John Salisbury Show.
It's time for our eight o'clock weekly visit with Astros broadcaster Steve steven Sparks. I just died to go formal today, Steven. You ever get in trouble while your mom she called you, Stephen had to? I know you did. You're not the you unless you were there? Were you the kiss ass child?
Steve? Welcome in, buddy, How you doing?
Never got in trouble?
You never got in trouble? Ever, I don't believe.
I don't believe so you you.
Were the teacher's pet, right, let me ask you how many times did you have to do after school suspension truthfully in your life?
Uh?
Sean, were of the age we got, we got, we got paddled, right.
I had a teacher who had a paddle called pistol pete, and I might I might as well called a pistol Stephen, because because I own that thing. Yeah, I got in trouble.
Yeah I figured you were, but you but it was the kind of trouble that like the teacher still like smirking and said he's so cute, he's so so nice and sweet. But just a little bit to let everybody know that you still had it in you. I well believe it because I know the feeling and you're exactly right. People laugh and think we're kidding. My vice we had, the vice principal was the swat giver, and it's true.
Think about how times have change, Steve. Now, could you imagine telling your kid you're twenty twenty five with all this going on, and so we say, hey, you go down the principal office to get your aspect with a paddle.
Yeah, not happening.
I remember.
I remember at one point they used to do it a how hallway, like, all right, go outside the hall, still go outside the hall, bend over, and then somewhere halfway through this stuff, for.
Some reason, things change and they had to get a witness.
They had to get another teacher from the room next door to watch, just to make.
Sure you were an abusive or there wasn't going overboard type of thing.
Yeah, just to make sure that they didn't whack you time.
I guess I love it, man. Those were the days Chuck Leaf. We didn't want to go to Chuck Leaf's office. I remember the name right back in the days Eastmarks Joys Is. Some guys are a little risty, like at hockey. Oh the rister, the one timer, Yeah, no doubt about it. Steve rough weekend in some ways. I mean, you're not supposed to lose to the Chicago White Sox, but they did. Let's start on Sunday and we can work our way back your initial thoughts about eighty seven pitches and Lance
mccullor's first appearance and felt like ten years. But what in the last couple of years, what'd you think about it from the visuals?
Well, I can't imagine all that was going through is mind, nine hundred and.
Fifteen days since the last time he pitched on a big league mound. So just just to get to that point, I mean that was very encouraging, you know, very happy for him to be able to do what he did. And I thought the ball came out of his hand really nice. He talked about not having a great feel as far as landing his brain ball, but I thought he threw some really good curves. The slider was a little probably breaking a little earlier than he thought, but
I mean it was huge. I mean, he can spin the ball as well as anybody, and the change up was really good.
So the thing that's going to make his change up and everything.
Else a little better, especially if he throws maybe a mile per hour or two miles fur slower than he did a couple of years ago. Is to make sure he uses his fastball inside, especially the lefties, to be able to dot the fastball and get it in there to get him off of that change up, because the change up is a great swing and miss pitch. But all in all, you know what he was able to do.
I came away very encouraged making some big pitches and big moments and getting through that and hearing his comments afterwards how how good he felt, was very encouraging.
Yeah, Steve, when does a guy know, I mean, that's a long time. I guess we're all speculating, but you're around it and you see it, and I can kind of speak from when it's a knee injury in football, when they know that confidence is back. I can put my leg in the ground. I'm ready to go. Well, when do you think it kicks in or it's like you know, as you mentioned the first time, you're kind of feeling your way through it.
And all the emotion, the raw emotion.
That's going through getting back on the mound, When do you know, how long does it take before you settle in to say I'm in the rotation, this is who I am and I feel great about it. How long does that take, Steve, so you almost trust that your rehab worked. When does that happen?
You know?
I can't get into his head, and I can't imagine all the thoughts that ran through his mind. I just know for me, my mind wasn't real clear unless I exercise some really disciplined things on the mound, like pre pitch routines and things like that.
But I bet he was thinking about so many doctors and.
Rehab right and you know, then he would, you know, maybe be behind the count too, and oh and scramble to get back in it. I think he will know that he's all the way back once he just sees the glove and hits it, you know, And we can talk about basketball, we can talk about golf, we can talk about.
Football, Sean.
When you're when you're throwing a leading a guy with the past, you're not thinking about mechanics.
You're ripping it and that's it. You just react.
And I think that's when Lance is at his best, and he's going to know he's all the way back. He's not thinking about an injury or rehab or how long it's been since he's been out there. He's seeing the glove.
And hitting it. That's simple.
The mechanics are the last thing, Steve. If you think about when you're going good, right when you're finally, it's because it's just it's I've worked on these a million Now when you start when you need to, I'm talking about that day pitching. I don't want it's like you read golf died. Just Hey, if you can't fit your swing thoughts on a three by five card, you got too many of them so to be able to flood, you know, get rid of the clutter and you just let it rip.
Yeah, that's a great point, but you have to practice that.
Show yes, exactly, if you're on.
The if you're on the if you're on the driving range, or you're throwing a bulletpen, or you're you're taking batting practice or whatever it is, there's part of that practice that does need to be mechanics.
You got to agree.
You may have to go to the iPad or whatever.
It is part of its mechanics, but part of it and maybe fifty percent and sometimes seventy five percent has to be on the mental part of what you need to do to be successful, and it's got to be real simple. It's got to be just seeing the glove and hitting it, because you can't think about mechanics and compete against the best players in the world.
You just can't, right, I mean, you just have to react.
So you have to practice that way, and you have to be disciplined and learn how the latter stages in your last couple of rounds in batting practice just has to be see the ball and hit the ball, and trust the work that you did with your mechanics will show up.
No doubt about it.
Steve sparks for his regular Monday eight o'clock visit here on Sports Talk seven ninety All Right, Steve, maybe from the weekend or maybe just so far the overall body of work, even though it's early. What are your concerned about right now?
I'm not. I'm not super concerned. I think some of these guys are gonna get going. I would say my biggest probably concern is Jordan's health.
Maybe, Yeah, how where are we with this? Yeah? What's going on?
Dana said yesterday that we'll know in a day or two, but he just didn't feel comfortable with his right hand and batting practice on Saturday. So they just want to They just want to get whatever's in there out of there. They don't feel like anything other than rest is what's gonna help him to fill out his best. So I think that's probably my biggest concern because he's your best
He's your best hitter, that's plain and simple. But I think you were seeing signs with Jan er Diez coming around the last couple of weeks starting to drive the ball, Kristen Walker with more extra bases, the Astros nine hole hitters, whoever they put.
In the nine holes is going to bang.
But uh, they took Cam Smith out of the lineup last couple of days. Last time they did that, he was able to reset and come back for a couple of weeks span and really drive the ball. So I just I just feel, and I've said this in our pregame show a couple of times in the last week, just waiting on three or four guys to get hot at the same time. You know, Jeremy Payne has been great. He leaves all sort stops in war. You know, that's
including Bobby whitt. So there's some guys that are doing some pretty good things, but there's still three or four guys that we know there's a lot more in there.
Steve and I don't even want to really talk much about this because I like to throw good stuff out into that atmosphere and out into space. But let's just say you had to go without Jordon for an extended amount of time. How capable are they carrying this? Even though he's bapp struggled this year the long ball, We get that, but we also know what the result is when he's feeling good and how quickly he can.
Turn it around.
Is this team set up well enough to deal with an extended amount without him?
Think about what they've been able to do.
Jordon hasn't hasn't hit that well all season, right, you know, and he talks about it. He said, when the numbers show up, that'll tell you I'm where I need to be. It's about the numbers. And he's right. They're still waiting on him. Last year, his May he had four RBIs. So there's periods sometimes when your superstar goes away a little bit, so to speak. You know that they're not
capitalizing and other guys have to chip in. And they've got enough guys in their lineup with Esach and Kristin Walker and Paynya and Altuve and nier Diez, and you know we can we can go up and down a little bit and say, you know, with a few of these guys getting warmer, is.
It heats up? And I trust that they will.
You know, I think they're good hitters, that they'll score plenty of runs with this pitching.
Their pitching's really good.
Steve Sparks regular eight o'clock visit here for a few more minutes here on the Sean Salisbury Show. ASTROS broadcaster Steve Zach de Zendel de Zenzo five years from now, where do you see him?
What position? What kind of player do you see from him?
With just just the early returns from last year and this year his improvement, and where do you see him playing one hundred and fifty games a year.
Well, I see a lot of signs of him coming alive at the play.
Yes, for sure.
I think with more playing time, anybody who's young is able to do this with only playing two or three times a week, that's that's a great indication that they can make adjustments. They can stay ready. You know, they're working very hard behind the scenes to be ready. And I just love how athletic he is. You know, he can play different positions. He moves really well.
You know, he's six foot six inches.
Time with Steve the first I don't mean interrupted, the first time I stood next to him. I'm six five too. Oh you know, you see stuff it says a big cat on TV. I'm six five about two forty and I stood next to him and he's an outside line but he really is. That's an outside linebacker. This got movement like a wide receiver, you know what I mean. It's it's a freak. Well, nowadays our linebackers can run
like those guys and are there just as athletic. But I was actually shocked, not surprised, shocked when I stood next to him.
I didn't realize he was that big.
He's got that Jeff Samarga type body.
Yes, and even even a little thicker yeah, yes, no doubt.
Yeah, he's very athletic. So I don't know what kind of opportunities will be there.
I just know he's gonna he's gonna work to a degree where he's gonna maximize his talent, and I think he's got a lot of talent, so what whatever's there for him, I think he'll take advantage of. And I think that's what you you get really encouraged about. And those are the guys that you invest in, Sean, Yes, long term, short term, whatever it is. But once you get to know guys a little bit personally and you see the way they go about their business, you invest in those players.
Hey, Steve, quickly for you. I know you've got a lot going on this uh, this team. You know, people talk about windows opening and closing right a lot of you know, it's Springer gone and Corea gone and then Verlin. I mean it happens every year we go through this conversation. But with this, with this influx of young players and bringing up parades in and who's playing it and just some changes and it looks different. But window wide open,
half open? I mean, champions is this championship caliber run? Continue with the current roster as it's set up forget trades in any of that. How it's set up is the is the window still wide open for you?
I think just from what I see that the astros are as good as anybody in the American League.
I think once they start hitting right.
Now, they're a game over five hundred, and they get to five, six, seven games over five hundred and just grind away through this summer. I think they're set up for not only a regular season type of winning, but for also playoff winning. When you look at Hunter Brown and from Er Valdez and whoever you're going to slot in the hole, I think they're set up for the playoffs very well too. So I think they've got as good of a chance as anybody in the American League,
because I don't see anybody running away with anything. The Astros won the series against the Tigers, they won a series against the Mets, they won a series against the San Diego Padres. They can compete with anybody, and they can certainly pitch with anybody. And I think that's what what's gonna matter down the road.
And Steve with that the record, I mean, you know, sometimes what is the record saying they are considering the fact that Jordan hasn't got going, we're waiting for Christian Walker. He sent his hard I mean, I actually feel pretty good about where they are pitching, for sure. Other than a couple hiccups, but I feel pretty damn good about where they are, considering they haven't exploded two or three games in a row much at all, and the Big Boppers still aren't going yet.
I think you're exactly right.
I think I think I think you could be pretty confident that this pitching, barring injuries, are going to stay very sound. I think their bullpen has a sub three year I think second in the league, and they're starting pitching is really consistent. And once you get these guys, if they if they're thinking about they're getting ready to go on a seventeen game run with no off days, and they go to a six man rotation, give these guys even a little bit more of a breather. They
go out there more fresh. I think you're going to see even better from the from the rotation. So it's pretty exciting in that regard. But I don't think anybody in the American League is gonna run away from anything.
I just don't see. I don't see a clear cut favorite right now.
It's gonna make for a hell of a run too, a hell of a competition and fun baseball season to watch. Yeah, it sure is, Steve great. Hopefully we won't. We'll get we'll get great news and it won't be long news about Jordon Alvarez and get him going. We appreciate you, my man, and we'll do it again next Monday, and thanks for joining.
Us as always.
All right, thanks for having me, Sean.
You bet that's great. Steve Sparks, good information, good stuff. Let's come back and talk. Dan was concerned about Jordan all along, and we even asked the question here, is there some bothering him because it felt odd not having power? Which one was it? And should we be concerned about the other stuff, not even the injury about Jrdan or is it just injury related? We'll come back and discuss Sports Talk seven and ninety