Speaker 1: Three, two, one, two, five, seven to ninety. The number
Speaker 1: to get in JTC right there gets you in a second.
Speaker 1: But I mean, we've seen this reluctance to move Christian
Speaker 1: Walker the cleanup spot in the past, and at times
Speaker 1: it has paid dividends, and especially to I get it.
Speaker 1: You don't have Jordan Alvarez right now. But I brought
Speaker 1: this up last night Cole on the tenth Inning Show.
Speaker 1: I think you guys know that I'm an LSU fan.
Speaker 1: Most people probably know that about me. And on Monday night,
Speaker 1: LSU was able to beat Little Rock. And if you've
Speaker 1: been watching the college you know the super Regionals that
Speaker 1: are coming up this weekend, Regionals last weekend, you know
Speaker 1: you've been following along of who's still in all of
Speaker 1: those different things. But it's the LSU example. They have
Speaker 1: a guy on their team, Jared Jones, one of their
Speaker 1: best hitters on the team, one of their best power hitters,
Speaker 1: all of those things. I think he had batted second
Speaker 1: all season long. He'd been struggling mightily SEC tournament and
Speaker 1: in the regionals, and they finally decided to shake things
Speaker 1: up on Monday night and they moved them down to
Speaker 1: six spot and j Johnson's reasoning for it was, I
Speaker 1: feel like the first five guys are gonna put together
Speaker 1: really tough at bats for the pitcher that you wear
Speaker 1: him down and you just can't keep redlining all the
Speaker 1: way through the lineup. You're going to let up at
Speaker 1: a certain point. And you feel like that that point
Speaker 1: he could let up at is number six. I feel like,
Speaker 1: let's just try it out for a couple of games,
Speaker 1: have him there, and in even more than a couple
Speaker 1: of games a week two, Christian Walker in the sixth spot,
Speaker 1: Victor Karattini as your cleanup man right now, and just
Speaker 1: see how it goes in terms of the at bats.
Speaker 1: Karatini's gonna put together at a good at bat. Karatine's
Speaker 1: gonna put the ball in play. Is he gonna give
Speaker 1: you the power that Christian Walker can. No, he's not.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, he's going to make it
Speaker 1: a tougher at bat than Christian Walker is right now.
Speaker 1: Because we touched on it earlier. He misses that first pitch,
Speaker 1: the rest of his at bat is gone.
Speaker 2: I don't disagree with you about moving him because he
Speaker 2: shouldn't be in the four hole at this point. And
Speaker 2: when we have the results, and we also look at
Speaker 2: the numbers in the five hole, he's pretty decent. At
Speaker 2: least he's better in the five hole than he is
Speaker 2: in the four hole.
Speaker 1: His splits have been incredibly better in the five and
Speaker 1: then also in the three this year, Why.
Speaker 3: Not the two hole?
Speaker 2: Just humor me for a second. Why not the two
Speaker 2: hole because of at least then let's say Jeremy Panga
Speaker 2: doesn't get on base. All right, but you're down zero two.
Speaker 2: But let's say he does get on base, it's your
Speaker 2: first out versus him being in a situation where maybe
Speaker 2: you're gonna have multiple rations scoring position. So you start
Speaker 2: off the game Jeremy Paanya walks, Estoch Grants gets a single.
Speaker 2: Then you get a Jose al Tuove, you get a
Speaker 2: Joseel two by walk, so bass is loaded. Then we
Speaker 2: throw in Kartini in the four hole, he strikes out,
Speaker 2: Yannid is in the five hole, he strikes out. Now
Speaker 2: you get Christian Walker up.
Speaker 3: To the plate.
Speaker 2: Well, then it's even more so a blow because if
Speaker 2: you had the bases loaded and still the results are
Speaker 2: in paving the way, and he's probably the last guy
Speaker 2: that you trust right now to drive in a run.
Speaker 1: But when you throw.
Speaker 2: Him in the two hole, even if he does get
Speaker 2: on base, okay, he gets on base at least, then
Speaker 2: you're putting him in a position to where ninety percent
Speaker 2: of the time runners in position are not going to
Speaker 2: be in play for him to be able to drive
Speaker 2: them in or to disappoint and feel to meet expectations.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's also to you figure that your two
Speaker 1: your two hole guys gonna have as many opportunities, maybe
Speaker 1: even more to get more at bats. But also I
Speaker 1: mean the way that the bottom of your lineup has
Speaker 1: hit right that it's going to be RBI situations those
Speaker 1: have been when he struggled at times this year. I
Speaker 1: just I feel like taking that pressure off of him,
Speaker 1: moving him down a couple of spots as opposed to
Speaker 1: moving them up a couple of spots, I think that
Speaker 1: that plays out more dividends.
Speaker 2: The question that I have right now is and it's
Speaker 2: the youurd on effect, because when you have your on
Speaker 2: in the lineup, it allows you to do a couple
Speaker 2: of things a little bit different, whether that be your
Speaker 2: on in the four hole or pitch differently right. But
Speaker 2: also you're on in the three hole, you're on in
Speaker 2: the two hole. Printers can move down, you can move
Speaker 2: carotene up, you can move Yaner up if you want to.
Speaker 2: That's the issue right now. I just I don't know
Speaker 2: how far down I want to move Christian Walker, because
Speaker 2: I agree with you in the sense of the way
Speaker 2: that you're seven eight nine's hitting, you are going to
Speaker 2: have more situations. And Jeremy Paine has been seeing this,
Speaker 2: but with him leading off, you can have more situations
Speaker 2: to drive into runs. But I feel like starting off
Speaker 2: the game is the issue for Christian Walker. Ninety percent
Speaker 2: of the time when he gets on base first at bat,
Speaker 2: when he's able to drive the ball first at bat,
Speaker 2: he gains a little bit more confidence. I think that
Speaker 2: he looks his pitch, looks at the pitches differently. I
Speaker 2: think he also is more balanced and consistent when selecting
Speaker 2: what way he wants to go. So if you start
Speaker 2: him off early in the two hole, let's just say
Speaker 2: it's like for four games and he ends up going
Speaker 2: in all four games, he goes three for four with
Speaker 2: his leadoff hit, the first inning hit. At least you
Speaker 2: know that maybe at this point he's gaining that confidence
Speaker 2: to know what he's looking at when it comes to
Speaker 2: the pitch.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just that's also been a problem for him,
Speaker 1: is I mean I touched on it, you know, the
Speaker 1: early in the count and then finding himself in two
Speaker 1: strike counts, finding himself behind a one whatever it might be,
Speaker 1: where then it's the pitcher's game, it's not yours. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's something that you want to talk about approach and
Speaker 1: being able to change things up. I mean that's I
Speaker 1: think at nauseum and maybe Alex and Tron and Troyce
Speaker 1: Nicker doing this with them, of showing him on the
Speaker 1: iPad of hey, look look at how much better you
Speaker 1: are when you offer first pitch and you are able
Speaker 1: to put the ball in play as opposed to trying
Speaker 1: to hit from behind as you've done for most of
Speaker 1: the season.
Speaker 2: Well, at this point, it doesn't feel like that he's
Speaker 2: earned the right to be able to go up there
Speaker 2: thinking that I can swing at first pitch, Like it's
Speaker 2: not the Hoseal Twova treatment, who for the last five
Speaker 2: years was batt in three to zero two, three, twenty
Speaker 2: three and had earned that respect of hey, if it's
Speaker 2: even close to the zone, I'm swinging because I know
Speaker 2: that I can hit it like he hasn't earned that right.
Speaker 2: So I think the entire approach for Christian Walker right
Speaker 2: now has got to be wait until you see your
Speaker 2: pitch now again, I agree with you after that four
Speaker 2: pitch walking. You see what happened last night, that hanging
Speaker 2: slider that is usually gonna go four hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: feet if you swing properly, especially with the guy who
Speaker 2: asked that not much power like Christian Walker. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, you got to make sure that your
Speaker 2: pitch count is selective. And I think that he's so
Speaker 2: much in his head right now when it comes to
Speaker 2: what am I looking looking at versus what am I
Speaker 2: seeing that's out there? How many guys are in base,
Speaker 2: how many guys are on base? What is my situation
Speaker 2: where if I if I ground it out, am I
Speaker 2: going to be in trouble? Like it's so much going
Speaker 2: on in his brain that he's not able. I think
Speaker 2: to focus in on the actual pitch count.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know he should. Doesn't mean it
Speaker 1: necessarily does, and that's been the problem. I mean again,
Speaker 1: you're batt in two o eight right now, Well, that
Speaker 1: means that a lot of things are not going to
Speaker 1: your direction. In terms of trying to be able to
Speaker 1: produce at the plate. But sebone three two one, two,
Speaker 1: five seven ninety. Let's up in Illinois, j T. Good morning, JT.
Speaker 3: Hey, well, first up, the Extro's got to win this
Speaker 3: series today on the road with Fromber pitching. But I
Speaker 3: just wanted to say a couple of things. So the
Speaker 3: run that this organization has been on since twenty fifteen
Speaker 3: is unbelievable. And I look at this season, you know,
Speaker 3: thirty three and twenty five. I think most people would say,
Speaker 3: you know, if you look at this part of season,
Speaker 3: would you say, would you take thirty three and twenty
Speaker 3: five at the beginning of the year and then factor
Speaker 3: in the most feared hitter in baseball other than Otani
Speaker 3: hasn't played much of that. And I'll just say this
Speaker 3: because the Astros don't aren't in a position to probably
Speaker 3: make a big deal at the trade deadline. So the
Speaker 3: one thing I like about Jordon being out is if
Speaker 3: he's out for an extended period of time and he
Speaker 3: comes back and he's one hundred percent healthy, I mean
Speaker 3: that's going to be the key, that's the spark that
Speaker 3: lineup needs. And the other thing that I think is
Speaker 3: the key for them is And I don't know if
Speaker 3: it's just an outlier with the last couple of games
Speaker 3: mccullors is pitched, but I mean if he gets on
Speaker 3: a roll, I like the prospects for the Astros with
Speaker 3: the top three, and then I think this team, and
Speaker 3: again this it's dependent on yourdon being one hundred percent healthy.
Speaker 3: But I think this team kind of reminds me of
Speaker 3: the twenty twenty two Phillies when they had Nola and Wheeler.
Speaker 3: You remember they just kind of limped basically to the
Speaker 3: finish line, but the series lined up perfectly for them
Speaker 3: and they threw their top two and they usually got
Speaker 3: up two to zero in those series because if you
Speaker 3: remember that year they almost blew it against the Cardinals.
Speaker 3: They had to rally to win that game. So I
Speaker 3: think if Fromber and Hunter Brown stay healthy, I think
Speaker 3: the Astros are in a pretty good position. And again
Speaker 3: it's all it's it's the key to yourd on. I mean,
Speaker 3: if he's if he's seriously going to come back in
Speaker 3: one hundred percent healthy, I think this team is in
Speaker 3: a pretty good position to compete in the the American
Speaker 3: League playoff system. Because I don't and maybe you guys
Speaker 3: can elaborate on this. Do you look at any American
Speaker 3: League team right now and say, oh, man, I'm really
Speaker 3: scared of this team, because I think most teams in
Speaker 3: the AL right now, if you throw them in a
Speaker 3: basically a bag, you say, what, who's the best team
Speaker 3: right now? I really haven't noticed a clear cut Hey,
Speaker 3: here's the favorite to win the American League. But anyway,
Speaker 3: I hang out. I'll hang up and listen and level
Speaker 3: listening every morning. Thanks a lot, Hey, thanks JT.
Speaker 1: I mean it gets back to what I said earlier
Speaker 1: June the fifth. I mean I don't need to be great,
Speaker 1: you know, on June the fifth. I need to be
Speaker 1: great on October the fifth. And to his points, and
Speaker 1: we can talk about this a little bit after we
Speaker 1: hit the stakeout, but I mean, to his point, I
Speaker 1: need my best baseball August, September, October, that's when I
Speaker 1: need my best.
Speaker 2: Sure, I know that we gotta get to a point,
Speaker 2: and we gotta get to a break. There is one
Speaker 2: team I think right now you can claim currently as
Speaker 2: the favorite in the American League that you should fear.
Speaker 2: And we'll talk about that later.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, we'll continue the Astros conversation here in
Speaker 1: this hour number two, but coming up a trend that
Speaker 1: is pretty funny and I don't know if you've done it.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about it here. It is The Sean Salisbury Show,
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven ninety