The Josh Innes Show - Framber Valdez: Tool

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Does anyone believe that Framber didn't deliberately nail Cesar Salazar in the chest with a crappy pitch? Well, Framber's agent doesn't believe it. But, his agent works for him. What a tool. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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the world has to offer through their own eyes. Light the path to a brighter future with Stellist lenses for myopia control. Learn more at SLR.com and ask your family eye care professional for SLR Stellas lenses at your child's next visit. I enjoy this headline about Fromber Valdez and about the incident that happened with him and his catcher. But I find this headline fun. Astros pitcher Fromber Valdez accused of hitting. teammate what we know. Well, that headline would lead you to believe that there was some sort of fight in the locker room and the guy cold cocked him in the teeth or something like that. There is no accusation of hitting teammate. We watched the video of him crossing up his

catcher deliberately and nailing him in the chest with a 90-something mile per hour pitch. I don't need to, what we know, we watched it. We saw it. Let's play a couple of commercials and let's get into this. All right. It's game. Game week, baby, and we are ready for football with Draft King Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the National Football League. You know, I love my live bets, but I'll also put in some pregame spread bets over unders, anytime touchdowns. We do it all. And get this, new customers. Are you listening?

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Oh, we're going back to the trash cans. Like, that was a controversy five, six years ago. But, hey, guys, the Astros have found themselves in another controversy. But there's no stolen signals this time, rather miscommunication about signals. that might have been the cause. Oh boy, that is creative shit USA today. God, five years ago this shit happened. Five years ago.

And it's still, hey guys, the Astros are in another controversy. You would make it sound like there's a controversy with the Astros every fucking year. They stole some fucking signs, banged on some garbage cans. The story came out five years ago. It's over. They didn't take the World Series from them. They won it. They are the champions and you can't take it away.

Yet here we are. No stolen signals this time. Warga war. During a game on Tuesday, September 2nd, Astro's left-hander Framber Valdez, who's a very unlikable guy, that's my editorial, allegedly, intentionally, threw an uncalled pitch at catcher Caesar Salazar, which wound up pelting Salazar in the chest. The miscommunication in question came after Salazar asked Valdez to step off the mound

after the pair cannot agree on a pitch to throw to Trent Grisham. Valdez did not step off, though, and Grisham wound up hitting a grand slam to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead. Just two pitches after the home run, Valdez pegged his catcher. Although both Salazar and Valdez told reporters that the incident was unintentional after the game, Salazar's reaction to the errant pitch had many fans believing it was foul on Valdez's end. After taking a 93-mile-per-hour sinker to the chest, Salazar looked back at Valdez with disapproving eyes while Valdez stared him down with a little emotion. Well, it was obvious what happened.

And then you listened to the reaction of catchers. Like, I listened to A.J. Persinski break this down. And he's like, he should have gotten punched in the fucking face. And that's a catcher. Like, and look, AJ ain't going to pull any punches. You don't have to like AJ. I actually like AJ a lot. He ain't going to bullshit you on something like this.

You got the perspective of a catcher, and he's going to tell you what happened in that situation. And it's pretty clear. Like, I like, here's what we know about the incident. I'll tell you, USAA today. Here's what we know about the incident. Valdez got pissed. He gave up a grand slam. So a bitch move, he throws it.

He crosses up his catcher on person, nails him right in the chest. The catcher's looking back at him like, fuck you, dude. And give the catcher credit. You know, the guy is obviously kind of a lesser end dude on the depth chart, so he's not going to sit out there and fight Framber Valdez, but he very well could have. Like, that's what this story is. There's no investigation. There is no what we know.

What we know is Frumber was a crime. cock sucker. That was a dickhead move on his part. That's what we know. A guy gave up a grand slam, was pissed off, and decided to peg his dude is putting this story, peg him right in the chest. But let's see, here's what we know. Valdez's agent defends him. On Wednesday morning, Framber Valdez's agent told the Houston Chronicle that any assumption that Valdez hit Salazar on purpose was preposterous and a complete lack of respect for who he is as a person. There's no questioning what Frambervaldez is and what he represents to the team and his thought process on the team, Cabrera added.

The idea that he's intentionally trying to injure one of his teammates is preposterous. Anything to the contrary is just completely misguided and it's not right. Then please explain the look on the catcher's face whenever he got drilled in the chest and was clearly, that does not happen. A catcher does not get crossed up in that way. That does not happen. listen to any story, any podcast featuring any catcher, but most notably a guy like A.J. Presensky who's caught a lot of pitches in his life. Please help me understand that

where a catcher at the professional level is that caught up and that crossed up by a pitch. It does not happen unless you deliberately threw a pitch that that person was not expecting. And that person's obviously expecting something off speed and obviously expecting something low in the zone. And you throw him a 94 mile per hour pitch right into the check. That was obviously intentional. Cut the shit. I know that you're the agent. I know that it's your job to spend these things.

I know that it's your job to protect your guy. And I totally understand that and respect the process of that. However, you are full of shit and you know you are full of shit. There was nothing unintentional. If you unintentionally hit your catcher in the chest like that and your catcher stands up and he looks at you like, what the fuck, dude? That's where you go, my bad dog. Like, hey, come out. You call him up to the mountain.

whatever. I don't know if that would count as a visit or not, but you call him up and go, dude, my fucking bad. I'm just super pissed. I threw the wrong, but whatever. If it were unintentionally, that's my bad. If something like that happens and you both look at each other, one is like just perplexed and the other one is looking at him like he's going to murder him, like that's not an unintentional situation. That was an intentional shot at his dude. And really, it's a bully move because Salazar is a guy that's not high up on their depth chart. He's not a guy that you have to really care that much about, so it's not like he needs him. Did Valdez apologize to Salazar? Following the game on Tuesday, Valdez told

reporters that he had apologized to Salazar after the mix-up, claiming it was merely a result of him getting crossed up. No one buys this shit. No one buys it at all. Astros' executives give their thoughts. On Wednesday morning, Astro's GM Dana Brown took to the radio waves. I would assume that was on the Sean Salisbury show. That was that interview that we used to do with the claiming that it likely came as a result of frustration after Valdez gave up a grand slam to Grisham. Brown claimed sometimes you get so angry you can't see straight and he crossed him up. They had a conversation after the game and they squashed it. That's fine and publicly you can say that and you can move on from it.

But the idea that like, well, he was just so mad that he did this. No, he was mad at his catcher. He was pissed at his catcher. His catcher was trying to tell him to step off the mound because they need to figure out a new pitch to throw. The guy throws the pitch anyway. It's blasted out of the park, and then you get pissed and you blame the catcher, and you deliver a 94-mile-per-hour pitch to his stomach. That's what you did. Team manager Joe Espada also gave his thoughts, claiming that most of the assumptions regarding the incident are merely false speculations.

He said, quote, a lot of that stuff is not true, but I understand the environment and what comes with it. I appreciate if we could just get past this and go back to just baseball. I also don't like that. I don't like when a guy clearly does something that is. worth at least questioning. And then you play the angle of, well, this is just, you know, the world we're in right now. I understand the current environment and what comes with it. Like that's basically what you're saying is the world is so full of shit and the world is just looking for drama that we've made drama out of nothing. And sometimes you'd be right

about that, Joe Espada. Sometimes I would agree with you. I'd say, you know what? You're not wrong. That sometimes people just do dumb, that people are looking for anything. Like we talked a second ago about in Philadelphia, just looking for drama. Philly. was the ultimate place that just wanted to find drama. Drama moved the needle there so people take a little hill and make a mountain out of it. But sir, we have video here. We can see it with our own eyes. That is not a normal interaction that happens between a catcher and a pitcher. That's not what that was. And then you've got other catchers in the league. Now, granted, they're not in the locker room. They're not in the clubhouse. They're not there. But you've

got guys who've played that position for a long time that are saying, I would have beaten the shit out of Framber Valdez. Now, maybe they wouldn't. It's just big talk, whatever. But watch the video. We have the video. That is not a normal situation. So please spare me the, well, you know, kind of in this era, and I'm paraphrasing here and kind of rephrasing this, but saying a lot of that stuff is not true, but I understand the environment and what comes with it. Like, people are going to speculate because they have a fucking video, and the video shows your catcher getting crossed up in a wicked way that nobody gets caught up that I've watched a million pitches this year I do not recall seeing someone crossed up that terribly that they get hit in the chest by a 94 mile per hour

pitch so you can tell me that it's just a product of the environment that we live in you can tell me that it's just a product of society and people are just looking for drama and blah blah blah blah. Or you could just say that your ace, if you will, has sucked. Well, he's not really your ace, but could have been at one point. But, like, that you're one of your best players, one of your best pitchers, a guy you're counting on, got blown up again and couldn't hack it. So he delivers a shot to the catcher, and he knows he can because it's not like it's the most important player on the team or someone that he can't fuck with. That's all that was. So spare me. Spare me the idea that the world's broken in some way, show his spot.

And, like, this is just a product of people wanting drama. And again, I'm paraphrasing him there. But it's reality. That's what he's saying. Like, this is the, we are a product of the times that we're in. And I know what times. No, you just have a guy who got rocked and then wanted to punish the catcher for it. Look at the dude's face.

That's not the reaction of a dude that's like, oh, shucks, I got crossed up. That's a dude that's like, fuck you. bro and great and I'm not saying they didn't apologize to each other and I'm not saying it's not water under the bridge now but to make it seem like that moment was nothing as complete bullshit and the manager and the GM and everybody knows it