June 7, 2024 • 44 mins
Former Astro turned Space City Home Network analyst, Geoff Blum joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks about the concern around the Astros starting rotation, with Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy both done for the season. He talks about the lineup, with Alex Bregman likely to return tonight and Kyle Tucker still remaining questionable to return. Also, what does Geoff Blum do on a road trip back to his beloved Southern California?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
You look at it, look atit, at it. Oh yeah,
this is radio. You listen toit on Sports Talk seven ninety astro's broadcaster
Jeff Blum on seven ninety. Itis brought to you by Low D Center
live from Anaheim. It's the JeffBlum Show here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
(00:26):
also known as the eighteen Friday FirstHour. What's up, Blummer?
How are you? I'm fantastic andyou're damn right. It's my first hour,
it's your first hour. We're justhere keeping you company. It's your
show. What's up, buddy?How are How are things in southern California?
They're good, nice, cool marinelayer just hovering over the coast like
(00:49):
it does every June, and it'syou know, everybody screams, oh Sunday,
California. It's gorgeous, but Aprilshowers, May gray, June gloom,
and it's kind of befitting the city. I guess, yeah, not
the way you wanted to leave town. And obviously some some not unexpected but
albeit still very disappointing injury news pluralon your way out of town. I
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know I ask you this every weekand we talk about it, and you
know, as a former player aswell. You kind of answer it the
same way you probably would have aswhen you played, is that the team
itself just keeps on grinding and it'sup to people like us to remind everybody
that the sky is falling. Withall the injuries to the pitchers, Yeah,
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I'm kind of in a weird placeright now because normally I'm the guy
that jumps on here as like superpositive O Adam, you know, get
off the ledge kind of thing.But but you know, the injuries to
her, Katie and Javier and thenbeing done for the season, you know
it, it stirs up a littlebit of concern. I don't want to
say panic just yet, just becauseArraghetti, Hunter Brown and some of the
(02:00):
other rotation have been pitching extremely well, so it's kind of fun to watch
them go out there and do business. But at the same time, if
anything should go wrong or you needto go get some more depth, I'm
not sure where the Astros find it, and that's where the concern kind of
sets in. But at the sametime, you know, seeing Luis Garcia,
you know, throwing off the offthe mound, throwing some of those
skin sim games and kind of rampingup a little bit gives you some hope.
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Watching Lance mccullors throw bullpens, youknow, gives you a little bit
of hope. But at the sametime, I feel like that hope is
kind of turning into necessity more orless, because you eventually you are going
to need that depth, just becauserag Getty hasn't pitched in a full Bay
League season where he's gone had togo twenty five thirty starts, and you
know, that's kind of where Isit right now, and I look at
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the record, Like you said,getting out of town with a series win
is nice, but getting out ofthere winning that home stand would have been
that much better at one more stepcloser to where they need to be.
Because you're in June now, andJune is where the urgency kind of sets
in. You can't blame, youknow, the couple of months saying,
Hey, we're just trying to feelthings out. I'm trying to get my
swing right. You're two hundred batsinto the season, or you're ten to
(03:06):
twelve starts into the season and youneed to start seeing results. You're into
June where Jiner Diaz homers every game. Can that help balance things out?
You sure hope so, I mean, if he becomes yer all of a
sudden, that would definitely be aboon to the offense. But I don't,
you know, the offense has beenfantastic. It's just how often can
we see the pitching and the offensematch up and in complete a game?
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You know, so often we've seenthe offense put a big numbers and the
pitching staff falters a little bit,or the pitching staff shuts out a team
and you just don't score enough runs. And I think that's where you need
to kind of figure out where you'reat right now. Is this the team
that can go out there and putthose two things together and win some ball
games down the stretch, because they'regonna have to play better than five hundred
baseball just to get back to fivehundred seven games under five hundred is play
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begins tonight, three games with theAngels, followed by three games with the
Giants. They'll have another off daynext week, as they do this week,
a Thursday day off before a seriesagainst Detroit. It's only a three
game homestand before they go back outon the road to see the White Sox
for the first time this season,and again they will try to make their
way through the month, probably closeto the end of it, if not
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a little further before anybody on theirroster that's on the sixty day il might
return, and that could potentially beLuis Garcia. And that's where what we
opened with the pitching injuries and theloss of both Arkety and Javier for the
season, the fact that JP Franzisn't currently an option either, as he
has not thrown in almost a fullmonth's time. They are hopeful that they
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can merely stay healthy through those fifteentwenty twenty five games. However many it
takes before you hope Garcia is back, and I think Arkidi probably taught us
all that. Just because someone's takingall the necessary steps and there's literally only
one step left to take before herejoins the team, doesn't mean he will
he ends up not pitching for theAstros at all this year. Talking about
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or Keatie, what kind of arethere any options that you think the Astros
truly could turn to that makes sensewithin the organization, should they that need
arise to get a start from somebodywho's not among the current five starters.
Not anybody that I know that hasstretched out, you know, And that's
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kind of where I'm at. Idon't know. I mean, you guys
probably no better than I do.I'ven't been paying I mean, I've been
paying attention to the Space Cowboys,but at the same time, there haven't
been any names that really jump offthat roster where I say, yeah,
you can plug them in and you'llbe okay. Yeah, that's the situation
with I think this. If wewere sitting here in March, this likely
would have been around the time twoand a half months of minor league pitching.
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Basically, we would have said,yeah, it probably makes some sense,
if needed, for Spencer Arraghetty tomake his major league debut, to
be the next guy in line.And clearly that gets accelerated dramatically when this
team had holes at the beginning ofthe season, and nearly every buddy that
at some point thought we would seethem pitching has had some sort of injury,
even Fromber obviously, even JV.Hunter Brown's been able to answer the
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call every time he's gotten it.And that's kind of where I think things
have turned the focus on the twoyounger pitchers because I don't even feel like
Blanco fits into that category because Ahe's not young, and B he's been
ridiculously good. But these two youngpitchers, it seemed like there was time
to put major pressure on them tostay in the rotation, and it immediately
flipped into pressure to pitch this teamin position to win every time they got
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the ball, and right when thathappened, about three or four starts to
go for each of them. Theyhave answered it in an extremely positive way.
What do you think about the mentalside of their ability to kind of
meet that challenge and help this team. It's been a lot of fun to
watch, to be honest with you, you know, I've become a big
fan of Spencer er Getty just gettingto know him and watching him go out
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there and compete. And then obviouslyI've been a big fan of Hunter Brown,
but he kind of got pushed againstthat perubial wall with some of the
numbers he was putting up, andthen there was the opportunity to not just
stay in the rotation, but toactually have to contribute, and he kind
of answered the belt after that outingin Detroit. So it's been kind of
fun to watch these guys, youknow, mature quickly right in front of
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our eyes, and I think it'svery interesting to see what they're able to
do. Hunter Brown going tonight willbe, you know, it'll be a
lot of fun to watch and seeif he can stay aggressive with that fastball,
because I think in Detroit he kindof he altered the delivery a little
bit, and he also altered hisrepertoire a little bit, getting heavy on
that fastball and pitching into both righthanders and left handers, and he's kind
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of developed a little bit of asplit pinter that's been pretty fun to watch.
So the ability of these guys tostep up and understand the situation and
perform is what's probably been most impressiveto me. And again, Spencer Arraghetty,
like you said to start the season, was probably just kind of a
rotation filler, or was a guythat was going to give you a six
man rotation if you needed to getthrough this last month where we played twenty
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nine games in thirty days and youjust needed to give guys a break.
Now he is a guy. Heis the fifth starter in the Astros rotation
as they try and you bounce backin this division and try and make a
run down the stretch as we getthrough the middle part of the season.
But I think what also is goingto help these guys out a little bit
as you did get through the toughstretch, this month is going to have
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those off days once a week whereyou're going to be able to rebound and
add that extra day in between startsto be able to give these guys the
opportunity to get their work in,recover and game plan and get ready for
their next start. So hopefully thisthis month right here, considering the days
off and the competition they have,this could be a big month for the
Destros to make a move on ascale of it's kind of neat to I
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absolutely freaking love it. How wouldyou rate arag Getty's post strikeout strut.
I'm kind of I'm glad you guysare noticing that. I'm trying to talk
TK and direct. I'm like,dude, Spaghetti's got a little action after
he punches a guy out, andI'm kind of digging it. I feel
like we're cutting away from it alittle bit, maybe so fans at home
can't see it, but we mayhave to encourage the Arragetty shrut after the
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cake because I see it too.Man, that hair starts flowing and that
walk gets up a little bit moreon the toes. I'm kind of digging
it. The best strut we've seensince Chris Devinsky's when deebo is carrying his
luggage off the field. That wasone of my favorites of all time.
And he had two fifty pound suitcasesthat he was taking off off off the
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mound when he struck guys out.So that'll be a lot to live up
to. But Irragety's got a littlebit different, you know, style to
him because he's got that lettuce comingout the back. Yeah, Davinsky reminded
me of Stone called Steve Austin comingdown the ramp with the old Titan tron
behind him. That was late ninetiesattitude, Steve Austin. But you know,
as it pertains to the actual baseballAnd I don't mean I don't mean
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their styles or their their approaches ortheir repertoire. I just mean, for
the sake of their what's the differencebetween twenty twenty four Spencer Arraghetty and twenty
twenty three JP France Man the JPFrance. And this is going to sound
(10:13):
terrible, and it's not a knockon JP France. But stuff. I
think Spencer's got better stuff, andI think Spencer in twenty twenty four is
learning how to use his stuff.And I think one of the question marks
around Spencer has maybe been does hehave you know, he's young, does
he have the mental makeup to competeat this level? And I think this
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turnaround that we've seen in the seasonkind of gives you the idea that he
wants to go out there and bea guy. He wants to compete,
and he's showing that he can compete. So that's kind of where we're starting
to see Ragetty become a well roundedstarter in the Astros rotation because he can
go compete. He's got the stuff. You know, if the sweeper's not
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working one day, he can workthe curve ball the next day. So
he's got a little more repertoire asfar as I'm concerned to go get guys
out, and I think he's gothe's got a you know, he's got
a similar mentality to what JP showedme last year. Because JP was a
guy that you expected to be agrinder. You never you know, you
heard that he had adequate stuff topitch at the big league level. But
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it was his mind and his heartand his will to go out there and
compete is what made him maybe aqualified you know, four or five in
your rotation because he didn't give acrap who you were at the plate.
He didn't give a crap if youthought his stuff was good or not.
He was going to go out thereand battle you every at bat. And
I think that's where we kind ofendeared ourselves to JP France, was the
fact that he was kind of theeveryday pitcher who had had good enough stuff
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but didn't have you know, putaway, wipeout type stuff, and he
still went out there and competed andhelped the Astros get to the playoffs.
Yeah, a lot of teams haveto have guys step up in certain roles,
and a lot of times that ispitching, and a lot of times
that's in the rotation. But ithas been fascinating to see just specifically those
two over the past respective two seasonsdo that for the Astros, And I
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agree with you, Like Spencer A. Gay, I actually get excited for
his starts because of what you're talkingabout, and hopefully that continues to be
the case. We're talking to JeffBlum Space City Home Network. It's almost
a Rockets analyst, Astros analyst,and of course former player, and we've
got him until the top of thehours. We continue here on a Friday
edition of the A Team here onSports Talk seven ninety. You know,
(12:26):
a week ago at this time,we were sitting out there at Tom's Watch
Bar, and we were getting readyto not only give away tickets to an
Astros game, but to send youguys over there on their free shuttle.
And that is something that they offerwhenever the Astros are at home. Now
they're in Anaheim right now, obviously, but before you know it, they'll
be back in town again and you'llbe sitting there on the corner of Caroline
and Polk saying, you know whatthis really is, Downtown's ultimate sports bar.
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I think I would like to takea free shuttle to and from the
Astros game tonight, and they'll belike, go ahead, we've got it.
See that little van there, black, he's got a Tom's Watch Bar
magnet right there on the door.That's the one hop on Hopefully you parked
at the Green Street garage. Wecan validate your parkin for that for you,
right here and there's your free shuttle. Head on over the ball game,
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Come on back on the same shuttleto Tom's Watch Bar after the game
and enjoy even more of what Tom'shas to offer. They have all sorts
of great things on the menu,a couple of different Chrispy Chicken sandwiches,
all sorts of wings, tacos,burgers, all great stuff you want,
and plenty to wash it down withright behind the bar. Plenty of cocktails,
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buy one, get one drink specialsof course, plenty from the tap
both inside and out. Great seating. It is truly Downtown's ultimate sports bar.
It's on the corner of Caroline andPolk. That's twelve oh one Caroline
Street for Tom's Watch Bar. Backto Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler. The
A Team. It is the ATeam here on Sports Talks seven ninety Friday
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edition of the program, which meansmore often than that, we are joined
by Jeff Blum, Ros Space CityHome Network analyst. He is an Anaheim
where the Astros will send fromber tothe Mound tonight for the first of three
in a row against the Angels.As we yesterday, we're trying to figure
this out and Wex could remember becauseyou know, he slept since then,
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and I could have sworn, likethe Astros dropped two out of three to
the Angels the last time they playedthis team, right, and he was
pretty sure they had won two outof three, But we looked it up
and they had and it was verydisappointing, as a lot of things have
been this season with this team.But Astros, as I said yesterday,
I like this trio going in tonightto start a three game set. I
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like the three in a row thatyou're gonna send to the mound. And
Fromber he's not yet twenty twenty twoFromber, but I feel like he's more
consistent this year, even with someof the mishaps, than he was a
year ago at this time. Yeah, I agree with you, and you
know, just to stay on thisb match of American League West Division rivals.
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I guess is the fact that theAstros outscored the Angels fifteen to fourteen
and still lost about three. That'sprobably the concerning part about that last series.
But I agree with you in thesense that they are kind of starting
out in pretty good shape. WithFromber going out there. I think he
has been a little more consistent.You know, he's shown flashes of oh
(15:24):
my gosh, what's going on,But at the same time, I feel
like there's been more good Fromber.But you know, the one inning blow
ups this season seemed to be exaggeratedbecause you know, the Astros offense has
been so inconsistent as well. ButI hope that he gets back to pitching
extremely well. I know he racksup a ton of strikeouts against this team,
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and you just look at this rosterof the I don't mean to giggle,
but I guess we're in Houston soI can a little bit. But
this Angels roster, I'm not impressedat all with what they're bringing out there.
You don't have my you don't haveAnthony ren Dome, Shoho, Tawny's
gone. You've got guys that areunderperforming throughout that lineup. And if you
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you know, if you look atthat roster and how they do match up
with what Fromber's doing, you know, but really the only guy you got
to worry about is Taylor Ward,who has decent numbers against him, But
at the same time, Fromber isgood enough that when he's dialed in,
locked in, ready to go,out there and fire that he's he can
beat anybody in the league. He'sproven that over and over again. It's
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just a matter of letting his stuffplay inside the zone and using that defense
behind him. And if he doesthat, he's going to pitch deep in
the ball games like you did lasttime out. Yeah, we don't talk
much about the other side of itwith Fromber and each of the other four
starters, but each individually, howdo you like what you've seen or how
do you feel about what you've seenfrom both join or die as the catcher
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and Victor Karattini the catcher and gamecaller and everything that goes into it.
Defensively, I'll tell you what Imean knowing just a little bit about Victor
carry Ty and what he brought tothe table. You know, he's labeled
as a veteran that's going to comein. He's not going to rock the
boat. He's going to know hisrole. He's gonna let Yer go out
there and do his thing. Butat the same time, I think Tara
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Keene's got a little chip on hisshoulder and I kind of enjoy that.
When guys are on the bench likeMauricio Dubon that are like, hey,
man, you know what, Imay be on the bench, but I
still contribute and help this team win. And I feel like that's where Victor's
kind of gotten to as he settledin with the Astros. And I mean,
I would expect him probably to becatching tonight, to be honest with
you, because he's had some goodoutings with Promber on the mound, and
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if he's able to go out thereand do that and have some fun with
Promber out there, should be anothergood evening. But he's a good he's
a good game caller. He framesup pitches at that you know, every
once in a while, I thinkhe knows when to go out and have
talks with the pitchers. And he'sa good clubhouse guy. And I'll tell
you what, every once in awhile he'll surprise you and jump you and
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shoot you out of the ballpark,which is kind of fun to see too.
But he plays the game right.You know, runners at third base,
less than two outs, he'll goout there and get that sacrifice fly.
He'll give up is it bad forthe greater good of the team.
And that's what I like about Victor. Karattini's a real team guy. What
kind of takes me just kind ofoff that topic, but to one of
their games at the near the endof this homestand the win they had in
(18:15):
the in the final series at productiveouts. He had one of two sack
flies in the same game, andthose came in the same game. They
brought home two runs in the firstinning on back to back groundouts. It's
like their whole season of not beingable to do it, they got them
all in one game. It's true, and you just kind of hope that,
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you know, it shines an exampleon you know, you get for
six innings, you can play thegame however you want, analytically, power,
whatever you want to call it.You know, you can go out
there and play for the three runhome run for six innings. But I
think if you're playing some type ballgames and you've got the back end of
your bullpen performing the way that theyhave been here in the last couple of
days, is that you can youcan from seventh, eight to ninth,
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or especially at home when you reallyjust want to play two and a half
more innings and just get out ofthere. Is play that play that game
that's in front of you. Playthe game of baseball as it presents itself.
And that's kind of what you've seenwith Jeremy Payne, That's what you've
seen with Caratini, And like yousaid, that's with a couple of sack
flies recognizing that there's a guy atthird base less than two outs the defense,
you know, the infield defense isback, or if it's up,
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I've just got to find something Ican drive hard through the through the infield
or into the outfield and will bein good shape. Or like Jeremy Paine,
you with a runner in motion,just hitting behind that runner really kind
of creating pressure on the defense,and I think they saw that. You
know what, in moments, whenyou're able to do that, you know,
the baseball gods will shine down onthe end, give you some opportunities
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and you'll take advantage of them.Talking to Jeff Blum here on Sports Talk
seven to ninety Friday edition of theeighteen the Anaheim Angels first of three straight
this weekend tonight in Southern California.That's where Blum is right now. You
can pick a guy in the lineupwho has had a slump, prolonged or
otherwise at some point this season,and we know who. The usual suspects
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have been a couple of guys atthe top of the lineup though, that
are kind of trending in different directionsand just what you've seen from them,
uh to kind of contribute to wherethey stand right now in the last week
since we've spoken. The first one, obviously is Alex Bregman. The other
one Jose Altuve. I think Alexhas kind of found that that how do
(20:33):
you describe it. He's he's foundkind of that entry point into the strike
zone where I think he feels comfortablethat he can cover multiple pitches all over
this all over the plate, youknow. Uh, when he started taking
fastballs up the middle and the otherway with authority and then started to pull
some of the hanging slider and offspeed pitches, I think that kind of
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showed me that he's he's got he'sgot a very good game plan getting into
the box. But then he hasthis little like hitch in his swing where
he flattens the bat. And Ithink when he's able to flatten that bat,
he gets into the zone so muchbetter and stays through the zone so
much better. So I think he'skind of maybe cracked the code on a
swing, hopefully for the time beingand for an extended amount of time,
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to be honest with you, togo out there and help this ball club,
go out there and score a tonof runs. And then Josel Tuova,
he's so meterial and interesting to watchbecause he can break a bat on
the first pitch of the game andthen get two hits later on in the
game, and it baffles me.He doesn't let some of those horrifically awful
(21:36):
swings that we see him take everaffect his vats. He just says,
I'm going to go out there andtry and you know, get the barrel
to the ball any way I can. And I think once he's he starts
realizing that driving the ball the otherway, getting deeper into counts makes him
a better player. It makes theAstros a better team as well, because
you know that if you're struggling,you'll see guys go out there and swing
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earlier in counts. I think whenyou don't see them struggling is when they
see more pitches. And some ofthe more productive at bast Round two they
recently have been when he's taken morepitches. Talking about those two players specifically
since the Mexico City reboot, wherethe Astros are twenty one and sixteen,
Altwovey hitting two forty five with asix twenty six OPS and tied for first
(22:19):
in strikeouts. Hee and John Singletoneach have struck out thirty two times in
those thirty seven games during that spanfor the Astros. But as you open
with your Bregman talk, Bregman's gota seven to seventy eight OPS during that
time. He is tied for firston the team in RBI, he is
second on the team in homers,He's tied for second on the team in
extra base hits. That's the Bregmanthey win baseball games with. But as
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Ac and I have kind of Iwouldn't say we've joked about, We've just
noted it, and I'm sure youand TK have done the same. It's
like they have a certain number ofhits available. They have a certain number
of players that are allowed to begoing well at one time, and it
doesn't have to be the same players, but it just can't be all the
players. If somebody's up, thenit seems like somebody else is down.
And if two guys are up well, then two guys are down. And
(23:07):
I think it quite simply, probablyyou'd agree, encapsulates their why they're seven
under no. I think that's actuallya really good point because it kind of
goes back to what we were talkingabout in that first segment where it's like
the pitching has been really good,but the offense hasn't shown up. The
offense shows up and puts up sixto seven runs, don't lose, we
don't win the game because the pitchingculters in one inning. So that kind
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of goes to your point, islike, even though the lineup scores some
runs, it hasn't been every guyone through nine, it's been pockets.
We'll see pockets of one through threeor going out there dominating the game,
putting up the runs, getting allthe hits. Then the next day it
will be the bottom three, seven, eight, nine in the order of
getting all the hits and putting upthe runs, and it's just not enough.
We haven't seen that true traditional onethrough nine go out there and put
(23:55):
up, like you said, juststringing together runs. And when we do,
it feels like it's only like oncea week, once every other week.
It's not during the series where theyjust go out there and just manhandle
a team and destroy him and breakhearts, and it's going to be even
tougher now depending on you know,is Alex going to be back in the
lineup, Is Kyle Tucker going tobe back in the lineup? Are they
going to try and you know,uh, tread water until those guys get
(24:17):
back in the lineup and are healthy. Talking to Jeff Blum here on Sports
Talk seven ninety about a half hourin the books, We've got another half
hour with him to go here inthe first hour of a Friday edition of
the show. And as is usuallythe case, we like to tell you
guys about well, something that willmight make your life better, especially when
it comes to the Wi Fi inyour home. While the wall Wi Fi
(24:37):
from Infinity available right now in threeways to get your hands on it.
What you want though, and Blumwill tell you this fast speeds throughout your
home, and a reliable connection inevery single room. There's nothing worse than
going to someone's house and you findout that they're living like a third world
citizen because they don't have a reliableconnection in every single room. That's the
worst, Jeff. Don't you justwant to leave that person's house when you
(25:00):
go to a house like that.Yeah, it's actually funny you say.
Is now being for a couple ofdays now, I do actually understand exactly
what you're talking about. Being awayfrom what I've become accustomed to when I'm
at home is having that wall towall Wi Fi. I can find any
pocket in my house, I'm gonnabe covered, and I'm gonna have the
speed that I absolutely need to beable to stream a video, to be
able to look up the numbers Ineed to look up for these Astros games,
(25:23):
or just let my kids wander offinto a corner of their own and
watch their own stuff while they tryand keep it quiet for Mama and I
later in the evening. But yeah, Waldwall Exfinity is something I definitely miss
while I'm on the road, absolutely, And you can get it on the
Exfinity ten G network and you mightnot even travel as much as Blum does.
You can enjoy it more than hedoes. Waldawall Wi Fi in your
(25:44):
home now through the twenty first ofthis month, Astros fans can get started
with gig speed Internet for twenty fivebucks a month for two years with no
annual contract. In free Wi Fiequipment included when you add unlimited Mobile.
Go to Exfinity dot com, callone eight hundred exters, or visit a
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(26:07):
There's a space City Home Network's ToddKallis, there's the A team. You
got him. It's Adam Clinton andAdam Wesler Clanton. Stop impersonating me on
Sports Talk. See it is theeighteen here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
We'll try not to impersonate TK overthe course of the next half hour as
(26:27):
we are joined by his broadcast partnerBlummer with us as per usual. By
the way, did you guys Isaw some of the players, like I
think Jordan went to disney World orDisneyland while you guys were out there,
because you guys traveled the day before. Did you and TK get some golf
in as you like to do.No, I avoided everybody. Oh I
(26:51):
love it. That's awesome. You'relike being a hermit right now, aren't
you. Yeah. Well, theonly person that won't be surprised my wife.
But no, yesterday it was agood day. It was an off
day, and I can't attest tothe fact that your don obviously has his
family out here, unless your donereally likes framming himself into those small seats
(27:14):
on the rides. But I thinkthat he took his kids over there because
I saw him at breakfast today andthey all had, you know, the
the Mickey Mouse ears and all theparaphernalia that you accrue when you take your
kids over there, like like wedid when we were living here for so
long. And so he had ahe had a good time. I had
a very good time. I gotto wake up and work out because you
(27:36):
know, this body needs it.And then uh, I actually I had
lunch with my podcast buddy, DavidTuttele. Oh yeah, and yeah,
so we we little brainstorming a little, like you know, he's he's kind
of nudging me to get this podcastthing going again. So you know,
don't hold your breath, but don'tbe shocked if something you know, pops
(27:56):
onto the airwaves later on, youknow, in a month. Yeah,
you and and the aforementioned stone calledSteve Austin have been slacking on your respective
podcasts. But you know he's out. He's out, like racing Kawasaki's right
now. I don't know what yourexcuse is blumber. He's got a way
better excuse. I'm just flat outlazy. And it's funny because like Tuddles,
(28:18):
like Tuddles got the energy of likea twenty five year old, and
I'm just like the curmudgeon that's like, Dude, I'm so tired from getting
off the plane. Bro, It'slike, I'm so tired, and you
know, it's just laziness. It'sa poor excuse. I need to get
off my ass and actually do somethingother than call astro games every single day.
(28:38):
Wax, how are you going tofollow that? Are there any baseball
memories playing out in U against thewhatever they were called at the time you
and your team's played against the teamin LA that's not the Dodgers, you
know what. I have limited experienceagainst the Los Angeles Angels at the base
of San Gabriel, Mountain Valley Angelswhat they're called. But yeah, I
(29:03):
think when I was playing, theywere actually the Anaheim Angels. And No,
the one thing I vividly remember iswe came through with Tampa, that
wonderful team, and my favorite manageris that Eduardo Perez Blue was a key
trying to run out a double that'sthe only thing I remember from the time
(29:25):
that I played here. I thinkI had like a I think I hit
a double, like a basis clearingdouble or something like that. The other
thing I do remember is that fivewe clinched a certain something out here that
year. So I'll lay off thatthat's unfortunate. What set me up for
that? Man, I didn't knowwhere. I wish you'd been sent packing
(29:47):
blom. I did know that therewas limited experience out in Anaheim over your
career, because I couldn't myself findanything of great substance that took place when
you're out there, just one ofthe ballparks that you just didn't have a
whole lot of experience, and overthe course of your career, despite playing
for a long time and for anumber of teams, it's rare that there
is something like that when we getinto some of your playing days and you
(30:07):
know, there's a couple of thingsthat happen over the course of the year
every year for pretty much every team, and this team is no different.
You know, guys get get afirst here or maybe something memorable that stays
with them for the course of theircareer. And I'm sure they'll remember it
when you know we've asked you youryour first home or your first this is
well in football, it's easy.And we just went through mini camp with
(30:29):
the Texans and we'll get to someof their rookie saying what was your welcome
to the NFL moment? I don'tthink that's a question we've asked you before
because in baseball I almost feel like, you know, when you walk in
the clubhouse, that's kind of themoment. But is there something like that
for you in a game on thefield, you're welcome to the major's moment?
(30:51):
Yeah, we'll shoot other than theyou know, the first time the
Atlanta Braves came through Montreal in nineteenninety nine and I proceeded to, you
know, go zero for twelve againstGlavin Smoltz, you know, Maddox,
you know that was a great youknow, welcome to the show. This
is how it's going to be inthe in the in the National League East.
(31:11):
But there was a moment in DodgerStadium when Kevin Brown was still playing
there, and it might have beenninety nine, two thousand and I remember,
you know, hearing all these storieswatching them on TV, and I'm
just going, Okay, this guy, he's turbo sinker, you know,
he's jacked out of his mind,wearing a you know, a huge medium
out of the team store, andhe's grunting and huffing and puffing. And
(31:36):
I stepped in. I saw thefirst pitch and I was like, this
guy's got nothing, man, AndI proceeded to hit a rocket into the
five and a half hole and freakingMark Grudgslennik lays out, makes this ridiculous
play on me, and I'm like, I can't wait till my next at
bat against Kevin Brown. I'm gonnago get his ass. And he proceeds
(31:56):
to grab the ball back from thecatcher as I'm walking up, and you
can hear him breathing, and I'mgoing, man, we're in Dodger Stadium
and there's like forty thousand people here. This guy, he seems a little
ticked off. The first pitch wamlike ninety four on the inside corner and
just like stands me up and I'mlike, all right, that guy here
a little quick, And I proceededto take the next three pitches right down
(32:19):
the middle at they were ninety threemile an hour split fingers and he drops
an f yeah, as I'm walkingback and I'm like, all right,
hey, I look forward to mynext bet against that guy. That guy
steered the living tall at of me, man if I have it right.
That was September fourteenth of nineteen ninetynine, and neither team went to their
(32:42):
bullpen that day. Kate Brown wentfull game in a loss to your expos
because Hobby Vasquez threw a one hitteragainst the Dodgers and you guys won.
Hey, you know what I mean. We all know Kevin Brown. Hobby
or Vasquez was a dude. Thatguy was, and he still works for
the Union. I get to seehim every once in a while and we
(33:04):
reminisced about some of those Montreal teams. But I think that's a guy.
I'm not sure what the career numbersare, but that guy could compete and
he was awesome and a great teammate. But Hobby Basquez is the guy that
probably should be talked about a littlebit more. I liked him well.
The description of your second at batagainst Kevin Brown in that game sounds like
every at bat by the ninety eightAstros in the playoffs the year prior,
(33:27):
so thanks for all of the memories. This segment of Astro lawyers such for
all of us the baseball was hardenough to hear, but I enjoyed the
segment anyway because he couldn't be morecorrect about Brown's choice of two small clothing.
That guy, he has a vastselene himself to get into his uniform.
(33:49):
Man. He and Liam Hendricks,they like this mediums. Walker Buehler
likes to paint his pants on.That's true. He looks like some of
these softball players we're seeing right nowwith his uniform. Disgusting. All right,
it's better. It's better when it'sthe ladies. Anyway. One more
segment with Blummer live from Anaheim hereon Sports Talk seven ninety. As we
continue on a Friday edition of theeighteen, I want to tell you guys
(34:12):
real quick, as you're heading intothe weekend, you got a lot going
on. Summer is here, Thekids are home, maybe they're graduating like
my oldest, and you want achecking account that's going to work for you
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And look, before you know it, gas prices will be going up.
All that good stuff that comes withthe summer. You want a checking
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your weekend started off the right wayis go to their website. Visit PRIMEWAYFCU
(35:22):
dot com today. That's PRIMEWAYFCU dotcom. Adam and Adam are so Houston
and even though they don't smoke,they still have twenty five lighters on their
addresser. Live bit Mike, Yes, sir, They've got to get paid,
hey Pa. So back to it, guys. Friday is three to
(35:45):
four. Jeff Blum joins us hereon the A team and is here with
us for a final segment of thisweek's worth of program. A couple hours
more with us, and then acouple hours from then, first pitch with
the Angels and the Astros is theAstros try to well flip the tables on
the Angel keep them looking up atHouston, and give the Astros a chance
to make their way up in thestandings. There are a host of teams
(36:06):
and the wildcard race that clearly areahead of Houston. Houston sits with the
twelfth best record in the American League. Current wild card picture includes the Orioles,
Royals, and Twins. The bottomthree teams inside the six team American
League playoff picture. The bottom threemeeting the team with the three worst records
are the Astros Division leader, theMariners, the Royals and the Twins,
(36:29):
and Jeff. The Astros have obviouslyseen each of those teams. They have
a pair of series against. TheMariners have seen the Royals and Twins once
a piece. In that those arethe teams most likely that the Astros can
or will catch if they claim oneof the six playoff spots. Maybe an
assessment of what you think of thosethree teams and the brief spots that you've
(36:50):
seen from them, starting with themost recent one Minnesota Mines beatable. I
think there's a track record there forthe Astro was playing against them, and
you know, maybe in Minnesota's tryingto turn that around to know that Carlos
kre is trying to you know,reidentify what the Minnesota Twins do. But
after what I saw from Pablo Lopez, I don't I think there might be
(37:12):
a little concern with that starting rotation. The idea against them is just to
stay away from the back end oftheir bullpen. You know, having dran
coming out of there and lighten thingsup is usually a bad thing for your
ball club. So if you canavoid that, get leads early and tack
on, you should be okay.And I don't think there's really that big
fear factor of going to play ina place like Minnesota either. But I
(37:35):
think that you know, that division'sgotten a little bit tougher and the way
the Guardians are playing, the waythe Royals are playing, You may may
not think about the Minnesota Twins asbeing that identify a little team that you
need to go out there and beI think that they'll end up being pushed
by the wayside, to be honestwith you, just because I like the
Royals, I like the Guardians andwhat they're doing. The Baltimore Orioles,
(37:59):
they're crazy good. I think thatthey're going to be able to sustain themselves
and they have enough in their systemto be able to go get more if
they feel that they need it.The only thing that's lacking on some of
these teams the playoff experience in thatmental fortitude to win down the stretch where
I think the Astros on paper ormight be better teams than these teams,
but they definitely have an advantage asfar as what's inside their skulls and the
(38:22):
experience that they have playing in thesekind of pressure situations. And I hope
that really starts to come to theforefront when they start playing teams like the
Angels, the Giants, the Tigers, and the White Sox. This is
a real opportunity for them to getback in the mix. Yeah, those
three teams specifically that I mentioned thatare at the bottom of the top of
the standings. They're all under fivehundred against teams over five hundred. Granted,
(38:44):
the Astros are too, but theTwins are fifteen and twenty five playing
teams over five hundred. The Royalsare fourteen and sixteen, the Mariners are
twelve and fifteen. A lot ofseason left, roughly one hundred games to
go. Just internally, we didn'task you about this, the way that
Espada has handled things with a rosterfull and healthy up until the Tucker and
(39:05):
Bregman injuries, obviously, but findingspots for guys to hit, giving enough
at bats to chas McCormick to tryto help him out of his slump,
versus we're trying to put the bestline up out there, And the same
thing is clearly happening to some sortwith their first base position, with John
Singleton and Jose Abrey, who againas active teammates, are both struggling to
find hits, just like they didbefore they weren't both active teammates. How
(39:30):
do you think Joe and maybe Danato a certain extent of handled things and
what do you kind of forecast overthe next couple of series, oh Man
I mean, you're talking about aload of ques. Thanks Wex. I
think what he's done is is hardbecause there's so much focus quite clearly out
there. And I agree with you. I've just given you a hard time
(39:52):
because that is a tough question becauseyou fished that question with the initial issue
that might be out there is howlong do you do you go with the
first base experiment? Because if youwhen you have a Brady on this roster,
it limits the opportunities to get otherguys in there, and you really
have to be creative, which Ithink Joe has been. And then,
(40:14):
like you said, you if youfeel that you need a bat like Chas
McCormick to get going, how doyou get him in there? And I
mean that's why we've seen more ofyour Don Alvarez in left field, which
I would imagine he might be playingthere tonight with Fromber on the bump because
Bromber is such a heavy ground ballguy. Opens up an opportunity for a
DH to either get John Singleton inthere against Griffin Canning, or it opens
(40:36):
up an opportunity to give Yaner Diezmaybe an opportunity to VIDH because he's been
swinging the bat so well recently,you know. So it's it's tough to
massage the roster the way it is. And Cabbage is swinging the bat well
and he gets to go back andhave revenge at bats against the team that
let him go kind of things.So there's a lot in play right here.
But I think the creativity is reallygoing to kind of test Joe's ability
(40:59):
to see if he can get Chasgoing, because you've got all issues with
You've got to get Yer in there. He's swinging the bat well. Trey
Cabbage is a good left handed badinto the pitcher that has terrible splits against
left handed our hitters. Tonight,Chaz Jake Myers is swinging a bat well
in the outfield. And oh,by the way, there's a guy named
Mauricio Dubon who gets a hit everydamn time he comes into the game no
(41:22):
matter where he's playing. And Mauriciomight be playing third base tonight, because
we don't know if Alex Bragman isready to go. So it's really interesting.
But at the same time, youknow, how how far how far
into this do you feel that youcan go with a bray you're not producing
at the level maybe you want,I think, is the question. And
(41:43):
that's that's probably the toughest question forDana, toughest question for Joe. A
spot is is the answer to thatquestion? That's what I'm kind of curious
about, to be honest, Yeah, I think we all are. And
it is a situation where, uh, they focus so squarely on one individual
in a season where, in myopinion, it so clearly should not be.
It's kind of more what I wasgetting at, and I understand the
(42:06):
difficulties that so many players have had. That's why the team is in this
situation. That's why they're struggling tofind a regular lineup. That's why we
see the number of lineups used thisyear approaching sixty and we haven't even played
game seventy yet. So there area lot of things that play here in
the Astros in addition to all thoseoffensive issues. We'll try to again make
through the next couple of weeks withthe current five man rotation, beginning tonight
(42:28):
with from Bravaldez. Of course,catch that game right here on your home
for Astros Baseball, Sports Talk sevento ninety and your home for Astros Baseball
on the telly right there on SpaceCity Home Network with TK and Jeff and
Julia this evening. As always,Jeff, we appreciate the time and certainly
appreciate those who make it possible.No always great being on with you guys,
And I owe it to Jeff Witsitand his Vision group for allowing me
(42:52):
the opportunity to come on here.Obviously me getting up there in age.
I've gone in there and had myvision check, making sure that everything's all
dialed in and ready to go.But I know if anything goes sideways or
I need to help Jeff widgets whereI'm going to go. Doctor Jeff is
a guy that will sit down andhave a face to face consultation with you.
He's been on the cutting edge ofall the lasic work and now he's
(43:12):
doing multifocal lens surgeries and as faras lasik, he's done up over fifty
thousand those surgeries, so he's wellversed in how to make sure that get
right and do that like the wayit should be done. And of course
low T Center I talked about workingout earlier. The reason I wake up
every day ready to go and notsoar and getting a good night's rest is
because I went and got my testosteronelevels checked at low T Center and they
(43:37):
informed me that I needed some help. So I went in there and they
helped me out. Every week Igo in for about fifteen twenty minutes and
get my level checked to every rightwhere I need to be. So check
out low tcenter dot com. AndI appreciate you guys having me on man,
we love having you. We're lookingforward to get to it again next
week and enjoy Southern California this weekend. You know I will absolutely Jeff Blum
(44:00):
here on the eight Team Sports Talkseven ninety
You look at it, look atit, at it. Oh yeah,
this is radio. You listen toit on Sports Talk seven ninety astro's broadcaster
Jeff Blum on seven ninety. Itis brought to you by Low D Center
live from Anaheim. It's the JeffBlum Show here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
(00:26):
also known as the eighteen Friday FirstHour. What's up, Blummer?
How are you? I'm fantastic andyou're damn right. It's my first hour,
it's your first hour. We're justhere keeping you company. It's your
show. What's up, buddy?How are How are things in southern California?
They're good, nice, cool marinelayer just hovering over the coast like
(00:49):
it does every June, and it'syou know, everybody screams, oh Sunday,
California. It's gorgeous, but Aprilshowers, May gray, June gloom,
and it's kind of befitting the city. I guess, yeah, not
the way you wanted to leave town. And obviously some some not unexpected but
albeit still very disappointing injury news pluralon your way out of town. I
(01:14):
know I ask you this every weekand we talk about it, and you
know, as a former player aswell. You kind of answer it the
same way you probably would have aswhen you played, is that the team
itself just keeps on grinding and it'sup to people like us to remind everybody
that the sky is falling. Withall the injuries to the pitchers, Yeah,
(01:36):
I'm kind of in a weird placeright now because normally I'm the guy
that jumps on here as like superpositive O Adam, you know, get
off the ledge kind of thing.But but you know, the injuries to
her, Katie and Javier and thenbeing done for the season, you know
it, it stirs up a littlebit of concern. I don't want to
say panic just yet, just becauseArraghetti, Hunter Brown and some of the
(02:00):
other rotation have been pitching extremely well, so it's kind of fun to watch
them go out there and do business. But at the same time, if
anything should go wrong or you needto go get some more depth, I'm
not sure where the Astros find it, and that's where the concern kind of
sets in. But at the sametime, you know, seeing Luis Garcia,
you know, throwing off the offthe mound, throwing some of those
skin sim games and kind of rampingup a little bit gives you some hope.
(02:23):
Watching Lance mccullors throw bullpens, youknow, gives you a little bit
of hope. But at the sametime, I feel like that hope is
kind of turning into necessity more orless, because you eventually you are going
to need that depth, just becauserag Getty hasn't pitched in a full Bay
League season where he's gone had togo twenty five thirty starts, and you
know, that's kind of where Isit right now, and I look at
(02:44):
the record, Like you said,getting out of town with a series win
is nice, but getting out ofthere winning that home stand would have been
that much better at one more stepcloser to where they need to be.
Because you're in June now, andJune is where the urgency kind of sets
in. You can't blame, youknow, the couple of months saying,
Hey, we're just trying to feelthings out. I'm trying to get my
swing right. You're two hundred batsinto the season, or you're ten to
(03:06):
twelve starts into the season and youneed to start seeing results. You're into
June where Jiner Diaz homers every game. Can that help balance things out?
You sure hope so, I mean, if he becomes yer all of a
sudden, that would definitely be aboon to the offense. But I don't,
you know, the offense has beenfantastic. It's just how often can
we see the pitching and the offensematch up and in complete a game?
(03:31):
You know, so often we've seenthe offense put a big numbers and the
pitching staff falters a little bit,or the pitching staff shuts out a team
and you just don't score enough runs. And I think that's where you need
to kind of figure out where you'reat right now. Is this the team
that can go out there and putthose two things together and win some ball
games down the stretch, because they'regonna have to play better than five hundred
baseball just to get back to fivehundred seven games under five hundred is play
(03:53):
begins tonight, three games with theAngels, followed by three games with the
Giants. They'll have another off daynext week, as they do this week,
a Thursday day off before a seriesagainst Detroit. It's only a three
game homestand before they go back outon the road to see the White Sox
for the first time this season,and again they will try to make their
way through the month, probably closeto the end of it, if not
(04:15):
a little further before anybody on theirroster that's on the sixty day il might
return, and that could potentially beLuis Garcia. And that's where what we
opened with the pitching injuries and theloss of both Arkety and Javier for the
season, the fact that JP Franzisn't currently an option either, as he
has not thrown in almost a fullmonth's time. They are hopeful that they
(04:39):
can merely stay healthy through those fifteentwenty twenty five games. However many it
takes before you hope Garcia is back, and I think Arkidi probably taught us
all that. Just because someone's takingall the necessary steps and there's literally only
one step left to take before herejoins the team, doesn't mean he will
he ends up not pitching for theAstros at all this year. Talking about
(05:00):
or Keatie, what kind of arethere any options that you think the Astros
truly could turn to that makes sensewithin the organization, should they that need
arise to get a start from somebodywho's not among the current five starters.
Not anybody that I know that hasstretched out, you know, And that's
(05:20):
kind of where I'm at. Idon't know. I mean, you guys
probably no better than I do.I'ven't been paying I mean, I've been
paying attention to the Space Cowboys,but at the same time, there haven't
been any names that really jump offthat roster where I say, yeah,
you can plug them in and you'llbe okay. Yeah, that's the situation
with I think this. If wewere sitting here in March, this likely
would have been around the time twoand a half months of minor league pitching.
(05:44):
Basically, we would have said,yeah, it probably makes some sense,
if needed, for Spencer Arraghetty tomake his major league debut, to
be the next guy in line.And clearly that gets accelerated dramatically when this
team had holes at the beginning ofthe season, and nearly every buddy that
at some point thought we would seethem pitching has had some sort of injury,
even Fromber obviously, even JV.Hunter Brown's been able to answer the
(06:08):
call every time he's gotten it.And that's kind of where I think things
have turned the focus on the twoyounger pitchers because I don't even feel like
Blanco fits into that category because Ahe's not young, and B he's been
ridiculously good. But these two youngpitchers, it seemed like there was time
to put major pressure on them tostay in the rotation, and it immediately
flipped into pressure to pitch this teamin position to win every time they got
(06:31):
the ball, and right when thathappened, about three or four starts to
go for each of them. Theyhave answered it in an extremely positive way.
What do you think about the mentalside of their ability to kind of
meet that challenge and help this team. It's been a lot of fun to
watch, to be honest with you, you know, I've become a big
fan of Spencer er Getty just gettingto know him and watching him go out
(06:54):
there and compete. And then obviouslyI've been a big fan of Hunter Brown,
but he kind of got pushed againstthat perubial wall with some of the
numbers he was putting up, andthen there was the opportunity to not just
stay in the rotation, but toactually have to contribute, and he kind
of answered the belt after that outingin Detroit. So it's been kind of
fun to watch these guys, youknow, mature quickly right in front of
(07:16):
our eyes, and I think it'svery interesting to see what they're able to
do. Hunter Brown going tonight willbe, you know, it'll be a
lot of fun to watch and seeif he can stay aggressive with that fastball,
because I think in Detroit he kindof he altered the delivery a little
bit, and he also altered hisrepertoire a little bit, getting heavy on
that fastball and pitching into both righthanders and left handers, and he's kind
(07:38):
of developed a little bit of asplit pinter that's been pretty fun to watch.
So the ability of these guys tostep up and understand the situation and
perform is what's probably been most impressiveto me. And again, Spencer Arraghetty,
like you said to start the season, was probably just kind of a
rotation filler, or was a guythat was going to give you a six
man rotation if you needed to getthrough this last month where we played twenty
(08:01):
nine games in thirty days and youjust needed to give guys a break.
Now he is a guy. Heis the fifth starter in the Astros rotation
as they try and you bounce backin this division and try and make a
run down the stretch as we getthrough the middle part of the season.
But I think what also is goingto help these guys out a little bit
as you did get through the toughstretch, this month is going to have
(08:24):
those off days once a week whereyou're going to be able to rebound and
add that extra day in between startsto be able to give these guys the
opportunity to get their work in,recover and game plan and get ready for
their next start. So hopefully thisthis month right here, considering the days
off and the competition they have,this could be a big month for the
Destros to make a move on ascale of it's kind of neat to I
(08:45):
absolutely freaking love it. How wouldyou rate arag Getty's post strikeout strut.
I'm kind of I'm glad you guysare noticing that. I'm trying to talk
TK and direct. I'm like,dude, Spaghetti's got a little action after
he punches a guy out, andI'm kind of digging it. I feel
like we're cutting away from it alittle bit, maybe so fans at home
can't see it, but we mayhave to encourage the Arragetty shrut after the
(09:09):
cake because I see it too.Man, that hair starts flowing and that
walk gets up a little bit moreon the toes. I'm kind of digging
it. The best strut we've seensince Chris Devinsky's when deebo is carrying his
luggage off the field. That wasone of my favorites of all time.
And he had two fifty pound suitcasesthat he was taking off off off the
(09:31):
mound when he struck guys out.So that'll be a lot to live up
to. But Irragety's got a littlebit different, you know, style to
him because he's got that lettuce comingout the back. Yeah, Davinsky reminded
me of Stone called Steve Austin comingdown the ramp with the old Titan tron
behind him. That was late ninetiesattitude, Steve Austin. But you know,
as it pertains to the actual baseballAnd I don't mean I don't mean
(09:52):
their styles or their their approaches ortheir repertoire. I just mean, for
the sake of their what's the differencebetween twenty twenty four Spencer Arraghetty and twenty
twenty three JP France Man the JPFrance. And this is going to sound
(10:13):
terrible, and it's not a knockon JP France. But stuff. I
think Spencer's got better stuff, andI think Spencer in twenty twenty four is
learning how to use his stuff.And I think one of the question marks
around Spencer has maybe been does hehave you know, he's young, does
he have the mental makeup to competeat this level? And I think this
(10:35):
turnaround that we've seen in the seasonkind of gives you the idea that he
wants to go out there and bea guy. He wants to compete,
and he's showing that he can compete. So that's kind of where we're starting
to see Ragetty become a well roundedstarter in the Astros rotation because he can
go compete. He's got the stuff. You know, if the sweeper's not
(10:56):
working one day, he can workthe curve ball the next day. So
he's got a little more repertoire asfar as I'm concerned to go get guys
out, and I think he's gothe's got a you know, he's got
a similar mentality to what JP showedme last year. Because JP was a
guy that you expected to be agrinder. You never you know, you
heard that he had adequate stuff topitch at the big league level. But
(11:16):
it was his mind and his heartand his will to go out there and
compete is what made him maybe aqualified you know, four or five in
your rotation because he didn't give acrap who you were at the plate.
He didn't give a crap if youthought his stuff was good or not.
He was going to go out thereand battle you every at bat. And
I think that's where we kind ofendeared ourselves to JP France, was the
fact that he was kind of theeveryday pitcher who had had good enough stuff
(11:41):
but didn't have you know, putaway, wipeout type stuff, and he
still went out there and competed andhelped the Astros get to the playoffs.
Yeah, a lot of teams haveto have guys step up in certain roles,
and a lot of times that ispitching, and a lot of times
that's in the rotation. But ithas been fascinating to see just specifically those
two over the past respective two seasonsdo that for the Astros, And I
(12:05):
agree with you, Like Spencer A. Gay, I actually get excited for
his starts because of what you're talkingabout, and hopefully that continues to be
the case. We're talking to JeffBlum Space City Home Network. It's almost
a Rockets analyst, Astros analyst,and of course former player, and we've
got him until the top of thehours. We continue here on a Friday
edition of the A Team here onSports Talk seven ninety. You know,
(12:26):
a week ago at this time,we were sitting out there at Tom's Watch
Bar, and we were getting readyto not only give away tickets to an
Astros game, but to send youguys over there on their free shuttle.
And that is something that they offerwhenever the Astros are at home. Now
they're in Anaheim right now, obviously, but before you know it, they'll
be back in town again and you'llbe sitting there on the corner of Caroline
and Polk saying, you know whatthis really is, Downtown's ultimate sports bar.
(12:50):
I think I would like to takea free shuttle to and from the
Astros game tonight, and they'll belike, go ahead, we've got it.
See that little van there, black, he's got a Tom's Watch Bar
magnet right there on the door.That's the one hop on Hopefully you parked
at the Green Street garage. Wecan validate your parkin for that for you,
right here and there's your free shuttle. Head on over the ball game,
(13:11):
Come on back on the same shuttleto Tom's Watch Bar after the game
and enjoy even more of what Tom'shas to offer. They have all sorts
of great things on the menu,a couple of different Chrispy Chicken sandwiches,
all sorts of wings, tacos,burgers, all great stuff you want,
and plenty to wash it down withright behind the bar. Plenty of cocktails,
(13:31):
buy one, get one drink specialsof course, plenty from the tap
both inside and out. Great seating. It is truly Downtown's ultimate sports bar.
It's on the corner of Caroline andPolk. That's twelve oh one Caroline
Street for Tom's Watch Bar. Backto Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler. The
A Team. It is the ATeam here on Sports Talks seven ninety Friday
(13:54):
edition of the program, which meansmore often than that, we are joined
by Jeff Blum, Ros Space CityHome Network analyst. He is an Anaheim
where the Astros will send fromber tothe Mound tonight for the first of three
in a row against the Angels.As we yesterday, we're trying to figure
this out and Wex could remember becauseyou know, he slept since then,
(14:16):
and I could have sworn, likethe Astros dropped two out of three to
the Angels the last time they playedthis team, right, and he was
pretty sure they had won two outof three, But we looked it up
and they had and it was verydisappointing, as a lot of things have
been this season with this team.But Astros, as I said yesterday,
I like this trio going in tonightto start a three game set. I
(14:39):
like the three in a row thatyou're gonna send to the mound. And
Fromber he's not yet twenty twenty twoFromber, but I feel like he's more
consistent this year, even with someof the mishaps, than he was a
year ago at this time. Yeah, I agree with you, and you
know, just to stay on thisb match of American League West Division rivals.
(15:03):
I guess is the fact that theAstros outscored the Angels fifteen to fourteen
and still lost about three. That'sprobably the concerning part about that last series.
But I agree with you in thesense that they are kind of starting
out in pretty good shape. WithFromber going out there. I think he
has been a little more consistent.You know, he's shown flashes of oh
(15:24):
my gosh, what's going on,But at the same time, I feel
like there's been more good Fromber.But you know, the one inning blow
ups this season seemed to be exaggeratedbecause you know, the Astros offense has
been so inconsistent as well. ButI hope that he gets back to pitching
extremely well. I know he racksup a ton of strikeouts against this team,
(15:45):
and you just look at this rosterof the I don't mean to giggle,
but I guess we're in Houston soI can a little bit. But
this Angels roster, I'm not impressedat all with what they're bringing out there.
You don't have my you don't haveAnthony ren Dome, Shoho, Tawny's
gone. You've got guys that areunderperforming throughout that lineup. And if you
(16:07):
you know, if you look atthat roster and how they do match up
with what Fromber's doing, you know, but really the only guy you got
to worry about is Taylor Ward,who has decent numbers against him, But
at the same time, Fromber isgood enough that when he's dialed in,
locked in, ready to go,out there and fire that he's he can
beat anybody in the league. He'sproven that over and over again. It's
(16:29):
just a matter of letting his stuffplay inside the zone and using that defense
behind him. And if he doesthat, he's going to pitch deep in
the ball games like you did lasttime out. Yeah, we don't talk
much about the other side of itwith Fromber and each of the other four
starters, but each individually, howdo you like what you've seen or how
do you feel about what you've seenfrom both join or die as the catcher
(16:49):
and Victor Karattini the catcher and gamecaller and everything that goes into it.
Defensively, I'll tell you what Imean knowing just a little bit about Victor
carry Ty and what he brought tothe table. You know, he's labeled
as a veteran that's going to comein. He's not going to rock the
boat. He's going to know hisrole. He's gonna let Yer go out
there and do his thing. Butat the same time, I think Tara
(17:11):
Keene's got a little chip on hisshoulder and I kind of enjoy that.
When guys are on the bench likeMauricio Dubon that are like, hey,
man, you know what, Imay be on the bench, but I
still contribute and help this team win. And I feel like that's where Victor's
kind of gotten to as he settledin with the Astros. And I mean,
I would expect him probably to becatching tonight, to be honest with
you, because he's had some goodoutings with Promber on the mound, and
(17:33):
if he's able to go out thereand do that and have some fun with
Promber out there, should be anothergood evening. But he's a good he's
a good game caller. He framesup pitches at that you know, every
once in a while, I thinkhe knows when to go out and have
talks with the pitchers. And he'sa good clubhouse guy. And I'll tell
you what, every once in awhile he'll surprise you and jump you and
(17:55):
shoot you out of the ballpark,which is kind of fun to see too.
But he plays the game right.You know, runners at third base,
less than two outs, he'll goout there and get that sacrifice fly.
He'll give up is it bad forthe greater good of the team.
And that's what I like about Victor. Karattini's a real team guy. What
kind of takes me just kind ofoff that topic, but to one of
their games at the near the endof this homestand the win they had in
(18:15):
the in the final series at productiveouts. He had one of two sack
flies in the same game, andthose came in the same game. They
brought home two runs in the firstinning on back to back groundouts. It's
like their whole season of not beingable to do it, they got them
all in one game. It's true, and you just kind of hope that,
(18:36):
you know, it shines an exampleon you know, you get for
six innings, you can play thegame however you want, analytically, power,
whatever you want to call it.You know, you can go out
there and play for the three runhome run for six innings. But I
think if you're playing some type ballgames and you've got the back end of
your bullpen performing the way that theyhave been here in the last couple of
days, is that you can youcan from seventh, eight to ninth,
(19:00):
or especially at home when you reallyjust want to play two and a half
more innings and just get out ofthere. Is play that play that game
that's in front of you. Playthe game of baseball as it presents itself.
And that's kind of what you've seenwith Jeremy Payne, That's what you've
seen with Caratini, And like yousaid, that's with a couple of sack
flies recognizing that there's a guy atthird base less than two outs the defense,
you know, the infield defense isback, or if it's up,
(19:22):
I've just got to find something Ican drive hard through the through the infield
or into the outfield and will bein good shape. Or like Jeremy Paine,
you with a runner in motion,just hitting behind that runner really kind
of creating pressure on the defense,and I think they saw that. You
know what, in moments, whenyou're able to do that, you know,
the baseball gods will shine down onthe end, give you some opportunities
(19:45):
and you'll take advantage of them.Talking to Jeff Blum here on Sports Talk
seven to ninety Friday edition of theeighteen the Anaheim Angels first of three straight
this weekend tonight in Southern California.That's where Blum is right now. You
can pick a guy in the lineupwho has had a slump, prolonged or
otherwise at some point this season,and we know who. The usual suspects
(20:07):
have been a couple of guys atthe top of the lineup though, that
are kind of trending in different directionsand just what you've seen from them,
uh to kind of contribute to wherethey stand right now in the last week
since we've spoken. The first one, obviously is Alex Bregman. The other
one Jose Altuve. I think Alexhas kind of found that that how do
(20:33):
you describe it. He's he's foundkind of that entry point into the strike
zone where I think he feels comfortablethat he can cover multiple pitches all over
this all over the plate, youknow. Uh, when he started taking
fastballs up the middle and the otherway with authority and then started to pull
some of the hanging slider and offspeed pitches, I think that kind of
(20:55):
showed me that he's he's got he'sgot a very good game plan getting into
the box. But then he hasthis little like hitch in his swing where
he flattens the bat. And Ithink when he's able to flatten that bat,
he gets into the zone so muchbetter and stays through the zone so
much better. So I think he'skind of maybe cracked the code on a
swing, hopefully for the time beingand for an extended amount of time,
(21:15):
to be honest with you, togo out there and help this ball club,
go out there and score a tonof runs. And then Josel Tuova,
he's so meterial and interesting to watchbecause he can break a bat on
the first pitch of the game andthen get two hits later on in the
game, and it baffles me.He doesn't let some of those horrifically awful
(21:36):
swings that we see him take everaffect his vats. He just says,
I'm going to go out there andtry and you know, get the barrel
to the ball any way I can. And I think once he's he starts
realizing that driving the ball the otherway, getting deeper into counts makes him
a better player. It makes theAstros a better team as well, because
you know that if you're struggling,you'll see guys go out there and swing
(21:57):
earlier in counts. I think whenyou don't see them struggling is when they
see more pitches. And some ofthe more productive at bast Round two they
recently have been when he's taken morepitches. Talking about those two players specifically
since the Mexico City reboot, wherethe Astros are twenty one and sixteen,
Altwovey hitting two forty five with asix twenty six OPS and tied for first
(22:19):
in strikeouts. Hee and John Singletoneach have struck out thirty two times in
those thirty seven games during that spanfor the Astros. But as you open
with your Bregman talk, Bregman's gota seven to seventy eight OPS during that
time. He is tied for firston the team in RBI, he is
second on the team in homers,He's tied for second on the team in
extra base hits. That's the Bregmanthey win baseball games with. But as
(22:44):
Ac and I have kind of Iwouldn't say we've joked about, We've just
noted it, and I'm sure youand TK have done the same. It's
like they have a certain number ofhits available. They have a certain number
of players that are allowed to begoing well at one time, and it
doesn't have to be the same players, but it just can't be all the
players. If somebody's up, thenit seems like somebody else is down.
And if two guys are up well, then two guys are down. And
(23:07):
I think it quite simply, probablyyou'd agree, encapsulates their why they're seven
under no. I think that's actuallya really good point because it kind of
goes back to what we were talkingabout in that first segment where it's like
the pitching has been really good,but the offense hasn't shown up. The
offense shows up and puts up sixto seven runs, don't lose, we
don't win the game because the pitchingculters in one inning. So that kind
(23:30):
of goes to your point, islike, even though the lineup scores some
runs, it hasn't been every guyone through nine, it's been pockets.
We'll see pockets of one through threeor going out there dominating the game,
putting up the runs, getting allthe hits. Then the next day it
will be the bottom three, seven, eight, nine in the order of
getting all the hits and putting upthe runs, and it's just not enough.
We haven't seen that true traditional onethrough nine go out there and put
(23:55):
up, like you said, juststringing together runs. And when we do,
it feels like it's only like oncea week, once every other week.
It's not during the series where theyjust go out there and just manhandle
a team and destroy him and breakhearts, and it's going to be even
tougher now depending on you know,is Alex going to be back in the
lineup, Is Kyle Tucker going tobe back in the lineup? Are they
going to try and you know,uh, tread water until those guys get
(24:17):
back in the lineup and are healthy. Talking to Jeff Blum here on Sports
Talk seven ninety about a half hourin the books, We've got another half
hour with him to go here inthe first hour of a Friday edition of
the show. And as is usuallythe case, we like to tell you
guys about well, something that willmight make your life better, especially when
it comes to the Wi Fi inyour home. While the wall Wi Fi
(24:37):
from Infinity available right now in threeways to get your hands on it.
What you want though, and Blumwill tell you this fast speeds throughout your
home, and a reliable connection inevery single room. There's nothing worse than
going to someone's house and you findout that they're living like a third world
citizen because they don't have a reliableconnection in every single room. That's the
worst, Jeff. Don't you justwant to leave that person's house when you
(25:00):
go to a house like that.Yeah, it's actually funny you say.
Is now being for a couple ofdays now, I do actually understand exactly
what you're talking about. Being awayfrom what I've become accustomed to when I'm
at home is having that wall towall Wi Fi. I can find any
pocket in my house, I'm gonnabe covered, and I'm gonna have the
speed that I absolutely need to beable to stream a video, to be
able to look up the numbers Ineed to look up for these Astros games,
(25:23):
or just let my kids wander offinto a corner of their own and
watch their own stuff while they tryand keep it quiet for Mama and I
later in the evening. But yeah, Waldwall Exfinity is something I definitely miss
while I'm on the road, absolutely, And you can get it on the
Exfinity ten G network and you mightnot even travel as much as Blum does.
You can enjoy it more than hedoes. Waldawall Wi Fi in your
(25:44):
home now through the twenty first ofthis month, Astros fans can get started
with gig speed Internet for twenty fivebucks a month for two years with no
annual contract. In free Wi Fiequipment included when you add unlimited Mobile.
Go to Exfinity dot com, callone eight hundred exters, or visit a
store today. Be like Blummer Infinity, proud sponsor of your Houston Astros.
(26:07):
There's a space City Home Network's ToddKallis, there's the A team. You
got him. It's Adam Clinton andAdam Wesler Clanton. Stop impersonating me on
Sports Talk. See it is theeighteen here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
We'll try not to impersonate TK overthe course of the next half hour as
(26:27):
we are joined by his broadcast partnerBlummer with us as per usual. By
the way, did you guys Isaw some of the players, like I
think Jordan went to disney World orDisneyland while you guys were out there,
because you guys traveled the day before. Did you and TK get some golf
in as you like to do.No, I avoided everybody. Oh I
(26:51):
love it. That's awesome. You'relike being a hermit right now, aren't
you. Yeah. Well, theonly person that won't be surprised my wife.
But no, yesterday it was agood day. It was an off
day, and I can't attest tothe fact that your don obviously has his
family out here, unless your donereally likes framming himself into those small seats
(27:14):
on the rides. But I thinkthat he took his kids over there because
I saw him at breakfast today andthey all had, you know, the
the Mickey Mouse ears and all theparaphernalia that you accrue when you take your
kids over there, like like wedid when we were living here for so
long. And so he had ahe had a good time. I had
a very good time. I gotto wake up and work out because you
(27:36):
know, this body needs it.And then uh, I actually I had
lunch with my podcast buddy, DavidTuttele. Oh yeah, and yeah,
so we we little brainstorming a little, like you know, he's he's kind
of nudging me to get this podcastthing going again. So you know,
don't hold your breath, but don'tbe shocked if something you know, pops
(27:56):
onto the airwaves later on, youknow, in a month. Yeah,
you and and the aforementioned stone calledSteve Austin have been slacking on your respective
podcasts. But you know he's out. He's out, like racing Kawasaki's right
now. I don't know what yourexcuse is blumber. He's got a way
better excuse. I'm just flat outlazy. And it's funny because like Tuddles,
(28:18):
like Tuddles got the energy of likea twenty five year old, and
I'm just like the curmudgeon that's like, Dude, I'm so tired from getting
off the plane. Bro, It'slike, I'm so tired, and you
know, it's just laziness. It'sa poor excuse. I need to get
off my ass and actually do somethingother than call astro games every single day.
(28:38):
Wax, how are you going tofollow that? Are there any baseball
memories playing out in U against thewhatever they were called at the time you
and your team's played against the teamin LA that's not the Dodgers, you
know what. I have limited experienceagainst the Los Angeles Angels at the base
of San Gabriel, Mountain Valley Angelswhat they're called. But yeah, I
(29:03):
think when I was playing, theywere actually the Anaheim Angels. And No,
the one thing I vividly remember iswe came through with Tampa, that
wonderful team, and my favorite manageris that Eduardo Perez Blue was a key
trying to run out a double that'sthe only thing I remember from the time
(29:25):
that I played here. I thinkI had like a I think I hit
a double, like a basis clearingdouble or something like that. The other
thing I do remember is that fivewe clinched a certain something out here that
year. So I'll lay off thatthat's unfortunate. What set me up for
that? Man, I didn't knowwhere. I wish you'd been sent packing
(29:47):
blom. I did know that therewas limited experience out in Anaheim over your
career, because I couldn't myself findanything of great substance that took place when
you're out there, just one ofthe ballparks that you just didn't have a
whole lot of experience, and overthe course of your career, despite playing
for a long time and for anumber of teams, it's rare that there
is something like that when we getinto some of your playing days and you
(30:07):
know, there's a couple of thingsthat happen over the course of the year
every year for pretty much every team, and this team is no different.
You know, guys get get afirst here or maybe something memorable that stays
with them for the course of theircareer. And I'm sure they'll remember it
when you know we've asked you youryour first home or your first this is
well in football, it's easy.And we just went through mini camp with
(30:29):
the Texans and we'll get to someof their rookie saying what was your welcome
to the NFL moment? I don'tthink that's a question we've asked you before
because in baseball I almost feel like, you know, when you walk in
the clubhouse, that's kind of themoment. But is there something like that
for you in a game on thefield, you're welcome to the major's moment?
(30:51):
Yeah, we'll shoot other than theyou know, the first time the
Atlanta Braves came through Montreal in nineteenninety nine and I proceeded to, you
know, go zero for twelve againstGlavin Smoltz, you know, Maddox,
you know that was a great youknow, welcome to the show. This
is how it's going to be inthe in the in the National League East.
(31:11):
But there was a moment in DodgerStadium when Kevin Brown was still playing
there, and it might have beenninety nine, two thousand and I remember,
you know, hearing all these storieswatching them on TV, and I'm
just going, Okay, this guy, he's turbo sinker, you know,
he's jacked out of his mind,wearing a you know, a huge medium
out of the team store, andhe's grunting and huffing and puffing. And
(31:36):
I stepped in. I saw thefirst pitch and I was like, this
guy's got nothing, man, AndI proceeded to hit a rocket into the
five and a half hole and freakingMark Grudgslennik lays out, makes this ridiculous
play on me, and I'm like, I can't wait till my next at
bat against Kevin Brown. I'm gonnago get his ass. And he proceeds
(31:56):
to grab the ball back from thecatcher as I'm walking up, and you
can hear him breathing, and I'mgoing, man, we're in Dodger Stadium
and there's like forty thousand people here. This guy, he seems a little
ticked off. The first pitch wamlike ninety four on the inside corner and
just like stands me up and I'mlike, all right, that guy here
a little quick, And I proceededto take the next three pitches right down
(32:19):
the middle at they were ninety threemile an hour split fingers and he drops
an f yeah, as I'm walkingback and I'm like, all right,
hey, I look forward to mynext bet against that guy. That guy
steered the living tall at of me, man if I have it right.
That was September fourteenth of nineteen ninetynine, and neither team went to their
(32:42):
bullpen that day. Kate Brown wentfull game in a loss to your expos
because Hobby Vasquez threw a one hitteragainst the Dodgers and you guys won.
Hey, you know what I mean. We all know Kevin Brown. Hobby
or Vasquez was a dude. Thatguy was, and he still works for
the Union. I get to seehim every once in a while and we
(33:04):
reminisced about some of those Montreal teams. But I think that's a guy.
I'm not sure what the career numbersare, but that guy could compete and
he was awesome and a great teammate. But Hobby Basquez is the guy that
probably should be talked about a littlebit more. I liked him well.
The description of your second at batagainst Kevin Brown in that game sounds like
every at bat by the ninety eightAstros in the playoffs the year prior,
(33:27):
so thanks for all of the memories. This segment of Astro lawyers such for
all of us the baseball was hardenough to hear, but I enjoyed the
segment anyway because he couldn't be morecorrect about Brown's choice of two small clothing.
That guy, he has a vastselene himself to get into his uniform.
(33:49):
Man. He and Liam Hendricks,they like this mediums. Walker Buehler
likes to paint his pants on.That's true. He looks like some of
these softball players we're seeing right nowwith his uniform. Disgusting. All right,
it's better. It's better when it'sthe ladies. Anyway. One more
segment with Blummer live from Anaheim hereon Sports Talk seven ninety. As we
continue on a Friday edition of theeighteen, I want to tell you guys
(34:12):
real quick, as you're heading intothe weekend, you got a lot going
on. Summer is here, Thekids are home, maybe they're graduating like
my oldest, and you want achecking account that's going to work for you
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All that good stuff that comes withthe summer. You want a checking
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(35:22):
dot com today. That's PRIMEWAYFCU dotcom. Adam and Adam are so Houston
and even though they don't smoke,they still have twenty five lighters on their
addresser. Live bit Mike, Yes, sir, They've got to get paid,
hey Pa. So back to it, guys. Friday is three to
(35:45):
four. Jeff Blum joins us hereon the A team and is here with
us for a final segment of thisweek's worth of program. A couple hours
more with us, and then acouple hours from then, first pitch with
the Angels and the Astros is theAstros try to well flip the tables on
the Angel keep them looking up atHouston, and give the Astros a chance
to make their way up in thestandings. There are a host of teams
(36:06):
and the wildcard race that clearly areahead of Houston. Houston sits with the
twelfth best record in the American League. Current wild card picture includes the Orioles,
Royals, and Twins. The bottomthree teams inside the six team American
League playoff picture. The bottom threemeeting the team with the three worst records
are the Astros Division leader, theMariners, the Royals and the Twins,
(36:29):
and Jeff. The Astros have obviouslyseen each of those teams. They have
a pair of series against. TheMariners have seen the Royals and Twins once
a piece. In that those arethe teams most likely that the Astros can
or will catch if they claim oneof the six playoff spots. Maybe an
assessment of what you think of thosethree teams and the brief spots that you've
(36:50):
seen from them, starting with themost recent one Minnesota Mines beatable. I
think there's a track record there forthe Astro was playing against them, and
you know, maybe in Minnesota's tryingto turn that around to know that Carlos
kre is trying to you know,reidentify what the Minnesota Twins do. But
after what I saw from Pablo Lopez, I don't I think there might be
(37:12):
a little concern with that starting rotation. The idea against them is just to
stay away from the back end oftheir bullpen. You know, having dran
coming out of there and lighten thingsup is usually a bad thing for your
ball club. So if you canavoid that, get leads early and tack
on, you should be okay.And I don't think there's really that big
fear factor of going to play ina place like Minnesota either. But I
(37:35):
think that you know, that division'sgotten a little bit tougher and the way
the Guardians are playing, the waythe Royals are playing, You may may
not think about the Minnesota Twins asbeing that identify a little team that you
need to go out there and beI think that they'll end up being pushed
by the wayside, to be honestwith you, just because I like the
Royals, I like the Guardians andwhat they're doing. The Baltimore Orioles,
(37:59):
they're crazy good. I think thatthey're going to be able to sustain themselves
and they have enough in their systemto be able to go get more if
they feel that they need it.The only thing that's lacking on some of
these teams the playoff experience in thatmental fortitude to win down the stretch where
I think the Astros on paper ormight be better teams than these teams,
but they definitely have an advantage asfar as what's inside their skulls and the
(38:22):
experience that they have playing in thesekind of pressure situations. And I hope
that really starts to come to theforefront when they start playing teams like the
Angels, the Giants, the Tigers, and the White Sox. This is
a real opportunity for them to getback in the mix. Yeah, those
three teams specifically that I mentioned thatare at the bottom of the top of
the standings. They're all under fivehundred against teams over five hundred. Granted,
(38:44):
the Astros are too, but theTwins are fifteen and twenty five playing
teams over five hundred. The Royalsare fourteen and sixteen, the Mariners are
twelve and fifteen. A lot ofseason left, roughly one hundred games to
go. Just internally, we didn'task you about this, the way that
Espada has handled things with a rosterfull and healthy up until the Tucker and
(39:05):
Bregman injuries, obviously, but findingspots for guys to hit, giving enough
at bats to chas McCormick to tryto help him out of his slump,
versus we're trying to put the bestline up out there, And the same
thing is clearly happening to some sortwith their first base position, with John
Singleton and Jose Abrey, who againas active teammates, are both struggling to
find hits, just like they didbefore they weren't both active teammates. How
(39:30):
do you think Joe and maybe Danato a certain extent of handled things and
what do you kind of forecast overthe next couple of series, oh Man
I mean, you're talking about aload of ques. Thanks Wex. I
think what he's done is is hardbecause there's so much focus quite clearly out
there. And I agree with you. I've just given you a hard time
(39:52):
because that is a tough question becauseyou fished that question with the initial issue
that might be out there is howlong do you do you go with the
first base experiment? Because if youwhen you have a Brady on this roster,
it limits the opportunities to get otherguys in there, and you really
have to be creative, which Ithink Joe has been. And then,
(40:14):
like you said, you if youfeel that you need a bat like Chas
McCormick to get going, how doyou get him in there? And I
mean that's why we've seen more ofyour Don Alvarez in left field, which
I would imagine he might be playingthere tonight with Fromber on the bump because
Bromber is such a heavy ground ballguy. Opens up an opportunity for a
DH to either get John Singleton inthere against Griffin Canning, or it opens
(40:36):
up an opportunity to give Yaner Diezmaybe an opportunity to VIDH because he's been
swinging the bat so well recently,you know. So it's it's tough to
massage the roster the way it is. And Cabbage is swinging the bat well
and he gets to go back andhave revenge at bats against the team that
let him go kind of things.So there's a lot in play right here.
But I think the creativity is reallygoing to kind of test Joe's ability
(40:59):
to see if he can get Chasgoing, because you've got all issues with
You've got to get Yer in there. He's swinging the bat well. Trey
Cabbage is a good left handed badinto the pitcher that has terrible splits against
left handed our hitters. Tonight,Chaz Jake Myers is swinging a bat well
in the outfield. And oh,by the way, there's a guy named
Mauricio Dubon who gets a hit everydamn time he comes into the game no
(41:22):
matter where he's playing. And Mauriciomight be playing third base tonight, because
we don't know if Alex Bragman isready to go. So it's really interesting.
But at the same time, youknow, how how far how far
into this do you feel that youcan go with a bray you're not producing
at the level maybe you want,I think, is the question. And
(41:43):
that's that's probably the toughest question forDana, toughest question for Joe. A
spot is is the answer to thatquestion? That's what I'm kind of curious
about, to be honest, Yeah, I think we all are. And
it is a situation where, uh, they focus so squarely on one individual
in a season where, in myopinion, it so clearly should not be.
It's kind of more what I wasgetting at, and I understand the
(42:06):
difficulties that so many players have had. That's why the team is in this
situation. That's why they're struggling tofind a regular lineup. That's why we
see the number of lineups used thisyear approaching sixty and we haven't even played
game seventy yet. So there area lot of things that play here in
the Astros in addition to all thoseoffensive issues. We'll try to again make
through the next couple of weeks withthe current five man rotation, beginning tonight
(42:28):
with from Bravaldez. Of course,catch that game right here on your home
for Astros Baseball, Sports Talk sevento ninety and your home for Astros Baseball
on the telly right there on SpaceCity Home Network with TK and Jeff and
Julia this evening. As always,Jeff, we appreciate the time and certainly
appreciate those who make it possible.No always great being on with you guys,
And I owe it to Jeff Witsitand his Vision group for allowing me
(42:52):
the opportunity to come on here.Obviously me getting up there in age.
I've gone in there and had myvision check, making sure that everything's all
dialed in and ready to go.But I know if anything goes sideways or
I need to help Jeff widgets whereI'm going to go. Doctor Jeff is
a guy that will sit down andhave a face to face consultation with you.
He's been on the cutting edge ofall the lasic work and now he's
(43:12):
doing multifocal lens surgeries and as faras lasik, he's done up over fifty
thousand those surgeries, so he's wellversed in how to make sure that get
right and do that like the wayit should be done. And of course
low T Center I talked about workingout earlier. The reason I wake up
every day ready to go and notsoar and getting a good night's rest is
because I went and got my testosteronelevels checked at low T Center and they
(43:37):
informed me that I needed some help. So I went in there and they
helped me out. Every week Igo in for about fifteen twenty minutes and
get my level checked to every rightwhere I need to be. So check
out low tcenter dot com. AndI appreciate you guys having me on man,
we love having you. We're lookingforward to get to it again next
week and enjoy Southern California this weekend. You know I will absolutely Jeff Blum
(44:00):
here on the eight Team Sports Talkseven ninety
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