Speaker 1: But we're talking Astros with our good buddy Steve Sparks
Speaker 1: right now, who joins us every single week right here
Speaker 1: at this time on the show, and Sparky, me and
Speaker 1: Gordy you have talked about a ton this morning. You
Speaker 1: give up thirteen runs on Thursday, you give up only
Speaker 1: one run on Friday, and when then you give up
Speaker 1: sixteen on Saturday and no runs yesterday and you win
Speaker 1: that one too. Have you ever seen a weirder series
Speaker 1: in all of your playing years, broadcasting years, whatever it
Speaker 1: might have been.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think any Astros fan has seen that.
Speaker 2: I had one of the media relations guys look it
Speaker 2: up yesterday and minus won twenty one run differential in
Speaker 2: a four game series has never taken pace a place
Speaker 2: in Astros franchise history. The record was minus thirteen. So
Speaker 2: by eight runs the Astros scored less runs or got
Speaker 2: beat up by less runs in this four game set
Speaker 2: and came away winners in two of them.
Speaker 3: That was pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: No, no, for sure, But I mean, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: Thursday and Saturday not so great for the bullpen. Any
Speaker 1: level of concern with you, like, do you feel like
Speaker 1: that the innings are starting to rack up for those
Speaker 1: guys or do you just feel like it was a
Speaker 1: bad series.
Speaker 2: I don't think the innings are really racking that day,
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, sometimes guys have bad games.
Speaker 3: Is there a level of concern.
Speaker 2: There's always a level of concern when a guy does
Speaker 2: it in back to back games. Brian King bounced back
Speaker 2: yesterday from a tough one that he had a couple
Speaker 2: of days before.
Speaker 3: But when a guy has a couple maybe three.
Speaker 2: Just from past experience, just knowing that what that feels like. Man,
Speaker 2: you get in a rut at a pitcher sometimes it's tough.
Speaker 3: To climb out of it, so you do get concerned.
Speaker 2: You're looking for ways and times to get them in
Speaker 2: that game so you know they can.
Speaker 3: Clear that hurdle like King did yesterday.
Speaker 2: But you know, sometimes you're not playing in lopsided games,
Speaker 2: so you can't get them in there for a ten days,
Speaker 2: and then that problem gets worse and worse.
Speaker 3: Because they get rusty as well. So, man, it's such
Speaker 3: a mind game.
Speaker 2: It's such a tough game when you don't have full
Speaker 2: confidence to go out there and pitch it your best ability.
Speaker 2: So we'll see, you know, if guys get an opportunity
Speaker 2: to get in there and get on a little bit
Speaker 2: of a role.
Speaker 3: We know what can happen against.
Speaker 1: Steve Sparks joined us here on the Seawan Salisbury Show
Speaker 1: for his weekly visits and Sparky. I mean, we talked
Speaker 1: about the two bad games in this series, but the
Speaker 1: two really good ones were because of your starters. Friday
Speaker 1: Night Fromber Valdez, he was awesome. Yesterday seam deal with
Speaker 1: Hunter Brown just unable to go nine innings like Fromber
Speaker 1: did on Friday Night. But I mean, you know that
Speaker 1: Friday game, I mean that had to be one again
Speaker 1: that kind of feeds into this series just being so
Speaker 1: weird of not only how good Fromber was, but how
Speaker 1: quickly he.
Speaker 2: Worked eighty three pitches, so that tied of Astros franchise
Speaker 2: record at nine inning.
Speaker 3: Game Fromber and Hunter Brown are legitimately.
Speaker 2: They're two aces, So they have two aces and they're
Speaker 2: spread apart in their rotation right now, which is beautiful.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Not to have them back to back allows you to
Speaker 2: kind of catch your breath with the bullpen guys, and
Speaker 2: for Joe a spot of being able to like kind
Speaker 2: of put the gas pedal on one of those guys
Speaker 2: in a particular outing to get a little deeper into
Speaker 2: these games is great for what they need right now now, Lance.
Speaker 3: The way he's pitched the last couple of games looks like.
Speaker 2: They've legitimately got three guys who can go out there
Speaker 2: and really pounce on some people fromer I think he
Speaker 2: had in the era below two. In May, he was
Speaker 2: perfect four to zero in his five games. I just
Speaker 2: can't say enough about him. We know that you know
Speaker 2: that things have gone sour every once in a while,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe at inopportune times. But then when you
Speaker 2: look at the total body of work for Farmer Valdez,
Speaker 2: and when you watch him when he's really good, you
Speaker 2: understand that he's a He's a matchup nightmare for anybody.
Speaker 3: He can tell you, and I saved his on the broadcast.
Speaker 2: By event, he can tell you any one of those
Speaker 2: three pitches are coming, throw it in the strike zone
Speaker 2: and still get weak contact or a swing and miss.
Speaker 3: And I don't think you can say.
Speaker 2: That about anybody else in baseball as far as three
Speaker 2: pitches go.
Speaker 5: It's been a lot of fun to watch to watch
Speaker 5: from Bert Hunter pitch this this season. Sparky, no doubt,
Speaker 5: it's it's funny. Yesterday Jacob Melton makes his big league debut.
Speaker 4: Gets the Monkey office back.
Speaker 5: We've seen that a lot with these guys who you know,
Speaker 5: these hitters that remember Bragman didn't take like a couple
Speaker 5: of weeks for him to get his first hit. It
Speaker 5: seems like a lot of these guys they call up
Speaker 5: and they get they get their first hit in their
Speaker 5: first game or two. But the thing that stands out
Speaker 5: to me, Sparky, is how many times in the last
Speaker 5: two years or so, you guys have had to say
Speaker 5: on the broadcast making his big league debut. This guy
Speaker 5: called up making his big league debut, And it's just
Speaker 5: been amazing.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 5: That's why Dana was kind of brought in here to
Speaker 5: be the GM, was to repool his farm sat and
Speaker 5: get it back going. But man, it's just been amazing
Speaker 5: how many rookies the Astros have had the last two
Speaker 5: years plus, and yet all these guys seem to come
Speaker 5: up and contribute and play a big role.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I attribute some of that, Chris to the culture that
Speaker 2: they have in the locker room.
Speaker 3: Twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2: I mean, guys who were coming into the locker room
Speaker 2: and you were expected to say absolutely nothing. You know,
Speaker 2: you didn't really feel like you were part of the
Speaker 2: team until year two, really, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2: And I think it's a tribute to what the Astros
Speaker 2: have been able to develop when they had guys like
Speaker 2: Korea and Springer.
Speaker 3: Coming up to the big leagues.
Speaker 2: I think that the Astros recognize that those guys were
Speaker 2: going to help them win games very quickly. So to
Speaker 2: be able to simulate and feel like they were part
Speaker 2: of the team right away was going to be paramount
Speaker 2: for the team to turn it around.
Speaker 3: So I think that culture has remained.
Speaker 2: So I think it's been ten years that the Astros
Speaker 2: have welcome young guys into the clubhouse and said, all right,
Speaker 2: let us help you. You know, we're all about winning here.
Speaker 2: We don't care about this tenure or what you say
Speaker 2: or what you don't say.
Speaker 3: We want you to help us win baseball games.
Speaker 2: And I think as soon as guys come to spring training,
Speaker 2: you know, I think guys like Jacob Melton and camp
Speaker 2: Smith feel like they're part of the team.
Speaker 5: Sparky as good as as good as Hunter Brown and
Speaker 5: Fromber have been. We saw Lance take a you know,
Speaker 5: a step further in his getting back into the groove.
Speaker 5: Granted it was against the A's, but he pitched very
Speaker 5: well with the twelve strikeouts. But I look at the
Speaker 5: four and the five and Ryan Gusto and Colton Gordon
Speaker 5: are doing everything they can. What is the It feels like,
Speaker 5: you know, Colton Gordon at least every time out he's
Speaker 5: given you five innings.
Speaker 4: Why are they so quick to go grab Gusto?
Speaker 5: In your opinion, it feels like to me, I know
Speaker 5: he was he was a starter, then he was bullpen
Speaker 5: and he was back to the starter and felt like,
Speaker 5: all right, they maybe it's an issue of having to
Speaker 5: get his workload back up, But I mean, I look
Speaker 5: at it, seventy nine pitches, eighty three pitches. Just feels
Speaker 5: like in the fourth of the fifth they're ready to
Speaker 5: go grab him and he's not getting those five complete
Speaker 5: innings as of late. Is that just building back up
Speaker 5: his workload or is that an issue of second third
Speaker 5: time through the lineup and they want to just you know,
Speaker 5: be precautionary. Why why is said they're not letting Gusto
Speaker 5: kind of ride it a little bit longer.
Speaker 2: I think it kind of goes back a little bit
Speaker 2: to what we were talking about with with Fromber and
Speaker 2: Hunter Brown split up in their rotation, and I think
Speaker 2: you feel really goods like if Gusco pitches the day
Speaker 2: after Saint Hunter or the day after Fromer, you got
Speaker 2: a loaded bullpen that next day after the CG or
Speaker 2: he's gone seven or eight innings, and you feel like,
Speaker 2: all right, if we can get to our leverage. Guys
Speaker 2: probably thinking even beforehand, if I can get him four
Speaker 2: or five innings here, then I can go to the
Speaker 2: King and Hater and feel really good about knocking this
Speaker 2: game out.
Speaker 3: So I think that's part of it.
Speaker 2: I think the other part is getting stretched back out
Speaker 2: against really hard doing what Gusto's done so far this year.
Speaker 2: I think he's pitched seven games the starter, six games
Speaker 2: as a reliever, and it's hard to get into a routine,
Speaker 2: so I think he's kind of a massage in that situation.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is I think other teams the
Speaker 2: more the more they get a chance to see you,
Speaker 2: they're able to make adjustments.
Speaker 3: And if you use your eyes on occasion, you start
Speaker 3: to see.
Speaker 2: Guys maybe give up a few line drives the last
Speaker 2: couple of innings before he comes out. Those are the
Speaker 2: little red flags you're looking for as a manager or
Speaker 2: a pitching coach to say, all right, we might want
Speaker 2: to get somebody up.
Speaker 5: Talker Steve Sparks here on Sports Talks of Any and Sparky,
Speaker 5: we got Dana Brown on Saturday to give an update
Speaker 5: on your on Alvarez and kind of you know what's
Speaker 5: going on there, and you know, we come to find
Speaker 5: out that that they do a little imaging after that
Speaker 5: inflammation goes down and there is a break in there
Speaker 5: and Dana reveals that it's about sixty percent healed. But
Speaker 5: by one breath, it is reassuring. Okay, now we know
Speaker 5: what it is. We have a little bit of the
Speaker 5: timeline here. We know, let him rest, let that thing heal,
Speaker 5: and then you know, hopefully he'll be good to go.
Speaker 5: But on the other side, Sparky, this is a second
Speaker 5: straight year where it's been an issue of the Kyle Tucker.
Speaker 5: Oh it's a bone bruise. It's a bone bruise. Oh wait,
Speaker 5: there's a break in there. It just concerns you a
Speaker 5: little bit.
Speaker 4: And I get it.
Speaker 5: Sometimes injuries are just they're hard to diagnose. But for
Speaker 5: the fans out there, I think fans are just frustrated
Speaker 5: because this is the second straight ear of one of
Speaker 5: your star players missing significant period of time and oh,
Speaker 5: it turns out there is a break in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I understand that, and I've seen this. I've
Speaker 3: seen this for years.
Speaker 2: This is you know, sometimes those the small fractures just
Speaker 2: don't show up on X rays or imaging because because
Speaker 2: of cloudiness or whatever. It might be that they were
Speaker 2: able to diagnose rag Getty's thumb break very quickly because
Speaker 2: it was just in a spot where it wasn't as
Speaker 2: cloudy and it was more clear, and they got on
Speaker 2: it very quickly.
Speaker 3: But people have been going on on and.
Speaker 2: On about this forever. It's just sometimes is clear with
Speaker 2: the inflammation. So I think the good news is right now, Chris,
Speaker 2: and I understand the frustration is that the Ashers are.
Speaker 3: Playing good ball.
Speaker 2: They played above five hundred without yord On last year.
Speaker 2: I think they were fifteen games above five hundred without.
Speaker 3: Tucker in the lineup.
Speaker 2: They've been able to keep their heads above waters when
Speaker 2: they're waiting for these guys to get back.
Speaker 3: And I don't think it's going to take ord On
Speaker 3: that long to get back. And you know, when you're
Speaker 3: talking about that it looks.
Speaker 2: Like because of the calcification that it looks like he's
Speaker 2: healing pretty quickly. Then I don't think it's going to
Speaker 2: be too much longer, And thank goodness, the.
Speaker 3: Astros are still in the thick of things.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I understand that it's frustrating,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure it's frustrating for everybody involved when you
Speaker 2: can't see things as clearly as you'd like to.
Speaker 1: Again, Steve Sparks joins us for his weekly visit here
Speaker 1: on The Sean Salisbury Show, hour three every single week,
Speaker 1: And Sparky, I can't remember. Were you on the Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: series last year when they faceball schemes?
Speaker 3: I was not okay, I remember, I remember.
Speaker 2: I remember watching some of the stuff that he was
Speaker 2: doing in the you guys know about the water bags
Speaker 2: and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Some of the crazy stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen trying to switch around to one and
Speaker 2: all that stuff. I remember Schiens doing that. I can't
Speaker 2: remember if I was working that game or not, but
Speaker 2: I know he pitchedway pitched six innings, gave up two
Speaker 2: or one on run in that game against the Astros.
Speaker 3: But they've got their hands full tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean and for you, I mean, you know
Speaker 1: when you get to see a guy like him get
Speaker 1: to go to work. I mean, is that add a
Speaker 1: little bit of extra juice to the game for you?
Speaker 3: It does?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look forward to it. I love watching great pitching.
Speaker 2: You know that game yesterday TODs Bradley the race? How
Speaker 2: could you not love that? Do you guys know the
Speaker 2: story with Bradley what he was able to do the
Speaker 2: last time he faced the Astros.
Speaker 3: The pitching coach introduced a new grip and a new pitch.
Speaker 3: In between the first and second inning, after.
Speaker 2: He gave up a couple of runs to the Astros,
Speaker 2: he introduced the new pitch to him, a one seam.
Speaker 3: Fastball, and he dominated the Astros after that. And then
Speaker 3: he goes yesterday.
Speaker 2: Seven innings that no earn runs against the Astros with
Speaker 2: that one seam fastball.
Speaker 3: Again, so pretty crazy the Astros.
Speaker 6: You know, I had a couple of the coaches asking
Speaker 6: yesterday on the plane ride to Pittsburgh, what was that
Speaker 6: pitch that Bradley was going They were trying to figure
Speaker 6: out what it was, and it was a one seam fastball.
Speaker 2: A lot of guys throw the two team fastball for sink,
Speaker 2: but the one seam fastball doesn't have as much lateral movement,
Speaker 2: and he learned it on the fly. It was pretty remarkable,
Speaker 2: very talented, twenty four years old, and just like schemes,
Speaker 2: he's just getting started.
Speaker 4: Interesting. I'm thankful for the new scheduling.
Speaker 5: I went up to see those guys again and goes man,
Speaker 5: that the Rays were just a thorn on your side
Speaker 5: this season.
Speaker 4: I'm good on not seeing.
Speaker 3: That Bradley again. Hey, I was looking yesterday.
Speaker 2: There were I think seven teams that had either thirty
Speaker 2: or thirty one wins.
Speaker 3: In the American League.
Speaker 2: Seven teams, and you start thinking about these series in
Speaker 2: late May and in early.
Speaker 3: June, thinking that it didn't matter too much. It's so
Speaker 3: early in the season. Man, There's going to be.
Speaker 2: Crazy tiebreakers by the time we get to the end
Speaker 2: of this thing because of how close everybody's gonna be
Speaker 2: bunched at the end of this thing.
Speaker 1: I think for sure, hopefully the Astro is one of
Speaker 1: those teams on the right side of the tiebreaker. But
Speaker 1: we're always on the right side whenever we talk with
Speaker 1: this guy, because he is Steve Sparsany joins us here
Speaker 1: on the Sean Salisbury Show, Sparky, appreciate the time, Buddy.
Speaker 1: Is there a Primanny Brothers trip in this one? Primanny
Speaker 1: Brothers overrated, properly rated. What do you think of sandwiches
Speaker 1: with fries on them?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Well, my son he lives in Tennessee.
Speaker 2: He flew in yesterday, so he met me on this
Speaker 2: trip and that's number one on the box. We're also
Speaker 2: going to go to the Roberto Clemente Museum in about
Speaker 2: forty five minutes, so we're gonna get a little private
Speaker 2: tour with Joe spot On some of the other coaches
Speaker 2: and staff.
Speaker 3: So my son and I are going to go on that.
Speaker 3: That's an unbelievable trip.
Speaker 2: If you ever go to Pittsburgh, the Roberto Clemente Museums
Speaker 2: is my favorite I've ever been to. So it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a fun.
Speaker 3: Weekend or a fun fun a few days here with
Speaker 3: my son.
Speaker 1: No, that's awesome, man, We'll go enjoy that.
Speaker 4: Hey.
Speaker 1: We appreciate your time every single week with us and
Speaker 1: great stuff as always
Speaker 3: Thanks Dan, see Gordy