The Athletic’s Chandler Rome Joins for Astros Opening Day

0:00Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin-slot games on chumbacacino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me, and you know what they were doing They were also playing chumbacacino. Everybody's loving having fun with it Chumbacacino's home to hundreds of casino-style games that you can play for free anytime anywhere So sign up now at chumbacacino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. It's chumbacacino.com and live the chumbala Are you running for office and have a message you want every voter in your district to hear? Well, that's where radio comes in. Radio is your direct line to morning commuters, midday grinders, and late-nighters Radio puts your message right where your voters are. Plus, it's one tenth the time and cost of video Don't just campaign. Connect with millions all over the country Even thousands in the smallest communities with radio. Call now and be on air in just 48 hours 844 844 iHeart. That's 844 844 iHeart. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowicz

1:02I'm the host of big technology podcast a long-time reporter and an on-air contributor to CMBC And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives So each week on big technology I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it Asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties Listen to big technology podcast or ever you get your podcasts 12.30 pm here on sports talk 7.90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross from Astros you get cheer. It's okay. Yeah Astros street fest Till 2 o'clock at which point we will go into Astros on deck mode Matt Thomas out Adam Wixler is here, Adam Clanton is here and their regular weekly guest

2:02What time? What's early day? Usually Friday's usually Friday's usually Friday's usually five o'clock Chandler Rome of the athletic covering the Astros for a long time Chandler I know you're nobody is more excited for opening day than you Oh, I'm calm. This is great. I love it. I do like opening day opening day is awesome I think there's a little too much There's a little too much scrutiny on it'll be there be too much scrutiny on the game regardless of outcome There's too much scrutiny on the opening day roster because it'll look different in three days But the pop in the circumstance is fun. I like it. Yeah. Well, that brings us to the opening day roster and I get I guess as we call it in the radio business topic A today Jeremy Pena not in the lineup Eastock Paratus is also not on the IL so that tells us Jeremy Pena probably pretty close And something we were talking about earlier and we can get Delvin to some other things in a minute, but how much of this is okay? Jeremy Pena is not ready to go and how much of this is okay? We have a great backup plan

3:03Eastock Paratus as well so we can kind of treat Jeremy Pena more with kid gloves because of the great backup plant Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both Jeremy Pena is set in spring training that he wanted to play 162 games So it's obviously this is not part of his plan. I think there were probably some Some conversations that were had that were like Look, we can do it this way to it to appease all involved because look Jeremy Pena wants to be out there He wants to play 162 games. He's arbitration eligible again this winter. How do you get money in arbitration? You're available. You accumulate stats and we play every day Um, I think the fact that he is not on the IL and the fact that he isn't sugarland as we speak taking some lie that that's a Constitution field shows you how close he is. I would imagine he plays at some point in this series But I will say this like the guy they're facing today. Who's a Soriano? He throws a hundred he throws a it's a hundred mile an hour sinker coming in on a right-handed hitter

4:03I don't think that's the ideal matchup you want for a guy that is coming off of a finger injury I got this gonna run a hundred miles an hour inside on you. So yeah, they have a good backup plan They they were able to get east sock parade us in the lineup today I don't know how much you're going to be able to do that going forward But today they were able to do yeah There's so many different things we could ask like is there a big concern level here? A big concern level there. I think we could spend The rest of the show on it. Let's go the complete opposite direction What's the area of least concern or player of least concerned someone you really expect? He's gonna match or exceed expectations I'll say I mean you're an Alvarez is kind of the guy that pops in the mind. I mean just When he's been on the field the last three four years He's been one of the best hitters in baseball and you know last year There were just some freak occurrences He sprained his ankle scorn from second base He had a medical staff that completely mismanaged his diagnosis and everything about the the hand fracture So they fixed that

5:05You know if they keep him on the field I think this can be a guy that can single-handedly carry this team to where it needs to be but I think the other thing And it's probably doesn't jive with kind of the national public stuff that you're reading like I feel very good about this rotation Like I just I do and I understand why the public kind of national metrics don't love them because Tetsuya ima is an unknown Mike burrows for how good he was in spring training and only for our 90 big league innings um Christian hobbyers not been good. I mean he's not been on the field and when he has been on the field He hasn't been good the past two years So I get where the skepticism comes from But the depth that they have accrued And watching how these guys pitched in spring training. I feel pretty good about this rotation Maybe better than the outside pundits that don't watch this team daily field Well, and that Mike burrows you guys stole my thunder because that's where I wanted to go next If hunter brown is the pitching version of a guy You don't have to worry about and I know that what they're wanting to do with e my

6:08Factored into the fact that he's gonna be your number two guy in the rotation at least for the start of the season um They've got to have they still have a lot of confidence in him. Oh my burrows. Yes. I mean He exceeded every expectation they had for him in spring training He's throwing the slider to lefties The four seam had more it was a little heavier and had more effectiveness than they thought it would be the changeups his best pitch like The changeup is his calling card. He's gonna throw that's both righties and lefties. They like it a lot They're working with him stop me if you've heard this before the ashrer's are working with him on a sinker To throw a sinker mortar right handed hitters What Mike burrows is gonna be crucial what they do But kind of going off top and like I think christian hobbyer has got to be the guy that I think christian hobbyer is the x factor for this team for no other reason that you have seen him in an ashrer's uniform Be a high-end number two starter. He has done it before Um, you haven't seen my burrows do that before you haven't seen tattoo you e-my in an mlb game before

7:10christian hobbyer has shown you when he is at his best he can be a number two starter I think if they get him back to that level that just raises the floor and the ceiling for the stand. Let me ask you a quick Question about e-my you were there at spring training a couple of stops been here the last couple of days When we've heard from multiple different players the same idea about e-my Even though he's communicating with them through a translator They all seem to love him love his personality love what he brings to the table his charisma and all these other things How is e-my doing that and how are they? Obviously they're responding exceptionally well to just having this presence and this person do they seem to like a lot in their clubhouse Well, I mean tattoo he's not gonna do interviews in english but tattoo you e-my his english is decent Like he can communicate with his teammates maybe that you're not gonna see him speaking was publicly But in the clubhouse he can do that so that's helped and he's an outgoing personality He's kind of a free spirit kind of a you know You see a lot of japanese players and I don't want to paint with a broad brush I've heard of otani and yama moto and and guys that are pretty reserved pretty to themselves

8:15They don't they don't really have a ton of personality like tattoo you e-my is completely different tattoo you e-my is that a lot of personality he is Really endeared himself well to the clubhouse now. He sells about their pitch. He sells about their pitch well But I think you know, this has been it was spring training was like a six-week kind of crash course in the learning him You know, they're letting him dictate a lot of his schedule They're letting him dictate a lot of when he pitches what he's going to do before he pitches because the assures this is all new for the assures who they've never had a A player much less a pitcher come over straight from npb So this is this is a totally different thing for them But they're learning on the fly and in spring training it went well There's a personality surpass christian walkers. Oh, I like christian walkers a great guy great great I'm picking on him. I'm picking great well actually brings me to my question We're Chandler on with the athletic hero with us on sports talk 790 is we saw Maybe it was oblique stuff and he had a better second half christian walker

9:17But not only just him hose a out to vae carles praia I mean even if we weren't talking about a log jam we'd be kind of wondering like what about these guys who are Kitting into their mid to late 30s some of them and the potential for some decline From from those types of guys who you're you're kind of counting on especially if you do end up making a trade Yeah, I put I put little stock and spring training stats in any event But it didn't help the narrative that christian walker and hose a out to vae were not good in spring training their their results We're not good, but these guys were working on time and christian walker was working on like eight different things Or his load with maybe spiraling with a toe tap not toe tapping out to vae was doing some different stuff So like you can't put stock in spring stats But it's I mean, it's not a secret like they need these guys to hit like they don't need christian walker to carry the lineup But he can't have a five 50 OPS or whatever he had in the first half last year Jose Al 2v is going to be a big part of what they do He's going to hit third fourth second the lineup depending on the day He's going to get a lot of it that's and I mean he's one of the best players in franchise history

10:22Is he at peak Al 2v levels? Probably not anymore age comes for us all but but I wouldn't doubt the guy like he's one of the few people I'd ever doubt About this so look these guys I think what would help a lot what would help this whole conversation Is if cam smith Shows what he showed in spring trading if Jeremy paying you know backs up last season with what he did With what he does this season if you see some of these young guys even Bryce Matthews when they he can get him out there If he can kind of show that upside This is the year where they need the next Pieces of the next ashrow's core whether it's cam smith whether it's Jeremy Payne No, he's only here for two more years, but it's cam smith. It's your an avarice who's here for a little while It's Mike Burroughs who has six years of team control left like They need these guys to kind of start announcing their presence To help supplement what is an otherwise pretty aging position player group does Carlos Kareya play a role in two of those players

11:23You mentioned their progress their development specifically cam smith who Shares a lot of similarities body type and obviously Bryce Matthews does Carlos Kareya play a role in their futures Carlos Kareya plays a role in everybody's like he is I mean, it's cliche, but like he's uh He's another coach on the field like he's he is the he's al hefe in the clubhouse. He is like Unquestionably the leader of this team, you know There's a pregnant like effect with him in terms of he can go to other Players and you know mentor them tell them what they're doing wrong like be there to help you sounding Without a shadow of a doubt Carlos Kareya's impact on this team He's going to be felt far more than what he does at third base or shortstop in him a badge box. How much Better did the mariners get Those two teams in relation to contending for the AOS well the mariners. They're a lot better They got a guy that the Astros wanted the Astros were very very Heavy in their pursuit of Brendan Donovan who would have fit in perfectly on this roster. He'd probably been in left field today

12:27Left-handed hitter puts them all in play doesn't strike out It's what the mariners needed now, you know, the mariners. They're starting out. JP Crawford's on the IL So they're gonna Bryce Miller's on the IL so they I don't think it's a stretch to say if you look at the two rosters the mariners probably do have a better roster than the Astros But how often do you how often in baseball does the best team win? How often in baseball does the best team win the world series? How much is the beef between Cal Raleigh and Randy a Roserana? You want a hot take? I don't think Randy a Roserana is on that team at the deadline I don't think he's on that they trade for him at the deadline. Well, sure. They can trade him again. No, I know That surprises me. Randy a Roserana's makeup has long been Question and I think you're seeing it kind of manifest there from her No, I think Randy from what I understand from people from other people that have been around Randy a Roserana He it's Randy's way or no He's very individual. He's he's he does it really like and if you even watch like if you watch some of the mariners games last year

13:32Like he'd be he'd be trying to steal bases and counts where you just you're helping it He made out to dry. They'd be in a situation where he'd be like he'd die for a ball when you shouldn't die the games like He doesn't really have a team aspect so that's a hot take for me that I don't think Randy a Roserana is on that team at your line I like it. I hope he implodes that club now now I say that and they'll probably trade Randy a Roserana for a player that can help them It's not going to be like a DFA it's not going to be like a DFA situation now that their GM has started to do things And you know that he can do things. Oh Jerry depotos now. He These are the last person that's not doing things that do trades more than anybody. It felt like for so long They just well that was that was ownership. That was an ownership problem. All right. All right Well crystal ball you had the hot take so I guess we have to do the obligatory season outlook How you kind of see it feels like there are a wider range of outcomes more than normal for the Astros Especially when you put it against what happened with the injuries last year I mean just what gut feeling about how this season playing out for you. It's a good gut feel. Yes. Look at that

14:34First of all do you think they translated Ackerman's call last night into Italian for the for the ambassador to Italy? Wait, we did this whole segment and you didn't bring up that just I don't know what you're talking about Houston rocket's never heard of them. Good. It sounds like Tellman hasn't he? Or Rachel Stone who like ended the season here all week folks You know, I think I love this man It's tough for me right now like I said looking at the rosters On paper I would probably pick the Mariners to win the division. I do think the Astros are a playoff team. I think they have I think they have the capabilities. I think they have the rotation depth. I think they have the top end lineup talent to be a playoff If they say health they have to stay healthy They have to stay healthy the pitching if it holds up the way it can I think this is a team that makes a wild card and you know what you get in the playoffs and if this rotation Goes like we think it's going to go you get into the playoffs and you have a one two three of hundred brown microbes and touch to you Emai and if Christian Javier comes back to form you run those four guys out in the playoff series

15:40There's very few in the AL that are gonna be better. So Can I win the division? Yes, I think they can I just right now I don't think their roster is on par with the Mariners, but we'll see how it goes It's baseball. That's why they play the games. It's why they play a hundred and sixty two now say the Rangers suck I'm not gonna say that. Come on say it for all the fans. Hey, I'm not gonna say that on the air Say it All right, thanks for the time, Chandler. Thank you. You will be talking not with me But with Adam Wixler and Adam plan throughout the season It is Ryan C crest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music No movies no entertainment But a better trend would be going to chumbacacino.com It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket Chumbacacino has over a hundred online casino style games all absolutely free It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane So grab your free welcome bonus now at chumbacacino.com sponsored by chumbacacino We're prohibited by law 21 plus terms and conditions apply

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17:43Listen to big technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts