August 19, 2024 • 14 mins
Finishing out their series against the White Sox yesterday afternoon, the Astros go on to win two straight after losing the opener Friday night 5-4. Now four games leading the AL West, Steve Sparks joins and assesses the Astros victorious weekend along with a few long awaited player updates.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're bout there, but the Shawn Soundsbury Show continued.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Every Monday at eight thirty. Steve, welcome in. Good to
have you Verlanders. Looks like he's set to start Wednesday.
What do you think we should expect from him, Steve?
Like pitches wives or is it business as usual for him?
Any kind of pitch count you think he'll be on?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I think early the first game. If he does pitch Wednesday,
maybe seventy five eighty pitches somewhere around there. Okay, that
would give him an incremental jump from what he did
in his last start with Corpus Christy. So I think
he was fifty seven pitches four innings in that game.
So you just get incrementally a little bit better, maybe
five innings. I think you'd be real happy with that,
(00:44):
especially you go to six man right now, everybody gets extra.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Rest, no question about it, Steve.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
And I don't want to put you on the spot here,
but because but you're you're so intrigued with the pitching,
and you we've for years, we've been talking about it
now on here and how important it is not only here,
but the back into the bullpen. They seem, you know,
haters going strong. We we obviously know this the young
pitchers on here with Hunter Brown's doing even Aarraghetti who
struggled in his start, but we know he's got the
(01:10):
potential because we've seen it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
But this staff and.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And like right now, if the playoffs start tomorrow, which
they don't, how do you decide the way Kakuchi's coming
here and pitch you'll go tonight? How would you decide
the top three or four guys right now? Because with
Verdland healthy, you think, well, of course he's got to
be in. Who gets left out of this group and
goes to the bullpen the way they're.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Pitching, Why are you putting me on the spot.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Because you're you know what, because you're a you're a
magician and finding a way to give me an answer
without without hurting anybody's feelings. You're you're brilliant ends fair,
but you're always fair and transparent and honest.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So that's why. And you're smarter than well.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I think these things always seem to sort themselves out,
you know, And there's still plenty of to go, but
you know, you look at the first two, I think
you feel really good about how to round the fromber
pitching in the playoffs, they've been the best two pitches
last two and a half months. And in the American League, yes,
no doubt both are both are ten and two since
(02:12):
June first. Nobody even has nine wins in that span,
So Astros are ten and zero frombers last. It starts
and go on and on about what Hunter's done. He
has the best era in the last two and a
half months in baseball. So that's your one to two,
you know, and you figure the other things out a
little bit later on. And a lot of that probably
has to do with skill set. Who's done it, pitched
(02:37):
out of the bull bog, pitched out of the bullpen
in the past, so he knows what that might be.
So innings pitched, you know, we'll get to that point. Well,
we might say, hey, somebody, somebody needs to sit down.
This is enough, and you've done a great job. So
maybe the first series we'll let you take a little
breather here and we'll go from there. So I don't know,
there a lot of those things get sorted out. Matchups
(02:59):
you just mentioned it is a great one too, so
they've got great options now. And I love being able
to go to a six man very encouraged about Blanco's
last start in Tampa, where he gave up just two
Little Measley singles and six innings of shutout baseball, where
it looked like he was tailing off a little bit,
where it looked like his hand speed and velocity was
(03:21):
at tick down. But it looked very encouraging that last
game in Tampa. So maybe the second win there. I've
told I've told other people about this. There's a real
thing that's gone on for one hundred years in baseball.
You get to one hundred to one hundred and twenty innings, right,
you get through a dead period and your arm can
like your wonder. If you're hurt almost where there's just
(03:43):
no life in your arm, then it just reappears again.
And hopefully that's where Blanco is on the other side
of that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Steve Sparks Astro's broadcaster each week at eight thirty on
a Monday. Grateful to have him on. Steve, I'm fascinated
by this. We talked all the other crazy things that
have happened this season, but with Garcia, McCullers, France, Verlander,
a Javier, all those names that we are talking about,
this team that they're starting pitching is a strength, and
(04:13):
all those guys are out to me steve the depth
and the way they're teaching it. Is it just as
simple as Hunter Brown throwing a two seamer that you'd said,
he's got to challenge the inside of the plate. I mean,
you start to think of the timeline of how these
things have gone. It's been a remarkable pitching season for
these guys, considering all they've been through.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Okay, so you understand, like what kind of transpired with Hunter?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
And it was first it was Bregmann suggesting, hey, man,
you need something that goes the other way, right, so
they can't lean out and tattoo every one of your
mistakes exactly the other I don't know if you know this,
but Hunter told me this. He said that Verlander a
few months ago said hey, give me your your two
best games from Triple A a couple of years ago.
(05:00):
Let me let me see your mechanics and what you
might have been doing. So he did. He looked at him,
and he saw a couple of discrepancies in his mechanics.
He said, listen, you're doing this. You're doing this one
of them, and you can see this clear as day
from the centerfield camera. He throws across his body. Now,
that's what he was doing his last year in Triple
A with sugar Land. He'll step toward the right handed batter,
(05:22):
throw across his body, which was just natural. That was
the way he came through the miners. That's why he
pissed in college. That's just natural. So he stays closed
a little bit longer that Juice Seemer has more run
because of the way he lets go of the ball.
You also retain a little bit more power staying closed longer,
and he's more of.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
An explosive position, right, Steve, You're You're an explosive position
a lot longer.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No question. Yeah, So there's power there, there's there's you know,
the Rioty's I feel sorry for me. He's going to
break your bat or he's going to make you look stupid,
But there you go. Bragman and Berlander pissed him because
of what they feel and see and Hunter Brown and
just knowing that he's going to be a big part
(06:07):
of what the Astros are going to be able to do,
and they made sure that he was going to get
back on track. And I think that says a lot
about but it says a lot about Bregman and Berlin.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
No doubt, it's one thing for the veterans to reach
out and say, let's give you some help, and kg
veterans that have been doing this long enough to see
a million and can spot things that then that even
experts can't spot. And then you get the guy, the
pupil who's willing not to have too big an ego
and to learn because you know, Steve, that's hard to
do when you're on teammates saying dude, I'll fix it,
I'll fix it, but you're saying I'll fix this alone.
(06:38):
And for him to say, you know what, bam, you
had to let it just kind of in one ear
at the other or to get you know, defensive over it.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Right, I got this.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well, it's easy to learn when when you got attend
in the e R.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yes, I mean, no doubt, you let guys go.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Uh and then they come to you for having They
went to him, they saw and I thought this, I
thought Hunter on the verge of getting sent down at
one point, right, But man, he's been one of the
best pitchers in baseball for a good period of time now,
and you get really excited about his future and I
(07:13):
think they're in good hands. Man. They got They've got
some guy. Kokuchi is a swing and miss I love it, Yes,
that he can go out there and be a tough
matchup on anybody, very stingy with hits, big time on strikeout.
I think twenty four strikeouts in a little over sixteen innings.
So I think that the way they've got it set up.
Now you look at the lineup hard just about every
(07:35):
game you feel good about who's pitching for the for
the askers. Now you slop Verlander in there, and what
I've seen, you know, the last couple of games that
his rehab starts, it looks livelier than it did earlier
in the season. I see more acceleration on release point
and that's when you get that explosive four steamer up
above the belt, and I think it looks good for him.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, Steve a lot of focus on pitching on this
segment because then I and I love it and you
see it from a different vantage point than the rest
of us. And back to fromber I said today, Steve
hasn't he thrust himself back into the cy young talk
and just the inconsistency that he's leveled out and going
out there and giving you tons of innings and getting
swing and missing strikeout, always keeping the ball down, limited
(08:18):
his walks. I don't know the toughness, the mental toughness,
or if just sometimes Steve, you've been on teams, don't
pitching staffs have. I mean the competition, well, Hunter Browns
ramped up. I got to ramp my game up. That's
human nature to me. You always want to ramp your
game up. The consistency. We know he's got great stuff.
Where is this domination come from that we know he has,
but it seems more consistent? Is it just as simple
(08:41):
as understanding that you've got to be the ace and
the competition's part of it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
What's been his change for consistency?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I think it starts and stops with his curveball. I
think his curveball's elite, and we know wicked bread and
butter yep. But the curveball usage I think is part
of it. The sequencing in and using that pitch. He's
staying in the zone and the elimination of the slider.
I think he threw four sliders yesterday with slider cut
or whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You thought that was too flat? In the past, right, Steve,
you were concerned about it, correct.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I think in a vacuum it's a decent pitch, but
I think it gets him out of the mechanics and
his curveball fair enough, that was my issue. So I do,
I really do.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I think it's a decent pitch, but I think he's
got the weapons with the two seam fastball, the curveball
and the change up just to wipe people out, and
that's what he's doing more.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Right now, do you think he's a cy young guy? Steve?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Do you think he's put himself to thrust himself into
that or are we still a dominant four or five
or six starts away from talking about that down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I think we're still a little way from that. Hunter
Brown would be right up in the same thing. I mean,
those two guys are first and third in era since
they got on this role, so certainly they're in the conversations,
right Yeah, So is he in the conversation His last
ten starts pretty good?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, especially when they needed him, no doubt about it.
All Right, Steve, let me finish up with this. Have
you ever been around so many odd injuries? Well, I
mean Tavier neck led to forever reason. You know, he's
now he's having surgery on his elbow, right, and then
we've had a deck and we're like, how does a
neck can't keep people out?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That I'm not saying for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I mean, Tucker's the bone bruis that were going on
three months, and now Bregman misses three games with an
elbow because he slept wrong. I mean, I've never seen
it's it's craziness how some of the things that have
happened to them this year, and yet four games in
front of first place after we had him left for
dead two months ago.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So I know you played a very rough sport, and
I know baseball looks tame compared to that, and it is.
But the travel, falling asleep on the plane, right, sleeping
in a different bed all the time, all these things
add up. I mean, they've been doing this since the
middle of February, and they've been traveling almost every week
(11:06):
to go to these different cities and get in at
two thirty or three in the morning. But I'm not
saying that because anything other than it's hard to stay healthy, right,
you know, your body gets in weird positions everybody's posture
gets a little worse as we get older. I think
you've shrunk three inches since since.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, and I'm still trying.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I'm trying to knock down flagsticks and I don't want
my back to get in the waist.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's exactly right. But I'm just saying, man, it's it's
so hard to stay healthy a baseball. Throwing a baseball
in and of itself is unnatural. Your arm's not supposed
to go above your shoulder. That's why it's hanging down.
So I don't know, it's just hard and freaky. Injuries
happened just in weird ways. Yea to do something weird,
you know, it's played at such a high speed and
(11:55):
you get into that action and just covering first base
sometimes might tweak something weird and you're oblique. You know,
you just never know. So that's all I have to
say about that is the injuries are weird free, yes,
no doubt times, but they're weird because it's a long season.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
It's a grind man. Like you said, Steve, not every
bed is the same, not every plane flight. It's craziness.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
But you're you're right.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I just and the fact that they've just stayed the
course has been a tribute to them, which you've talked
about many times about their resilience and their grind and
their battle which has made them why a year after
your aside from talent, they continue to be in a
position to win a world series. So Steve, with that,
you do do you think?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I mean? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Do we have any update on Bregman or is it
just the same as yesterday. It's kind of a day
to day till it gets back and he feels better.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The biggest day to day. But you have an option
now al Tuo big at the DH today yesterday. Bregman
certainly has the chance to to DHS in this series.
We'll have to see what is what feels like to
be able to throw. But I think he's probably toughing
at the bit not to lose what was going on
with his his swing and his back the last and
(13:00):
a half. You know, I was thinking about this the
other day too. Bregnan's career era or a career batting
average in August is like three thirty seven, three thirty eight,
something like that. Ridiculous number compared to any of his
other month. I don't think I don't think.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
He's even two seventy in any of the other months,
And it just leads me.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
To believe August is the hardest month in all of baseball.
They call it the dog day for a reason, and
I just think it speaks to his mental toughness that
he's better than any other month in the toughest months
of the season, that he can put the team on
his back. And he was man that last Roaddron, Oh man,
he was unbelievable. But I was just thinking about the
(13:41):
other day. I want to share that. I just feel
him being able to do that in August had his
best month in his career. I'd like to look up
maybe Hall of famers who had their best months in August.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I think the listener, well, if that's the case, he's
in that team picture in August with that average Steve
and his production, there's a question.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, yeah, and you've said it over a thousand.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yep, you've said it on this show too, But that well,
to me, it feels like listening to experts like you
talked that that's his best trait. He's talented, but his
mental toughness and his ability to grind on the game
is what sustains him in months like this when other
guys are flailing around trying to keep up because they're tired.
It's a great point by you, and a lot of
it becomes mental at this stage. Good stuff, man, A
(14:23):
great series ahead and the next what fourteen games are
a lot of tests here in the next fourteen gonna
be fun competition and we look forward to next Monday's conversation.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Brother enjoyed this.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Red Sox series all right, Sean, appreciate great stuff. Thanks,
that's a great Steve Sparks always good to have him on.
Makes such a great point about the insight from a
Verlander and a Bregman to change a guy who we
all thought was either headed to Triple A or was
going to be just a bullpen guy. On Hunter Brown,
it's been fascinating run by Hunter and Fromber and what
they've done on this staff. Steve points it out well,
(14:54):
as he does every week. It's Sports Talk seven to
ninety coming right back.
We're bout there, but the Shawn Soundsbury Show continued.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Every Monday at eight thirty. Steve, welcome in. Good to
have you Verlanders. Looks like he's set to start Wednesday.
What do you think we should expect from him, Steve?
Like pitches wives or is it business as usual for him?
Any kind of pitch count you think he'll be on?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I think early the first game. If he does pitch Wednesday,
maybe seventy five eighty pitches somewhere around there. Okay, that
would give him an incremental jump from what he did
in his last start with Corpus Christy. So I think
he was fifty seven pitches four innings in that game.
So you just get incrementally a little bit better, maybe
five innings. I think you'd be real happy with that,
(00:44):
especially you go to six man right now, everybody gets extra.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Rest, no question about it, Steve.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
And I don't want to put you on the spot here,
but because but you're you're so intrigued with the pitching,
and you we've for years, we've been talking about it
now on here and how important it is not only here,
but the back into the bullpen. They seem, you know,
haters going strong. We we obviously know this the young
pitchers on here with Hunter Brown's doing even Aarraghetti who
struggled in his start, but we know he's got the
(01:10):
potential because we've seen it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
But this staff and.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And like right now, if the playoffs start tomorrow, which
they don't, how do you decide the way Kakuchi's coming
here and pitch you'll go tonight? How would you decide
the top three or four guys right now? Because with
Verdland healthy, you think, well, of course he's got to
be in. Who gets left out of this group and
goes to the bullpen the way they're.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Pitching, Why are you putting me on the spot.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Because you're you know what, because you're a you're a
magician and finding a way to give me an answer
without without hurting anybody's feelings. You're you're brilliant ends fair,
but you're always fair and transparent and honest.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So that's why. And you're smarter than well.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I think these things always seem to sort themselves out,
you know, And there's still plenty of to go, but
you know, you look at the first two, I think
you feel really good about how to round the fromber
pitching in the playoffs, they've been the best two pitches
last two and a half months. And in the American League, yes,
no doubt both are both are ten and two since
(02:12):
June first. Nobody even has nine wins in that span,
So Astros are ten and zero frombers last. It starts
and go on and on about what Hunter's done. He
has the best era in the last two and a
half months in baseball. So that's your one to two,
you know, and you figure the other things out a
little bit later on. And a lot of that probably
has to do with skill set. Who's done it, pitched
(02:37):
out of the bull bog, pitched out of the bullpen
in the past, so he knows what that might be.
So innings pitched, you know, we'll get to that point. Well,
we might say, hey, somebody, somebody needs to sit down.
This is enough, and you've done a great job. So
maybe the first series we'll let you take a little
breather here and we'll go from there. So I don't know,
there a lot of those things get sorted out. Matchups
(02:59):
you just mentioned it is a great one too, so
they've got great options now. And I love being able
to go to a six man very encouraged about Blanco's
last start in Tampa, where he gave up just two
Little Measley singles and six innings of shutout baseball, where
it looked like he was tailing off a little bit,
where it looked like his hand speed and velocity was
(03:21):
at tick down. But it looked very encouraging that last
game in Tampa. So maybe the second win there. I've
told I've told other people about this. There's a real
thing that's gone on for one hundred years in baseball.
You get to one hundred to one hundred and twenty innings, right,
you get through a dead period and your arm can
like your wonder. If you're hurt almost where there's just
(03:43):
no life in your arm, then it just reappears again.
And hopefully that's where Blanco is on the other side
of that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Steve Sparks Astro's broadcaster each week at eight thirty on
a Monday. Grateful to have him on. Steve, I'm fascinated
by this. We talked all the other crazy things that
have happened this season, but with Garcia, McCullers, France, Verlander,
a Javier, all those names that we are talking about,
this team that they're starting pitching is a strength, and
(04:13):
all those guys are out to me steve the depth
and the way they're teaching it. Is it just as
simple as Hunter Brown throwing a two seamer that you'd said,
he's got to challenge the inside of the plate. I mean,
you start to think of the timeline of how these
things have gone. It's been a remarkable pitching season for
these guys, considering all they've been through.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Okay, so you understand, like what kind of transpired with Hunter?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
And it was first it was Bregmann suggesting, hey, man,
you need something that goes the other way, right, so
they can't lean out and tattoo every one of your
mistakes exactly the other I don't know if you know this,
but Hunter told me this. He said that Verlander a
few months ago said hey, give me your your two
best games from Triple A a couple of years ago.
(05:00):
Let me let me see your mechanics and what you
might have been doing. So he did. He looked at him,
and he saw a couple of discrepancies in his mechanics.
He said, listen, you're doing this. You're doing this one
of them, and you can see this clear as day
from the centerfield camera. He throws across his body. Now,
that's what he was doing his last year in Triple
A with sugar Land. He'll step toward the right handed batter,
(05:22):
throw across his body, which was just natural. That was
the way he came through the miners. That's why he
pissed in college. That's just natural. So he stays closed
a little bit longer that Juice Seemer has more run
because of the way he lets go of the ball.
You also retain a little bit more power staying closed longer,
and he's more of.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
An explosive position, right, Steve, You're You're an explosive position
a lot longer.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No question. Yeah, So there's power there, there's there's you know,
the Rioty's I feel sorry for me. He's going to
break your bat or he's going to make you look stupid,
But there you go. Bragman and Berlander pissed him because
of what they feel and see and Hunter Brown and
just knowing that he's going to be a big part
(06:07):
of what the Astros are going to be able to do,
and they made sure that he was going to get
back on track. And I think that says a lot
about but it says a lot about Bregman and Berlin.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
No doubt, it's one thing for the veterans to reach
out and say, let's give you some help, and kg
veterans that have been doing this long enough to see
a million and can spot things that then that even
experts can't spot. And then you get the guy, the
pupil who's willing not to have too big an ego
and to learn because you know, Steve, that's hard to
do when you're on teammates saying dude, I'll fix it,
I'll fix it, but you're saying I'll fix this alone.
(06:38):
And for him to say, you know what, bam, you
had to let it just kind of in one ear
at the other or to get you know, defensive over it.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Right, I got this.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well, it's easy to learn when when you got attend
in the e R.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yes, I mean, no doubt, you let guys go.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Uh and then they come to you for having They
went to him, they saw and I thought this, I
thought Hunter on the verge of getting sent down at
one point, right, But man, he's been one of the
best pitchers in baseball for a good period of time now,
and you get really excited about his future and I
(07:13):
think they're in good hands. Man. They got They've got
some guy. Kokuchi is a swing and miss I love it, Yes,
that he can go out there and be a tough
matchup on anybody, very stingy with hits, big time on strikeout.
I think twenty four strikeouts in a little over sixteen innings.
So I think that the way they've got it set up.
Now you look at the lineup hard just about every
(07:35):
game you feel good about who's pitching for the for
the askers. Now you slop Verlander in there, and what
I've seen, you know, the last couple of games that
his rehab starts, it looks livelier than it did earlier
in the season. I see more acceleration on release point
and that's when you get that explosive four steamer up
above the belt, and I think it looks good for him.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, Steve a lot of focus on pitching on this
segment because then I and I love it and you
see it from a different vantage point than the rest
of us. And back to fromber I said today, Steve
hasn't he thrust himself back into the cy young talk
and just the inconsistency that he's leveled out and going
out there and giving you tons of innings and getting
swing and missing strikeout, always keeping the ball down, limited
(08:18):
his walks. I don't know the toughness, the mental toughness,
or if just sometimes Steve, you've been on teams, don't
pitching staffs have. I mean the competition, well, Hunter Browns
ramped up. I got to ramp my game up. That's
human nature to me. You always want to ramp your
game up. The consistency. We know he's got great stuff.
Where is this domination come from that we know he has,
but it seems more consistent? Is it just as simple
(08:41):
as understanding that you've got to be the ace and
the competition's part of it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
What's been his change for consistency?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I think it starts and stops with his curveball. I
think his curveball's elite, and we know wicked bread and
butter yep. But the curveball usage I think is part
of it. The sequencing in and using that pitch. He's
staying in the zone and the elimination of the slider.
I think he threw four sliders yesterday with slider cut
or whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You thought that was too flat? In the past, right, Steve,
you were concerned about it, correct.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I think in a vacuum it's a decent pitch, but
I think it gets him out of the mechanics and
his curveball fair enough, that was my issue. So I do,
I really do.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I think it's a decent pitch, but I think he's
got the weapons with the two seam fastball, the curveball
and the change up just to wipe people out, and
that's what he's doing more.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Right now, do you think he's a cy young guy? Steve?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Do you think he's put himself to thrust himself into
that or are we still a dominant four or five
or six starts away from talking about that down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I think we're still a little way from that. Hunter
Brown would be right up in the same thing. I mean,
those two guys are first and third in era since
they got on this role, so certainly they're in the conversations,
right Yeah, So is he in the conversation His last
ten starts pretty good?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, especially when they needed him, no doubt about it.
All Right, Steve, let me finish up with this. Have
you ever been around so many odd injuries? Well, I
mean Tavier neck led to forever reason. You know, he's
now he's having surgery on his elbow, right, and then
we've had a deck and we're like, how does a
neck can't keep people out?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That I'm not saying for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I mean, Tucker's the bone bruis that were going on
three months, and now Bregman misses three games with an
elbow because he slept wrong. I mean, I've never seen
it's it's craziness how some of the things that have
happened to them this year, and yet four games in
front of first place after we had him left for
dead two months ago.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So I know you played a very rough sport, and
I know baseball looks tame compared to that, and it is.
But the travel, falling asleep on the plane, right, sleeping
in a different bed all the time, all these things
add up. I mean, they've been doing this since the
middle of February, and they've been traveling almost every week
(11:06):
to go to these different cities and get in at
two thirty or three in the morning. But I'm not
saying that because anything other than it's hard to stay healthy, right,
you know, your body gets in weird positions everybody's posture
gets a little worse as we get older. I think
you've shrunk three inches since since.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, and I'm still trying.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I'm trying to knock down flagsticks and I don't want
my back to get in the waist.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's exactly right. But I'm just saying, man, it's it's
so hard to stay healthy a baseball. Throwing a baseball
in and of itself is unnatural. Your arm's not supposed
to go above your shoulder. That's why it's hanging down.
So I don't know, it's just hard and freaky. Injuries
happened just in weird ways. Yea to do something weird,
you know, it's played at such a high speed and
(11:55):
you get into that action and just covering first base
sometimes might tweak something weird and you're oblique. You know,
you just never know. So that's all I have to
say about that is the injuries are weird free, yes,
no doubt times, but they're weird because it's a long season.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
It's a grind man. Like you said, Steve, not every
bed is the same, not every plane flight. It's craziness.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
But you're you're right.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I just and the fact that they've just stayed the
course has been a tribute to them, which you've talked
about many times about their resilience and their grind and
their battle which has made them why a year after
your aside from talent, they continue to be in a
position to win a world series. So Steve, with that,
you do do you think?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I mean? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Do we have any update on Bregman or is it
just the same as yesterday. It's kind of a day
to day till it gets back and he feels better.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The biggest day to day. But you have an option
now al Tuo big at the DH today yesterday. Bregman
certainly has the chance to to DHS in this series.
We'll have to see what is what feels like to
be able to throw. But I think he's probably toughing
at the bit not to lose what was going on
with his his swing and his back the last and
(13:00):
a half. You know, I was thinking about this the
other day too. Bregnan's career era or a career batting
average in August is like three thirty seven, three thirty eight,
something like that. Ridiculous number compared to any of his
other month. I don't think I don't think.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
He's even two seventy in any of the other months,
And it just leads me.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
To believe August is the hardest month in all of baseball.
They call it the dog day for a reason, and
I just think it speaks to his mental toughness that
he's better than any other month in the toughest months
of the season, that he can put the team on
his back. And he was man that last Roaddron, Oh man,
he was unbelievable. But I was just thinking about the
(13:41):
other day. I want to share that. I just feel
him being able to do that in August had his
best month in his career. I'd like to look up
maybe Hall of famers who had their best months in August.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I think the listener, well, if that's the case, he's
in that team picture in August with that average Steve
and his production, there's a question.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, yeah, and you've said it over a thousand.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yep, you've said it on this show too, But that well,
to me, it feels like listening to experts like you
talked that that's his best trait. He's talented, but his
mental toughness and his ability to grind on the game
is what sustains him in months like this when other
guys are flailing around trying to keep up because they're tired.
It's a great point by you, and a lot of
it becomes mental at this stage. Good stuff, man, A
(14:23):
great series ahead and the next what fourteen games are
a lot of tests here in the next fourteen gonna
be fun competition and we look forward to next Monday's conversation.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Brother enjoyed this.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Red Sox series all right, Sean, appreciate great stuff. Thanks,
that's a great Steve Sparks always good to have him on.
Makes such a great point about the insight from a
Verlander and a Bregman to change a guy who we
all thought was either headed to Triple A or was
going to be just a bullpen guy. On Hunter Brown,
it's been fascinating run by Hunter and Fromber and what
they've done on this staff. Steve points it out well,
(14:54):
as he does every week. It's Sports Talk seven to
ninety coming right back.
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