The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Manager Joe Espada Joins The Show To Talk About The State Of The Team

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Astros Manager Joins The Show To Talk About The State Of The Team

This is like one of my three favorite parts of the week. 10-quanty minutes of the manager of the Astros. Joe's spot every Tuesday, 1230. Matt Thomas Show with Ross. He can hear you on hold, Matt. Tell him he's number one. Come on, man. Well, I mean, he's going to, he knows.

He can read through media BS with the best of him. Let's, why don't you pipe him up there on the screen for us? Skip, how are things? I'm doing well. I like the honesty. I want to know what's the other top two things that you like ahead of talking to me on Tuesday. I like a good hot blackjack table, if you know what I'm saying. There you go, okay.

And some good margaritas. He's a favor of the week, though. Well, I mean, if I... You're in life. You're in the blackjack table every week? You've got a problem. Maybe, Skip, I've got a little bit of an issue here. But we'll move on.

Can we move on to baseball, please? I'll say Brian Bogus-evick and... Ain't nobody got time for that. All right. It's a favorite three. So other members of media were afraid to ask you. I ain't scared about you. I'm going to tell you right now.

I'm going to ask you right now. You're on Alvarez. He's playing tonight? Come on. No, he's not playing tonight. Oh, okay. Give us an update then, at least. No, but he's feeling better.

The plan is for him to come in today and continue to, you know, progression, swinging the bat. You know, obviously after just one day of hitting in the team, we would like to see more progress, you know, but he's feeling a lot better. Well, that's good. Let me ask you this, and you're not a doctor. clearly, but is there something he can do? Because look, the hand's been an issue a couple of times.

And maybe as you've been dealing with so many athletes in your life, Skip, people have bad backs or necks or sore forearms, whatever the case may be. Is there anything he can do to adjust so this doesn't become a problem every couple of years? Or is this just a byproduct of playing an incredibly difficult sport? Yeah. You know, he plays, he plays every day. He, you know, gripping the bat, swinging the bat, they're wearing tear with years. of accumulation, how many games we've played for so many seasons. You know, it happens. But one thing I do tell you, though, he is, you know, he works his butt off.

He's always trying to, you know, stay strong and stay in the lineup. And, you know, sometimes there's things that we can't control. And I think that, you know, once we get this right, he's hopefully also have to deal with this anymore. And we don't have to, you know, take. take some off days to let, you know, this heal and deal with this again. So much of the conversation in the last handful of days has been about the 17 games in 17 days. And I thought what you said yesterday was interesting about this is not the worst thing in the world.

Obviously, you want to stay with a five-man rotation, get an extra arm in the bullpen, get some guys off. And look, days off are always supreme. But I want you to tell our audience what you said to the media yesterday, which I thought was intriguing about getting into a regular routine. and this is the heart of the baseball season. And you know what? 17 games ain't the worst thing in the world. You know what?

We take the off days, right? We welcome the off days. You know, we rather have the off days. You know, it's August and September, right? Where we really are, you know, in the dog days of August, right? We're grinding it. We're late in the season. We need some rest.

We need, you know, be able to recover and regroup and stuff like that. But, you know, early in the season, you know, we go. And we get in a group of things, right? And then five days later, there's an off day, right? You know, guys like routines. We're starting to figure some stuff out offensively that off day can interrupt that. And then you've got to get back in the flow of things. You know, this baseball players are, you know, they have routines.

They have habits. They have ways when they feel good, they want to go back the next day and feel it again, right? So I welcome the straight games, right? Now I've got to be smart in how I manage the whole entire workload for the guys and give them some off days here and there. But these guys want to get a flow of things. They're starting to feel good about things, and they're looking forward to the next day to build on whatever they left the day before.

So that's why I think us getting in these games in a row, I think it can help us. Astros manager Joe Espato with us here on Sports Talk 790. How is Jose Altova feeling after being in the lineup yesterday? And is there any thought to managing the workload or is he basically a full go? No, he's good. He's good. I'm going to deach him today. But he came out feeling good

after the game yesterday. So hopefully we put this, you know, the hamstring issue behind us, but something that we need to keep an eye in mind, especially going to Dallas here and we start playing on that turf and then going to Tampa, which we know we'll be dealing with some humidity and hot weather playing outdoors. So we got to keep eye on and the guys here in the next week or two. You've put Jeremy Pena in the leadoff spot in the lineup.

He has responded well. A couple of more hits yesterday. I'm just curious for you. You can kind of talk about his growth personally. and the type of person he is and the challenges that he's taken on in his young career and the struggles he had and leading to how well he's hitting now. You know, for me, it's just a confidence. You know, when you put someone in the laid off spot, it's something that he's done.

He did in college career, he's amateur career. He loves it. You know, he feels like, you know, everything goes through me. I'm the one who's going to ignite the offense. He has taken it very seriously, and it has actually helped his approach and his mindset. And he's done it a remarkable job. Just for me, it's just how he's. driving the ball. You actually see him getting himself in good hitters counts actually doing some

auto takes because he kind of understands what the pitch is trying to do. He's getting himself in and and and and and and and and and and and that bats where he's controlling the whole entire tempo. And I think it's just maturity. I think it's confident. I think it's, you know, trust that we have given him. And I, you know, I hope that this is something that he can grow for. from and we can keep him there for years to come. And he mentioned Jeremy did about Al Tuve giving them some advice and saying, hey, you're going to be in the leadoff spot,

but just be yourself. Don't change the approach because of where you are in the lineup. Is that basically the message not only to him, but everyone as you move them around? Yeah, of course. You know, they are who they are. You know, Jeremy it's someone who likes to hunt the fastball, right? He's a guy

who is going to go up there looking to drive the ball early in account. But it's okay. if they don't give you that pitch right away. You could wait for the next pitch. And if he's not there, you've got good enough back-to-ball skills where you could put the ball in play. Don't be afraid to hit with two strikes.

You know, know who's behind you, know the situation of the game. Those are things that Altuiz done a really good job walking him through. And our hitting coaches, just know where you're at in the game. You know, long inning by one of our pitchers know that we don't need you to make a quick out give your pitcher a breather, right? All those things are things that we talk to. I've been talking him through. He's done a fabulous job.

Joe, you've been balancing Zach Desenso and Cam on the outfield, moving them around a little bit, days off, playing consecutive games. Is it too much to ask at this point for those two guys with such little majorly experience to take the bull by the horns and take the spot every day? Or would you ultimately like to see somebody battle that out and say, you're all right, I'm penciling him in six days a week. you know we really want them to take over and and get more regular abats i think they're i think they're close um you know i'm i'm looking more of the quality of abats i really want to

make sure that i match them up against some certain pitchers that i know they can they can handle right now you just don't want to build them up and then go through a stretch where they they struggle offensively i think they're done a really nice job in the corner outfields. It's just, you know, monitoring their their upbats, the quality of the abats, their swing decisions, how hard they're hitting the ball, you know,

because early in your career in the Big League, getting that down is very important. And I don't want them to be overwhelmed by you know too many abats in a row. So, but I think both guys are capable of playing every day in the Big Leaks. I really

am confident about that. I know you're going to hold a roster spot, probably for tomorrow's starter, which I think you'll announce later at the ballpark. But let me ask you about the six-man rotation and the fact that you are down a reliever, that's obvious. Does it caution you a little bit when you go to the phone and say go get somebody warmed up? But because you are so, I would have perceived to be concerned about too much wear and tear that if you put a, bring a guy up and get him warmed up, that's going to be an indirect

notion that he's going to be eventually on that mound. Yeah. And that's the thing, especially when you're in a 17-game stretch. You know, we have lost two starters and we have one less pitcher in the pen. You know, we're going to need some of our starters just to give us some length. If there will be some off days here and there, you could be a little bit more aggressive. But right now where we are in the season and how we need to be very aware of the workload of some of these guys, especially what happens last year.

You know, I don't want to go through that again. We have to be really smart on how we use these guys. these early in the season. Last question. Framber has had a little bit of a yo-yo's start of the season, and it's funny. It's characterized by good, Framber versus bad, and then maybe that's too strong of a term on his definition of who he is. But when he is in that knockdown, drag-out, out by out, pitch-by-pitch's excellency, when do you see it? Do you see it as he gets through the first time to the lineup, the second time through? And conversely, when do you know that, man, this could be a struggle for him?

What are some signs that tells you what Framberval does you're going to see on the mountain on that particular start? Efficiency from the first inning. You know, I like to look at the school board and look at the shape of his sinker, right, the movement, and the Velo, ground balls early, you know, strike one early, breaking ball under, all those signs, right? Once you see him 20, 30 pitches in and he's in that second inning and he's cruised. and he's coming in the dog out confidence, saying the things that you want to hear out of him. I ask John Nier-Diaz where he's at right now. He's that Joe, everything is moving well. You know, the stuff is late, moving late.

We've got the action that we're looking for. All those signs, it's what I want to hear in the first 25, 30 pitches up the game. And when he's on the role, it's Valdez's quick outs, dominant. And, you know, our bullpen kind of knows where everything's going to fall into. when everything is falling into place. So we need that today after, you know, going through our bullpen yesterday. So I know Framber understands this and expecting to be pretty good tonight. Great stuff, as always, Skip.

Thank you very much. Good luck tonight against the Royals. We really appreciate you joining us. All right, guys.