Geoff Blum on The A-Team: Astros Are On The Minds Of The Mariners

Former Astro turned Space City Home Network analyst Geoff Blum joins The A-Team for his weekly visit. He talks about the Astros getting set for a huge road series with the Mariners over the weekend. He believes that Yordan Alvarez is alreayd getting the same treatment that one of the legends of the game got in his prime. Plus, he talks about the continued dominance by Hunter Brown. 

Episode Transcript

(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 Blom on seven ninety isdrought to you by low T Center.
Wait it all week for this can'twait any longer. Both Astros Baseball returns,

(00:24):
and so do our weekly visits withJeff Blom, Adam Wesley here with
you, and Jeff Blum here withall of us. As the second part
of the season begins for the Astros. Game number ninety seven the sixteenth game
of the second half of the season, and it begins with the two teams
battling for first place. The winnerof this series will be in first place
when it ends on Sunday, andthe All Star Break finally has come to

(00:47):
an end here on Friday. Jeff, great to have you back here with
us. Your break was fill inthe blank, it was exhausting. It's
good to be back on with you, guys, because I am kind of
excited about the second half. Butat the same time, I'm grateful to
be on a road trip and ina hotel room by myself so I can
actually get some sleep, because youknow, I might have earned Entertainer of

(01:10):
the Year over the last three orfour days, you know, touring Lake
Hattaseu City, Arizona with I thinkwe had eight teenagers with us. But
it was a good time and I'mglad to be back with the ball club.
So both in reality and literally,you were the adult in the room.
Yeah, literally, yeah, well, I mean it depends on who

(01:32):
you ask. You asked my wife, and obviously she's going to think I'm
just another twelve year old or maybethe youngest in that group. But always
entertaining to say the least. Youknow that. I definitely do know that
we're got a house full here forthe summer as well, Although that is
rapidly coming to a close. Thebaseball season feels a little bit similar because
it's so uneven. Thus I refuseto call it first and second half.

(01:53):
That's just not accurate. There's onlysixty six games left. The Astros only
have so many opportunities against the teamthey're chasing in Seattle this series and then
one other. Just six games remainthe teams in the wild card race that
they're chasing, many of whom theirseason series has already concluded with. In
the case of Boston, they'll beable to get back on that because they've

(02:14):
not yet seen them, so thereare plenty of things to play for.
Astros and Mariners have obviously set theirrotation for this upcoming weekend, trying not
to put too much magnitude on itbecause there will still be sixty three games
remaining after this series. But italmost feels like we don't need to not
look at this like a huge seriesbecause in reality it is. No I

(02:37):
can I actually completely agree with you. I think it's kind of interesting the
way that the Astros kind of stumbledout of the gate, and if you're
setting up the storyline, the waythey stumbled out of the gate and eventually
had a ton of injuries, they'veable to overcome that. They go on
that run in June and you know, most of the way through July,
and they're playing very good baseball goinginto the break, and you heard them

(03:00):
out, you know, out loud, that they were trying to get back
to five hundred before the All StarBreak, and they did better than that
going into the break four games overfive hundred. So I think these guys
understand they still got a little bitleft in the tank. They still have
enough to compete for the American LeagueDivision. Even when they don't have guys
like Justin Burland and Luis Garcia,the lancemac cullors, the you know,

(03:20):
the Kyle Tuckers and some of theseguys, they still have enough to go
out there and compete. And Ithink that's what makes this whole second,
you know, second part of theseason compelling is the fact that they do
have sixty six games left. They'vegot six more with the Seattle Mariners,
both this series that we're playing nowand the series that we'll have to finish
off the season. But I thinkthat this is a real moment for the

(03:42):
Astros because, you know, aswell as I do, a lot of
the you know, a lot ofthe things that we're hearing out of Seattle
is like, oh good, theHouston Astros lost. So they're thinking more
about the Astros, I think,than the Astros are thinking about the Mariners.
And that's what makes this series thatmuch more interesting is knowing that they
have the ash was on their heels. And we all know how Seattle feels
about Houston because of what they didin twenty twenty two. They love Houston.

(04:06):
They can't get enough of the Astros. They're super excited that every time
they think they have a good team, and this is the fourth year in
row they've thought that, Well,there's Houston. They are, as some
say, inevitable. It was.It doesn't seem like it when you're going
through it, and I imagine youcan attest to that, just like the
players going from seven to nineteen toa fifty win team to winning forty three

(04:29):
out of seventy games, going sixteengames over five hundred, It really from
a baseball calendar standpoint, it didn'ttake that long. I mean, they
were still twelve games under five hundredat twelve and twenty four and are sitting
at fifty and forty four before theylost the last two games before the All
Star Break to the Rangers. Sothere is a lot of season left.
There's actually, as you pointed thatout, I don't think people realize there's

(04:51):
a ton of time in between thisSeattle series and then the final Seattle series.
And I can't help but think it'sstill gonna map when they finally do
see Seattle at the end of theseason. So while this is a huge
series, it also provided because ofthe break the Astros, the opportunity I
think to set things up. Idon't know if there's a right way or
wrong way, or whether or notit's worth too much thought about. I

(05:13):
think they did exactly what I wouldhave done myself if I reset the rotation
with the days off, with tryingto keep guys from throwing too much,
too many innings, and we'll seeHunter Brown go first, from Brevaldez go
second, and Renel Blanco go finallyon Sunday, and that gives all of
them the additional rest that maybe sometimedown the road they'll constantly get if they

(05:34):
ever get enough healthy bodies to geta six man rotation. But I have
to imagine you like the way thatthey set this rotation up out of the
break, No, I really do. And you've got to protect guys like
Spisher, Hurghetty, Jake Blost.These guys are getting into portions of a
big league season that they really haven'tseen too much. And Renelle is another

(05:55):
guy that you could put in thatcategory as well, you know, not
being a full time starter a fullbig league season. So I think you
do have to protect those guys alittle bit. I do like that Renel's
going to be that third starter inthis series kind of coming out of the
break, has a chance to closeit out and win a series if the
Astros are able to take one ofthe first two. But at the same
time, you know the way thatHunter Brown has kind of turned his season

(06:17):
around, and some of the vauntedright handed hitters, I mean, if
you can say that in the Seattlelineup, the way that they're going,
you know, he sets up Ithink very good because you've got a power
right hander in Hunter Brown, thenyou have a left hander in Fromer Valdez,
and then you have a right handedpitcher with a very good changeup in

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Renel Blanco's setting up in the series. So it's going to make it kind
of tough for Scott Servis to figureout how to manipulate his lineup to go
out there and give them the bestchance. And it's kind of interesting to
look at this point with the SeattleMariners leading the division. You know,
they've played a couple more games inthe Astros, but they their run differential
is thirty runs lower than the Astros. They're pitching is elite, yet they're

(07:00):
offense is the worst in baseball.So it's going to be kind of interesting
to see how the Astros can takeadvantage of these three games right here before
Jerry Depoto, the GM Seattle Mirrorsmight actually make a decision to try and
go get some offense to get theseguys going. Yeah. To that end,
I mentioned the gap in between thesetwo series, one before the All
Star Break starting tonight, one areexcud before the trade deadline, and one

(07:21):
after the trade deadline. I'm prettysure the team that they see at the
end of the year is not goingto look like the one they see over
the next three days, specifically offensively. For all the reasons you just laid
out, we know there are someteams that will feel compelled not just because
they're winning, but because of theopportunity to be buyers, and it seems
almost impossible that that doesn't fall rightinto Seattle's plan of attack over the next

(07:44):
two weeks. I'd be shocked ifthey aren't buying multiple offensive players, finding
multiple guys to be in their everydaylineup to give them a little bit more
punch. And just from a schedulingstandpoint, the Astros head to head,
we'll only see whatever that team lookslike at the end of the year,
and the hopeful that you can justtake care of your own business. If
you start that this weekend, thenyou really don't even have to concern yourselves

(08:05):
with that. If they can takeyou know, have a good series to
open against Seattle. They've got Oaklandimmediately after that, and you'd like to
think, well, heck, maybethey'll even begin to sell before we get
there. But the Astros have handledthem six out of seven times thus far,
and then you do get to goback home where clearly the Astros are
back to being a fairly dominant teamthere. I still think all things considered,

(08:26):
as long as the break didn't slowthese guys down, I would think
they're in a pretty good space toget the final sixty six started. Yeah.
No, I completely agree with you, and I think you know,
you know, mentioned something in betweenthere. I do think that the Mariners
may look a little bit differently thesecond time the Astros say play them after
that trade deadline, or at leastthey should try to, because you know,

(08:46):
you know, mentioning that their offenseis hitting two nineteen as an overall
ball club, and you know they'retowards the back of the pack as far
as hitting with runners in scoring positions, so they need to find a way
to score runs to help out thispitching staff. The other one I liked
it, you said, and it'ssomething that we hear a lot from this
clubhouse this season, is that theycan only control what's ahead of them,

(09:09):
and they're not looking, you know, they aren't looking at what the Seattle
manors are doing from afar. They'relooking at what they're doing by themselves.
And that's why I think that turnaroundhappened so quick for the Astros is because
they just put the pedal down,played good baseball. They got great pitching
and the offense matching up the defensewas going great. But that's lad they
were able to close the gap soquickly is because they weren't paying attention necessarily

(09:31):
to what the Seattle Mariers were doing. They were going out there and going,
Okay, we have an opportunity hereto score a run. They take
advantage of it. We're getting agreat pitching performance from whoever's on the mountains
today, Let's take advantage of that. And that kind of snowballed and kind
of isolated them and kind of galvanizedthem to go out there and play their
game and not worry about what theSeattle Marriers were doing or how close they

(09:52):
were doing until they got to thisAll Star break. And I think everybody
kind of in that clubhouse got tothis All Star break, looked at where
they were at and said, Okay, we busted our ass to get to
this point, let's go ahead andfinish it off. And I think they're
looking forward to the next sixty sixgames to try and prove their point.
Yeah, even though the Astros endedup winning just half of their final eight
games going into the break, ofthose final seven when they went four and

(10:16):
three, the pitching, which nowhopefully got a little bit of a break
as they reset up for the finalsixty six, the pitching was really really
good. The last game against Seattle, excuse me, against Minnesota gave up
only three runs another three one,three, three, two and four on
the final day of the first partof the season. They're really in a
good spot as they headed into thisa break for a brave new Hater and

(10:39):
Presley and Taylor Scott, who deservesmentioned with that group as well. So
I like to think that everything isset up very well. Quite obviously,
I'm aware that Seattle had many daysoff also didn't have many players, any
players it seemed like, sent tothe All Star Game, nor did they
need to, like the Astros pitcheron Sunday being off for the All Star
Game, Logan Gilbert, an AllStar but unavailable to pitch. So I

(11:01):
do think both of these teams probablysee things similarly, because we'll get to
the fact that while I'm sure theMariners are going to be buyers, I
feel pretty confident the Astros will be. Also, it's just a matter of
how do they outbid other teams forwhat could be at their disposal, hopefully
on the pitching side. Jeff andI will get back into both of those
things. We continue with the firsthour on our Friday A Team back to

(11:26):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler. TheA Team Friday edition of The A Team
has arrived, and of course thefirst hour of the program spent with our
guests Space City Home Network TV analystsfor your Houston Astros. It actually again
tonight, beginning the second part ofthe season with three games series late night

(11:50):
Baseball in Seattle for the Astros andMariners. Jeff Blum is here with us,
and I know I opened with aquestion about the All Star break.
Curious about the All Star break,which was a little different during your major
league career in that it was rarelythe full four days off that everybody got
this time Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, nobody plays. The

(12:11):
Astros have had that taken from themrecently when they had to have that rescheduled
a doubleheader. But for the mostpart during your career, if I'm not
mistaken, it was a little bitshorter, and if I have the timing
right, your personal All Star breakswere both a little bit pre family and
kids and post family and kids.What was the best way in those situations

(12:31):
for you to get away from thegame for a couple of days. Man,
we took full advantage of that.Was that was one of the best.
I mean, we love our kidsto death, but at the same
time, trying to get that manypeople into one area for a quick trip
is always kind of tough. Butyou know, pre kids, I love

(12:52):
me somem Mexico man, whether itbe Cabo or you know the Cantcoon sign,
or you know that you have totamp Peninsula going down to Mayatoba and
to Loom But we were big onthe Cabo trip, so we would always,
you know, evacuate the country andhead down to Mexico for some margaritas
and guacamole. Man, that's howwe usually spent it. Did you need

(13:13):
or want teammates along for the partyor nah, I'm good. Yeah,
that'd be a negative ghost writer.Yeah. No. I think when you
spend six seven months with a groupof guys, you get to know them
pretty well, and you also appreciateyour time away from them as well.
And we always would kind of makefun of it. You know, there's
there's few opportunities when you're playing inthe Big League. There's a few opportunities

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to go and pick your own friends, and there will be guys that you
will see in the offseason. Butfor the most part, you kind of
enjoy the time that you can goout pick your own friends and kind of
catch up and re establish some acquaintancesthat you made along the way. Understood
impossible to look at the Seattle Seriesand not pretty much always go back to
what took place in the postseason.I think everybody remembers Game one a couple

(13:58):
of years ago, where the Astrosnearly fell down one game to none,
a poor start and the fantastic finishon the swing from Jordan Alvarez. We
remember Game three in that there wasone run scored and again a late inning,
last inning swing for the Astros wonthe game with Jeremy Panna in the
eighteenth inning. And I actually thinkpeople might forget essentially the same thing happened

(14:24):
in Game two in between. TheAstros were down again in the sixth inning,
bottom of the sixth inning at MinuteMade Park, and it was Jordan
who put them in front where theystayed. And while I say a lot
of people that might be listening mightforget the Mariners, don't the Mariners know
how the Astros have been in theirway for the one to sixty two for

(14:46):
the last four years, and inthis case, in their way for the
postseason. I just think something likethat is in the back of so many
of their minds. Scott Service aswell, that it makes these games even
more fun and intense. Oh absolutely, you know. I think the way
that you know, rob you know, the big managerial move bringing in Robbie

(15:07):
Ray and then the subsequent you know, upper tank game winning home run and
the reactions from both sides, youknow, I almost felt like and I
get see out a lot of creditbecause they've fought, you know, they
they've tried to put together a team, they fought, they put themselves in
positions to go out there and winball games. But it just seems like,

(15:28):
you know, the the Houston Astrosjust have that one last punch.
You may think you've knocked them arounda little bit or got them up against
the ropes, but they always finda way to punch out of the corner
and bury you. And that's youknow, that's been your Don Alvarez.
And I think it's fun for thefans, you know, just watching some
of the you know, the theinteraction on social media is that you know,

(15:50):
we beat you guys the last twoyears, and the Astro fans just
kind of, you know, duringthe regular season, the Astro fans just
gonna go, that's cute, youknow what, what's your record in the
postseason? And you know, Ithink that's just kind of ultimately what at
the Astro fans have been able todo for the last seven or eight years
is just say, hey man,that's great, you beat us in the
regular season, show us what youdo in the postseason. But I think
that's kind of a difference in howsome organizations have been built. Is that

(16:15):
the Astros have kind of been builtto play extremely good during the regular season,
but to be an absolute menace inthe postseason. And I think that's
kind of where these guys are atnow. They're kind of they're reimagining that
they do have an ability to kindof recavoc on this league. And that's
why they're only one game back ofthe Seattle Mariners, who can't ignore the
rearview mirror. Yeah, some ofthat lead they actually built themselves, because

(16:38):
they've eat the Astros five out ofthe seven games they've met, and all
those things you mentioned from all theyears that have preceded so far, what's
happened in these seven games. It'skind of been flipped. The pitching has
been great for both teams. Essentiallyin every game of the seven games that
they've played thus far, no teamhas scored more than five runs in any
of the games. There have beenthree one run games the Mariners have won

(17:00):
them all. They are another twogames decided by two runs or fewer.
It's been exceptionally close. They havecome through. The Mariners have come through
with either shutout innings from their bullpenlate when the Astros couldn't or vice versa
for them to come from behind.I don't think that this group of Mariners
is maybe unwilling to believe they canwin because of what's happened. But I

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also think they realize we still hadto win by kind of getting a runs
that we don't often get. AndI wonder if that's something that as a
team that doesn't score a lot ofruns, it kind of weighs on you,
you know, some hundred games inthe seat into a season. Yeah,
and you remember when those those sixgames that you're talking about that the
Seattle Mariners have played the Astros.That was a different team I feel like

(17:45):
compared to who the Astros are nowor who they've become in u in June
and July. So it'd be reallyinteresting to see how they go out there
and do that. But I reallyagree in the sense that you know,
they didn't steal any games in thosepre series against the Astros. I think
they earned them. And I thinkthey earned it because they did get a
couple of timely hits or maybe youknow, a couple of runs that maybe

(18:07):
they shouldn't have, but they pitchedextremely well and it was a time when
the Astros back into their bullpen reallywasn't firing on all cylinders and shutting out
games like we've seen here in recentyou know, the recent what six weeks
where you've got Hater on a run, You've got Ryan Presley on a run,
Brian Embray who's getting some of thatstrength back from pitching so much in
that first half. So I thinkit's going to be kind of interesting to

(18:27):
see these two teams, you know, hopefully you know, playing up to
the caliber that they are. ButI think it'll be a different look for
the Seattle Mariners, just in thefor the Astros, just because they haven't
seen them really firing when the offensehas gone well and the pitching has gone
well and they've kind of married thosetwo together. But I really hope out
of the break that the Astros arekind of invigorated. I know that they

(18:47):
were a little tired going into thebreak, but how about getting four days
off and then playing the division leader, division rival to kind of stir things
up a little bit and get themgoing pretty quick out of the gate.
I think it's going to be afun series. Be nice if your trip
to Seattle was preceded by games playedout West. Let's say, if you're
you know, maybe catching Seattle onthe backside of a road trip or that
flight, there wasn't Houston to Seattlein the fact that you're catching it out

(19:12):
of the break and you fly ata time that's much more normal if you
so choose. And no doubt theAstros did. Is that a little bit
of a minor advantage in that they'renot flying in late night Thursday night to
begin a series Friday against the Mariners. Yeah, and I think it kind
of speaks to maybe the Astros,I know they've got a pretty good health

(19:33):
department, but also speaks to you, maybe Joe A Spot of the manager
of the Astros, saying, youknow what, let's get out there,
let's get acclimated. You know,they flew in yesterday, they went straight
to the ballpark, kind of gotthe band back together in the clubhouse and
went out there and worked out andgot the blood flown a little bit in
the atmosphere of being in that stadium, so that when they do show up
tomorrow, it's not going to beall you know, they've been there before,

(19:56):
I know that, but it's notgoing to be as abrupt it's going
to be a little more normal,little more routine. And I think that's
the idea of getting out here early, is spending that entire day off,
kind of acclimating to what's going on, and spending the time here in Seattle,
so you do get used to thattime change a little bit, because
you're right. Sometimes, throughout thecourse of the season, some of these
time changes can be pretty drastic.They can affect the body, they can

(20:18):
affect the mind, and I thinkthese guys are in a good place getting
here early enough to be able torelax and enjoy the city with the sun
out. We'll get to the baseballon the other side of this. One
question about what I'm sure you werenot locked in on Monday night or Tuesday
night, So I'll just ask youabout all of it between the anthem before
the derby, the derby itself,anything that took place during the All Star

(20:40):
Game, anything that caught your eyeor ear. No, I've got to
be brutally honest. I didn't watchany of the home run derby. I
mean, it was kind of coolto see Taoscar Hernandez win it, just
because he's an ex astro. Iknow he's wearing a probably not the uniform
that we would like to see himin, but at the same time,
I thought that was kind of cool. There's uh, there's an astro ingredients

(21:03):
all over the league, and they'revery good ballplayers, so it was good
to see the Oscar honored. Idid not watch the All Star Game,
and I've got to be brutally honest, the uniforms that they wore were o
trocious. I didn't realize that theywere going to go full UNI for those
things because I grew up in anera where you know, they wore their
home, your team's home white uniform, and I really thought that was kind

(21:26):
of cool because you were repping yourteam, you're repping your city, and
you actually it wasn't it was ateam, but it wasn't like you're an
All Star. Where were your teamuniform? I just thought that those uniforms
were terrible. I thought the colorcombinations were atrocious. I don't know what
Salmon and tan, I didn't knowif Vinyard Vines made these unions. Nailed
the sentiment that just about everybody had, Yeah, we have to have an

(21:48):
All Star for every team. Yeah, let them wear their uniforms much more
with Jeff Blum still to come.Hey, it's good listen to every game
anywhere on the iHeart Radio Sports Talkseven ninety It's home of your Rockets eighteen

(22:14):
Friday. Jeff Blum, wex herewith you to get you ready for the
re beginning of the baseball season.Sixty six games remain the first three between
first and second place in the AmericanLeague West tonight, with Hunter Brown and
Luis Castillo getting the ball for theirrespective teams. Coming your way from Seattle.
We've got coverage for you right hereon Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Of course, Jeff and his crewwill do the same over on Space City

(22:36):
Home Network, and the Astros hopethey continue what they did heading into the
break. A lot of what theydid heading into the break offensively was driven
by the why guys, and Ithink everybody's struggling to create a nickname if
there even needs to be one,but Janer Diaz and his persistent three hit
games in Jordan Alvarez and his nobodywants to pitch to me again attitude.

(23:00):
Over the last couple of weeks,they have been outstanding in having this offense
really make a pretty good showing withoutKyle Tucker been done a very good job,
and I think that Yeiner is doingan admirable job of trying to protect
Jordon Albarez as Jordon gets the youknow, the prototypical Barry Bond's treatment.

(23:23):
When he's going extremely well, it'sonly a matter of time before he's just
getting straight up the Jordon treatment.I know we compare him to Jeff Bagwell
because I mean, I'm sorry toBarry Bonds, because he's a high end
base percentage, he's selective, he'sa good hitter, and at the same
time, if you make a mistakethat he can get the barrel too,
he's gonna end up hitting at aboutfour hundred feet. So you've got to

(23:45):
be very careful, and especially whenyou start to look at this Astros lineup.
Yes, one through nine, theyhave been producing here in the last
month and a half. But atthe same time, when you look at
this lineup and you're preparing for theHouston Astros, there's one guy in that
lineup that you say, I donot want on this guy to beat me.
Is yourd On Alvarez. I wouldsay, almost every single day,
even when you have the likes ofan Alex Bragman or Jose Altuve in that

(24:08):
lineup. Uh, he's the guythat can do the most damage. So
you've really got to be careful aroundhim. And when you're careful around him,
you you risk the opportunity of puttinghim on base and having to pitch
to a guy like Yanner Diaz who'sbeen hitting it. I want to say,
three hundred or better in the lastyou know, month and a half
because of what you're talking about West, it's crazy how it's it's not surprising,

(24:32):
but it's crazy to me how oftenhe can go out. Yaner Diaz
can go out and get hits inbunches. You know, he'll have one
at bat where he'll go out andswing at a slider in the other batter's
box and you're going, oh boy, here we go again, you know,
a young hit or chasing a pitch, and then all of a sudden,
you know, he pulls one downthe line or he gets a mistake
and hits it hard up the middle, and next thing you know, he's

(24:53):
got two hits. And he comesup in his fourth or fifth a bat
punches one the other way for anRBI, and he's got three hits.
Again, it's a maze how quicklyhe's been able to rack up those three
hit games. So he's a goodhitter when he stays inside the zone,
obviously, But that's just part ofthe growing pains of YANR. Diaz is
him realizing that I don't have toexpand my zone these guys. If I'm
going to get my hits, Ihave to hit the stripes in the zone.

(25:15):
And when he does allow them todo that, he takes advantage of
every mistake. But man, Idon't know what that nickname is going to
be either between those two guys,but they have been you know, you
know why two TA I don't knowwhat it is, but they've been very
good back to back. And JoeSpot, I know for a fact,
is grateful that he's found somebody toinsert behind Jordan Alberts, because if you

(25:37):
think about it, if the onlyother guy you might think of might be
Alex Bragman, So if y arebacking up Jordan, you're able to keep
Alex in that two spot. Yeah. What it's also I think we've all
seen show is this is probably theconstruction of the lineup you're going to want
to keep or kind of regardless ofwhat else you have, and assumes that
when Kyle Tucker comes back, Iwould think he goes for or again.

(25:59):
If you I felt like putting himfive, I guess that's fine. I
doubt he would do that. Butthe bottom line is there's really not any
indecision about al too eight Bregman,Alvarez beginning things at one, two three,
and when you're talking about Jeiner hitting, Jordon's hit three twenty five since
and including the one at bat thethirty five games that they've played without Kyle

(26:21):
Tucker, Jordon's hitting three twenty five. Yanner's hitting three thirty three in that
exact same time. Sen over thosethirty five games, he has been right.
He's also exactly to your point.You know, he has the same
number of strikeouts during that time asAlex Bregman and fewer than a handful of
his teammates, so his bats havebeen productive. He's just one RBI shy
of what Jordon's produced during this time. Jordon's got twenty seven in those thirty

(26:45):
five games. Jiner has twenty sixduring that same time. And that's I
know it sounds old school, butI still think you can win Baseball's thinking
about it this way. Your threeand four hitters are driving in the bulk
of your runs. Yeah, that'skind of how you draw it up.
And you know that I completely,you know, disregarded the fact that he
is, you know, well upover forty RBIs and chasing yard On Alvarez

(27:07):
in those opportunities. And it's becauseyou have guys like Alex Bregman getting on
base. You have who's they havetwo day getting on base, and then
if they do get careful around yordOn Alvarez, Yanner is there to clean
up the mess. So I thinkit's really kind of fascinating. And it's
a credit to this lineup too,having as many guys as they do.
And we've seen this in the pastwith the Ashros, you know, we

(27:29):
talk about how many times they've hadguys with seventy five plus RBIs in their
lineup, and that's because they havedepth. It's because they don't strike out,
it's because they get on base andthey create all of these opportunities.
And the more opportunities you get,even though the numbers may not dictate you
that you're the best team at it, the numbers dictate that you're getting the
most opportunities at it, and Ithink that's kind of the idea of the

(27:51):
Astros, and all these guys aretaking advantage of it, most notably yiinor
Dias, because Janer hasn't really doneit with the long ball like we saw
last year Sho saw him driving andruns with the long ball. This season,
he's had to be a little bitmore of maybe a better hitter because
he's not getting those pitches he canhammer and hit up onto the train tracks.
Yeah, nineteen homers and fifty twoRBIs for the team leader in RBI,

(28:14):
Jordon Alvarez just seven homers, butforty nine RBIs for Diaz, who
again stands second to yord On andRBIs. This season, they now have
seven players with forty or more.Kyle Tucker is among them. I think
the thing that still stands out aboutTucker's season, which even if he's not
quite himself, whenever it is thathe comes back. And I suspect we
actually might be seeing him back sometimein the relatively near future. I wouldn't

(28:38):
expect this road trip, but youknow, maybe there's an opportunity hit for
him to get on the field forone of the minor league teams here soon
and before they leave again. Afterthat, maybe he's back. He still
leads the team and walks, doesKyle Tucker after missing all this time,
And it's not necessarily now this teamhas walked a lot less this year as
a whole, But in this case, my point would be Kyle Tucker has

(29:00):
walked so much more that he's helpedthis lineup even when he hasn't been hitting
the ball over the fence. Yeah. No, it's a real credit to
what Kyle Tucker's done to start hisseason. Another reason why you want him
back because Tucker was basically carrying theoffense for the first two months, and
then since he went on the injurylist, we started to see a lot

(29:22):
more of what this team overall cando, and that's what doing extremely well.
But it is a lot of funto watch the iar Diaz take advantage
of opportunities jump up to that fortynine run plateau. And like you said,
when Tucker finds himself back on thefield, this offense is only going
to be that much better. Andmaybe it does kind of push you know,
a yiner into that five hole,and I don't think it takes away

(29:42):
many more RBI opportunities. I thinkhe's still going to get plenty of opportunities
when you do get a Kyle Tuckerback. But I think that you know,
Troy Snicker, Alex Cintron, andI'm sure Joe Spot as well,
But we're all kind of looking atthis lineup going, man, they're scoring
this many runs and playing this wellwithout Tucker. What happens when they do
get Tucker back? This could easilybecome the best offense overall in the league

(30:06):
going into the last couple of months. Righty, righty, righty. This
series from the Mariners, they'll seeWU for the first time when he goes
on Sunday real quickly here, wouldyou think it might be a good opportunity
to have your lefty low Praffito inthe lineup Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Yeah, I think it's going tobe really interesting because you know, Chas
McCormick hasn't really performed up to whathe did last year or as much as

(30:30):
we hoped. But at the sametime, you know, I think Joe's
going to have to kind of manipulateMauricio Dubon, Trey Cabbage, Chas McCormick.
But I would imagine out of allthose guys, low Berfito's got to
be that guy that's going to goout there and get some regular avats.
Low Graffito eighty eight at bats sofar in his first major league season,
hitting two seventy three seven fifty zerops, fifteen stakes. In those thirty

(30:52):
one games, He's come through insome pretty good situations. He's hit a
lot of rockets. His batting averageon balls and play has been spectacular.
It started off incredible, it's stillvery very good, and those things usually
even out a little bit. Andhe was a big strikeout guy in the
minor leagues and that has not changedhere at the major leagues. Interesting in
some of the pitches he's taken versussome of the swings he's made against pitches

(31:15):
that are in the zone, whichI think actually over these last four days
kind of his best opportunity to alsocatch his breath. We'll see what Joe
Spata intends for these writings. Andagain I mentioned they'll throw at the right
hand. That's nice information. Thereare also three exceptionally good right handed starting
pitchers, so the task at handfor all nine hitters in the lineup will
be a Big One one final segmenthere still in the opening hour of the

(31:37):
Friends Friday edition of the A Teamwith Jeff Blum to come the A Team
Adam Clanton. Adam went for theAfternoon Team covering your team Clives this team
to left center fail. This isSports Talk seven ninety pome of Astro's Baseball

(32:00):
final segment opening our Friday edition ofthe program. Wex here with you in
studio, Jeff Blum joining us ashe always does on Fridays on the phone
line here as they get set theAstros do to take on the Mariners tonight.
Something on the pitching side. Iwas curious if you could help share
some knowledge about heard an interview withthe Astros current backup catcher, Saysar Salazar,

(32:21):
and we'll check in on the progressof Victor Caratini, who's with the
Astros FCL team over the last coupleof days to try to get back to
the roster. But Seysar was talkingwith the guys over to pollow our friends
over there and about nasty pitches onthis Astros pitching staff. Two of the
starters throwing this weekend, Hunter Brownor fromber Valdez, Hunter tonight and fromber

(32:43):
tomorrow, he'd mentioned, especially inHunter's case, having not caught him kind
of before he threw that two seamer. He described it as even when Hunter
told him the kind of movement itwould have, it was hard for him
to kind of not guess but geta handle on what that two seemer from
Hunter does before I get to theother two pitches. He mentioned, what

(33:04):
is it that you see and haveheard others talk about Hunter's two seem that
has kind of turned him into thepitcher that he's been the last two months.
Well, I love that, youknow, Saysar, was able to
tell something about it, get theopportunity to get this voice out there.
But you know, it's one ofthose things where you're you're watching the pitch
be used and you're wondering, youknow, man, these guys can't get

(33:27):
to it. But then you hearyou know, a big league catcher and
Saysar Salazar saying, you know what, the SAME's got pretty damn good movement
and it's tough to catch even whenyou know it's coming. So I appreciate
him kind of trying to you know, quantify or you know, value what
this pitch has been able to do. And I love the fact that some
of these guys in this rotation andsome of the guys that he did talk
about are guys who are you know, they're they're they're you know. Hunter

(33:50):
Brown has established himself in this rotation, yet he's still trying to be better.
And I think he understood that hewas having a tough time getting to
the inside corner on right handed hitterswith his four seen fastball. Now he
decided to go with the two seamfastball, had no idea how it was
going to work, found a gripand is able to execute it, and
it's made him a tremendous pitcher.And it's allowed him to throw a pitch

(34:13):
to the inside without you know,having to bury a for seing fastball or
risk it floating back over the middlepart of the plate, because that's a
big fear with the four seen fastballguy, is that if you go to
the inside corner, you miss andit leaks out of the plate, it
gets hit hard. Now he's gota two seam fastball. If it misses
the plate, it runs even furtherin and blows up some of these right
handed hitters. So I think it'skind of cool that he has developed that

(34:35):
pitch, and I think it's evenbetter that, Saysar Salazar has given us
an opportunity to really realize that itis a legitimately good pitch. Essasar.
The one of the other pitches hementioned was the curveball from Fromber. We've
seen it in action for such along time now. It is a put
away pitch. There are days wherehe can just throw it over and over
again, and these hitters not justswinging and missing, they're missing it by

(34:59):
a mile. He described it asheavy a bowling ball. What does he
mean when he says that, Yeah, usually they'll mention that about sinkers.
You know, guys that have abowling ball sinker. It means that they've
got a lot of movement on thatpitch, but it's a lot of late
movement because in order to kind ofcreate that heaviness to it, it's got
to stay off the barrel. Andwhen you have that kind of late movement,

(35:22):
and as a hitter, I've alreadystarted my swing and I get to
that pitch and it hits off theend of my bat, it feels like
you are hitting it, you know, an anvil. It feels like you're
hitting into you know, a cinderblock wall because it basically stops the bat.
You do kind of follow through,but you'll see a lot of broken
bats off the end of the batif you have one of those good bowling

(35:43):
ball sinkers. Kevin Brown was reallya guy from me that I find comparable,
even though he's from that right side, who had a really good sinker
with some late movement to it andreally kind of created that heaviness to it
when you hit it off the endof the bat, because if you don't
square that up, it feels likeyou're you're running into a brick wall.
And that's exactly what some of thosepitches look like. But that's what Promber
needs to do is throw that filthinessup there and just let those pitches work

(36:07):
for themselves. I think that's what'sfascinating is that, you know, Hunter
Brown hits two seamer, and thecurrent ball and sinker for fromber Valdez is
that you don't have to force thoseinto his own. You just kind of
let that pitch work itself out andyou're going to be successful. And that
explains why these guys are so goodso frequently. Last pitched he mentioned,
I think we've all seen its effectivenesswas the slider from Brian a Bray is

(36:30):
part of its effectiveness. The factthat he still brings the other pitch that
looks just like it out of hishand at ninety nine miles an hour or
better. Yeah, yeah, no, I figure exactly right. And you
know, I really do believe,and I think Sezar said, you know
it's right around that eighty nine toninety mile an hour. You know,
velocity on that slider that makes Briana Bray you're super effective. And it's

(36:54):
almost to the point where if thatthing is on, you could literally tell
the hitter I'm going to you're aslider right here, and you're not going
to have the ability to go getit because if he's able to release that
with the same trajectory and kind oftunnel with that fastball in the upper nineties,
that's where you run into the issuebecause out of the hand it looks
like it's going to be high velocity, straight and you start to start your

(37:16):
swing and then you eventually pick upthe rotation of that pitch and go,
oh damn, here comes the slider. And when you make that adjustment,
by the time you do it feelslike it's broke. You know, there's
enough vertical tilt to that pitch tobe able to get underneath the swing of
the hitter, and that's where youfind yourself in trouble. You either get
weak contact or what we see mostof the time with Brian Brerier is that

(37:37):
swing and missibility. And I thinkthat's what's a lot of fun. So
at what time of the day,especially for a late start nine to ten
Houston, time for first pitch toyou and Todd start thinking about who your
pick is going to be tonight.Yeah, I mean, I look at
some of my notes. I've alreadyfilled out my storecard and I've kind of
taken a peek at the notes andtrying to figure out, you know,

(37:57):
Luis Castile. But it's usually whenyou gets to the ballpark and you figure
out what you know, what orderwe're picking in, and then you kind
of have your dark horse. Butyou have your first pick, and usually
it's Jordan Alvarez and I know,you know, he's had some good swings
against Luis Castile in the in thepast. Who's starting for the Seattle Marritors
and you look at the matchups andyou kind of My thing is I look

(38:20):
at the matchups, but I alsokind of look at batting practice and where
the swing has been recently, becausea lot of recency bias for me in
what goes into my pick for pickthe stick understood. Looking forward to the
coverage tonight as always, and thankgoodness they're back. It's it's a mid
season annual tradition of no baseball forone, two, three, four days.

(38:42):
Let's get to it and the Astroshopefully can continue and pick right back
up on the momentum they had headinginto this portion of time. Jeff,
we always appreciate your time and certainlyappreciate those and make it all possible.
Yeah, first of all, youknow, the Jeff Witzet Vision Group has
been fantastic to me, and it'sbeen fantastic to a lot of people patients
out there who have made the decisionto go out there and make their eyesight

(39:06):
better. If you're going to goto somebody, go to one of the
best in the Houston area, that'sdoctor Jeff wits It. He will give
you a face to face personal conferenceto figure out the best move moving forward.
And of course the FDA appreciates himbecause he has done a lot of
clinical trials and succeeded in them.But he does fantastic work. And of
course low Ti Center dot Com iswhere I go to keep my energy going

(39:28):
throughout the course of the season.It is a long season, it is
arduous, it has a lot oftravel, but I get my good sleep,
I recover from my workouts, andI have the energy to go out
there call games and also work outon a consistent base. And so fellas,
trust me, go to low TCenter dot com. Check them out.
They're all over Greater Houston. Thebest thing to do in Seattle versus

(39:49):
best thing to do in Oakland,Well, you've got to get out during
the daytime. I highly recommend whenthe sun's out and you get out there
and go. It's beautiful weather here. Seafood in the Northwest and coffee in
Oakland. You gotta pick your spots. You gotta be a little more careful.
I understand that next week we willdig in on what you plan on

(40:10):
doing in Sacramento. Now with thetwenty twenty five schedule out for your I
believe that will be the case.Jeff. We really appreciate the time and
obviously look forward to the ball game. Starting again tonight. Thanks Thos,
got it. Jeff Blum, ashe always does each and every Friday afternoon
here on the A team joined usfor a weekly discussion about Major League Baseball

(40:34):
and the Astros.