Speaker 1: Skip, how are things on this Tuesday? How was the
off day?
Speaker 2: I'm doing well. I'll stay with fabulous. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 3: Hey, a lot of excitement around these parts. A certain
DHS slugging left hander had a nice trip down to
Corpus Christy. Have you filled out your lineup card just yet?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: And is there a certain DH in that lineup tonight?
Speaker 2: Yes, there's a DH in that lineup? You know what
I mean?
Speaker 1: Skip? Come on now, we're better than that, all right?
Is you're not going to play DH tonight?
Speaker 2: You're done. He's going to walk in here. We're going
to talk to him and see how he feels and
if he feels good, wait and see see what happens. Guys,
we all, we all, you know, looking looking forward to
him coming in here today and tell how he feels.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's good. That's I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 3: How much how much recon were you getting from your
folks in Corporus Christy?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Did you did he get?
Speaker 3: I'm assuming he got what he want wanted to accomplish
in terms of playing day off, a little bit of outfield,
running around the bases a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he did all those things, and
he came out feeling well, you know, the bats, not
only there, but the bats in West Palm Beach. I
think he's in a really good spot mentally and physically.
And you know you mentioned outfield. He also played on Mottfield.
He came out of there not feeling good about that.
So yeah, he's he's in a really good spot. And
you know, really, you know, we really excited of getting
him back.
Speaker 3: You know, I guess the number one question is beyond
his playing, is the fact that you've used Jose a
lot at d H spot over that time and not
a lot of left field in the last couple of months.
From a macro view, not necessarily about tonight or tomorrow,
but from macro, how do you see things playing out
if those guys are available to you healthy, trying to
give them days off, but also trying to get keep
them in the lineup every single day as you fight
to win this division.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, so the DH spot will help us
with that that both can play left that both will
date you know, ho second also play second base, So
that's that would be a way to keep everyone in
the lineup and healthy. Also, you know, or done we
have to see how he feels volume wise, how we
get him going. You know, he has him play in
almost three and a halfs four months, so we have
to see how he feels. Has he you know, gets
back to the every day you know, line up and
playing every day. We have a you know, a stretch
of thirteen games, so we have to be smart on
the volume, not only with him, but the rest of
the guys.
Speaker 3: Have you in your conversation with your don or members
of your staff or the training staff, is it literally
a wake up every morning, how you feeling or is
we are we a little bit past that point where
he has gotten up five, six, seven, ten days in
a row and said, hey, my hand's feeling pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, he he and and he has been feeling
pretty good, like you know, every morning or we'll check
in and he'll check in with us. And you know,
the the the the excitement and how he's feeling is
very encouraging and that's the most important thing. We know
that uh, you know how good he is when when
he's healthy. But for us, it's just more how he
bounces back from the workload and so far has been
so far has been good.
Speaker 3: Uh, talk a little bit if you can about We've
had some folks ask about Jake Myers.
Speaker 1: I know that Dana brought him up a little bit
on Sunday.
Speaker 3: What do you know about him at this point and
where is he and his recovery path.
Speaker 2: So the plan is for him to start tomorrow in
sugar Land, so that will be that will be great
to also get him going and getting get him ready
to get back here to us and help away some games.
But he's also gotten to a point where he's recovering
very well. He's pushing off that leg, doing all the
drill that we need him to get done and check
some boxes that we need to see from him. And
right now he's in a really also in a really
good spot.
Speaker 1: It feels like things are coming together.
Speaker 3: From the positional standpoint, You've got quite a few of
your pitchers back. It felt like to me the Baltimore series.
Obviously the bats were fantastic. Joe, you certainly want to
start to get some link out of your starting pitching,
and I thought perhaps the brightest spot of that group
was even though Spencer, you know, got in some trouble
with pitch count early in the game, he was able
to give you five and a third, and so I
think we're kind of looking for that same kind of thing, maybe,
especially with a guy like Lance mccollors.
Speaker 2: Yes, that will be That's an area where we know
that these guys are capable of doing that, and it
hasn't been the case here the last few outings, but
we know those guys once they get settled. You know,
some of these guys are coming back from injuries, so
it usually takes a little bit of time to get
them for them to get settled, and and I think
we were getting to that point where we saw like
Spencer did, where he stuff was in his zone. You know,
aside from that first inning when he threw twenty something pitches,
he he was efficient after that, no walks, his stuff
was really good. And we're going to need some of
those guys to help us out so we can, you know,
not have to lean heavily on our bullpen so early
in the game.
Speaker 4: Asal's manager, Joe a spot of joining us right here
on Sports Talk seven ninety Joe, I want to get
your opinion on the bullpen right now, especially after what
we saw this past series. Your willingness to go to
them a little bit earlier knowing that you have some
starters like Christian Javier Spencer Lance coming off of injury,
when you have the opportunity to trust in guys like
from Bervaldez and Hunter Brown over these next two games
of Colorado, what is that balance of making sure that
you don't lean too heavily into the bullpen early on
and let these guys kind of work themselves out of jams.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, that's that's the key. You know, we're
getting quality starts from Hunter and Valdez and and Alexander
who's throwing the ball really well, taking us deep in
the game. That's the key, right They they come out,
set the tone early and they could keep their pitch
counts low, and those guys have shown that they could
pitch out of trouble. Uh, that's the best way to
you know, give our bullpen an opportunity to sit in
and watch the game from from from the pen. But
if if we don't get those quality innings, those quality
pitchers' quality big outs early in the game, Uh, that's
when we are forced to use some of our guys
in the pan. But you know, having Hunter and Valdez
and and after and off day, our guys should be
rested and ready to go, Joe.
Speaker 4: How important was it to see Jesus Sanchez get off
to a hot start out in the Oriel Park at
Camden just after what he was doing over the last
several weeks and his kind of finding his moment in
his stride here to be able to get seven hits
in the first three games. How important is that coming
home to a nine game, ten game home stand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, big, because you know, he finally you know, he's
hitting the ball hard, but I finally see the ball hit,
you know, hit the ball in the air in the gaps.
It was very encouraging the home run that he hit,
and you know, on that first pitch, it was like
a breaking ball and he was able to keep it
in the air and stay through it. And that's just
a sucentius that we that we went and got from Miami.
That's the tucentis that he's been able to you know,
hammer right hand or pitching in his career. Very encouraging.
We need we need that bat, We need that bat
in the middle of a lineup to produce to drive
people in. Uh Man. You know, we saw him and
Christian Walker really put some big swings in that in
that series in Baltimore.
Speaker 3: Visiting with Joe spotted here on Sports Talk said, Donny
Skip when you lost Josh, I think the transformation moving
uh a braid of the ninth inning was was gonna
be an easy one.
Speaker 1: It was gonna be who's going to pick up that
seventh and eighth inning?
Speaker 3: And I thought Bennet Susa would have been a great
example for that, and unfortunately he's now down a little bit.
Speaker 1: What is the mindset when you.
Speaker 3: Talk to your pitching coach about getting some time with
those relievers and you talking to them yourself about you're
now being asked to go into a spot that you
maybe weren't asked to do, you know two or three
or four weeks ago, when you kind of had seven, eight,
nine basically set.
Speaker 1: Up for yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know those guys, you know, the Brian Kings,
the Calibbord, that Brian Olker, that those guys have been
throwing leverage, leverage innings for us. You know, either in
the fifth or the sixth they've been in. They pitched
some big moments throughout the season, so they're not completely
new to this new role. For me, it's just more
for them just to be themselves, you know, trust the
game plan, their conviction, behind their work, behind every pitch,
just like they've done the whole entire season for us
to demonstrate, you know, trust and confidencing them because they've
been really good. We couldn't be in this position if
he wasn't. From our entire bullpen, my conversations with them,
it's just continues to be the same. Hey, we trust you.
I want to hand you the ball and this moment
in this spot and this against his pocket because I
trust you you're good enough to get these people out
and you you know, we we need them to step up,
and they've been stepping up the whole entire season. Our boopen,
it's been it's been really really good.
Speaker 4: Talk about a bullpen. You added a new arm to
it in Craig Kimberl. We got to see him a
little bit work his way out of a jam on Sunday.
What did you make of him, what went into the
signing and do you expect him to have a bigger
role moving into this series against Colorado?
Speaker 2: You know, we like we obviously we like the experience.
This guy is pitching big games for his entire you know,
in his entire career. I like his demeanor. Uh, you know,
he has this precess about himself. He's still got some
power in his fastball. We like the way he spins
the baseball. So those are the things that we we
saw out of him when we when we sign him,
that we liked and we can help him, you know,
be be better and be more consistent in the strike zone.
And and just like any of these guys, at any moment,
they're going to be pitching, uh, you know, anytime during
the game, depending on who's available, depending on who we like.
I don't want to sit down and assign innings for
any of these guys, because it's all hands on deck.
It's if you're available, and and and this pocket it's
a it's a good pocket for you. Trust me, I'm
going to give you the ball.
Speaker 3: Going back to the injured guys a little bit again
that I'm they were all. I think a lot of
folks are energy and excited about.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: How long do you anticipate Jake being a triple any
idea in terms of number of games do you think
he'll need down there?
Speaker 2: You know what, I don't know the number of games. Uh,
I just really want to get him going and start
getting some feedback from him, so you know his performance
and and he's how he feels, determines how many games
we'll leave him. We'll leave him down there, so you know,
just to get him going and get him started, and
the fact that he feels good about where he's at, know,
that's it. That's a win for us right now.
Speaker 3: And lastly, provided that you do put your on the
line up tonight and he gets off the injured list.
He has not seen a major league game since early May.
Not getting too much into coach speaker managers speak, but
what is the message to him. I would presume a
glad to have you back and be let's not try
to reinvent the wheel here.
Speaker 1: We know what you can do when you're healthy and
playing for.
Speaker 2: This team one hundred percent. I don't think you know.
I don't think Dan needs a motivation speech from me.
He knows exactly where we at. He's he's playing big,
big games in here in Houston. He's he knows exactly
where we at in the season. He knows exactly what
he will bring to our lineup. I'm just gonna see him,
give him a hug and tell him excited to see
him back here with the boys, and and you know,
we have we have a job to do and our
goal is to win this division. And uh, he's a
big part of of what we what we need right now.
He brings that, you know that he provides that injection
of energy that our offense needs and you know, excited
to have them.
Speaker 3: And I would presume Skip with that going really without
saying that. He's the lines of communication to be super honest.
If the hands aren't feeling great, particularly that needs a
day off, He's going to have to be really forthcoming
with you on that.
Speaker 2: Correct correct, correct, You know he's you know he needs
to be and he will be. He will be honest
and will let us know, you know, how he feels,
you know, because I think that's important for us to
keep them in the lineup for the next thirty plus
games and you know this month of September we have
a lot of games in a row. He needs. He
will be honest, he will let us know how he feels.
Speaker 1: Skip, thanks for the time.
Speaker 3: Is always best of luck tonight against the Rockies, and
it was good to see you guys bounce back in
Baltimore and look forward to you that lineup card when.
Speaker 1: It comes out in a few hours.
Speaker 2: A man, thank you, you got it.
Speaker 1: Joe spoted with his