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