Geoff Blum on The A-Team: Astros Gave Jose Abreu Ample Opportunity To Figure It Out

Former Astro turned Space City Home Network analyst Geoff Blum joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks about the decision the Astros came to in releasing Jose Abreu. He talks about what led to this choice and what the Astros will do next. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
You look at it, look atit, look at us. Oh yeah,
this is radio. You listened toit on Sports Talk seven ninety astro's
broadcaster Jem Blum on seven ninety isdrought to you by low T Center.
You heard it, and we justwant to jump right into it because it's
one of those days. Blummer,appreciate you joining us, especially with the

(00:25):
flexible type of schedule that you hadto do it with. But the first
obvious question for someone like you ona daylight today where jose Bray You is
released and everything that came with it. We've talked about it all at nauseum.
What's a clubhouse like on a daylike this? And I know you
probably haven't been in a clubhouse wherethis exact scenario unfolded where the guy's resume

(00:47):
is really really good but it justdid not work out, or maybe you
did, I don't know, Butwhat's a clubhouse like as a former player
on a daylight today? Yeah,no worries, Thanks for squeezing me in,
but it's the same time. No, I've never had a situation where
there's been a heavy contract in theclubhouse where they tried to discharge it because
the player was so bad. I'venever been in that situation. I've been

(01:10):
in situations where teams need to cutpayroll. They'll trade guys, they'll move
guys, you know, much likemy at the end of my tenure here
in Houston, when I watched theguys like Willow's Wall get traded, I
watched guys like Lance Berkman get traded. You know, those are completely different
scenarios. Those were a little morepainful just because you were losing a player
and a person. But this wasunique in itself, and I kind of
want to go back to. Youknow, during that time when jose Of

(01:34):
Brayeu went down to Florida to quoteunquote work on a swing. You know,
I'm still not thoroughly convinced everything gotworked out by the time he came
back. I think that they justwanted to figure, you know, this
is enough time, we need tosee if he can play. But when
he was gone, the Ashers playedextremely well. I want to say that
in twenty games they were thirteen andseven or something crazy like that, Like
they started to play good baseball andthey were starting to get back. In

(01:56):
contention, I think that before hecame back and they were headed to Seattle.
They were actually three and a halffour games out of you know,
behind the Seattle Mariners. So Imean those conversations of the Astros getting back
into the division, as far asthat's concerned, they brought back Josea Bray
you and they proceeded to fall backagain to seven eight games below five hundred.
So I think that's kind of wherewe're at. And I think they

(02:17):
did give jose A Bray ample opportunityto try and figure it out and give
him the benefit of doubt to goto go see what he was able to
do. And to Dana's credit,you know, he stepped in front of
everybody and said, look, wegave him a he just wasn't there.
We needed to move on. Andthese are tough decisions just because from a
personality standpoint, you liked the guy, jose A bra You, but we

(02:38):
all recognized that he was a showof the player he was and that's what
got him released from his contract,and unfortunately it comes with a hefty surcharge
on that ability to get rid ofhim and clear up some roster space for
somebody who might be able to contributeand bring a little bit more to the
table. But at the same time, Dana also nailed it. There isn't
a GM alive or ever been linethat's hitting a thousand as far as player

(03:01):
acquisitions. At no point today,Jeff, did I think we were going
to be talking about Philly's Legend Royals, Walton Rangers legend Lance Berkman. But
we have now and I understand whyit is. Yes, we absolutely will.
I could have said Rockies legend,Royals, Walton Yankees, and Rangers
legend Berkman, but I don't knowwhat the future holds for Rose A.
Bray. The future at first baseholds. John Singleton and you were mentioning

(03:23):
the Astros play while Abray was awayfollowing the Rocky series and prior to the
Mariners series. That was really goodbaseball, productive baseball, good first base
defense, baseball from John Singleton andobviously Dana Brown indicated that is the current
plan. Even though he's not startingtoday. John Singleton likely to be the

(03:44):
more or less everyday first baseman.Do you think he can get back to
the productive version of himself that hewas when Abray was out the first time?
That's the hope. But first ofall, thank goodness, they didn't
throw him out there against Terrech School. That would have been a hell of
a Hey, the job yours goface this guy, one of the best
leftys in the game. That wouldhave been unbelievable. But yeah, he
gets the day off to day kindof drink it in and realize what's going

(04:06):
on. But you know, hewas kind of sprung into the situation previously
when jose Bray went down and Singletonstepped up. Yeah, and you know,
to be fair, the bar isset so low that you could put
you know, probably put me oryou out there and we probably go out
there and compete a little bit more. But John Singleton is putting together great
at bats. I agree with Daneat that point. I think that he

(04:28):
swings at strikes. I think hetakes pitches. He's kind of redefined who
John Singleton was from the first timewe saw him here, you know,
a decade ago. He puts togethergreat at bats. He's playing a competent
first base. I think he providesa lot in that clubhouse. And that's
probably something that you know I missedtalking about earlier when Clinton was talking to
me, is that clubhouse probably isgoing to feel like a weight has been

(04:49):
lifted off them in that clubhouse becausethey don't have to cater to a guy
who is struggling as mightily as aas a Joseah Bray. You usually when
you have you guys, you'll seeguys that are struggling in the clubhouse and
you kind of go over fist pompthem. Come on, man, we
got this, We got your back. Don't worry about it, you know.
But you got to the point,I think with jose Brady where it

(05:09):
was just like, oh my gosh, here comes this guy and we can't
do anything. He's sitting in theeighth spot, there's an out in the
there's a bona fide out in ourlineup. How do we compensate for that?
But I think now you're going tosee a little more life, a
little more energy, and I thinkyou're going to see Joe work the system
a little bit better because going backto that roster before Joseah Brady was on

(05:30):
this ball club during that time,you have an all lefty bench tonight.
If you know now you're forcing ajHinch to think about if I bring in
a right hander, what lefties arethey going to bring off the bench,
What left handed hit or do.I hope they bring off the bench,
so now there's a little more youknow, strategic energy going into the game
as well, and that forces yourbench to be a little more engaged in

(05:51):
the game, where in the pastwith jose A. Brady out there,
they haven't been. So I kindof like that idea as well. By
no means am I absolving Joe aspot of any blame that might become in
his way, But I just feellike so many things have just not gone
in his favor to have his maidenvoyage or whatever you want to call it

(06:12):
as a as a manager this year, this has to be And again I
don't I'm not asking you to answersomething you shouldn't or whatever, but I
just feel like so many times thiswas either above his pay grade or what
have you about this particular player becauseof the circumstances, how he got here,
how he needs to be used,how much he needs to be used,
And I just feel like that he'sa guy that really would probably relate

(06:38):
to that comment you just made.Yeah, it's a weight off the clubhouse
for the players, but probably forJoe himself. Yeah, there's just more
options, you know, when you'vegot a jose A Bravey playing well.
He used to just plug him in, let him play and he puts up
runs. You know, Dusty prettymuch had to do that until we saw
jose A Brave perform in the lastmonth of the season last year. But

(06:58):
it took a long time to getto that point. And I just think
with the record of the team rightnow, the structure this roster, you
couldn't waste many more days with thelack of flexibility in this in this lineup,
the lack of flexibility on the bench. So I agree with you in
the sense that you know Joe Joe'sI mean, managers are going to speak
their minds. Joe's going to speakhis mind. He's got a great relationship

(07:19):
with Jim Praying, He's got agreat relationship with Dana Brown, and he's
going to be able to sit downand go, look, this is how
I see you in the ball club. This is how I see my ball
club. Can you help me outwhat's the plan? I mean, So
now that he does kind of havethat taket, you know, that relieved
in a sense where he can kindof move the roster a little bit,
I think you're going to see Joespot of making some more moves, making

(07:41):
some more pinch hitting appearances if necessary, and now he can you know,
now he can bring in a cabbageto play left field for Gordon Alvarez if
you have a lead after seven innings, if you feel that's necessary and you
don't think you're going to get anotherat bad from Jordon Alvarez. So I'm
kind of curious to see how itgoes moving forward, but I think we've
got a good example of it forthose two games where a breed wasn't on

(08:01):
the roster. Yeah, and we'llget a little bit more of an idea
maybe at least because Joe Spotto willbe speaking to the media at the top
of the hour and we'll bring thatto all of you as soon as we
can. But in the meantime,got a little bit more conversation with Astro's
analyst on Space City Home Network,Jeff Blum, friend of the show obviously,
he joins us each and every week, and he'll be on the call
tonight on the post Hose Day aBrad you era of things on Astros Baseball,

(08:26):
which, by the way, youcan see with Exfinity because X marks
the spot and you've probably heard Blumtalk about that on the air. I've
been talking about it, and weknow that now through September twenty first,
you're able to get that one hundredand fifty megabit Exfinity Internet for twelve months
with a one year contract and forjust fifteen dollars a month. Add the

(08:46):
new stream Saver. Now, Iknow you guys are big streamers over at
your place. We definitely are.And there's been those times, Blum where
you've got the night off because thegame's on Apple TV. Well, that
comes in this bundle, and it'sall about bundling and affordability these days.
Is an Exfinity is giving you thebest possible way to go about that.
No, that's what we all want. We want more, and we wanted

(09:07):
to be available, and we wantedto be, you know, flawlessly streaming
through our houses and in a housethat has six people in it with six
different devices at least per person,and you know it's something that we need
to We need the coverage, weneed the wall to wall, we need
the reliability, and that's exactly whatwe get with Exfinity. You're right about
those nights off like I had lastnight. We were able to stream a

(09:28):
move upstairs for my wife and I. Meanwhile, the kids are, you
know, downloading music and playing gameson their phones and nobody missed the beat.
So it's nice to be able tohave that consistency of the wall to
one WiFi from Infinity, for sure. And there's three ways to go about
getting it. As you continue toremember X marks the spot, it's a
real easy way to keep Exfinity topof mind. If you haven't gotten a

(09:48):
hold of this deal yet, switchto Exfinity, the network made for streaming
and bring on the good stuff.Everything that Blummer was just talking about you
can have at your fingertips by goingto Exfinity, calling one hundred Infinity,
or visiting a store in person.Today. Infinity proud sponsor of your Houston
Astros is Kyle Tucker. Catch everyAstros game on Sports Talk seven ninety Glover

(10:16):
and streaming on the free iHeartRadio app. The eighteen continues here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. We are out hereat Tom's Watch Bar at the corner of
Caroline and Polk. Great place foryou to stop on by if you're on
your way in to the Astros game. Oh, by the way, not
tonight but tomorrow night will be givingaway Well, we'll giving away the tickets

(10:37):
now, but they're for tomorrow night'sgame. That's what I'm trying to say.
Uh, there's a little box righthere on the premises Wex is keeping,
uh just fantastic guards. It's aregister to win box. And yes,
you'd have to beat me up toget it. But what he's trying
to say is, come on byTom's watch bar for a chance to win
tickets to tomorrow night's game. We'llgive it away two pair of those two

(10:58):
Astros Tigers tomorrow night. And againyou can always take advantage of Tom's free
shuttle if that's gonna be a greatplace for you to hang out, because
I can see from who's here alreadyit's a great place to hang out here
today. Talk with Jeff Blum aswe continue here as the Astros kind of
maybe this is a second phase tothe season, or for me, actually
a third phase. Phase two ispost the Mexico City reboot, where the

(11:18):
Astros have played their best baseball eventhough they've actually fallen further back of Seattle.
Kind of talked about this yesterday,Jeff. The opportunity to win the
division probably will be there for quitesome time, and that you have six
games remaining against the Mariners and along season left wild card race. Probably
you have to outplay the Minnesota Twins, and in the process, if you

(11:39):
do that, you're probably going topass most of the teams in between,
including tonight's opponent, and they dohave one more series against the Minnesota Twins.
Pitching has continued to do what they'vebeen doing, and they've managed to
also not need anybody to get abreak. Spot in the rotation hasn't re
emerged. They don't have that manyoptions, and all things considered, it's

(12:03):
not a Jose Abreu problem entirely.As we've talked about all year, Jeff,
it's time for some of the otherplayers to start doing more of the
things that they've done throughout their careers, and that's what would jump start the
team. I would imagine you wouldagree. No, absolutely, And you
know what I think if we goback to May twenty second, right around

(12:26):
at time, the Astros were inDetroit and Hunter Brown, who's starting tonight,
kind of came out of a bulletand then pitched a brilliant five innings
in relief. I believe at ChristianHog here. That's kind of what set
this rotation going a little bit,and they went through that touch staatch of
twenty nine games in thirty days.We've gotten past that point. You're a
little more normal schedule now, playinga week, getting a day off,

(12:48):
you know, so you can givethese guys a rotation, that extra day
off without having to go to asix and man rotation. That's one thing
that I think is going to benefitthem and allow them to extend themselves a
little bit. But at the sametime, since that twenty second I believe
that the Astro starting staff is averaging, if not at six innings, to
start very very close to that,and that is something that is really beneficial,

(13:11):
not just to the starting rotation,but it's really beneficial to that bullpen
because you start to back guys upand then you can use guys a little
more appropriately instead of having to haveyour bridge guys go two to three innings
trying to cover out and it shouldmake the back end of your bullpen a
little bit better. But I thinkthat's where the issue all season long,
to be honest, has kind ofbeen with is the back end of the
bullpen. You've seen to miss inconsistencies. You know, in April it was

(13:35):
a braid. You was bad.Hater was bad, Presley was bad.
You're starting to see Hater come arounda little bit. Grinnedy did give up
that walk off home run in Anaheim, but that was in a tie ballgame.
He really hasn't had many save opportunities. I think that's where you need
to kind of increase and test thisback in the bullpen a little bit and
say, look, we need toput you in tougher situations, as crazy

(13:56):
as it sounds, because that's wherewe're paying you to perform. And you
know Pressley blew a save and Anaheimas well. I think those guys really
need to find their footing or finda way to go out there and perform
a little bit better. And thatwould make this team that much better because
winning close games and winning for surewins games where you have the lead after
seven, that's where this team needsto turn things around. Is Layton ballgames,

(14:18):
solidifying wins or coming back to wingames and then shutting them down.
That's where I think the biggest needfor the Astros is because the rotation right
now is very good, but you'reright West as soon as you look past
that five man rotation, things geta little scary. Yeah, after six
innings when the Astros have the lead, they've lost six times, while they've
only been able to come back threetimes, and it's thirty games. In

(14:41):
both of those two situations you mentionedRyan Presley, they did have a tight
game the middle game of that Giantseries that they won, and because of
who was and wasn't available, thatwas in a Brad you Pressley finished.
Both of them did their job.The Astros won it three to one.
It was at three up, threedown inning for Ryan Presley, who I
think we all know probably has manygood moments ahead of him over the final

(15:01):
three plus months of this season,just a matter of the timing of when
they pop up, and the SAME'sprobably true for each of those three back
end relievers. I would anticipate thatthere's more good things than bad on the
horizon. The one thing you mentionedthat I don't know that there's ever an
answer to this because I actually lookback the last ten years, there's not
much rhyme or reason to a team'srecord in one run games. The Astros

(15:24):
have been phenomenal as a team basicallysince twenty fifteen couple of eighty one seasons,
and then ever since, other thanCOVID, they've been basically the best
team in baseball, and they reallyhave had only maybe one overwhelmingly good season
in one run games, they're reallynot that far over five hundred, but
roughly right on it. And thisyear they just can't figure out how to

(15:45):
win those games, or whatever needsto go wrong does go wrong. And
then the flip side, as Seattlebasically never loses. Is is there any
rhyme or reason and does a statlike that seep into the manager's mind or
guys in the clubhouse mind? Ithink it seeps into your mind when you
have a record like the Hashers haveright now, because you know, previously
in those years that you're talking about, when they haven't been when they've been

(16:07):
okay in one run games, they'vehad the record to say, well,
we don't desperately need those ws.We just need to keep playing winning baseball,
winning series and move on. Whereaswhen you're this far under five hundred,
competing to get back in the division, you need every win you can
get. And that's why they're youknow, these one run games are a
little more magnified but at the sametime, some of those teams that you've
seen win a lot of one rungames do that throughout the course of the

(16:30):
regular season, but they're not ableto do it in the postseason. I
think that's where the Astros have kindof separated themselves, is we're not you
know, this organization for the lastseven years has said, we're not just
going to be a competitive team duringthe regular season. We are competing for
World Series titles. And that's whereother teams have kind of faltered, is
they've competed, gotten to the playoffs, and that's where they've kind of gotten

(16:51):
exposed. So there was no panicearlier in those previous seven years. This
year, I think I'm feeling alittle more of that panic, just because
the record well, and you know, as it pertains to the Mariners specifically,
you know, losing three out ofthose four makes makes this a little
bit more difficult. And I don'tknow how they would have gone, you
know, if you had won thatseries. But maybe it's not eight games,

(17:14):
maybe it's maybe it's a little bitcloser, a little bit less of
an uphill climb. Uh. Speakingof Witch, we were we were talking
about this earlier. This week Fromber'scomplete game, in your opinion, the
fact that he you know, hehad the quickest turnaround after the off days
and everything that was factored in.Do you think that him throwing that complete
game had any effect when you turnaround and see his next outing is like

(17:38):
the fewest pitches of his career.Since he's become a solidified stud in.
This rotation Fromber has been a rollercoach ride this season for me, just
because you have seen these, youknow, these seven inning starts, these
nine inning complete game and then yousee him go four in the you know,
fifty six fifty pitches or whatever,and you're like, why is he

(18:00):
getting out of there so quick?But that could be at the same time,
you know, Joe and Josh Millerrecognizing Traumber doesn't have his best stuff,
Maybe we can get him out ofhere, go to our bullpen,
see if we can't keep this gameclose enough for us to come back and
win it and give him the extratime off. So there might have been
a little more thought process behind thatthan we actually know about. But yeah,

(18:21):
it's a little frustrating and it kindof makes you wonder, you know,
will they push Bromper in future starts. If he does see that complete
game in sight, will he pushthem to be able to go out there
or is he going to or arethey going to step in and say,
look, we know that you canget the complete game. Let's get you
out of their safe and bullets forthe next start so that we can be
a little more consistent, because Ithink if you see more sixth inning quality

(18:44):
starts out of Farmber about this better. This team's going to be as opposed
to seeing a complete game, onerun game and then have them come out
of the game in that fourth inning, because that hurts your bullpen, no
matter how well he saved your bullpenin that complete game, that kind of
defeats the purpose when you know fivedays later you're running through everybody in that
him. It was nice that theywere able to get through the rest of
that game, not as nice thatthey only needed to get twenty four outs,

(19:06):
but also not so bad that theyonly needed two other pitchers to get
there, with Martinez and Dubin doingtheir job very very well. One thing
on the TV side, I haveto ask, because I believe you guys
brought it up the other day,like do you and TK like laugh fall
out of your chairs when you guysdon't have the first pick and the gallery
furniture stick pick when they don't pickyord On Alvarez, whomever it is,

(19:30):
whether it's your the booth for theday, I mean, the studio for
the day, or the Astros reporteras Julius often referred to in this competition.
Yeah, dude, I mean whenwe started this thing, I was
like, I mean, we kindof stole the idea, but we started
this thing at the beginning of theyear, and I'm going off, Man,

(19:51):
I go as an edge player pickingplayers. I'm like, man,
I don't I don't know if Iwant to put this on guys. What
if I pick guys and they gohope for They're to start calling me the
tru you know, they're gonna belike, please don't pick me, you
know, And so it's kind ofbecome what it is. But at the
same time, I mean, theabsolute domination by TK and I I'm in
the move. I mean, maybeit's two brains better than all the ones

(20:12):
they have in the studio. Idon't know what it is. But in
the month of June, if youdon't pick Jordan Alvarez first, why are
we even playing this game? Thedude's not Jordan in his career. Yeah,
I mean, it's ridiculous, butthe fact that we get him every
once in a while is hilarious.And you know we put them a phone
picking second here the last two orthree days. But yeah, it's kind

(20:33):
of interesting how that's worked out.It would he be even better for who
ever had him the day he forgotto do those two extra push ups and
only hit a four hundred and fifteenfoot double. There, What a great
line Blum just needling him after ahome run a non home run, I
guess in this case, a fourhundred and fifteen foot double. Man,

(20:53):
are you kidding me? I'd becursing out to baseball guys if I hit
that. That's the That's one ofthose dumb things about baseball. Literally every
other stadium but the one you wereplaying in. Yeah, there's twenty nine
of the ballpark. Sure you're tellingme on any other day of the other
than any other day in these lastthree days, we could be playing baseball

(21:14):
and that is a bomb of ahome run, and instead I'm hustling my
ass off and get the second baseafter hitting it four hundred and fifteen feet.
It's ridiculous, but it is partof the game and luckily able to
come around and score when the Giantsaid, nap, we don't need to
cover first. Oh my gosh.Yeah, I mean simple PFPS fundamentals whatever,
I mean, come on, man, what are we doing? But

(21:34):
at least you were in that gorgeousballpark. Jealous because I've never been.
That's one of the ones I wantto go to. And unfortunately the Astros
only we're able to win there onetime. But we know we got to
let you go. You got toget going. You got a game to
call tonight too. But before youdo any of that, we always like
to say thanks to you for comingon, and of course to the people
who make it possible. Yeah,I appreciate it, fellas. And the

(21:57):
Jeff Witch Vision Group is where yougot to go for all your eye care
needs. If you're having any kindof issues, set up a meeting with
Jeff Witz. It sit down acrosshis desk. He will look you eye
to eye, pard the ton andgive you the best advice on how to
move forward with your eye care anda low T center. Obviously, going
on those long road trips, Ilook forward to getting back not just seeing

(22:18):
my people and being in there inten to fifteen minutes and catching up on
getting to know these people, butat the same time making sure that my
levels are right. I literally wentin the other day, got my levels
checked and they gave me the appropriateshot that I needed to get right back
in the mix. I love feelinggreat after I get in there and get
those shots of fellas. Low Tcenterdot com is where you can find them.
They're all over Greater Houston, andI would be remiss if I didn't

(22:41):
leave saying happy Father's Day weekend tothe both of you guys. Back at
you and you have done a fantasticjob, especially with everything you got going
on on your plate with that regard, so absolutely saying to you and let's
get some let's get some wins thisweekend, blumber. Yeah, let's put
us some duff boys. Love it. Love it. Oh and by the

(23:02):
way, say hi to AJ forboth of us. I definitely will.
Yeah, I'll go. I'll go, give him a grab on the backside
and tell them it's from you.Yeah and me. Okay, we got
both cheeks. Then, thank youGosh and the three o'clock hour comes to
a close right on time. Thanks, Thanks again, Blommer. We'll talk
to you soon, all right,pick their fellows