May 13, 2025 • 11 mins
Astros Manager Joins The Show To Talk About The State Of The Team
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is like one of my three favorite parts of
the week.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Ten twenty minutes of the manager of the Astros Joe
Spot every Tuesday twelve thirty Thomas.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
How are you on?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Hold?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Matt?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Tell him he's number one. Come on, man, well, I
mean he's gonna he knows he can read through media
bs when with the best of them. So let's uh
Hutch pipe him up there on the screen for Skip
power things.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I'm doing well. I like the honesty. I want to
know what the other top two things that you like
ahead of talking to me on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I like a good hot blackjack table, if you know what.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'm saying, and there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Okay, and uh, some good Margarita's and the favor of
the week though, well, I mean if life, I mean, okay, we're.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
In the blackjack table every week.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I've got a problem, maybe Skip, I've got a little
bit of an issue here, but we'll move on.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Can we move on to we move on a.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Baseball say, I'll say, Brian Bogasvik and anybody got time
for it?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
All right? Favor three?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So so other members of media, we're afraid to ask you.
I ain't scared about you. Gonn tell you right now.
I'm gonna ask you right now. You're on an Alvareski
playing tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Uh, come on, no, no, he's not playing tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Okay, give us an update then at least.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
No, But he's he's feeling better. The plan is for
him to come in today and continue to uh, you know,
progression swinging the bat. You know, obviously up to just
one day of hitting in the team. We would like
to see uh more progress, you know, but he is,
he's feeling a lot better.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well that's good.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Let me ask you this, and you're not a doctor, clearly,
but is there something he can do? Because look, the
hand's been an issue a couple of times, and maybe,
as you've been dealing with so many athletes in your life,
skipt people have bad backs or nacks or sore forums,
whatever the case may be. Is there anything he can
do to adjust so this doesn't become a problem every
couple of years or is this just a byproduct of
playing an incredibly difficult sport.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, you know, he you know, he plays, he plays,
you know, he plays every day.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
He he you know.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Gripping the bat, swinging the bat, they're wear and tear
with years of accumulation. How many games we've played for
so many seasons. You know, it happens. But one thing
I do tell you, though, he is you know, he
works his butt off. He's always trying to you know,
stay strong and and stay in the lineup. And you know,
(02:22):
sometimes there's things that we can't control. And I think
that you know, once we get this right, uh, he's
hopefully n't have to deal with this anymore. And we
don't have to, you know, take take some off days
to let you know this heal and deal with this again.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So much of the conversation in the last handful of
days has been about the seventeen games in seventeen days.
And I thought what you said yesterday was interesting about
this is not the worst thing in the world. Obviously, No,
you want to stay with a five man rotation, get
an extra arm in the bullpen, get some guys off,
and look, days off are always a preme. But I
want you to tell our audience what you said to
the media yesterday, which I thought was intriguing, about getting
(03:02):
into a regular routine and this is the heart of
the baseball season.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And you know what, seventeen games ain't the worst thing
in the world.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
You know what, we take the off days, right. We
welcome the off days. You know, we rather have the
off days. You know, August September right where we really
are you know, in the dog days of August, right,
we're grinding it. We were late in the season. We
need some rest, We need you know, be able to
recover and regroup and stuff like that. But you know,
(03:30):
early in the season, you know, we go and we
get on a group of things, right, and then uh,
five days later, there's an off day, right. You know,
guys like routines were starting to figure some stuff out offensively,
that off they can interrupt that and then you got
to get back in the flow of things.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
These baseball players are, they're you know, they're they have
they have routines, they have habits, they have ways. When
they feel good, they want to go back the next
day and feel it again. Right, So I welcome the
straight games right now. I got to be smart in
how I manage the whole entire workload for the guys
(04:12):
and give him some off days. He in there. But
these guys want to get a flow of things. They
starting to feel good about things, and they wanted they're
looking forward to the next day to build on whatever
they left the day before. So that's why I think
us skating and the games in a row. I think
I think he can help us.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Astro's manager Joe Spotto was here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
How is jose L Tuove feeling after being in the
lineup yesterday and is there any thought to managing the
workload or is he basically a full go.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
No, he's good. He's good. I'm going to date him today.
But he came out feeling good after the game yesterday.
So hopefully we put this, you know, the hamstring issue
behind us, but something that we need to keep an
eye on mindsor especially going to Dallas year and you know,
we we start we start playing in the UH on
(05:05):
the turf and then going to Tampa, which we know
we'll be dealing with some humidity and hot weather playing outdoors.
So we got to keep eye on and and and
and the guys here. UH in the next week or two.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Uh, you've put Jeremy Panya in the leadoff spot in
the lineup. He has responded well, a couple of more
hits yesterday. I'm just curious for you you can kind
of talk about his his growth personally and the type
of person he is, and the challenges that he's taken
on in his young career, in the struggles that he
had and leading to how well he's hitting now.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know, you know, for me, it's just a confidence.
You know, once when you put someone in the leadoff spot,
it's something that he's done.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
He didn't you.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Know, in college career, his amateur career. He loves it.
You know, he feels like, you know, everything goes through me.
I'm the one who's going to ignite the offense. He
has taken it very seriously and it has actually helped
his approached and and he's mindset and he's done it
a remarkable job. Just for me, it's just how he's
driving the ball. You actually see him getting himself in
(06:05):
and good hitters, counts actually doing some out of takes
because he kind of got it, understands what the pitcher
is trying to do. He's getting himself in and and
and our bats where he's controlling the whole entire tempo.
And I think it's just maturity. I think it's confident.
I think it's you know, trust uh that we have
(06:26):
given him and you know, I hope that this is
something that he can grow from and we can keep
him there for years to come.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And he mentioned Jeremy did about al Tuove giving him
some advice and said, Hey, you're going to be in
the lead off spot, but just be yourself. Don't change
your project because of where you are on the line.
But is that basically the message not only to him,
but but everyone as you moved them around.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, of course you know they are who they are
this You know, Jeremy is someone who likes to hunt
the fastball, right He's a guy who is going to
go up there looking to drive the ball early in account.
But it's okay. If they don't give you that pitch
right away, you could wait for the next pitch and
if he's not there, you've got good enough back to
(07:09):
ball skills where you could put the ball in play.
Don't be afraid to hear with two strikes. You know
know who's behind, you know the situation of the game.
Those are things that al Too has done a really
good job walking him through. And our hitting coaches just
know where you're at in the game. You know, long
inning by one of our pitchers, know that we don't
need you to make a quick out, give your pitcher
(07:30):
a breather. Right, All those things are things that we
talked to. I've been talking him through. He's done a
fabulous job. Joe.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
You've been balancing Zach Desenso and Cam on the outfield,
moving them around a little big days off playing consecutive games.
Is it too much to ask at this point for
those two guys with such little major league experience to
take the bull by the horns and take the spot
every day, or would you ultimately like to see those
somebody battle that out and say, ah, right, I'm penciling
him in six days a week.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
You know, I really want them to take over and
and and get more regular at bats. I think they're
I think they're close. You know, I'm looking more of
the quality of our bats. I really want to make
sure that I match them up against some certain pitchers
that I know they can they can handle right now.
(08:19):
You just don't want to build them up and then
go through a stretch where they struggle offensively. I think
they're done a really nice shop in the corner of outfields.
It's just you know, monitoring their their up bats, the
quality of the up bats, their swing decisions how hard
they're hitting the ball, you know, because early, early in
(08:39):
your career in the big leagues, getting that down is
very important, and I don't want them to be overwhelmed by,
you know, too many up bats in a row. So,
but I think both guys are capable of playing every
day in the big leagues. I really am confidence about that.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I know you're going to hold a roster spot probably
for tomorrow starter, which I think you'll nouns later at
the ballpark. But let me ask you about the six
man rotation and the fact that you are down a
reliever that's obvious. Does it caution you a little bit
when you go to the phone and say, go get
somebody warmed up? But because you are so, I would
perceive to be concerned about too much warrantear that if
(09:16):
you put bring a guy up and get him warmed up,
that's going to be an indirect notion that he's going
to be eventually on that mound.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Yeah, And that's the thing, especially when you're in a
seventeen game stretch and you know we have lost two
starters and we have one less pitcher in the pen,
you know we're going to need some of our starters, just.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
To give us some length.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
If if there will be some off days here and there,
you could be a little bit more aggressive. But right
now where we are in the season and how we
need to be very aware of the workload of some
of these guys, especially what happens last year. You know,
I don't want to go through that again. We have
to be really smart on how we use its guys
(09:58):
this early in the season.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Last question fromber has had a little bit of a
yo yo start of the season, and it's funny it's
it's characterized by good farmer versus bad And then maybe
that's too strong of a turm on his definition of
who he is.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
But when he is in.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That knockdown, drag out, out by out, pitch by pitch, excellency,
when do you see it? Do you see it as
he gets through the first time of the lineup, the
second time through? And conversely, when do you know that
man this could be a struggle for him. What are
some signs that tells you what farmber Valdez you're going
to see in the mount on that particular start.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Efficiency from the very from the first inning. You know,
I like to look at the school board and look
at the shape of his sinker right, the movement and
the velo ground bolts early, you know, strike one early,
breaking ball under all those sides. Right once you see
him twenty thirty pitches in and he's in that second
(10:57):
inning and he's cruising and he's coming in the dog confidence,
saying the things that you want to hear out of him.
I asked Johann he Ordaz where he's at right now?
He's a joe everything he's moving. Well, uh, you know,
this stuff is late, moving late. We've got the action
that we're looking for. All those signs, it's what I
want to hear in the first twenty five thirty pitchers
of the game. And when he's on the when he's
(11:19):
on the roll, it's it's it's Valdez, quick, out, dominant,
and you know, our bullpend kind of knows where everything's
going to fall into when everything is falling into play.
So we need that today after you know, going through
our bullpen yesterday. So uh, I know Fremberg on the
stands understands this and expecting to be pretty good tonight.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Great Steff, as always, Kip, thank you very much. Good
luck to that against the Royals. We really appreciate you
joining us Hi guys.
This is like one of my three favorite parts of
the week.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Ten twenty minutes of the manager of the Astros Joe
Spot every Tuesday twelve thirty Thomas.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
How are you on?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Hold?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Matt?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Tell him he's number one. Come on, man, well, I
mean he's gonna he knows he can read through media
bs when with the best of them. So let's uh
Hutch pipe him up there on the screen for Skip
power things.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I'm doing well. I like the honesty. I want to
know what the other top two things that you like
ahead of talking to me on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I like a good hot blackjack table, if you know what.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'm saying, and there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Okay, and uh, some good Margarita's and the favor of
the week though, well, I mean if life, I mean, okay, we're.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
In the blackjack table every week.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I've got a problem, maybe Skip, I've got a little
bit of an issue here, but we'll move on.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Can we move on to we move on a.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Baseball say, I'll say, Brian Bogasvik and anybody got time
for it?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
All right? Favor three?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So so other members of media, we're afraid to ask you.
I ain't scared about you. Gonn tell you right now.
I'm gonna ask you right now. You're on an Alvareski
playing tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Uh, come on, no, no, he's not playing tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Okay, give us an update then at least.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
No, But he's he's feeling better. The plan is for
him to come in today and continue to uh, you know,
progression swinging the bat. You know, obviously up to just
one day of hitting in the team. We would like
to see uh more progress, you know, but he is,
he's feeling a lot better.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well that's good.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Let me ask you this, and you're not a doctor, clearly,
but is there something he can do? Because look, the
hand's been an issue a couple of times, and maybe,
as you've been dealing with so many athletes in your life,
skipt people have bad backs or nacks or sore forums,
whatever the case may be. Is there anything he can
do to adjust so this doesn't become a problem every
couple of years or is this just a byproduct of
playing an incredibly difficult sport.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, you know, he you know, he plays, he plays,
you know, he plays every day.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
He he you know.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Gripping the bat, swinging the bat, they're wear and tear
with years of accumulation. How many games we've played for
so many seasons. You know, it happens. But one thing
I do tell you, though, he is you know, he
works his butt off. He's always trying to you know,
stay strong and and stay in the lineup. And you know,
(02:22):
sometimes there's things that we can't control. And I think
that you know, once we get this right, uh, he's
hopefully n't have to deal with this anymore. And we
don't have to, you know, take take some off days
to let you know this heal and deal with this again.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So much of the conversation in the last handful of
days has been about the seventeen games in seventeen days.
And I thought what you said yesterday was interesting about
this is not the worst thing in the world. Obviously, No,
you want to stay with a five man rotation, get
an extra arm in the bullpen, get some guys off,
and look, days off are always a preme. But I
want you to tell our audience what you said to
the media yesterday, which I thought was intriguing, about getting
(03:02):
into a regular routine and this is the heart of
the baseball season.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And you know what, seventeen games ain't the worst thing
in the world.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
You know what, we take the off days, right. We
welcome the off days. You know, we rather have the
off days. You know, August September right where we really
are you know, in the dog days of August, right,
we're grinding it. We were late in the season. We
need some rest, We need you know, be able to
recover and regroup and stuff like that. But you know,
(03:30):
early in the season, you know, we go and we
get on a group of things, right, and then uh,
five days later, there's an off day, right. You know,
guys like routines were starting to figure some stuff out offensively,
that off they can interrupt that and then you got
to get back in the flow of things.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
These baseball players are, they're you know, they're they have
they have routines, they have habits, they have ways. When
they feel good, they want to go back the next
day and feel it again. Right, So I welcome the
straight games right now. I got to be smart in
how I manage the whole entire workload for the guys
(04:12):
and give him some off days. He in there. But
these guys want to get a flow of things. They
starting to feel good about things, and they wanted they're
looking forward to the next day to build on whatever
they left the day before. So that's why I think
us skating and the games in a row. I think
I think he can help us.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Astro's manager Joe Spotto was here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
How is jose L Tuove feeling after being in the
lineup yesterday and is there any thought to managing the
workload or is he basically a full go.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
No, he's good. He's good. I'm going to date him today.
But he came out feeling good after the game yesterday.
So hopefully we put this, you know, the hamstring issue
behind us, but something that we need to keep an
eye on mindsor especially going to Dallas year and you know,
we we start we start playing in the UH on
(05:05):
the turf and then going to Tampa, which we know
we'll be dealing with some humidity and hot weather playing outdoors.
So we got to keep eye on and and and
and the guys here. UH in the next week or two.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Uh, you've put Jeremy Panya in the leadoff spot in
the lineup. He has responded well, a couple of more
hits yesterday. I'm just curious for you you can kind
of talk about his his growth personally and the type
of person he is, and the challenges that he's taken
on in his young career, in the struggles that he
had and leading to how well he's hitting now.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know, you know, for me, it's just a confidence.
You know, once when you put someone in the leadoff spot,
it's something that he's done.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
He didn't you.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Know, in college career, his amateur career. He loves it.
You know, he feels like, you know, everything goes through me.
I'm the one who's going to ignite the offense. He
has taken it very seriously and it has actually helped
his approached and and he's mindset and he's done it
a remarkable job. Just for me, it's just how he's
driving the ball. You actually see him getting himself in
(06:05):
and good hitters, counts actually doing some out of takes
because he kind of got it, understands what the pitcher
is trying to do. He's getting himself in and and
and our bats where he's controlling the whole entire tempo.
And I think it's just maturity. I think it's confident.
I think it's you know, trust uh that we have
(06:26):
given him and you know, I hope that this is
something that he can grow from and we can keep
him there for years to come.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And he mentioned Jeremy did about al Tuove giving him
some advice and said, Hey, you're going to be in
the lead off spot, but just be yourself. Don't change
your project because of where you are on the line.
But is that basically the message not only to him,
but but everyone as you moved them around.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, of course you know they are who they are
this You know, Jeremy is someone who likes to hunt
the fastball, right He's a guy who is going to
go up there looking to drive the ball early in account.
But it's okay. If they don't give you that pitch
right away, you could wait for the next pitch and
if he's not there, you've got good enough back to
(07:09):
ball skills where you could put the ball in play.
Don't be afraid to hear with two strikes. You know
know who's behind, you know the situation of the game.
Those are things that al Too has done a really
good job walking him through. And our hitting coaches just
know where you're at in the game. You know, long
inning by one of our pitchers, know that we don't
need you to make a quick out, give your pitcher
(07:30):
a breather. Right, All those things are things that we
talked to. I've been talking him through. He's done a
fabulous job. Joe.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
You've been balancing Zach Desenso and Cam on the outfield,
moving them around a little big days off playing consecutive games.
Is it too much to ask at this point for
those two guys with such little major league experience to
take the bull by the horns and take the spot
every day, or would you ultimately like to see those
somebody battle that out and say, ah, right, I'm penciling
him in six days a week.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
You know, I really want them to take over and
and and get more regular at bats. I think they're
I think they're close. You know, I'm looking more of
the quality of our bats. I really want to make
sure that I match them up against some certain pitchers
that I know they can they can handle right now.
(08:19):
You just don't want to build them up and then
go through a stretch where they struggle offensively. I think
they're done a really nice shop in the corner of outfields.
It's just you know, monitoring their their up bats, the
quality of the up bats, their swing decisions how hard
they're hitting the ball, you know, because early, early in
(08:39):
your career in the big leagues, getting that down is
very important, and I don't want them to be overwhelmed by,
you know, too many up bats in a row. So,
but I think both guys are capable of playing every
day in the big leagues. I really am confidence about that.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I know you're going to hold a roster spot probably
for tomorrow starter, which I think you'll nouns later at
the ballpark. But let me ask you about the six
man rotation and the fact that you are down a
reliever that's obvious. Does it caution you a little bit
when you go to the phone and say, go get
somebody warmed up? But because you are so, I would
perceive to be concerned about too much warrantear that if
(09:16):
you put bring a guy up and get him warmed up,
that's going to be an indirect notion that he's going
to be eventually on that mound.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Yeah, And that's the thing, especially when you're in a
seventeen game stretch and you know we have lost two
starters and we have one less pitcher in the pen,
you know we're going to need some of our starters, just.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
To give us some length.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
If if there will be some off days here and there,
you could be a little bit more aggressive. But right
now where we are in the season and how we
need to be very aware of the workload of some
of these guys, especially what happens last year. You know,
I don't want to go through that again. We have
to be really smart on how we use its guys
(09:58):
this early in the season.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Last question fromber has had a little bit of a
yo yo start of the season, and it's funny it's
it's characterized by good farmer versus bad And then maybe
that's too strong of a turm on his definition of
who he is.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
But when he is in.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That knockdown, drag out, out by out, pitch by pitch, excellency,
when do you see it? Do you see it as
he gets through the first time of the lineup, the
second time through? And conversely, when do you know that
man this could be a struggle for him. What are
some signs that tells you what farmber Valdez you're going
to see in the mount on that particular start.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Efficiency from the very from the first inning. You know,
I like to look at the school board and look
at the shape of his sinker right, the movement and
the velo ground bolts early, you know, strike one early,
breaking ball under all those sides. Right once you see
him twenty thirty pitches in and he's in that second
(10:57):
inning and he's cruising and he's coming in the dog confidence,
saying the things that you want to hear out of him.
I asked Johann he Ordaz where he's at right now?
He's a joe everything he's moving. Well, uh, you know,
this stuff is late, moving late. We've got the action
that we're looking for. All those signs, it's what I
want to hear in the first twenty five thirty pitchers
of the game. And when he's on the when he's
(11:19):
on the roll, it's it's it's Valdez, quick, out, dominant,
and you know, our bullpend kind of knows where everything's
going to fall into when everything is falling into play.
So we need that today after you know, going through
our bullpen yesterday. So uh, I know Fremberg on the
stands understands this and expecting to be pretty good tonight.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Great Steff, as always, Kip, thank you very much. Good
luck to that against the Royals. We really appreciate you
joining us Hi guys.
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