It is seven o'clock our hour early or the normal. He's got an event he has to do. We're great for him. I know it was a long trip and back here and to get up this early. We appreciate Steve Sparks Astros broadcasts here on our radio Sports Talk seven to ninety for those Astros games every single day. Good to have you on, Steve. We appreciate, we appreciate you. I weekends like this you learn to me. You learn a lot about your team. And I, Steve, I know,
ten to two wins and all that are fun. But I kind of like when I see Gusto have to fight through and get through it, when he scattering some hits and they're scoring some runs, and you know when somebody else different dubon yesterday, Christian Walker starting to get a little hotter, and the way pain is energy, it seems to be there's always somebody different. But when yesterday or when the pitching staff starting pitching struggled, the bullpen
was there. But more importantly, the hitting seems to have picked up, even though it hasn't been consistent. It starts to look a little different from my optic Steve.
You know, you look at that series, and I look back at the day before that because Brandon Walter didn't.
Pitch that well, right, but he pitched.
Six innings and they only had to cover eight innings losing on the road, so you only had to use two relievers the night before. So I think you're always going into those road series, in particular Sean, trying to win those series. And you win that first one, it's
certainly a luxury. But what Walter is able to do as far as get deeper into the game despite not having his best stuff, he got them six innings and you had a loaded bullpen for yesterday's game and you needed them, yep, And that's the reason why they won. I mean, what Walter did the night before is the reason why the Astros won yesterday.
Steven, are we on pace?
You've probably looked at the metrics or the analytics of you know, the innings and usage and stuff, which you do very well, the fresh leg starting pitching, I know, with the injuries, but also the bullpen. Are we on pace to say we're not giving them too much usage? Are we on pace right now? Do you feel good about the way they're being used?
I do? You know?
I think if you're able to keep a little bit of a cushion, you're going to get creative, I think, and that's what the Astros did in twenty twenty two. They were more fresh and livelier than anybody else, especially in the pitching department, because they went to that six men rotation for more than half the season, and it was very evident that the.
Astros were they still had a lot to go.
Remember the extra inning in Seattle, there was a famous line by the Astros pitching coach Josh Miller said, Hey, we still had one hundred pitches left in our in our chamber.
They really did, you know.
They still had Urkidi and they had somebody else, and I think they felt very comfortable that they could have played another five or six innings. So I think that's the goal for the Astros is to build this lead, continue to play good baseball. Despite Jordan alvarezby an ounce it's May third, I believe it is in Houston, still ten games over five hundred in its absence.
But if you can continue to.
Increase that lead, I think you got a chance to get creative. Maybe skip a guy, start keep a six man rotation. I'm not sure how this looks right, but maybe be creative with that injured list.
Steve Sparks Astro's broadcasters Weekly visit an hour sooner today, got an event to go through and we'll we'll change days or schedule for him anytime. Joined us here on Sports Talk seven ninety Sean salisby show, Steve, you've been in playing it and covering it all these years, You've seen, you know, managers that have.
To make tough decisions in games.
I was just thinking, you know this morning, how often you know, somebody reminded me of that.
How often in a game, in a series throughout the season.
I'm talking about those tough, tough decisions that come within a game. How often do you see managers hapen to make tough tough decisions in professional baseball?
You know, in a game to game decisions.
I think it varies just because you know your personnel better than anybody else. And that's what that's probably my favorite question is to ask a manager of the day after, is.
What was your toughest decision yesterday?
But when you think about toughest decisions for me, if I was a coach or a manager, I think the hardest part for me personally would be releasing guys, you know, especially in the minor leagues.
I was thinking about this yesterday.
I played in the California League for three seasons, and one year I had a minor league coach who had five kids, and the last three weeks of the season, his wife decided to take his four youngest kids back home to Arizona for the rest of the season, and his oldest kid was nine years old. He ended up staying with his dad for the rest of the summer, so he would be at the ballpark every.
Day, and we had a great time with him. But he just became part of the team.
And I remember one day in Bakersfield, California. We were stretching before batting practice one day and Ben, the oldest son, he was nine years old, was just kind of sifting through the rest of the players. Now keep in mind, he was around his dad in the hotel rooms. He heard all his dad's conversations on the landline back in the hotels in those days, talking to the front office.
But he was running around with the guys on the team and they were punching him and knocking him down and just having a good time.
He finally he goes up to this one guy in.
Our team who was stretching, and he shook his hand and he said, hey, John, Hey, I'm gonna miss you. And John goes, oh, Ben, are you going home with your brothers and sisters? He goes, no, I'm not going anywhere you are. He goes, what, Yeah, I heard my dad on the phone.
Oh my god, getting released after the game. Oh my god, look at him.
We're going getting released after the game. And he goes, yeah, you and Scott both, and then we all looked at Scott and literally, these two guys got up out of the stretch, went into the coach's office and got released and we never saw him again. That's how they got released from professional baseball by a nine year old in front of their whole team.
Gosh, dang.
Yeah, it's one thing find out on the internet, but the nine year old's got it before you do. Yeah, I get the conversation. It's like, hey, breaking news. It's not Jeff Passon. Happens to be the nine year old who's the son of a kid out there during batting practice and you guys are gone. And it's also part of when you lose teammates like that, to go somewhere else you never see him again.
David Craig.
When I was my rookie year, he wasn't nice to me during training camp, and you know what he told me after and make a long story short, and he became one of my dear friends. He said, Sean, I developed these relationships with guys I've learned, and then they get cut or they're not here and he goes, and it bothers me. He goes, So I'm a little cold. Once you make the team. He was the first guy to hug me, But during the whole time I wanted to fight him because he he wasn't talking to me
very much. It wasn't because of his job. He'd been in the league, but he didn't like that gut wrenching feeling of forging relationships and then all of a sudden, the guy's gone.
So making the team made it a little easier.
To for forge a long term relationship. Yeah, talk about tough decisions and then having a nine year old come in. That's not what a manager or teammates want to hear. I would imagine, Steve Right.
It was brutal, though, I mean, losing your buddies, you know, along the way through the minor leagues and you knew it would never be the same, and you try to keep in touch, but it's never the same as when your teammates.
Steve, is this team good enough in your eyes? Right now?
I'm talking about with the with the injuries they have right now, And I said, can you see them in the World Series?
What's your answer?
Yeah, I can't.
I mean, I look at everybody, everybody's got warts Sean, and I just feel I don't think Jordon's too far away. And you say, look at them right now, but I don't think they're too far away from getting their best hitter back right And I think that's that's gonna make everybody better. But you look at three guys in particular offensively for this team, and we've talked enough about the pitching. The pitching, there's no question they have as good at pitching as anybody in.
Baseball Amen one through thirteen, yep. But they need jord On.
But but there's three guys in particular, Pana, Myers and Paradus have the have three of the top eleven upticks and ops of anybody in all of baseball. So when you look at those guys and see their improvement. Jake, he's got the second best road batting average in baseball behind Aaron Judge. I mean, there's some crazy stuff kind of going on right now, but you've got enough guys in there that are putting together some kind of breakout seasons and it's fun to watch that stuff.
Steve, he's about eighty or eighty or ninety points higher than you said when the spring training you said, I don't care what he hits, the way he plays defense, We're going to be fine.
And this bonus and blessing.
So you've covered baseball for a long time and watched him closely since he's been here. Why there's got to be it's not just always you know the ball's falling where they you know where nobody is. Now what is You can't keep hitting it like that and it just be an aberration at least maybe it can seventy five eighty games in, but you see it every day. Why is he better? Why is he making so much contact? Why is he so confident right now?
I think he really concentrated on the right things in the offseason. I played against his dad in the minor leagues, and his dad helped him in the in the off season, talking about approach and figure out what you hit best, where's your zone, and concentrate on that early in the count.
I think it's as simple as that.
He's swinging at better pitches, he knows himself better, and he's sticking to a plan.
He's staying up the middle.
He's not pulling off, trying to pull balls up in the air, something that he's not really good at to begin with. He's just staying in the middle of the diamond, staying gap to gap, using his speed, stealing bases, still two bases yesterday. He's just doing the things that he's capable of. And to learn yourself. You know, three or four years in, probably more healthy than he's ever been. I think you're starting to see somebody's really starting to blossom into who they can be. And and you get,
you know, almost halfway into the season. Now you figure out this guy is not only one of the best center fielders in baseball, this guy is starting to be a threat offensively too.
Yeah, no doubt, Steve Sparks. So one final question, Steve, I know you've got some stuff.
To do today.
Is with this team and the pitching what do you do to play the game with you speaking a tough decisions? You'd be the manager and the general manager combined right now, And we're sitting in a room and all of a sudden, Garcia, we start to see, you know, he's improving. I don't know how long it's going to be, but let's just the what if game and then Arraghetti and then Xavier what pumped it up to ninety five last week throwing? So it doesn't feel maybe I don't know when not far?
Is is it fifteen days? Is it forty five days?
Too much?
But let's just say the pitching continues like it has and these guys are healthy. Talking about tough decisions. How do you keep a full roster of pitchers engaged?
I think that usually takes care of itself, number one, But I mean, you love problems like this, right Thinking about Christian Xavier at points that like long term for sure, and they signed him up and locked him up to a long term deal. Long term you want him as a starter, but he's he's really excelled as a reliever at times, and he's ninety five without adrenaline in a bullpen,
in on the side fields in Florida. Right now, I can't I can't even imagine where he could probably touch in a one or two inning stint, you know, in game action. So that's a possibility. I mean, there's there's limitless possibilities. But I'll go to this too. You get a lot of guys healthy, say Luis Garcia, Spencer Arrighetty,
Lance McCullers, JP France. You mix and match, and you can piggyback, you know, on certain days with with with a couple of starters and have them go four and four and that's another rest day for your bullpen.
Things like that. I think what you're trying to do is keep these guys as fresh as possible.
While you're winning these games, and then continue to play great baseball. The record in one run games is certainly flip flop from years past. I think they're fifteen and seven now after yesterday's game. So winning close games is I think probably a byproduct. You know, twenty two comeback wins is a lot of it. That's a great trait.
We've talked about that. The two outruns that they scored this year, they're up among the leaders, and in their pitching, I think they've got a lot of good traits of good teams.
Yeah, and at no time in the history of baseball or sports anywhere has anybody complained about having too much pitching.
It'll never happen, So there you go. Good problem to have.
Hey, enjoy your event today, brother, hit him straight, and then we'll do it again next Monday. We appreciate you moving it around so you could join us today.
Good talking to you, you too, brother.
Thank you.
That's a great Steve Spark solid ball striker, Solid ball striker.