Corey Julks at Fan Fest

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
As we continue on our coverage herefrom Astros FanFest, our last guest of
the day and once you know it'sit's Houston's own, it is our buddy.
Corey Joalks of course, got hisopportunities past season with the Houston Astros
and his first off season as aHouston Astro. What's what was your off
season like? Man, it's beengood. Uh, you know, just

(00:21):
got to get back to work.You know, it was nice to take
a little break about a week offand then just get it back hard and
uh get ready to go. Andyou're a little different. I mean,
like a lot of guys, likethe season ends, they fly back to
another country or you know, wherevertheir hometown is. You're a little bit
special. It's his hometown. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I'm pretty
special, you know, to tobe able to play for hometown team.

(00:46):
You know, I ain't gotta travelnowhere. Uh, you know, I'm
just definitely blessed. And even ifyou get sent down it's across town,
you still, I mean, it'sit's it's a luxury not many people have.
Yeah, I agree. You know, I'm just thankful that that I'm
with this org. I mean,you know, just glad to be here
and looking forward to this next season. You're a hometown guy. I mean,

(01:07):
as Chris was just talking with youabout, and you know, you
get to spend time around here.It's been a pretty fun offseason for the
other guys that are playing. Imean, you know, you've got the
Texans in the playoffs, got theRockets going your U H. Cougar's on
the basketball floor playing well. SoI mean, do you allow yourself to
be Corey Joelkes the sports fan too? Oh yeah, you know, definitely
pulling for the Koogs, you know, trying to trying to tune into this

(01:32):
game going on right now with theTexans. You know it's here, I'll
get you, get you. It'sfor the city right now. You know,
the city is alive and I'd loveto see it. And and for
you as well, I mean youtalk about it and a lot of you
guys have talked about kind of thetime to decompress and then you get back
into the workouts. So I mean, what does this offseason look like in

(01:53):
both of those fronts for you?Uh? Yeah? So, like I
said, I after a season,talk about a week off from working out,
maybe two or three from a hittingand then just got right back to
it because you know, you don'twant to lose the field, you know,
So I just wanted to get mybody a little rest and then hit
it back hard and lock it in. Yeah. And one of the things

(02:15):
we talked about, especially young playerslike you, that you get that major
league experience, what was it likefor you? What do you learned from
that? And that you sit hereand ready for spring training in twenty four
that maybe you didn't know is readyfor spring training in twenty three. Yeah.
No, I mean it was awesome, you know, to be able
to be in a locker room withall those vets. You know, there's

(02:37):
so much knowledge there. So ifyou don't learn anything, that's on you,
right. So I was just ableto ask a few questions, learn
a few things, and try tobring it back to my game to better
myself some changes this off season.Obviously, you get to come up and
play for a legend like Dusty Baker, but he steps away the soft season

(02:58):
and they have a certain stay interviewa bunch of guys. But I think
we all kind of knew you keepthis continuity going with Joe Aspata, and
obviously he knows everybody know it's theroster better than anybody else. What's it
gonna be like going from from aguy like Dusty but getting the play for
a guy like Joe who has beenhere and done that. Yeah, I
think it's great. You know,everybody in the locker room and clubhouse are

(03:21):
always always pulling for Joe. Youknow, he's he's been doing his things
for years, So I think everybody'sexcited looking forward to it. When you
got a team that's as competitive asyou guys are, I mean, you
know how how much of I guessa gratifying feeling is that when you get
out on that field knowing like,hey, I you know I'm part of

(03:43):
a nine that's that's pretty good outhere that you know you don't get put
out here by a mistake. Yeah, you know, it's it's an honor,
you know, playing playing on theon the same field with Hall of
famers, you know what I mean. There's there's so many good, good
players out there, so you justwant to keep up. You know,
you don't want to be the oneholding anybody back, So you know,

(04:04):
it definitely pushes you to be onyour a game at all times. What
are the things you mentioned in someoffseason work only a week time off,
What are you trying to work onor improve or things you feel like you
can get better at, you know, just I mean that kind of the
same thing every year. You know, you want to just sharpen up your

(04:25):
tools and everything and so, butfor me, offensively, I would I
would say, I just want tobe able to consistently hit the fastball like
That's that was one of the thingsthat I kind of notice in the big
leagues. I mean, there's morevilla. You know, people are throwing
ninety eight every day and bad itfeels like, yeah, So I would
say that, And then defensively,just everything that I learned last year to

(04:48):
keep working on that, develop myarm more and the initial reads stuff like
that. On social media, there'sRob Friedman, the pitching Ninja that shows
the over laps of fastball, slidereverything. I mean, for guys like
you, you know, people allcome on, how couldn't you hit that?
Do you just show them those videosand say, looks are yeah,

(05:11):
I'm like, you know, it'snot that easy, you know, But
I mean it's it's all good,you know, It's it is our job.
At the end of the end ofthe day to be able to hit
those and make make the adjustments.Talking with Corey Jolks here, and it
is kind of interesting, Corey.With every off season teams make additions and
and big splashes and a free agencyand all this, the Astros have kind
of set steady at least with whatthey have uh in the outfield, and

(05:34):
that must mean they feel really comfortablewith who they have internally. Obviously Michael
Brantley calls it a career, butyou know he did miss miss a good
portion last year. But how muchof a vote of confidence is that knowing,
yes, shor Dan's gonna play,you know, Kyle Tucker's gonna play.
But between Chaz and Jake Myers yourself, I mean, there's plenty of
time to be had. Yeah,you know. I mean it's up to

(05:57):
me just to stay ready and youknow, just whatever my numbers called,
make sure I'm ready. But likeyou said, there's so many good players
up and down the roster, sowe'll be good. It is a huge
part of that too. You knowthat Game five we talked with Greg Kessinger
earlier. I mean he gets inthe game, Singleton gets into the game.
I mean you know, yiner getsinto the game. I mean,

(06:18):
is that kind of feed into itof you know, maybe if you're not
the starting nine, you're still hey, go grab it back, go get
some swings there in the cage,because we're gonna need you hearing about the
sixth or seventh. Yeah, absolutely, I mean you gotta be ready.
And for me, this was thefirst year where my role was was not
playing every day, and you know, so I had to learn that you
may not be starting, but youneed to be ready. So and I

(06:41):
think, you know, Dusty Joea spot, all the coaches did a
good job of, you know,putting that in my mindset from the from
the first game. We talked aboutit's cool to be playing for the hometown
team, but I also got tothink, man, the ticket requests and
stuff like that had to be thatyou're dealing with more than that than any
of these other guys, right,I mean you got friends and family probably
hitting you up left and right.Yeah, yeah, no doubt. And

(07:02):
you know it was it was funnybecause I got warned warned about it at
first, and I was like,nah, I'd be all right, but
sure enough, you know, butit's all good. You know, people
showing up, so I love it. Yeah, did I hear did I
hear a story that you were inthe building for game six two years ago?
I was, I was, Iwas. You know, it was
funny because I actually told Chazz thefirst game and I was like, you

(07:24):
know, last time I was here, I was watching in the dance and
now I'm in a dead ass,so you know, it's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool. It is cool. I mean, I love to like
I always say, like, thisis the most Houston, like your University
of Houston. You play for theHouston Astros, and then you walk up
to like Big mo or l Zero, this is the most Houston thing ever.
Man. I love how you embracethat. Thank you. I appreciate

(07:44):
it. You know, I'm justtrying to show love to the city.
Well, we love it, anduh, here's open that Kelvin Sampson and
the Cougar's could get something done aswell. Yeah, I mean, oh
yeah, it's It's been a lotof fun watching what they're doing. And
man, Houston sports is a goodtime to be alive. Astros making these
deep playoff runs. The Texans makethe playoffs. See if the Rockets are
on the rise and it's a goodtime to be a Houston sports fan.
It's great to have a guy whois a true Houstonian through with and Corey

(08:07):
jokes. Corey, thanks so muchfor the time, Maar, I appreciate
you stopping by here. Thank youappreciate it. Are we more coverage coming
your way after this from Astro's FanFesthere at min and Ma Park