April 22, 2025 • 12 mins
Astros Manager Joe Espada Joins The Show After A Big 7-0 Game vs Blue Jays
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Let's talk to our friend Joeis Botta. He is the
manager of your Houston Astros. With us here on Sports
Talk seven ninety at one thirty six. Skip, It's Matt Ross.
Thanks for joining us. Hey, I felt like last night
listening to you in the postgame show, somebody said, hey,
what do you think about a hundred Brown? You are
like measured because you couldn't think of more superlatives.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
The guy's been lights out for you.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Have you had a chance to really boast now that
you've had twenty four hours away from the ballpark, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
He is that he's been He's been really really good,
and the beauty of it is that there is potential
to get even better. Like he's overall game, right, I
think once you reach this level where he is now,
(03:21):
where we know he's got the stuff and you know,
you got all the teams talking about facing Hunter Brown.
Now he's creating that consistency where you show up every
single night and you get your team an opportunity to
win the game. Right, you know it's doing that. He's
becoming that guy now is you know long term? Right,
(03:43):
it's Hunter Brown is becoming that ace. And I've been
watching him transform into this guy where we we you know,
we lean on him, like dude, you know we we
got an opportunity to win a game and an opportunity
to win another series at home. I feel great about
you know, we all feel great about Hunter Brown getting
(04:04):
the ball in game on. That's that's where he's at right.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Now, skipping.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It was literally last night it was like him throwing
darts at a board and hitting the bull's eye. I
mean he when he was missing, he wasn't missing by much.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
No, And and the thing is that when he when pitture,
but you know when hitters are following pictures off, he's like,
you know what, shit, here you go. He's ninety nine
down the middle. Like right when you when you have confidence,
and I'm just going to just challenge you with my
best in the heart of the play. I don't care
(04:37):
if I get hit, but I'm not going to walk you.
Once when you reached out level of confidence, now you're
doing some some stuff right now. Now, it's when you're like,
oh my god, this guy is real. This guy is
not afraid of contact. This guy is actually coming at
you against a really, really good lineup, and you know
he's just he's becoming one of the best in the games.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You also made a lot of changed yesterday moving yourd
on to the second spot.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Initial thought about that. Got on base couple of.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Times, including the obligatory intentional walk, which I'm more than
okay with, and it helped out a little bit because
you got a crook a number and in the middle
of the game, which was a nice surprise as well.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, you know peretis right now, he has been our
best hitter. We managed scoring position, and you know, the
more the more traffic we could get on in front
of him for him to get big hits, like the
night before where he got the big hits to center
against San Diego. He did it again last night after
they walked Jordan. You know, he really has a feel
(05:37):
for RBIs so trying to I'm just trying to create
some you know, some moments there where our best guys
come up to the play offense and try to give
our offense sparking, trying to give our starter hunt a
brown this case and our bullpet an opportunity to pitch
with the lead and he worked out really well last night.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah, I'm a big fan Joe of Alvarez hitting second,
and it happened last night in that seventh inning when
he was able to come up and knocked his zenzo in.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
What is that?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Is there anything you talked to him about it? How
does Jordon feel about it? He's just say, hey, put
me wherever and I'm going to hit.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, you know, yeah he is. He's like that, he
puts me wherever type of you know, he's so good.
I you know, I look at I look at it
this way, and I present it to him this way.
If you look at the best lineups in the game,
the tool hitter are you know, we're talking about the
Bobbie Witt Juniors of the world, of vladimil Guerrero's, the
(06:34):
Mookie Betts, the Aaron Judge. You know, those are the
guys when the game he's on the line and you're
going to hear me say this all the time. Seven
eighth inning, that two spot right behind al Tuove, it
comes up all the time. Having someone behind al Tuove
with a presence that, okay, this guy's great also helps
out Altuve get better pitches. See so now you know,
(06:56):
both both of our best hitters are getting big A bats,
getting pitches to hit in high leverage moments.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Astro's manager Joe A spotted with us here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Also some good production last night from
the back end of the lineup.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
You mentioned last night in the post game Zach Decenzo
will be back in the lineup today. Was that something
planned or something you're saying, Hey, I'm going with a
hot hand.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
No, no, awik planned? I do going to you know,
I gotta wait, this is breaking news. I am going
to wait for him. He when he slid in second
base yesterday on the double he's second double left field,
he kind of jammed his thumb, So I am waiting
(07:41):
for him to come in. He's getting treatment right now.
He's going to hit in the cage and hopefully he
doesn't need a day to heal that thumb. So I
wanted to give him back to back days. My plan
is to give him back to back days. But I
am waiting for him to tell me how he feels.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And has it been a little bit of a not
a struggle, but you're always trying to wiggle guys in.
You want to make sure that Cam learns right field
and get everybody their proper opportunities to be bouncing left
field in DH spot is za a tough spot because
you want to see him do it a little bit
of everything in the infield and outfield and still get
it plenty of it, bads, because look, you hate young
(08:20):
players that just don't get the opportunity to get their
you know, two or three play appearances per night if.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
They can, no, no, you do, man. It's it's tough.
It's a tough balancing act because they are guys that
we this is this is our future right and I
want to give these guys opportunities to play in the
best way for you to you know, to play and
get better is by gaining that experience on the field,
learning from your mistake, learning from the up and downs
(08:45):
of a very long season. So this first month I've
been trying, the first three weeks, I've been trying to
get every one opportunities to play and and and and
once it does settle, some of these guys need to
have you know, every day at that you know that
Yourzel two with the Jeremy's the paradis to walk with.
Those guys are penciled in there every day. But then's
(09:06):
the other players to Rogers at Dubon, who we know
how you know how good Dubon is when he gets
every day at bats, he's his ability to play, put
the ball in, play his defense. So trying to get
all these guys in and we have we have had
every Thursday off, it makes it a little bit challenging.
But once we get into May, when we have seventeen straight,
now you want to see more bats to go to
(09:27):
a lot of these players.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I think you use the term breather for Christian Walker yesterday,
and maybe I'm paraphrasing here, but what is exactly like
for a veteran player that has had so much success,
no matter what uniformly said, not to have the kind
of month he's had. For you, what was a breather
like for him? And what did you see from his demeanor?
Just kind of maybe chit chatting during the game course
of the game.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah, just just being able to come in and relax.
You know, for me, the best breather was when I
brought him in the night before in my office and
tell him I was going to give him the breather,
you know, for us to breathe together and talk about
stuff like you know, this guy comes in, you know,
he comes as a free agent, you know, to expectations
are high, and he wants to produce and he is.
(10:09):
He's a producer. That's all he's done in his career
at the mental league level. And sometimes coming to a
new organization, it could it could be, it could be
a lot, and you can probably try to do too much.
And and that's understandable. And he wants to do well
and he's and I know he's going to do very
very well. But sometimes you just need to press the
past post button and became a breeder and you know,
(10:31):
get him back in there to day and hopefully that
gets some that gets them going.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Last question, Forrest gives you the two innings last night,
you're about to have skip and this is a wonderful
problem to have a little bit of a logjam in
your bullpen. And maybe if Lance comes back the next
few weeks starting rotation, So, uh, have you started in
the back of your mind thinking about, man, what am
I going to do here? Especially if I can get
Forrest Whitlan to get me six outs when he pitches
for me.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Well, I'm telling you it's not a bad problem. Half
Matt And you know, you know our season, how he
went last year. You could never have enough pitching. And
you know, once you know, Lance gets back, it's going
to be doing that stretch and we'll go seventeen straight.
So we are going to go into a six man
rotation and we going might have to have a you know,
(11:16):
one less guy in the pen. So having guys like
Forest who could go multiple innings and he could punch
people out is huge, right, So right now it's not
a problem. I'm happy that you know, Forrest, he's healthy,
he's he's a force when he's in the when he's
in the zone. So it was great for him to
(11:37):
give us two innings. And I'll stay away from from
our back end.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Guys skip great stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
As always, I need you to get a different shirt
on because your your shirts before game one of the
Rockets and help.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So we got to changings up a little bit. Can
you can you help us out a little bit?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Get me, yeah, give me, give me, give me one
and I and I wear it a big game tomorrow,
right oh my god.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, yeah, You're gonna win first and then we're the
Rockets are gonna win second.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So you you you you need to things going for
the for the local city.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
If you don't mind all right, fellas you got it.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Thank you very much to get Joe spotted with us
here
Let's talk to our friend Joeis Botta. He is the
manager of your Houston Astros. With us here on Sports
Talk seven ninety at one thirty six. Skip, It's Matt Ross.
Thanks for joining us. Hey, I felt like last night
listening to you in the postgame show, somebody said, hey,
what do you think about a hundred Brown? You are
like measured because you couldn't think of more superlatives.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
The guy's been lights out for you.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Have you had a chance to really boast now that
you've had twenty four hours away from the ballpark, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
He is that he's been He's been really really good,
and the beauty of it is that there is potential
to get even better. Like he's overall game, right, I
think once you reach this level where he is now,
(03:21):
where we know he's got the stuff and you know,
you got all the teams talking about facing Hunter Brown.
Now he's creating that consistency where you show up every
single night and you get your team an opportunity to
win the game. Right, you know it's doing that. He's
becoming that guy now is you know long term? Right,
(03:43):
it's Hunter Brown is becoming that ace. And I've been
watching him transform into this guy where we we you know,
we lean on him, like dude, you know we we
got an opportunity to win a game and an opportunity
to win another series at home. I feel great about
you know, we all feel great about Hunter Brown getting
(04:04):
the ball in game on. That's that's where he's at right.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Now, skipping.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It was literally last night it was like him throwing
darts at a board and hitting the bull's eye. I
mean he when he was missing, he wasn't missing by much.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
No, And and the thing is that when he when pitture,
but you know when hitters are following pictures off, he's like,
you know what, shit, here you go. He's ninety nine
down the middle. Like right when you when you have confidence,
and I'm just going to just challenge you with my
best in the heart of the play. I don't care
(04:37):
if I get hit, but I'm not going to walk you.
Once when you reached out level of confidence, now you're
doing some some stuff right now. Now, it's when you're like,
oh my god, this guy is real. This guy is
not afraid of contact. This guy is actually coming at
you against a really, really good lineup, and you know
he's just he's becoming one of the best in the games.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You also made a lot of changed yesterday moving yourd
on to the second spot.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Initial thought about that. Got on base couple of.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Times, including the obligatory intentional walk, which I'm more than
okay with, and it helped out a little bit because
you got a crook a number and in the middle
of the game, which was a nice surprise as well.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, you know peretis right now, he has been our
best hitter. We managed scoring position, and you know, the
more the more traffic we could get on in front
of him for him to get big hits, like the
night before where he got the big hits to center
against San Diego. He did it again last night after
they walked Jordan. You know, he really has a feel
(05:37):
for RBIs so trying to I'm just trying to create
some you know, some moments there where our best guys
come up to the play offense and try to give
our offense sparking, trying to give our starter hunt a
brown this case and our bullpet an opportunity to pitch
with the lead and he worked out really well last night.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah, I'm a big fan Joe of Alvarez hitting second,
and it happened last night in that seventh inning when
he was able to come up and knocked his zenzo in.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
What is that?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Is there anything you talked to him about it? How
does Jordon feel about it? He's just say, hey, put
me wherever and I'm going to hit.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, you know, yeah he is. He's like that, he
puts me wherever type of you know, he's so good.
I you know, I look at I look at it
this way, and I present it to him this way.
If you look at the best lineups in the game,
the tool hitter are you know, we're talking about the
Bobbie Witt Juniors of the world, of vladimil Guerrero's, the
(06:34):
Mookie Betts, the Aaron Judge. You know, those are the
guys when the game he's on the line and you're
going to hear me say this all the time. Seven
eighth inning, that two spot right behind al Tuove, it
comes up all the time. Having someone behind al Tuove
with a presence that, okay, this guy's great also helps
out Altuve get better pitches. See so now you know,
(06:56):
both both of our best hitters are getting big A bats,
getting pitches to hit in high leverage moments.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Astro's manager Joe A spotted with us here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Also some good production last night from
the back end of the lineup.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
You mentioned last night in the post game Zach Decenzo
will be back in the lineup today. Was that something
planned or something you're saying, Hey, I'm going with a
hot hand.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
No, no, awik planned? I do going to you know,
I gotta wait, this is breaking news. I am going
to wait for him. He when he slid in second
base yesterday on the double he's second double left field,
he kind of jammed his thumb, So I am waiting
(07:41):
for him to come in. He's getting treatment right now.
He's going to hit in the cage and hopefully he
doesn't need a day to heal that thumb. So I
wanted to give him back to back days. My plan
is to give him back to back days. But I
am waiting for him to tell me how he feels.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And has it been a little bit of a not
a struggle, but you're always trying to wiggle guys in.
You want to make sure that Cam learns right field
and get everybody their proper opportunities to be bouncing left
field in DH spot is za a tough spot because
you want to see him do it a little bit
of everything in the infield and outfield and still get
it plenty of it, bads, because look, you hate young
(08:20):
players that just don't get the opportunity to get their
you know, two or three play appearances per night if.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
They can, no, no, you do, man. It's it's tough.
It's a tough balancing act because they are guys that
we this is this is our future right and I
want to give these guys opportunities to play in the
best way for you to you know, to play and
get better is by gaining that experience on the field,
learning from your mistake, learning from the up and downs
(08:45):
of a very long season. So this first month I've
been trying, the first three weeks, I've been trying to
get every one opportunities to play and and and and
once it does settle, some of these guys need to
have you know, every day at that you know that
Yourzel two with the Jeremy's the paradis to walk with.
Those guys are penciled in there every day. But then's
(09:06):
the other players to Rogers at Dubon, who we know
how you know how good Dubon is when he gets
every day at bats, he's his ability to play, put
the ball in, play his defense. So trying to get
all these guys in and we have we have had
every Thursday off, it makes it a little bit challenging.
But once we get into May, when we have seventeen straight,
now you want to see more bats to go to
(09:27):
a lot of these players.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I think you use the term breather for Christian Walker yesterday,
and maybe I'm paraphrasing here, but what is exactly like
for a veteran player that has had so much success,
no matter what uniformly said, not to have the kind
of month he's had. For you, what was a breather
like for him? And what did you see from his demeanor?
Just kind of maybe chit chatting during the game course
of the game.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah, just just being able to come in and relax.
You know, for me, the best breather was when I
brought him in the night before in my office and
tell him I was going to give him the breather,
you know, for us to breathe together and talk about
stuff like you know, this guy comes in, you know,
he comes as a free agent, you know, to expectations
are high, and he wants to produce and he is.
(10:09):
He's a producer. That's all he's done in his career
at the mental league level. And sometimes coming to a
new organization, it could it could be, it could be
a lot, and you can probably try to do too much.
And and that's understandable. And he wants to do well
and he's and I know he's going to do very
very well. But sometimes you just need to press the
past post button and became a breeder and you know,
(10:31):
get him back in there to day and hopefully that
gets some that gets them going.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Last question, Forrest gives you the two innings last night,
you're about to have skip and this is a wonderful
problem to have a little bit of a logjam in
your bullpen. And maybe if Lance comes back the next
few weeks starting rotation, So, uh, have you started in
the back of your mind thinking about, man, what am
I going to do here? Especially if I can get
Forrest Whitlan to get me six outs when he pitches
for me.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Well, I'm telling you it's not a bad problem. Half
Matt And you know, you know our season, how he
went last year. You could never have enough pitching. And
you know, once you know, Lance gets back, it's going
to be doing that stretch and we'll go seventeen straight.
So we are going to go into a six man
rotation and we going might have to have a you know,
(11:16):
one less guy in the pen. So having guys like
Forest who could go multiple innings and he could punch
people out is huge, right, So right now it's not
a problem. I'm happy that you know, Forrest, he's healthy,
he's he's a force when he's in the when he's
in the zone. So it was great for him to
(11:37):
give us two innings. And I'll stay away from from
our back end.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Guys skip great stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
As always, I need you to get a different shirt
on because your your shirts before game one of the
Rockets and help.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So we got to changings up a little bit. Can
you can you help us out a little bit?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Get me, yeah, give me, give me, give me one
and I and I wear it a big game tomorrow,
right oh my god.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, yeah, You're gonna win first and then we're the
Rockets are gonna win second.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So you you you you need to things going for
the for the local city.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
If you don't mind all right, fellas you got it.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Thank you very much to get Joe spotted with us
here
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