The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Dusty Baker On The Recent Struggles & Some Positive News On The Injury Front

Episode Date: September 9, 2020

The Houston Astro. The Astros. The Astros. This exclusive Astros segment on Sports Talk 790 is brought to you by Expedity, The Future of Awesome. That's awesome. Let us spend 10 quality minutes with the manager of the Houston Astros. Dusty Banker here on the Matt Thomas show.

Skip, thanks for joining us as always. Congratulations. You guys had a few fist bumps finally for the first time in working last night. It has been a long week, and I've found you. I wasn't looking forward to doing this show if we had lost like seven in a row, you know what I mean? Because after a while, you kind of run out of reasons and excuses and we lost them all kind of ways. Boy, I mean, how many times can you have your heartbroken? But, you know, I mean, you got to come back the next day and play probably twice as hard, you know, to get over from the days before.

And then they got up on us four and nothing. And then it's like, oh, no, please, not again. And, you know, there wasn't much time to, you know, to rebound. But, hey, my guys got it done. They helped us out. We finally got some breaks. We haven't gotten any breaks. But, you know, I mean, you got to make your own breaks.

But it helps, you know, have some luck along the way. Well, Skip, you have to understand this is a friendly and fair show. So trust me, well, I'm going to be too hard on it because we know it's been a very difficult run. Hey. Yeah, well, you got to do what you got to do. You got to do what you got to do. Now, last week, you and I visited, and you were like, man, I got a lot of guys that haven't thrown in a while. That isn't the case. How are you now massaging? Who's available and who's

not? Because it feels like to me, especially with Lance's going down and you haven't, you know, the double headers, you've had to really just try to figure out who can give an inning when necessary. Well, you know, like usually you're about matchups and you hope they work. But, you know, when you're getting a situation like this, you're about who's the precious, you know, if it matches up or not. And you just kind of, you know, hope those guys on, hope, you know, walk people because, you know, there's a period. Like, you know, if we walk the guy, he's scoring. I mean, that's almost like impossible. No double play, no pop-up, no nothing.

And I was like, you know, that's when we're going through, you know, a bad period. But like I reminded the guys, you know, nothing nice forever. It just seems like forever. And St.m didn't want to go below $500 last night because, I mean, that's kind of like, you know, Mark, when you're clear in the way. So hopefully we can, you know, get a little difference to clean up and buy and get back to fix your seven up like we were before. Yeah, and comfortably at least secure that number two spot in the West.

So I've been watching some of your media availability before games, and it feels like 90% of it has, you know, hey, skip, you got an injury update. So how about you giving us some good news? Tell me the best news. I think it's about your second basement, but I don't want to give it away. What's the best thing going on right down in terms of guys that are currently out for you? Well, there's a couple things. I mean, you know, our two-ways moving pretty well.

You know, his lateral movement's a little off of, you know, because of the knee injury, but his straight-ahead movement, you know, like if he was with Baxter, he'd be ready to go right now, but he's got to make left, you know what I mean? Bregman's back yesterday. You know, he's going to be a little off, you know, hopefully it won't take too long. We understand it, Verlander, you know, threw some off the mound. You know, like, you know, we got a kiddie back, and it was nice to see Cicot throwing the ball well last night. You know, I'd never seen him in person.

Then when I saw him in his first outing, you know, he was 88, 89, and didn't have much life, much movement. Didn't I saw him last night. Then he was 92, 1999, you know, with life. And, you know, with a shock breaker. And that was encouraging to see. So, you know, we're getting some guys back. You know, hopefully get them back in time to make this run here and, you know, be wide open by the time, you know,

to get to the playoffs because we haven't been, you know, all cylinders, you know, for the whole year. And so I'm just hoping to get all our guys back, get them sharp, and then we get hot at the same time. You had to pull Lance early last week. Luis Garcia came in and really saved your bullpen in that respect. on Lance, and I know you know the word doctor in front of you, but any timetable on when you think you could get Lance back? No, no, no timetable. You know, we're talking to the

doctors, the doctor, I guess they gave him some treatment, and, you know, it alleviated 95% of his pain and discomfort. And if anybody's ever had any pain in their neck and down their arm, I mean, you don't know where it's coming from. And, you know, you get these numb feelings, and you get tinglings in your fingers, and it's like it's not a very good feeling, but, you know, Lance is a tough guy. Like I said, 95% of his discomfort, you know, was relieved in that first treatment. And, you know, I mean, this guy's in shape. I'm this guy's a physical specimen, so it shouldn't take him too, too long to get back, especially if you can start throwing. So just have the people out there, you know, hope and pray that, you know, we get healthy and, you know, and healthy at the right time.

So Garcia goes for you tonight. I mean, you've had to use this speech before. You put a lot of men on the mound in their first major league games. I would think you can record it and just use the same thing over and over again. What are you going to tell a young man like that who's about to make his first major league start? Well, you know, you don't tell him anything. I think it was tough enough for him to come in with basically voted in that first season. But a lot of times, you know, when you come in out of the bullpen and long relief,

that's the easiest role when you're going to. to get because most of the time you're behind. There's no pressure on you to, you know, to win or lose the game. But, you know, he saved us and he saved our bullpen. So we really, you know, you don't say anything other than just, hey, it's the same game. It's the same game that you played as a kid, same game. And I think it's pretty fortunate, really, that there aren't people in the stands to, you know, to heckling him and make them nervous.

I mean, that's one thing that's happened with no fans in the stand. for the young guys. I mean, I certainly wish there were people in the stands, I mean, for the energy, but, you know, for the young guys, it's just like a spring training game or air squad game and nobody out there. So, you know, we don't know what we're going to get. You know, like I've been told that, you know, sometimes you can have bouts of wildness. I mean, like all young guys, so just opening those strikes, quality strikes, and get them deep in the bullpen. And so we can have a strong bullpen today and tomorrow before they are off day. A couple more minutes here with Dusty Baker, manager of the Eurastros here on the Matt Thomas show.

All right, Skip, before you got here, Kyle Tucker came with a lot of publicity and just the moment might have been way too big for him. And then it got a little bit better last year. This first few or two or three weeks, it wasn't particularly great. But in the last four or five, he's literally tearing the cover off the ball. What have you seen from him now that you didn't see when you first saw him as a Houston Astros manager? Well, when at first time, you know, like he was, he didn't have much, much, you know, he wasn't being very selective at the plate. You know, I mean, like most young guys, he was swinging at everything. Either they swing at everything or they don't swing at anything.

And so, you know, like now he's concentrating, like, swinging his strikes, he's using the whole field. He was pulling everything early in the year. I mean, he's comfortable. And he's comfortable. The guys are comfortable with him. You know, comfort is everything when it gets to the big league level, you know, if you have the ability. And, you know, success, breed success. And the better he does, the better he's going to get.

I mean, you know, he's a guy that, you know, bless with speed and power. You know, there aren't many of those guys around. And so, you know, you really look forward to see, you know, what he's going to become. And he's a long ways from scratching the surface. And, you know, you see why he was the player of the year. in our organization and play of the year, AAA. And so right now we just want to keep him healthy, put him in the position to succeed. And, you know, I mean, he's our top run producer right now.

You know, I'm glad we got him because, you know, Uly's going to get hot. I mean, you know, Carlos's going to get hot. You know, Bregman's going to get hot, but you've got to have somebody that's carrying you in the middle to drive in some, you know, some runs in the meantime. Last question. Michael Brantley might be that one of the quietest stars, Major League Baseball history. All he does is rake for you.

And I feel like he doesn't even, no moment is too big for him. And I think what a blessing to have a veteran like that, especially during these tough times. Well, you know, he's a son of a player. And I had Mickey and San Francisco, and, you know, he learned well. And I forgot to mention George Springer, too,

because George is about to get hot too. But those guys are close. When I think of Michael, I think of George, I look at Lewis because they're always together. but Michael probably had the most tension-free swing that I've seen since Will Clark. I had Will Clark in San Francisco. And it looks like they don't have any back speed. It's like they're not swinging hard, but the ball just keeps going and going.

And the thing that I'm trying to tell our guy is to watch Michael here. I mean, he's the whole field. You know, he's lined and lined and lined with no one way to play. You can't shift on him. And, you know, the game is meant to be played without the fear. And, you know, those holes out there are for a reason. So let's try to use them and use them all. And, you know, Michael's like, man, he's going to say with what is that I've been around.

And I've been around some good ones. We appreciate the visit, as always. Congratulations on the win last night. One more tonight. Wouldn't be the worst thing. Thanks for the time, as always, Skip. All right, be the best thing. You got that.

We need tonight and tomorrow. That's right. Thanks very much, Skip, for the time, as always. We appreciate it. That's the manager of your Houston Astros. Dusty Baker with us here. 42 is the time. We are going to get to the Rockets.

We'll get to the Astros. We will get to next. Rossi, I think a pretty significant injury report on the Texans. What? I know. You got to listen to our show to find out exactly what we're talking about. 1242, Sports Talk 790.