Speaker 1: Twelve thirty one. Here on Sports Talk seven eighty ros
view Rea with you on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Matt Thomas is out traveling, coming back with the Rockets
after the late light, late night loss to the Los
Angeles Lakers. Wow, that's a tongue twister. Here on Sports
Talk seven Nighty, we got a hundred brown coming up
at one thirty. Adam Weser joining at one but right
now please to be joined for the first time all
year Astros manager Joe A. Spot, who's going to join
us on Tuesdays at twelve thirty as his schedule allows. Joe, No,
Matt today, appreciate you hanging out with us. How we
feeling so far too and two in the early season
and just you and in your second season as the manager,
as the league guy, are you're feeling more comfortable?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, well, first, thank you for having me
on the show. Looking forward to hanging out with you
guys on Tuesdays. But yeah, you know, out through a
you know, really good start. I think we have done
a nice shop this first four games. Way better start
than we did last year. That's that's for sure. But
you know, I thought that we have thrown the ball
really well. Our started up done a really nice shop,
giving us an opportunity to win. And you know, looking
forward to my second season as as the manager, really
learn a lot from our from our club, from myself.
We had a really credible spring training and I think
the boys are ready to put together a heck of
a run.
Speaker 1: Starting pitching has been a strength for the team early on.
The first three guys really spectacular. Renel Blanco a little
bit of issues there, but I thought looked really sharp
early on.
Speaker 2: Yes he did. I thought he you know, I thought
he throw the ball really well. You know, I'm always
we always want those sketches to give us five six
quality innings, and I think Lenell Blanco did that. You know.
We we got into some walk issues last night, a
couple of two hour walks that cost us throughout the game.
But I think for the most part, we throw on
the ball really well.
Speaker 1: Jose L twove back at second base just like home. Uh,
what are your conversations like with him and what exactly
is the plan for him and how much do you
want him to or is it a fluid situation and
kind of who are you leaning on to talk about
these types of things about where to put him on
a day to day basis.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a conversation between me and l two weeks
my decision and and you know it's it's a it's
a content, it's a fluid conversation every every day. He
knows that I'm gonna we're gonna need him to play
some second base, you know, play that's that's his home.
It's like running a bike for him. Right over there.
He said, he played really nice second base, you know.
But you know he's going to get most of his
starts in left field. That's the plan right now. He's
done a nice shop early on in the season.
Speaker 1: And what's that like for you? Balancing it like wanting
him to get in left field, wanting him to take
the lumpson and learn all the ins and outs of that,
but also maybe wanting to to play other guys there
as well, like you did last night with Dubon.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. I think having him being able to
play both position allows me to be a little bit
more flexible and play some of our young players in
the outfield and also have Dubon and Rogers play some
second base. So you know, that's the plan early on
and hopefully you know, we can we could find uh
some consistency throughout the uh throughout the lineup. But early on,
you know, I like how giving everyone an opportunity early
on just to country you know, we're going to need
this lineup, this team, all these players to contribute at
some point.
Speaker 1: Astros manager Joe spotted with us here on Sports Talk
seven ninety three games in for Cam Smith. My first
takeaway from him despite the well he got the one
hit of course in his first AaB, but seems like
he's got a really really good I mean, for as
young as he is, he's got a really good handle
the strike zone.
Speaker 2: Yes he does. And as a hitter, that's half the
battle right there, right, it's controlling the strike zone, singing
as strikes, not you know, being able to fight back
into account once you get oh two, And he's done
a nice shot of that early on. He showed those
that ability in in spring training.
Speaker 1: Also, what are your conversations been like him? That's kind
of something I mean new for I mean, what he's
doing right now is basically unprecedented in the Astros are
going toation history. So for you as a manager, of course,
as you know, a big part of your job is
dealing with personalities talking with guys. What has it been
like with with you working with Cam Smith?
Speaker 2: You know, it's a as a daily conversation. I want
to make sure that he's in a really I want
to make sure that he's in a good place. You know,
is a big jump in his career, and I want
to make sure that I protect them, that there's a
conversation that he knows that we all have his back.
You know, it's constant observation, evaluation. How he's handling day
by day in right field. And he's a bats but
so far, so good. I really like he's approach offensively.
You know, his conversation with our hitting coach. He's work,
he's doing Indie outfield. My job is just to make
sure that the work doesn't get too overwhelming for him.
But you know, he's he's got a pretty good head
on his shoulders, so I think he's going to be
just fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of guys that are doing a good job
judging the strike zone, Estak Paratus has been getting on base.
You haven't got a whole lot of hits from him
and some of the other guys as well, but he's
really done a good job working counts as well. And
is that why you have him in the two spot?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. I like you the bats in the
two spot. You know, Jordan he's finding he's finding some
traffic early in the season with both al two way
getting out to a hot start in periitis. You know,
just he's walking in his ability to see a lot
of pitches, and that's the plan behind behind my decision
to hit him second right now. From the early on
in spring training, I was impressed with he's a bats,
he's approach, he's able to lay off some tough pitches
and you know, hopefully once Jordan gets hot here, he's
going to find himself with some with with a lot
of you know, with a lot of RBIs in the
RBI column.
Speaker 1: And what is that like for you? I mean, look,
we all know Jordon's gonna hit. It's gonna happen eventually.
If you, as a manager, like I'm just gonna leave
them alone, I'm not even talking to him or or
what's your approach with that?
Speaker 2: No, I love talking to Jordan. I'm always going to
talk to Jordan. But when it comes to you know,
where he's at right now, offensively, it's getting a CEO
for the season. You know, he's timing. He's not quite
there yet. His swing is not as he's not as
comfortable and as bad as box he will like will
like to be. But it's just a mamounter of time.
This is this is going to click for him, and
once he does, you know, we'll our offense will well,
we'll get going. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, the offense and the bats have been struggling, so
good good luck with Logan Web. They just it just
never gets easy. And this league does it.
Speaker 2: No, it does not. You know, you're always facing quality,
quality arms and uh, you know, hopefully we we we
go out there with a good game plan and execute
it against Logan Web.
Speaker 1: On the other side, Hayden wes Nesky tonight throwing for you,
what are your expectations for him and what are you
looking to see from him?
Speaker 2: You know, he's got to go out there and you know,
get ahead of the hitters a lot of strike ones,
you know, and then be able to use his offs
p pitch to put these guys away. You know, it's
it's we we have to once we put once we
get ahead of the hitters, we have to execute uh,
and and put hitters away, you know, keep the loach
pitch count. That's that's very important. And and and you know,
and we need those guys in the middle of our
of our bullpen just to uh being able to hand
the ball off to a braille and hater. But I
think with Netske's last started the spring with a solid one,
I expect him to go out there and have a
good game plan and being able to execute it.
Speaker 1: Continuing with Astro's manager Joe A. Spotta here on Sports
Talk seven ninety, what'd you like from what you saw
from Ryan Gusto and and how how special was that
for him to make his major league debut?
Speaker 2: He was, you know it especially after last season. You
know he made you know, waited hours to make potentially
make that start in in Cleveland and he did not.
And but I thought yesterday handled himself really well. You know,
show the explosive fastball that we all know that he's
capable of, uh, you know, show every single outing he's
all stee pitches were really good too. I think he
went through, uh through some stretches there where he had
to get out of trouble, and he did. He was poised,
he was calm. I thought that was a really good
first impression for Ryan Gusto and.
Speaker 1: Keeping with the pitching side, Lance McCullers Junior. We had
the start over Sunday. You were there in Sugarland to
watch that, correct, Yes, I was okay. And then he's
going to start this weekend. What did you see from him?
Conversations and how do you approach like this? I mean,
this is the guy who's had, of course multiple setbacks,
so you want to make sure everything's good to go
when he's going out there.
Speaker 2: Healthy, you know, we want you know, I saw a
healthy pitcher the other day in sugar Land. You know,
up to ninety five. He strike out this side his
first inning and then pitch out of trouble in the
second inning. So that's what I'm looking for out of him.
We came in my office yesterday we talked a little
bit about his plan for the next couple of weeks.
So we are going to he's going to start the
weekend for Porpoise on the road and once we should
be able to go three three plus innings depending on
the number of pitches. And once he gets through that,
he should be you know, he should be getting closer
to pitching he at the major league level. But I'm
excited for for Lance. He he has gone through a
lot and he has put himself in a good spot
right now, and we're gonna, you know, we we're gonna
we're gonna need him. We're gonna need all these guys
to come up at some point and contribute and helpless
win some games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have the with him and the rehab.
The clock ticks correct, it's thirty days that he can
max out as a rehab.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, correct, correct, correct, correct. We know we were
trying to be we're trying to be smart about those
days and not rush to not rush this process. We
want to make sure he gets his pitches in. We
want to make sure that we give him enough time
in between starts to recover and bounce back. And we're
going to continue to monitor him closely. All right.
Speaker 1: Last thing, we'll keep keep it light for you at
the end here, Joe, how do you like those City
connecting uniforms you guys have last night?
Speaker 2: You know what it it were? Sweet? Man? I really
like the guys really like the white. That's the first thing,
you know. They like the white and the material looks
feels lighter. You know, I thought the blue was a
little bit heavier, thinking material. That's the way I felt.
That's what the players were commenting on. They really dig
the hats. I'm digging the hat too, So I got
myself one just to kind of croose around town. But yeah,
you know, hopefully every Monday when we put that UNI on,
we we could we could you know, be celebrating at
the end of the game. Yeah. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: So Snake met on Mondays with those city connects now
for a couple of years. What I don't know what
the deal is.
Speaker 2: So we you know, we we'll get it rolling here,
We'll get it rolling, all right.
Speaker 1: Thanks he Joe has spotted with his hero on Sports Sucks.
I mean, I Joe, thanks for the time as always,
and good luck tonight at the ballpark.
Speaker 2: All right, man, thank you, all right, appreciate it. There
you go.
Speaker 1: Joe a spot Astro's manager here on Sports Talk seven
ninety