April 29, 2025 • 8 mins
Joe Espada Joins the Show After Win 805 vs Detroit Tigers
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now, though, we have to go to the Astros
manager himself, Joe Aspata.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Matt is out this week.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
He's traveling with the Rockets, and you have me and
Adam with you here. Joe, Rockets. We've been talking a
lot about them making some lineup changes. You made a
change at the top of your lineup, Jeremy Pania with
some results so far. How much of that was al
Tuo bay is coming to you and that's why you
went with him at the leadoff spot. Are also rewarding
Jeremy Penia for what's been a pretty good couple of
(00:29):
weeks offensively for him both both.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You know, I think Jeremy has really improved his offensive approach,
and I think it was a combination of trying to
get him going, trying to mature as a hitter and
continue he's developing his offensive approach, and also trying to
get al Tuove you know, locked in, and I think
this two spot will help him having Jeremy in front
(00:53):
of him awfully continues to get on base, having al
twoven opportunity to potentially hit with some people on base,
have more time to get ready for his bad sandwich
in there between your Don and hopefully creating some some
traffic for two of our best hitters right now, which
is your done and and and partis with many scoring position.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And uh, A lot of the numbers for Jeremy Pania
looked really good as you look at the expected slug,
the hard hit percentage, all that type of stuff. If
it's been way up for him, is this the real deal?
Are we looking at a breakout season? You think from
Jeremy Panna.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, you know what, I'm just going to speak to
to what I see right now. And I really like
the the approach his preparation. Every single day, he's putting
the work in exactly what we have asked him to do,
and he's coming to his own he's trying to figure
some stuff out. So I really like where he's at
right now.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
And hopefully we could get this going.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
This will be really good for our lineup if we
could get someone with that kind of speed and that
kind of dynamic approach in the top of our order
and we could continue moving forward and giving our our
you know, our often some some more chans to to
score more runs.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And what is that like for you when you're building lineup?
Do you guys just have some machine and you just
type in against this picture in this matchup, and this
is what it spits out. This is what's gonna score
the most runs.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It don't it don't work like that. There's no there's
no there's no machine. I wish there was a machine,
but there's no machine.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
You know. There there's information that we use.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You know, I use information like, uh, you know what
the matchup looks like.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I look at the pitch shape.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Against some of our hitters that day. I try to
stack at the best way we can. But there's no
secret sauce to this. You know, you're trying to put
the best players on the fuel in a position to succeed.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Talking to Astros manager Joe Spotty here on Sports Talk
seven ninety Joe Christian Walker with another Homer last night,
how much, in your opinion, and this is the first
time I've had a chance to talk to you in
this kind of setting since the season began. How much
was he putting pressure on himself and how much can
that kind of you know, play mind tricks on a
guy in a situation like his is where he's you know,
he's a guy who's a big addition to the lineup
(03:03):
gets to contract all that kind of stuff, and he
might be pressing a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Do you think that was going on?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
You know, what's your assessment of him as we get
to the tail end of April here.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, I think he's been transparent and how he's felt
since he got here. You know, he wants to be
he wants to he wants to post, and he's posting.
He's trying to do the best he can. He's trying
to get big hits for us. He knows he was
a big off season acquisition and he's trying to you know,
he's trying to, you know, to produce for us, and
I know eventually he will, and he's starting to come around.
(03:35):
I think the last couple of games he's approaches his
approach has been better. He's staying in his own hate
that ball hard fastball kind of opened in the fastball
that he's been.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Trying to get to.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
That shows that he's in a better spot. But it
we just need to let you know, it's early in
the season. This guy has been a really good hitter
for a long time. But I think what you know,
in the beginning, he was trying really hard. He didn't
have much of a spring training, so he's trying to
play a little of a catch up. But I think
he's starting to come when he's on here the last
couple of games.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And also in the middle of the lineup. It's nice
to have yord On going. Is it feel like your
job's a lot easier when he's driving in runs, especially
like he did on Sunday, Oh.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
My goodness, Yes it is. You know, he is.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It's a force when he is, when he comes to
the plate and you know that he's swinging the babble,
when you know he's feeling good, you know, you know,
you know the picture is in danger right He is
getting to that.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Spot where we know that he's really close.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I said this a couple of days ago. He's getting
really close, and one seed clicks. I think everything just
comes together.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Joe, let's speaking of a dangerous pictures. I guess you
talk about it to a picture that's in a dangerous situation.
A guy who's putting in hitters in a lot of
dangerous situations to start the year as Hunter Brown, I mean,
you've got some real good talent on your staff right now,
and obviously Eric Getty when he comes back will add
to that along with some other guys. But even in
(05:04):
your wildest best expectations, did you see this kind of
start for Hunter.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yes, to be.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Honest with you, in you know, in a very humble way,
I dc you know, Hunter getting out to a really
good start based on what he did last year. He's
offseason determined this job, getting ready for the season, understanding
the adjustments that he needed to make to come out.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Of the gate. During the ball he's doing. He's one
of the best in the game.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And I'm not surprised the success that the success he's
having now is to keep them, keep them moving forward,
keeping him healthy.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
This kid is so well prepared. He wants this so bad.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
He has step up to be our age right now.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Yeah, and I mean, without giving too much away, he
had some some mechanical adjustments that he made last season
and had some success. You know after the first month
and a half two months, maybe what what kind of adjustments,
What kind of preparations are you are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
If you can say yeah, you know what?
Speaker 4 (05:59):
For me, it's more.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
How he sees himself. You know, when you first get
to the big leagues, you're trying to get to know
yourself on at the meension league level, right like you
you know, you know, you think you have a pretty
good idea of who you are, and you think you
have a pretty good idea get how to get.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You know, hitters in the big leagues.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
But unless you go through struggles and the you know,
the the struggles and.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
And figure out this is not.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Working for me and allow us to help you make
those adjustments throughout the season, that's when you really learn
your strength and weaknesses as a as an athlete in general.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
And I think that's the thing about hundred. We all
knew he had the stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We all knew that he had the demeanor to do
it and the grid and the toughness to do it.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
He went through some struggles. He allows us to help them.
You know, let's.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Change how you use your your repertoire. I want, let's
just make these adjustments on how you use your fastball
against writing, how you use breaking most agains. Let you know,
and he okay, this works for me now once he
gets everything going. Now he is now I got it
pretty good at THEA. How can I prepare myself Now?
I know how to read a report, Now I know
(07:13):
how to execute my game plan, and that's where.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
He's at right now.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And speaking of pictures that have things working for him,
Ryan Gusto thrust into a starting role after being in
the bullpen. What has been the key for him to
be so successful in these spots starts?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
You know, Rhight know what he does really well.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
He throws a ton of strikes. He's not afraid of
he's not afraid of contact. You know, he comes after you,
and you need to have that mentality to pitch in
this level and to sustain success at this level. And
I think he's done a really good job of that.
Now he's trying to get him deep into the games,
getting three times to the lineup. That's always a challenge
(07:53):
for any young pitcher, and.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
We are we're helping him go through that. But I'm
really really pleased the way he's been throwing the ball.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Do you have us arder for tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yes, I do, but I'm not going to share with
you guys right now.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I'll share with you guys later.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Alright, alright, keep it close to the best.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
That's okay, Joe, appreciate the time, and we'll talk to
you next week.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
All right, guys, You guys take care all right.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Joe Aspada here on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross
Right now, though, we have to go to the Astros
manager himself, Joe Aspata.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Matt is out this week.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
He's traveling with the Rockets, and you have me and
Adam with you here. Joe, Rockets. We've been talking a
lot about them making some lineup changes. You made a
change at the top of your lineup, Jeremy Pania with
some results so far. How much of that was al
Tuo bay is coming to you and that's why you
went with him at the leadoff spot. Are also rewarding
Jeremy Penia for what's been a pretty good couple of
(00:29):
weeks offensively for him both both.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You know, I think Jeremy has really improved his offensive approach,
and I think it was a combination of trying to
get him going, trying to mature as a hitter and
continue he's developing his offensive approach, and also trying to
get al Tuove you know, locked in, and I think
this two spot will help him having Jeremy in front
(00:53):
of him awfully continues to get on base, having al
twoven opportunity to potentially hit with some people on base,
have more time to get ready for his bad sandwich
in there between your Don and hopefully creating some some
traffic for two of our best hitters right now, which
is your done and and and partis with many scoring position.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And uh, A lot of the numbers for Jeremy Pania
looked really good as you look at the expected slug,
the hard hit percentage, all that type of stuff. If
it's been way up for him, is this the real deal?
Are we looking at a breakout season? You think from
Jeremy Panna.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, you know what, I'm just going to speak to
to what I see right now. And I really like
the the approach his preparation. Every single day, he's putting
the work in exactly what we have asked him to do,
and he's coming to his own he's trying to figure
some stuff out. So I really like where he's at
right now.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
And hopefully we could get this going.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
This will be really good for our lineup if we
could get someone with that kind of speed and that
kind of dynamic approach in the top of our order
and we could continue moving forward and giving our our
you know, our often some some more chans to to
score more runs.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And what is that like for you when you're building lineup?
Do you guys just have some machine and you just
type in against this picture in this matchup, and this
is what it spits out. This is what's gonna score
the most runs.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It don't it don't work like that. There's no there's
no there's no machine. I wish there was a machine,
but there's no machine.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
You know. There there's information that we use.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You know, I use information like, uh, you know what
the matchup looks like.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I look at the pitch shape.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Against some of our hitters that day. I try to
stack at the best way we can. But there's no
secret sauce to this. You know, you're trying to put
the best players on the fuel in a position to succeed.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Talking to Astros manager Joe Spotty here on Sports Talk
seven ninety Joe Christian Walker with another Homer last night,
how much, in your opinion, and this is the first
time I've had a chance to talk to you in
this kind of setting since the season began. How much
was he putting pressure on himself and how much can
that kind of you know, play mind tricks on a
guy in a situation like his is where he's you know,
he's a guy who's a big addition to the lineup
(03:03):
gets to contract all that kind of stuff, and he
might be pressing a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Do you think that was going on?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
You know, what's your assessment of him as we get
to the tail end of April here.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, I think he's been transparent and how he's felt
since he got here. You know, he wants to be
he wants to he wants to post, and he's posting.
He's trying to do the best he can. He's trying
to get big hits for us. He knows he was
a big off season acquisition and he's trying to you know,
he's trying to, you know, to produce for us, and
I know eventually he will, and he's starting to come around.
(03:35):
I think the last couple of games he's approaches his
approach has been better. He's staying in his own hate
that ball hard fastball kind of opened in the fastball
that he's been.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Trying to get to.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
That shows that he's in a better spot. But it
we just need to let you know, it's early in
the season. This guy has been a really good hitter
for a long time. But I think what you know,
in the beginning, he was trying really hard. He didn't
have much of a spring training, so he's trying to
play a little of a catch up. But I think
he's starting to come when he's on here the last
couple of games.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And also in the middle of the lineup. It's nice
to have yord On going. Is it feel like your
job's a lot easier when he's driving in runs, especially
like he did on Sunday, Oh.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
My goodness, Yes it is. You know, he is.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It's a force when he is, when he comes to
the plate and you know that he's swinging the babble,
when you know he's feeling good, you know, you know,
you know the picture is in danger right He is
getting to that.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Spot where we know that he's really close.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I said this a couple of days ago. He's getting
really close, and one seed clicks. I think everything just
comes together.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Joe, let's speaking of a dangerous pictures. I guess you
talk about it to a picture that's in a dangerous situation.
A guy who's putting in hitters in a lot of
dangerous situations to start the year as Hunter Brown, I mean,
you've got some real good talent on your staff right now,
and obviously Eric Getty when he comes back will add
to that along with some other guys. But even in
(05:04):
your wildest best expectations, did you see this kind of
start for Hunter.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yes, to be.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Honest with you, in you know, in a very humble way,
I dc you know, Hunter getting out to a really
good start based on what he did last year. He's
offseason determined this job, getting ready for the season, understanding
the adjustments that he needed to make to come out.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Of the gate. During the ball he's doing. He's one
of the best in the game.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And I'm not surprised the success that the success he's
having now is to keep them, keep them moving forward,
keeping him healthy.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
This kid is so well prepared. He wants this so bad.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
He has step up to be our age right now.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Yeah, and I mean, without giving too much away, he
had some some mechanical adjustments that he made last season
and had some success. You know after the first month
and a half two months, maybe what what kind of adjustments,
What kind of preparations are you are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
If you can say yeah, you know what?
Speaker 4 (05:59):
For me, it's more.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
How he sees himself. You know, when you first get
to the big leagues, you're trying to get to know
yourself on at the meension league level, right like you
you know, you know, you think you have a pretty
good idea of who you are, and you think you
have a pretty good idea get how to get.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You know, hitters in the big leagues.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
But unless you go through struggles and the you know,
the the struggles and.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
And figure out this is not.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Working for me and allow us to help you make
those adjustments throughout the season, that's when you really learn
your strength and weaknesses as a as an athlete in general.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
And I think that's the thing about hundred. We all
knew he had the stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We all knew that he had the demeanor to do
it and the grid and the toughness to do it.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
He went through some struggles. He allows us to help them.
You know, let's.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Change how you use your your repertoire. I want, let's
just make these adjustments on how you use your fastball
against writing, how you use breaking most agains. Let you know,
and he okay, this works for me now once he
gets everything going. Now he is now I got it
pretty good at THEA. How can I prepare myself Now?
I know how to read a report, Now I know
(07:13):
how to execute my game plan, and that's where.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
He's at right now.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And speaking of pictures that have things working for him,
Ryan Gusto thrust into a starting role after being in
the bullpen. What has been the key for him to
be so successful in these spots starts?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
You know, Rhight know what he does really well.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
He throws a ton of strikes. He's not afraid of
he's not afraid of contact. You know, he comes after you,
and you need to have that mentality to pitch in
this level and to sustain success at this level. And
I think he's done a really good job of that.
Now he's trying to get him deep into the games,
getting three times to the lineup. That's always a challenge
(07:53):
for any young pitcher, and.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
We are we're helping him go through that. But I'm
really really pleased the way he's been throwing the ball.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Do you have us arder for tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yes, I do, but I'm not going to share with
you guys right now.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I'll share with you guys later.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Alright, alright, keep it close to the best.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
That's okay, Joe, appreciate the time, and we'll talk to
you next week.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
All right, guys, You guys take care all right.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Joe Aspada here on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross
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