the coordination to be able to goout there and physically overcome what's happening right
now? Yeah, that's that's whereI was gonna go with it. Where
do you think happens here? Whatdo you think that he is going to
go down there and work on thatcould actually prove material results down the road
to to improve him and make hima usable major League baseball player. Again,
(19:33):
well, right now you're not gettingthe guy you thought you signed.
So you just got to go aheadand throw away the fact that when he
before, when he was a ChicagoWhite Sox, he was hitting three hundred
with runners in scoring position, twentyfive home runs, one hundred RBIs when
he comes back, if you getten and sixty, I mean, you've
got you've got to adjust your yourthought processor, your your expectations on him.
(19:53):
I think, and you know,play me a competent first base.
Get the outs when you can getthe outs, get me some scoops and
picks over there at first base,and we'll and we'll take that and then
give me ten to fifteen and drivein sixty to seventy five. Because if
a guy like that hitting in thislineup as often as they get on base,
you should fall into seventy five RBIs. He fell into ninety last year.
(20:14):
That's insane. When happened a roughyear, right, you know,
horribly. Yeah, he had ahit by his standards, by all other
metrics other than RBIs. He hada terrible season by his numbers, and
still drove in ninety. And itshould be the same way as far as
seventy five to ninety RBIs, Butyou may have to shift your focus a
little bit of your expectation on him. So I think I hope that getting
away from the game, because everytime in this day and age, there
(20:37):
are so many scoreboards that are goingto put your one hundred batting average up
there, and you start to seeyou croach approaching one hundred at bats,
and that's where you kind of plateauand you don't have big dips or big
rises in your average, and youstart to get mentally just cramped when you
go up there. The bat feelslike it weighs about three hundred pounds.
Every guy looks like he's three.Is there's such a pain it like it
(21:02):
felt when you did that home runderby. Yeah, that well, forearms
fell off the next morning. Well, there's a reason I had back surgery
over the option might have that day. Who knows. I mean, shoot,
it was I mean there were aboutwhat fourteen hundred other games that it
could have happened in, But youknow, it's just everything is weighted.
So I'm hoping that he gets awayfrom the game he can straighten out whatever
(21:23):
whatever's going on, whether it bephysically, whether it be mentally. I
mean, just getting away from thegame and waking up day to day knowing
there's no expectation on you might freehim up to actually start getting some good
work done and then massage him backinto some games. Yeah, I mean,
but it's gonna be a it's gonnabe a long rehab process. I
mean, he's gonna have to probablystop maybe at one or two levels before
(21:45):
he gets back to the big leagues. For me, well, I was
about to say, you were talkingabout last season Astros fans, the organization,
Jose himself would kill for last seasoncompared to this one, Yeah,
I mean it was and it wasborderline like unplayable by the time it got
to the end. And so that'swhy it was so awkward, because you
(22:07):
do have that guy like if thiswere I'm trying to like think of the
equivalent. You know, somebody that'sprobably not well liked in the clubhouse.
You're good at this ross. Idon't know who's not well like I don't
know, Like you're like, notlike you're gonna put a name on it,
but you know a guy who's notaffable, Yeah, you want to
root for him, a rootable guy, like guy that you can root for
a guy, and then this happens, You're like, I think that guy's
(22:29):
at the clubhouse. I could standthat at him. I'm just disappointed.
I don't know. Maybe Mike fires, Is that too soon? An Giles,
I don't know. Yeah, somebodylike at Myers. There you go.
You said, yeah, well no, we didn't say it. I
don't think domestic past that was drossand that was Adam Planting. Well yeah,
then you also had like in theplayoffs, he was spent, he
(22:49):
was spectacular, but you get youget his day off every other day in
the playoffs too. But maybe that'swhat it is. And that's another thing
you need to think about, becausewhen you bring him back, he's is
the every day guys. I don'tthink so against lefties, I guess,
And you put them in a coupleof days a week and you'll platoon stuff
with either a Loperfeedo or Singleton orwhatever you end up. Yeah. I
mean, if Singleton keeps hitting bombs, you're gonna keep them in there.
(23:11):
Yeah, if you keep having serieswe're hit two and six RBIs man,
I'm in Speaking of the lineup wehave, I don't want to call it
breaking news. Did it come out? Uh oh, but it's well,
it's very interesting tonight. Why dowe come back? Yeah, when we
come back, we'll get a Blummer'sreaction obviously, and everybody else involved on
Tonight's Astronaut I'm applauding. It's veryvery interesting. So yeah, we will
(23:34):
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just stop by the one in theHeights earlier today before I came over to
the stadium, and I'm ready togo for the next week. Whatever your
(25:07):
treatment plan is, they've got itfor you, and you start that journey
to getting back to being you atMen's ta Clinic dot com. So when,
uh, when the whole gold bikinithing happened? Because that was was
(25:30):
that the second one? I don'tknow, you're you're the expert that Return
of the Jedi, Like everybody talksabout that. That's around your age,
right, What does that mean?Well, Ross knows he's not my age.
Yeah, No, I just I'mtalking about like when that actually,
no, it was a watershed,life changing moment on a post like That's
(25:53):
That's what I'm saying. Like Iwasn't when Return of the Jedi came out.
I was like, what year isthat? He? Three? Maybe?
I mean I was like two orthree years old, That's what I
mean. Yeah, But you stillsaw. I was, yeah, well,
but it's how I look at Iwas important Star Wars at five years
old. Yeah, but it didn'tdo that for you. It had the
(26:17):
potential that or Febe Kate's coming outof the pool. Same general time period
eighty two is fasttimes the eighties films. I mean, we could spend an
entire let's do it lex is ithere? We could do it whatever we
want. Isn't anything goes Friday onthe show? I mean we can just
do whatever. But anyway, yeahswhat was her name, Kelly Lebron Kelly,
(26:41):
I knew it was. I think, let me think real quick.
What else we got? I don'tknow, Purist Bueler's day off. There's
a lot of stuff going on.Rebecca de Mornay. Was she the one
that was in risky business business?Yeah, I mean all these eighties mm
hmmm mm hm. I get realquiet on the show real quick. It's
(27:02):
very uncomfortable right now. You knowwhat you know what's better is to get
your mind off of that is totalk about baseball. I don't know why
I said that, like Norm McDonald, but I did. Queen Elizabeth and
Baseball, Quinn Elizabeth and baseball Margaret, Margaret, that your naked day.
So anyway, Kyle Tucker's batting secondtonight, thoughts, I like I like
(27:26):
it just too man. It mighthave been last year. I mean,
we talked about we always talk aboutit at length. I think what's kind
of cool is that you do haveyou have such quality bats in some of
these lineups. So we've had overthe last couple of years that you can
kind of go and fantasy land andsay what if. And I think Kyle
Tucker for me, was one ofthose what ifs in that two hole,
because this year he has actually gottena lot better of not chasing out of
(27:49):
his own He's more selective. Contactrate is up, hard hit rate,
barrel, whatever you want to lookat peripherally is up. But then you
look at the player itself. Hecan drive the ball gap gap, he
can work a three to two count. He's not afraid to hit two strikes,
He's not afraid to hit left handedpitching. He's a in a vital
RBI potential role in the second spot. And oh, by the way,
(28:11):
if he gets on first base,the dude can steal you some bags and
get himself in scoring position without havingto sacrifice it out. Yeah, that's
why when originally it was Bregman movedto the two hole, and I understand
he has the history there and allthat type of stuff. I don't know
what the conversations were, right,does your not want to be three?
I don't know, does did Bregmanwant to be two? Whatever? What
do you think about that? Asfar as a spot a tinkering where it
(28:33):
seemed like Dusty, of course,right or wrong was set in his ways
these guys, and he did move, painting you around a little bit.
But for the most part, youknow, Alvarez is three of this guy's
four and didn't really budge. We'vealready seen a breat You went from five,
six, seven, eight to addof the lineup completely. You've seen
the tinkering here and there. Isthat too much or does it matter that
much as for you? And likewhen you were hitting in a certain spot
(28:56):
of the lineup after the first inning, you could just be coming up any
time any Yeah, I was justhappy to be in the lineup that no.
No, When you're kind of inthat rhythm and you have those teams
that are set in lineups and youget into there and you're like, Okay,
I'm I am the seventh guy.I loved hitting seventh. I thought
there were a lot of RBI opportunities, and I like to kind of be
in that stop gap in the bottompart of the order. But I think
(29:17):
what Joe's trying to do right nowis because the obvious right now is that
Braggy's struggling, your Donna is struggling, Kyle Tucker is not, and you
need to find a way to massagethese guys and get them going. You
need that middle part of the lineupto go. So the minor adjustment of
(29:37):
moving Tucker up into that two spottells me a couple of things that he
fits, he wants to give himthe opportunity, and it also tells me
that even though your Don's not goingwell, maybe he's not gonna get back
to that two spot. Maybe he'sgonna stay in that third spot and they're
gonna try and get him comfortable therebecause I know that your Don. Think
about the fact that your Don getsto stand on deck tonight and watch what
(29:59):
George Kurby or whoever comes in outof the Seattle Marin or Bullpen gets to
watch what they're doing to Kyle Tucker, and he might have a better idea
of what his bat might look like. Yeah, so he can kind of
do a little scouting at bat toit bat with what they're doing to Tucker,
and he can dig in hopefully geta little more comfortable to start driving
the baseball. And if you've gotyou know, as a left handed hitter,
if you've got runners on base inthat first basement's holding that runner on.
(30:22):
It feels like that right side ofthe infield is wide open. So
I think they're trying to create baserunners over there and create havoc on that
right side of the infield in casehe can just roll over and maybe hit
a ball through there and just getthat vibe going and get that confidence going
a little bit. But you know, Bregman's going to be in that four
spot, he better be ready forsome RBI opportunities. And that's what then
the issue here of late is drivingthose runners in. Yeah, just to
(30:44):
be just to clarify, because wedidn't really give you the whole lineup in
case you just haven't seen it forwhatever reason. Now, TV leading off
at than Tucker batting second, Alvarezdhing Tonight batting third, Bragman is the
cleanup man. Pina Diez at firstbase, low Perfedo in left field,
not at first base. I justhave to do that because Wex is listening,
(31:06):
I know he is. And thenDubon in center field as uh yeah,
I mean, and again based onlet's just say it's based on last
night, I mean Singleton. I'mnot expecting to get anything like we saw
last night out of him long termor even consistently, but like, it's
just it's it's crazy that this offense, with some of the names that are
(31:30):
still on it has been as akneemack at times as it has and the
other elephant in the room right now, and it's very large one because he
wears number forty four. Other thanthat game in Colorado, it's been rough.
If you're your do on Alvarez,but he does this too, so
you know, yeah, man,but he has slumps. He has prolonged
slumps he had in the playoffs whenthey won the World Series. Yeah,
(31:52):
but this one's uh, this one'spretty good. Is it? Over seventeen?
He's on over seventeen and I thinkif you go back to runners in
scoring position too, he's like twofor his last twenty or something crazy,
yea, And we put up awe put up a graphic yesterday that showed
I man, I think it wasbatting average and slug maybe batting average in
ops, whatever it was over thelast three or four years with him and
(32:15):
runners in scoring position, and they'rethree, like two three hundred points lower
right now than they were at anypoint last year. So it's kind of
wild and it's glaring when you hearas good as he is. But the
only thing with him is if thatcould disappear in a heartbeat. I mean,
if that guy goes on a tearfor a month, which we've seen
him do. But I mean,I don't want to sit here and go
back of the baseball car stuff becauseI know that's on this show, but
(32:37):
that played. But if you're ifyou're going to gamble on a guy,
I'm gambling on yourd on Alvarez becauseyou could tell he's pissed. Oh yeah,
he's looking at some of that.It's like, oh, man,
well that tells you that there mightbe there's just a little bit of a
trigger in your swing. If youcan't pull that trigger, that means there's
something hindering it. Whether it's amental block. You're just your your hands
(32:59):
aren't getting in the position where you'relike, okay, I'm set to fire.
I think there's just a little glitchin the system right now, in
a minor glitch at that. Butas soon as he gets the hands in
the position where he wants to go, you're gonna see lightning and all of
a sudden, we're gonna be forgettingabout. You know, the stretch that
he's on, it's gonna start murderingbaseball. The Mariners two games ago,
didn't he had like three hard hitballs, right, and then they all
(33:22):
right, it's a little bit ofgame. Yeah, dear God owns the
Astros. And I hate I'm startingto hate the expected batting average thing because
all it would do is piss meoff. Yes, yes, yeah,
I'm sitting there going I'm going hundredrocket to right. I should be hitting
four thirty and i'mitting ten. I'mlike, that's why, Maybe that's what
(33:44):
he's so upset about. I don'twant to hear bad luck. I want
to hear hits. Yeah, it'suh, it's been rough. Actually.
I had an additional question about thatfrom like a former player's perspective. We'll
get to in our final segment herewith Blummer as I don't kick me.
Yeah, that's what happens. Man, we've had enough. You gotta mess.
He's been here for one Stay foranother hour if you want. We're
(34:06):
not gonna We're not gonna say no. I know you've got production meetings and
whatnot. But today's a big day. Really. Triplets are turning nineteen today.
Boy. Yeah, they're gonna beat the field till right. Yeah,
they'll be here for the weekend.Ready for this once your turning nineteen
and in December, my oldest isgonna be twenty one. Oh man,
you gonna have a drinking age,kid. Say good, get your ar
(34:29):
P card pretty soon here easy.Yeah, dude, it's not get double
team Bright. That was ross Verasaying that, all right, dude,
the card comes next week. Tellhe sounds exactly. He sound way too
excited about that discounts we learned.Yeah, awesome. You guys can ride
with me o'clock. I'm there allright. Uh yeah, one final segment
(34:52):
with Blummer here in Simon at MayPark, and then we'll get into the
four o'clock hour here on a Fridayedition of the eighteen. Hey, it's
Craig Ackerman. The Rockets are certainlypopping the polypropy. Back to the A
team with Adam Wesler and the twittertroll Adam Clinton. Help me into it
with somebody I know. I'm not. I don't tried here. I don't
(35:15):
look for fights. Why I getirritated? Adam and Adam are on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Let's go outwith something really hot today. So it's
a big hit out of seventy sevenA star. Yes, that whole bit
(35:38):
is like eight minutes long. AndI know this because I looked it up
today on YouTube because the show tweetfeel back to curtain if you haven't seen
it. I did a little panat the stadium like I want to do,
but I put this audio underneath itbecause nobody's gonna expect to see.
Oh there's minute made, you knowbefore the game. It's completely empty.
Why is Bill Murray screaming Star Warsat me? It's fun that way.
(35:58):
But yeah, like that whole bit, if you watch the whole thing,
that's like the end of it.He's He's the ultimate lounge singer, Bill
Murray. So okay, this iswhat I want to ask you about,
you know, with with Jordon,because when you're seeing a guy go through
struggles like this, By the way, Blummer joining us for his weekly visit,
Ross is sitting in for Adam Wesler, who's out today. So that
(36:19):
whole liner was just a complete lie. If you're looking at a guy going
through the struggles that he is,and you know everybody always you know,
that's why you're in the booth becauseyou're the former player, But like,
are you are you looking at thatsituation differently now versus you know, when
you were going through a slump likethat and you're able to kind of remove
(36:42):
yourself from the day to day grindand the batting cage and everything else.
Is it easier when you're looking ata guy like a Jordon or anybody that's
going through a slump because you werekind of diagnosing it for us in the
last segment. Is that easier nowthan it was for you or anybody else?
Like if a guy came to youa teammate, you know, yeah,
did you have those kinds of conversations? Oh yeah, you you have
(37:06):
that guy? You have that there, there's there's a story, there's certain
confidants on your team that will comeover here, and I mean they're like,
pull your head out of your ass, you know, like Justin told
the whole team about a month ago, yeah you know. And I mean
there were certain guys, you knowLance Burke when be like dog Gonnet you
need to you know, he'd seesomething. But you gotta have It's one
thing to have your hitting coat.Your hitting coach is like your parent.
(37:28):
They're gonna tell you stuff and gohuh okay, we out whatever, and
then you're gonna go do it,you know, unless unless you're like,
you're right, I need to dothis. But you're gonna have guys.
You need guys in your dugout whocan watch your swing and watch the sequence
of it bats to say, hey, you knew, why didn't you hit
that pitch? You knew it wascoming, you know, like for your
done it's like you kind of hadan idea that pitch was coming. What
(37:50):
happened and you it's kind of catharticto just talk it talk it out and
you say, you know what,I did have my head up my ass
and I was like I was lookingfor a curve ball right there, and
he pumped me a fastball right downthe middle. I blew it, and
you kind of say, okay,once you get past the facts or the
past, that self reflection of Okay, I'm in a bad spot. I
need to make the adjustment. AndI would imagine, to imagine, it's
even better now because you've got somuch data. You've got so much information,
(38:13):
You've got video. One of thethings I'd love to do when I
would go tell our video guys,because I was kind of that raw,
raw guy or you know, thatpunk that would punch you in the ribs
and be like, don't get toococky. But if a guy was struggling,
like your done, I would go, I would go, I've done
this. I've gone into the videoroom and I've said I need all of
the hits that Jordan had in hiscareer, and I want them on a
(38:35):
video or a flash drive or aVCR type great job laser disk. Yeah.
I was like, any kind ofand I want you to play it
on every screen in the clubhouse.And I did this in San Diego for
guys. I put this up andthey'd walk in and immediately the first thing
they saw was them hitting a bomboff somebody and the next bat was like
them just getting like a bloop singlesomewhere, and you saw every hit you
(38:57):
saw in a row, and allof a sudden, you're going, man,
that was pretty good. I canstill do that, yeah technique,
Yeah, but I mean it wasjust kind of you need that visual reinforcement.
Man, you don't suck, andI know that he knows that.
You know that, but you're ina bad spot. But you're seeing yourself
get the drop shots. You're seeingeverything fall in for a hit. You're
never seeing a swing and miss,You're never seeing a guy make a diving
catch. Everything looks like it's landingon the field. And I go back
(39:21):
to I was in college at Berkeley, and my sophomore year we got a
recruit in named Dan Say. Itwas Ron Say's kid, and Ron when
his son Dan was struggling, hewould fly up to Berkeley during a home
weekend that we had and he wouldget out there, you know, two
hours before we were supposed to takebatting practice, and he told nobody to
(39:45):
shag. He goes, I don'twant anybody on the field. He goes,
I want to be able to throwto my son. I want him
to hit the baseball and watch itroll through the infield. I want him
to watch it hit the grass.And that was just the visual of seeing
and going, Okay, that that'sa base hit. Nobody caught that.
Okay. All of a sudden,the field goes from looking like it has
(40:07):
twelve players on it to two andyou're like, oh, man, I
feel so good and loose up hereright now. All I gotta do just
get the barrel to it and hitit hard. I'll be fine. And
you know, it's just it's howdo you create that different energy or that
different mentality to kind of encourage youto go up there? But here in
the big leagues, you've got tohave you've got to have a game plan.
And sometimes that game plan gets outof whack. And I think that's
where Jordan is and that's why helocks up on some of these pitches where
(40:30):
you're going, why didn't he swing? It's because the brain is just you
know, there's just there's something inthere clogging the system. Yeah, that's
that's what I was gonna ask.You brought it up now again, is
like it just seems like is henot seeing the ball well or is he
not trusting what he is when whenyou're seeing the ball, well what's happening.
When you're not seeing the ball,well what's happening. You'll talk to
(40:51):
a lot of guys and they'll say, my timings off. I'm not getting
my foot down on time. Andthat's why you hear guys, see,
I gotta get my foot down earlier, because you can't swing when that foots
in the air. And if yourfoot's in the and your mind is going
swing, your body's going I can'tyou jet wagon. You know, it's
like, I've got to get myfoot down, so immediately. If I
get my foot down, then wecan start the swing. So it's it's
a lot of timing. But thetiming gets messed up because you're going,
(41:14):
Okay, I'm sitting on this pitch. I've got to get it ready.
Oh my god, here he comes. I got to lift my leg and
go and you're too late. Andonce you're late, you're screwed. You
know, you've got to be ableto figure out how to get that foot
down and be able to have thosehands in the right position. But a
lot of it has to do withgame plan, because you've got to step
in the box with a with apurpose real quick before we let you go,
because I don't we're up against it. But you had mentioned a scenario
(41:34):
during the break about him maybe notwanting to that second because of the routine,
because he's a creature of habit.Yeah, kind of just real quick,
the cliffs notes version of what youwere talking about that people don't maybe
necessarily see on TV. For example, just go like, go back to
that conversation I said about having Tuckerin front of him. He can have
he can have a visual you know, scouting report right in front of him
(41:55):
that he can watch, just inwatching in some of the situations when he
was hitting by hind Jose Altuve isyou know, he's playing left field here
at minute may park, al tuoVe runs from second base. Ordan's got
to run all the way from leftfield, you know, shing guard batting
gloves, grab my bat. Igotta put make the right amount of pine
tar on there and or Altove swingsat the first two pitches as he does,
(42:16):
and get and have it even ifhe hits you know, you watch
you can't see it on TV,but if you watch it, watch it.
When you come to the ballpark.He literally would walk out of the
dugout straight to the box, andI'm sure he felt rushed. He's a
guy that likes to get there.He loves to just kind of be looming
on deck because he gets so closeto the plate sometimes and he loves staring
(42:37):
at the picture. But that's wherethe timing and some of the rhythm comes
in because he likes to he likesto see the pitch out of the hand
and then he gets his foot ready. You'll watch him. He won't even
sway, he'll just that's a greatwhite shark. That foot will just gently
kind of just get down and he'stiming the picture. So when he digs
in, he's ready to go outthere and mash. So, I think
the comfortability of just being ready meansa lot to your deck. It's like
(43:00):
such a little thing that's not littleat all, and it's fascinating to me.
And I'm glad you brought up thatobservation because I wanted the listeners to
hear that, because it's like it'sit makes it could make all the difference
in the world. If he getsa tank shot, if he gets two
bombs tonight, you're the new manager. So that's what we're called, ma'am,
I'll sit next to Joe. Joecan Joe's having too much. I
know Joe's loving what he's doing.I know he's frustrated with what the team
(43:22):
win loss wise, but I'm gonnalet Joe ride this one out a little
bit before I decided to go downthere and sit. I think a lot
of people are except for the dustytruthers out there. You know those are
always fun, all right, SoI want I won't even add man,
I'm not even gonna get you intothat hot water. Instead, I'm going
to say thank you for stopping by, as you always do, but also
let you thank the people who makeit possible. No, I appreciate you
(43:42):
guys having me in here and beingable to chat it up a little bit.
It was a fun conversation. Buth Jeff witzit vision group is a
quality group for your vision care.You know. They terre is probably the
biggest word in there. They wantto go out there and make sure that
they are the top end of allof the technology, all of the science
that is going on, and thenthey want to perfect the skill to go
out there and make sure your eyesightis right. They're great at cataract surgery.
(44:05):
They're great at the Lasik surgery,and your consultation's gonna be with Jeff
doctor Jeff wits it, so makesure you go in there and talk to
him and about your eyesight. Andthen of course Low T Center for me
has been fantastic. Damn, Ididn't go in for my shot today today
Friday, Yes, oh I shouldhave gone it. But they'll be open
for me on Saturday. That's theother great thing is they're open. They've
got great hours, and again tento fifteen minutes I go in there,
(44:29):
I can get my labs, Ican get my blood test done, they
can check my levels in twenty fiveminutes with on site testing, and then
I usually just go in there andget my shot about ten fifteen minutes and
talk a little shop with the peoplearound there. They're great. Low Tcenter
dot Com. All right, Blummer, Seattle on deck. Good luck to
you and TK this weekend, andwe'll catch up with you probably via phone
next week because you're going to bea traveling man once again. Yeah,
(44:50):
I'll be on the road and i'llbe in a Hinge territory, so that'll
be good. But yeah, it'llbe fun. To talk next week about
how well your Donna is doing.Yeah, I'm looking forward to that as
well, and we're man manifesting itas you can hear. That's blummer.
He joins us each and every weekhere on the show.