Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Right now, Ros VI Real,Dan Matthews, Adam Wexer, please to
be joined by the one and onlySteve Sparks. Steve, of course,
right out of the gate, We'regonna ask you, and two words come
to mind as I asked you thisquestion. The Astros signed Josh Hater.
The two words I'm thinking of sparkylikey, sparky like you. I do.
(00:20):
Man, here's something funny. Thisis how bad I am. I
remember going down to the minor leaguecomplex seven or eight years ago, maybe
eight years ago and watching two guysthrow bullpen sessions, and it was McCullers
and Hater. Yeah, they werein double A I think at the time,
and I remember watching there was somemovement. It was unbelievable. They
(00:41):
were both dislighting it up. Theywere hitting their spots. Their stuff was
filthy. I remember thinking in theback of my head, and Hayter was
a starter back at the time,and he's been one of the most durable
relief pitchers in all of baseball thelast seven or eight years. Thinking of
the back of my head. AndI don't know if I mentioned it to
Doug Broke, Kale or no whowas the pitchy coach in Double A at
the time that I didn't think Haterwith his delivery was gonna stay healthy.
(01:06):
Everybody was talking about he was theyoung like Chris Sale type guy. Nobody's
been more durable, and I thoughthe was gonna break down. But just
filthy. I mean, you talkto anybody, righty or lefty, what
the astros are gonna be able todo in the last three endings of any
game. Feels like it's gonna bea lockdown. Plus you got a hell
of a lineup that doesn't have toface him anymore. That's nice. But
(01:29):
you know, we had Dana Brownon earlier and talked with you know him
about the whole process of even bringingin Ryan Presley about what this is going
to mean? What was that sayingabout the player? But was it also
say about the organization that they havethat much respect for their guys to say,
hey, we have a good thinggoing here, don't rock the boat,
you know, Dan, that's justthe culture that they have in their
clubhouse is like everybody step aside fromyour own personal agenda, let's say and
(01:55):
let's concentrate on winning. What dowe have to do to win baseball games?
And when you add a player ofthat caliber, you want to take
a chance and figure everything else outa little bit later. But you know,
anybody's gonna welcome somebody with that typeof talent into their clubhouse. These
guys are used to playoff baseball.They feel like, you know, you
put one extra guy like that inthe back end, it just makes things
(02:17):
fantastic. I know we're ways awayfrom it, Steve, but March twenty
eighth is not too far off.So after JV goes six and Brian goes
one two three, gets both Sotoand Judgy when he's out there, precially
goes one two three in the eighth, and then Robert Ford's setting you up
for okay, are call to thebullpen. Josh Hater's on his way to
the mound to try to close outthis four to nothing victory over Garrett Cole
(02:39):
and the Yankees. Steve, tellme what what's Josh Hayter like? What
does he have? What kind ofstuff does this kid have? I want
to know why it's only for nothing? First of all, you know,
what what does Josh Hater have?He has deception, he has intimidation,
he has stuff, and he hasmovement. He's got all the thing,
(03:00):
the ingredients, just to go outthere and blow hitters away. So I
think you almost go into the batter'sbox with a defeatist attitude when you face
a picture like that, especially ifyou're a left hander. How do you
not give Adam a little bit atthe plate when he's coming from behind your
ear throwing that hard, with allthat stuff moving all over the place,
(03:21):
free pitches. It's just he's oneof the best relief pitchers in baseball,
and when you're looking at intimidation,I think he might be the most intimidating
lefty. Now that a rule,just Chapman's kind of gone the other direction.
How much does his flow impact hisintimidation. It's got to help a
little bit. You know, yougo out there look a little crazy.
(03:44):
I played with Randy Johnson, andI know his look probably had a little
bit to do with how everybody feltabout facing him. So the whole pack
all star. He's got a greatresume, he's pitching the playoffs. He's
gonna fit in very nicely, especiallycoming in to a clubhouse where he already
(04:05):
knows a few of those guys playingwith those players in the minor leagues,
Astro's color analysts and a flamethrower himself. That's a great point, right Steve
sparks with his ear on news radioseven forty KTRH. So we know the
bullpen, especially the back end,is looking pretty good. Where are you
at as far as the rotation becausethe names obviously Verlander, from Er,
(04:28):
Valdez, Christian Javier, Hunter,Bright Center, KERKII they sound really good,
but also towards the end of theplayoffs, we had a lot of
question marks about some of those guys. Second half of the season their question
marks. So there's question marks inmy mind going into the season. What
are you going to do to getFromper back on track with his two seamer,
which I thought changed its shape quitea bit the second half of the
(04:48):
season. Christian Javier, it lookedlike he was starting to get those numbers
back as far as the spin rateand what he needed to do to become
hit an effective two or three slotguy in your rotation. So I'm a
little more concerned with Fromer than Iam Javier. I thought Xavier was able
(05:09):
to make those adjustments and get thatfix toward the end, but Frommer's a
big question mark for me and whatabout also the calming influence that Martine Maldonado
was for him and that not beingthere this year, it's interesting. You
know, We'll just have to seehow that goes. And sometimes you take
away a crutch, sometimes it helpsthe guy take a step forward. So
(05:31):
that's the way I'm looking at it, is like he can go out there
and not feel like he has torely on Maldonado for so much. We've
heard Dana all off season talk aboutso many internal guys. I mean,
Forrest Whitley is a guy that Ithink a lot of fans have really wanted
to see breakthrough and have a chanceon this major league club. But for
guys like him, and we're hearinga lot about Spencer Arraghetty as well.
I mean, how excited are youto kind of see the rotation both you
(05:56):
know, starting and out in thebullpen kind of take shape with guys fighting
for you know, Dan, That'swhere I spend almost two hours a day
in spring training as I go downto the minor league side. I spent
ten years as a minor leaguer,so you know, my heart is kind
of in that realm is watching guysdevelop and seeing who might be on the
horizon. So that's really exciting tome, to be honest with you,
(06:17):
I love watching a lot of theseguys coming through the ranks. There's a
few of them too, and Iknow the Astros farm system isn't ranked very
high, but I think there's alot of interesting arms down there that are
going to make big impressions on thisteam, especially in the next year or
two. So Arraghetti as a specialslider. He's got a good arm and
(06:40):
good command and a good presence.I think Forrest Whitley you mentioned him,
I think his stuff jumps off thepage. Whenever you've seen throw, you're
just going, what's taking him solong? What's going on so And it
just goes to show you. Imean, it's not all about stuff,
and it's not all about physical talent. There's a lot mentally that goes on
in baseball that takes you to thatnext level. I think he's probably there.
(07:01):
So it's your kind of a wildcard. Steve. I'll ask you
this about the lefties. You're aright handed pitcher. The Astro's left handed
pitchers that are gonna be with themin spring training coming up. We've got
far Ambra Valdez. He's wearing numberfifty nine. We got Parker Mushinski,
he's wearing sixty seven. Yeah,Bennett Sussa, he's in the sixties.
Sixty two. Matt Gage is aboutto come on with us, he's wearing
ninety one. And lefty Josh hatersgonna roll in here and say, put
(07:25):
me up with a number seventy one. Jersey. What's with these lefties?
Well, there is something about leftiesthat are a little different. A lot
of people thought that. I feltI fell into that rank too, So
maybe knuckleballers are kind of the leftyof the varieties. I don't know.
It's something about numbers don't matter toguys as much as they used to.
(07:46):
I think guys appreciate being a littlebit different, maybe a little more unique.
But lefties for the first time,I would say this will be Robert
NIC's twelfth year as broadcast for theAstros. That has been the one position
that's lacked more than any other byfar, has been able to develop a
(08:07):
lefty throughout their system and especially toget a guy to be able to spin
it. You know, I don'tknow what it is. It's hard for
lefties, you know, you seea lot of lefties with good movement on
their fast balls, so they mightthrow ninety five, but to be able
to have a good breaking ball andget a tough lefty out, the Astros
have had a hard time finding thoseguys, and I think they have a
(08:30):
few of those candidates now and it'sbeen a long time coming. Steve Sparks
with us here on news radio sevenforty k t r H. We do
have to get you out pret quick, Steve, But just finally, just
thoughts on the upcoming season, howyou're expecting this team, how expecting it
to go? Very excited. Ithink they're still in the market for probably
another relief pitcher. I think addingdepth, you know, and triple A
(08:50):
is always going to be important atthis stage. There's a lot of unsigned
players right now, so to getsome guys in sugar Land that can fill
in the gap like a du Bonddid when now two they went down last
year. Guys like that that arein the system, I think will help
those guys get to the finish line. All right, he is Steve Sparks.
Thank you very much for the time, my pleasure to see you in
(09:11):
West Palm. Can we get onesea signor that's an home run called all
right, there we go, allright, there we goes right. Sparks
appreciate the time as always
Right now, Ros VI Real,Dan Matthews, Adam Wexer, please to
be joined by the one and onlySteve Sparks. Steve, of course,
right out of the gate, We'regonna ask you, and two words come
to mind as I asked you thisquestion. The Astros signed Josh Hater.
The two words I'm thinking of sparkylikey, sparky like you. I do.
(00:20):
Man, here's something funny. Thisis how bad I am. I
remember going down to the minor leaguecomplex seven or eight years ago, maybe
eight years ago and watching two guysthrow bullpen sessions, and it was McCullers
and Hater. Yeah, they werein double A I think at the time,
and I remember watching there was somemovement. It was unbelievable. They
(00:41):
were both dislighting it up. Theywere hitting their spots. Their stuff was
filthy. I remember thinking in theback of my head, and Hayter was
a starter back at the time,and he's been one of the most durable
relief pitchers in all of baseball thelast seven or eight years. Thinking of
the back of my head. AndI don't know if I mentioned it to
Doug Broke, Kale or no whowas the pitchy coach in Double A at
the time that I didn't think Haterwith his delivery was gonna stay healthy.
(01:06):
Everybody was talking about he was theyoung like Chris Sale type guy. Nobody's
been more durable, and I thoughthe was gonna break down. But just
filthy. I mean, you talkto anybody, righty or lefty, what
the astros are gonna be able todo in the last three endings of any
game. Feels like it's gonna bea lockdown. Plus you got a hell
of a lineup that doesn't have toface him anymore. That's nice. But
(01:29):
you know, we had Dana Brownon earlier and talked with you know him
about the whole process of even bringingin Ryan Presley about what this is going
to mean? What was that sayingabout the player? But was it also
say about the organization that they havethat much respect for their guys to say,
hey, we have a good thinggoing here, don't rock the boat,
you know, Dan, that's justthe culture that they have in their
clubhouse is like everybody step aside fromyour own personal agenda, let's say and
(01:55):
let's concentrate on winning. What dowe have to do to win baseball games?
And when you add a player ofthat caliber, you want to take
a chance and figure everything else outa little bit later. But you know,
anybody's gonna welcome somebody with that typeof talent into their clubhouse. These
guys are used to playoff baseball.They feel like, you know, you
put one extra guy like that inthe back end, it just makes things
(02:17):
fantastic. I know we're ways awayfrom it, Steve, but March twenty
eighth is not too far off.So after JV goes six and Brian goes
one two three, gets both Sotoand Judgy when he's out there, precially
goes one two three in the eighth, and then Robert Ford's setting you up
for okay, are call to thebullpen. Josh Hater's on his way to
the mound to try to close outthis four to nothing victory over Garrett Cole
(02:39):
and the Yankees. Steve, tellme what what's Josh Hayter like? What
does he have? What kind ofstuff does this kid have? I want
to know why it's only for nothing? First of all, you know,
what what does Josh Hater have?He has deception, he has intimidation,
he has stuff, and he hasmovement. He's got all the thing,
(03:00):
the ingredients, just to go outthere and blow hitters away. So I
think you almost go into the batter'sbox with a defeatist attitude when you face
a picture like that, especially ifyou're a left hander. How do you
not give Adam a little bit atthe plate when he's coming from behind your
ear throwing that hard, with allthat stuff moving all over the place,
(03:21):
free pitches. It's just he's oneof the best relief pitchers in baseball,
and when you're looking at intimidation,I think he might be the most intimidating
lefty. Now that a rule,just Chapman's kind of gone the other direction.
How much does his flow impact hisintimidation. It's got to help a
little bit. You know, yougo out there look a little crazy.
(03:44):
I played with Randy Johnson, andI know his look probably had a little
bit to do with how everybody feltabout facing him. So the whole pack
all star. He's got a greatresume, he's pitching the playoffs. He's
gonna fit in very nicely, especiallycoming in to a clubhouse where he already
(04:05):
knows a few of those guys playingwith those players in the minor leagues,
Astro's color analysts and a flamethrower himself. That's a great point, right Steve
sparks with his ear on news radioseven forty KTRH. So we know the
bullpen, especially the back end,is looking pretty good. Where are you
at as far as the rotation becausethe names obviously Verlander, from Er,
(04:28):
Valdez, Christian Javier, Hunter,Bright Center, KERKII they sound really good,
but also towards the end of theplayoffs, we had a lot of
question marks about some of those guys. Second half of the season their question
marks. So there's question marks inmy mind going into the season. What
are you going to do to getFromper back on track with his two seamer,
which I thought changed its shape quitea bit the second half of the
(04:48):
season. Christian Javier, it lookedlike he was starting to get those numbers
back as far as the spin rateand what he needed to do to become
hit an effective two or three slotguy in your rotation. So I'm a
little more concerned with Fromer than Iam Javier. I thought Xavier was able
(05:09):
to make those adjustments and get thatfix toward the end, but Frommer's a
big question mark for me and whatabout also the calming influence that Martine Maldonado
was for him and that not beingthere this year, it's interesting. You
know, We'll just have to seehow that goes. And sometimes you take
away a crutch, sometimes it helpsthe guy take a step forward. So
(05:31):
that's the way I'm looking at it, is like he can go out there
and not feel like he has torely on Maldonado for so much. We've
heard Dana all off season talk aboutso many internal guys. I mean,
Forrest Whitley is a guy that Ithink a lot of fans have really wanted
to see breakthrough and have a chanceon this major league club. But for
guys like him, and we're hearinga lot about Spencer Arraghetty as well.
I mean, how excited are youto kind of see the rotation both you
(05:56):
know, starting and out in thebullpen kind of take shape with guys fighting
for you know, Dan, That'swhere I spend almost two hours a day
in spring training as I go downto the minor league side. I spent
ten years as a minor leaguer,so you know, my heart is kind
of in that realm is watching guysdevelop and seeing who might be on the
horizon. So that's really exciting tome, to be honest with you,
(06:17):
I love watching a lot of theseguys coming through the ranks. There's a
few of them too, and Iknow the Astros farm system isn't ranked very
high, but I think there's alot of interesting arms down there that are
going to make big impressions on thisteam, especially in the next year or
two. So Arraghetti as a specialslider. He's got a good arm and
(06:40):
good command and a good presence.I think Forrest Whitley you mentioned him,
I think his stuff jumps off thepage. Whenever you've seen throw, you're
just going, what's taking him solong? What's going on so And it
just goes to show you. Imean, it's not all about stuff,
and it's not all about physical talent. There's a lot mentally that goes on
in baseball that takes you to thatnext level. I think he's probably there.
(07:01):
So it's your kind of a wildcard. Steve. I'll ask you
this about the lefties. You're aright handed pitcher. The Astro's left handed
pitchers that are gonna be with themin spring training coming up. We've got
far Ambra Valdez. He's wearing numberfifty nine. We got Parker Mushinski,
he's wearing sixty seven. Yeah,Bennett Sussa, he's in the sixties.
Sixty two. Matt Gage is aboutto come on with us, he's wearing
ninety one. And lefty Josh hatersgonna roll in here and say, put
(07:25):
me up with a number seventy one. Jersey. What's with these lefties?
Well, there is something about leftiesthat are a little different. A lot
of people thought that. I feltI fell into that rank too, So
maybe knuckleballers are kind of the leftyof the varieties. I don't know.
It's something about numbers don't matter toguys as much as they used to.
(07:46):
I think guys appreciate being a littlebit different, maybe a little more unique.
But lefties for the first time,I would say this will be Robert
NIC's twelfth year as broadcast for theAstros. That has been the one position
that's lacked more than any other byfar, has been able to develop a
(08:07):
lefty throughout their system and especially toget a guy to be able to spin
it. You know, I don'tknow what it is. It's hard for
lefties, you know, you seea lot of lefties with good movement on
their fast balls, so they mightthrow ninety five, but to be able
to have a good breaking ball andget a tough lefty out, the Astros
have had a hard time finding thoseguys, and I think they have a
(08:30):
few of those candidates now and it'sbeen a long time coming. Steve Sparks
with us here on news radio sevenforty k t r H. We do
have to get you out pret quick, Steve, But just finally, just
thoughts on the upcoming season, howyou're expecting this team, how expecting it
to go? Very excited. Ithink they're still in the market for probably
another relief pitcher. I think addingdepth, you know, and triple A
(08:50):
is always going to be important atthis stage. There's a lot of unsigned
players right now, so to getsome guys in sugar Land that can fill
in the gap like a du Bonddid when now two they went down last
year. Guys like that that arein the system, I think will help
those guys get to the finish line. All right, he is Steve Sparks.
Thank you very much for the time, my pleasure to see you in
(09:11):
West Palm. Can we get onesea signor that's an home run called all
right, there we go, allright, there we goes right. Sparks
appreciate the time as always
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