May 24, 2024 • 45 mins
Space City Home Network's Geoff Blum joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. The former Astro talks about heading to Oakland for one of the final times. Plus, he talks about the eventual return of Jose Urquidy to the rotation and what Jose Abreu's return means for this team.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
You look at it, Look atit, look at it. Oh yeah,
this is radio. You listen toit on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Astro's broadcaster Jeff Blum on seven ninetyis brought to you by Low D Center.
Just like that. It's a Fridayedition of the eighteen, which is
(00:21):
usually means that Blum will be alongfor the ride, and he is.
Today we are at Gallery Furniture.The original location I forty five North between
Tidwell and Parker, and Blummer issomewhere in the Oakland, San Francisco Bay
area. I don't know his exactwhereabouts, but I do know he's on
the phone with us right now aswe get into the opener of a series
(00:43):
with the A's later on tonight outWest. Blom appreciate the time as always,
and are you looking forward to thecarpet list booth once again. It's
good to be all with you guys. I'm in San Francisco for the time
being, and I will be inOakland obviously later this evening. And I
don't know if there's any nostalgia aroundit, but getting into that booth is
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always interesting because I'm not sure ifthe carpet's going to still be there if
it's going to be covered up,or where the possum traps are going to
be put. You know, there'sa lot of things to work around inside
this booth man. Well, theAstros are going to need to work around
well, losing two out of threeon their way out of town. It
was just they shouldn't have lost thefirst game. It was anybody's game in
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that last game, and of coursein the middle quite the exhilarating ride in
the middle game as the Astros onlygot to win in that game two of
that series. But they've made upground. And I never thought we were
talking about this yesterday. I neverthought we would go into a road trip
like this being disappointed almost with aseven and three mark, because you just
(01:47):
knew the Astros probably should have gottena sweep in that Angel series if all
things went their way. No,that was the biggest thing for me.
You know, it was just crazyto think that they won two out of
three front the Milwaukee Brewers, theyswept the Oakland A's. They're working themselves
back into you know, pretty funhome stand and I know that seven and
three week got to stay positive andsay that they you know, they seven
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and three is a very good homestand, and they put them back into
the situation they're in. But atthe same time, it was kind of
interesting in that Angel series to watchthem lose that third game, which was
disappointing, but all that did wasmake me think about the first game of
the series, where you should havewon. When you've got Bromber on the
mound, a five run lead andyou think that that's the end of the
ball game. But somehow, someway, they hit three home runs off
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them and they score seven runs inone inning. It's just it didn't make
any sense, and it kind ofmade that seven and three a little more
fitter knowing that you had the win, you had the chance to win that
game. But I'm also kind ofshocked that the only game they won in
that series was, you know,a walk off in the tenth innings,
so they had to go ten inningsto beat the Angels. It's kind of
crazy. And they don't have showHey, they don't have Trout, they
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don't have Red Dome. That wasa little concerning. They don't have Brian
Downing, they don't have Bobby Gritch. I mean, they are really stuck
on these hard times since not thereanymore. Long gone. Reggie Jackson doesn't
play for the Angels anymore. Idon't know if you guys just woke up,
but no longer a member of thethen California Angels. That game you're
talking about, the Astros hit threeseparate home runs to tie it. Three
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separate times. They won on awalk off. You did mention the fromber
Valdez game. Obviously worthy of conversationhere, longtime Major leaguer familiar with signs
being shaken off. It's not anautomatic. Oh my gosh, you shook
off the catcher. This pitch isdefinitely not going to work, and I
think some people kind of saw thatas an out to well, he went
rogue, and thus this is whathappened. That's not necessarily the case.
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The Astro says say that they've they'vehandled everything and everyone Obviously the three parties
involved, the manager, of thecatcher and the pitcher all acknowledges much after
the game how things went, Howdid you see that all play out?
And the aftermath from it essentially willbe when they get to Seattle. Frombert
will be ready to make his nextstart. But I'm hoping he makes you
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adjudgments. Because you're right, youknow, he he's a veteran now,
and there's an expectation to go outthere and keep your poise and keep things
under control. But the only thingthat's interesting to me, and maybe the
question that didn't get asked, isif you're going to deviate from the plan,
explain, Explain why you're debating fromthe plan, because you know,
for the first four rings it seemedto be pretty good. You gave up
one run in the first inning andeverything, everything else was pretty much shut
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down. You're getting the ground balls, you're getting the double plays, and
then all of a sudden you tryand get cute with the change up to
the left hander Shud Newel, andhe takes you deep and things just kind
of went off the rails. Andso I think a lot of it's on
fromber. It's part of the maturation, it's a part of the character building.
But you would hope that he's tothe point now where he goes okay,
that maybe wasn't the best idea.I've got to get back to who
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we were. And it puts Yainerin a tough position too, because he's
a rookie catcher handling a veteran staff. How does he handle it. Does
he go out there and say,hey, you know, things were going
pretty good when we were going withthe previous game plan, let's get back
to that. But at the sametime, if he goes out there says
that Fromber doesn't like it, andyou create a rift between them. So
I think Yer was kind of ina tough spot right there. But I
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think a lot of it's on maybe, you know, does a veteran infielder
come over and say something to Promber, much like we saw it in that
twenty twenty playoff game when Korea camein. You know it better than anybody.
It's hardly the first time a pitcherand a catcher have quote gone off
script. Were you a little surprisedas much was made of that element of
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what happened with Fromber the other night? Yeah, just in the sense that
everything was going well, and youknow, it was kind of interesting in
that anywhere it kind of blew upon him. You know, it was
a change up and then it wasa couple of pitches around nineteen ninety two,
it was a hanging breaking ball therejust wasn't that Christmas, you know,
and maybe that would have changed theidea and made the game plan he
wanted to go to a little bitbetter if he actually was executing the pitches.
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But they took advantage of strikes thatwere up in the zone. They're
a swing hard, hope to hitit type team, and they definitely got
a piece of it. But itwas kind of interesting to see the way
he finished the inning. He touchedninety nine in that inning, so somewhere
in there he got a little pickedoff and threw a little bit harder to
get out of that mess. It'sfunny you talk about the three homers they
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hit there, and it was kindof the other homer in the series that
stood out, maybe as much asany of them, the one that Kien
Paris hit a three to two pitchand nothing nothing game Hunter Brown had been
spectacular. He had worked a goodat bat against the eight hitter in front
of Paris. I don't really blamehim for a ten pitch walk, especially
when pitch ten was close enough assome might say didn't have to be,
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but it was called a ball,and then he gives up the home run
on a three to two pitch.I did not expect a three hundred and
eighty foot homer from Paris. Butthe thing that comes out of the game
I think is Hunter Brown is showingthat whatever they deem his role in the
future, he should hopefully have valueto them because he's starting to harness at
least show that he's starting to harnesswhat he's got. Yeah, and I
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think that last after that, itkind of started for me that the outing
he had in Detroit where he cameout of the bullpen through five innings eighty
five pitches. But it was reallyinteresting to see the pitch usage because he
was heavy on that fastball. Soif he was throwing the fastball, got
kind of back to that power pitcherthat we think he is at you know,
ninety five to ninety seven. Hecan touch ninety eight when he wants
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to. But that was kind ofthe turnaround series. And I talked to
him a little bit after that gameand just kind of was like, man,
you were really downhill going after thestrike zone with your fastball, and
he said, yeah, just gotyou know, at some point you got
I had to get back to me. And I think that's who Hunter wants
to be, is that power fastballguy. And then work off of that.
I think the only the next stepfor Hunter Brown, because I like
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the aggressiveness and the location of thefastballs into right handed hitters, is you
know, starting to develop a reallygood slider. He's got one that is
good enough right now, but Ithink he can find one that's a little
bit better and start to get thatswing amiss because right now, I think
the only issue he has is he'sgetting ahead, but he doesn't have that
proven put away pitch that I thinkhe needs develop. Talking to Jeff Blum
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here on Sports Talk seven to ninetyhis weekly visit with us here on the
A team, and yeah, we'ddefinitely want to keep looking forward, but
just one more chance to look backbecause I again, we talked so much
about, all right, if theAstros are going to make a move right
now going into this ten game homestandis what I'm talking about. If they're
going to make a move right now, you know they got to do this.
(08:22):
This you would have killed for aseven and three mark on a ten
game homestand and yet it feels likeit's a bit disappointing. What was the
most I guess impressive aspect of aseven and three stretch on that homestand for
you as you were calling those games, Oh that's easy for me. I
mean, I know the pitching hasdone well, but we started to see
a bray you We had Pressley acouple of times. I know he wasn't
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available early on, but really thebrall you hater matchups where it went well.
You know, we started to seethat hater that we signed that we
wanted to sign, who can goout there, strikeout the side and finish
off a game. So I thinkthe back end of the bullpen, and
they have bullpen entirely, who hadto cover some innings on that homestand because
of you know, the suspension ofRenelle Blanco. So you've got to give
credit to Taylor Scott. You've gotto give credit to Seth Martinez probably most
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to set up some of those gameslate. But the one thing that I
really enjoyed was the fact that thislineup kind of got back to using the
entire lineup. We know that Tucker'sputting up MVP type numbers, leading the
American League in several categories, butyou saw Jake Myers kind of emerge.
You saw Bragman show flashes of potentiallytrying to break out of whatever he's going
through. And then you saw YuyanerDiaz with a couple of hits do bond
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at the bottom of the order.So I love the fact that you had
your first three were starting to rate, your middle three were doing what they
normally do, and then you hadthat back the bottom three that were actually
going out there and producing. Soseeing an entire lineup go out there and
score five and a half six runsa game, that's what's going to go
out there and give you a chanceto have those seven and three, eight
and two type home stands. Gottahave them. They got a seven game
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road trip right now, all insidetheir division. The team directly behind them,
shockingly by only two games, theOakland A's, and the team that
sits atop the division with an unbelievablyawesome three games over five hundred record twenty
seven and twenty four is what theSeattle Mariners have. And that's where the
Astros will be as they finish uptheir weekend in Oakland. Jeff Blum with
(10:15):
the team as always, Space CityHome Network analyst for your Houston Astros.
We were talking about something yesterday.Jeff will bring it up with you as
we continue this afternoon. They playGame fifty one tonight, So the first
fifty are in the books. Someof the best and worst of the first
fifty, best moments, best gay, best game, best whatever. It's
wide open, so we'll touch ona few of those things as we get
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rolling here our number one again,our show live from Gallery Furniture throughout the
afternoon, coming out and see us. Yeah, and I don't want Blum
to go far because, as isthe case every time we get together,
he and I both like to talkabout the fact that Exfinity has got you
covered with the most reliable connection inevery room of your home, no matter
how big or small it may be, whatever your space. You want reliable
(11:01):
connection. You want fast speeds.You want to be able to basically walk
around on your phone watching Jeff Blumand TK and Julia and the rest of
the crew. If you want totake in an Astros game, but you've
got to be mobile because Junior it'stime for him to go to bed.
But it's a tie game in thebottom of the ninth. I got to
see what happens on my phone.Exfinity allows me to do that with that
(11:22):
reliable connection. Jeff, No,it's the same way. For me,
I want to be able to beon my phone. I want to be
able to track what's going on aroundthe league or maybe prep for who we're
playing next. So trying to keepan eye on those ball clubs ahead of
schedule is key for me. Ifthe internet goes down, I'm not going
to be very happy about it,and my kids especially are going to be
very happy about it now that they'reback for summer. So walla wall Wi
(11:43):
Fi from Exfinity is huge for theblumhousehold to continue to function properly. Absolutely,
Waldawall Wi Fi for Blummer, WalldaWall Wi Fi for me, and
you can get it as well.In fact, any Astros fan getting a
hold of a great deal now throughJune twenty first, where customers can get
started with gig speed Internet for justtwenty five bucks a month for two years
(12:05):
with no annual contract in free WiFi equipment included when you add unlimited mobile.
Go to Exfinity dot com, callone one hundred Xfinity or visit a
store today. Exfinity proud sponsor ofyour Houston Astros. Back to Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler, the eighty EIGHTEAMRolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
(12:28):
It's a Friday afternoon. The temperatureis rising here in Houston. We
are out at Gallery Furniture, thoughnice and cool inside if you want to
make your way over to any ofthe locations, but we're at the original
one on I forty five North,and of course, joined as always each
and every week for the first hourof this program by Jeff Blump, who's
out in the well. He's technicallyin San Francisco right now, but he'll
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be in the bunker later on tonightas the Astros open up a three games
series with the A's. I knowyou are looking forward to that. By
the way, do you have anythingout of the ordinary planned for the July
trip to Oakland when it will befor last That's what I was going to
say that ballpark ever, hopefully,Yeah, you know, I don't know
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how to do it yet. Imight bring like a little handheld vacuum and
try and suck up some of thewater that's in the hallway going onto the
field that's been there for like thelast forty five years. There might be
some nostalgic stench in there that wewant to be able to hold on to.
For a while. But if Ido anything, you know what I
might. I might go to theTreehouse. There's a bar like left field,
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like up above on Mount Davis somewherethat's called the Treehouse. It's pretty
cool. I might go up thereand just grab beverage and maybe pour one
out for the last trip through Oakland. But that's going to be h I
mean, that'll be easy, easyto handle. Though. I'm not too
upset. You played in a lotof the older stadiums as they were coming
to an end. I think we'vetalked about the fact you never actually played
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in the Dome because you came upin ninety nine. But I feel like
there had to have been and thisis probably the last of those, if
not the last where you you know, you you actually got to have professional
at bats in some of the wellthat era, you know, the bygone
era of just bunkers, and that'swhat this is. But just get it
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out of the world that I personallydo not consider you old, if that's
any consolation. Look at what abrown nos Oh my gosh, you guys
want to get around. Oh mygosh, are you guys done? I'm
sings so well. I don't callme, that's just a that's just terrible.
I'm in that. You know,I looked this up once. There's
(14:37):
this like little six year range whereyou're not technically a millennial, and I
think I fall into that one becauseyou know, Teresa is definitely gen x.
She's as gen x as it gets. But yeah, like we talked
about this often, but I wasthe reason I was asking is was there
a time where you would maybe notlook forward to going and playing in in
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Oakland or maybe some of one ofthese older stadiums, but you know,
the atmosphere, like you're not goingto probably have it tonight because they're all
mad at the ownership or because they'reyanking the team, but the vuvuzelas and
the drums and just you know,there's certain stadiums that you know before you
even get there. Like jose AlTuoving knows what he's in for every time
he goes to the Bronx because they'restupid. But you know, like it
was Oakland ever a place that youeven somewhat look forward to at least playing
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on the field there. Yeah,and you know it's much like Dodger Stadium
and Jack Murphy Stadium. You know, those were the stadiums that were still
around in southern California when I wasa kid and obviously going to school up
here just across the Bay. Youknow, Berkeley's just north of Oakland,
so I've got a lot of experiencein in Berkeley, in Oakland, in
the Bay Area. You know,you know, we would take Bart over
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and watch Barry Bonds playing in Candlestick. We would take Bart down to Oakland
and watch you know, you knowthose late nineties teams of the Oakland A's
and you know Ken Grippy junior playingcenter field, ragging him and having him,
you know, turn around and flipus off and having a good time
doing that stuff. That's what Iremember about Oakland. And when you're a
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kid growing up, you always havethis vision what if I ever play or
what if I get to play here? And you know, there's a certain
nostalgia in oh my gosh, Igot to play in that ballpark. So
I take a lot of pride inthe fact that I'm actually old enough to
play in Three Rivers, Riverfront.You know, some of these older ballparks,
the old Milwaukee County Stadium and thenplaces like Oakland, and you know,
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Jack Murphy Stadium down in San Diego. I had a blast playing in
those places because it wasn't it wasn'tthe amenities. It wasn't how good is
the clubhouse. It was like,man, we'll get to go play on
this field. It has history onits has the Bash Brothers, history has
the seventies, the three championship teamsfrom the seventies with Reggie Jackson on the
team. You know, those arethe things that I missed going through some
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of these old ballparks. Even asdingy and as gross as they can be,
there was a certain there was acertain warmth about it and a certain
character that you just kind of enjoyedbecause old baseball got to be played there.
It wasn't about you know, whatthey're serving for lunch or how early
I can get there and lay ina massage chair or sit in a whirlpool.
It was you know, the onlything that was the focus back down
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was playing the game, because theamenities were so awful that you actually enjoyed
being on the field. So Imissed that kind of stuff. I'm going
to miss Oakland just because I've gota lot of history there, just with
you know, family and friends.I loved playing in Candlestick, as awful
as that place was, but thosethose places are gone back. That's a
bygone era that you know. Thatgen X ballplayer is only going to be
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the one that you're going to askwhat it was like to play in some
of those places, because as roughas they weren't, as bad as the
weather and conditions were, you hada blast. Well, since the kid
took us there, I'll take usa step further and jump into the minute
shot. You have homered in Oakland. I'm going to ask you a two
part question against whom did you hitthat home run off of? And at
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the time you hit the homer?What was the ballpark called? Who sponsored
it? It's been changed like fiftythousand times, Okay, the name of
the stadium. I'm not sure I'mgonna be able to handle that one because
it might be like there was Oracleat one time back in the day.
So I'm going to fumble on thatone. But I know I took I
can't remember the guy's first name,but I know it was Redmand. It
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might be Mike Redman. I hitit right handed, that is correct,
left hander for the A's you werein a I guess that would have been
a Devil Rays uniform at the timetwo thousand and four you hit it off
Mark Redman in two thousand, Mark, there we go it near. I
see that it might have changed namesin the two thousand and four season.
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From two thousand four nineteen ninety eightto two thousand and four was a Network
Associates Coliseum, and then it changedMcAfee Colisseum. I think right after you
or right before you guys visited.Hopefully everybody has their virus software updated on
their gig hard drive overstock, dotcom o, dot co, Ring Central.
I mean unjust. It is absolutelytime to move on to the super
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tiny minor league ballpark that the oldlandA's will be playing in for the who
knows how long foreseeable future. Tonightand tomorrow afternoon and on Sunday, the
Astros will see a pitcher for thesecond time. Each of the three guys
pitching this weekend was one of thefour starters against the Astros during the four
game sweep at Minute Made Park JVToday, Spencer Arraghatty tomorrow, and that
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dastardly dude Renelle Blanco trying to getover on Major League Baseball. He'll get
the ball back on Sunday as heis eligible to return to the roster.
The six man rotation out of thisoff day, do you anticipate they will
keep it and then figure out thingsfrom there, Especially with jose Ri Kety
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pitching tonight in sugar Land. Ifhe comes out of that healthy, the
expectation is he's activated, and thenat that moment you technically have said in
healthy starters. Yeah, that's goingto be interesting. I think that,
you know, the six man rotationkind of helped out the Astras. There's
history with this, and that's whyI'm saying that I think they might consider
the six man rotation just because thebullpen has been beat around a little bit,
(20:15):
and the only other option you haveother than the six man rotation is
moving one of those seven guys thatyou're talking about and have him, have
him be that long guy, oryou know, there might be a piggyback
situation where it say, or Ketycomes off the injured list and he gives
you five and then you bring inan arraghetti Hunter Brown and get three innings
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out of those guys and get youinto the eighth inning. That way,
you can just close it out withyou know, Josh Hater or something like
that. But I think that thesix man rotation would actually benefit if you
can get these guys stretched out andpitching well, it would actually help the
bullpen kind of rest a little bitand reset what they're trying to do in
that bullpen, because when you're tryingto fight back in a division like the
(20:57):
Ashers are doing right now, you'releaning on guys in a lot of high
leverage situations. And my question ishow long can you do that? So
I think that you know, usingthat six man rotation or moving one of
those starters to give you some lengthout of that bullpen might be a really
good idea to try and protect,you know, the haters of Braves Presleys
(21:17):
and make sure that they're healthy downthe stretch, because you need them right
now to get back into the conversation, but you're also going to need them
at the back end of the seasonto finish off the season. And that's
probably where the worry is, howare these guys going to be at the
end of the season. At whatpoint did maybe you turned to TK during
a commercial break or you know,just on the plane or in the hotel
(21:37):
or something, and just did itbecome apparent that no one wants this division
and it's making it very much easierfor the Astros to climb right back into
this thing. I can't believe,especially with just some of the conversations that
the three of us had over thecourse of the first few weeks of the
season, that we're talking about asituation where they are they're not just in
striking distance, like you have agood season or you have a good seer
(22:00):
in Seattle. This thing is superinteresting and it's not even junior yet.
No. I completely agree, andI think it was right when the Astros
and we've and I had this momentwith TK where they I think they were
twelve games back and it might havebeen that road trip right before we came
home to the ten game homestand whereI look at them and I'm like,
you, how are you twelve gamesunder five hundred yet you're only six and
a half back or whatever it wasat the time, even if it was
(22:22):
seven games back, I was going, Man, this is crazy. And
that's what kind of like turned myattention towards you know, the Rangers are
only playing five hundred ball and thenyou have the Seattle Mariners, who are
you know, they're they're not agreat offensive team, but they pitched their
ass off and do a great jobin that sense. So that's why they're
leading the division. But they're notrunning away with it. You know,
there were years past where the Astrosgot off to these electric starts and you
(22:45):
basically started counting days until they weregoing to clinch. And I don't think
it's like that in the American LeagueWest right now, because they're so because
the teams are so interesting. Ithink the most balanced team is the Astros.
We talked about their lineup, thepotential for a six man rotation and
getting some of that pitching death backin the back end of your pullpen pitching.
Well, the Seattle Mariners are phenomenalstarting rotation, not a very good
(23:10):
offense. And then you have theTexas Rangers, who I think they're still
trying to figure themselves out even thoughthey're toting around that World Series trophy.
And I think the door's wide openfor the Astros to get healthy and kind
of go on a run like we'veseen on that homestand and really creep back
into this. Because I think you'reright Clinton, if the Astros sweep this
series against the Oakland A's, andyou roll into Seattle and knowing that you
could potentially tie them or maybe takea lead with a three games, you
(23:36):
know, winning three out of four, that would be fascinating, and just
all of a sudden it turns intoyou know, a sprint for the next
four four months. Sphincter tightening situationscould be right around the corner. I
thinks, for the for the otherguys, yeah, not for the Astros,
all right, So honestly you're right. Yeah. Now, well,
like if pressure, if those twoteams in front of the Astros want to
(23:56):
cave to pressure, I think I'dbe just fine with the Astros, because
I do think to an extent,and we talked about this, I think
a little bit last week. It'seasy to get caught up in this if
you're us, even if you're youand and Todd, you know, callous,
even though you're with a team allthe time. Inside that clubhouse,
probably a few guys, more thana few, have probably had a laugh
(24:18):
at the dramatics of everybody talking aboutthis start. Nobody wants it, obviously,
but they probably have laughed off atime or two. Some of the
comments that have been made, We'vestill got a half hour to go with
Blummer here during the first hour livethe Gallery Furniture on the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety. I want totell you guys real quickly, as you
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(24:41):
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comtor Hey, it's good. Listento every game anywhere on the iHeart Radio
Sports of seven nine. It's homeof your Rockets contenuar afternoon on a Friday
on the A Team Live from GalleryFurniture. By the way, if you
(26:53):
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here at Gallery Furniture today and anyday this weekend, holiday weekend. Great
chance to spruce up the house withsomething here from Mattress, Mac and the
great people here at Gallery Furniture.Jeff Blum here with us as well for
his weekly visit here on a Friday. Couple things from being a ballplayer.
Curious if we could get from youthinking about Joey low Perfido getting his feet
wet as a major leaguer going intoa new clubhouse, and quite clearly there
(27:38):
are certain players that have been closeto him, have helped him, whether
he played with them and the miners, then they're here, or there's somebody
like Alex Bregman. Curious about howyou think that played out and who do
you think some of those guys are. And then in your case, when
you got to the big leagues,when it's nineteen nine to nine and you're
playing now for the Expos in twothousand, when you're playing for the Expos,
(28:00):
are some of the guys that madethe transition from minor league ballplayer to
major league ballplayer a little bit smoother, easier and understandable for a guy like
you. I think with low Cathdo, obviously you've got to hang around Gary
Pettis a long time, so he'sthe guy's working with the outfielders. And
I also think they have a DaveClark on the staff. The coaching staff
(28:22):
is going to help guys like Joeylow Perffito. But at the same time,
I thought it was really interesting tokind of watch after Joey low Graffito
hit his home run. What happenedon social media with Alex Bragman reposting the
home run or having Kyle Tucker repostthe home run. I thought that kind
of showed that they support this kidand they're behind them and working with them.
I'm sure he's hanging around, youknow, Jake Myers and Chas McCormick,
(28:44):
but there's so many different guys inthat club us to be able to
glean the information from that he's probablygot, you know, if he has
any question at any time about howto handle on the field or off the
field, because a lot of whatyou learn in the bag leagus is you
know, playing the game obviously,but there's still a lot to learn and
underneath with how to handle plumbout staff, how to handle yourself on a road
trip, you know what's appropriate,you know if it's hipping guys and things
(29:07):
like that. So there's a lotof things involved in the Major League that
you need to understand how to play. And for me, back in you
know, the nineteen hundreds when Iwas playing, Mike Mordecai was a guy
that was on the bench with mewho absolutely loved he kind of he taught
me a lot of the grittiness ofbeing that role player and being ready at
any time. And then there wasa guy on the bench that I got
(29:30):
to be really good friends with,was actually in my wedding party, Ryan
Maguire. He was just a realsolid, cerebral type guy that kind of
taught me how to watch the gamea little bit and process you know how
pictures are going to approach you,or you know how you know what situations
to be ready for later in thegame when they come up. And then
(29:51):
of course I always talk about beingin Houston, getting traded from Montreal to
Houston and watching not necessarily being mentored, but watching the way that Craig Vigio
handled himself, washing the way thatJeff bag Will had handled himself, and
that's where you start to, youknow, really learn how to play the
game, both on and off thefield. It was a lot of fun
and hopefully he's being nurtured in thisclubhouse. I know it's a very welcoming
atmosphere for a lot of guys youngand old in that clubhouse. So who
(30:15):
is the worst tipper on the Astrosyou ever played with? Oh? Man,
I mean there's guys that I wonderedif a guy came to me to
ask on what to tip, Iknew they were bad tippers. I'm not
going to throw anybody under the bus, but there were some guys in that
They're eight team that maybe were alittle sketchy. Look. I didn't expect
(30:41):
you to name names, but Idid. I did know you would deliver
on an answer like that. Solet so just to give you an idea,
Uh, there's certain clubhouses around theleague, like if you're tipping well
enough that when you maybe not whenyou initially show up for the first game
of the series, but after thegame if there if they're here's a if
(31:02):
there's a beverage that you enjoy inyour locker after the game, no matter
when or lose or how you played, if there's a beverage in your locker
after the game, you know thatyou're tipping well and that that was a
really good indicator for me. IfI said, when I started to have
beverages show up in my locker aftergames, I was like, Okay,
I'm doing a good job. Interesting. Well, one thing that might happen
(31:23):
in relation to the low Berfito situation, the Astros have two players likely in
tonight's lineup for the Space Cowboys.Tonight's actual lineup has not been posted yet,
but Jose or Keaty is pitching andJose Abrey has been optioned to the
Space Cowboys, So the expectation isproviding the fact that he's there, I
would expect him to be playing,especially if he's possibly going to join the
(31:45):
team sometime before they get back toHouston. That means AB's ought to be
coming twenty two at bats at theWest Palm Beach, Florida Complex League level
and a host of other activities liveat bats and other things away from game
activity. What is it that youthink the Astros will do with him,
Jose Abray when he gets here,And in light of the fact that maybe
(32:07):
low Perffito gets to play every day, if he's the move to open up
the roster spot just sending him downto sugar Lands so he can play every
about every day, do you thinkthat is the move that they ultimately will
make, whether it's later next weekor or next weekend. Oh man,
this is this is where things getkind of interesting and we get to put
on our like you know, FantasyGM hats and try and you know,
(32:30):
filter through in our minds what possiblycould transpire because it's such an interesting situation.
You know, just think so beforeI get to a brawn or kid
is going to come back work intothe rotation, and because the Astros need
pitching depth, I think that one'sjust that one's easy. I think the
brave new situation is going to bea little bit different, just because there's
(32:52):
so many layers to that onion tokind of peel off. I know,
he went down there. You know, we kind of took it too on
the chin. You know, theego is bruised. Had to go down
to West Palm Beach, you know, figure out what was going on with
the swing, make adjustments, andthen use it against some younger pitching that
maybe not to the caliber obviously ofdouble A, Triple A or big leagues.
(33:15):
So you start to build a littlebit of confidence and realize that maybe
that swing adjustment is working. Ihope that's what happens, so he can
get to sugar Land and just understandthat he's got to go out there and
put together at bats. I'm notsure if I'm necessarily worried about results as
much as I am, you know, contact and Beryl. I want to
see his I want to see backquickness. I want to see Beryl.
(33:36):
I want to see some intensity comingback to jose a braw And then when
he gets to the big leagues,if low Perfito is the guy that goes
down, I think it kind ofI don't think low Perfido should take that
as a as a as a detrimentalidea. I think it's more of a
credit to him because you could keephim in the big leagues and just make
him the you know, you couldmake him your every other four day outfielder,
(34:00):
or come in late in games andpinch hit against tough right handed hitters,
or you send them. If youdo send them down, you're telling
him we think you're a prospect.We want you to be game ready when
we do bring you back, becausethere might be an opportunity for him to
come back, and you want himto be, you know, a game
ready, not sitting on the bench, you know, missing, you know,
losing timing, losing at bats.And I think that's where the situation
(34:22):
gets kind of dicey. And youknow, we just talked about the Astros
clubhouse. When a break you comesback no matter what the roster move is.
I thoroughly expect that clubhouse to welcomea braing you back in and kind
of give him that support that heneeds to go out there and play h
during this time. But I thinkonce he gets here, that's when the
(34:42):
question mark is how if he's ifhe hasn't made the adjustment, how long
do you give him to try andfigure it out before you're going, Okay,
we need that spot in the lineupback because you know, to John
Singleton's credit, he's put together,you know what, just over a seven
hundred ops, he's getting on base, He's had some timely damage. You
know, you're in a unique spotwith this brave situation. I'm really interested
(35:06):
and curious to see how it doesplay out. One last quick thing before
we hit this brake here, whenI mentioned the best of the first fifty
for the Astros, I'll ask youwhat was the best of the five John
Singleton home runs. I think eachone of them is memorable for different reasons.
I think at the top two mightbe easy in New York and the
one he just hit a couple daysago against the Angels is one more eye
(35:29):
popping or better than the other.I think just because you did it in
the Yankee Stadium and you hit itoff the facade of the upper deck.
You know you're almost hitting it intothat upper deck, which is just hallowed
ground and really speaks volumes. Butthat one kind of that one even got
an ooh and an awe from Yankeesfaithful out there when they saw that home
run hit off that facade of theupper deck and just doing it in Yankee
(35:52):
Stadium while wearing an Astro uniform isalways going to be special. That's probably
the right answer. I agree.I would have to say that, Yeah,
Yeah, that's Jeff Blump. Heis a Space City Home Network analyst
for the Astros and of course goodfriend of the show joins us each and
every week here on the program.We got one more segment to go with
him, and then we will getinto the four o'clock hours. We are
(36:13):
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(37:45):
ninety goes Up Stars, Rockets Basketballlives here eighteen rolls along here on Sports
Talk seven ninety, we are liveat Gallery Furniture, Jeff Blum along for
the ride for another segment here iswe take you into the four o'clock hour
with the Astros, Space City atHome and Network color analysts. Blum,
(38:07):
Obviously, you don't ever expect tohave a back to back outing like Justin
Verlander did this last time around,and then he comes in, But you
know, I look at it thatway like it wasn't a terrible outing.
It was just a very unfortunate finalapp bat. Clearly he was trying to
get through it. And you couldhear in you and Tk's description of it.
(38:29):
You'd never would none of us haveever seen anything like it. Justin
had never experienced anything like that.But one thing is he usually bounces back
in a big way in his nextperformance, and that'll be the case here
tonight. I have no doubt.Yeah, I'm pretty confident in it myself,
and You're right, that was unlikeanything I've ever seen a pitcher go
through. And it was just exhausting, you know, throwing that many pitches
(38:52):
to one hitter, throwing that manypitches in one inning. The whole thing
about it was remarkable. And Ilove the fact that he actually appreciated that
there was a little bit of afight going on and he recognized that William
Contrere's just beat him in that atbat eventually. But how about the fact
that he just did not he refusedto give in because he's a different than
I would have. After about thethird or fourth foul ball, I might
(39:14):
have put one in William Contrera's ribsand said go to first base, dude,
I'm going to try something else,you know. But he kept going
at him and it was incredible,and you know, it took him,
you know, twenty pitches to figureout Justin out before he actually hit that
home run. And that's where Ithink that, you know, it's kind
of frustrating as a pitcher to knowthat you actually pitched pretty well except for
(39:34):
one pitch, because that's basically whatit came down to for Justin Erlanders that
he had a great line going untilthat one pitch to William Contrere's that kind
of threw everything out of whack andended up, you know, getting beat
on that one pitch. Kind offrustrating, But I know that he's a
he's a workaholic. He's he's agame planner. He likes to go in
there and study scattering reports. He'sgot a ton a ton of experience.
(39:59):
Again, it's the Oakland A's overthe years, and he's he's kind of
that shark that recognizes blood in thewater, and I think that, you
know, the chum is the OaklandA's and he's going to go out there
and attack these guys and do areally good job with that forcing fast play.
You know what was really interesting aboutthat game too, for me,
knowing that Justin's coming back from thatshoulder issue that had him in spring training,
(40:22):
was the fact that he reached backand was touching ninety seven miles an
hour in that outing. That wasthat if I'm opponents around the league,
I'm going, oh, damn,this guy's back. Yeah, he's ageless
in that way for sure. Yeah, he did not freeze see the A's
the first time through those four games. He missed those, he'll see them
today. So you saw them forfour games, curious about your assessment of
(40:45):
them. And I'll pass along thisnote, which I'm sure you and the
whole broadcast team is well aware of. Here are the top six major league
teams in home runs this year.The awesome Phillies, these should be awesome
Astros, the awesome Dodgers, theawesome Orioles, the awesome Yankees, and
Oakland no awesome. On that that, their approach at the plate is much
(41:08):
like mine off the first t ata golf course. I'm going to swing
hard just in case I hit it, And that's their approach. There's is
stuff they're taking these monster hacks incase they drive it out of the ballpark.
And I think to your point,Wex, I saw a stat last
time we faced the Oakland A's.I think it was around fifty four of
their runs were scored via the homerun. And then you look at the
(41:30):
numbers from that series for the Astros, their pitching staff did not give up
a home run in four games.Therefore, you beat the Oakland A's,
and I think that's the big keyfor the Astros rotation going into this three
game series to try and sweep thesefirst seven games that they play against them
is keep them in the ballpark.If you force them to go out there
and manufacture runs, you're going tobeat them because they rely so much on
(41:52):
that long ball. Well, andyou mentioned you mentioned justin Verlander rearing back.
I know that Wex and I weredownright ecstatic that Mason Miller threw what
twenty three to twenty six pitches yesterdaywith twenty six pitch outing last night and
a couple of extra innings achieved him. Yeah, it means that he can't
pitch the entire series against the Ashros. That guy is absolutely electric and kind
(42:15):
of scary. No, that's exactlyright. It's like he's one of those
guys that you want to see pitch, but you don't want to face because
he's so damn good. I wasreally curious to see him in that series.
And we saw him for two innings, uh in that series against the
Ashtros, So immediately we thought thesame thing. We're like, he's down
for the next day or two.That's great news because his stuff is beyond
(42:39):
what anybody else is working with.Right now, he threw it, I
know he's topped out I think atone hundred and three point seven, but
he had two pitches in that outingin that series against the Ashros where he
threw two pitches one hundred and threepoint four And just watching the look on
some of the hitters that were walkingaway from from striking out, they were
almost in awe of what they wereseeing go in there, because it's not
(43:00):
just jet Field going all over theplace. He's dotting his fastball where he
wants, and then he's got aturbo slider at like ninety miles an hour
that he actually throws for strikes.So I mean that he is a very
uncomfortable at bat, but a lotof fun to watch from a distance.
Twenty five years old and yeah,just straight gas, but he can control
it. So not looking forward towhen the Astros hitters have to face him.
(43:23):
Hopefully they won't have to because hopefullythey'll have leads in this game.
Hey, are all these games thisweekend a blummer? We appreciate the time
as always, We appreciate the peoplewho make it possible for you to join
us each in every week as well. No, you guys are the best.
Obviously, I love coming on withyou, but I do owe Jeff
Witzit and his Vision group you knowgreat, thank you for the opportunity to
(43:45):
be out here. And at thesame time, you know they are at
the cutting edge of a lot ofeye surgeries that are out there. If
you're looking for something new, you'relooking for it maybe a different, different
opportunity to increase and better your eyesightand look for some options. You've got
to sit down with doctor Jeff Witzett. And that's part of the beauty too,
is that when you have the callconsultation, you will be sitting across
(44:05):
from doctor Jeff Witzet to get thatconsultation and he will have the best recommendation
for you moving forward. They takegreat care of their patients and they're a
plus. You know, they're atthe cutting edge. Like I said,
so go to the best Jeff Witzettand his Vision Group. And also for
low T I know that you know, these road trips get tough. And
for all you fellows out there whoare working hard on a daily basis and
(44:27):
listening to this right now, getinto low T. Check your levels.
If they're not at the at theplace you want them to be, low
T Center will put them at theplace they need to be and trust me,
you will function better, you'll recoverbetter, and you'll be better for
it all the way around. Solow tcenter dot com is which you got
to check out. That's what Ido, and I hope that I'm living
proof that is working. Jeff Blumfrom the Bay Area. He's in San
(44:51):
Francisco right now. He'll be inOakland tonight. Just go ahead and get
us three wins this weekend and thenfour more after that. Jeff, it
sounds good. I would love tobe able to show up and have a
seven game road trip sweep. Comingback and being on with you guys next
week would be absolutely spectacular. Havefun out on the West coast, and
we will definitely catch up next week, and we'll catch up with you guys
(45:14):
to start the four o'clock hour next
You look at it, Look atit, look at it. Oh yeah,
this is radio. You listen toit on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Astro's broadcaster Jeff Blum on seven ninetyis brought to you by Low D Center.
Just like that. It's a Fridayedition of the eighteen, which is
(00:21):
usually means that Blum will be alongfor the ride, and he is.
Today we are at Gallery Furniture.The original location I forty five North between
Tidwell and Parker, and Blummer issomewhere in the Oakland, San Francisco Bay
area. I don't know his exactwhereabouts, but I do know he's on
the phone with us right now aswe get into the opener of a series
(00:43):
with the A's later on tonight outWest. Blom appreciate the time as always,
and are you looking forward to thecarpet list booth once again. It's
good to be all with you guys. I'm in San Francisco for the time
being, and I will be inOakland obviously later this evening. And I
don't know if there's any nostalgia aroundit, but getting into that booth is
(01:04):
always interesting because I'm not sure ifthe carpet's going to still be there if
it's going to be covered up,or where the possum traps are going to
be put. You know, there'sa lot of things to work around inside
this booth man. Well, theAstros are going to need to work around
well, losing two out of threeon their way out of town. It
was just they shouldn't have lost thefirst game. It was anybody's game in
(01:26):
that last game, and of coursein the middle quite the exhilarating ride in
the middle game as the Astros onlygot to win in that game two of
that series. But they've made upground. And I never thought we were
talking about this yesterday. I neverthought we would go into a road trip
like this being disappointed almost with aseven and three mark, because you just
(01:47):
knew the Astros probably should have gottena sweep in that Angel series if all
things went their way. No,that was the biggest thing for me.
You know, it was just crazyto think that they won two out of
three front the Milwaukee Brewers, theyswept the Oakland A's. They're working themselves
back into you know, pretty funhome stand and I know that seven and
three week got to stay positive andsay that they you know, they seven
(02:08):
and three is a very good homestand, and they put them back into
the situation they're in. But atthe same time, it was kind of
interesting in that Angel series to watchthem lose that third game, which was
disappointing, but all that did wasmake me think about the first game of
the series, where you should havewon. When you've got Bromber on the
mound, a five run lead andyou think that that's the end of the
ball game. But somehow, someway, they hit three home runs off
(02:30):
them and they score seven runs inone inning. It's just it didn't make
any sense, and it kind ofmade that seven and three a little more
fitter knowing that you had the win, you had the chance to win that
game. But I'm also kind ofshocked that the only game they won in
that series was, you know,a walk off in the tenth innings,
so they had to go ten inningsto beat the Angels. It's kind of
crazy. And they don't have showHey, they don't have Trout, they
(02:51):
don't have Red Dome. That wasa little concerning. They don't have Brian
Downing, they don't have Bobby Gritch. I mean, they are really stuck
on these hard times since not thereanymore. Long gone. Reggie Jackson doesn't
play for the Angels anymore. Idon't know if you guys just woke up,
but no longer a member of thethen California Angels. That game you're
talking about, the Astros hit threeseparate home runs to tie it. Three
(03:15):
separate times. They won on awalk off. You did mention the fromber
Valdez game. Obviously worthy of conversationhere, longtime Major leaguer familiar with signs
being shaken off. It's not anautomatic. Oh my gosh, you shook
off the catcher. This pitch isdefinitely not going to work, and I
think some people kind of saw thatas an out to well, he went
rogue, and thus this is whathappened. That's not necessarily the case.
(03:36):
The Astro says say that they've they'vehandled everything and everyone Obviously the three parties
involved, the manager, of thecatcher and the pitcher all acknowledges much after
the game how things went, Howdid you see that all play out?
And the aftermath from it essentially willbe when they get to Seattle. Frombert
will be ready to make his nextstart. But I'm hoping he makes you
(03:58):
adjudgments. Because you're right, youknow, he he's a veteran now,
and there's an expectation to go outthere and keep your poise and keep things
under control. But the only thingthat's interesting to me, and maybe the
question that didn't get asked, isif you're going to deviate from the plan,
explain, Explain why you're debating fromthe plan, because you know,
for the first four rings it seemedto be pretty good. You gave up
one run in the first inning andeverything, everything else was pretty much shut
(04:20):
down. You're getting the ground balls, you're getting the double plays, and
then all of a sudden you tryand get cute with the change up to
the left hander Shud Newel, andhe takes you deep and things just kind
of went off the rails. Andso I think a lot of it's on
fromber. It's part of the maturation, it's a part of the character building.
But you would hope that he's tothe point now where he goes okay,
that maybe wasn't the best idea.I've got to get back to who
(04:41):
we were. And it puts Yainerin a tough position too, because he's
a rookie catcher handling a veteran staff. How does he handle it. Does
he go out there and say,hey, you know, things were going
pretty good when we were going withthe previous game plan, let's get back
to that. But at the sametime, if he goes out there says
that Fromber doesn't like it, andyou create a rift between them. So
I think Yer was kind of ina tough spot right there. But I
(05:04):
think a lot of it's on maybe, you know, does a veteran infielder
come over and say something to Promber, much like we saw it in that
twenty twenty playoff game when Korea camein. You know it better than anybody.
It's hardly the first time a pitcherand a catcher have quote gone off
script. Were you a little surprisedas much was made of that element of
(05:27):
what happened with Fromber the other night? Yeah, just in the sense that
everything was going well, and youknow, it was kind of interesting in
that anywhere it kind of blew upon him. You know, it was
a change up and then it wasa couple of pitches around nineteen ninety two,
it was a hanging breaking ball therejust wasn't that Christmas, you know,
and maybe that would have changed theidea and made the game plan he
wanted to go to a little bitbetter if he actually was executing the pitches.
(05:49):
But they took advantage of strikes thatwere up in the zone. They're
a swing hard, hope to hitit type team, and they definitely got
a piece of it. But itwas kind of interesting to see the way
he finished the inning. He touchedninety nine in that inning, so somewhere
in there he got a little pickedoff and threw a little bit harder to
get out of that mess. It'sfunny you talk about the three homers they
(06:10):
hit there, and it was kindof the other homer in the series that
stood out, maybe as much asany of them, the one that Kien
Paris hit a three to two pitchand nothing nothing game Hunter Brown had been
spectacular. He had worked a goodat bat against the eight hitter in front
of Paris. I don't really blamehim for a ten pitch walk, especially
when pitch ten was close enough assome might say didn't have to be,
(06:32):
but it was called a ball,and then he gives up the home run
on a three to two pitch.I did not expect a three hundred and
eighty foot homer from Paris. Butthe thing that comes out of the game
I think is Hunter Brown is showingthat whatever they deem his role in the
future, he should hopefully have valueto them because he's starting to harness at
least show that he's starting to harnesswhat he's got. Yeah, and I
(06:56):
think that last after that, itkind of started for me that the outing
he had in Detroit where he cameout of the bullpen through five innings eighty
five pitches. But it was reallyinteresting to see the pitch usage because he
was heavy on that fastball. Soif he was throwing the fastball, got
kind of back to that power pitcherthat we think he is at you know,
ninety five to ninety seven. Hecan touch ninety eight when he wants
(07:19):
to. But that was kind ofthe turnaround series. And I talked to
him a little bit after that gameand just kind of was like, man,
you were really downhill going after thestrike zone with your fastball, and
he said, yeah, just gotyou know, at some point you got
I had to get back to me. And I think that's who Hunter wants
to be, is that power fastballguy. And then work off of that.
I think the only the next stepfor Hunter Brown, because I like
(07:40):
the aggressiveness and the location of thefastballs into right handed hitters, is you
know, starting to develop a reallygood slider. He's got one that is
good enough right now, but Ithink he can find one that's a little
bit better and start to get thatswing amiss because right now, I think
the only issue he has is he'sgetting ahead, but he doesn't have that
proven put away pitch that I thinkhe needs develop. Talking to Jeff Blum
(08:01):
here on Sports Talk seven to ninetyhis weekly visit with us here on the
A team, and yeah, we'ddefinitely want to keep looking forward, but
just one more chance to look backbecause I again, we talked so much
about, all right, if theAstros are going to make a move right
now going into this ten game homestandis what I'm talking about. If they're
going to make a move right now, you know they got to do this.
(08:22):
This you would have killed for aseven and three mark on a ten
game homestand and yet it feels likeit's a bit disappointing. What was the
most I guess impressive aspect of aseven and three stretch on that homestand for
you as you were calling those games, Oh that's easy for me. I
mean, I know the pitching hasdone well, but we started to see
a bray you We had Pressley acouple of times. I know he wasn't
(08:45):
available early on, but really thebrall you hater matchups where it went well.
You know, we started to seethat hater that we signed that we
wanted to sign, who can goout there, strikeout the side and finish
off a game. So I thinkthe back end of the bullpen, and
they have bullpen entirely, who hadto cover some innings on that homestand because
of you know, the suspension ofRenelle Blanco. So you've got to give
credit to Taylor Scott. You've gotto give credit to Seth Martinez probably most
(09:11):
to set up some of those gameslate. But the one thing that I
really enjoyed was the fact that thislineup kind of got back to using the
entire lineup. We know that Tucker'sputting up MVP type numbers, leading the
American League in several categories, butyou saw Jake Myers kind of emerge.
You saw Bragman show flashes of potentiallytrying to break out of whatever he's going
through. And then you saw YuyanerDiaz with a couple of hits do bond
(09:33):
at the bottom of the order.So I love the fact that you had
your first three were starting to rate, your middle three were doing what they
normally do, and then you hadthat back the bottom three that were actually
going out there and producing. Soseeing an entire lineup go out there and
score five and a half six runsa game, that's what's going to go
out there and give you a chanceto have those seven and three, eight
and two type home stands. Gottahave them. They got a seven game
(09:54):
road trip right now, all insidetheir division. The team directly behind them,
shockingly by only two games, theOakland A's, and the team that
sits atop the division with an unbelievablyawesome three games over five hundred record twenty
seven and twenty four is what theSeattle Mariners have. And that's where the
Astros will be as they finish uptheir weekend in Oakland. Jeff Blum with
(10:15):
the team as always, Space CityHome Network analyst for your Houston Astros.
We were talking about something yesterday.Jeff will bring it up with you as
we continue this afternoon. They playGame fifty one tonight, So the first
fifty are in the books. Someof the best and worst of the first
fifty, best moments, best gay, best game, best whatever. It's
wide open, so we'll touch ona few of those things as we get
(10:37):
rolling here our number one again,our show live from Gallery Furniture throughout the
afternoon, coming out and see us. Yeah, and I don't want Blum
to go far because, as isthe case every time we get together,
he and I both like to talkabout the fact that Exfinity has got you
covered with the most reliable connection inevery room of your home, no matter
how big or small it may be, whatever your space. You want reliable
(11:01):
connection. You want fast speeds.You want to be able to basically walk
around on your phone watching Jeff Blumand TK and Julia and the rest of
the crew. If you want totake in an Astros game, but you've
got to be mobile because Junior it'stime for him to go to bed.
But it's a tie game in thebottom of the ninth. I got to
see what happens on my phone.Exfinity allows me to do that with that
(11:22):
reliable connection. Jeff, No,it's the same way. For me,
I want to be able to beon my phone. I want to be
able to track what's going on aroundthe league or maybe prep for who we're
playing next. So trying to keepan eye on those ball clubs ahead of
schedule is key for me. Ifthe internet goes down, I'm not going
to be very happy about it,and my kids especially are going to be
very happy about it now that they'reback for summer. So walla wall Wi
(11:43):
Fi from Exfinity is huge for theblumhousehold to continue to function properly. Absolutely,
Waldawall Wi Fi for Blummer, WalldaWall Wi Fi for me, and
you can get it as well.In fact, any Astros fan getting a
hold of a great deal now throughJune twenty first, where customers can get
started with gig speed Internet for justtwenty five bucks a month for two years
(12:05):
with no annual contract in free WiFi equipment included when you add unlimited mobile.
Go to Exfinity dot com, callone one hundred Xfinity or visit a
store today. Exfinity proud sponsor ofyour Houston Astros. Back to Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler, the eighty EIGHTEAMRolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
(12:28):
It's a Friday afternoon. The temperatureis rising here in Houston. We
are out at Gallery Furniture, thoughnice and cool inside if you want to
make your way over to any ofthe locations, but we're at the original
one on I forty five North,and of course, joined as always each
and every week for the first hourof this program by Jeff Blump, who's
out in the well. He's technicallyin San Francisco right now, but he'll
(12:50):
be in the bunker later on tonightas the Astros open up a three games
series with the A's. I knowyou are looking forward to that. By
the way, do you have anythingout of the ordinary planned for the July
trip to Oakland when it will befor last That's what I was going to
say that ballpark ever, hopefully,Yeah, you know, I don't know
(13:11):
how to do it yet. Imight bring like a little handheld vacuum and
try and suck up some of thewater that's in the hallway going onto the
field that's been there for like thelast forty five years. There might be
some nostalgic stench in there that wewant to be able to hold on to.
For a while. But if Ido anything, you know what I
might. I might go to theTreehouse. There's a bar like left field,
(13:33):
like up above on Mount Davis somewherethat's called the Treehouse. It's pretty
cool. I might go up thereand just grab beverage and maybe pour one
out for the last trip through Oakland. But that's going to be h I
mean, that'll be easy, easyto handle. Though. I'm not too
upset. You played in a lotof the older stadiums as they were coming
to an end. I think we'vetalked about the fact you never actually played
(13:54):
in the Dome because you came upin ninety nine. But I feel like
there had to have been and thisis probably the last of those, if
not the last where you you know, you you actually got to have professional
at bats in some of the wellthat era, you know, the bygone
era of just bunkers, and that'swhat this is. But just get it
(14:15):
out of the world that I personallydo not consider you old, if that's
any consolation. Look at what abrown nos Oh my gosh, you guys
want to get around. Oh mygosh, are you guys done? I'm
sings so well. I don't callme, that's just a that's just terrible.
I'm in that. You know,I looked this up once. There's
(14:37):
this like little six year range whereyou're not technically a millennial, and I
think I fall into that one becauseyou know, Teresa is definitely gen x.
She's as gen x as it gets. But yeah, like we talked
about this often, but I wasthe reason I was asking is was there
a time where you would maybe notlook forward to going and playing in in
(14:58):
Oakland or maybe some of one ofthese older stadiums, but you know,
the atmosphere, like you're not goingto probably have it tonight because they're all
mad at the ownership or because they'reyanking the team, but the vuvuzelas and
the drums and just you know,there's certain stadiums that you know before you
even get there. Like jose AlTuoving knows what he's in for every time
he goes to the Bronx because they'restupid. But you know, like it
was Oakland ever a place that youeven somewhat look forward to at least playing
(15:22):
on the field there. Yeah,and you know it's much like Dodger Stadium
and Jack Murphy Stadium. You know, those were the stadiums that were still
around in southern California when I wasa kid and obviously going to school up
here just across the Bay. Youknow, Berkeley's just north of Oakland,
so I've got a lot of experiencein in Berkeley, in Oakland, in
the Bay Area. You know,you know, we would take Bart over
(15:45):
and watch Barry Bonds playing in Candlestick. We would take Bart down to Oakland
and watch you know, you knowthose late nineties teams of the Oakland A's
and you know Ken Grippy junior playingcenter field, ragging him and having him,
you know, turn around and flipus off and having a good time
doing that stuff. That's what Iremember about Oakland. And when you're a
(16:07):
kid growing up, you always havethis vision what if I ever play or
what if I get to play here? And you know, there's a certain
nostalgia in oh my gosh, Igot to play in that ballpark. So
I take a lot of pride inthe fact that I'm actually old enough to
play in Three Rivers, Riverfront.You know, some of these older ballparks,
the old Milwaukee County Stadium and thenplaces like Oakland, and you know,
(16:30):
Jack Murphy Stadium down in San Diego. I had a blast playing in
those places because it wasn't it wasn'tthe amenities. It wasn't how good is
the clubhouse. It was like,man, we'll get to go play on
this field. It has history onits has the Bash Brothers, history has
the seventies, the three championship teamsfrom the seventies with Reggie Jackson on the
team. You know, those arethe things that I missed going through some
(16:51):
of these old ballparks. Even asdingy and as gross as they can be,
there was a certain there was acertain warmth about it and a certain
character that you just kind of enjoyedbecause old baseball got to be played there.
It wasn't about you know, whatthey're serving for lunch or how early
I can get there and lay ina massage chair or sit in a whirlpool.
It was you know, the onlything that was the focus back down
(17:11):
was playing the game, because theamenities were so awful that you actually enjoyed
being on the field. So Imissed that kind of stuff. I'm going
to miss Oakland just because I've gota lot of history there, just with
you know, family and friends.I loved playing in Candlestick, as awful
as that place was, but thosethose places are gone back. That's a
bygone era that you know. Thatgen X ballplayer is only going to be
(17:33):
the one that you're going to askwhat it was like to play in some
of those places, because as roughas they weren't, as bad as the
weather and conditions were, you hada blast. Well, since the kid
took us there, I'll take usa step further and jump into the minute
shot. You have homered in Oakland. I'm going to ask you a two
part question against whom did you hitthat home run off of? And at
(17:55):
the time you hit the homer?What was the ballpark called? Who sponsored
it? It's been changed like fiftythousand times, Okay, the name of
the stadium. I'm not sure I'mgonna be able to handle that one because
it might be like there was Oracleat one time back in the day.
So I'm going to fumble on thatone. But I know I took I
can't remember the guy's first name,but I know it was Redmand. It
(18:18):
might be Mike Redman. I hitit right handed, that is correct,
left hander for the A's you werein a I guess that would have been
a Devil Rays uniform at the timetwo thousand and four you hit it off
Mark Redman in two thousand, Mark, there we go it near. I
see that it might have changed namesin the two thousand and four season.
(18:41):
From two thousand four nineteen ninety eightto two thousand and four was a Network
Associates Coliseum, and then it changedMcAfee Colisseum. I think right after you
or right before you guys visited.Hopefully everybody has their virus software updated on
their gig hard drive overstock, dotcom o, dot co, Ring Central.
I mean unjust. It is absolutelytime to move on to the super
(19:07):
tiny minor league ballpark that the oldlandA's will be playing in for the who
knows how long foreseeable future. Tonightand tomorrow afternoon and on Sunday, the
Astros will see a pitcher for thesecond time. Each of the three guys
pitching this weekend was one of thefour starters against the Astros during the four
game sweep at Minute Made Park JVToday, Spencer Arraghatty tomorrow, and that
(19:30):
dastardly dude Renelle Blanco trying to getover on Major League Baseball. He'll get
the ball back on Sunday as heis eligible to return to the roster.
The six man rotation out of thisoff day, do you anticipate they will
keep it and then figure out thingsfrom there, Especially with jose Ri Kety
(19:51):
pitching tonight in sugar Land. Ifhe comes out of that healthy, the
expectation is he's activated, and thenat that moment you technically have said in
healthy starters. Yeah, that's goingto be interesting. I think that,
you know, the six man rotationkind of helped out the Astras. There's
history with this, and that's whyI'm saying that I think they might consider
the six man rotation just because thebullpen has been beat around a little bit,
(20:15):
and the only other option you haveother than the six man rotation is
moving one of those seven guys thatyou're talking about and have him, have
him be that long guy, oryou know, there might be a piggyback
situation where it say, or Ketycomes off the injured list and he gives
you five and then you bring inan arraghetti Hunter Brown and get three innings
(20:37):
out of those guys and get youinto the eighth inning. That way,
you can just close it out withyou know, Josh Hater or something like
that. But I think that thesix man rotation would actually benefit if you
can get these guys stretched out andpitching well, it would actually help the
bullpen kind of rest a little bitand reset what they're trying to do in
that bullpen, because when you're tryingto fight back in a division like the
(20:57):
Ashers are doing right now, you'releaning on guys in a lot of high
leverage situations. And my question ishow long can you do that? So
I think that you know, usingthat six man rotation or moving one of
those starters to give you some lengthout of that bullpen might be a really
good idea to try and protect,you know, the haters of Braves Presleys
(21:17):
and make sure that they're healthy downthe stretch, because you need them right
now to get back into the conversation, but you're also going to need them
at the back end of the seasonto finish off the season. And that's
probably where the worry is, howare these guys going to be at the
end of the season. At whatpoint did maybe you turned to TK during
a commercial break or you know,just on the plane or in the hotel
(21:37):
or something, and just did itbecome apparent that no one wants this division
and it's making it very much easierfor the Astros to climb right back into
this thing. I can't believe,especially with just some of the conversations that
the three of us had over thecourse of the first few weeks of the
season, that we're talking about asituation where they are they're not just in
striking distance, like you have agood season or you have a good seer
(22:00):
in Seattle. This thing is superinteresting and it's not even junior yet.
No. I completely agree, andI think it was right when the Astros
and we've and I had this momentwith TK where they I think they were
twelve games back and it might havebeen that road trip right before we came
home to the ten game homestand whereI look at them and I'm like,
you, how are you twelve gamesunder five hundred yet you're only six and
a half back or whatever it wasat the time, even if it was
(22:22):
seven games back, I was going, Man, this is crazy. And
that's what kind of like turned myattention towards you know, the Rangers are
only playing five hundred ball and thenyou have the Seattle Mariners, who are
you know, they're they're not agreat offensive team, but they pitched their
ass off and do a great jobin that sense. So that's why they're
leading the division. But they're notrunning away with it. You know,
there were years past where the Astrosgot off to these electric starts and you
(22:45):
basically started counting days until they weregoing to clinch. And I don't think
it's like that in the American LeagueWest right now, because they're so because
the teams are so interesting. Ithink the most balanced team is the Astros.
We talked about their lineup, thepotential for a six man rotation and
getting some of that pitching death backin the back end of your pullpen pitching.
Well, the Seattle Mariners are phenomenalstarting rotation, not a very good
(23:10):
offense. And then you have theTexas Rangers, who I think they're still
trying to figure themselves out even thoughthey're toting around that World Series trophy.
And I think the door's wide openfor the Astros to get healthy and kind
of go on a run like we'veseen on that homestand and really creep back
into this. Because I think you'reright Clinton, if the Astros sweep this
series against the Oakland A's, andyou roll into Seattle and knowing that you
could potentially tie them or maybe takea lead with a three games, you
(23:36):
know, winning three out of four, that would be fascinating, and just
all of a sudden it turns intoyou know, a sprint for the next
four four months. Sphincter tightening situationscould be right around the corner. I
thinks, for the for the otherguys, yeah, not for the Astros,
all right, So honestly you're right. Yeah. Now, well,
like if pressure, if those twoteams in front of the Astros want to
(23:56):
cave to pressure, I think I'dbe just fine with the Astros, because
I do think to an extent,and we talked about this, I think
a little bit last week. It'seasy to get caught up in this if
you're us, even if you're youand and Todd, you know, callous,
even though you're with a team allthe time. Inside that clubhouse,
probably a few guys, more thana few, have probably had a laugh
(24:18):
at the dramatics of everybody talking aboutthis start. Nobody wants it, obviously,
but they probably have laughed off atime or two. Some of the
comments that have been made, We'vestill got a half hour to go with
Blummer here during the first hour livethe Gallery Furniture on the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety. I want totell you guys real quickly, as you
head into especially a holiday weekend,so you got a three day weekend ahead,
(24:41):
you're no doubt going to be doingthings, probably outdoors, even it's
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(25:45):
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(26:07):
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(26:32):
comtor Hey, it's good. Listento every game anywhere on the iHeart Radio
Sports of seven nine. It's homeof your Rockets contenuar afternoon on a Friday
on the A Team Live from GalleryFurniture. By the way, if you
(26:53):
are looking to enjoy yourself it's home. How about a cougar, power motion
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(27:14):
here at Gallery Furniture today and anyday this weekend, holiday weekend. Great
chance to spruce up the house withsomething here from Mattress, Mac and the
great people here at Gallery Furniture.Jeff Blum here with us as well for
his weekly visit here on a Friday. Couple things from being a ballplayer.
Curious if we could get from youthinking about Joey low Perfido getting his feet
wet as a major leaguer going intoa new clubhouse, and quite clearly there
(27:38):
are certain players that have been closeto him, have helped him, whether
he played with them and the miners, then they're here, or there's somebody
like Alex Bregman. Curious about howyou think that played out and who do
you think some of those guys are. And then in your case, when
you got to the big leagues,when it's nineteen nine to nine and you're
playing now for the Expos in twothousand, when you're playing for the Expos,
(28:00):
are some of the guys that madethe transition from minor league ballplayer to
major league ballplayer a little bit smoother, easier and understandable for a guy like
you. I think with low Cathdo, obviously you've got to hang around Gary
Pettis a long time, so he'sthe guy's working with the outfielders. And
I also think they have a DaveClark on the staff. The coaching staff
(28:22):
is going to help guys like Joeylow Perffito. But at the same time,
I thought it was really interesting tokind of watch after Joey low Graffito
hit his home run. What happenedon social media with Alex Bragman reposting the
home run or having Kyle Tucker repostthe home run. I thought that kind
of showed that they support this kidand they're behind them and working with them.
I'm sure he's hanging around, youknow, Jake Myers and Chas McCormick,
(28:44):
but there's so many different guys inthat club us to be able to
glean the information from that he's probablygot, you know, if he has
any question at any time about howto handle on the field or off the
field, because a lot of whatyou learn in the bag leagus is you
know, playing the game obviously,but there's still a lot to learn and
underneath with how to handle plumbout staff, how to handle yourself on a road
trip, you know what's appropriate,you know if it's hipping guys and things
(29:07):
like that. So there's a lotof things involved in the Major League that
you need to understand how to play. And for me, back in you
know, the nineteen hundreds when Iwas playing, Mike Mordecai was a guy
that was on the bench with mewho absolutely loved he kind of he taught
me a lot of the grittiness ofbeing that role player and being ready at
any time. And then there wasa guy on the bench that I got
(29:30):
to be really good friends with,was actually in my wedding party, Ryan
Maguire. He was just a realsolid, cerebral type guy that kind of
taught me how to watch the gamea little bit and process you know how
pictures are going to approach you,or you know how you know what situations
to be ready for later in thegame when they come up. And then
(29:51):
of course I always talk about beingin Houston, getting traded from Montreal to
Houston and watching not necessarily being mentored, but watching the way that Craig Vigio
handled himself, washing the way thatJeff bag Will had handled himself, and
that's where you start to, youknow, really learn how to play the
game, both on and off thefield. It was a lot of fun
and hopefully he's being nurtured in thisclubhouse. I know it's a very welcoming
atmosphere for a lot of guys youngand old in that clubhouse. So who
(30:15):
is the worst tipper on the Astrosyou ever played with? Oh? Man,
I mean there's guys that I wonderedif a guy came to me to
ask on what to tip, Iknew they were bad tippers. I'm not
going to throw anybody under the bus, but there were some guys in that
They're eight team that maybe were alittle sketchy. Look. I didn't expect
(30:41):
you to name names, but Idid. I did know you would deliver
on an answer like that. Solet so just to give you an idea,
Uh, there's certain clubhouses around theleague, like if you're tipping well
enough that when you maybe not whenyou initially show up for the first game
of the series, but after thegame if there if they're here's a if
(31:02):
there's a beverage that you enjoy inyour locker after the game, no matter
when or lose or how you played, if there's a beverage in your locker
after the game, you know thatyou're tipping well and that that was a
really good indicator for me. IfI said, when I started to have
beverages show up in my locker aftergames, I was like, Okay,
I'm doing a good job. Interesting. Well, one thing that might happen
(31:23):
in relation to the low Berfito situation, the Astros have two players likely in
tonight's lineup for the Space Cowboys.Tonight's actual lineup has not been posted yet,
but Jose or Keaty is pitching andJose Abrey has been optioned to the
Space Cowboys, So the expectation isproviding the fact that he's there, I
would expect him to be playing,especially if he's possibly going to join the
(31:45):
team sometime before they get back toHouston. That means AB's ought to be
coming twenty two at bats at theWest Palm Beach, Florida Complex League level
and a host of other activities liveat bats and other things away from game
activity. What is it that youthink the Astros will do with him,
Jose Abray when he gets here,And in light of the fact that maybe
(32:07):
low Perffito gets to play every day, if he's the move to open up
the roster spot just sending him downto sugar Lands so he can play every
about every day, do you thinkthat is the move that they ultimately will
make, whether it's later next weekor or next weekend. Oh man,
this is this is where things getkind of interesting and we get to put
on our like you know, FantasyGM hats and try and you know,
(32:30):
filter through in our minds what possiblycould transpire because it's such an interesting situation.
You know, just think so beforeI get to a brawn or kid
is going to come back work intothe rotation, and because the Astros need
pitching depth, I think that one'sjust that one's easy. I think the
brave new situation is going to bea little bit different, just because there's
(32:52):
so many layers to that onion tokind of peel off. I know,
he went down there. You know, we kind of took it too on
the chin. You know, theego is bruised. Had to go down
to West Palm Beach, you know, figure out what was going on with
the swing, make adjustments, andthen use it against some younger pitching that
maybe not to the caliber obviously ofdouble A, Triple A or big leagues.
(33:15):
So you start to build a littlebit of confidence and realize that maybe
that swing adjustment is working. Ihope that's what happens, so he can
get to sugar Land and just understandthat he's got to go out there and
put together at bats. I'm notsure if I'm necessarily worried about results as
much as I am, you know, contact and Beryl. I want to
see his I want to see backquickness. I want to see Beryl.
(33:36):
I want to see some intensity comingback to jose a braw And then when
he gets to the big leagues,if low Perfito is the guy that goes
down, I think it kind ofI don't think low Perfido should take that
as a as a as a detrimentalidea. I think it's more of a
credit to him because you could keephim in the big leagues and just make
him the you know, you couldmake him your every other four day outfielder,
(34:00):
or come in late in games andpinch hit against tough right handed hitters,
or you send them. If youdo send them down, you're telling
him we think you're a prospect.We want you to be game ready when
we do bring you back, becausethere might be an opportunity for him to
come back, and you want himto be, you know, a game
ready, not sitting on the bench, you know, missing, you know,
losing timing, losing at bats.And I think that's where the situation
(34:22):
gets kind of dicey. And youknow, we just talked about the Astros
clubhouse. When a break you comesback no matter what the roster move is.
I thoroughly expect that clubhouse to welcomea braing you back in and kind
of give him that support that heneeds to go out there and play h
during this time. But I thinkonce he gets here, that's when the
(34:42):
question mark is how if he's ifhe hasn't made the adjustment, how long
do you give him to try andfigure it out before you're going, Okay,
we need that spot in the lineupback because you know, to John
Singleton's credit, he's put together,you know what, just over a seven
hundred ops, he's getting on base, He's had some timely damage. You
know, you're in a unique spotwith this brave situation. I'm really interested
(35:06):
and curious to see how it doesplay out. One last quick thing before
we hit this brake here, whenI mentioned the best of the first fifty
for the Astros, I'll ask youwhat was the best of the five John
Singleton home runs. I think eachone of them is memorable for different reasons.
I think at the top two mightbe easy in New York and the
one he just hit a couple daysago against the Angels is one more eye
(35:29):
popping or better than the other.I think just because you did it in
the Yankee Stadium and you hit itoff the facade of the upper deck.
You know you're almost hitting it intothat upper deck, which is just hallowed
ground and really speaks volumes. Butthat one kind of that one even got
an ooh and an awe from Yankeesfaithful out there when they saw that home
run hit off that facade of theupper deck and just doing it in Yankee
(35:52):
Stadium while wearing an Astro uniform isalways going to be special. That's probably
the right answer. I agree.I would have to say that, Yeah,
Yeah, that's Jeff Blump. Heis a Space City Home Network analyst
for the Astros and of course goodfriend of the show joins us each and
every week here on the program.We got one more segment to go with
him, and then we will getinto the four o'clock hours. We are
(36:13):
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(37:45):
ninety goes Up Stars, Rockets Basketballlives here eighteen rolls along here on Sports
Talk seven ninety, we are liveat Gallery Furniture, Jeff Blum along for
the ride for another segment here iswe take you into the four o'clock hour
with the Astros, Space City atHome and Network color analysts. Blum,
(38:07):
Obviously, you don't ever expect tohave a back to back outing like Justin
Verlander did this last time around,and then he comes in, But you
know, I look at it thatway like it wasn't a terrible outing.
It was just a very unfortunate finalapp bat. Clearly he was trying to
get through it. And you couldhear in you and Tk's description of it.
(38:29):
You'd never would none of us haveever seen anything like it. Justin
had never experienced anything like that.But one thing is he usually bounces back
in a big way in his nextperformance, and that'll be the case here
tonight. I have no doubt.Yeah, I'm pretty confident in it myself,
and You're right, that was unlikeanything I've ever seen a pitcher go
through. And it was just exhausting, you know, throwing that many pitches
(38:52):
to one hitter, throwing that manypitches in one inning. The whole thing
about it was remarkable. And Ilove the fact that he actually appreciated that
there was a little bit of afight going on and he recognized that William
Contrere's just beat him in that atbat eventually. But how about the fact
that he just did not he refusedto give in because he's a different than
I would have. After about thethird or fourth foul ball, I might
(39:14):
have put one in William Contrera's ribsand said go to first base, dude,
I'm going to try something else,you know. But he kept going
at him and it was incredible,and you know, it took him,
you know, twenty pitches to figureout Justin out before he actually hit that
home run. And that's where Ithink that, you know, it's kind
of frustrating as a pitcher to knowthat you actually pitched pretty well except for
(39:34):
one pitch, because that's basically whatit came down to for Justin Erlanders that
he had a great line going untilthat one pitch to William Contrere's that kind
of threw everything out of whack andended up, you know, getting beat
on that one pitch. Kind offrustrating, But I know that he's a
he's a workaholic. He's he's agame planner. He likes to go in
there and study scattering reports. He'sgot a ton a ton of experience.
(39:59):
Again, it's the Oakland A's overthe years, and he's he's kind of
that shark that recognizes blood in thewater, and I think that, you
know, the chum is the OaklandA's and he's going to go out there
and attack these guys and do areally good job with that forcing fast play.
You know what was really interesting aboutthat game too, for me,
knowing that Justin's coming back from thatshoulder issue that had him in spring training,
(40:22):
was the fact that he reached backand was touching ninety seven miles an
hour in that outing. That wasthat if I'm opponents around the league,
I'm going, oh, damn,this guy's back. Yeah, he's ageless
in that way for sure. Yeah, he did not freeze see the A's
the first time through those four games. He missed those, he'll see them
today. So you saw them forfour games, curious about your assessment of
(40:45):
them. And I'll pass along thisnote, which I'm sure you and the
whole broadcast team is well aware of. Here are the top six major league
teams in home runs this year.The awesome Phillies, these should be awesome
Astros, the awesome Dodgers, theawesome Orioles, the awesome Yankees, and
Oakland no awesome. On that that, their approach at the plate is much
(41:08):
like mine off the first t ata golf course. I'm going to swing
hard just in case I hit it, And that's their approach. There's is
stuff they're taking these monster hacks incase they drive it out of the ballpark.
And I think to your point,Wex, I saw a stat last
time we faced the Oakland A's.I think it was around fifty four of
their runs were scored via the homerun. And then you look at the
(41:30):
numbers from that series for the Astros, their pitching staff did not give up
a home run in four games.Therefore, you beat the Oakland A's,
and I think that's the big keyfor the Astros rotation going into this three
game series to try and sweep thesefirst seven games that they play against them
is keep them in the ballpark.If you force them to go out there
and manufacture runs, you're going tobeat them because they rely so much on
(41:52):
that long ball. Well, andyou mentioned you mentioned justin Verlander rearing back.
I know that Wex and I weredownright ecstatic that Mason Miller threw what
twenty three to twenty six pitches yesterdaywith twenty six pitch outing last night and
a couple of extra innings achieved him. Yeah, it means that he can't
pitch the entire series against the Ashros. That guy is absolutely electric and kind
(42:15):
of scary. No, that's exactlyright. It's like he's one of those
guys that you want to see pitch, but you don't want to face because
he's so damn good. I wasreally curious to see him in that series.
And we saw him for two innings, uh in that series against the
Ashtros, So immediately we thought thesame thing. We're like, he's down
for the next day or two.That's great news because his stuff is beyond
(42:39):
what anybody else is working with.Right now, he threw it, I
know he's topped out I think atone hundred and three point seven, but
he had two pitches in that outingin that series against the Ashros where he
threw two pitches one hundred and threepoint four And just watching the look on
some of the hitters that were walkingaway from from striking out, they were
almost in awe of what they wereseeing go in there, because it's not
(43:00):
just jet Field going all over theplace. He's dotting his fastball where he
wants, and then he's got aturbo slider at like ninety miles an hour
that he actually throws for strikes.So I mean that he is a very
uncomfortable at bat, but a lotof fun to watch from a distance.
Twenty five years old and yeah,just straight gas, but he can control
it. So not looking forward towhen the Astros hitters have to face him.
(43:23):
Hopefully they won't have to because hopefullythey'll have leads in this game.
Hey, are all these games thisweekend a blummer? We appreciate the time
as always, We appreciate the peoplewho make it possible for you to join
us each in every week as well. No, you guys are the best.
Obviously, I love coming on withyou, but I do owe Jeff
Witzit and his Vision group you knowgreat, thank you for the opportunity to
(43:45):
be out here. And at thesame time, you know they are at
the cutting edge of a lot ofeye surgeries that are out there. If
you're looking for something new, you'relooking for it maybe a different, different
opportunity to increase and better your eyesightand look for some options. You've got
to sit down with doctor Jeff Witzett. And that's part of the beauty too,
is that when you have the callconsultation, you will be sitting across
(44:05):
from doctor Jeff Witzet to get thatconsultation and he will have the best recommendation
for you moving forward. They takegreat care of their patients and they're a
plus. You know, they're atthe cutting edge. Like I said,
so go to the best Jeff Witzettand his Vision Group. And also for
low T I know that you know, these road trips get tough. And
for all you fellows out there whoare working hard on a daily basis and
(44:27):
listening to this right now, getinto low T. Check your levels.
If they're not at the at theplace you want them to be, low
T Center will put them at theplace they need to be and trust me,
you will function better, you'll recoverbetter, and you'll be better for
it all the way around. Solow tcenter dot com is which you got
to check out. That's what Ido, and I hope that I'm living
proof that is working. Jeff Blumfrom the Bay Area. He's in San
(44:51):
Francisco right now. He'll be inOakland tonight. Just go ahead and get
us three wins this weekend and thenfour more after that. Jeff, it
sounds good. I would love tobe able to show up and have a
seven game road trip sweep. Comingback and being on with you guys next
week would be absolutely spectacular. Havefun out on the West coast, and
we will definitely catch up next week, and we'll catch up with you guys
(45:14):
to start the four o'clock hour next
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