Chandler Rome on The A-Team: Bregman Isn't Moving Out Of The Cleanup Spot

Chandler Rome of The Athletic joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks about the impressive performance from Hunter Brown in today's tough 2-1 loss. Chandler also talks about Yordan Alvarez coming out of his slump, Alex Bregman struggles in the cleanup spot and Jose Abreu's return. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Mentioned. We have a conversation withChandler Rome after today's ballgame. As usual
Wednesday, visit here on the Ateam and Chandler joins us. Now we'll
kind of take our way through today'sgame and then overall on the homestand and
from today's game, Hunter Brown,the Astros starting pitcher, could it be
lasting a little bit longer than itlooked like earlier in the season based on

(00:21):
this outing and maybe his last coupleYeah, I thought he looked really good
today and I'm actually finishing up thestory right now. He's got a new
pitch. You sw that sinker todayand today was not the first day he
threw it. He started throwing itin the Seattle in this game against the
Mariners on May fifth. Had notthrown it since college, had not touched

(00:42):
it in spring training at all.Just kind of said, you know what
things are going to hell, Imight as well try it. And it
worked and it's really given him somethingelse against right handed hitters, you know,
because everything he throws is away,like his fast his four steamer has
some cut. He throws a curveballlike there's change out. He doesn't throw
his change up. A ton ofrighties, but he's got the cutter and

(01:03):
the slider that all go away.And I think when he can bust right
handed hitters, when he can gethim, when he can get pitches in
on them, he just puts intheir mind that there's something else. They
can't just sit on everything away.He's able to get ground balls early and
counts, he's able to be moreefficient. So he threw it twenty two

(01:23):
times today and it really did lookgood for him. He got a ton
of ground ball outs. Now,the sinker was the pitch he gave up
the home run on. That wasjust a mistake on his part. But
I don't know if it's enough tosave his spot in the rotation, just
given what's coming back with jose Rakhidiand things like that. I don't know
if it's enough to do that,but it certainly is encouraging. If you

(01:45):
look at his last four starts,the way he's pitched, he's he's got
a sub four yr in his lastfour starts since he's introduced a sinker,
So maybe they are onto something therewith Hunter Brown, who looked a lot
better today, No, he did, and it kind of stinks. It's
the most base thing ever, thatthat essentially one real bad mistake is the
difference between a win and a loss. This team, though, was,

(02:07):
you know, notwithstanding what happened inthis series, clearly playing the best stretch
of baseball of the year, andthey're doing so with the continued struggles of
Alex Bregman. I even in yourworst case scenario, did you see this
kind of struggle from a guy likehim in a contract year, especially a
Scott Boris client. Not that thatmeans anything. It's just crazy to me

(02:29):
that all signs, especially from him, pointed to him having like, you
know, one of his best seasonsat least that's how he fancied it,
and it's by far his worst.Yeah, I mean it's tough. I
mean, baseball's hard. I'm notgoing to say I expected him to come
out and do this, but youknow, you also you don't know what
to expect in baseball, you know. I I've covered Alex Bregnanc he was

(02:51):
eighteen years old, so maybe Ihave a little different viewpoint of him.
You know, I would probably neverdoubt him, never question his work ethic
or anything like that. You know, I I would have expected him to
be better. I think everyone inthe organization would have expected him to be
better. And you know, Iknow he came up twice today and didn't
get it done. And I understandthat no one wants to hear this after
they just lost two to one andhe did what he did. But I

(03:14):
mean, he hit two balls hardtoday. He hit two balls on a
line to his pull side, oneright to the left fielder, and another
one kind of in that crevice betweenthe Crawford boxes. So I mean it's
not as if he went up thereand had the lazy pop ups four times.
And again, I understand that they'retwenty two and twenty eight. No
one wants to hear about good contacts. No one wants to hear about bad
luck. I understand that. Butthe bats today, I didn't think we're

(03:38):
terrible from Bragman, But yeah,I mean he's going I mean, they're
not going to go anywhere if hecontinues to have a six hundred ops hitting
forth. Now. It does helpthat, you know, Jeremy Paine is
having the season of his life hittingbehind him, Kyle Tucker's maybe the best
player in baseball right now hitting second, So I mean there's enough around him
that helps. But I mean yeah, to get where they go. That

(04:00):
he's got to get going. Theidea that he needs to bat elsewhere was
obviously addressed, and he was movedand responded not long after briefly and then
was moved back. Do you anticipate, just kind of being around Joe and
the decisions he's made with his lineupthroughout the year, that when they get
to Oakland or when they get toSeattle on the second stop of this trip,
we won't see Alex Bregman continuing inthe four spot. Oh, I

(04:24):
think he'll stay fourth. I mean, it'd be one thing if they went
three and seven or four and sixon this home stand. They just went
seven and three on this home stand. Like, I know, today's game
doesn't feel good, just losing twoto one. You have a chance to
win a series against a bad teamand you couldn't do it. But no,
I mean they I think they're takingthe aggregate here, they're taking kind
of the holistic look at this wholeseries. You know, they went seven

(04:46):
and three. They did what theyhad to do, and you look at
the games they lost too. Imean today, if they get one hit,
if their starting pitcher decides not togo Rogue a couple of games ago.
Then maybe they win that game aswell. They had a five run
lead with their number two started onthe mounds. So no, I don't
believe Alex Bregman will be moved downto the lineup again. Now. If

(05:06):
they would have gone four and fiveon this four and six, three and
seven, even maybe you know,six and four, they would have had
to think about it. But Ithink they're playing well enough now, and
they're gelling well enough that I don'tthink they want to disrupt anything. Yeah,
clearly not trying to pin any negativeAstros season solely on Alex Bregman's shoulders.
And you mentioned one other item certainlyis worthy of our discussion here.

(05:29):
Dana Brown was on this morning,as he is each and every Wednesday,
at nine thirty on the Sean SalisburyShow, the Astros general manager and as
should be the case, address thesituation with fromber Valdez saying that it had
been addressed in house. What doyou think the Astros have done and relates
as it relates to as they allsaid publicly, and you were there when
Fromber and Jiner and Joe said hejust kind of deviated from the game plan

(05:53):
and was decided to do it hisway, which did not work out.
Addressed it. What do you thinkthat means moving forward? Well, Joe
a spot of met with from ravelDoes yesterday before yesterday's game. He wouldn't
say kind of what was said there, but the clear intimation was that they
that this was on fromber And Imean not that I think anyone thought any

(06:15):
differently, but that this was somethingthat you know, he did. I
will say, though, to thinkthat this was the first time that from
revel Does has ever gone from thegame plan is lunacy. He did it
with Martine Maldonado behind the plate.The ironer Diaz even said we did it
in his last start too, whenhe went seven scoreless against the eighties.

(06:36):
So, I mean, this happenslike pitch like this was a kin to
a pitcher shaking a catcher off justbecause they have PITCHCLM. They don't have
to do that anymore. He shookhim off. He went to a pitch
that the did wanted to throw andit got hit out. You know,
it happens around the league like that. I think it was made a lot
more of because of what I mean, obviously, like it led to an

(07:00):
eight run inning, and that usuallydoesn't happen. But I mean, pictures
shake catchers off all the time.But like I wrote in a story,
I think that went live this morning, Like I mean, this team because
of the way they started, Becausewhen you start seven and nineteen, things
like this get magnified. When youstart seven and nineteen, you have forfeited.
You have forfeited the luxury of havinga benefit of the doubt or like,

(07:24):
oh, like, no, theyjust had had a tough one.
You know they'll learn from this.Learning experience is like no, like they
started seven and nineteen and you justhad a five and you just blew a
five run lead against a awful Angelsteam at home with your number two starter
on the bat, Like they havethey've lost the benefit of the doubt.
They've lost the ability to say,oh, like it happens everywhere. Learning

(07:46):
experience will move on. Like that'sa game where like again, and I
don't want to make too much ofit, but like that's the kind of
game where like if they get intoSeptember and they're a game and a half
out of the wild Card with threeto go, you look back at that
when you're like, man, likewe lost the game because of that.
Like that, I mean, thathas to be a tough one to swallow.
Now, the only way to removethat, the only way to stop

(08:09):
the outcries is just to keep winning. Winning more and stockpiling wins will kind
of allow that instance to be whatit was. It was just a normal
thing where a picture shook a catcheroff through what he wanted to throw,
and disaster struck. Talking to ChandlerRome of the Athletic Here on Sports Talk
seven ninety his weekly visit, youmentioned Alex Bregman, and it not really

(08:35):
you know, being something that youwant to talk about after a loss like
today. But in that Vein,the guy right before him in that final
at bat hit a ground out onehundred and nine miles an hour. We've
talked about it this week on theshow already. How this is by far
the most pronounced I guess slump,even in light of last night's home run
in Jordan Alvarez's career. That's probablysomething else you weren't expecting to see in

(08:58):
a season like this. No,but I think he's coming out of it.
I think the swings he took againstin the Angels in this series now
today notwithstanding, like none of themhit Tyler Anderson well, he struck out
a couple of times. I meannone, none of the line up hit
well today, But like some ofthe swings he took in the last three
or four games kind of signal tome he's coming out of it. He
hit the ball the other way acouple of times, hitting the ball hard

(09:22):
on a line. The thing withAlvarez it's been a little bit curious,
is just his chase rate. Likehe's chasing outside the strike zone at a
far higher rate than we've ever seenhim do. And I don't know if
that's because he's pressing. I don'tknow, if that's because he's in between.
I don't know. But the onething that the allure of jord And
Alvarez has always been that he's apower hitter that's patient, that like you

(09:43):
know, I mean, he's notjust a home run pull hitter. He's
a good hitter that can knows hispitches, knows how to be disciplined to
play with his pitch selection, andthat just hasn't happened this season. So
I think they've got to figure outkind of what's going on with his Chase,
you know, expanding his zone alittle bit, but the quality of
his contact was a lot better lastfour or five games, So I think

(10:05):
he's coming out of it a littlebit. One last thing for you,
even though we're up against it,plenty of time for you to answer.
The Abraves situation, obviously, isslowly or rapidly coming to a head here
with what was said today and aboutthe plan that's in place for some minor
league at bats coming first before anyrecall gets made, and he's back on
this roster, what do you thinkis it is that's gonna take for him

(10:26):
to get back here. What doyou think they're gonna do when he does
get here, Because Dana Brown againsaid that's Joe's call, and Joe kind
of made it sound like, well, he's gonna have to get out there
so he can prove that he canhit, and that's the only opportunity he's
gonna have. He's not in lineif you can't show anything. And secondarily,
do you think they want to sendlow Perfido down so he can get
at bats where he's already not gettingvery many now or would they just simply

(10:48):
move the guy down in Greg Kessingerthat never gets any at bats. I
think for Lowperfido's long term development,he needs to be the guy that goes
down when he goes Triple A.I think they need to expose them to
first base morns. I think heneeds to go down to Triple A and
play enough first base to where thenext time he comes up he's adequate,

(11:09):
he's serviceable there, because I thinkthe next time he comes up there's not
going to be one of these firstbasemen on the roster. As far as
the Abrady situation, I mean,the whole thing is, it's kind of
a mess. I mean, there'sthere's no right time to do this.
And I understand that they and theywere never going to not give him another
chance, like he has to comeback, like Joe said, like he

(11:31):
has to come back up. Heaccepted the option, he handled it with
dignity. The Astros have to reciprocatethat. They have to give him another
chance. And again, they're notgoing to see whether this has worked unless
he plays now to reintroduce him tomajor league pitching in Seattle against the best

(11:52):
pitching staff in baseball that is primarilyright handed. So if they can talk
about all the platoon stuff they want, like all their started are right handed,
so it would lend it would leadme to believe that JOSEA. Brady
is gonna get a lot of playingtime in Seattle against the best pitching staff
in baseball, against the team you'rechasing in your division. That's not exactly

(12:13):
a soft landing spot for him.But again, given how this went down,
there is no right time to dothis. There's no ideal time to
do this. Like they're just gonnahave to make it work. You know.
Joe Spotta was pretty short today justhe got asked if there's a plan
just how he's going to handle firstbase, and he just said yes and

(12:33):
didn't want to elaborate. Sounds likehe wants to talk to John Singleton and
Joseah Bray together. The most logicalway forward to be a platoon situation.
But again, if you do itin a platoon situation, you possibly put
him in a series against the Marinerswhere he's getting a ton of it,
that's against some of the best pitchingin the league, where he may he

(12:54):
may not be successful, but it'sbecause he's facing elite pitching. Like it's
guys that have that are still onthe team that have hit well all season
may not have success against the Marinersbecause they're just that good. So it's
a it's a very very interesting interestingProbably is the most soft way to say

(13:18):
it, diplomatic way. Diplomatic,Yes, that's probably the most diplomatic way
to say this. Is it issome kind of mess that they have got
that they're in. And again,I don't know what better way there was
to handle it, but they're init now and next week should be fascinating.
This weekend and sugar Land should beespecially fascinating. The twenty two to
twenty eight Astros will play Oakland inOakland three games Friday through Sunday, then

(13:41):
four games in Seattle Monday through Thursday, and without a day off, they
return home to begin a series withthe Twins, then the Cardinals, and
during some of those games, obviouslyAbray will be there and like Chandler mentioned
the expectation as he will be inthe lineup. He loves playing the Twins
This weekend for the Space Cowboys againstRound Rock there at Constellation Field. Our
athletic writer Chandler Rome covers Major LeagueBaseball and of course, your Houston Astros

(14:05):
joins his Eastern every week. Chandlerreally appreciate the insight and the time.
All right, thanks guys, goodstuff there from chandeler Rome of the Athletic.
He visits us each and every weekhere on the program, and we'll
catch up with him in the midstof all of that drama and more,
of course, around a week fromnow.