Steve Sparks Evaluates Astros Fluctuation

Taking on the World Series champs over the weekend, the Astros kick off with a slow start to the beginning of the season falling to an early record of 3-7. Trying to even the series 2-2 later today, Steve Sparks assesses what's been shown production wise and what to look for moving forward.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
J T. Barrel's his way tothe basket. I'm the windowing in?
Hey is Jay Shawnte Back to theShawn Salisbury Show on Sports Talk seven ninety,
Black Ship Station of your Rockets.Welcome back to the Shawan Salisbury Show.

(00:21):
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety SeanBrian Tripley here with you this morning.
As we do every single Monday duringAstros baseball season, we welcome in
Astros broadcaster Steve Sparks. Yeah,we do in Arlington as they finish up
the hoping to even the series tonightagainst the Texas Rangers. Steve joins us
he does every Monday at this time, Steve, welcome in. I'm telling

(00:42):
you, I know, maybe thisis overly emotional, but I'm proud of
what Renelle Blanco's doing. And it'snot just proud because the story right now,
the guy's pitching his ass off.What are you seeing from him?
You know, guy throws a nono. I'm always wondering how a player
who's had eight starts and now ninestarts, we'll come back and back up
the no hitter with his next appearance, and we saw last night. You

(01:03):
got to love what you're seeing fromhim. Steve, tell us what you're
seeing from your expert I that wemay not even be seeing. Well,
I don't have an expert I.And the reason I say that is is
because I would ask some of theanalyst guys from time to time, even
in spring training. This year,I said, what makes Blanco's slider so
effective? I just don't see it, you know, I see a decent

(01:23):
slider, but nothing, nothing absurd. And that was, you know,
predicated on what I saw last yearas a two pitch pitcher. Basically he
was fastball slider. So how's hegetting guys out with that pitch? And
they said it tunnels almost perfectly,like better than anybody that they have on
their staff. Is it looks justlike his fastball coming out and it takes

(01:45):
a left turn. So I said, okay, I buy that. Now
I watch this change up where he'sramped the volume on the change up,
and I see the same thing.Not only that, I see the great
tunneling with this change up, butit does two different things. And I'm
not even sure if Ronelle knows whenit's going to do one or the other.
But he's got one that parachutes inthere kind of hovers and stays right

(02:07):
where it is, which is alittle mind boggling because usually when something is
a little slower, it doesn't itdoesn't hold its height right. And the
other one that just falls, it'sjust it just dips. So it's pretty
it's pretty unique. But what you'reseeing right now, somebody confident as fastball
command and velocity is just enough tokeep him off bounced. Hey, listen

(02:30):
to this. This is good.Andrew Bailey, the pitching coach for Boston,
I heard say something recently, andthis is, you know, predicated
on what we're seeing with pitchers thesedays. But he says he likes to
think about fastballs as jabs if you'rethinking about boxers, and it used to
be totally different, but he seesit as jabs. Fastball is a knockout
punch, right, Steve, fastballused to knockout punch right right now.

(02:53):
It's jabs and the and the secondarystuff are the uppercuts in the knockout that
the knockout punches. It's phenomenal.Steve Sparks joins with Steve with Blanco.
Is is it sustainable what we're seeinghere? The confidence has a lot to
do with it, But so doesa command Can he sustain this for a
guy who's thirty that we haven't seenthis, but yet we're only nine starts

(03:15):
in. Tell me how what it'sgoing to look like six weeks, eight
weeks, three months from now.You know what, Sean. The beauty
of signing those guys when they wereolder, and we're talking about Javier or
Katy farmber Valdez, Brian Abray,you Ronel Blanco at a later stage is
that you have those guys in theprime of their careers. Usually for a

(03:36):
guy like Blanco who took a littlewhile to get to the big leagues,
by the time they're thirty, they'reon their third team. By then,
they've become minor league free agents,you know, and there you know,
they started when they were sixteen,and you know, they get to thirty
years old and they're in their prime. You're going, man, I wish
we still had that guy, butyou know, you have him for four
more years potentially, and it looksgreat. You know, he's thirty years

(03:57):
old, he's big, say withFromber, I mean I think almost thirty
one years old, and you're stillseeing him in his prime and he's not
making an absurd amount of money yet, so that was one of the beauties
assigning those guys at at a laterage. So is it sustainable this at
this rate? It's not, ButI mean, everything looks good, everything

(04:20):
looks real when you look at thehitters' reactions, and we're talking about a
Rangers team that can really bang right, who had enough time to look at
a lot of film and realize thatthere may have been some patterns or two.
And I'm talking about pitching backwards doingthat change up when he was behind
the count and they still weren't ableto hit it. So I think that
says a lot. Steve Sparks joinedus for his weekly visit, Very Astro's

(04:43):
broadcaster every Monday at eight thirty.All right, Steve vern Lander makes his
started Sugarland. Let's say he getsanother one. When Dana Brown was on
with us last Wednesday, he said, two starts possible probably, and if
there's a third, fine, Butlet's whether it's a second the third start
or not. If his third startson the MA major league level and everything
goes healthwise, what do you do? What do you do to start?

(05:03):
Steve? Will it be instant sixman rotation? If it's not who's going
to the bullpen? Well, justsee what what you know, you still
have a couple of weeks to determinethat and see who probably fits better in
the bullpen. Here here's what Ithink right now is more than anything,

(05:24):
you want as many starts as youcan get out of Verlander, fromber and
Christian Javier. So I think afive man rotation early in the season makes
a lot of sense. I thinkin the second half of the season,
or when you get into a situationwhere you're playing a million games in a
row, I think that six manhelps gets guys a breather. But I

(05:44):
think right now, you know you'vegiven Berlander a breather to start the season.
He gets a late start, sohe's more fresh, yep, and
you want him pitching as often aspossible. In my opinion, I mean,
that's he's your guy, log theinnings early and in case you got
to save him for late, rightSteve basically as just a little later on,
you know, especially with Garcia comingback, he looks like he's ahead
of schedule. You know, you'recrossing your fingers on some of these guys

(06:06):
coming back. But right now,I would go with my guys and try
to get them to start as manygames as possible. All right, Steve,
I got about eight million Twitter peoplethat are Astro friends and listen to
the show. Would love listening toyou weekly. Be our psychologists. We've
walked in. You stick us onthe couch, talk us through first base?
What do we do? And Iknow ten games in, but they

(06:29):
want to know, so we needyour insight and how we handle first base
from starting today? Well you have, you have some options. Here's my
option. I I'm not an expert. One of my options is to play
jan Or Diaz there a little moreoften, you know, to get him
over there and get him on hiscatching games. Yep, yeah, you

(06:55):
know, and just maybe even togive his legs a little break. He
hasn't caught, you know, thismuch. And the reason why I say
that Sean and I'm not knocking himand I love him, but the last
couple of days he hasn't been slidingover in blocking balls, and I'm thinking,
is he tired? You know?And so I'm just you know,
it's just something that floats through mymind. I'm thinking, all right,

(07:15):
if yer Yander plays a little firstbase, you can save him. You
know, because what's most important aboutYander Diaz is the way he swings the
bat, So I want him asfresh as as possible. So there's an
option. You know what, Brayyou I mean, I'm sure you guys
have talked at nauseum about how hestarted slow last year, right, and

(07:39):
things picked up and it looks likelate on fastball. And you always ask
yourself when a guy's thirty seven yearsold, he is he done? You
know? But Payinya was late onfastballs last year and he's made an adjustment.
You just don't know if a guy'sold yet or not. You just
don't know if it's done. Andthat was the problem we were having with
Guryel too. The father time.Thanks right, the father time. That

(08:01):
it's everybody right. It looks slow, yeah, there's no doubt about that.
But I'll tell you what, whenhe got to the playoffs and they
had a lot of off days inthe playoffs, he looked pretty fresh and
a bat looked quicker. So that'swhat I'm saying right now, and I'm
not sure I have the answer forit. It's tough decisions, especially for
a manager that's trying to get offto a good start here. But I'm

(08:26):
not making those decisions and I'm justI'm just relaying one thought that I had,
yep a day or two ago,and that's maybe Janer Diaz over there
from time to time, great pointand fresh bat and I yeah, better
Joe a spotted than me. Brother. I don't want to make those decisions
either. Yeah, that's hard.Yeah, let me get to the other
corner infielder is this is who heis in the beginning of the season,

(08:48):
made a great play on the shorthop to turn the double play. You
know what you get from Bregman andwe always just assume that he's going to
pick it up. And let meask you one more layer to it,
because this year may be a littledifferent. Steve always talk about guys and
contract years. I don't know theanswer to this, but a contract here
where there's a lot of money hangingon, some guys have their best year
on the planet and go get paid. And I'm expecting that from Bregman.

(09:11):
But is there, Steve, inyour travels and seeing this, could there
be the reverse part of it whereyou're pressing too hard? Do you want
to be a great player and youknow you're a slow starter, that that
could this exist longer this year becauseof the money that's staring there, that
dangling carrot. Does that possibility existat all? Or is that just?
Is that just talk? Well?I think it does for a lot of

(09:35):
players, and I think it's avery valid remark that for Bregman, in
my mind, his superpower is hisbelief in himself. Right, you know
that never waivers doesn't Steve does thatever? Wavers confident guy I've ever been
around that's that's played baseball, youknow, and it's not fake. He

(09:58):
he thinks he's going to hit fourhundred, you know, he really does.
He's a different cat. So Idon't think he's putting more pressure on
himself. I think he puts enoughpressure on himself to get better every day.
He wants to win. And youknow, I'm not so sure,
and he would never make excuses.I'm not so sure that that that Landrs

(10:22):
Crawford boxes that Minta May Park mightget him to open up a little bit
from time to time because it's soinviting for a right handed hitter. I
don't know where the shoulder flies outa little bit, Steve. You get
a pop up type of thing whenwhen he's trying to off you. You're
in and out of the zone alittle quicker with that shoulder flinch, you
know, I see it every oncein a while. You know, you're

(10:43):
thinking you take a shot and getan opportunity and batting forth too. I
mean that's a different animal. Uh, Rather than setting the table for rd
On and Tucker, you got achance to drive some guys in. So
maybe swinging a little more often.Maybe, I don't know. You know,
there's just some things that you startto kind of put together. But
I always go back to his superpowerbeing his supreme confidence. Hell of a

(11:07):
point, Steve, let me getthis real quick before I let you go,
is give me your right now.If we're supposed to be concerned ten
games in, which we mean concerns, okay, disappointment, panic, no,
right now, so far what you'veseen with your eye, what's the
biggest concern about this team ten gamesin. Well, it's the same as

(11:28):
what I told you three days beforethe season started, and it's it's the
other side of the bullpen, rightyou know, it's making sure that you
don't have to use your leverage guyswhen they're not supposed to be pitching so
they can remain fresh. And it'sjust getting yourself in games where you can,
you know, if the starting pitcherdoesn't go real deep, you know
you can you can cover some inningsand pitch well. And here's the other

(11:50):
thing about that. Three guys theylost Hector Nerris, Ryan Stanek and film
Ayton. We're basically the Astros lefties. The last couple of years they were
really good at reverse splits. Theygot lefties out and they're not on the
team anymore. And what are leftHe's doing against the Astros bullpen So far
this year they're hitting three point fifty. So you've gotta have to find at

(12:13):
least one person to go in thereand get a tough lefty ad or two,
especially when the Rangers are running sixof them out there in their lineup
the game. So on the reverseof that, not take Renelle Blanco out
of this. What's your whether it'sa grouping or a guy, what's your
biggest? Uh? Your biggest makesyou the most giddy? So far?

(12:35):
Ten games in jave Air is tooobvious. I'm gonna I'm just gonna go
with Frombur And I told you evenafter he walked six that first game that
he didn't walk, didn't walk awhiffle ball. Ye, the whiffle ball
he's featuring again. So uh,it just feels like his release point and

(12:56):
getting inside the ball for that twoseamer his back and I'm really excited about
that. He's the he's the guy, uh that we saw the first two
months of last season. He wasan All Star of the last two years.
He's back to being him. Sopretty excited about that. I'm the
most giddy about Fromber's chances of havinga great season. Yeah, be a
workhorse at the front, and hecan't pitch like an ace is supposed to

(13:18):
pitch. After that first starts,Stephen, You're right, and when you
don't put anybody on, he alwayshas a chance. Great stuff, man,
enjoy it. Hopefully get this onetonight and keep it moving and you'll
have another great performance. Always appreciateyour fantastic inside brother, some real good
stuff to look at, and weare going to talk about this first base
situation with Yaner Diaz makes a lotof sense. We appreciate you, brother,

(13:39):
and we'll talk to you next week. Don't don't put my name how
many you know what I'll do.Steve here's what I'll do. I'm going
to take credit for it. Fairenough. How's that should be playing first
to get fresher legs? How's that? There you go, you're the idiot,
that's all. What hey? Thatwould be the first time it's ever
been mentioned. There you go,brother, I appreciate you man. Thanks

(14:01):
Steve. That's great, Steve Sparks. We'll come back and discuss. I
make a great point about putting theheder dias at first base. Steve has
a be catcher, one hundred andsixty two of them. Rave, that's
where we're going. Sports Talk sevenDiety shot Salisbury Show