Steve Sparks On The Astros Victory Weekend And Possible Lineup Changes

Wrapping up another superb weekend the Astros pull the series victory with a 2-1 final standing over the Brewers. With things turning around, Steve joins in discussion of the Astros marvelous weekend, along with a few things to note as a couple of the starters beginning to inch at their return back.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We're back for the Sewn Salisbury Showcontinued. Welcome back to the Sewan Salisbury
Show here on Sports Talk seven ninetySean Salisbury, Brian Lima, Emmanuel Elmore.
It's that time of the week.Every Monday morning at eight thirty we
welcome in Astros broadcaster Steve Sparks.Yeah, it's regular eight thirty visit.

(00:23):
Great to have him on. Angelsseries starts tonight. Steve on the call
and we get him on for ourregular Monday visit. Steve. First off,
who is the biggest surprise on theAstros team through forty plus games this
year? Biggest surprise go Jake Myers. Amen yep, agreed. That's what

(00:44):
we said this morning. Nine opswho had that on the Bengo Right,
Jay, when Chaz comes back toSteve, you've been in sports your whole
life. I'm under the impression Ialways have been, that you can lose
your job or you know, somebodycomes in the gloves on the mountain.
And Chaz is a good player,but you got to come back and earn
the gig. And I don't seehow with the way he's playing. Had

(01:07):
a little power running the bases andhitting over three hundred two Steve that Jake
Myers threw all the you know peopleyou know, wondering if he should be
starting every day. He has steppedup with this opportunity and has created an
incredible competition situation. So the surprisehas been a pleasant watch, don't you
think? Well, it has,and he's the center fielder for right now.
Ye Jaz McCormick's going to come inand have to fight for playing time

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with maybe one or two guys.But right now, Jake Myers, you
run out there every single day ofthe season, not only for what he's
doing offensively. I mean, nobodycan expect him to stay on this type
of tear. But there was aball last week, I think it was
on the road against the Yankees,and he ran a ball down and right
center field, and somebody with theanalytics team told me that that ball was

(01:55):
the toughest out of the entire dayin Major League Baseball. And he made
it look routine. You know,he didn't leave his feet anything, He
just got under it. He ranit down to the warning track and right
center field of the Yankee stadium,which gives you a little idea of what
kind of ground he can cover too, Steve, what do you do?
And I'm going to get to abray you in the first base position,

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specifically in him in a second.But what do you do McCormick when he's
ready to come up? When yougot you know, the low perffedos,
you've got the you know, thecabbages. He sounds like I'm talking some
vegetables right now. But and whenwhen a braid comes back, how do
you usually do? Yeah? Howdo you yes? Wait, wait till

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I get to all of them?How do you manage that? Steve?
If you're the GM and the managerof who you send down, you know,
I think the way you're going tohave to juggle all of this is
a little bit of a platoon.And I think if you look at what's
going on in the past, ChasMcCormick was always great. I mean,

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he feasted against left handed pitchers andif he gets the stroke back. So
he started working things on things Seanthis spring, realizing that teams are going
to start pitching him inside a lotbecause he was wearing guys out with opposite
field power, home runs, oppositefield hits, because he's so good at
you know, kind of diving acrossthe plate and just extending his arms and

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hitting the ball hard the other way. So he knew he was going to
have to make an adjustment, sohe started working on pulling just about everything
and spring training and this stroke lookeda little different. You know, he'd
get some hits and every once ina while he'd run into one, but
it just didn't look natural, youknow, for what he was really good
at. So I think probably inhis rehab, I'm guessing that he's trying

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to work on getting that stroke backthat he was so good at, going
to the officsite field gap and justprobably take some pitches that are inside.
That's the thing for everybody is everybodyhas a weakness, Sean yep. And
if you can lay off those pitchesuntil you get too strong, right,
that's almost that's the key to thiswhole gig. So I'd love to see
him get back to that safe strokeand then you can match him up,

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you know, you get ord Onto play left field on some of the
days that maybe Fromber's pitching and thingslike that, and uh, but I
like McCormick and left, Jake Myersand center and of course Kyle Kyle Tucker
at right field. Yeah, Steve, what do you do like in a
McCormick's case, you talk about divingover the plate and that great arm extension
opposite field, that he can getthe stuff on the outer half and even

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on the black or even outside thathe with that closed stance you talk about
being able to pull through this rehab. Is he gonna have to change that
to open a little or I mean, how do you get to those when
they're busting you inside when you area right center power guy? Gather That's
that's his place to go with baseball. You know, he said something interesting
last year toward the end because Iwas asking him about that. You know,

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we can see what guys are tryingto do to him right and he
plays really close attention to what AlTube does and Al two bay. What
he does is well as anybody is. He really just gets the bat head
out. You know, he'll justreact and if he sees a pitch inside,
then he'll just get the bat hatout and just react and let his
hands take over. And McCormick hasfast and to begin with. But you

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know, your your thought process shouldalways play to your strengths, and I
think that's what he does. Thebest is go the other way, keep
that front shoulder closed. But ifhe recognizes something inside, he can still
use his hands and get the bathead out and pull the ball with authority
and hit one end of the corneror something like that. But I'd love
for him to get to get backto his straights. There you go.

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Steve Sparks, Astro's broadcaster every Mondayat eight thirty joins us good home stand
so far three more games against theseangels and the gap is now four games,
so it's a good start. Steve, and I personally don't care who
the competition. I know the competitiongets better, but you got a birdie
the par five, Steve, andthese you know when you play Oakley,

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you got a birdie the par five, So you want to win a tournament.
These are the ones they have totake care of their business than they
have, which tells me they're notplaying down to competition. Even though Oakland
had a good record going in,they have started to elevate key I mean
getting hits and key positions. Thebullpen is doing their thing. Power was
all over the ballpark this weekend inextra base hits. This is how you
have to beat teams. You're supposedto beat, Steve, correct, that's

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right, and you said it lastweek too. You know, you've got
to take care of business. Theschedule got lighter, and the Astros have
certainly done that. But I justlike the approach and the execution. You
look at Eric Getty starting to throwsome pitches on the lower rail, so
that makes them respect you know thatupper rail more so, and everything looks
a lot better. So execution.Having a good game plan with runners and

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scoring position is evident. And guysare clicking right now. They're more patient
at the play We saw them chasinga lot of pitches out of the strike
zone when they were struggling. Sowhat they're doing right now is what they've
been doing the last few years whenthey've made deep runs into the playoffs.
And you'd love to see if theyknow what the winning for is. They
just got to stick to it.Hey, Steve, is there any is?

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And I obviously we don't make thisdecision, but you're around it all
the time, and you know expertiseon these pitchers. Is Raghetti here to
stay? I don't know, youknow, there's guys coming back. There's
three guys right that are on theIL right now with Urkidi, Luis Garcia
and Lance mc kohlers. So whoknows. But he keeps getting better every

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game. You know. Joe Spothas said it even before the game yesterday,
is like, I'd like to seeguys get better, especially young guys.
What can they take into this nextgame and get better each time out?
Even with the other teams getting alittle bit of a book on Raghetty,
he continues to get better, andthat's a good sign his stuff plays
at the major league level. He'sjust got I mean, he's not gonna

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he's not going to command the baseball, and I said that on the broadcast
yesterday. It's just he's not acommand guy. He's more of a stuff
guy. But he's got to beable to show some stuff lower in the
strike zone. It's just the oppositeof those guys who were pitching a low
back in the day. And you'vegot to change the eye levels from time
to time. Same thing with Araghetty. He likes to live high at the

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high end of the strike zone.He's got to show him that he can
pitch to the lower portion every oncein a while, or else they're just
going to wait for the stakes upin the zone, and the ones that
are up in the zone, youknow, when you make mistakes, those
are easy to launch. You know, that's a lot of extra base hits.
So even more so for him,the change up and the curve ball
are going to be big for him, Steve, when we go to first

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base, and we talked a littlebit about Singleton last year, it's been
a not a full season sample size, but the returns on the sample size
gets bigger every game. And thetalk of a Bray you at least possibly
getting back sooner, you know,than later, and how much minor league
time he'll spend. All those questionsthat come up, I'll ask you simply
this, as John Singleton earned thestarting first base job, I don't think

(08:56):
so. Why. I think he'sdoing a very good job. Why would
would you if a Brady comes back, does he automatically get penciled back in
as the starter? Well, Imean, if you listen to what Dana
said yesterday, I mean it's asituation where it might be a platoon,
right. I think I think Joe'sdone a good job and it's been really
subtle, but he's making sure thatguys are getting in there in good matchups.

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Same thing goes for low Prpito.If you want to be honest,
you know, there's certain there's holesin people's swings, and there's certain pitchers
that don't match up well with guys, and when you put them in there
against guys where they can do well, you don't ever see those holes.
I think there's a platoon to behad at first base. Singleton has done

(09:39):
a very good job, especially youknow with defense too. I mean to
playing good Yeah, to playing gooddefense, dude, the more that you're
out there, So, I don'tknow. Look, Brady didn't play well
when he got up here. Hewent down to Florida for a reason,
you know, and when he comesback in is it going to disrupt what

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the team's done. They've gone elevenand six without him, they played a
light schedule. Hey, you gotto look at this. At some point
you got to make sure that uh, what he had he had twenty eight
RBIs the last month of last seasongood postseason two, Steve, Yeah,
he had a good post. Idon't know. You know, it's a
tough situation for everybody involved, Butat some point they're gonna have to plug

(10:24):
him back in there and figure outwhat you have. So I think a
platoon makes a lot of sense.I think everybody understands that a bray you
might match up better against certain pictures. Same thing with singleton. And if
you can run a platoon out thereand get closer to an eight hundred ops
out of the first base position,I think you'd love that, wouldn't you.
I mean that, Yeah, thecombine to get to that's that's a

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position. You need some you needsome production, you need RBIs and and
that's what they're looking for. Idid. At some point, they're going
to give a break you a chanceto prove that. Going to Florida arked
right, that's what I mean toSteve. They're gonna get a chance.
Yes, yeah, they have tofair enough. Yeah, so but you
know, same time, they're tryingto get back into the division the race.

(11:09):
I understand all that. Maybe alittle frustration, but they have to
they have to see what they have. And uh, sounds like that he's
made some adjustments and maybe a littlebit more on time get into some fastball.
So he's a run producer. Yeah, he's done it, So we'll
see if it's still in there.Yeah, if the experiment got his bat
speed up and he's ready to comeback and he's notorious his whole career.

(11:31):
Yeah, that's that's what it may. That's right, and it and it's
you. When it's that quick,we'll see he's a pro. So well,
but that's the whole thing, Steve. They're gonna have to least experiment,
right, They're going to have toand see what happens with the RAYU.
All right, let me close thisout. I don't know how many
different adjectives or ways we can describeKyle Tucker. Is he playing the best
baseball you've seen him? Players?There still another level, there's probably another

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level. He's twenty seven years oldthat this is the best I've seen.
And the extra base hits are justexploding off his bat every time he puts
the bat on the ball, anda great trajectory you almost think it's going
to leave the ballpark every time hemakes contact, the way he's swinging it
right now. He got painted upa couple of times yesterday with some backdoor

(12:16):
breaking balls, and he comes backwith two homers later. It was just
he's pretty ridiculous for you, youknow, and as a ballplayer, I
love the body type, and hejust seems like a guy that's always going
to be durable. He posts justabout every day that you need him to,
and he hits good pitching. AndI've told this to you many times,
and you guys certainly understand this,that there's not but a handful of

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guys that hit really good pitching overand over and over, and Kyle Tucker
is certainly one of those. Youcan run a guy in there that's one
of the best pitchers in baseball,and he's going to give him a good
battle and a lot of times he'sgonna win. Yeah, And Steve the
Wright makeup to deal with success andfailure, it seems, I mean,
because it doesn't change. Is thatflatline part of it? He just he

(13:01):
just kind of deals with both equallyas well, and that's a good thing.
And dealing with success is something aboutbeing a younger brother, something about
being a younger brother that I keepgoing back to that you're just a little
bit tougher, You're a little bitmore resilient than the other guys because you've
been ticked on your whole life.Great point, enjoy the game the night
brother. It's great to have youback and great to have you on every
Monday. We appreciate you. Thanks, all right, that's a great Steve

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Sparks. We'll discuss at Kyle Tuckerand I do like the mental and Steve's
right durable and the mental and themental makeup to deal with success and failure
is equally as good. And that'simportant when you're trying to be well,
one of the better players in baseball, which he is. Sports Talk seven ninety