Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
You look at it, look atit, look at us. Oh yeah,
this is radio. You listen toit on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Astros broadcaster Jeff Blaum on seven ninetyis brought to you by low T Center,
and it just so happens that today'sguest for the first hour is the
(00:22):
color analyst for the hottest team inMajor League Baseball, Blummer. I have
not been as excited to have youon on a weekly basis as I am
this week because you're my America's HoustonAstros are back to five hundred, baby,
you better believe it. We arethe handful of Major League Baseball right
(00:45):
now. We are so hot.You know the scene in the Hangover where
they're driving down the freeway and theystart singing, we are back. That's
the Astros right now. Yeah.I would hope that that's how the flight
went last night, where they werejust at the top of their lungs.
That would have been outstanding. It'sso funny, though, because like we're
all excited about being five hundred inbasically the worst division in baseball in twenty
(01:08):
twenty four, but it feels good. It's weird. It is weird.
I mean, it's kind of funnybecause like, maybe there's a huge misconception
about what it's like to be playingat five hundred, what's the big deal?
But I think because considering the year, you've got to take everything in
context, and what we're looking atright now is an American League Western Division.
(01:30):
It is unfortunately, maybe a littlebit of mediocre, and it kind
of benefits the Houston Astros because they'vebeen dealing with injuries, much like many
teams across the league. But atthe same time, you get to that
plateau of five hundred and you startto say, wow, we can actually
turn this thing around and make somethinghappen. And it's because the Rangers keep
falling off the reigning World Series championsor sub five hundred, and then you
(01:53):
have the Seattle Mariners who are leadingthe division. With the Astros even playing
as well as they are, they'recoming back to the Astros playing some tough
competition. So I think it's kindof cool in a way to see the
Astros fighting to get back to thatfive hundred bubble. But I also think
it's pretty cool that they've kind ofreached a goal and now that next goal
(02:13):
could be, you know, getabove five hundred and they start moving and
looking at first place in the WesternDivision. It's kind of crazy to think
that that five hundred, they're thatmuch closer to the first place. I
think it's kind of cool that theirbrand of baseball has returned. Watching them
play is fun. That plays arebeing made, Guys are running the bases,
balls are finding holes, Pitchers aredominating. And that's what's back to
(02:36):
me. And that's why from theget go, when they fell to seven
and nineteen, fell to twelve andtwenty four, I kept looking at the
same players who've been playing in theALCS, the same group that's been leading
those players, and saying, atsome point those guys will reappear, and
if they're here to stay, thenthis might be the most fun season of
all despite how it started, becausethey're still not even I don't even think
(02:58):
that there's there's so much more tocome, and this is a good start
to it, because this can't bethe finish, and I don't feel that
it will be. I imagine youdon't either. No, I think that's
actually an excellent point, because youknow, we're sitting here touting getting back
to five hundred, and that shouldn'tbe the goal for this team, and
I don't think that was the goalin spring training. I think it's just
the way that things kind of shookout breaking out of spring training with everybody,
(03:22):
like you said, WEX kind ofplaying ice cold. The offense took
a while to get going. Thepitching, you know, the back end,
the bullpen was trying to figure outwhat the heck was going on.
And here we are watching the Marinersnot run away with this thing. So
it allows them the opportunity, youknow, three months into the season,
as crazy as it sounds, becauseit's one thing to get to five hundred,
but it's another thing to do itat literally that halfway point in the
(03:44):
season. But a lot of it'sdue to the fact that nobody in this
division can run away with it.And I think it is very it's exciting
and it's fun. It's different,it's painful, but at the same time,
I think it makes us appreciate whatis happened in the last set years,
but it also makes us appreciate whatthese guys are actually going through and
what they're trying to accomplish and howhard they work to get to this point.
(04:08):
I think that they realizing that theywork to get to this point,
might feel that fire to kind ofpush a little bit further, realizing that,
you know what, we haven't,like you said, we haven't played
our We haven't seen these guys playtheir best baseball. And yet they're playing
extremely good right now, but theyhaven't maintained that level that they you know,
that they set that bar so highat and maybe that's how the season
finishes out with these guys playing atthat level. Again. Tremendous job setting
(04:30):
me up for the next question.Since you use the word fuel, are
you enjoying the fuel that's making thediesel trounce the competition? He was unreal
again, just piling start after startafter start of I hate you baseball,
and you even said it on thebroadcast, as you said it here on
our show prior to that. He'sgot a certain pitch and he doesn't mind
(04:55):
throwing it. And his last pitchof his last two outings, Hunter Brown
has let out of yell, askedeverybody to come on along for the ride.
Let's go, and just zero's allover the place from Hunter Brown.
It just doesn't look like it's evergoing to stop. That's what's crazy,
and it really doesn't because he's kindof he's I'm not gonna say he's cracked
(05:15):
the code, but he's kind ofdeveloped a mentality. He's developed a demeanor,
he's developed a repertoire that works forHunter Brown. And I think this
is kind of the guy that wehad all hoped he could be because we
love this day and agent in baseball, we love velocity and if you have
a guy that has velocity, youwanted to pitch with it. And Hunter
Brown is that guy that's kind ofembraced the fact that he does have that
(05:39):
electricity. And I think over thelast couple of years, he's been trying
to figure out who who he isor who he could be. And is
he that blowout, you know typeguy in the bullpen it just comes in
and prost fuel for an inning,or is he actually that starter that could
come out and solidify a rotation andactually make statements and set tones and create
(06:01):
a persona. And that's for mewhat's kind of interesting watching Hunter Brown is
his stuff has actually kind of createdthis persona of Hunter Brown. And you
talk about fuel, you talk aboutthe ability to pitch from ninety five to
ninety nine miles an hour, ina game like he's been doing over the
last six or seven starts, andyou start to understand why he's got a
little bit of that anger in him. He's got a little bit of that
(06:23):
intensity. And the nickname absolutely fitsa guy out of the motor City that
brings the noise the way he does. I mean, if there's anybody that's
going to be nicknamed the Diesel,it is Hunter Brown. And he's lived
up to it every time. AndI think we've kind of gotten past the
point of can he do it again? Canny do it again? Because I
(06:44):
think this is who he has become, and this is who he enjoyed,
He really enjoys being because the dudehas been absolutely wipe out filthy with that
fu fastball. I like that whatI'm talking We got it, We got
it previously, and I know TKand the viewers got it this week.
Really enjoy it. It's outstanding.I love the way he walks off the
mound after some of these strikeouts.I mean it kind of you can feel
(07:08):
it in the booth. That's whatI love about it. Kin kind of
gave some of our listeners a differentversion of that when we were talking about
the Yankees lusting after some of theAstros players and what the writer must want
to do with the Astros. Butit's a different Yeah, what I said,
What he's trying to say is thatI said, Joel Sherman wants to
grudge bleep the Astros. That's whatI said. Well, that might be
(07:30):
a long list. I mean,that's that's those are resume builders. Here's
what I want. I want toknow what's the dollar amount where I can
get you to use the term fufastball on a game broadcast. Man,
Dude, I'm trying to figure outdifferent ways. How do I do that,
because I well, on TV,I've got to be a little a
little more diplomatic. If you guys, we can be a little more you
(07:53):
know, edgy. We can saythings, we can explain how we feel.
But you know, I'm representing theball club, I'm representing Julia,
And it's like, we know whatthis fastball is because we've seen it from
guys like Garrett Cole. We've seenit from guys you know, out of
a bullpen. We've seen it fromWe've seen it from Justin Burlander. And
underneath, you know, we wecan you can look at a guy like
(08:15):
I can look at Hunter Brown andkind of look at him and say,
your fastball is pretty nasty, andhe's got this this fu look in his
eyes, like that's why I amthrowing it, because I don't think you
can hit it, and that's what'sbeautiful about it. But I'm not sure.
I'm still trying to figure out howdiplomatically or you know what vernacular,
I can actually get that across withoutactually saying f Would you die if you
(08:35):
were sitting there and Todd goes therean feu fastball in the inning, I
would be so jealous and I jumpall over that bandwagon and ride that thing
to no end. Now, forthose that were paying close attention during this
winning streak, and I'm having troubleplacing which game, what moment, and
what was said, but it wasso awesome. We had the role reversal
(08:56):
in the booth. Usually it's yougetting Todd to give a shock. He
got you with something this week,but you just could have enjoyed more.
He we kind of shot. Ithink it was after I think it was
after a Mauricio Dubon home run orafter your Don home run. And there
is this there is this embrace youknow, it's like that meme where it
(09:18):
says, you know, hug melike Dubon hugs your Don kind of thing.
But they embraced and you could seeyour Don trying to break the embraces
like it's over, but Dooby wouldn'tlet go and he continued to hold him,
and TK out of nowhere drops man, I looked like Skipper and Dilligan,
(09:39):
and I just I lost it becauseI mean obvious modern references. And
then we had a Yeah, wegot a shot at Dubon and I'm like,
oh my gosh, that is Dilliganand the Skipper is your done?
This is amazing. But my imaginationwent crazy and I could not hold back.
But TK finally got me on thatone. That was a good one.
We got to get Mauricio the hat. Got to give him the buck
(10:00):
hat. Oh yeah, it'd beamazing. If you can get him in
a bucket hat and have him standingnext to your done, that would be
fantastic. Yeah, and then Juliacould play the role of Ginger and he'd
have old cast there. Say itjust writes its own script, right,
Yeah, the Astras have been writingtheir own script lately, just dominant pitching
and then timely hitting, and ithas come in waves at times. You
(10:22):
know, we have our our magicalinning, if you will. But again,
that's the kind of stuff that washappening in losses, and so it
was much more magnified. The wholecliche that winning cures everything has really kind
of been a part of this winningstreak, has it not? Oh?
Absolutely? And you know it's evenmasking. The point that I'm sure we'll
(10:45):
get to talk about here later inthis hour is the fact that even as
good as the Astras are going inthe last four starts we've seen from Astros
starters, there's still a glaring polein this rotation that somebody's got to figure
out how to fill. And I'mnot sure who it's going to be,
but I really hope that it's notit doesn't turn into a buzzkill, because
you're actually going into New York playingon another hot team in the New York
Mets. But you've got you know, you've got a couple of guys starting
(11:09):
the first of that. I knowReneld's going on Friday, I can't.
I think Bromber might be going onSaturday. But it's that Sunday game that
you look at and you're going,Okay, we're rolling. We've got a
six seven, eight game winning streetgoing. Our boys are pitching extremely well.
The bullpens kind of set in itsin its role. You know who's
coming in at certain moments. You'regetting six innings out of the rotation,
(11:30):
the boys are putting up five sixruns to go out and win these games.
And then you look at Sunday andyou're kind of looking around, going,
Okay, who's going to be theguy or how many guys is it
going to take as far as pitchersto get through that game? So I
want to ride this thing and enjoyit as much as I can. But
with Jake Bloss going on the injuredlist, it kind of leaves that Sunday
part of the rotation kind of opento see what happens. Is it a
(11:52):
bullpen day like Joe spot I kindof hinted that on the broadcast yesterday,
or is it going to be somebodythat comes up again from the minor leagues,
you know, because there's not manyoptions left, see what comes of
it. And you're right, thosetwo matchups for are pitching probables for the
Astros set for the first two games, of the series. You're also right
shockingly that the Mets are a veryhot team. We'll talk a little bit
(12:15):
about that matchup. This is aten game road trip for the Houston Astros,
and hopefully they just keep playing theway that they have. They obviously
began this winning streak when they hadthe White Sox on the road, continued
it by winning all five games athome, and now have an opportunity to
reach above five hundred as they reachthe conclusion of their eighty first game of
the season, which comes Friday nightright here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
(12:37):
and of course on Space City HomeNetwork, where you will catch Jeff TK
and to Todd more with Jeff Blumhere on The A Team on a Thursday
special guest edition with Jeff Blum,as we continue back to Adam Clinton had
Adam Wexler the eight on Sports Talkseven ninety eight, Continuing here on a
Thursday special after school special here onthe A Team, our guest Jeff Blum
(13:01):
with the Astros in New York setfor a little bit of an early we'll
call it what should we call ita tip off? Kickoff? We'll call
it a first pitch tomorrow and theBig Apple. He joins us today for
the hour. Obviously, things arepretty good for the Astros when you're piling
up wins like they have. Wetalked about a couple of the individual parts
of it, and I don't wantto make you choose. I mean,
(13:22):
it's like, you know, foryou, for instance, your daughters,
you don't have a favorite. They'reall awesome, So I'm not gonna ask
you to choose. But I imagineyou're equally enjoying fist pumps and anger pitching
from Hunter Brown as much as youare from Araghetty, strutting ten times in
his last outing, with a seasonhigh for the team ten strikeouts during his
(13:45):
seven shutout innings. The Arraghetty strut, or I guess, for alliterative purposes,
the Spencer strut, is a thingof beauty. I've wanted this for
from the moment I saw him pitchJeff, and I think it's arrived.
Yeah, you can go Spencer strutor you can go Spaghetti strut. You
know, either one is going tobe hyper effective. And one of the
(14:05):
things that just in learning the morewe're learning about Spencer Araghetti, the more
interesting this guy gets because when hefirst got called up. We you know,
we obviously a prospect. He's gotto you know, he's got a
lower delivery. He gets an incredibleextension which makes him a little more deceptive
on his fastball, and his fastballrides great at the top of the zone.
(14:28):
He's got good spin. The guysays he loves the profile of his
sweeper in his cutter and things likethat. And he's smart. He's very
cerebral. He understands the analytics,he understands the data. And one of
the things that I heard about whenhe was in Triple A is that,
you know, there's moments where hegoes out there and chases the strikeout and
I'm like, I'm fine with thatbecause that kind of fits the mold of
(14:50):
the Houston astro of pitching staffs thatwant to go out there and create swing
and miss. And then we seehim pitch for thirteen straight starts and walk
tow with four guys. You know, every start you're going, oh my
gosh, what's going on here.You've got to in order to strike guys
out, and you've got to beable to throw strikes, and then,
you know, the last two starsfor Spencer, I think he went five
(15:11):
and two thirds innings, gave upten earned runs, and you're kind of
going, oh man, this rotationstarted to kind of come a part of
the seams, and part of thereason was injuries. Part of the reason
was that guys couldn't find his zonelike Spencer and Lo and Behold that dude
comes out again against the Colorado Rockiesand makes a decision to go out there
and absolutely shove. And he didit by throwing his fastball and sweeper early
(15:37):
in the count to get first pitchstrikes. He immediately got to two strike
counts, and he didn't waste anytime throwing his sweeper or his fastball in
the mid upper nineties like hunder Brownand said, I'm gonna go ahead and
throw you my few pitches and getyou the f out of here. And
that's the kind of guy that Ithink we all envision and enjoy. But
to see those two guys, youngpitchers, pitching back to back the way
(16:00):
they did, I know, it'sonly one start for Spencer, but at
the same time, I mean,talk about the hope that those two guys
give you, knowing that they're underclub control for three to five more years
and If they have that kind ofmentality with that kind of stuff and they're
executing it the way they can,that is a potent duo moving forward.
(16:21):
And I thoroughly enjoyed every minute ofSpencer and all of his flowing lettuce coming
out the back of his hair,back of his hat, with all those
punch outs. That was a lotof fun to watch because he kept getting
ahead of hitters. Did he reallyfinally get the benefit that every pitcher wants
in any start? He got theRockies to consistently swing at his pitches in
(16:42):
the zone and out of the zone, which is I would imagine one reason
why he went eighty nine pitches andseventy strikes because he got them to swing
at his pitches. Right, No, I guarantee you, yeah, that's
it. That's an excellent point,because I guarantee you that if you're sitting
in on the Colorado Rockies hitters meetingbefore the game against Spencer, they probably
(17:03):
sat there and they said, lookat these numbers. Look at his strikeout
to walk ratios. He's walking aminimum of two to three guys every single
start he's had in the big leagues. Let's be patient, Let's force him
to get in the zone and ifyou fall behind him a count, pick
a pitch, go out there andhammer it, because when he misses,
he's missing out over the plate.And then you go the first time through
(17:25):
the lineup and it's wop o twoand you're going, Okay, this is
really just kind of messing with mygame plan. Now I'm on defense immediately
trying to hit his pitches. AndI think Spencer and the Rockies kind of
came to that realization the second timethrough the order that I can't go up
there and wait for a pitch thatI want to hit. I've got to
(17:45):
go out there and be ready toattack a pitch in the zone early,
because if I don't, I'm goingto get to two strikes and he's gonna
have he's gonna throw me something offthe edges, or he's going to reach
back and grab a couple extra milesan hour at the top of the zone
that I can't catch up to.So I've got to start swinging early.
And even when they did start toswing early, I think there were two
or three hits on the first pitchand that was it, and other than
(18:07):
that, everybody else was even withswinging we're still falling behind one two and
eventually creating soft contact order the swingand miss. So Spencer did a very
good job. And I kind ofjoked with TK about the fourth or fifth
inning. I wonder, I said, I wonder if Spencer's kind of gone
over to Josh Miller, the pitchingcoach, and kind of tugged on his
jersey a little bit and said,hey man, this strike, this thing,
(18:29):
strikes early. Thing is pretty good. I realize I'm asking someone who's
not an ex pitcher, although you'rean ex player, And I realized this
could kind of come off as simplistic, but how do you go from a
prior start where you couldn't locate thestrike zone to save your life? And
it was a big reason why hedidn't last very long to every I mean,
it was like bbi's and at onepoint I think he had thrown like
(18:52):
fifty one of sixty one pitches inthe strike zone. It was just ridiculous.
Yeah, it was pretty insane.I think, you know, it's
it's it's a mentality. It hasa lot to do with mechanics, but
I think it's more mentality of anything, and it's trust. I think there's
got to be a lot of trustin your stuff to be able to go
out there and say I'm going tothrow a good strike. I'm not gonna
(19:15):
pump pitches down the middle, butI'm gonna go out and throw good strikes
because I think I think when youknow, knowing that Spencer is big into
analytics, and as much as Iappreciate the numbers, I appreciate you know
guys saying the shape of my pitchwas what I wanted it to be.
Ultimately, the data doesn't go outthere and produce. The player does.
And in order to go out thereand produce, you've got to pitch.
(19:38):
And you can't rely on the shapeof a pitch. You can't rely on
a quote unquote profile. You've gotto create your profile, and you've got
to create your own shape inside thezone. And I think that's what you
did that last outing against the ColoradoRockies. Is he said that I've got
good stuff. The data tells meI have good stuff. But why am
I not getting guys out? It'sbecause they're not change because the pitches are
(20:00):
egregious off the zone, so they'renot competitive strikes, or they're not competitive
pitches on the edges forcing the hitterto make a decision. So I've got
to be a little bit better earlyon so that when I do get off
the edges, it puts the hitteron a defensive swing path and they have
to go chase these pitches. Sowhat he did is he was aggressive on
the edges, but he didn't nibble. And a lot of guys when they
(20:22):
start to nibble, try and beperfect. And when you try and be
perfect, you miss big. AndI think if you just concentrate on hitting
thirds of the zone, you know, the inner third, the outer third,
the upper third, or the lowerthird, then it allows you a
little margin of error in case youget a little bit of movement out of
your pitches to be able to stayin the zone or on the edge.
And I think that's where he got. He got on those thirds of the
(20:45):
plate instead of trying to be sofine and throwing to you know, pinpoint
positions on the plate. And helooked magnificent. Maybe worth an opportunity to
take here to tip a thirtieth roundpick out of McNee state, who spent
six years away from the majors inthe miners. And now the Astros have
opened the door for him with theway they've had to manipulate kind of that
(21:07):
last spot or two in their bullpen, and Brian King, all you can
do is take advantage of the timegiven to you. They've put him out
there twice. He's throwing strikes andmaking it look way easier than it's supposed
to be. And he's doing itthat way that we're just talking about.
He's going out there and throwing stripsearly. So you know, if you're
facing a guy out of the bullpenfor the first time, you're going,
(21:29):
Okay, I want to see astrike, and then immediately, wow,
you're behind oh and one, andthen all of a sudden you're going,
okay, I don't want to fallbehind oh and two. And I might
get a little more aggressive than meat bad. But I love the way
that King. Ryan King's gone outthere attack the strike zone and he's kind
of shown some swing and missibility withthis slider both the right handed hitters and
left handed hitters, and that's whatI kind of like. It's rare to
(21:51):
kind of see that guy that getscaulled up and goes after the zone the
way that Ryan King is, andthat is such a blessing for a man
to have in the bullpen, aguy that will come out and immediately start
throwing strikes, because the thing thatyou don't like as a manager is having
guys in the bullpen that immediately walkthe first batter or fall behind three two
to two to zero and put himin hitters counts. But Ryan King has
(22:15):
been impressive. I mean, ifyou're able to have him fly under the
radar and continue to throw strikes,he might stick around for a while.
It's Jeff Blum of Space City HomeNetwork. He's the ASTROS color analyst.
He joined us each and every weekhere on the program, typically on Fridays,
but a little special occasion here ona Thursday edition of the program.
Got another half hour with him remaininghere on Sports Talk seven ninety. Real
(22:37):
quickly, though, I want totell you guys about how to get your
hands on the best checking account inthe entire city. We're talking about Primeway
Federal Credit Union. There the placeto go to to get up to two
percent interest that you can earn extrasthat are going to give you protection and
the peace of mind that come withhaving dark web monitoring or the knowledge that
if something happens to your phone orit gets lost. You've got the mobile
(23:00):
phone protection. They're going to haveyour back. They're going to replace your
phone, and they'll throw in shoppingrewards and travel and leisure discounts. They'll
even wave monthly charges when you useyour debit card to pay. The best
part is, though, they youknow that you are signing up for an
account with a credit union that isout to help you and cares about you
and your needs when you sign upwith their user friendly, easy online application
(23:23):
located at their website PRIMEWAYFCU dot com. Visit PRIMEWAYFCU dot com. Today,
that's primeway FCU dot com. Hey, it's Hunner Brown three. Catch every
ass game on Sports Talk seven ninetyfour, the iHeartRadio app Home with your
Astros A team rolling along here ona Thursday edition of the program, June
(23:45):
is almost over. That's crazy now. Dana Brown came on this station and
said, well, we'd like tobe back to five. What was his
exact target date for being back tofive hundred a month from now? Well
to five didn't give a target dateto five hundred. It was more about
we need to cut into this lead. We got to get half of that
lead to go away kind of leaningtowards once at the end of July,
(24:08):
saying, so I know for surewe're in it, so I can continue
to say we're not sellers. Andthen the Astros said, I thought he
said a week. I thought hesaid, we should immediately cut into that
lead. Jeff Blum here with us, it's not always that your winning streak
coincides with the division leader. Well, in their case, I don't even
want to call it a losing streak. They just were on the road,
(24:29):
which means they're on a losing streak. The Mariners have really struggled away from
their ballpark, getting a really goodpitching performance finally to eliminate one loss and
instead have a win. But theAstros were able to cut into this lead
so rapidly and doing the same thingin the wild card race. There there
are another week's worth of excellence frombeing like one game out, no games
out. They are chasing everybody,and it was, you know, a
(24:52):
couple of shows ago, we're talkingabout the Astros being eleventh or twelfth in
the American League, and now they'resixth or or seventh or eighth on any
given day with the teams in frontof them because of who they are.
Are the teams like the Royals andRed Sox and Twins and Mariners paying more
(25:14):
attention than they might normally be payingconsidering they're the ones ahead. But okay,
here they are again, here comethe Astros. Is that an inevitable
feeling you think some of those organizationsor players might be having. Yeah,
And I think that they probably startedthe season with that feeling, you know,
assuming that the Astros would break outof the gate and constantly be in
(25:37):
the conversation because you know, therehasn't been too much roster turnover, or
even if there has been, somebody'sstilled the void to allow the Astros to
continue to go out there and win. So I think the expectation breaking out
of camp was, Okay, we'regood enough. If you're the Kansas City
Royals, min'ster the Twins, youknow, and obviously the Twins or some
of these other teams that were playoffcontenders before or face the ass in a
(26:00):
playoff series, they understand what theAstros are about. But if you're the
Kansas City Royals, you're saying,Okay, we're good enough, We're going
to compete our division isn't one ofthe greatest, and we feel that we've
made the moves and that have thetalent to go out there and compete.
But we know that the Astros aregoing to be in the mix. But
the assumption always is that the Astrosare going to be leading the American League
(26:21):
West, so they won't even bea factor. You've got to deal with
potentially the Seattle Mariners of the TexasRangers. But this season's a little bit
different, and I think that youknow, maybe if you did end up
breaking from camp taking a nap onthem because you're winning ball games, you're
at the top of your division,or you have one of those wild card
spots halfway through the season and you'refeeling pretty good about yourself. Then all
(26:41):
of a sudden, you start tolook at the standards. You're going,
oh, damn, these guys areback behind us by about three and a
half four and a half games.Again, I like the pressure that it
brings. I like that these guyshave created a culture of yeah, you
better worry about us. And Ithink that's a test for a lot of
these organizations and a lot of theseplayers is knowing that you've got a team
(27:02):
in the hunt creeping up behind you, kind of targeting you. But they've
already got the experience, so they'renot gonna be overwhelmed by too many situations.
They're gonna put the pressure on theseteams ahead of them and see how
they react. And I think wegot a good indication of how teams ahead
of them might react, just inwhat we saw in that Baltimore Orioles series,
because you know, the Baltimore Oriolesno pointing about the Astros because of
(27:25):
the ancestral nature of their front offices, and they went and swept the Baltimore
Orioles, So they definitely put someof these teams on alert. I think
with that series alone, now youkind of stole my thunder on this question,
because it's one thing to they lostthat opener at the White Sox and
they're ten games under or ten gamesback of the division lead, I should
(27:45):
say, and then okay, great, you took the next two you're supposed
to the White Sox suck. Yousweep the Orioles, and then I know
the Rockies aren't good either, butlike, you can only play who's in
front of you, and you can'tignore they didn't just sweep the Orioles,
they dismantled them. They kind ofthey made that opener interesting again, which
was really not a lot of fun, even though it kind of was fun
(28:06):
to watch it. They ended upwinning that game, but then the next
two they just they just outclassed theBaltimore Orioles, which I just never thought
we would say coming maybe even intothat series. Yeah, because I mean,
if you look at it on paper, you assume that the Baltimore Orioles
talent would just overwhelm the Astros,and I mean it almost did, like
you said, in that opening game. But I think that also as well
(28:30):
as the Astros played that opening game, watching the Orioles kind of fight back
with eleven runs in that game kindof made them go, Okay, we
can't sit back on these guys.We got to keep the throttle down.
We got to keep pushing because theseguys are good enough to come back.
But the pitching really stepped up.I mean, you went from giving up
eleven runs in that first game togiving up one run in the second and
third game a piece, And Ithink that kind of spoke volumes to the
(28:52):
ability of the Astros to adjust totheir opponent and also kind of announced their
dominance a little bit far as pitchingwas concerned, because you know, going
back to that first segment when wewere talking about how we finally saw the
good defense, we saw the greatpitching both out of the rotation in the
back end of the bullpen, andthen we saw some timely hitting with some
(29:12):
of those numbers being put up,and we started to see the death because
I think, you know, inthat home stand, I think there were
eleven guys on that roster, orat least a position player wise, it
had at least two RBIs and youngyour Diaz led the way with maybe Stix
RBIs, so nobody really kind ofran away with it. As far as
offensively, it was a real teameffort. And again you've got to emphasize
(29:37):
the fact that these guys, youknow, sweeping through the Baltimoreal send the
message. But they did it withoutthe arguably their best offensive player. Kyle
Tucker is still on the shelf andthe Astros are on this run. Wait
who is that again? Yeah?Remember that guy we crowned the king.
He does still lead the team ina hall homers. He finally doesn't lead
(30:03):
the team in RBIs Jarardana Alvarez hasone more than him. Right now,
they have three players with forty orforty one. And again this is almost
this entire month's worth of work hasbeen put together with Kyle Tucker unfortunately unavailable
that back. Since the third they'veplayed again, there's no question they've played
their best baseball as a team.And you illustrated the reasons why during his
(30:25):
absence. It's because one person's notreplacing Kyle Tucker. Everybody is is up
and down the lineup. You mentionedYiner. Probably worth our time to mention
their other catcher, Sally he's doingaf I think he's doing an unbelievable job
behind the plate, which is kindof going unnoticed where it's impossible to not
notice. He has been a punchto this offense in just about every time
(30:48):
he's had the opportunity. I thinkthat's that's a great point because I'm a
Victor Kartini fan. I like whathe's brought to the table. But who
knew that bringing in a guy likesays salas Are was kind of going to
it was going to be that shotin the arm, And granted it coincided
with bringing Joey Loperfido up, whichI think has also been a very you
know, kind of ad adrenaline shotto the heart. But Salazar has kind
(31:12):
of come in and been a littlebit of a spark plug. I think
what I love about him is he'sa guy that understands his role. He's
not going to expect too much fromJoe or Spata as far as playing time.
He's not going to go out thereand you know, ruffle feathers in
the clubhouse because I'm not playing thisbs'. He's a guy that says,
I understand my role and I'm goingto prepare every single day as if I'm
(31:36):
the starting catcher because I want tobe ready when my numbers called. And
that's why he's been so successful becauseand the same reason Victor Caratine's been successful
is because they've been ready to fillthe void when asked. They haven't gone
in there with the expectation of gettingit bats. They've gone in there with
the expectation of being ready for thebats when they come, and that's why
they're so successful. But I alsothink that says Ar salas Are is one
(31:59):
of those more cerebral baseball shavvy typeguys because he can feel, he can
feel what the game is bringing.He can feel what is necessary in a
given moment, whether it be becauseof a hitter swing or because of a
guy at third base less than twoouts. He has great situational at bats,
(32:21):
He gets the barrel of the baseballwhen he needs to, and he
calls a great game. So Ithink that there's there's a lot of aspects
about Sasar Salazar that has been reallybeneficial to this team because he doesn't expect
to be the guy, he doesn'tdesire to be the guy. He wants
to be a cog in the machineof going out there and winning. And
I think he's been a nice,little, nice little shot in the arm
for the Astros having some fun.Just one note before we hit the break
(32:45):
here, Jeff. The top threeAstros in terms of ops regardless of sample
size with runners in scoring position numberthree Joey Lo Perfido, number two,
Trey Cabbage number one, Saysar Salazar. All all three of those players and
very limited duty for different reasons,have had the opportunity to come through,
(33:06):
and they have come through. Andit's a huge reason why during this last
month of time they just played muchbetter baseball as a team because there aren't
those spots in the order anymore.It doesn't feel like where they're just not
getting anything, and they can mixand match some players and still get something
going with them. Another segment Togowith the Jeff Blum here on a Thursday
on the eighteen. Yeah, speakingof shots in the arm, And you
(33:27):
know what, teachers can get ashot in the arm when they take advantage
of what's going on over at BerkeleyIce Center and concentrating on the teachers because
it is the end of June andbefore you know it, those classrooms will
be filling back ups. You knowwhat, if you're a teacher, if
you're an educational staff member, goover to beeclasik dot com right now or
(33:47):
call seven one three five two sixeyes and here's why, you'll get all
the details on over sixteen hundred dollarsin Lasik savings and a free pair of
designer sunglasses. So those kiddos can'ttell when you're looking to see if they're
acting up. That's what they're givingyou over at Berkeleyy Center. And just
because they know how important teachers andeducational staff are, they're even throwing in
(34:09):
a visa gift card to help jumpstart next year's classroom again. All you
gotta do is go to be eclasikdot com. That's bclasic dot com or
call seven one three five two sixI's seven one three five two six e
y yes for Berkeley Center. Sure. Back to Adam Clinton at Adam Wexler
(34:30):
two A's ah the eighteen on SportsTalk seven ninety. You're a home for
your home teams and these two Adamsfinal segment with our good buddy Jeff Blum,
Space City Home Network, former astroand all around fine American head it
out on a vacation to the BigApple and Minnesota and Toronto. You looking
(34:52):
forward to that? Yeah, it'skind of weird going to Toronto for not
only Canada today, but also Americais independent, so it's going to be
an odd trip and it's going toseem like an extremely long time north of
the border. I feel like youshould wear so you're gonna be in Toronto
on July fourth, correct? Yeah? Yeah, I feel like you should
(35:15):
wear the most obnoxious American flag patternshirt everywhere you go, including on the
broadcast. Yeah, if somebody wantsto hook me up at that I'll do
it. I'm not sure how SpaceCity would feel about that, but it's
always worth, you know, tryingto test the limits of your own contracts.
I don't know that they'll even noticewhen the Astros are in search of
(35:36):
their fourteenth straight win. Oh mygod, where would you imagine? There
we go? Hey, I likeit. And you know what else,
if Jordan wants to visit the flightdeck again, that'd be pretty sweet.
Well, that would be a greatbirthday present. I think it's his birthday
today, So happy birthday to thegreatest left handed hit or I've ever seen
in person in the last seven oreight years. You and I. I'm
(36:00):
sorry, I was going to tellyou you and I have had this conversation
off air about the best or mostimpressive part of that home run last season
wasn't the home run itself. Necessarily, it was the people in line trying
to get drinks, Like, whatthe hell is a baseball doing up here,
dude? There were so many thingsgoing on with that. So the
(36:22):
fact that we even had there wasa remote camera up there kind of filming,
because Toronto has actually done a reallygood job in the Rogers Center of
renovating it redesigning it and kind ofupdating it for not just the fan,
but for the players as well.But we had a camera up there floating
around as your DNA is hitting.And keep in mind, the flight deck
(36:43):
that you're talking about is this barand center field. It's got to be
about thirty feet above center field,just underneath the scoreboard that they have out
there. From where we said,it looks like a mile and a half
away, but it also looks likea great view of the ballpark. And
the r raff is kind of wanderingaround, and all of a sudden,
here this thunderclap, and it's it'syour Don making contact with a change up.
(37:05):
And all of a sudden, you'vewatch the flight of this damn ball
and you're like, I kind ofhit PK and I was like, this
one ain't coming down, and itproceeds to rattle around this flight deck bar
standing area, and like you said, planning, I mean, people were
all of a sudden kind of kickingit around. You're like, what the
hell hit my foot? And there'slike some dude picks up a ball.
(37:25):
I was like, why why isthere a ball up here? And your
Don's just kind of casually going aroundthe bases like this is what I do
on a normal basis. It wascrazy. Man, Hey, uh,
I don't usually use this as apickup line here, but is this your
baseball? And now they're Mary wellfrom exactly, Well, I've got others
(37:46):
if you want to see those two. Have you seen my baseball? That's
what I thought about, something aboutMary up. Oh my gosh, you
too? But yeah, yeah,right, okay I did. It's well,
the second consecutive week it got weirdand we're not even in person.
(38:06):
But no, like, you're right, this isn't an odd trip from that
sense, but I was. Iwas asking wex this either yesterday or the
day before. So are you gladthat the Mets got it out of their
system so to speak, that they'renot necessarily playing their baseball when you see
them, whereas the Astros certainly are. Except for the Mets, they're still
(38:28):
winning. Was it eleven and twosince Grimace did his thing? Yeah?
Who knew they needed a fat purplething to get them motivated? Man,
I mean there's Buck Showalter somewhere goingDamn. I should have thought of that.
It's just, yeah, it's wild, and you you're you're traveling on
it's not an off day, butyou're you're basically going up there because of
(38:50):
the Apple game tomorrow night. Areyou gonna Are you gonna observe from the
hotel? Are you planning on goingto the game? What do you do
on a night like that? Youknow, it's funny and it's kind of
a joke amongst us, well,not the radio guys, but like the
TV folk. I mean, there'swe I would not go to the game,
to be honest with you, justbecause there are so many other things
(39:12):
that I would rather be doing thanwatching the you know, the Mets.
But would I am going to watchjust because I want to make sure that
I see what's going on in thatgame, just so I'm ready for the
broadcast the next day. But I'msure that I can find a nice steak
place or a nice wine bar ofsome kind that will have the game on
TV that I could partake in anadult beverage and and watch the Astros try
(39:34):
and foil with what kind of Junethe New York Mets have had? Sound?
Yeah, sounds like you're multitasking atyour finest. Yeah, And it's
it's amazing how well I multitask outsideof my own house. Well, there's
not as many distractions, right exactly. And it's my it's my it's my
multitasking, it's not somebody else's.Yeah, no, I totally I get
(39:57):
you on that, and it's itis in trouble for that one dude.
Yeah, we're definitely getting in trouble. They talk, but yeah, you
mentioned it kind of a little bitin the first segment. We're probably looking
at a bullpen game on Sunday.Yeah, I'm kind of curious, to
be honest, because you know,I keep talking about who is a Jacob
(40:17):
blue Ball is a guy's name.It gets tossed around, and you know,
it's kind of unfortunate that Jake Blosshad to go on the injured list.
Hopefully it's something that he'll be ableto overcome because I think he was
throwing in that last game in thehomestand but you know, you don't have
many weapons in the minor leagues asfar as guys that can come up and
eat up innings. And again,it's a guy coming up making the major
(40:39):
league debut at City Field in NewYork. As a team is you know,
trying to fight back in the race, So it's a kind of a
high pressure situation. But at thesame time, you're playing on a team
that has a very good defense,a very good offense, and you've got
a good bullpen backing you up.So if that, if that is the
option, those are some of thebenefits that you do have a good team
(41:00):
surrounding him. But at the sametime, you know there aren't too many
guys in that bullpen stretched out.I know that Taylor Scott, Seth Martinez
are two guys that can actually goout there and cover two innings. So
you've got four innings of a ballgamethere, and you still have to cover
obviously five more, you know,innings of fifteen outs. So how do
(41:20):
you do that? Or do youwho do you have to start that game?
And I think if you had tolook at the roster as it stands
right now, Sean Dubin's a guythat has started games in the past.
He stretched out maybe a little bitfurther than most guys could give you maybe
you know, maybe sixty pitches ifhe was out there and being incredibly efficient.
But you kind of look at tryingto cover twenty seven outs. But
(41:42):
then you also look at can youget me one time through the lineup?
Can this guy get me one timethrough the lineup? And then once you
get past that fifth and sixth inning, then and you had a lead,
then you can start going to yourbig boys and leverage situations, try and
shut it out. But it couldbe very interesting depending on what they try
to do on Sunday. Yeah,I have a four man rotation, an
additional arm technically in the bullpen.They don't have another off day until the
(42:06):
eighth. The entirety of this roadtrip is played without the off day,
and again that's the only off daybetween now and the All Star break.
They close out the pre All Starportion of the season with a six game
homestand when they return from Minnesota againstMiami and then the Texas Rangers. So
hopefully this is another good stretch ofbaseball. They're clearly playing very well.
The pitching, the defense, andthe offense all coming together at the right
(42:29):
time finally, and this team isback to even looking to go above five
hundred tomorrow night in the first ofthis ten game road trip. Jeff,
we always appreciate the time here withus. I know our listeners do as
well, and we certainly appreciate thefolks that make it all possible. Yeah,
I appreciate you guys kind of adjustingwith the travel plans that I've gotten.
It's always good being on with you. But of course, you know,
(42:51):
doctor Jeff Witsit and his vision groupare a reason I'm able to come
on here, and of course anotherreason why it's good to have good eyesight
and care of some of those issuesthat might be sneaking up on you.
I know that for me sometimes it'sa daily basis. But if it's nothing
major, doctor Jeff witze It willsay that and we'll make the adjustment from
there. But if it's something major, like an eye surgery or lays it,
(43:12):
he's going to be the guy thatI would choose to go to because
he's done over fifty thousand procedures,he knows what he's doing, and he's
the best in Houston. So doctorJeff Witzett and his Vision group are outstanding.
And of course you know, Ilike trying to stay in shape both
on and off the field, andLow T Center is where I get that
done. They provide me with mytestosterone levels, they get me where I
(43:34):
need to be, They provide meall the energy and recovery that I need
when I'm getting through my workouts ona daily basis. And believe it or
not, I'm actually sleeping better whenI'm on my testosterlushot So go get those
TA levels checked out at low tcenterdot com. Appreciate the time. Appreciate
you, you know, overlooking thefact that I didn't know what day it
was earlier when I was texting youto confirm this appearance as well. Welcome
(43:55):
to baseball season, right. Idon't know how you do it, man,
especially and what day is it today? The Cubs? Okay, got
it? Yes, exactly, It'sso true. All right, Well,
save travels, Blummer and we'll catchup with you next week. No,
you guys are great, man.I appreciate it.