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Speaker 1: Twelve thirty one. Here on Sports Talk seven eighty ros

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view Rea with you on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

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Matt Thomas is out traveling, coming back with the Rockets

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after the late light, late night loss to the Los

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Angeles Lakers. Wow, that's a tongue twister. Here on Sports

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Talk seven Nighty, we got a hundred brown coming up

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at one thirty. Adam Weser joining at one but right

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now please to be joined for the first time all

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year Astros manager Joe A. Spot, who's going to join

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us on Tuesdays at twelve thirty as his schedule allows. Joe, No,

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Matt today, appreciate you hanging out with us. How we

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feeling so far too and two in the early season

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and just you and in your second season as the manager,

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as the league guy, are you're feeling more comfortable?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, well, first, thank you for having me

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on the show. Looking forward to hanging out with you

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guys on Tuesdays. But yeah, you know, out through a

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you know, really good start. I think we have done

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a nice shop this first four games. Way better start

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than we did last year. That's that's for sure. But

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you know, I thought that we have thrown the ball

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really well. Our started up done a really nice shop,

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giving us an opportunity to win. And you know, looking

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forward to my second season as as the manager, really

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learn a lot from our from our club, from myself.

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We had a really credible spring training and I think

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the boys are ready to put together a heck of

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a run.

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Speaker 1: Starting pitching has been a strength for the team early on.

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The first three guys really spectacular. Renel Blanco a little

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bit of issues there, but I thought looked really sharp

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early on.

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Speaker 2: Yes he did. I thought he you know, I thought

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he throw the ball really well. You know, I'm always

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we always want those sketches to give us five six

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quality innings, and I think Lenell Blanco did that. You know.

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We we got into some walk issues last night, a

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couple of two hour walks that cost us throughout the game.

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But I think for the most part, we throw on

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the ball really well.

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Speaker 1: Jose L twove back at second base just like home. Uh,

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what are your conversations like with him and what exactly

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is the plan for him and how much do you

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want him to or is it a fluid situation and

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kind of who are you leaning on to talk about

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these types of things about where to put him on

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a day to day basis.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's a conversation between me and l two weeks

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my decision and and you know it's it's a it's

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a content, it's a fluid conversation every every day. He

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knows that I'm gonna we're gonna need him to play

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some second base, you know, play that's that's his home.

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It's like running a bike for him. Right over there.

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He said, he played really nice second base, you know.

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But you know he's going to get most of his

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starts in left field. That's the plan right now. He's

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done a nice shop early on in the season.

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Speaker 1: And what's that like for you? Balancing it like wanting

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him to get in left field, wanting him to take

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the lumpson and learn all the ins and outs of that,

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but also maybe wanting to to play other guys there

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as well, like you did last night with Dubon.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. I think having him being able to

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play both position allows me to be a little bit

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more flexible and play some of our young players in

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the outfield and also have Dubon and Rogers play some

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second base. So you know, that's the plan early on

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and hopefully you know, we can we could find uh

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some consistency throughout the uh throughout the lineup. But early on,

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you know, I like how giving everyone an opportunity early

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on just to country you know, we're going to need

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this lineup, this team, all these players to contribute at

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some point.

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Speaker 1: Astros manager Joe spotted with us here on Sports Talk

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seven ninety three games in for Cam Smith. My first

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takeaway from him despite the well he got the one

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hit of course in his first AaB, but seems like

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he's got a really really good I mean, for as

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young as he is, he's got a really good handle

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the strike zone.

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Speaker 2: Yes he does. And as a hitter, that's half the

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battle right there, right, it's controlling the strike zone, singing

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as strikes, not you know, being able to fight back

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into account once you get oh two, And he's done

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a nice shot of that early on. He showed those

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that ability in in spring training.

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Speaker 1: Also, what are your conversations been like him? That's kind

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of something I mean new for I mean, what he's

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doing right now is basically unprecedented in the Astros are

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going toation history. So for you as a manager, of course,

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as you know, a big part of your job is

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dealing with personalities talking with guys. What has it been

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like with with you working with Cam Smith?

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Speaker 2: You know, it's a as a daily conversation. I want

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to make sure that he's in a really I want

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to make sure that he's in a good place. You know,

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is a big jump in his career, and I want

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to make sure that I protect them, that there's a

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conversation that he knows that we all have his back.

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You know, it's constant observation, evaluation. How he's handling day

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by day in right field. And he's a bats but

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so far, so good. I really like he's approach offensively.

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You know, his conversation with our hitting coach. He's work,

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he's doing Indie outfield. My job is just to make

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sure that the work doesn't get too overwhelming for him.

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But you know, he's he's got a pretty good head

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on his shoulders, so I think he's going to be

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just fine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of guys that are doing a good job

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judging the strike zone, Estak Paratus has been getting on base.

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You haven't got a whole lot of hits from him

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and some of the other guys as well, but he's

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really done a good job working counts as well. And

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is that why you have him in the two spot?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. I like you the bats in the

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two spot. You know, Jordan he's finding he's finding some

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traffic early in the season with both al two way

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getting out to a hot start in periitis. You know,

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just he's walking in his ability to see a lot

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of pitches, and that's the plan behind behind my decision

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to hit him second right now. From the early on

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in spring training, I was impressed with he's a bats,

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he's approach, he's able to lay off some tough pitches

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and you know, hopefully once Jordan gets hot here, he's

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going to find himself with some with with a lot

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of you know, with a lot of RBIs in the

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RBI column.

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Speaker 1: And what is that like for you? I mean, look,

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we all know Jordon's gonna hit. It's gonna happen eventually.

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If you, as a manager, like I'm just gonna leave

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them alone, I'm not even talking to him or or

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what's your approach with that?

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Speaker 2: No, I love talking to Jordan. I'm always going to

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talk to Jordan. But when it comes to you know,

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where he's at right now, offensively, it's getting a CEO

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for the season. You know, he's timing. He's not quite

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there yet. His swing is not as he's not as

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comfortable and as bad as box he will like will

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like to be. But it's just a mamounter of time.

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This is this is going to click for him, and

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once he does, you know, we'll our offense will well,

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we'll get going. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, the offense and the bats have been struggling, so

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good good luck with Logan Web. They just it just

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never gets easy. And this league does it.

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Speaker 2: No, it does not. You know, you're always facing quality,

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quality arms and uh, you know, hopefully we we we

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go out there with a good game plan and execute

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it against Logan Web.

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Speaker 1: On the other side, Hayden wes Nesky tonight throwing for you,

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what are your expectations for him and what are you

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looking to see from him?

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Speaker 2: You know, he's got to go out there and you know,

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get ahead of the hitters a lot of strike ones,

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you know, and then be able to use his offs

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p pitch to put these guys away. You know, it's

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it's we we have to once we put once we

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get ahead of the hitters, we have to execute uh,

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and and put hitters away, you know, keep the loach

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pitch count. That's that's very important. And and and you know,

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and we need those guys in the middle of our

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of our bullpen just to uh being able to hand

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the ball off to a braille and hater. But I

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think with Netske's last started the spring with a solid one,

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I expect him to go out there and have a

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good game plan and being able to execute it.

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Speaker 1: Continuing with Astro's manager Joe A. Spotta here on Sports

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Talk seven ninety, what'd you like from what you saw

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from Ryan Gusto and and how how special was that

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for him to make his major league debut?

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Speaker 2: He was, you know it especially after last season. You

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know he made you know, waited hours to make potentially

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make that start in in Cleveland and he did not.

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And but I thought yesterday handled himself really well. You know,

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show the explosive fastball that we all know that he's

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capable of, uh, you know, show every single outing he's

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all stee pitches were really good too. I think he

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went through, uh through some stretches there where he had

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to get out of trouble, and he did. He was poised,

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he was calm. I thought that was a really good

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first impression for Ryan Gusto and.

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Speaker 1: Keeping with the pitching side, Lance McCullers Junior. We had

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the start over Sunday. You were there in Sugarland to

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watch that, correct, Yes, I was okay. And then he's

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going to start this weekend. What did you see from him?

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Conversations and how do you approach like this? I mean,

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this is the guy who's had, of course multiple setbacks,

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so you want to make sure everything's good to go

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when he's going out there.

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Speaker 2: Healthy, you know, we want you know, I saw a

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healthy pitcher the other day in sugar Land. You know,

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up to ninety five. He strike out this side his

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first inning and then pitch out of trouble in the

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second inning. So that's what I'm looking for out of him.

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We came in my office yesterday we talked a little

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bit about his plan for the next couple of weeks.

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So we are going to he's going to start the

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weekend for Porpoise on the road and once we should

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be able to go three three plus innings depending on

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the number of pitches. And once he gets through that,

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he should be you know, he should be getting closer

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to pitching he at the major league level. But I'm

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excited for for Lance. He he has gone through a

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lot and he has put himself in a good spot

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right now, and we're gonna, you know, we we're gonna

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we're gonna need him. We're gonna need all these guys

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to come up at some point and contribute and helpless

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win some games.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have the with him and the rehab.

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The clock ticks correct, it's thirty days that he can

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max out as a rehab.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, correct, correct, correct, correct. We know we were

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trying to be we're trying to be smart about those

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days and not rush to not rush this process. We

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want to make sure he gets his pitches in. We

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want to make sure that we give him enough time

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in between starts to recover and bounce back. And we're

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going to continue to monitor him closely. All right.

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Speaker 1: Last thing, we'll keep keep it light for you at

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the end here, Joe, how do you like those City

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connecting uniforms you guys have last night?

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Speaker 2: You know what it it were? Sweet? Man? I really

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like the guys really like the white. That's the first thing,

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you know. They like the white and the material looks

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feels lighter. You know, I thought the blue was a

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little bit heavier, thinking material. That's the way I felt.

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That's what the players were commenting on. They really dig

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the hats. I'm digging the hat too, So I got

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myself one just to kind of croose around town. But yeah,

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you know, hopefully every Monday when we put that UNI on,

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we we could we could you know, be celebrating at

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the end of the game. Yeah. I don't know why.

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Speaker 1: So Snake met on Mondays with those city connects now

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for a couple of years. What I don't know what

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the deal is.

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Speaker 2: So we you know, we we'll get it rolling here,

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We'll get it rolling, all right.

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Speaker 1: Thanks he Joe has spotted with his hero on Sports Sucks.

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I mean, I Joe, thanks for the time as always,

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and good luck tonight at the ballpark.

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Speaker 2: All right, man, thank you, all right, appreciate it. There

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you go.

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Speaker 1: Joe a spot Astro's manager here on Sports Talk seven

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ninety