The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Abraham Toro Joins Matt At Astros Spring Training In West Palm Beach

Episode Date: February 18, 2020

Astros Infielder, Abraham Toro, joins Matt in West Palm Beach at Astros Spring Training

We are absolutely happy to talk about real-life baseball, 2020 baseball, Abraham Toro of the Houston Astros. Joining us for a couple minutes on the show. We appreciate coming by. How are things? Help me out here. First one, Matt. You turn mine way up.

Yeah. Look at me. I can't incorporate anything. He's fired, man. Help him out over here. Put his headphones on there. Because I do want to ask him about one of the most special. That's me.

That's me. That's me. This has got to be one over here. There we go. I think we're good. Now try it. That's good. There you go.

How's it sound there for you? One of the highlights of last year's team, for sure, was Justin Throw on the No-No. You had a big part of that, helping that make that happen. The quote, where the F is Toro is one of the most – if you're going to make t-shirts with your life, that should be on there, right? Yeah, yeah. I've got a lot of people, you know, they know me by that line. And it's always pretty funny. Did you spend a little bit of time looking back at that game

knowing how big impactful your hit was in helping J.B. get that no-hitter? I don't need to go back because it's just people, they bring it out a lot. There you go. They just show me video and try to ask me questions about it. So, you know, like I said, it's always nice, you know, to talk about that. J.B.'s never going to let you pay for a meal again, correct? I hope so.

I mean, seriously, no-hitter's are rare. I mean, you know, he's had a few in his life. I don't know you know this. He makes a lot of money. So I'm seriously, I would not worry about ever, if you're in a restaurant, just scream his name and say, remember Toronto? Just do it that way. I'll try that next time.

Tell me about Dusty Baker. Your kind of conversations with him so far. You know, I've been in camp for like two days, so, you know, I just introduced myself so far. So, you know, so far is great. Great manager. You know, he's been in a game for a while, so I'm just trying to learn for him. Obviously, a different tenor from AJ. Is there anything at this point you've been able to notice or is it still too early to decide what kind of feel you have for him?

Yeah, I think it's a little early. Like I said, it's only been two days. But, you know, it's obviously everybody is different. And, you know, hopefully I can get to know him a little better and we can make things work out. Are you a guy that needs to walk into the clubhouse knowing what they expect to be early on? Or do you kind of have your own kind of here's my game playing? Here's my want to make sure I justify myself getting on this roster. How do I fit my way onto this 26 man?

Yeah, I'm just trying to focus about myself. I don't need somebody to tell me what to do. I'm just trying to work hard and do my game. I don't want to change my plans to hopefully make the team. So you talk about you don't want to change your plans. I mean, what are you going into or what is different this year from, say, maybe years past, of just going in off-season and preparing yourself? This year is a little different, I'll say, on the defensive side.

I'm trying to be a little bit versatile, you know, trying to play all over the infield, maybe some outfield and on the hitting standpoint it's just trying to be able to spread the ball a little bit more I don't want to be just a pull hitter so that's what I've been working so far are you somebody who I mean are you just talking to everybody or you were asking questions and and all that type of stuff you're trying to soak everything up here yeah yeah I mean I don't really ask question I just just trying to see what the guys are doing that's what I did last year just about the routine and then some things I put in my routine and something I just let go

who's like just give me a example of somebody's routine who you're kind of picking up on and trying to try to model after. I like Bregman a lot. You know, just every swing, you know, you can see he has an intent. He's a big video guy. He likes to see his video. So he's kind of the guy that I kind of looked up to.

In years past, guys getting days off is very difficult. I mean, it takes a lot of work to tell Jose O'Too that you're not going to play. Breggman, career, the same kind of thing. Those guys getting a day off is your opportunity to shine. So you're probably in a little bit of a strange scenario that those guys want to play and to succeed you guys want to win but that gives you an opportunity to take advantage of those times on the duty day off for rest oh yeah um this is a matter from the lineup or not you know you you always want to be ready because you never know when the opportunity is going to come and you know

you want to succeed when it comes uh is the team ready to play some games or is it i mean you guys have been here a lot earlier obviously for obvious reasons but so is you're ready to get going here in a few days oh yeah i'm ready you know today was uh our first live VP and i feel ready to go Who'd you go against? I go to Nola Paredes and Paredes and Cone L Perez. How to go? It went good. You know, I had a little line drive that probably was going to be an aisle

and in a couple walks, so it felt good. Okay, well, you're on base percentage. It's okay. Nobody keeps track of those kind of stands. Abraham, thanks coming by. And again, it was fun to seeing what you did last year in Toronto look forward to seeing you in 2020. All right, thank you.

Appreciate. Abraham Toro, joining us here on the Matt Thomas show.