The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada: Today Is A New Day & We Gotta Find Our Way

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Joe Espada: Today Is A New Day & We Gotta Find Our Way

All right. So our manager of the Astros, Joe Spada, has out of his meetings, was able to graciously join us at his regular scheduled time. And Joe is with us here on Sports Talks. Skip, I want you taking deep breaths too because, look, this is a marathon run you going through here. This is obviously a difficult time. These are a lot of the guys you're not using. But frustration starting to kick in. Your pitcher last night, Framber was fantastic.

like 12 strikeouts with six innings, lost for the first time in a start in a long period of time. Obviously, he was very disappointed in the outfield strategy in the contest. Is that something that has been addressed with you? Do you plan on talking to him about it? Do you say, hey, we had the optics on Nathaniel Loe being an opposite guy, and, oh, by the way, you know, it was part of his frustration that he didn't get the strike three called.

That would have never allowed Lowe to get that hit to begin with. Listen, so, you know, for me, I like to make it clear that, you know, teams go through stretches like this in a 162 season. You know, there's going to be 10, 12 days where you're having a tough time to score runs or you having a tough time to getting, you know, quality starts or you having a tough time, you know, you make defensive mistake happens. This is baseball. And as a club, you have to know how to navigate those moments, right? you have to find ways to, you know, press the reset button tomorrow's a new day. Let's try to find a way to win today. And we're going through that stretch, right?

When he comes to Framber, Framber is a competitor. He's passionate. He wants to win. He's a winner. You know, there was some frustration. He threw the ball extremely well. And there was that one particular play that I will sit down with him and I'll address that. I do like when people show passion.

care about every single detail about our preparation because that's what we do. We are really good defensive team, and we take pride on our defense and our strategy behind our defense. Now, I wish he would have come to me first, but he's, that's his emotion. And I don't, that's what makes Framber the person that I care for and I love. He's passionate. And I will have that conversation with him today. But again, that happened yesterday.

Today we have a new day, today's a new day, and we've got to find a way to win today. Yeah, last question about that, because I honestly think, Joe, look, every company, whether it's the Houston Astros, this radio station, or the restaurant that you'd like to go to, some days, not everybody's on the same page, some days guys have got to be frustrated. But you have, I mean, my guess is, Joe, in your time as a manager and as a bench coach and being in a clubhouse, that time the door gets shut and things are said. And I guess the only question would be is, would it have been better? if he would have just told you, hey, I got a problem with this as compared to kind of just on his own saying what he said to the reporters that were in front of his locker last night. You know what? I'm going to have a conversation with Frambert today. You know, it's an emotional moment for him.

And I'll address that today with him. We'll have a conversation and we'll put this behind us. This is not, you know, it's not a big deal doing time of competition. and when you're trying to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish, emotions takes over. And, you know, we'll address that today. Is there any part of you that wants to sneak a little shuttle over to Sugarline to see how your shortstop's doing tonight?

No, he's going to be just fine. He's going to go there today. He's going to DH, try to get, you know, as many as the bats as possible. But he was here yesterday. He looked good. And, you know, we are really happy with where he's at right now. Physically and mentally, we can't wait to have him back. Do you feel like you should get a medical degree with all the injuries you've had to deal with this year?

I mean, how many different muscles and wrists and elbow? What have you learned about – have you learned everything about the human body this year? You know, I've learned a lot of terminology, and I did not know there was ligaments in certain places. you know, bones in certain areas. You know, it's been a crazy experience. But, you know, what I'm looking at, the fact that these guys are coming back, they're really closer to having our full squat back. And we're going to continue to grind until we'll get everyone on the field.

Astros manager, Joe Spott, it was here on Sports Talk 790. And with that, weighing, getting guys back and where they are and projecting they are, both on the pitching and position player's sides. What have conversations with Dana, been about? Is it been more difficult this year as far as it's not as necessarily as cut and dry about team needs? No, you know what? We take into consideration that we have some guys coming back, right? So we try to, you know, strategize around that, trying to improve our roster, taking, again, consideration of the guys that we have in back and how close they are getting back.

So we are just exploring different areas. And, you know, hopefully we, we, We can, you know, if there's something that fits our club and it makes sense, I'm sure Dana and he's staff and we'll talk about it and we'll address that and make our club better. The yearly question I ask a manager, whether it's you or anybody else that preceded you, how much without naming names do the guys on the active roster come to your room, shut the door and say, hey, Skip, my agent's hearing this, I'm hearing this on social media. What do I make of it? And what do you say to them? Yeah, you know what? It's hard not, it's hard to avoid not avoid, you know, the rumors. And there's always guys who have questions and I have an open-door policy and those guys come in and, you know, they understand the business side of things.

I haven't had that many conversations with our guys in the last couple of years. But if I sense there is something going on, they have a question. I like just to pull them on the side on the outfield grass or in the clubhouse in the kitchen. and we will talk. I want to make sure that we all are on the same page, that we all are, this is a family, and I want them to, if there's any concerns,

let's talk about things. But it happens, and it's hard not to have this conversation when they, you know, with social media and there's so much information out there in today's game. All right. So it sounds like the clubhouse is really jammed right now. That's a good sign.

You're seeing some people back. Yeah. Balance, and I'll use Jacob Mell. Mountain, for example. Jacob wants to play. Jacob's been out for a while. Jacob doesn't like to be hurt. He knows his team is looking for healthy bodies. Did you have to have that? Are you 100% ready to go, locked and loaded, pain free? Or are you sometimes afraid? Not necessarily with Jacob, but just some players in general. Hey, I got to do whatever I can. My squad's disappointing on a tough stretch. I'll get out there even if I'm not 100%. No, you know what? No, we're not going to do that.

We're not going to put our players in a position. This is their career. I'm very mindful of that. I play baseball. I understand this is their livelihood. They have families. They have kids. We're not going to ask the player who is not ready to go and put their career in jeopardy if we could wait another three or four days.

It's very important, you know, that we make sure that we take care of our players. If they're not 100%, they're not going to be able to perform at their capability. So we make sure that those guys are in a good spot. before we bring him back and be able to, you know, perform. Escape, you are needed. Thank you for the time. Good luck tonight against the Nationals. All right, man. Thank you.

You got it. That's Joe Espada with us here on Sports Talk 790.