Speaker 1: And you're able to hold on.
Speaker 2: You're able to do enough in the Astros win last night,
Speaker 2: as you just heard Robert Ford tell you right there, and.
Speaker 1: With that we say away we go.
Speaker 2: Good morning here on the Sean Salisbury Show Sports Talk
Speaker 2: seven ninety it's Dan Matthews here with you, Ari Alexander
Speaker 2: KPRC two hanging out with us this morning here as Ari,
Speaker 2: did you push that red button right there that turns
Speaker 2: on the microphone. Gosh, there you are. Yeh, that's it? Man, morning,
Speaker 2: how about it?
Speaker 1: Huh?
Speaker 2: You TV guys, you usually have to stay up late,
Speaker 2: and you're waking up early with us.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Man, didn't even know six o'clock existed. Man,
Speaker 3: this is get to the airport time. I was gonna say.
Speaker 2: This is, you know, one of those that Randy McAvoy,
Speaker 2: hey man, you know need you to go to Cleveland,
Speaker 2: you know, follow the Texans up there. That's that's about
Speaker 2: my best Randy. The guy that usually sits in your
Speaker 2: chair in the afternoon. Adam Clanton, he does a spot
Speaker 2: on Randy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not gonna do it right now, but I
Speaker 3: can rival Adam Clinton's impression.
Speaker 2: You've got a pretty good one I've got. You know,
Speaker 2: it's only six oh three, so I like our chances
Speaker 2: of maybe being able to coax that value or the
Speaker 2: show is over there we go, but are gonna be
Speaker 2: with me tomorrow and also today? Obviously, I mean you're
Speaker 2: here right now, so we know that's the case. But
Speaker 2: I mean the Astros last night able to get the win.
Speaker 2: I guess we can kind of start from the beginning
Speaker 2: to the end here. Colton Gordon much improved this time
Speaker 2: around and runs into a little bit of trouble there
Speaker 2: in the fourth and then the fifth, but able to
Speaker 2: get through five and a third last night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he Sawid works fast.
Speaker 3: He's a guy that not gonna walk a lot of people,
Speaker 3: but he doesn't throw very hard. He's in ninety one
Speaker 3: miles an hour. Crafty lefty is how he's described what
Speaker 3: everyone describes him as, and he's a guy that he's
Speaker 3: there to fill in, but he's also not bad. So
Speaker 3: right now, where you have all these pictures injured, Hayden
Speaker 3: Wisnski out for the year with Tommy John surgery, You're
Speaker 3: still waiting on Spencer Arraghetty to come back. You're still
Speaker 3: seeing how far into a game Lance mccullor Junior can go,
Speaker 3: and you had all these these pitchers, all this depth.
Speaker 3: Still don't know when Luis Garcia is coming back, still
Speaker 3: tracking Christian Javier after the All Star break, JP Franz
Speaker 3: potentially after the All Star break. If you can come
Speaker 3: in and get a guy like Colton Gordon to be solid,
Speaker 3: to be what he was last night five and a third.
Speaker 3: You know, he gives up a couple home runs. These
Speaker 3: are good major league hitters, but struck out some guys,
Speaker 3: didn't walk anyone. If he can keep doing that, you
Speaker 3: stabilize that five spot. I like where he's at right
Speaker 3: now because they've done a great job of developing guys
Speaker 3: out of nowhere. He's a little less than out of nowhere,
Speaker 3: like a JP Franz was out of nowhere. Out of nowhere,
Speaker 3: Colton Gordon is a bit of a guy. If he
Speaker 3: can keep doing what he did last night, I think
Speaker 3: they've been good. On the pitching side. The bullpen has
Speaker 3: been incredible this year. You have guys truly coming out
Speaker 3: of nowhere, which is bullpens are known to do, and
Speaker 3: you can sustain winning as long as the lineup can
Speaker 3: give you a little You don't have to be great.
Speaker 3: You're surviving without jord On Alvarez. But if you can
Speaker 3: get five and a third three runs out of a
Speaker 3: guy that probably shouldn't even be in the big leagues
Speaker 3: this year because you assumed you had all this depth,
Speaker 3: you're doing fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you mentioned the bullpen and they were fantastic
Speaker 2: again last night. You get in inning in a third
Speaker 2: out of Brian King, he gives up that inherited run
Speaker 2: but still scoreless to his ledger. And then Brian A Bray,
Speaker 2: you fantastic. And then Josh Hater. I mean twelve times
Speaker 2: you've called on him in save situations this year, twelve
Speaker 2: times he's answered.
Speaker 3: You come into this year knowing you're eight to nine,
Speaker 3: is locked down with two of the best relievers in
Speaker 3: the game, even though they struggled a little more last
Speaker 3: year than you would have expected. Especially you pay Hater
Speaker 3: ninety five million, which present value the biggest closer contract
Speaker 3: in all baseball. But you put this bullpend together with
Speaker 3: the Steven Oker to the world, a guy that you
Speaker 3: signed off the street, a veteran who's coming off a
Speaker 3: bad year. Brian King, late round pick, absolutely came out
Speaker 3: of nowhere, had a nice season, last year, but not
Speaker 3: a big enough sample size to be able to rely
Speaker 3: on him, and you maybe were looking at is Taylor
Speaker 3: Scott going to be your seventh thinning guy this year?
Speaker 3: He's not on the team anymore. He was just DFAD
Speaker 3: and Brian King has stepped up. I mean he's got
Speaker 3: a one something era. Steven Okert's got a one something era.
Speaker 3: Caleb Ort now that he's back from injury, two oh
Speaker 3: eight era, Dubin is off of injury, is pitched nicely.
Speaker 1: Filling in.
Speaker 3: Gusto has been stronger in that long relief role than
Speaker 3: he has been as a starter. And suddenly you know
Speaker 3: that seven eight nine you got King a bray, you hater,
Speaker 3: and you have some other guys that can fit in there.
Speaker 3: And Forrest Whitley is not too long from coming back,
Speaker 3: and even though he keeps getting hurt, the guy does
Speaker 3: not give up runs at the major league level. I
Speaker 3: know the sample size is tiny, but the stuff is good.
Speaker 3: If he can ever stay healthy, you do have a
Speaker 3: bit of length. And that bullpen there so much so
Speaker 3: that coming into this year they were relying on Miguel
Speaker 3: Castro to be a big piece of their bullpen.
Speaker 1: They paid him one point five million in the majors.
Speaker 3: They never made the majors, and they just traded him
Speaker 3: to the White Sox because they just flat out don't
Speaker 3: need him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they've been fantastic, and I mean, I
Speaker 2: guess the part that has been a little less to
Speaker 2: be desired as the middle of the lineup. And that
Speaker 2: showed its head again last night where you move jose
Speaker 2: Al two bay to the three spot. Now, granted, just
Speaker 2: like Chas McCormick, it did look like he got one
Speaker 2: that had a chance to get out to left, but
Speaker 2: that wind just knocks it down, goes right into the
Speaker 2: left fielder's glove. He wears an O for four last night.
Speaker 2: Christian Walker, same deal, no shrikeouts I'll contact from him,
Speaker 2: So I guess, I mean that's not nothing. And then
Speaker 2: Jiner Diaz, who, I mean, what is it with him
Speaker 2: in that low and away slider man Like he just
Speaker 2: he cannot lay off of that pitch right.
Speaker 1: Now and you want him to learn eventually.
Speaker 3: He's a guy as a catcher, He's sitting there seeing
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff coming from his pitchers and
Speaker 3: it takes a while. I mean catchers develop later into
Speaker 3: their career he's such a free swinger and that helps
Speaker 3: you some of the time and it hurts you some
Speaker 3: of the time. And I'm not sure how much I
Speaker 3: like having him in Altuve in the lineup closer to
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 1: You want to keep those guys are not going to
Speaker 1: take pitches.
Speaker 3: You want to keep those guys as far away from
Speaker 3: each other in the lineup as possible. But right now,
Speaker 3: the way that they're built, Pain is looking really good
Speaker 3: at the top of the lineup and they have to
Speaker 3: move up east. Soak peretis because he's the guy that's
Speaker 3: going to take pitches. I think Christian Walker is a
Speaker 3: guy who you want to see take more pitches, who
Speaker 3: you want to see walk more. But he's at a
Speaker 3: point of the year where he's working out some of
Speaker 3: the mechanical stuff, and he hasn't had a good start
Speaker 3: to the year. And it's shown in flashes. This is
Speaker 3: not a Joseo Bravey situation. It is shown and flashes
Speaker 3: and you are missing yord On Alvarez even though he
Speaker 3: wasn't playing well to start the year.
Speaker 1: You have the benefit of the doubt there.
Speaker 3: You know, how many years now has he been one
Speaker 3: of the most feared hitters in baseball that he'll find
Speaker 3: his I was just thinking about this morning, like we
Speaker 3: miss Dusty a little bit. Water finds its level. It's
Speaker 3: one of those things that you don't think about that
Speaker 3: you've heard Dusty say sixty times and then you're brushing
Speaker 3: your teeth in your morning, You're like, yeah, water finds
Speaker 3: its level. So that's that's what's gonna happen with jord
Speaker 3: On Alvarez. Eventually it should happen with al Tuo Bay.
Speaker 3: You hope it happens with Altuo Bay because he is
Speaker 3: in the first of a five year extension. You hope
Speaker 3: that the decline is now. He's just a guy that
Speaker 3: you cannot be that close to the lineup to I
Speaker 3: and or Diaz. I want to see a little bit
Speaker 3: of those those different mixes. And I want to see
Speaker 3: Christian Walker take some more pitches because I know it's
Speaker 3: in there and you got it right now. They're moving east,
Speaker 3: soak up to the two hole for a good reason,
Speaker 3: because pain is that bats are quick.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that likes to swing as well.
Speaker 3: He doesn't walk a lot, even though he's been tremendous
Speaker 3: this year and the walk rate is up but there
Speaker 3: are some lineup construction things they can do. Yeah, that
Speaker 3: middle You're right, the middle of the lineup is not
Speaker 3: as dangerous as it could be. The good thing they're
Speaker 3: winning and half the team is not hitting even close
Speaker 3: to what they can and have done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's something that Dana Brown every single week he
Speaker 2: joins us on Wednesdays, that he's been saying all along
Speaker 2: is look, you know, the lineup still kind of trying
Speaker 2: to catch up to what the pitching has given you.
Speaker 2: And I mean that's the thing. You close that gap
Speaker 2: just a little bit all of a sudden looking up
Speaker 2: at the Mariners, and I know that you've been, you know,
Speaker 2: neck and neck with the Rangers for right now. I
Speaker 2: mean those two teams. You wonder if Seattle's going to
Speaker 2: continue to hit this way. They've had some pitching injuries too.
Speaker 2: Oh by the way too. I mean they're without a
Speaker 2: couple of their key guys right now and they're able
Speaker 2: to still pitch the way that they are. But then
Speaker 2: the Rangers, I mean, aside from the starting rotation, I mean,
Speaker 2: you're you're a Mets guy. You know the story of
Speaker 2: Jacob de Grom quite a bit that Yeah, he looked
Speaker 2: really good the other night, And yeah, he can look
Speaker 2: really good. But just like people here complain about Lance mccullors,
Speaker 2: it's been the same thing with the Graham during his career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're the Rangers. You pay this guy one
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty five million, and it's because of the upside.
Speaker 3: The upside is the best pitcher in baseball, potentially the
Speaker 3: highest peak of any pitcher, like that night when he's
Speaker 3: facing Hunter Brown.
Speaker 1: Yes, is a Mets guy.
Speaker 3: I'm going back and I'm watching twenty twenty one to
Speaker 3: Gram highlights, which is the most insane pitching anyone potentially
Speaker 3: has ever seen. He's not that guy anymore. He's still
Speaker 3: really good at ninety seven. He's still really good with
Speaker 3: the slider. But I mean, you've wistful de Gram at
Speaker 3: one oh one with a ninety four mile slidering. You
Speaker 3: just don't know when it breaks. There's a reason he's
Speaker 3: ratcheted down this year. Jack Lyder had a nice start
Speaker 3: until the Astros were able to chase him.
Speaker 1: They have some guys, they have the lineup.
Speaker 3: I think the Rangers scare me more than the Mariners do,
Speaker 3: because this is now what the third fourth year in
Speaker 3: a row, that they've had the pitching and they don't
Speaker 3: have the lineup, and the lineup is finally hitting. How
Speaker 3: long can can it last? Cal Rawley has been incredible.
Speaker 3: They did a great job extending him. Julio Rodriguez is
Speaker 3: getting paid two hundred million. He is not hitting the
Speaker 3: way that you would expect him to. Ever since his
Speaker 3: rookie year, he hasn't been quite as good. Jorge Polanco,
Speaker 3: who the Astros chased after this offseason and didn't offer
Speaker 3: him quite enough money, He's been really good. But if
Speaker 3: you're the Mariners and you're the Astros and you're looking
Speaker 3: at all, right, here's the guys we have that we're
Speaker 3: relying on the rest of the year to produce. And
Speaker 3: the Astros are waiting on Jose Altuve, a future Hall
Speaker 3: of Famer, and Jordon Alvarez, one of the best hitters
Speaker 3: in baseball. Those are the guys you're lying to regress
Speaker 3: to better players. And then you're the Mariners and you're
Speaker 3: relying on Randy rose Arena, who has a massively wide
Speaker 3: range of outcomes. You're relying on Jorge Polanco, who's been
Speaker 3: hurt and is not as good as you ord on Alvarez,
Speaker 3: continue what he's doing, and you're relying on Julio Rodriguez,
Speaker 3: who's obviously a really good player. But now we're starting
Speaker 3: to go to a point where this is the third
Speaker 3: year of Julio Rodriguez being good but not quite what
Speaker 3: we saw the rookie year. And to me, it just
Speaker 3: feels like from a trending standpoint, the Astros are in
Speaker 3: a better place than the Mariners are.
Speaker 1: Rain, you're scaring me a little bit. The Mariners don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's still a long way to go
Speaker 2: as far as the season. I mean, you know, you're
Speaker 2: not into Memorial Day yet. And I've had numerous people
Speaker 2: that have been following baseball for years tell me, you know,
Speaker 2: looking at the standings, They're like, no, don't, don't do
Speaker 2: that yet. Don't don't. Don't even think about the standings
Speaker 2: right now. They don't even matter Becausemorial Day is almost
Speaker 2: kind of what Christmas Day is to the NBA. That
Speaker 2: that's when the season in earnest gets going. In June
Speaker 2: and July, that's when kind of the pretenders and contenders
Speaker 2: actually start to separate themselves a little bit. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you're so figuring out what your lineup is you're still
Speaker 2: figuring out how much left field can josel Tube play?
Speaker 2: How much can you move him back into second base?
Speaker 2: Is Brendan Rodgers going to be good enough to play
Speaker 2: their long term? Do you need to find someone else?
Speaker 2: Who else are you going to mix in? What's going
Speaker 2: on with the rest of the outfield? Cam Smith had
Speaker 2: a couple hits last night. He's been better. Camp Smith
Speaker 2: is above league average as a hitter, and he's been
Speaker 2: playing a really good right field and even he's getting
Speaker 2: mixed in with Zach Dezenzo's had his good stretches and
Speaker 2: Chaz never plays. And he came off the bench and
Speaker 2: had had a decent game, got his first RBI.
Speaker 3: It is May what was it twentieth today? And he
Speaker 3: got his first RBI on May nineteenth. And it's not
Speaker 3: for lack of playing well, he just doesn't play. They're
Speaker 3: such a weirdly built team sometimes because right now they're
Speaker 3: carrying says our salas are that love, says our salas are.
Speaker 3: But he hasn't had a bat. Couldn't you find someone
Speaker 3: who's going to get in that bat? And I get
Speaker 3: why he's there as the third catcher because Kartine has
Speaker 3: been playing a lot and he's been really good, which,
Speaker 3: by the way, shout out Dana Brown. I know he
Speaker 3: gets a lot of criticism, sometimes it's deserved, and he
Speaker 3: gets some praise sometimes it's deserved. One of these moments
Speaker 3: where he gets praise and it's deserved, nailed the Victor Carrotini.
Speaker 2: Signing absolutely, Yeah, there's no doubt about that. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know you're able to add him, and I mean
Speaker 2: he's been a plus with the bat that I mean,
Speaker 2: I think that's been the absolute added bonus you've been
Speaker 2: able to get out of him. And I mean he's
Speaker 2: been fantastic.
Speaker 1: Last night.
Speaker 2: You win that game huge part because of him six seven, eight,
Speaker 2: nine last night, accounting for six of the eleven hits
Speaker 2: that you got. So while we've talked about the middle
Speaker 2: of the order has had their struggles, those guys have
Speaker 2: also been the ones that have kind of carried this
Speaker 2: thing a little bit.
Speaker 3: You want to guess where the best hitter resides in
Speaker 3: the Astros lineup?
Speaker 2: It is Jake Myers batting seventh last night. It is
Speaker 2: the ninth spot in general. Ah about that, which is insane?
Speaker 3: Why why is your ninth spot your best hitter that's where,
Speaker 3: like in literal league, you put the kid that plays
Speaker 3: right field who's like not growing quite as fast as
Speaker 3: the rest of the kids in fourth grade and is
Speaker 3: out there picking his nose and maybe carried his juice
Speaker 3: box in the back pocket to right field and it's
Speaker 3: spilling a little bit down his pants, and you think
Speaker 3: that might be something else, but it's just the apple juice.
Speaker 1: That's your best part of your lineup. This is such
Speaker 1: a weird team sometimes.
Speaker 2: Dan, Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And hopefully you
Speaker 2: can start to get to some of those other guys
Speaker 2: going because I know the Astros could really use them,
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. Again, Ari Alexander KPRC two hanging
Speaker 2: out with me this morning in for Sean Tripoli is
Speaker 2: still here and we'll continue the Astros conversation sebon one
Speaker 2: three two one two five seven ninety Again that's seven
Speaker 2: one three two one two five seven nine zero Game
Speaker 2: one Western Conference Finals between OKC and Minnesota tonight. They're
Speaker 2: in OKC. Some potential Rockets news to get into here
Speaker 2: today as well as so we're already getting in the
Speaker 2: rumor season and the Rockets of course gonna be in
Speaker 2: the center of all of those. But coming up next,
Speaker 2: we finally got hear from Jordan. But is it necessarily
Speaker 2: the news that we wanted. We'll discuss that here. It
Speaker 2: is The Sean Salisbury Show, right here on your home
Speaker 2: with the Astros and the Rockets.
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seventy ninety