The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada Joins The Show After Astros Interesting Weekend

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Joe Espada Joins The Show After Astros Interesting Weekend

1232. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We're going to spend 10 quality minutes now with the manager of your Houston Astros, joining us from Pittsburgh, PA, Astros, and the Pirates start a three-game series. Joe is spotted with us here on Sunday. I skip, good afternoon. Thanks for joining us. What a bizarre series. The run differential, not pretty. The wins and losses you'll take, right?

Yes, and I'll take that. How do you explain it? I mean, you can always go to the cliche, that's big. baseball, but my goodness, you had two games, nail biters, and you had two games you wanted to close your eyes about the six inning. Well, you know, it's baseball, you know, we try to, you know, we try to win series, and, you know, we came out with a split against the race, a team that's won the bat's really well, a little bit different than when we saw on the previous week.

So, you know, we hung in there. I thought those two games that we won, you know, we pitched really well. The others, things kind of got away from us. But, you know, you're trying to win series. We had a great homestand, and that's all you can control. And now we're here in Pittsburgh after an update. Boys are fresh. We're ready to go.

Did you pull those starters on those days where, you know, we're talking about Hunter and Framber to say, hey, you always expect them to go deep in games. But do you even pull them aside and say, hey, I may need you for a little bit more because the bullpins got beat up the night before? No, I think those two guys know exactly what we need out of them. I don't think they need to hear from me. I think they're watching the games. They see the situation that we are in.

They know that the leaders of our rotation, and I expect them to step up, and that's exactly what they did. Joe, obviously the word about Yordon was disappointing. Tell us just your natural reaction, not only as a manager to him, but as a friend, I'm sure, and a guy that you've watched to see his courage has blossom. When you found out about the fracture, was that just a, that was a, a, hit the gut basically. Don't it be safe to say?

Yeah, it sucks. Not only as his manager, but at someone who, you know, I care for Yordan. I know Yordan for a very long time. He's someone who wants to be on the field, wants to contribute for his team, wants to post,

and he knows the importance of his presence in our lineup, and he really sucks. So, you know, we want to get him back. We will get him back. But when we heard about that, it's definitely a punch in the gut. But, yeah, we need to continue to move forward and expect him of these guys to step up while he's on the sideline. But it's definitely someone that we need, we miss.

And once we get him back, we're going to be really excited to have him back. What are the next steps for him? Is it just a waiting game for him to heal? Yeah, we're going to wait for it to heal. And hopefully once he heals, we will never have to deal with that pain again. Do you think, I'm sorry, do you think, the athletes, and they're all built differently, Joe. You got some guys that will fight through pain and you respect that,

but then you have other guys that are like shouldn't be fighting through it. How often do you deal with that in your entire life of baseball? Forgetting about your time with the Astros. What is it like? Maybe you as a player felt the same way. You know what? My hammy's a little tender, but I want to get out there. What's the battle?

What's the proper medium to go? You know what? Try to fight through it, but at a certain time, and sometimes you say, yeah, maybe a day off or two, or maybe going to see a doctor. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. You know, my experiences, especially with our players here, has been this guys don't want to be in the fight. This guys, we have played so many games for so many years.

We have played more games than any other team in the big league for a long time. Last 70 years that these guys play through pain. They know the importance of playing and grinding through pain. And Jordane is one of those players that loves to post and he wants to be out there. When an injury in a hand happens to a baseball player, it's very difficult. It's very, very difficult since you need your hands and you need to create power and you need to create barrel to ball execution. And when you don't have that, I mean, you suffer from that.

It's really hard for you to perform. But I never, you know, my group here, when these guys are not feeling well, there's something wrong with it for them not to post it, for them not to show our fans and the rest of their teammates that they want to be out there. Yeah, and what is that like for you, a manager dealing with where, like you said,

the guys want to play through it, but you don't want guys to get heard. Just as you in trying to say, like, who do you go to or lean on or like to say, hey, maybe we need to talk more about this? Yeah, you know, and I listen to our players and once they get to a point where we need to

all sit down and rest and to let these heal, we have to do that if we want to get the player 100%. And sometimes you've got to reset. You've got to take a moment and, you know, understand the length of the season. And, you know, it's always difficult. You don't want to lose any player, especially someone at the caliber of Jordan Alvarez. But we'll get him back. We're excited. And once we get him back, we're going to be excited to have him back. You know, hopefully we don't have to deal with this again so we could keep them in there for a long run. Skip, you've got two new outfielders. How are you going to balance?

And I guess it's just, you know, how guys are feeling or how the bats are moving. But you've got two new guys out there. How much do you want to get them in play, rotation? What's the game plan at least for the two new players that have come up from the Space Cowboys? Well, you know, one of them is an outfielder. You know, Wittcombe has play outfield. He's also someone that could play infield. so he does provide that versatility and you know somebody you know like Melton who could play all three

he's got the speed and and the athleticism to be an above average outfielder at the major league level also he's been swinging the bat really well in AAA so is Wickham so I'm one of you know find opportunities for them to play and you know for them just to continue to develop them players that we've been excited about them long time. So, you know, I'm going to find spots for them, trying to get them involved in our offense and defense and see where it takes us. Also, you've got Paul Skeen's going tonight for the Pirates. And I don't know how you feel about this interleague play, but it gives you an opportunity to see everybody at least once a year. And sometimes you can miss guys to the rotation. How much, and obviously your hitters are doing a little bit in advance,

but when you're on the plane just relaxing, and do you put a video on to kind of see what he's all about, or does the highlights you see on the network TV kind of give you a pretty indication of how great he is? No, we, we, you know, I like to watch the videos and I like to read the reports, you know, to go deep under the hood and make sure, you know, see what he's, you know, what he's doing

and how he's performing and how that's going to match up against us. And we're looking for ways to, you know, create a plan against us. them. You know, last year we, we had a pretty decent plan and, and, and, and, you know, it's hard to score a ton of runs of him, but we got to find a way to, you know, attack and, and, and hopefully, you know, you build his, his pitch count up, trying to get in the bullpen, you know, a strategy, which is trying to grind our bats, trying to attack our zones and, and be aggressive. He's a guy that throws a ton of strikes. But he's definitely one of the best starters in the game, but we'll put together

a good plan against not only him, but against their whole entire staff. Is it a situation where maybe you want to play a little bit more small ball or do you want guys to kind of just go out there no matter who's on the mound and do their thing? We're going to just go through it and be who we are. You know, we're going to drive the ball slug. You know, if we've got opportunities to walk, we'll do that. I don't think we're going to change who we are just because of who's on the mound. I think we have the horsepower to, you know, drive and slug and steal bases and play smallball if we have to against any pitcher in the league.

Do you as a manager bite your fingernails more in a 2-1 game or a game that becomes a Slugfest 9-8? I don't think I've ever asked you that, but I'm just curious as you as you work your way through a game. What gives you the most gray hairs? I don't I don't I don't I've never thought about that Matt you know I don't Try not to eat my nails

I do know that I have a ton of confidence I have a ton of confidence On our team And you know I let the process play out And you know We are prepared to you know

Face anything during the game So you know Biting the nails or be you know I don't I've never really thought about any of that All right well Hose Altova bites the nails And that's worked out

for him for a little guy for everyone. Yeah, I think he does. How, Jose is, the bat's really looking good. And we've talked about this a couple weeks in a row now. And it feels like whether it was a film session, whether some time away with your coaches, whatever the case would be, it's

the old Al-Tubi. Not that the early season, El-Tube was dropping off considerably, but his bat the last month or so has been significantly improved. Yeah, and you know, it's just sometimes we forget that we have to be patient.

We want to see him producing from day number one. Sometimes he takes a little bit of time for the swing to get there and for the timing to arrive. And, you know, it's just once when he gets there, he's going to be explosive. He's going to be a force. And once he gets going, our offense is a completely different offense. I think he has made some adjustments not only on his swing mechanics, but also in his pick selection, which for me is the key for his success. And again, I love the fact that Carrey,

Rattini is getting some playing time, whether you put him at first a little bit, the D-Hing and catching and what kind of conversations, and this is for any backup catcher. He wants to play as much as he can, but it feels like you've done a good enough job of at least keeping that bat and his body active during this time. Yeah, and you know, he provides, he gives us an opportunity to give some of the guys, you know, a breather, and he's a threat when he's on the bench coming up the bat,

as a pinch shooter. You know, also, you know, when I have a right-handed pitcher who, their splits are significant, you know, having keratinny from the left side in there is also valuable. But for me, the carotini is the, his professionalism, his preparation, his quality of play every time he's on the field. And I like that. I think it's valuable for us as a club to have someone who can grind up bats, who's was going to compete and it gives you the flexibility hitting from both sides of the plate.

So he's been a really good player for us. And last question, if I had told you a year ago that you were going to get six innings and 12 strikeouts from Lance McCullors, you'd have said, okay, that sounds about right, but there was a lot of apprehension about what his return was going to be. But to see him not only give you better work every fifth day or six day in some cases, but I felt like the conversations have to be really good the day after when you check on him. Lance, how are you feeling? and obviously he's been feeling a lot better the last two or three starts.

Yeah, he's been feeling great. And if you would have told me a year ago that I was going to get six-innings, 12-punch shots at a line of a lot of school, I will not be surprised at all. You know, watching him work, watching him getting ready. You know, I knew that once he's healthy, he's a great pitcher. He is. He's been a really good pitcher when he's been on the mound for us and good help. So he's healthy now.

He's bouncing back really well. His bullpen sessions are great. his preparations are with our pitching coaches preparing for his next outings have been on cue so I expect him to be good for a long run and we need him to we need him to provide some of that

leadership that I've seen out of him in the past and he's excited and he's ready to do just that. Thanks for the visit as always best of luck in this road trip again we'll talk next week and we thank you for the visit as always all right guys thank you Joe spotted with us from Pittsburgh Astros and Pirates McCullors and schemes in the mound matchup.

On deck begins today at 5.30. It's a 540 first pitch from Pittsburgh.