August 15, 2024 • 10 mins
The Athletic's Astros beat writer, Chandler Rome joins the A-Team every week. He talks about the Astros being on this eight game win streak. Chandler also talks about what this Astros lineup will look like, while still being without Kyle Tucker. He also talks about the imminent return of Justin Verlander and the upcoming Chicago White Sox series at Minute Maid Park.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chandler, Rome, beat writer for the Astros, covers Major League
Baseball four The Athletic can always appreciate you're a conversation
here and obviously what you write as well. If you
missed it yesterday. By the way, Chandler Robert Flores noting
you had written a very informative piece about trying to
track the information and data on Kyle Tucker's injury situation,
which has been very difficult to follow. We'll get to
(00:22):
Kyle Tucker, we'll get to JV's appearance today, but on
I hope not the injury front. Do all things appear
to be no problem whatsoever and likely not even missing
a start with Renel Blanco after he was very very
good again for the first time in a while, but
did take a rather hard hit ball off his pitching finger.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, he had a he had what looked like a
bandage or a rap on his index finger after the
game yesterday. He called it a little bit of a bruise.
He didn't seem to be that worried about it. He
does like with today being an off day, there is
going to be an extra day with a start and
Erlanders slots back into the rotation. This next turn too.
They could maybe even give him another day too, so
(01:05):
that there could be some time built into where if
it is a little more serious, they'd give it some
time to heal. But he didn't seem to think it'd
be a problem. Joe Spotta kind of said it was
more precautionary. He seemed to suggest that it was more
precautionary than anything, just that it got sore and numb
on him and they just thought to kill it right there.
But very lucky because that thing with that ball was
(01:27):
crushed and it came very very close to hitting his face,
which would have been that would have been an awful
sight to see. So everyone came out of that very lucky.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So the pitching itself, and no doubt that is absolutely case.
Do you think a little of that was kind of
everything all together? Tampa Bay's a poor offense and hasn't
hit well for a while, or a little more mix
of this was a sharper a better snap to some
of his pitches, more like the Ronelle we saw the
first six, seven, eight starts of the season.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I think he got them in swing mode so early.
So the thing that had been plaguing him his last
few starts. Was that. I mean, it was just a
bunch of deep counts, deep at bats, and he was
throwing twenty twenty five pitches an inning and he was
still good. He just couldn't get you into the sixth inning.
He couldn't go deep into games like he had been going.
(02:17):
And I think he was throwing strikes. He was throwing
strikes early in counts, getting some early count outs. I
think he had three eight pitch innings yesterday, which that
was a site for sore eyes for the Ashers, just
given what he had been dealing with his last couple
of starts. But I do think you have to take
the opponent in the consideration. The Rays are not a
good offense, and they're certainly not a good offense without
(02:39):
Randy rose Arena, who they traded the Mariners, and they're
not a good offense, you know, after the deadline. So
you have to take it with a grain of salt.
But they'll take that step forward anyway they can get it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well. If the Rays aren't a good offense, are a
good baseball team?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
What are the White Socks? This is going to be
such a fascinating week because the White Sox have become
that team where like people were losing their minds that
the Yankees lost a game to them. Like it's to
a point where like, you can't lose a game to
the White Sox because everyone's gonna freak out. It's like
the closest thing to a to handing you away. It's like,
(03:18):
this is like the equivalent of an FCS team playing
an FBS team. This is like a homecoming game schedule
in the middle of November for a college football team,
and it's FASc It's gonna be fascinating because like, yes,
like there are major league players on the other side
that Garrett Crochet is gonna pitch tomorrow, Like he hasn't
been as great as he was in the first half,
but still, I mean, this is a guy that probably
(03:39):
should have started the All Star Game, like Luis Roberts
on that team. Like they've got confident players, it's just
that they've it's tough and when you look at the law,
the sheer amount of losses and you look at the
history that they're going to probably author, it's like anything
less than a sweep for a lot of these opponents,
(04:00):
you kind of think it's you didn't do your job,
so It'll be interesting to see how it goes, because, like,
if anything, the pressures on the Astros, just like for
the last three days the pressure was on the Yankees
when they went to Chicago. It's like, you can't lose
to this team. And for I mean, the White Sox
are playing with house money at this point. I mean,
Grady Sizemore's managing them like a bunch of guys in
(04:24):
this lineup, our young kids trying to stick in the
big leagues. They're playing care free. Like I don't really
I don't think they like losing, but I think at
this point they're kind of used to it and they
kind of know what the record is. So it's a
fascinating little series here, you know. I certainly don't think
it's going to be compelling. I don't think the on
field product's going to be great, But just from a
(04:44):
semantics and just kind of a field standpoint, I'm interested
to see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
We will refer to it from now on like a
ULM or UAB coming to Tiger Stadium on Senior Tribute
Night late November for LSU, maybe game eleven or twelve
of the season. R for one final game. I do
get that feeling. That's how it's being described. Do you
think the last at bat of last night's game for
Mauricio Dubon actually will do something for him moving forward?
(05:12):
He hadn't even had just a successful hard hit hit
into bad luck hit much of the last two weeks.
And I was not easy. That was a very long
at bat. He fought off a lot of very good
pitches and came through with the obviously game winning hit.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I'll debate you on that. WEX the second game of
that series, Junior Cameronaro took two hits away from her.
Oh that's your base. He hit one on the screws
right to him, and then Cameron Aro turned that great
double play late night game. But yes, Otherwise, Marisa Dubon
had not been good, much like much of the outfield
at this point. They need one of them. They need
one of them to step up. They need someone to
(05:49):
seize some continuity because you know, none of and I
and she should point out see that Jake Myers had
a good at bat right before Dubon. Dubon was heaping
praise on Jake Myers too, for for working a walk
and getting him into that situation. So they need one
or two of those guys to really kind of step forward,
because Kyle Tucker's not coming back in the immediate future
(06:12):
at all. They're gonna need and the way they want
in Tampa, I don't think is sustainable. Like they can't
keep you can't get two hits in a game and win.
You can't keep eking out these one run games. Like
they're gonna need a little bit more from guys not
named Bregman or Alvarez or Altuve or Diez. So they
need one of them to step up, you know, and
(06:33):
maybe du Bond's that guy. The thing with Dubon that
you don't get with the other guys is that you
know he's gonna put the ball in play. He's been
striking out a tad bit more, but in general his
profile suggests he's gonna put the bat on the ball,
the ball is gonna go into play. He's got some speed,
he's got some strike zone discipline, and some some contact ability.
So they need him, They need they need him or
(06:55):
someone in that outfield to step up because right now,
you don't know what you're gonna get every day when
you go to the ballpark and see what that outfield
looks like.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
What are you going to get out of Justin Verlander?
Once he returns, I'll be in to see what he
looks like tonight, just what the VLO looks like, and
just just kind of how the hitters react.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
But I think if they can get, if they can
just get, you know, he doesn't need to be twenty
twenty two cy young Justin Verlander. He doesn't need to
go out there and have a sub two era. They
need quality and they need, you know, a guy that
can get you six innings even when he doesn't have
his best stuff. And I think that's what Verlander's been
so good at in his career, Even in games, even
(07:38):
in his dominant seasons, when there would be starts where
you could tell he was just a little bit off, somehow,
he'd get you into the sixth inning still with a
chance to win the game. And I think that's what
they need, and they just need his presence quite frankly,
because they can go to a six man rotation. They
can give Brunel Blanco and Hunter Brown and Spencer Arraghetty
a little bit of a blow in this eighteen the
(07:59):
string of eighteen trade games coming up. So I just
think having him and just having the faith to know
that it's Justin Verlander. It may not be unanimous, Cy
Young Justin Verlander quality, but he's gonna find a way
to get you into the sixth inning and keep the
game manageable and give you a chance to win.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Two quick things for me. One on Verlander. I brought
up this possibility yesterday. Do you think it was intentional
that they had him pitch on normal rest four days rest,
so it's likely when he makes his return it will
be at home against Boston rather than potentially on the
road at Baltimore. And secondly, since I brought it up
and talked about it quite a bit earlier today, do
you think there's a realistic possibility that Joe spot will
(08:38):
have a full twenty six man roster by Friday or
anytime soon, or will they continue to have a leedmasty
as on it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I mean, I think at this point a leedmis d
is is just kind of there. I mean, Joe's thought
it's hard to ask the question that Joe's spotto was
asked in a pretty roundabout lay in Tampa, like, is
there any situation in which you would use him at
this point? And Joe said, yes, like they've got some
situations where they think they can use him, but it
(09:07):
just hasn't born out. But at this point, also like
I don't know what the alternative is. Like everyone wants
Shaye wit Comb up here, but if you call Shaye
wit come up, like he's he's going to be the
twenty sixth man. And if you look at how this
roster has functioned, like the twenty sixth man on the
roster has never played a great testinger when he was
up here, he never played. Saysar Salazar would be the
(09:29):
more functional and make the roster more functional, But if
they call him up and he's the third catcher, he's
never gonna play either. Elena Diaz has never played, like
it's like they never used that last spot on the
roster to really do anything. So I don't know. Maybe
the change is just given how little they're getting out
of their outfield. But I mean, they won eight in
a row. I can't see them, you know, reversing course drastically,
(09:52):
and you know, I yeah, I think the Red Sox
are a really good offense. I mean, the Astros handled
them pretty well last week, but the Red Sox were
a really good offense. I think certainly it probably had
to play in a little bit bit. Pitching at home
as opposed to going on the road to Baltimore against
a very very good team. Maybe that played a little
(10:13):
bit of a role in it. But again, he's justin Erlander.
I feel like he has to be confident no matter
where he pitches and against who he's pitching. But yeah,
that may have something to do with it.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Always good stuff. Appreciate what you always contribute and deliver
to the people through the athletic where you cover the Astros,
and obviously with your weekly visits here out at the ballpark.
Six games this weekend, beginning with the White Sox and
then on into early next week with the Red Sox.
We'll see how long this win streak continues. Chandler really
appreciate the time, all right, Thanks guys,
Chandler, Rome, beat writer for the Astros, covers Major League
Baseball four The Athletic can always appreciate you're a conversation
here and obviously what you write as well. If you
missed it yesterday. By the way, Chandler Robert Flores noting
you had written a very informative piece about trying to
track the information and data on Kyle Tucker's injury situation,
which has been very difficult to follow. We'll get to
(00:22):
Kyle Tucker, we'll get to JV's appearance today, but on
I hope not the injury front. Do all things appear
to be no problem whatsoever and likely not even missing
a start with Renel Blanco after he was very very
good again for the first time in a while, but
did take a rather hard hit ball off his pitching finger.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, he had a he had what looked like a
bandage or a rap on his index finger after the
game yesterday. He called it a little bit of a bruise.
He didn't seem to be that worried about it. He
does like with today being an off day, there is
going to be an extra day with a start and
Erlanders slots back into the rotation. This next turn too.
They could maybe even give him another day too, so
(01:05):
that there could be some time built into where if
it is a little more serious, they'd give it some
time to heal. But he didn't seem to think it'd
be a problem. Joe Spotta kind of said it was
more precautionary. He seemed to suggest that it was more
precautionary than anything, just that it got sore and numb
on him and they just thought to kill it right there.
But very lucky because that thing with that ball was
(01:27):
crushed and it came very very close to hitting his face,
which would have been that would have been an awful
sight to see. So everyone came out of that very lucky.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So the pitching itself, and no doubt that is absolutely case.
Do you think a little of that was kind of
everything all together? Tampa Bay's a poor offense and hasn't
hit well for a while, or a little more mix
of this was a sharper a better snap to some
of his pitches, more like the Ronelle we saw the
first six, seven, eight starts of the season.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I think he got them in swing mode so early.
So the thing that had been plaguing him his last
few starts. Was that. I mean, it was just a
bunch of deep counts, deep at bats, and he was
throwing twenty twenty five pitches an inning and he was
still good. He just couldn't get you into the sixth inning.
He couldn't go deep into games like he had been going.
(02:17):
And I think he was throwing strikes. He was throwing
strikes early in counts, getting some early count outs. I
think he had three eight pitch innings yesterday, which that
was a site for sore eyes for the Ashers, just
given what he had been dealing with his last couple
of starts. But I do think you have to take
the opponent in the consideration. The Rays are not a
good offense, and they're certainly not a good offense without
(02:39):
Randy rose Arena, who they traded the Mariners, and they're
not a good offense, you know, after the deadline. So
you have to take it with a grain of salt.
But they'll take that step forward anyway they can get it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well. If the Rays aren't a good offense, are a
good baseball team?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
What are the White Socks? This is going to be
such a fascinating week because the White Sox have become
that team where like people were losing their minds that
the Yankees lost a game to them. Like it's to
a point where like, you can't lose a game to
the White Sox because everyone's gonna freak out. It's like
the closest thing to a to handing you away. It's like,
(03:18):
this is like the equivalent of an FCS team playing
an FBS team. This is like a homecoming game schedule
in the middle of November for a college football team,
and it's FASc It's gonna be fascinating because like, yes,
like there are major league players on the other side
that Garrett Crochet is gonna pitch tomorrow, Like he hasn't
been as great as he was in the first half,
but still, I mean, this is a guy that probably
(03:39):
should have started the All Star Game, like Luis Roberts
on that team. Like they've got confident players, it's just
that they've it's tough and when you look at the law,
the sheer amount of losses and you look at the
history that they're going to probably author, it's like anything
less than a sweep for a lot of these opponents,
(04:00):
you kind of think it's you didn't do your job,
so It'll be interesting to see how it goes, because, like,
if anything, the pressures on the Astros, just like for
the last three days the pressure was on the Yankees
when they went to Chicago. It's like, you can't lose
to this team. And for I mean, the White Sox
are playing with house money at this point. I mean,
Grady Sizemore's managing them like a bunch of guys in
(04:24):
this lineup, our young kids trying to stick in the
big leagues. They're playing care free. Like I don't really
I don't think they like losing, but I think at
this point they're kind of used to it and they
kind of know what the record is. So it's a
fascinating little series here, you know. I certainly don't think
it's going to be compelling. I don't think the on
field product's going to be great, But just from a
(04:44):
semantics and just kind of a field standpoint, I'm interested
to see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
We will refer to it from now on like a
ULM or UAB coming to Tiger Stadium on Senior Tribute
Night late November for LSU, maybe game eleven or twelve
of the season. R for one final game. I do
get that feeling. That's how it's being described. Do you
think the last at bat of last night's game for
Mauricio Dubon actually will do something for him moving forward?
(05:12):
He hadn't even had just a successful hard hit hit
into bad luck hit much of the last two weeks.
And I was not easy. That was a very long
at bat. He fought off a lot of very good
pitches and came through with the obviously game winning hit.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I'll debate you on that. WEX the second game of
that series, Junior Cameronaro took two hits away from her.
Oh that's your base. He hit one on the screws
right to him, and then Cameron Aro turned that great
double play late night game. But yes, Otherwise, Marisa Dubon
had not been good, much like much of the outfield
at this point. They need one of them. They need
one of them to step up. They need someone to
(05:49):
seize some continuity because you know, none of and I
and she should point out see that Jake Myers had
a good at bat right before Dubon. Dubon was heaping
praise on Jake Myers too, for for working a walk
and getting him into that situation. So they need one
or two of those guys to really kind of step forward,
because Kyle Tucker's not coming back in the immediate future
(06:12):
at all. They're gonna need and the way they want
in Tampa, I don't think is sustainable. Like they can't
keep you can't get two hits in a game and win.
You can't keep eking out these one run games. Like
they're gonna need a little bit more from guys not
named Bregman or Alvarez or Altuve or Diez. So they
need one of them to step up, you know, and
(06:33):
maybe du Bond's that guy. The thing with Dubon that
you don't get with the other guys is that you
know he's gonna put the ball in play. He's been
striking out a tad bit more, but in general his
profile suggests he's gonna put the bat on the ball,
the ball is gonna go into play. He's got some speed,
he's got some strike zone discipline, and some some contact ability.
So they need him, They need they need him or
(06:55):
someone in that outfield to step up because right now,
you don't know what you're gonna get every day when
you go to the ballpark and see what that outfield
looks like.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
What are you going to get out of Justin Verlander?
Once he returns, I'll be in to see what he
looks like tonight, just what the VLO looks like, and
just just kind of how the hitters react.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
But I think if they can get, if they can
just get, you know, he doesn't need to be twenty
twenty two cy young Justin Verlander. He doesn't need to
go out there and have a sub two era. They
need quality and they need, you know, a guy that
can get you six innings even when he doesn't have
his best stuff. And I think that's what Verlander's been
so good at in his career, Even in games, even
(07:38):
in his dominant seasons, when there would be starts where
you could tell he was just a little bit off, somehow,
he'd get you into the sixth inning still with a
chance to win the game. And I think that's what
they need, and they just need his presence quite frankly,
because they can go to a six man rotation. They
can give Brunel Blanco and Hunter Brown and Spencer Arraghetty
a little bit of a blow in this eighteen the
(07:59):
string of eighteen trade games coming up. So I just
think having him and just having the faith to know
that it's Justin Verlander. It may not be unanimous, Cy
Young Justin Verlander quality, but he's gonna find a way
to get you into the sixth inning and keep the
game manageable and give you a chance to win.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Two quick things for me. One on Verlander. I brought
up this possibility yesterday. Do you think it was intentional
that they had him pitch on normal rest four days rest,
so it's likely when he makes his return it will
be at home against Boston rather than potentially on the
road at Baltimore. And secondly, since I brought it up
and talked about it quite a bit earlier today, do
you think there's a realistic possibility that Joe spot will
(08:38):
have a full twenty six man roster by Friday or
anytime soon, or will they continue to have a leedmasty
as on it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I mean, I think at this point a leedmis d
is is just kind of there. I mean, Joe's thought
it's hard to ask the question that Joe's spotto was
asked in a pretty roundabout lay in Tampa, like, is
there any situation in which you would use him at
this point? And Joe said, yes, like they've got some
situations where they think they can use him, but it
(09:07):
just hasn't born out. But at this point, also like
I don't know what the alternative is. Like everyone wants
Shaye wit Comb up here, but if you call Shaye
wit come up, like he's he's going to be the
twenty sixth man. And if you look at how this
roster has functioned, like the twenty sixth man on the
roster has never played a great testinger when he was
up here, he never played. Saysar Salazar would be the
(09:29):
more functional and make the roster more functional, But if
they call him up and he's the third catcher, he's
never gonna play either. Elena Diaz has never played, like
it's like they never used that last spot on the
roster to really do anything. So I don't know. Maybe
the change is just given how little they're getting out
of their outfield. But I mean, they won eight in
a row. I can't see them, you know, reversing course drastically,
(09:52):
and you know, I yeah, I think the Red Sox
are a really good offense. I mean, the Astros handled
them pretty well last week, but the Red Sox were
a really good offense. I think certainly it probably had
to play in a little bit bit. Pitching at home
as opposed to going on the road to Baltimore against
a very very good team. Maybe that played a little
(10:13):
bit of a role in it. But again, he's justin Erlander.
I feel like he has to be confident no matter
where he pitches and against who he's pitching. But yeah,
that may have something to do with it.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Always good stuff. Appreciate what you always contribute and deliver
to the people through the athletic where you cover the Astros,
and obviously with your weekly visits here out at the ballpark.
Six games this weekend, beginning with the White Sox and
then on into early next week with the Red Sox.
We'll see how long this win streak continues. Chandler really
appreciate the time, all right, Thanks guys,
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