Joe Espada Discusses the Astros' Recent Success and the Spencer Arrighetti Trade

Joe Espada Discusses the Astros' Recent Success and the Spencer Arrighetti Trade

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time for us to spend ten callit him into the
manager of your Houston Astros, first place Astros two and
a half in front of both of Texas and Seattle
and the American League West. Joe spotted with a skip.
I don't know if you're a human nature. When somebody
says a phrase or a cliche, sometimes you catch it
the same way you say to other friend friends. I
told my son yesterday, what do you think about those

(00:21):
seven punchies last night? I've never heard punchies like for
strikeouts until you started saying on a regular basis, So
thank you for having that word in my look.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
No, it's not good words. It should be punch ups.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, no, no, I like punchies. I like it.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Don't charge, Yeah, don't change. Have you been a major
league manager? Are you been a successful coach? Do you
know what you're doing?

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yes? So don't change who you are. Don't want some
livemout broadcast will tell.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
You is a club house terminology.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
So I think it's fantastic. I think it's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hey, speaking of punchies, Tatsuo Emi boy, you play game
of bullpen first ever. Not only was he getting the
court of cold punches. His economics of pitches was really
good for you last night.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yes, he was there were here was the fish and
he was really good fastball, you know, ninety seven, a
couple ninety eight, the slider was wipe out. He he
really made uh that one time through the order. He
looked really really good. That was really really good.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
So you've said, I want to see what he does
in between starts. I guess the question that would be,
what do you want to see and what does he
need to see from himself in between relief appearances?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, you know, so for you know, right now, we
obviously we we're going to set our rotation for San
Diego and San Francisco and we're going to see down
and have a conversation what's going to be next for Emi.
Havy also threw the ball really well, So you know,
we do have some some decisions to make here and

(01:56):
in the next day or two and line those guys up.
But what we saw last night was very encouraging from
from both you know, from from from both guys. Either
both guys are trying to make make a point, and
they made a point yesterday. They went they both through
the ball.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
All right, let's backtrack to before the game. Obviously trade deadline. Uh,
I saw you and Spencer walking off the mountain. But
I'll ask that. Secondly, let's go to the day. As
a manager on trade deadline day, you're trying to mentally
get ready for the Toronto Blue Jays. But I'm sure
you're in contact with Dana. What is it like for
you as a manager on a day like this? Is
this texting? Is it jumping in the meeting room? Take

(02:33):
us through your day as much as you can.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, so obviously your conversations over the phone, either you know,
phone calls or text messages. You know, yesterday on the
drive in, I went upstairs to the office, uh, and
and sat down in the wall room with our GM
and assistant GM. And you know, there was five hours

(02:56):
before the deadline noise over, so you're just kind of putting, uh,
you know, some thoughts and ideas. Uh. You know, they
had some thoughts and ideas on the table, so we
discussed some of those. I held the lineup back in
case that you know, some moves are going to be
made and they want to make changes to the lineup,

(03:18):
so players are already aware of what's going on. I
give them my heads up the night before. I'm going
to keep it. I'm not going to send a line
up till in the morning. And you know, we've been
in this position before, so we've done it like that.
Uh here, So and then sat there for an hour
and a half, came down and got the news from Dana,
and then put the line up together, and and and

(03:41):
and send it out to the players. But yeah, there's
a lot of moving parts. Uh, it's it's emotional. You're gonna,
you know, concentrate for a series. But you know, uh,
once it's up for you know, the guys just go
back to work.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
This is your third time as a manager running through this.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Let me ask you when you go to that room,
and I'm sure in the previous two years you jumped
into Damana's office as well. Did this year feel about
the same in terms of man that deal makes sense,
Let's try to figure something out?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Or did it?

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Was there just as many of those preposterous what are
you doing you that guy or that series of young
men are untouchable?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
No, you know, I I don't get into the untouchables.
And who's not you know, and and who's not touchable?
You know that that's not my Those are not my decisions.
I I I have some ideas, some needs that that
I think that we need as a team, But ultimately
they make the decisions. You know, if if I have,
if they have, Joe, if we could acquire this player,

(04:39):
how would that fit in the roster? How can we
how can we use them? You know? And and those
are the conversations that I get involved. And you know,
we don't want to acquire a player and then it
doesn't really fit. There isn't really much an area for
him to to be deployed to have success. So we
want to make sure that when we ad a piece

(05:00):
that fits and we could you know, we could run
with it, and and and everything else falls in place.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Astro's manager Joe spotted with us here on a Sports
Talk seven ninety So just tell us your thoughts on
Dalton and the kind of guy he is. We know
that he had a really good year at the plate
last year, has been slowing down somewhat this year. Things
you guys want to work on with him and try
to get integrated. How quickly does that process start as well?

Speaker 2 (05:27):
You know, it happens fast. Well obviously before we acquire
him we we we saw some things that we we
can we can help him with to get him back
to last year of success he's been. He's been hitting
some balls hard. I think the ballpark will help him,
you know, you know, he hits a lot of balls

(05:48):
the opposite way. I think the craft for boxes will
be that wall will be benefits for him. Also, the
ball carriers here much better in right field that he
does in there in in Toronto. I think there will
be some some areas where he just continues to make
all the contact. I think he'll be He'll some balls
and fall in for him. We like the dynamic he

(06:09):
can run, he can steal basis. He also is a
good bonner, so he's got an element of speed and
power that we like. Uh we we we're gonna we're
gonna help him tap into the power again like we've
seen in years past. But I like the player. He
plays hard, he runs through walls like this guy is
a gamer. So excited to have them?

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Is it a sense of relief for you to have
the deadline pass and all the speculation and talking about
all the different players and deals and there, Now you
can just be like, you know what these are my guys,
we're gonna lock in and try to win some games.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, absolutely, and he and it feels good just to
get that over with. I think for the players too, right,
you know that this part of this doing the part
of a lot of players also wondering if they will
be traded, you know once their future it's going to
be like you know, am I you know, I I'm
reading some rumors. So so I'm constantly having those conversations

(06:59):
with players, which it's it's hard because we're trying to
win games. But also I understand families and some of them,
you know, just you know, they've been played, they've been
here all their entire career. They've been they've been teammatesings,
double A, Triple A. So there is those there's all
those things that are are you know, you have to
remove your men, you know, the major league manager hat

(07:21):
off and and become like you know other or or
or you know or you know, brother figure just to
help them through those that mental aspect of things. So
it's tough, but you know, now it's it's just time
to go play ball and and win some games. And
we found ourselves in a really good spot. But you know,
we we we have a we have two months left here,

(07:41):
ball man, so we gotta we gotta continue to grind.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
So now, Joe, you've got your center field there. You know,
right field has been Cam Smith ninety nine percent of
the time. Is in your mind still left field up
for grabs even at this late juncture the season.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, And I will continue to move some some some
guys around in left field. You know Trammel swinging the
bat really well. Uh, the sensu can also play there.
Jordan can ocasially get start there like we normally do
at home if I want a d H or get
somebody off their feet like I did with Jeremy a
few days ago. You know, Cam starting to swing about. Well,

(08:18):
we really need his uh, his offense to come around,
and he's starting to do that same thing with you
on here. Ds. We're starting to see our office in
the modernbile order really pick up some steam and and
and giving Jeremy and and and Jordan some some some
traffic so they could drag some people in.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
I know that you moved to varshow the cleanup spot yesterday,
and I know the astros pr polks put out the
different lineup. I think you've had almost different lines almost
every single game this year. And I don't know if
that's something that's a record or other teams have done it,
but uh, would you like some sort of consistency or
do you like the little bit because you're still trying
to figure out who's your every day left field or
and maybe trying to move guys that are hot. I mean,

(08:55):
how how do you like lineup fluctuation is totally you've
done it?

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, yeah, you know. I obviously the Uh, there's some
guys that will play that play every day in the start.
You know, they will be in the first four or
five spots the bottom just depending on on who we're facing. Uh,
you know, I like you know, giving giving, you know,
I think about who's who they have in the bullpen

(09:20):
and either going to bring left the inn, can I counter?
And when do I want to counter? Howeverly do they
remove the starting pictures. I'm just trying to give those
guys as many as the best possible against the starter,
trying to get some runs and then be able to
deploy my defense laying the game. So there's a lot
of strategy that goes into it. You know, I could
let you you know, give you a little, a little scoop.

(09:41):
But today it's the same lineup that I had yesterday.
So I guess today will be the first back to
back the same lineup I've had all year. The only
change will be the starting pitcher. I don't know that counts, right, No, No,
why so it's going to be a different lineup because
the picture is part of the lineup, ma'am.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
I want to rejuice your stuff. I mean, you come
out with us once a week.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
You could have given us some trade thoughts you could
have given us, or you're gonna start.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
But I'm saying, I'm saying. My question to you is
this is does the picture counts in the starting lineup? No?
It does, Yes, it does. The picture the picture is
as part of the story lineup.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
All right. But he's mean he's not your batter though.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Correct, But he's still part of it because if I
do something for the DH, the picture, you know, take
that spot in the DH spot. So he is part
of the starting lineup, all right. If I pincil in,
if I have if you know, with Netsk is a
today starter, what happened if I have Brown on the
story line, what happened was with nesk right, So you

(10:48):
have to have every spot field for the lineup to
be officials.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
You're trying to very little and I don't I don't
like this. How about this?

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, if you really want to be a great manager,
why don't you on a game, on a argue with
the homeplate umpire, stop and sing God bless America and
then get tossed after that?

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Because Skip Schumacher could do that. You haven't done that yet.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
How good was that? How good was that? I? I
too clips of it and I thought it was phenomenal.
How both of them stopped, respected the anthem yes and
continue their argument and Skip, you know you would have thinke,
you would have thought that during the pause on the anthem,
some peace will come in. I'm like, you know what
I want to read. This is gonna I'm gonna cool off.

(11:32):
But no, he's continued and he still got ejected.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, I love it. Yeah? Have you have you been
ejected yet this year?

Speaker 2 (11:38):
No? He's coming to him though.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Let me tell you something.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
I'm gonna I'm gonna make a gut feeling you're gonna
get tossed on his next trip.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
But it's gonna be for a good reason.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yes, I think so too. I think it's going to
happen here. I think you probably will get multiple in
the next two weeks.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
No no, no, no, no, just no because no, because
your wife will get mad at you for the ejection.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Fees. I can tell you I've been around a mad coach,
my girl, my daughter.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
My you know my it's just my wife. My wife,
she could put up with it. It's just my kids.
My daughters are trying to like reap my lists and
I have to keep it, you know. But it's going
to happen here.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Okay, Well, I don't know if it's gonna be saying it.
You know, you're on National TV on Sunday, so I
don't want you to do it.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Then.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
I'm trying to think what We'll figure it out. We'll
talk before them. Hey, congratulations in the great run. Keep
it going please, and we'll talk again next week.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
All thank you.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
They're gonna get you a spoted with us.