June 10, 2025 • 9 mins
Joe Espada Joins The Show Talking State Of Team/ Line-up
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In a row.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Hope that you enjoyed that off day yesterday.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
Yes, yes, we did, Yes, we did, you know, especially
after a nice uh road trip, getting a chance here
to relax yesterday and and get usself ready for for
thirteen game stretcher here.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You know, Ross brothers up to me yesterday and we'll
ask you if I gave you know, back when we
were growing now, actually before I was growing up. I
don't want to age myself too bad, skit, but uh,
I just have a couple of scheduled double headers every year.
Would you like to see that to give yourself two
more off days or three more?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Or do you want to just kind of keep as
is right now?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I like the way that we have it right now.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Just because double headers can just cause some fatigue.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's a it's a it's a it's a long day.
You you know, you're asking a lot of your players,
your pitching staff. You know, even right now, you know
we do everything in our power to get games in
when it rained. Yeah, just because of the toll double
heads take on your on your team, on your staff.
(01:03):
Usually takes a couple of days for you to recover
for for eighteen innings. You know, It's not like you're
going to play one nine and one seven or two
seven inning games. No, you play in eighteen innings. That's
that's a long That's that's a long day.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Hey, I was glad you guys got the game in
on Sunday. I know the result wasn't what you wanted,
but you had rain in Pittsburgh. How does a manager
of a baseball team kill three hours and twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, there's a lot of work that, you know that
you can do in those three hours. You know, going
to Cleveland gave me an opportunity just to go and
look over Scott and report and video and kind of
prepare myself for for the Cleveland series. Uh, since we
were going to get there really early hours in the morning,
(01:46):
so you know, I was able to sleep in a
little bit and did most of my work doing that.
Doing that, Raine left and.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
It was a very good road trip.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
You took two out of three from Pittsburgh, two out
of three from Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Did you spend any time watching the end of that
Arizona State game last night?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You know what, I did watch Naylor walk off homer
my off day and try to you know, spend it
entire day, my entire day with the family, devote my
time to the girls. Try to stay away from watching
any ballgames, but you know, but but I do go
and catch some highlights and just catch up to know
what's going on on the league.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Astros manager Joe Spot up with us here.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
We talk a lot about pitching and hitting, and rightfully so,
but the defense has been really great for you guys
lately as well. How much is that a factor for
you when you're kind of figuring things out, putting lineups
together and just kind of figuring out how things fit defensively.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, huge, something that we've done here really good for
the eight years that I've been here. You know, we
pitch and we play defense. I think that's kind of
like corner store in the foundation of our organization. We
have been blessed with some elite hitters and some really
good offenses. But I think what allow us to be
successful and put ourselves in in championship uh position, has
(03:07):
been our defense and and our pitching. So when I
put lineups together or when i'm uh walking through my strategy,
want to make sure that I keep defensive options on
my bench. And also when I'm playing certain when I'm certain,
pitchers are on the mound, trying to have the best
defense behind him to try to prevent as many runs
(03:29):
as you can, or trying to gain as many outs
as we can.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Lance for Colors, Junior on the hill for you today
against the White Sox, back to back quality starts. How
are things been going with him day to day and
and your confidence level hending him today?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
A good Yeah, he's been, he's been, he's been in
a He's in a really good spot in between starts.
I think his work has been really good. Giving him
some extra an extra day has really helped him bounce
back and recover. You know, I think we a doing
these thirteen games. We are going to be tested one
more time our resiliency when he comes to our pitching
(04:06):
and and I think we are. We're in a really
good spot here, trying to be smarter, how we we
line these guys up, trying to get these guys an
extra day here and there, and and hopefully it puts
it in a position to have a nice stretch here
of thirteen in a row.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I know that manage League Baseball dictates you know how
big your roster is when it comes to pitchers and
position players. Would you like a little more flexibility with
that because let's say that you were a manager, Joe,
that even with the off days, you wanted to go
with a six man rotation or even enough guys to
do so. Would you like to be able to have
an extra arm because you are making that sacrifice and
going with a six starter.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You know what, I think I'm open to having a
conversation about having, you know, carrying an extra an extra pitcher.
I think in today's game, how you know, we use
our pitching and how this long stretch of games and
also you know, looking at the injuries on on the
pitch in front, carrying an extra arm, I think it
(05:04):
would help. I think I'd be open to to a
conversation on that extent of things, and how can we
really help our our staff protect him and have a
little bit more of an extra arm that can we
could a lot, we could deploy them and and protect
some of the guys we have since we're asking a
(05:26):
lot of these guys in today's game.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Let's get to the offense a little bit. Uh. It
was late April.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I think you made the decision to go with Jeremy
in the leadoff spot, and your PR staff does a
good job of giving us notes about how he has
been since in that top spot. Looking back at it,
do you go, my goodness, why didn't we think about
this earlier? Or a lot of it is that, you
know what, he handled the responsibility. You gave it to him,
and he's made the most of it.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, And I think I think that's the way I
looked at it. I think he has really embraced the
role and he's done a really good job. I think
Cosey also in the three spot, he's hitting over three hundreds.
I think the move has paid off, having preadit there
in the middle getting on base also, you know, driving
the ball out of the ballpark. I think he's going
to it has been a really good move. And you know,
(06:12):
we you know, we found ourselves in first place, playing
really good baseball, and I feel like our offense still
hasn't really you know, taken any hasn't carried that momentum
that I've seen in the past. And once he gets hot,
I think it's going to be, you know, one that
we are going to ride on for for a while.
But Jeremy Panna has done a fabulous job. The way
(06:35):
he's hitting the ball, the energy that he brings, the
speed on the basis, the hustle, just he's been phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You know, I was mentioning to the audience yesterday about
the intangibles, and look, when you play one sixty two,
you've got to score runs, You got to have good
pitching out a little bit of things. But the two
things that teams tend to forget about that costume division
championships or playoff position skip are defense and bullpen. And
your bullpen has been phenomenal. Your defense has been top
(07:04):
shelf for as many many years. Do you when you're
on the plane coming home, we're closing your eyes going
to better night going.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Man, we have put together.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
A team that hasn't been at its best offensively, but
I've got two parts of my game.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
That have been so solid that it's kept us where
we are.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Right now, correct And you know, and that's very important
for us to protect those our areas of strength while
we work on the areas that need to you know
that we need to get going like our offense, and
our offense has shown you know, strikes where you know,
for example, you know we have nineteen come from behind
wins the only way you do. Guys, you pitch, you
(07:40):
play defense, keeps you in the game. And then here
comes to two out runs, you know, out to out
runs and our resilience offense that we never out of
a ballgain, right, So there is those qualities, there is
those elements of our of our offense that are there.
It's just finding consistency every day where we can not
(08:01):
have to lean on heavily on our bullpen just to
always trying to keep us in the game. And it's
just a matter of time, but it's it's it's important
for me to protect you know, our defense and our
bullpen and our rotation to continue to give us quality
starts for us to continue to you know, put ourselves
in a position to play play deep in October and
(08:21):
the wrap up.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Our conversation, you mentioned the number of runs score with
two outs. I was looking at some stats. I think
you're the only team in the top five and like
in the last two months that have done as much
as you've done with two outs in winning baseball. So
is it coincidental? I mean, is the approach changing or
is a little bit of both?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I think it's both I think we you know, you
never you've got you have to for I always tell
our teams you have to force us to play twenty seven,
Like we're not going to stop playing until the twenty
seven out of the game is it's it's done. You know,
we are going to find ways. It just takes one pitch,
it takes one walk, It takes you're putting the ball
in play and our oponent's making a mistake. We got
(09:02):
to keep you know, pressure on defense, you know, by
stealing a base, by going first to third. That's how
you stay in games. And we have done a really
good job of that, and we can stop doing that.
We have kind of shown a way of that going
to be our style. And my job is just to
make sure that, hey, we are going to be this
(09:24):
type of team for one sixty two. We can't stop
and they've done a really good job responding to that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Skip thanks for the visitors always.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
We'll see the ballpark letter on this afternoon, and good
luck tonight against the White Sox.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Ahie Man, thank you.
In a row.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Hope that you enjoyed that off day yesterday.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
Yes, yes, we did, Yes, we did, you know, especially
after a nice uh road trip, getting a chance here
to relax yesterday and and get usself ready for for
thirteen game stretcher here.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You know, Ross brothers up to me yesterday and we'll
ask you if I gave you know, back when we
were growing now, actually before I was growing up. I
don't want to age myself too bad, skit, but uh,
I just have a couple of scheduled double headers every year.
Would you like to see that to give yourself two
more off days or three more?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Or do you want to just kind of keep as
is right now?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I like the way that we have it right now.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Just because double headers can just cause some fatigue.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's a it's a it's a it's a long day.
You you know, you're asking a lot of your players,
your pitching staff. You know, even right now, you know
we do everything in our power to get games in
when it rained. Yeah, just because of the toll double
heads take on your on your team, on your staff.
(01:03):
Usually takes a couple of days for you to recover
for for eighteen innings. You know, It's not like you're
going to play one nine and one seven or two
seven inning games. No, you play in eighteen innings. That's
that's a long That's that's a long day.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Hey, I was glad you guys got the game in
on Sunday. I know the result wasn't what you wanted,
but you had rain in Pittsburgh. How does a manager
of a baseball team kill three hours and twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, there's a lot of work that, you know that
you can do in those three hours. You know, going
to Cleveland gave me an opportunity just to go and
look over Scott and report and video and kind of
prepare myself for for the Cleveland series. Uh, since we
were going to get there really early hours in the morning,
(01:46):
so you know, I was able to sleep in a
little bit and did most of my work doing that.
Doing that, Raine left and.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
It was a very good road trip.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
You took two out of three from Pittsburgh, two out
of three from Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Did you spend any time watching the end of that
Arizona State game last night?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You know what, I did watch Naylor walk off homer
my off day and try to you know, spend it
entire day, my entire day with the family, devote my
time to the girls. Try to stay away from watching
any ballgames, but you know, but but I do go
and catch some highlights and just catch up to know
what's going on on the league.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Astros manager Joe Spot up with us here.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
We talk a lot about pitching and hitting, and rightfully so,
but the defense has been really great for you guys
lately as well. How much is that a factor for
you when you're kind of figuring things out, putting lineups
together and just kind of figuring out how things fit defensively.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, huge, something that we've done here really good for
the eight years that I've been here. You know, we
pitch and we play defense. I think that's kind of
like corner store in the foundation of our organization. We
have been blessed with some elite hitters and some really
good offenses. But I think what allow us to be
successful and put ourselves in in championship uh position, has
(03:07):
been our defense and and our pitching. So when I
put lineups together or when i'm uh walking through my strategy,
want to make sure that I keep defensive options on
my bench. And also when I'm playing certain when I'm certain,
pitchers are on the mound, trying to have the best
defense behind him to try to prevent as many runs
(03:29):
as you can, or trying to gain as many outs
as we can.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Lance for Colors, Junior on the hill for you today
against the White Sox, back to back quality starts. How
are things been going with him day to day and
and your confidence level hending him today?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
A good Yeah, he's been, he's been, he's been in
a He's in a really good spot in between starts.
I think his work has been really good. Giving him
some extra an extra day has really helped him bounce
back and recover. You know, I think we a doing
these thirteen games. We are going to be tested one
more time our resiliency when he comes to our pitching
(04:06):
and and I think we are. We're in a really
good spot here, trying to be smarter, how we we
line these guys up, trying to get these guys an
extra day here and there, and and hopefully it puts
it in a position to have a nice stretch here
of thirteen in a row.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I know that manage League Baseball dictates you know how
big your roster is when it comes to pitchers and
position players. Would you like a little more flexibility with
that because let's say that you were a manager, Joe,
that even with the off days, you wanted to go
with a six man rotation or even enough guys to
do so. Would you like to be able to have
an extra arm because you are making that sacrifice and
going with a six starter.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You know what, I think I'm open to having a
conversation about having, you know, carrying an extra an extra pitcher.
I think in today's game, how you know, we use
our pitching and how this long stretch of games and
also you know, looking at the injuries on on the
pitch in front, carrying an extra arm, I think it
(05:04):
would help. I think I'd be open to to a
conversation on that extent of things, and how can we
really help our our staff protect him and have a
little bit more of an extra arm that can we
could a lot, we could deploy them and and protect
some of the guys we have since we're asking a
(05:26):
lot of these guys in today's game.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Let's get to the offense a little bit. Uh. It
was late April.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I think you made the decision to go with Jeremy
in the leadoff spot, and your PR staff does a
good job of giving us notes about how he has
been since in that top spot. Looking back at it,
do you go, my goodness, why didn't we think about
this earlier? Or a lot of it is that, you
know what, he handled the responsibility. You gave it to him,
and he's made the most of it.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, And I think I think that's the way I
looked at it. I think he has really embraced the
role and he's done a really good job. I think
Cosey also in the three spot, he's hitting over three hundreds.
I think the move has paid off, having preadit there
in the middle getting on base also, you know, driving
the ball out of the ballpark. I think he's going
to it has been a really good move. And you know,
(06:12):
we you know, we found ourselves in first place, playing
really good baseball, and I feel like our offense still
hasn't really you know, taken any hasn't carried that momentum
that I've seen in the past. And once he gets hot,
I think it's going to be, you know, one that
we are going to ride on for for a while.
But Jeremy Panna has done a fabulous job. The way
(06:35):
he's hitting the ball, the energy that he brings, the
speed on the basis, the hustle, just he's been phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You know, I was mentioning to the audience yesterday about
the intangibles, and look, when you play one sixty two,
you've got to score runs, You got to have good
pitching out a little bit of things. But the two
things that teams tend to forget about that costume division
championships or playoff position skip are defense and bullpen. And
your bullpen has been phenomenal. Your defense has been top
(07:04):
shelf for as many many years. Do you when you're
on the plane coming home, we're closing your eyes going
to better night going.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Man, we have put together.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
A team that hasn't been at its best offensively, but
I've got two parts of my game.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
That have been so solid that it's kept us where
we are.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Right now, correct And you know, and that's very important
for us to protect those our areas of strength while
we work on the areas that need to you know
that we need to get going like our offense, and
our offense has shown you know, strikes where you know,
for example, you know we have nineteen come from behind
wins the only way you do. Guys, you pitch, you
(07:40):
play defense, keeps you in the game. And then here
comes to two out runs, you know, out to out
runs and our resilience offense that we never out of
a ballgain, right, So there is those qualities, there is
those elements of our of our offense that are there.
It's just finding consistency every day where we can not
(08:01):
have to lean on heavily on our bullpen just to
always trying to keep us in the game. And it's
just a matter of time, but it's it's it's important
for me to protect you know, our defense and our
bullpen and our rotation to continue to give us quality
starts for us to continue to you know, put ourselves
in a position to play play deep in October and
(08:21):
the wrap up.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Our conversation, you mentioned the number of runs score with
two outs. I was looking at some stats. I think
you're the only team in the top five and like
in the last two months that have done as much
as you've done with two outs in winning baseball. So
is it coincidental? I mean, is the approach changing or
is a little bit of both?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I think it's both I think we you know, you
never you've got you have to for I always tell
our teams you have to force us to play twenty seven,
Like we're not going to stop playing until the twenty
seven out of the game is it's it's done. You know,
we are going to find ways. It just takes one pitch,
it takes one walk, It takes you're putting the ball
in play and our oponent's making a mistake. We got
(09:02):
to keep you know, pressure on defense, you know, by
stealing a base, by going first to third. That's how
you stay in games. And we have done a really
good job of that, and we can stop doing that.
We have kind of shown a way of that going
to be our style. And my job is just to
make sure that, hey, we are going to be this
(09:24):
type of team for one sixty two. We can't stop
and they've done a really good job responding to that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Skip thanks for the visitors always.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
We'll see the ballpark letter on this afternoon, and good
luck tonight against the White Sox.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Ahie Man, thank you.
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