Latest / Foul Territory / Astros Manager Joe Espada joins FT: Framber convo, Beltran’s HOF case, Altuve’s recovery, 2017 champs

Transcript

Astros Manager Joe Espada joins FT: Framber convo, Beltran’s HOF case, Altuve’s recovery, 2017 champs · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there he is the manager of the Houston Astros.
0:05
Speaker 1: Joe Aspata. Always great to see you, Joe. We appreciate
0:08
Speaker 1: you taking the time to be with us. Happy off season,
0:11
Speaker 1: although it never seems like you guys are really off. First,
0:14
Speaker 1: before we get into it, give us an update on
0:17
Speaker 1: Jose Altuve. Just had surgery to relieve that right foot
0:20
Speaker 1: discomfort discomfort. How's your boy?
0:23
Speaker 2: He is doing. He's doing well. You know, this is
0:26
Speaker 2: something that's been has been humpering for a little bit
0:30
Speaker 2: for a couple of weeks, and obviously he fantishy sees
0:33
Speaker 2: him playing through it. And we actually went in there
0:35
Speaker 2: yesterday and we got a little bit of work done
0:37
Speaker 2: trying to clean the area. But he's doing well. He
0:42
Speaker 2: should be back moving around and continue he's his off
0:45
Speaker 2: season workouts here in the next in the next week
0:48
Speaker 2: or two.
0:49
Speaker 3: Joe. First of all, I want to say thank you
0:51
Speaker 3: for reaching out, because you know, I don't like asking
0:55
Speaker 3: for people's phone numbers, especially managers, because then people, you know,
0:59
Speaker 3: sometimes people are like, oh, you want a job. No
1:01
Speaker 3: I don't want a job, but.
1:02
Speaker 2: No, you don't. You and I, You and I we
1:04
Speaker 2: talked about it. Doing a season, you know, and you
1:06
Speaker 2: invite me to the show, and I'm like, you know what,
1:08
Speaker 2: doing the off season, we could do it. And you know,
1:11
Speaker 2: I think this is a really great show. They you know,
1:15
Speaker 2: the dynamic between you and and your and and everyone
1:18
Speaker 2: in the show is great. So you know, it's an
1:20
Speaker 2: opportunity for me to come out, come here and talk
1:23
Speaker 2: about talk about our club.
1:25
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate it. Like I said, that's why I
1:27
Speaker 3: was thanking you for reaching out and coming on being
1:28
Speaker 3: a man of your word. So I appreciate that. Yes,
1:33
Speaker 3: L two V will be fine. He's gonna hit three hundred.
1:34
Speaker 3: He's gonna get in one hundred and eighty. That's two
1:36
Speaker 3: hundred hits next year. He's fine. I don't worry about him.
1:38
Speaker 3: But you have new coaches, right, You brought in some
1:41
Speaker 3: new coaches. Can you tell us about your staff and
1:43
Speaker 3: how do you go about hiring new coaches, especially from
1:46
Speaker 3: guys that you've had around for a long time. You've
1:49
Speaker 3: been around for a while and then they're gone and
1:51
Speaker 3: you have new faces.
1:52
Speaker 2: And that's a good question. And you know, for me
1:55
Speaker 2: is try to bring back try to you know, our
1:58
Speaker 2: identity back on who we are as a club. You know,
2:01
Speaker 2: I've been here for eight years, and our offense is
2:05
Speaker 2: great when we when we control the pace of the
2:07
Speaker 2: game and we're all working together and we're trying to
2:10
Speaker 2: win every bat, every pitch, we're trying to win first base.
2:14
Speaker 2: And and and I thought that, you know, we just
2:16
Speaker 2: needed a new voice when he came to on that
2:18
Speaker 2: aspect of of the of our offense. And I can't
2:21
Speaker 2: you know, Alexe Tron and Troy Snicker tremendous hitting coaches.
2:27
Speaker 2: We we've been part of an incredible run here and
2:30
Speaker 2: they deserve a lot of credit to what we have accomplished.
2:34
Speaker 2: But I thought, and this this time, that it was
2:36
Speaker 2: important for us just to bring a set of voice,
2:40
Speaker 2: you know, two set of voices that can get our
2:42
Speaker 2: guys going again. And you know, our group is changing
2:46
Speaker 2: a little bit. We've got some younger players coming, we
2:48
Speaker 2: got some veteran players that I thought bringing, bringing a
2:52
Speaker 2: different way of doing things can can get us back
2:56
Speaker 2: and and and and you know, getting our offense back
2:58
Speaker 2: and scoring a ton of runs.
3:00
Speaker 4: Is this something that you saw possibly needing to change
3:04
Speaker 4: during the season or was it sometimes when changes need
3:08
Speaker 4: to be had. It kind of happened a year or
3:10
Speaker 4: two before and you're like, hey, you know what, we
3:13
Speaker 4: we kind of we stayed the course, we still had
3:15
Speaker 4: success or was it something that kind of changed this
3:17
Speaker 4: year when you lose a guy like your Don Alvarez,
3:20
Speaker 4: when you trade a guy like Tucker.
3:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Kurt, it's a good question. And I think,
3:26
Speaker 2: you know, if we would have had those guys healthy
3:28
Speaker 2: the entire year, I think the outcome of our season
3:32
Speaker 2: would have been would have been different, you know, for
3:34
Speaker 2: for me as a manager, and I'm in this position
3:37
Speaker 2: where I got to evaluate our staff. You know, we
3:40
Speaker 2: as an organization, we evaluate the rich that we want
3:43
Speaker 2: to go this next way for players that are coming, right,
3:48
Speaker 2: do we have the right uh the right people in
3:51
Speaker 2: place to help us into the future. So this is
3:55
Speaker 2: something that you know, we we've been this, we discussed
3:59
Speaker 2: for for a while and we end up, you know,
4:01
Speaker 2: this decision was not easy to make. Yeah. Sorry, I
4:05
Speaker 2: my phone hasn't stopped ringing, guys. We still you know,
4:08
Speaker 2: we're trying to get prepared, you know now that we
4:11
Speaker 2: are hiring processes over now. We actually started to talk
4:15
Speaker 2: about you know, the you know, players and putting our
4:18
Speaker 2: team together, which excites me right now. Looking forward to
4:21
Speaker 2: our twenty twenty sixth season.
4:23
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this. When I think of the
4:25
Speaker 1: Houston Astros, Joe, I think it is synonymous with postseason play.
4:29
Speaker 1: And this season was the first time since twenty sixteen,
4:32
Speaker 1: you guys haven't been in it. I don't, I can't.
4:34
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even remember twenty sixteen. It feels
4:36
Speaker 1: like that long ago since you guys were not in
4:38
Speaker 1: the postseason. What was that like, because you were still
4:41
Speaker 1: in it at the end, what was that like for
4:43
Speaker 1: you as a manager? Because you take it, folks take
4:45
Speaker 1: it for granted that you're just always going to be there.
4:49
Speaker 2: Right, and it was very difficult. Trust me, it was
4:51
Speaker 2: not easy seating at the house, you know, watching post
4:55
Speaker 2: season from the couch. You know, our players obviously it's
5:01
Speaker 2: something that we're now used to. This is going to create,
5:05
Speaker 2: you know, it's going to put a ship on our shoulders.
5:07
Speaker 2: We want to get back. We know that we are
5:09
Speaker 2: a postseason team, and but it was not fun at all.
5:14
Speaker 2: We knew, we know exactly the things that we need
5:17
Speaker 2: to get on, starting to getting healthy, trying to keep
5:19
Speaker 2: our players on the field, you know, building building a
5:24
Speaker 2: team that could sustain one sixty two hopefully one eighty
5:28
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty games, So that's our focus. But
5:30
Speaker 2: it was not easy. You know, I've been here now,
5:33
Speaker 2: this is my eighth season, and all we've known is
5:35
Speaker 2: postseason baseball and on our fantasy serves. That organization deserves
5:40
Speaker 2: that and most importantly, our players deserve that.
5:43
Speaker 3: Okay, I got a first of all, I've done the
5:45
Speaker 3: Houston Astros my entire postseason career, so this is the
5:49
Speaker 3: first year where normally my plane just takes off and
5:52
Speaker 3: just goes whatever plane I'm on, it just goes to Houston, right,
5:55
Speaker 3: But this year I was even this year, I was
5:57
Speaker 3: going to Seattle and they were like, we might have
5:59
Speaker 3: to make a landing to drop somebody off in Houston.
6:01
Speaker 3: I was like, wait, what, I'm not going to Houston.
6:03
Speaker 3: So I don't know if it was my fall Joe
6:05
Speaker 3: or what, but I apologize that you guys didn't make
6:08
Speaker 3: the playoffs because I've stayed enough at that four seasons
6:11
Speaker 3: right there that I have frequent flyer. I don't know
6:14
Speaker 3: if you have, although four seasons doesn't really do that,
6:16
Speaker 3: so that's that's not your problem. So I apologize that
6:18
Speaker 3: my plane tried to make an emergency landing so that
6:20
Speaker 3: you guys didn't make it. I apologize, But what I
6:22
Speaker 3: want to know is.
6:23
Speaker 2: J I won't hold that. I will hold that against you.
6:26
Speaker 2: You know, we there's a lot of things that happened
6:28
Speaker 2: throughout the season, and we learned from those things. And
6:31
Speaker 2: trust me, our focus right now is trying to make
6:33
Speaker 2: those things better, getting our players ready to play, and
6:35
Speaker 2: I can't wait to get the screen training.
6:37
Speaker 3: Dude, you're one of the most positive people I've ever
6:39
Speaker 3: been around in my life. Okay, but you brought something
6:42
Speaker 3: up just a second ago and I got to ask you.
6:45
Speaker 3: You said, we're focused on getting players, all right, So
6:48
Speaker 3: give us the inside scoop. Dana Brown's not gonna tell
6:51
Speaker 3: us so Joe Spatta is Verlander coming back? Are you
6:54
Speaker 3: guys bringing Kyle Tucker back? Are you guys going again?
6:57
Speaker 2: Boba?
6:58
Speaker 3: Shitit to play? I don't know where, No play somewhere right?
7:01
Speaker 3: Who are you to tell us? Now?
7:04
Speaker 2: You know what? I want to keep those I want
7:07
Speaker 2: to keep those names to to to myself. But one
7:10
Speaker 2: thing I do tell you is that we are always
7:12
Speaker 2: data in the front office. We're always looking for ways
7:15
Speaker 2: to improve our our club. Uh, you know, we have
7:20
Speaker 2: a very strong core of players that that we're very
7:24
Speaker 2: excited about. We've got some younger players that we are
7:27
Speaker 2: going to give opportunities for them to develop at the
7:29
Speaker 2: major league level and they're going to help us win games.
7:32
Speaker 2: But we are looking for ways to improve our club
7:34
Speaker 2: either position player wise, and we you know, right now,
7:37
Speaker 2: our main focus is on the pitching side of things. Obviously,
7:41
Speaker 2: we we we you know, there's someone like front from
7:43
Speaker 2: Balde who's going to be a free agent. We continue
7:46
Speaker 2: to speak to his camp about ways to to bring
7:50
Speaker 2: to you know, to bring him back if that's a possibility.
7:53
Speaker 2: But we're looking for ways to improve our club. We
7:56
Speaker 2: have a team that is ready to compete next season
7:58
Speaker 2: and we we still feel like the that we in
8:01
Speaker 2: a position to win the West. So we're gonna look
8:03
Speaker 2: for every avenue that we can to improve our club.
8:08
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8:27
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9:09
Speaker 3: Right, improving the club.
9:10
Speaker 4: When you talk about young guys, obviously, the first name
9:13
Speaker 4: that comes to my mind is a guy you talked
9:15
Speaker 4: about in spring training, Cam Smith. Cam Smith, what does
9:19
Speaker 4: he need to I'm not gonna say work on but
9:22
Speaker 4: when you look at his numbers, you would say, okay,
9:24
Speaker 4: it's a tale of like three seasons, a slow start,
9:27
Speaker 4: hot middle, slow finish. What on the field do you
9:32
Speaker 4: need to see from him to be that star? I
9:36
Speaker 4: think your exact quote was he can be a star
9:38
Speaker 4: one day. It's up to him or you know, once
9:41
Speaker 4: he learns. I forget exactly what you said, But what
9:44
Speaker 4: do you need to see from him on the field?
9:46
Speaker 4: Obviously his work, everybody's talked about his makeup. Everything is
9:51
Speaker 4: off the charts on the field though.
9:54
Speaker 2: You know what for me Krasty, you guys playing the
9:56
Speaker 2: big league for a long time, you and aj and
9:59
Speaker 2: as a manager of UNI need to have two things
10:01
Speaker 2: when he comes to young players. For me is you
10:03
Speaker 2: need to have give him time and you need to
10:06
Speaker 2: be patient. We cannot rush those two things, right. I
10:10
Speaker 2: think if we put Cam in a position for him
10:14
Speaker 2: to succeed and give him time, he has to work ethic.
10:17
Speaker 2: He has the ability to do it, but we need
10:20
Speaker 2: to give this process some time. This is just gonna
10:22
Speaker 2: be his sophomore year in the big leagues, and I
10:26
Speaker 2: think his freshman year was a solid season. You know,
10:29
Speaker 2: is he is it more in there? Absolutely, But you know,
10:31
Speaker 2: he barely played minor league baseball. He came into camp,
10:35
Speaker 2: he won a spot. We believe in him, We believe
10:38
Speaker 2: in his ability to be a right fueler for the future.
10:42
Speaker 2: But we just need to let, you know, allow him
10:45
Speaker 2: to learn the league. He came out so on the
10:47
Speaker 2: bat really well and the league. What happens. The league's
10:50
Speaker 2: going to adjust to you and he just needs to
10:54
Speaker 2: figure out a way to adjust to the league and
10:56
Speaker 2: what they're trying to do on the offensive side. And
10:59
Speaker 2: we you know he is going to be able to
11:01
Speaker 2: do that. My job is to continue to provide an
11:03
Speaker 2: environment where he could be himself, he can continue to
11:06
Speaker 2: develop to the players that we know he can't be
11:09
Speaker 2: and and just be patient. Uh, this kid's going to
11:11
Speaker 2: be a start and I'm just super excited about the future.
11:14
Speaker 2: What what holds upon?
11:16
Speaker 1: So you see Cam Smith as the future and right
11:18
Speaker 1: field for the Houston Astros. Joe Dana Brown said that
11:21
Speaker 1: you guys need to firm up the off season this winter.
11:24
Speaker 1: What does that mean to you?
11:27
Speaker 2: You know what? And I think that's one of the
11:28
Speaker 2: one of the aspects, right. You know, obviously, Ken Smith
11:31
Speaker 2: is one of those those guys that we want to
11:33
Speaker 2: give them the opportunity to take over that right field
11:36
Speaker 2: spot and run with it. And and again it's about
11:40
Speaker 2: you know, being patient and allow him to do that.
11:43
Speaker 2: And I think this offseason is very important for him
11:45
Speaker 2: to take to grab right field and run and run
11:49
Speaker 2: with it. I think this opportunity, you know, we want
11:51
Speaker 2: to create opportunities for players like Zach Cole and Jacob Melton.
11:55
Speaker 2: Their dynamic players that bring speed and they that brings
11:58
Speaker 2: some power from the left side, something that we need
12:01
Speaker 2: in our offense to be a little bit more dynamic
12:04
Speaker 2: to you know, be able to take our game to
12:06
Speaker 2: the next level on the base path, be that athletic
12:09
Speaker 2: team that we've been in the past, and we have
12:11
Speaker 2: the pieces to do that. Another name that come to
12:13
Speaker 2: mind is somebody like Bryce Matthews, who came in and
12:16
Speaker 2: pretty much want us a series in Arizona. You know,
12:20
Speaker 2: having creating more opportunities for these players to develop, help
12:24
Speaker 2: us win games. And at the same time, those players
12:27
Speaker 2: will help me give our better players some time to
12:30
Speaker 2: rest and recover in a long and a very long season.
12:34
Speaker 4: All right, on this show, we've talked about it, and
12:37
Speaker 4: it's a discussion I even had when I was playing.
12:39
Speaker 4: My opinion, there's usually eight to ten aces true aces
12:43
Speaker 4: in the game of baseball depends. It fluctuates every years,
12:46
Speaker 4: Hunter Brown and ace and if not absolutely an ace
12:50
Speaker 4: in the game.
12:52
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe so, you know, and I'm going to
12:55
Speaker 2: take away the performance like you do need to perform, right,
12:58
Speaker 2: I think performance goes with that description that you just
13:03
Speaker 2: that you just said, right, you have to perform. But
13:06
Speaker 2: there's also an element that as bring to a team
13:10
Speaker 2: is which is every day he steps on the baseball field,
13:14
Speaker 2: that dynamic, the environment, the clubhous just changes. You know,
13:18
Speaker 2: we all feel like we're going to win that game. Right,
13:20
Speaker 2: you go through stretches of games where you're not playing well,
13:24
Speaker 2: you can't wait for that age to get on the mount.
13:27
Speaker 2: So if you change the course of the series or
13:29
Speaker 2: the week, right, that's the description of an ACE. That's
13:32
Speaker 2: number one. Number two. You know he brings he brings
13:35
Speaker 2: this element of of like humility arrogance to him where
13:41
Speaker 2: it's contagious to everyone. Right, he's got an edge to him.
13:45
Speaker 2: JV had that edge, Garrett Cole has that EDG that
13:47
Speaker 2: has that edge, that level of confidence where he knows
13:51
Speaker 2: that today we have to win this game. Today, I'm
13:54
Speaker 2: going to give you know, our club six seven innings
13:57
Speaker 2: because our bullpend needs and our team needs it. And
14:00
Speaker 2: Hunter Brown has developed into that a's mentality and from
14:06
Speaker 2: you know, moving on on now he's got to continue
14:09
Speaker 2: that consistency in his preparation and discipline. It's what it's
14:13
Speaker 2: going to you know, make you know, keep them in
14:15
Speaker 2: that level where when we talk about the A's the
14:19
Speaker 2: schools of the world, that's this. Those guys are on
14:21
Speaker 2: a different level because of how consistent they are, not
14:25
Speaker 2: only are the performance, but in their preparation.
14:28
Speaker 4: All Right, I got to ask about a guy who
14:30
Speaker 4: was your number one for a few years, got into
14:32
Speaker 4: a sticky situation, the Framburgh cross up no cross up
14:36
Speaker 4: on the show as catchers, I had some heated words
14:39
Speaker 4: about it. How did you handle that as a manager?
14:41
Speaker 4: How did you handle that when you saw it? Did
14:45
Speaker 4: you have the same feeling when you went back and
14:47
Speaker 4: saw it on video?
14:49
Speaker 2: You know, Chrissie, I you know, as the manager of
14:52
Speaker 2: the team, I want to hear from both sides, right,
14:54
Speaker 2: I know the type of competitor that Franberg Balde is
14:58
Speaker 2: uh no one for for for a very long time. Uh,
15:01
Speaker 2: this guy cares about winning. He's a competitor where he's
15:05
Speaker 2: on the mount. So instead of me reaching conclusions without
15:09
Speaker 2: talking to both Sally and Valdez, that's the way I
15:14
Speaker 2: diffused the situation. Obviously, Salas I was not happy about it,
15:18
Speaker 2: and and and I brought both guys in my office,
15:21
Speaker 2: and I wanted to hear from both sides. I wanted
15:23
Speaker 2: to you know, what happened. Was it a cross up?
15:25
Speaker 2: And both guys said, Joe, yes, there was a miscommunication,
15:28
Speaker 2: and you know, he threw that he threw the wrong pitch.
15:31
Speaker 2: I wanted to hear from both. I wanted to, you know,
15:35
Speaker 2: bring the fire down because I know how heated the
15:39
Speaker 2: hole entest situation. It was also we're playing the Yankees
15:42
Speaker 2: at the time, right, so when I call me my
15:44
Speaker 2: office after the game, it was a tough loss. You know,
15:48
Speaker 2: I knew what social media was saying, right I you know,
15:51
Speaker 2: I said down with my PR department, and I knew
15:54
Speaker 2: I was going to be asked about this. So before
15:56
Speaker 2: I spoke to the media and I spoke to to
16:01
Speaker 2: the rest of some of my players, I wanted to
16:03
Speaker 2: hear from both of them and that's that's who went down.
16:07
Speaker 2: I think both players handled it well. Listen, we we
16:10
Speaker 2: are a family and and doing this season. Stuff is
16:14
Speaker 2: going to happen, and there's fights between brothers and and
16:18
Speaker 2: and and this is this is what happens when you
16:20
Speaker 2: want to win so bad. But we were able to
16:23
Speaker 2: turn the corner right around the next day. We came
16:26
Speaker 2: back and we beat you know, we beat the Yankees,
16:28
Speaker 2: and and we continue to move on and and you know,
16:30
Speaker 2: because we know how important it is to have everyone
16:33
Speaker 2: working together. So uh, you know, the whole entire scene
16:38
Speaker 2: did not look great, and I understand, but but I
16:43
Speaker 2: think once I spoke with both players and both players
16:45
Speaker 2: got on the same page and we were able to
16:47
Speaker 2: move on.
16:48
Speaker 1: Joe along those same lines you know, from are better
16:51
Speaker 1: than anybody. We're not in the dugout, We're not in
16:53
Speaker 1: the clubhouse. Outside of the Houston Astros organization. There's a
16:57
Speaker 1: bit of a reputation that he's not a great teammate.
17:01
Speaker 1: Is I don't believe that you think that's the case,
17:03
Speaker 1: but I would rather hear it from you. What is
17:05
Speaker 1: he like as a teammate? I mean, he's a free agent,
17:08
Speaker 1: so what can people expect from from er Valdez. If
17:11
Speaker 1: he's part of their organization.
17:13
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. If I'm a manager of the team,
17:16
Speaker 2: I want him on my team. I'm going to start
17:18
Speaker 2: with that. When he's when he is on the mound,
17:21
Speaker 2: he's going to give you, He's going to post, he's
17:23
Speaker 2: going to give you everything he's got right, you know,
17:26
Speaker 2: for me, as the definition of his great teammate is
17:30
Speaker 2: where people just have different definition this year, differently than
17:34
Speaker 2: everyone you know from from about that is well respected
17:38
Speaker 2: in our clubhouse. He's got a ton of friends. He's
17:41
Speaker 2: work ethic, he's impeccable, he's he's strong as a bull.
17:45
Speaker 2: He poses every day, he wants the ball. He's someone
17:49
Speaker 2: who I want to go on to battlefield with. So
17:53
Speaker 2: I understand the reputation because of one event, one thing
17:57
Speaker 2: that happened, and people might each conclusion to that, but
18:01
Speaker 2: I've beat around him for six seven years and if
18:04
Speaker 2: I want to go into a duck fight, I want
18:06
Speaker 2: this guy to be right there next to me.
18:08
Speaker 3: Okay, So you just we talked earlier about your coaching staff,
18:11
Speaker 3: having you had to hire all these new people. Victor
18:13
Speaker 3: Rodriguez one of my favorite people. I had him in Boston.
18:16
Speaker 3: He was our assistant. He and coach. He's awesome. So
18:18
Speaker 3: that was a good hire. But did Brandon Hyde call you?
18:21
Speaker 3: Because I don't know, people know that you your wife
18:23
Speaker 3: and his sister, or you're married to Brandon Hyde's sisters. Sisters. Yes,
18:29
Speaker 3: your wife's sister, Brandon Heide's wife's sister, and your wife
18:34
Speaker 3: our switners. Okay, both your wives or sisters. So did
18:37
Speaker 3: he call you looking for a job. Did he say, hey, Joe,
18:40
Speaker 3: you know, we got these family ties and if you
18:42
Speaker 3: don't want to make Thanksgiving and Christmas awkward, you should
18:44
Speaker 3: hire me.
18:47
Speaker 2: Listen, I did. I did talk to him while I
18:51
Speaker 2: was inquiring through some of these to some of these coaches,
18:55
Speaker 2: I did call Hyder. I you know, he's he's uh,
18:59
Speaker 2: he's experienced and uh you know, he's his words of
19:03
Speaker 2: encouragement and and he's advised. He's always something that I'm
19:06
Speaker 2: always looking for. So we did talk. I did not
19:11
Speaker 2: reach out for him for a job because he is managerial,
19:16
Speaker 2: uh material, I don't know how good he could be
19:19
Speaker 2: as a hitting coach, but but I did seek for
19:23
Speaker 2: advice and uh doing this process. Uh, and we still
19:27
Speaker 2: we still talk, you know, I know he's still trying
19:30
Speaker 2: to land a job and he wants to work, but uh,
19:33
Speaker 2: you know, Brendan Hudis, it's uh, it's it's not only
19:37
Speaker 2: my brother in law. I consider one of my closest friends.
19:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know the family dynamics. You don't want to
19:42
Speaker 3: be in your bench coach, and then something happened and
19:44
Speaker 3: then it'd be like, you know, hey, I want that, right,
19:48
Speaker 3: I get a.
19:49
Speaker 2: John watch are wise when they get together and started
19:52
Speaker 2: talking about baseball. They're they're the biggest second guessers there
19:57
Speaker 2: are in the game.
19:59
Speaker 3: I get. I can only imagine, all right, So.
20:02
Speaker 2: Why not Bunning? Why why you bring this guy in
20:06
Speaker 2: the game. So if you bring both of them together
20:09
Speaker 2: and we are you know, forget it, we will not.
20:13
Speaker 2: We will not. We will not be able to enjoy dinner.
20:16
Speaker 3: Okay, that's fair. Now that we have we have the
20:18
Speaker 3: WBC coming up, you clearly won't be able to manage
20:20
Speaker 3: Team Puerto Rico this year. But that's fine. Key K's out,
20:24
Speaker 3: so you know you don't want to manage that team
20:25
Speaker 3: anymore anyways. But I do have a serious question about
20:28
Speaker 3: one of the greatest Puerto Rican baseball players, Carlos Beetro. Now, yes,
20:33
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily agree with this, but he's probably gonna
20:36
Speaker 3: get into the Hall of Fame. But are you okay,
20:39
Speaker 3: and this is Astros related with the whole trash can thing,
20:42
Speaker 3: are you okay with the fact that he gets looked
20:45
Speaker 3: down upon because his name has been brought up so
20:47
Speaker 3: many times at the end of his career for that right,
20:52
Speaker 3: Like to me, he had his career, he was a
20:54
Speaker 3: great player. He probably should have been in the Hall
20:57
Speaker 3: of Fame first or second ballot. But some people look
20:59
Speaker 3: at that part of his Astro's career and say, Carlos
21:02
Speaker 3: is a bad guy, or Carlos is this or that,
21:05
Speaker 3: and they and they almost want to put him in
21:07
Speaker 3: the steroid conversation, but not quite.
21:10
Speaker 2: You understand.
21:11
Speaker 3: It's kind of like a weird thing for me.
21:13
Speaker 2: But I'm not okay with it. I'm gonna be careful
21:16
Speaker 2: how I answer this question. But when he comes to
21:19
Speaker 2: Collas Beltron, he's he is a Hall of Fame player
21:23
Speaker 2: and he I think he will be in the Hall
21:26
Speaker 2: of Fame. You know, I don't want to spend too
21:30
Speaker 2: much time talking about you know, the track what happened
21:35
Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen and all that. That's that's in the past.
21:40
Speaker 2: But I don't think we should be holding him hostage
21:44
Speaker 2: for for what happened. Right, Mistakes were made, and I think,
21:52
Speaker 2: you know, the people who were part of that serve
21:55
Speaker 2: their subsets a suspension and and that's that. You know,
22:02
Speaker 2: that's the end of it. They've learned their lesson correct
22:04
Speaker 2: But the fact that that continues to be an issue
22:07
Speaker 2: with Beltron it bothers me because he's I don't know,
22:12
Speaker 2: as a Puerto Rican, right, I could be a little
22:14
Speaker 2: biased in this, but he's also a really good friend.
22:18
Speaker 2: But this is one of the best outfielders switch hitters
22:23
Speaker 2: in the history of the game. You know, you can't
22:27
Speaker 2: take that away from Carlos. And I think eventually he
22:31
Speaker 2: will end up in the Hall of Fame. But like
22:33
Speaker 2: the way the way you describe that, Jed, and you're right,
22:36
Speaker 2: the way he's perceiving all that, I don't think he's
22:38
Speaker 2: fair and I don't agree with it, But eventually he's
22:42
Speaker 2: going to end up in the Hall of Fame. All right.
22:45
Speaker 4: Well, the last question I got is actually pertaining to
22:48
Speaker 4: that twenty seventeen team. You and I were on the Yankees.
22:52
Speaker 4: You were on the field way more than I was.
22:55
Speaker 4: I only got two at bats, but I got to
22:57
Speaker 4: go through that entire run. What I want to start
22:59
Speaker 4: at trend is now that the Yankees have never still
23:04
Speaker 4: never beaten the Astros in the postseason ever since Joe
23:08
Speaker 4: Aspada left. So it's the curse of Joe Aspata. Are
23:13
Speaker 4: you okay with that? And are you fine answering those
23:17
Speaker 4: questions for the rest of the time until the Yankees play
23:20
Speaker 4: the Astros in the postseason and beat them?
23:24
Speaker 2: Listen, I don't uh curtsy. I remember us being together
23:29
Speaker 2: on that on that team, and I don't want this
23:33
Speaker 2: to be a Joe spot a Yankee course take Now,
23:36
Speaker 2: you know we right, we we prepare ourselves to to play,
23:42
Speaker 2: and I want the credit to go to our our
23:46
Speaker 2: process and how we go about our business. Right the Yankees,
23:50
Speaker 2: they're a tough team. It's not easy to beat the
23:52
Speaker 2: Yankees in postseason, regular season. They're a really good team.
23:56
Speaker 2: So I want the attention to I want the attention
23:59
Speaker 2: to go how were our players to play every single day?
24:02
Speaker 2: When he comes to seventeen. You and I were on
24:05
Speaker 2: that club when I joined with this scandal happened. Uh,
24:10
Speaker 2: you know, I have conversation with the players. Obviously I
24:12
Speaker 2: was in seventeen and I sat down with the players
24:15
Speaker 2: now wearing an astros you on it from being a
24:18
Speaker 2: bench coach, and we we had had a conversation with
24:22
Speaker 2: the players and the right things were set between me
24:26
Speaker 2: and the players where I was able to have be
24:32
Speaker 2: able to move forward and and and understand that it
24:37
Speaker 2: was the mistakes it was made. But now let's put
24:41
Speaker 2: it behind us, because we are we are a team
24:43
Speaker 2: that we're trying to get past this and just focus
24:47
Speaker 2: in the future. Right But when he broke out, obviously
24:50
Speaker 2: I was you know, I was part of the whole
24:52
Speaker 2: investigation and the whole thing, and it was it. It
24:55
Speaker 2: was not easy. But again, as we that's in the
24:59
Speaker 2: past and now we just prepare ourselves just to be
25:05
Speaker 2: the best team every single day we step on the
25:07
Speaker 2: baseball field.
25:08
Speaker 1: Joe, thank you so much. Appreciate you. Best to luck
25:11
Speaker 1: this offseason. Continue to do what you guys need to do.
25:13
Speaker 1: We'll see you back in the postseason next year.
25:16
Speaker 2: All right, thank you guys, appreciate it.