The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada Joins The Show As Astros Are Persevering Even With Injuries Plaguing The Roster

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Joe Espada Joins The Show As Astros Are Persevering Even With Injuries Plaguing The Roster 

We are very happy to be joined by the manager of the Houston Astros, Joe Espada. Last night, his squad dropped 3-1 to the whatever they're calling the A's these days. Skip, good afternoon. First of all, it was a great note from your PR department. You were there for the very first game in West Sacramento. Do you remember that game vividly or not? I do remember parts of the day. I don't remember much of the game itself, but I remember teammates.

remember, you know, walking into a beautiful, brand new ballpark, the excitement, the energy, and the stadium, I remember that aspect of that day very well. Do you have any good, like, 32nd Joe Espada minor league stories? I mean, you were well-traveled during there. I mean, if you have to protect innocent people's names, I certainly respect that. But give me something that pokes into the mind and soul and body of Joe's spot as a minor leaguer. man you know i i i did spend you know 10 years in a minor league's great experiences uh travel a lot you know ran into some really good people teammates friends of mine who are still uh close to

close to me uh you know man i think about the the hours on the bus to grind the you know the the fight that you had to have to have the desire to get to the big leagues the um it was it was not easy Never got to play in the big leagues. Obviously, as a minor league player, I work really hard to try to get there, never got there. So I just think about the journey and how my minor league career just kind of shape out to be who I am today. You know, I learn a lot. It put myself in minor league players' shoes to understand what they go through. So when I had a conversation with my players, young players, I remember what they went through.

So that's kind of what I took out of my minor league career. Well, all right, next Tuesday, I'm at Dyken Park. I'm going to ask you off the record story then. You can't say it on there. I get it. I'm just teasing you, but it'll be good. Hey, I thought last night when Altuvae hit that blast, it was going to be a fun night.

The pitching for Oakland, for whatever they're called, stepped up. It was another low-scoring game. Are you just, that's just kind of the trend right now. Nothing's going to be easy, but you've had a lot of success as of late. What's it like going to these, feel like for the most part,

not using Friday as an example, but just generally speaking, games that are coming down to one run, last and that kind of efforts? You know, for me, I look at the positive, Matt. You know, when you play low-scoring games, there's a lot of things that you do, you have to do really well to be able to stay in the game and have a chance to win it at the end like we've been doing. One thing that this team does very well, we're good coming from behind, right?

Like, we played hard until the end. So, you know, we are doing a really good job pitching, and we're playing some really, really good defense. If you do those two things, you're going to find yourself in every ballgame. The hitting kind of goes and goes throughout the season. It happens. You know, we ran into some good arms yesterday. We were able to score a lot of runs, but we were close. We were one hit away from opening the game up and winning that ballgame. But for me, it's, I'm going to look at the bright side of things, man. You know, Gusto asking them the night before, hey, we need you to pitch tomorrow, He says, Joe, let's go. I'm ready to go. He goes out. He points out eight in five innings.

Those are positive, man. Our defense, you know, we're grinding through some of bats. And eventually, you know, we're going to open things up. But I really, really like the way we are playing right now on both sides of the ball. Skip, you got Isak Pradesh back. You dached him yesterday. How much DH? How much third base do you want to see? Or do you feel like he can get him back out there at some point in the field this weekend? Yeah, so he'll play third base today. And we are, you know, I'm monitoring really close. I want to be careful on how much volume we give them right off the bat. We were very lucky for that injury, you know, not to be something that will keep him out of the line for a long period of time.

And I want to make sure it stays that way. But he is playing third base today. And we'll continue to keep an eye on him and the rest of the boys since we are in a pretty long stretch of games here. Joe is spotted with us here on Sports Talk 790. Christian Walker had that big three-hit game a few games ago since then has slowed down a bit. What are your conversations like, been with him? Just take us from maybe the start of the season to the struggles and to where he is now, especially mentally. You know what?

Mentally, he's super mentally tough. I think the mindset of Christian Walker is one of someone that understands that, you know, the journey of how long a season is and the ups and downs that come with playing in an atmosphere where you're expected to win. And he understands that. I do like the fact that he is open about how he feels. He's open about like sometimes he finds himself trying to do a little bit too much. And, you know, he is working every single day to mechanically trying to get himself, right?

and we see moments where we, okay, he is fully out of this, and then there's a game or two where he hits some balls where he's unlucky, and you see his frustration at times, like, man, I just need to get a couple of knocks and get going here. But he's added to it's good. We got him an off day. Two days ago he came out yesterday from the bat well, got a knock. They pictured him really tough, which I expect them to.

He's, you know, hitting behind, hitting in the middle of our lineup. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think he's going to have a solid season for us. It's a lot of baseball left, and I expect him to get going here, and we need him to get going. He's a big, huge part of our lineup.

Would Luis Guillermo be your dark horse in a team high jumping competition? Man, what a great play. You know, in the dugout, we started talking to Perret. We started joking with Perretis. But he's like, you think he could have made that play? And he's like, Joe, of course I could make that play.

I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. But, man, I tell you, that was. Joe, he went like 225 feet to left field. That's way too far for him to go out to the left field, isn't it? Yeah, but Isaac, you know, thought that he could make that play. But, you know, one thing about Guillermo is something he's done his entire career is he can really defend.

Everywhere you put him in the infield, he can really make some plays. you take pride in his defense. And he made those two plays, bare hands, low rollers, which, you know, kept us from, you know, innings to get out of control there for Gusto. So I really feel comfortable when he's playing defense, and he'll give you some quality of bats when he's in there. So what is the doctor said for Lance to do during this downtime?

Obviously, you know, getting a day extra two is good for rest, but two weeks may be a little bit different. So what can he do with his arm and his forearm while is obviously nursing the toe? You know, you know what? And I think he could continue to throw. You know, this is something that it's not going to pull them back from continue to do his throwing program or anything like that. You know, he is getting some treatment done for his foot.

So hopefully we could get him, you know, continue to play his flag round, play catch. And once the foot starts feeling better, we get him on the mound. get them to throw aside. But I don't expect this to be longer than the two weeks. So hopefully we get some good news here in the next couple of days and we get them back on the mount. Do you ever call the Dodgers, anybody in that organization, and they say, man, we got a lot of injuries on our starting pitching and you say, hold my beer.

I mean, these two baseball teams have been beset by, and you're powering through it. That says there's depth in this organization and maybe people, the outsiders don't know about. And you've also got a bunch of guys that feels like to me, Joe, that are making the most of their opportunities right now. Yes, yes, you know, Matt, and I've said this before, how proud I am of this group. We do an incredible job developing players in these organization, you know, especially on the pitching side. You know, I always feel like when we sit down and we try to push this piece together, this puzzle together, and when this pitcher goes down, who's the next guy up? And there's always someone who we feel strongly about, okay, this guy can come up because he could do this things very well.

Our pitching department does a really good job, you know, putting a plan together for every individual. When they get up here, this is what we do well. Let's just get by this storm here because once we get our guys fully healthy, we are going to be fine. We've done this for years. you know, it really sucks that these injuries are piling up. You mentioned the Dodgers, you mentioned us, but this is happening throughout the industry. And we have to find ways to weather the storm. It's really hard.

I do get credit to our boys that we keep our eyes on the prize, man. We know that this will pass. We know that this is part of the season. And, you know, this is a group that knows how to play. This is a championship team that know how to play. championship baseball when you need it the most, which is right now June, July, August, man, you grind. This is a grinding right now, and we are grinding through this.

Big picture. If I gave you five, if I gave your pitchers five more seconds on the clock, big difference, little difference, no difference at all. There will be, there's some difference. You know, there's a lot you can do in those five seconds, you know, when it comes to either, you know, gathering your thoughts or, you know, a breather. or, you know, there's much you can do with five seconds. You know, there's this mental game of baseball.

You can really put yourself back. But we don't have those five seconds, right? You have to just do the best you can with the time that you get on the mound. And it's important to keep your momentum and your focus. And, you know, but, you know, five seconds. if you can use it well to your advantage, I'm sure that we can, I'm sure that you could do it,

especially after the picture. Yeah, I don't know if it's ever going to happen, but I think, because there's so many arm elements, Joe, not only with your squad, but around baseball, that at least it needs to be a conversation to say, what can we do to at least slow these things down?

Because our arm problems are always a part of it. Yeah, and I think eventually, you know, we are looking, and the league is looking at ways to, how can we, you know, do better job of protecting the pitchers. You know, I'm always thinking about, you know, why not, you know, giving us one more pitcher throughout certain time of the season.

You know, maybe it could be April or May when we, when teams are going through 15, 17 games, maybe providing doing those long-term stretch from games, like maybe one extra arms where we can actually, you know, carry someone else that we could expand the rotation. It'd be easier for your bullpen in, of having about a seven-man bullpen. And, you know, there's ways that we can potentially help our pitching.

But, you know, it's a lot of conversations that need to happen. And eventually we do what's best for the sport. Last question. You saw two pretty seismic home runs. Actually, three pretty good home runs yesterday, two, unfortunately, for the A's and one for yourselves. How does the ball carry there, generally speaking? and is that a different atmosphere playing in Sacramento as compared to playing in Oakland

where last time I looked at the temperature was about 65 degrees at first pitch? Yeah, no, it was a beautiful, beautiful night in West Sacramento. You know, I think all three homeruns would have been homeruns in any ballpark. You know, the ball carries well here. I think the energy at the ballpark was awesome. It was a really nice crowd, you know, temperature. which you mentioned was gorgeous. You know, I do meet the Coliseum personally.

You know, the history of the ballpark. But I'll tell you what, the river catch boardpark, it's really nice. I play there 25 years ago and continues to be one of the best ballparks in the Montelix in America. Great business is always, friend. Thank you very much the time. We'll see you back in town. Have a safe trip and get some more wins on that left coast. All right, man.

Thank you. You got it. That's Joe Espada, Astros, Man. with us here on Sports Talk 790.