The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada Joins The Show After Astros Win vs Diamondbacks & Recent Injuries

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Joe Espada Joins The Show After Astros Win vs Diamondbacks & Recent Injuries 

I'm going to go ahead and say it. Future American League Manager of the Year, Joe Espott. Skip, how are you? I am doing well, guys. Thank you for having me. Hey, congratulations on the win. Congratulations for Bryce Matthews. Tell me what it's like managing a young man who probably, as you even admitted,

has some work to do, not a finished product, but comes up, takes him all to get that first major league hit and then is certainly very impactful for you last night. Yeah, yeah, he's been, you know, the game he had yesterday. Begging against a really good starter in the position that we are in, right? We are fighting through a tough stretch of injuries, and these young players continue to come up and step up and have games the way Bryce just did. It just impacts. It brings this energy to the clubhouse and to our team that we needed.

And I'm not surprised about his success. We know that he's got all the ability and the capabilities to be a really good player, but how every game he's starting to settle down, calm down, understand what they're trying to do, play good baseball on both sides to the ball, has been remarkable. And it's a great story, you know. It's a Houston kid.

It's a kid that went through the Astros Academy. So the whole thing is special. And, you know, it's great to see how success, and we need to keep this going. And it's excited to be managing this group of players who are so excited and want to contribute. Are you committed, Joe, to keeping him at second? base. Obviously, the second base before him has been playing a little bit of left field,

obviously some DH as well, and you moved him to second. We're speaking, obviously, of Jose. But what are your plans, at least, for the short term, at that second base spot? You know what? I want to really give him an opportunity. You know, it's, you know, right now with our roster and how much is changing and we can really predict what the future will bring. But right he has earned the right to continue to get opportunities. Like I've always said, you know, young player. You have to keep an eye on how he reacts and how he makes adjustments. I don't want to throw a young player out there and not be able to help him through struggles. So I'm constantly keeping an eye on all these young players and trying to put him in a position where they can

feel comfortable and have some success. But right now, he's handling himself very, very well. With all the injuries and your roster adjustments, I mean, the Sugar Land, Houston Express is unbelievable, toll charges and everything, but you guys can handle that. Let me ask you about trying to get guys off their feet, whether it's Jose, whether it's Victor, whether it's Yon Air, does it become even a bigger challenge? Because I feel like every other series you're having to kind of create and manipulate a new 26-man roster. You know what? I think that it's challenging, but when you get guys to like Bryce, right, who's

performing the way he is, he allows me to give Al-Tube back-to-back D-Bach day. Like I'm going to do today with Hose Altube. I'm going to deach him again. Bryce can get another opportunity to play second base. I could keep hosy off his feet on the turf. You know, Caritini will get a blow today.

Janir Diaz will be back in there today against the lefty pitching. I am really trying to get everyone involved. Tramel is swinging the bat really well, so he's getting an opportunity to, you know, get, you know, play more on the field. McCormick, you know, had two hits yesterday. He can play some center. So I'm really trying to get everyone a breeder doing the best I can to try it also

win as many games we can, keep in mind that we need to keep these guys healthy. And, you know, doing this next nine, ten days that we have games. but I think, you know, we are kind of controlling the volume of the early work we do, our BP times, we're kind of pushing things back, trying to keep these guys healthy while we get the rest of the guys to, you know, get back to us. Joey, sincerely apologize that so much of our conversation this year has been about injuries, but that has been a storyline of this team, and you're certainly well aware of that. Let's get to your very talented third baseman who looked absolutely terrible running to first base at a day, and I know there wasn't much word yesterday.

Do you have anything more you can tell our audience right now about what we know about Isak and any evaluation he had medically here in town? You know what? Obviously, you know, the injury did not look good. It's going to be, it's going to take it, it's going to take some time for us to get Paredes back. You know, this handstring injury was different from the other one. The other one, what's more, it was not as intense or as, you know, as bad as this one. So this is going to take Paredes some time to come back, you know, and we are going to miss him during this stretch of not having him in there. And again, we need, you know, who's going to be the next guy up, who's going to step up and help us.

And we've been doing that, guys, I feel like, for a few months now. But I feel good about our guys, man. They fight. They understand the position that we are in. We're protecting our house. We're protecting what we love, and it's continue to be the best team in the West. And as long as we got these guys fighting and trying to do the best they can, that's all I can ask for. One of the great things that ESOC brought to the table was the amount of pitches he was able to take and the patience that he had.

Can you just give us some thoughts on basically what is in him that allows him to do that? And how do you kind of try to coax more out of the rest of your lineup but while still keeping guys within themselves? Yeah, you know, I think what Isaac does really well. Number one, I think he has no panicking with two strikes. When you have a hitter that, you know, he'd rather be all in one than O for one, it allows you to see pitches and confidence that I can hit with two strikes. And he's always been able to, you know, control the strike zone. And he knows his strength.

He knows what he's looking that day against that particular pitcher, right? So we have, you know, we have some guys that are capable of doing that. So I'm trying to stack some of those guys up where our lineup can stretch out a little bit more. We can see pitches. We can allow our guys to hit with many scoring position. I'm trying to stack up some guys that can hit with menings scoring position, trying to get some big hits in certain moments. You know, it's tricky, but, you know, we're going to continue to shuffle things around

and the guys are all in. And, you know, I'm going to communicate with them, my thought process. And hopefully we could keep this going. Astros manager, Joe Espato was here on Sports Talk 790, and one of those guys you've had to move a lot. Cam Smith has basically been everywhere in the lineup. Is it a situation where you want the approaches to be the same, or did you talk about possibly seeing more pitches now with him leading off? You know what? He's been seeing pitches throughout the whole entire season.

I really like this approach. And I'm trying to make sure that he doesn't have to change his plan. he can still be the same in that lead off spot, just try to drive the ball to right center field. He's come up with some men in scoring position. He got that big double against Wu in Seattle. We got another big knock yesterday. So I'm trying to be, you know,

trying to put him in a spot where it is not overwhelmed by this spot. You know, he has Altuba hit behind him, so he's getting some good pitches to hit, you know, and trying to, you know, stack some hiters behind Altuwa that we can get some big hit. kids with, you know, with men in scoring position. Last three starts, Joe, four hunter, have been laborsome, to say the least. What are you seeing?

Is there something that's happening? Is it nickel and diamond to death? Is it the corners are not getting called strikes? What combination of things do you see that has seen his ERA spike up a little bit the last two weeks or so? You know what? I think his stuff has been really good. Bats have been, you know, anytime you face someone with that caliber, you hitters

get to, you know, they lock it in. And I see hitters, you know, really making adjustments to his arsenal and how he's attacking, a lot of foul balls, a lot of long-up bat, which is driving his pitch counts up. He's, you know, he made some quality pitches in Seattle, and those guys were able just to put some bowling play. And, but I don't think it's something that we should be worried about. I think every great pitcher goes through stretches where they show them.

or human side of them. And I think once Hunter gets back on the mound and he gets going again, I think he's going to get on a roll here pretty soon. One more thing about a starting pitcher. And this may be overly simplistic. So if it is, straighten me out. Can Lance, is it strike throwing that is getting him in the most trouble right now, that maybe he just needs to be able to trust the stuff to get it over the plate and say,

yeah, there may be some contact, but I've got good enough stuff because it feels like The pitch count, especially early in games, has really gotten him behind the eight ball. 100%. And that's it. You know, his stuff is really good. We try to get him to throw the ball in the box and let the natural movement of his pitches do the talking. If you're behind the count, the 1-0-2-0, the hitter is completely in control, you know, off the bat. And they can wait out and they can sit on pitches.

and now they can control the part of the plate that they want to handle, that they want to hit the ball. But when you control the bat and you get ahead in the count, and now you use your sweeper, and now I can get my kerbal over, my two-sema, it's a completely different ballgame. And, you know, it's not easy. You know, Lance has been a really good pitcher when he's been healthy,

and he's shown this for many, many years. But we try to get him to simplify his repertoire, how attack hitters and just get him to be in the box more often. If he does that, he's going to find himself pitching five, six innings. All right. Before I let you run, Colton Gordon and Brandon Walter, I mean, have been, I mean, huge assets for you. They weren't even on your radar's radar and have come up and helped you out in terms of not only giving you outs, in one case, not throwing base on balls and the strike count has been good.

and then you needed a length last night, and you got it from one of your starting pitchers. So two blessings for you right now for this squad. Yeah, you know what? In the offseason, you go and you sign players and you're making a depth chart. You always signing pitchers, arms that you know at some point they could come up and help you give your starters a breather. You know, you never prepared for the amount of injuries that could happen to your rotation. But we always prepare to have some depth, but in case something happens, we know Colton Gordon is capable of throwing strikes and giving you four or five minutes.

When we went and got Walters, he can also do the same. So we acquire these players knowing that in case something happens, this is our second line of defense. And these guys have been solid and allow us to give time to those pitches who are on the sideline, who are working the way back, just to keep us in the fight. And that's all we have, just keep us in the fight. And then when we get the rest of the players coming back, maybe, you know, then we're in a position to make a strong push in August and September.

Skip, thanks to the visit as always. Congratulations on the win. Thank you to Milwaukee for beating the Mariners last night. Enjoy that five-game lead. Help it stays that way tonight against the debacks. Yes, sir. Thank you, guys.