May 6, 2025 • 10 mins
Joe Espada Joins The Show Giving Us His Insight Sitting 3rd In AL West
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So let me get the manager in here. Joe, it's
Matt and Ross. First of all, good afternoon. Secondly, when
you're five minutes late to a segment, we have to
talk about our all time favorite women of all time.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna pose a question at you.
Who is the most gorgeous woman in the world? Not
name your wife right now?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh man, my daughters, my two girls, Vienna and Leanna,
not my wife.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You are such a nice person, seriously.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
A diplomatic managers.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
You've been well trained.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Joe.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, it did a get a hold of you.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And and I don't want I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
You know, gotta be careful what I You.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Know, I'm on the air twenty hours a week, Joe,
I'm not careful what I say. I get away with it,
so trust me, once in a while you can be human.
I'm just saying, okay, okay, hey, Uh, let's get to
your dan first. Uh. Did the hand all of a
sudden rares ugly head Saturday in itself or was this
something that was kind of building the last handful of.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Days, the last have full of games and you know, uh,
he's been trying to play through some of that soreness
in there. And we just thought that the best way
to handle this is just a pause and you know,
a pause and and and just get in to see
our doctors and and give him a few days. But
(01:19):
you know, the last few days he's gotten better, but
we need this to go away. So he's actually seen doctors.
He's afternoon. He flew to Houston late last night, so
we'll get more information once you see the doctors.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
This aft in Houston, is that just you know, look,
everybody as an athlete has ailments, whether it's a knee,
a back, or a neck or whatever. Is there something
with the grip? Is it a glove? Is it the
bad handled? Tell me what is there anything that they
could be possibly aggravating because it's not the first time
he's had his hand situation.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
No, Yeah, and I think.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It's just more you know, once he grips the bat
and he's going to release the barrel through his own
there is you know, there is like a little pain in.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
The side of his hand, which.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It just bothers him, you know, and and once he want,
once you commit to the pitch you've got, you're going
to release the hands and if the pitch any action
late action on the pitch and you want to hold
you swing. That's where he feels it the most. So
it's almost like he's got a pre determined swing the
bat and let go and some of those cows, you know,
(02:31):
CAUs his like bad decisions when he comes to swinging
that back.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Pitches, and we don't want your down to be in between.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We want your downe to be locked in and and
have confidence and you know, swinging the bat whenever he
wants to, and and if he wants to, you know,
out of take and hit with two strikes. He can
do that because he feels like he's one hundred percent
and so we just try to we just try to.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Get him there.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
In a way, this does offer you some flexibility as
far as lineup construction to get other guys at the
d H spot. It was l TV yesterday. Is your
plan going to be to mix it up at that spot?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll have the d H today.
And you know, he gives me an opportunity to play
you know, those the younger the younger outfielders in the
corners with more regularly. Also, you know that's that you know,
provides an opportunity to get guys a few.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
More bats here.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
But yeah, today today DS will be will be a
d H and and you know, hopefully we can, you know,
we can get some of these guys more every more,
you know, more looks and and and you know, hopefully
gets them going.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Joe A spotted with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
I've told you this before, Joe, I am the president
of the Jake Myers fan Club, and the fan club
had a pretty good the fan club had a pretty
good week.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah he did.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And you know he's having he's having he's having some
really good at bats. He's in really good spot swinging,
you know, swinging a really good bad driving the ball.
I've been very as with how hard he's eating the ball.
You know, the quality of bats that have been really
really good. He's putting himself in good hitters counsel. He's
not missing being patient. You know when when your confident
(04:12):
and you could kind of prolong your bat and your
piece selection gets better. And right now he's in a
really good spot and we need to keep him going.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Let's go back to the Sunday rain situation. Now, help
me out it's up to the ball club before the
game starts, and then it's up to the umpires after.
Is that correct how that works out?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yes, that's how it works, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You know, umpires MLB kind of takeover the decision once
the game gets passed, you know, once the game start. Yeah,
we don't really have much of a say on that.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yes, Now, look, you needed your bullpend to be better,
and I get that. Everybody knows that. But they didn't
get any favors. I mean, it was really raining hard.
You could clearly tell the guys who were having a
difficult time gripping the baseball was there. How much can
you kind of not necessarily needle the umpire? But hey, like, hey,
this is not fair to my guys out there.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, I know, and it sucks.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I'm with you, you know, and you know we
I'm over here screaming, you know, when we're going to
get when we're going to put the tarp on, and
and and why why are we allowing these players to
play doing these conditions? You know, why not put the
tarp down and and wait it out a little bit.
But you know, you know, once it starts raining, and
once the umpires have you know, the ball on the
(05:23):
ball is on their side of the court. It's it's
third decision, and it sucks because you know, we still
have two more chances h during that game, so you
know when you hear the decision is something that it
really sucks for for your club.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So helped me out here. I don't even know the answer,
because you guys, look, you busted Milwaukee. They had to
go to Kansas City. How much rain was there after
they eventually put the tarp on there?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Way?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Could you have eventually played or do you think it
was at the end of the day too much rain?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You know, my good question. It rained, It rained, you
know all.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You know, even when we got on the bus, it
rained all the way till we very you know, we
got to Milwaukee, so it rained for for a while.
They told us that, you know, the fourth as was
for two plus hours, and you know by the time
we shower we got out of the area, would continue
to rain and rain.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
It ran, you know, it ran all the way till
we got almost in mewalking.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So you know, we don't at the radar. And I
understand the call even though any not going our favor.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
But yeah, you know, I get it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I understand as well. Hey, last night eight singles, one double,
a little bit of action in the sixth inning. But
and again, this is a team that has Last time
we talked, at least a couple weeks something for you
and me, there were some crooked number innings going up.
And if you were to judge this season so far,
if you were to consistently break down the offense, there
(06:43):
hasn't been enough of that. And look, you cannot predict
these things. They come in bunches. But generally speaking from
a macro's perspective on this, Joe, why haven't we been
able to see the two three inning run innings on
more of a regular basis from your squad?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, so you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I look at it in different ways, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yes, we all want Crookeet numbers, but I started with.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Looking at the quality of the bats, and the quality
of our bats have gotten better. You know, we walking more,
we getting nine ten singles like we Yes, we do
want the extra basets, but I got to look at
it as as a whole, and we are doing things
better than we did early in the season. Now, the
(07:29):
Crookeet numbers happen once she you consistently put those good
at bats together in one inning, that's when you get
the big double. And you know, yesterday in the sixth
inning we were one swing away right from getting back
in the game. But as a whole, I feel good
about the direction that we going individual at bats.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
As a team. Now we gotta be the.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Weekend, we be better with many scoring positions, all that
kind of stuff, of course, but now it's more it's
more that just more controlling your your you know, relaxing
at the play we scoring position, not changing your approach
because now the bats potentially means more. Now you change
your behavior, Now you're trying to do more, and now
(08:14):
you have less of a positive result. That's where we
try to help our players. Listen, you know, same approach,
same same a bat as the previous that by just
because the base of the loaders, just because it's running
a second and third, doesn't mean that you need to
try to do more.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
No, same approach.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Tr hit the ball oft back, you know, back up
the middle.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Try to you know, walk counts also.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You know, that's the message that we we try to
you know, try to get our players to understand to
relax and just let the just let the game come
to you.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Last question, skip Monday. You obviously went with Lance on
Sunday when he walked in the clubhouse on Monday, did
you call text ahead how you feeling? Because man, your
pitch he went eighty seven, which is way more than
I ever thought was going to be a that's got
to be a surprise to you and be what was
it like him in the conversation when you said, how
are you feeling, big right hander?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah. He actually talked to him post game and first
thing in the morning, I texted him and he said.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Joe, I feel great. He came in my office said, Joe,
I feel really good. You know, we wouldn't have let
them be out there for eighty plus pitches.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It wouldn't feel comfortable about, you know, letting him be there.
He he showed no signs of, you know, not being
in a position to do that in between innings.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So he pitched through.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
He pitched through trouble and in the second he had
a quick third and we felt pretty good. You know
that they were following a tone of pitchers off. So
the quality of his pictures were for good. You know,
Puck fell behind in some of the some some right
handed hitters, but the quality of his pictures were good.
I think he's going to be better, uh, his second
time around, So we were. We were really excited and
(09:58):
happy for him since he works. Me still off to
get back to that start in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Great visit as always, man, Thank you very much for
the time, and we'll see you back in tell end
of this week.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Alright, Matt, take care of you guys, all right.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Take Joe spotted with us here on Sports Talk seventy
for our weekly Tuesday visit. Always a good conversation.
So let me get the manager in here. Joe, it's
Matt and Ross. First of all, good afternoon. Secondly, when
you're five minutes late to a segment, we have to
talk about our all time favorite women of all time.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna pose a question at you.
Who is the most gorgeous woman in the world? Not
name your wife right now?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh man, my daughters, my two girls, Vienna and Leanna,
not my wife.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You are such a nice person, seriously.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
A diplomatic managers.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
You've been well trained.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Joe.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, it did a get a hold of you.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And and I don't want I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
You know, gotta be careful what I You.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Know, I'm on the air twenty hours a week, Joe,
I'm not careful what I say. I get away with it,
so trust me, once in a while you can be human.
I'm just saying, okay, okay, hey, Uh, let's get to
your dan first. Uh. Did the hand all of a
sudden rares ugly head Saturday in itself or was this
something that was kind of building the last handful of.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Days, the last have full of games and you know, uh,
he's been trying to play through some of that soreness
in there. And we just thought that the best way
to handle this is just a pause and you know,
a pause and and and just get in to see
our doctors and and give him a few days. But
(01:19):
you know, the last few days he's gotten better, but
we need this to go away. So he's actually seen doctors.
He's afternoon. He flew to Houston late last night, so
we'll get more information once you see the doctors.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
This aft in Houston, is that just you know, look,
everybody as an athlete has ailments, whether it's a knee,
a back, or a neck or whatever. Is there something
with the grip? Is it a glove? Is it the
bad handled? Tell me what is there anything that they
could be possibly aggravating because it's not the first time
he's had his hand situation.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
No, Yeah, and I think.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It's just more you know, once he grips the bat
and he's going to release the barrel through his own
there is you know, there is like a little pain in.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
The side of his hand, which.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It just bothers him, you know, and and once he want,
once you commit to the pitch you've got, you're going
to release the hands and if the pitch any action
late action on the pitch and you want to hold
you swing. That's where he feels it the most. So
it's almost like he's got a pre determined swing the
bat and let go and some of those cows, you know,
(02:31):
CAUs his like bad decisions when he comes to swinging
that back.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Pitches, and we don't want your down to be in between.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We want your downe to be locked in and and
have confidence and you know, swinging the bat whenever he
wants to, and and if he wants to, you know,
out of take and hit with two strikes. He can
do that because he feels like he's one hundred percent
and so we just try to we just try to.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Get him there.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
In a way, this does offer you some flexibility as
far as lineup construction to get other guys at the
d H spot. It was l TV yesterday. Is your
plan going to be to mix it up at that spot?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll have the d H today.
And you know, he gives me an opportunity to play
you know, those the younger the younger outfielders in the
corners with more regularly. Also, you know that's that you know,
provides an opportunity to get guys a few.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
More bats here.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
But yeah, today today DS will be will be a
d H and and you know, hopefully we can, you know,
we can get some of these guys more every more,
you know, more looks and and and you know, hopefully
gets them going.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Joe A spotted with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
I've told you this before, Joe, I am the president
of the Jake Myers fan Club, and the fan club
had a pretty good the fan club had a pretty
good week.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah he did.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And you know he's having he's having he's having some
really good at bats. He's in really good spot swinging,
you know, swinging a really good bad driving the ball.
I've been very as with how hard he's eating the ball.
You know, the quality of bats that have been really
really good. He's putting himself in good hitters counsel. He's
not missing being patient. You know when when your confident
(04:12):
and you could kind of prolong your bat and your
piece selection gets better. And right now he's in a
really good spot and we need to keep him going.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Let's go back to the Sunday rain situation. Now, help
me out it's up to the ball club before the
game starts, and then it's up to the umpires after.
Is that correct how that works out?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yes, that's how it works, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You know, umpires MLB kind of takeover the decision once
the game gets passed, you know, once the game start. Yeah,
we don't really have much of a say on that.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yes, Now, look, you needed your bullpend to be better,
and I get that. Everybody knows that. But they didn't
get any favors. I mean, it was really raining hard.
You could clearly tell the guys who were having a
difficult time gripping the baseball was there. How much can
you kind of not necessarily needle the umpire? But hey, like, hey,
this is not fair to my guys out there.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, I know, and it sucks.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I'm with you, you know, and you know we
I'm over here screaming, you know, when we're going to
get when we're going to put the tarp on, and
and and why why are we allowing these players to
play doing these conditions? You know, why not put the
tarp down and and wait it out a little bit.
But you know, you know, once it starts raining, and
once the umpires have you know, the ball on the
(05:23):
ball is on their side of the court. It's it's
third decision, and it sucks because you know, we still
have two more chances h during that game, so you
know when you hear the decision is something that it
really sucks for for your club.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So helped me out here. I don't even know the answer,
because you guys, look, you busted Milwaukee. They had to
go to Kansas City. How much rain was there after
they eventually put the tarp on there?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Way?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Could you have eventually played or do you think it
was at the end of the day too much rain?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You know, my good question. It rained, It rained, you
know all.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You know, even when we got on the bus, it
rained all the way till we very you know, we
got to Milwaukee, so it rained for for a while.
They told us that, you know, the fourth as was
for two plus hours, and you know by the time
we shower we got out of the area, would continue
to rain and rain.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
It ran, you know, it ran all the way till
we got almost in mewalking.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So you know, we don't at the radar. And I
understand the call even though any not going our favor.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
But yeah, you know, I get it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I understand as well. Hey, last night eight singles, one double,
a little bit of action in the sixth inning. But
and again, this is a team that has Last time
we talked, at least a couple weeks something for you
and me, there were some crooked number innings going up.
And if you were to judge this season so far,
if you were to consistently break down the offense, there
(06:43):
hasn't been enough of that. And look, you cannot predict
these things. They come in bunches. But generally speaking from
a macro's perspective on this, Joe, why haven't we been
able to see the two three inning run innings on
more of a regular basis from your squad?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, so you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I look at it in different ways, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yes, we all want Crookeet numbers, but I started with.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Looking at the quality of the bats, and the quality
of our bats have gotten better. You know, we walking more,
we getting nine ten singles like we Yes, we do
want the extra basets, but I got to look at
it as as a whole, and we are doing things
better than we did early in the season. Now, the
(07:29):
Crookeet numbers happen once she you consistently put those good
at bats together in one inning, that's when you get
the big double. And you know, yesterday in the sixth
inning we were one swing away right from getting back
in the game. But as a whole, I feel good
about the direction that we going individual at bats.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
As a team. Now we gotta be the.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Weekend, we be better with many scoring positions, all that
kind of stuff, of course, but now it's more it's
more that just more controlling your your you know, relaxing
at the play we scoring position, not changing your approach
because now the bats potentially means more. Now you change
your behavior, Now you're trying to do more, and now
(08:14):
you have less of a positive result. That's where we
try to help our players. Listen, you know, same approach,
same same a bat as the previous that by just
because the base of the loaders, just because it's running
a second and third, doesn't mean that you need to
try to do more.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
No, same approach.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Tr hit the ball oft back, you know, back up
the middle.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Try to you know, walk counts also.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You know, that's the message that we we try to
you know, try to get our players to understand to
relax and just let the just let the game come
to you.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Last question, skip Monday. You obviously went with Lance on
Sunday when he walked in the clubhouse on Monday, did
you call text ahead how you feeling? Because man, your
pitch he went eighty seven, which is way more than
I ever thought was going to be a that's got
to be a surprise to you and be what was
it like him in the conversation when you said, how
are you feeling, big right hander?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah. He actually talked to him post game and first
thing in the morning, I texted him and he said.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Joe, I feel great. He came in my office said, Joe,
I feel really good. You know, we wouldn't have let
them be out there for eighty plus pitches.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It wouldn't feel comfortable about, you know, letting him be there.
He he showed no signs of, you know, not being
in a position to do that in between innings.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So he pitched through.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
He pitched through trouble and in the second he had
a quick third and we felt pretty good. You know
that they were following a tone of pitchers off. So
the quality of his pictures were for good. You know,
Puck fell behind in some of the some some right
handed hitters, but the quality of his pictures were good.
I think he's going to be better, uh, his second
time around, So we were. We were really excited and
(09:58):
happy for him since he works. Me still off to
get back to that start in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Great visit as always, man, Thank you very much for
the time, and we'll see you back in tell end
of this week.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Alright, Matt, take care of you guys, all right.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Take Joe spotted with us here on Sports Talk seventy
for our weekly Tuesday visit. Always a good conversation.
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