Geoff Blum on Houston Astros Playoff Push, AL West Battle & October Outlook

Geoff Blum on Houston Astros Playoff Push, AL West Battle & October Outlook

Every year that I try to say the Astros are in some sort of rebuild or reboot or whatever the heck you want to call it. Here they are battling, jockeying for position again at top the AL West. What has been your biggest takeaway of what this team has accomplished this year with a lot of missing pieces, a lot of injuries, and just a lot of unknown. Welcome to the show. Good to be on the show. Always appreciate the opportunity seeing some friendly fa faces. And I’m glad I got the memo about the backwards hat, so I’m ready to go. Um, but uh you know the the the old saying or I guess it’s a new old saying is the Astros are inevitable and uh this year is truly a tale of organizational depth and maybe a little bit of culture involved because like you said a lot of teams around the league have dealt with a lot of injuries and not just injuries that are going to keep guys out on a 15-day IIL and they’ll be back and mix right in. These have been catastrophic injuries that these uh teams have had to try and uh fix and replace and continue. And the Astros have done a very good job. I know that uh every year we start out the season with prospect lists and uh who has the best minor league system and the Astros are continually at the bottom. Yet this season they have filled their rotation with a a couple of rookies uh you know throughout the course of the season. Uh they’re going to ride a guy tonight in Jason Alexander here in Houston uh for another start who’s been brilliant for the Astros with his fast ball change up mix. Uh the other day we just saw a guy named Zack Cole who was number 18 in the pro in the organization as far as prospects and he pops a home run on the first pitch he sees. So I think it’s just a credit to, you know, the ability to draft but also the ability to develop. I don’t think a lot of these minor league coaches these days get enough attention or enough love because they’re kind of, you know, tucked underneath the the the rug of every organization, but they have a huge impact on what these guys do at the big league level. And the Astros, fortunately, have created this dynamic where if you get to the big leagues, the expectation is you’re going to mix into this clubhouse and if you’re helping us win, you’re going to stick. If you’re if you’re not stirring the pot the right way, we’re going to get rid of you and find somebody else. But they’ve been very fortunate with some of the guys they’ve called up. All right. Well, who’s going to step in for the holes that they’re currently missing? Because now it’s nutting time. I get it. Like, you can’t win because you won the last seven. Like, this last seven years doesn’t have anything to do with this last two weeks of the season. Do they have enough to step in for the Josher hole? To step in for the fact that they don’t have an Alex Bregman who has been that winning clutch player? I know Koreah is back, but Do they have enough to win a division or do they not even need to win a division? Because we’re not going to talk about the wild card yet. Yeah, I mean it’s an interesting question. Basically, do they have enough to get into the playoffs? And I think they do and you brought up some key names there. I know losing Bregman is a big piece and obviously he’s enhanced what the uh uh Boston Red Sox have been able to do both uh internally and on the field. You know, he he’s a great mind, sees the game a little bit differently. And then you mentioned Carlos Kareah. He’s kind of come in and really kind of filled that void of what the Astros are missing as far as leadership uh in the vocal sense. He will pull guys off to the side and say, “Hey, we need more of this.” Or, “Hey, you did a great job.” Continue to do that. Um they’ve got Yordon Alvarez, who’s kind of the silent uh you know, spoken guy that can go into that lineup and do some damage. You can follow his lead a little bit. Jeremy Pena has turned into a force on offense. So, they’ve got some key pieces and key situations to be able to go out there and compete. For me down the stretch, it’s going to be the Astros offense. I think they do have enough pitching. Uh the starting pitching has done a great job. They’re top 10 as far as team erra. They get a ton of swing and miss still even with Josher not in the back end of that bullpen. So it for me it’s going to be on the offense. Uh their record is something astonishing around 85% win uh you know probability when they score four runs. So that’s kind of the threshold I feel they need to get to. But I’m with you in the sense that when Josh her went down, not just with a shoulder injury, but with something that was going to keep him out the entire regular season. I I had a little trepidation in the thought that he wasn’t going to be at the back end of that bullpen because Brian Abrau has been such a phenomenal setup guy and Brian King, Stephen Ochre were great matchup guys getting to the back end of the bullpen. Now you’re forcing some of these guys who aren’t usually leverage guys into situations where you’re gonna almost force Josh Miller and Joe Espatada to be very creative on what pockets they work those guys into. Blamemer, I know you’re talking offense, but who’s pitching? Alexander’s pitching tonight and then who? It’s TBD. So you’re talking about all this great pitching. Who’s pitching? Because the Rangers lined up their their three best really out. I mean they went they’re going lighter. Mel Kelly and Deg Grom for the last one and then you got a Seattle coming in. So, what is who’s pitching? You you keep talking about offense, but who’s going to pitch the next couple games? Yeah, that’s going to be a problem the next couple of days. I it may be you can almost get the sense that the Astros fear the Seattle Mariners more than they fear the Texas Rangers. I know that the Rangers are leading the series, I believe, six to four, but the run differential, I think, is at a flatline zero. They’ve scored as many as they’ve given up. Uh Doulles Garcia is coming back. We still haven’t seen Simeon and Seager. And credit to the Rangers for finding guys like Helman and Freeman and some of these other guys. Uh Josh Smith doing a go good job stepping in and and scoring runs. They’re getting timely hitting at the right time, but who’s going to stop them? Uh Jason Alexander hasn’t faced him yet. He’s been very good after losses for the Astros, amazingly enough, and he’s pretty predictable as far as he’s going to come at you with a two seam fast and a change up. He’s not afraid to throw it to righties or lefties. So, it’s going to be up to the Rangers to adjust to that quickly, but like you said, once you get past that, is it going to be a bullpen day on that last day? Is it going to be a guy like AJ Blueb who’s looked brilliant in the last maybe four or five outings coming out of the bullpen? He’s gone one inning, he’s gone two innings, he’s gone four innings at a time. Uh he’s a guy that’s kind of been lengthened out a little bit. Or do they piggyback? And it’s really it’s kind of a tough spot when you’re going down the stretch trying to, you know, get back into the American League West uh division lead, but they really saved up their big dogs in Hunter Brown and Farber Valdez for the Seattle Mariners. You’re right, Bloomer. I mean, I know it sounds a little bit obvious, but if the Astros sweep the series, they go up five games. If the Astros get swept, they fall behind the Rangers by one game. I mean, is this a Let’s circle this thing. I mean, what are the conversations going on in the dugout, in the clubhouse? I know everyone says one game at a time, blah blah blah. This is not one game at a time, my friend. This is big. It’s huge. And it’s kind of crazy to think that everything comes down to this home stand for the Astros where they played very well. Uh, you know, the Seattle Mariners pitching rotation has been roughed up on the road. You kind of hope these trends kind of continue themselves, but I’m with you in the sense that you kind of throw everything out the window because they’re five and five against the Mariners uh throughout the course of the season. So, this goes big in a head-to-head matchup if they both make if they’re both the three and six seeds. Who’s going to host that wildcard division series potentially? And then you have the Texas Rangers who are just trying to fight their way into this postseason. And this is a huge series for them. They lead the Astros 6 to4 overall coming into this series. But, uh, it it’s still amazing to me that we can play 162 game schedule and we’re set to play game 151 to 157 and it’s all basically going to come down this these next six games for all three of these teams to see who wins the West and who potentially becomes that wild card because the Astros are that third wild card. And I think the reality is kind of set in a little bit. It will be interesting to get to the ballpark today and and see the reaction of these guys and see the intensity of the pregame workout as they get ready for this uh series against the Rangers. But, uh, yeah, they can sit there and say and and you know, there’s three of us that have been on this uh on this broadcast that have been in that dugout in playoff contending type situations where you say all the right things to the public, but internally, you know, you can feel that hair on the back of your neck kind of jump a little bit or you can feel that twitchiness a little bit. But I’m sure that’s going on in the Astros dugout because everything is very real for the next six games. By the way, I got to go back. How So how important is it for the Astros to have home field? Because all I’ve heard for about the last five years is we can’t hit in Houston. The batter’s eye sucks and this and that. So now all of a sudden you love Houston. Like wait, I thought everyone all the Astros guys hated playing there. Now they love it. Wait, clear it up for me please, plumber. Um I wish I could They fixed They did fix the They fixed the batters eye though. They painted like that little section, right? So now it’s better. Yeah, they they keep creeping over. Eventually that entire section is going to be green, but they keep, you know, pushing that Budweiser sign out of the way. Uh yeah, they keep expanding that trying to compete with uh you know, there are there are issues with the batter’s eye. You know, the lights are a little bit lower in in in Dyken Park. Uh the sound is incredibly loud, which favors them. I think they enjoy the fan base that shows out for them over year after year after year. Uh, so there is some, uh, pleasure in playing at home knowing that you’ve got the fan base behind you, but there are certain things that you’ve got to overcome when you come into Dyken Park. I know a lot of guys adjust by going out early, taking batting practice, but at the same time, the Astros have been very good on the road, too, considering how some of the other teams have played. The Astros are actually a game or two, I believe, over 500 on the road. But in theory, playing at home is always better. But I’m not sure that you know that that that carries a lot of weight because I think and this is literally just off the top of my head because since the All-Star break I think at home the Astros have been sub 500 and I think they’ve been outscored at home. So I’m not sure that that’s a paramount idea. But at the same time if you finish a season playing six games, seven days on the road and then you’ve got to travel to Seattle, play on the road, try and win that series and then eventually end up on the road again, it uh kind of piles up a little bit. But I think these two teams are probably just trying to find their way into the playoffs and worry about the home home field advantage later. Kratz, I’m going to steal a line right from the top here about MeUndies. A cut for every butt. I took a line that I feel like you would enjoy, but then you stole my thunder with Show and Tell. What do you have there? Uh, besides a huge Booka Dunk, this is my pair of MeUndies that I got. Not going to show you the other pair right now because I got them on. But it doesn’t even feel like you have them on. Super soft, flexible, and yet holding everything together. I love the 20 different styles, 100 different colors and prints, and the micro modal fabric is what you’re talking about. Breathable, stretchy, unbelievably cozy. And right now, as a listener of FT, you can get cozy and spooky for less with deals up to 50% off at meundies.com/foul and enter promo code FO. That’s meundies.com/foul. Promo code foul for up to 50% off MeUndies, comfort that’s made for fall. What do you believe in the hypothetical that Eso Paredes does return? Because if he’s hitting and saying there’s a chance he could play, he could DH at the end of this week, Saturday, Sundayish, he’s got to DH at a slower level. Then you got to put Yordon and left and put Altuve back at second, which they’ve been trying to not do. though that that’s one of the craziest things because when Esoch went on the uh injured list, everybody kind of dropped their shoulders a little bit and said, “Man, believe it or not, they felt like they lost one of their best hitters in the lineup.” And there were plenty a game where Esoch Catus was in the lineup. A pitcher was getting knocked out of the game in the fourth or fifth inning with a 100 pitches. And you look at the line and Eso had seen literally a third of the pitches for the team. And that’s what he kind of brings to this ball club is that patience, the zone control, everything that, you know, these modern day hitting coaches like to hear. Uh he could pop a couple into left field through the Crawford box. I think he’s perfected that uh that 98 mph swing with the, you know, the perfect launch angle to get it 370 ft into the Crawford boxes. But his ability to lengthen out at bats protects guys like Altuve who can go out there and swing at the first pitch and you don’t panic because Esoch just saw nine pitches. It allows Jeremy Pena to lead off a game and swing at the first fast ball he sees because he wants to be aggressive on the heater early because you know behind him you’re going to see Esoch seeing nine pitches. So it kind of lengthen lengthens out the lineup in that sense. So he’s a nice addition to the lineup. You’re exactly right about what it does defensively for Joe Espatada is it forces his hand to put, you know, Yordon Alvarez out in left field at home, preferably with uh Hunter Brown or Frober Valdez on the mound because those are heavy ground ball type pitchers. Uh but then you have to put Jos Altuv at second base and you’ve got to run the risk of, you know, him being out there with a heavy ground ball percentage guy on the mound. So you’re going to have to manipulate that lineup a little bit. I know that once he gets here to Dyken Park, you know, talking to Tony Perez Chica, who’s a third base coach and infield guy, he is going to be working him out at third base. He’s going to be working him out at second base. And believe it or not, he’s going to be working him out at first base uh in certain situations. So, they’re trying to create the versatility, but I’m with you that I mean, that was a pretty pretty heavy strain on the hamstring, and it’s a lot to ask him to go play defense. He’s like the Maxy of the Astros. Max comes back, they start hitting, you get that’s that’s a big big piece. All right, last question for me and I’m only giving you two options, so you can’t pick the third. Better chance of the Astros missing the playoffs or winning the division? Oh man, you had to go top to bottom, didn’t you? Um I I’m saying that uh they can win it. Just this American League West for me uh having watched it all season long does it it’s it’s not that good. I don’t think it’s the best division in baseball. I don’t think it’s the best division in the American League. I feel I still think it’s up there for the taking. Uh I’m a little concerned about the Seattle Mariners pitching on the road. Their numbers haven’t been very good, especially in that last road trip where the Astros kind of tried to create a little separation. Uh but uh I think that there’s there’s more likely a chance the Astros actually pull it off and and sneak in as the division winner. I’d be shocked if the Houston Astros miss the postseason. I mean, that’s that just doesn’t happen. Uh let me ask you, that would cause heart palpitations to be honest with you. I’m with you. That that would I mean I’m getting a paycheck. I’m getting a paycheck from him and I’ve got to cheer for him. But yeah, it would cause some serious palpitations if they Yeah, I I agree with you. That would just send shock waves throughout the baseball landscape. Let me ask you one quick question again, Blamer, about Josh Hater. When he’s not on your team, he’s a guy that seems like he’s easy to hate, but I don’t think we give him enough love with what he does in the community. the Roberto Clemente Award nominee. I don’t know that there’s an award in baseball that is more of an honor to get than the Roberto Clemente Award. He is the Houston Astros nominee. Tell me what he does in the community, what he means to this club. I I think it’s great that these guys actually get recognized especially around the league because, you know, we follow our team specifically and we we have an idea of what’s going on, but for them to get recognized nationally through Major League Baseball with this great award in honor of Roberto Clemeni and all of the charity and efforts that he put into it, I think it’s great that these guys get the notoriety. and Josh her, you know, it’s I didn’t find out what he was doing in San Diego and some of the other teams he was with until he became an Astro and started doing it in the community here with the uh with the Astros. He he’s got a great firm uh uh foundation on on with his feet on the ground in the community. And I think as soon as he signed that contract, he started a foundation here. and he has been working uh with I believe it’s Covenant House doing a great job helping out families and underprivileged kids and uh you know uh some of the some of the abuse that goes on in some of these families and he’s protecting these kids. He’s protecting these families. He has done phenomenal work and throughout the course of the season when he was playing he was having you know gallas, wine dinners, he was uh recruiting people and funding and uh doing a lot of things behind the scenes and now since he’s been on the injured list that he hasn’t hesitated a bit. He’s actually probably continued to work a little bit harder behind the scenes, but he’s a phenomenal dude. Uh, if you get a chance to know Josh Hater, get a chance to know him because he is salt of the earth and he’s got an electric left arm. Blumber, before you go, there’s two things I got to say. One, the Astros will make the playoffs because we Fox has the American League and there would not be a playoffs without me doing the Astros and the DS. So, I will be in Houston one way or the other. They’ll be in the they’ll be in the ALDS, but just it’s just how it works. It’s like it’s inevitable. It’s like one of those things that just happened. Even even the one year during co the Braves and the Marlins played in Houston. I’m like, we have the National League. I’m still going to Houston. So, I’ll be in Houston. Don’t worry, they’ll be there. Maybe you’ll come say hi. Probably not because you never come around when the Astros are in town. I get it. It’s your time off. But before I let you go, I got to know. I know. Yeah, I know you have the H-Town shirt and you’re paid by the Astros, but is there even like a little bit of love for the White Socks in your heart? I mean, it is the one team you did win with and you did hit a big home run against the Astros in Minute made. The one swing you got was that one home run. Dude, you know as well as I do that I have a certain loyalty and granted it may have a little bit to do with the paycheck. I spent a majority of my career with the Houston Astros. And what a lot of Astro fans don’t know is that that home run with the White Socks was payback for trading me to Tampa Bay and making me put up the blue panel for a full season. So that that being said, that being said, yes, I I cheer for the Astros and I’m glad they’re on this run that they’re on, but there will never ever there will be nothing that is able to pull that chunk of my White Socks heart out of me because of the time that we spent together and the time that we uh we actually put that team together, which was a special time, winning that World Series will never leave me. I mean, if we were able to zoom in on some of this stuff behind me, I forced, you know, I forced White Sox paraphernalia into this. My daughters still have their jerseys. So, there is a very special place in my heart. It’s just unfortunate that I can’t let it out as often as maybe as I want to. But, uh, there’s there’s two questions I get when having worked for the Astros now, having done that to them in that ’05 World Series is like, “How did you endear yourself to the fans?” And I say it’s a lot of work and obviously the Astros winning changes things. The other one is, “What kind of guy is AJ like?” That’s fine. That’s fine. But do you remember do you have any memory of what you said after you hit the home run? Do you have any Do you remember this? I’ve never really asked you this. Do you remember what you said to me? Because remember in Houston they always played the Bees and you were a killer B for a while. Do you remember what you said to me after you hit the home run? You probably don’t because you were so excited. I I was so excited, but I I have a feeling it has something to do with the spread because I was starving by the end of it. No, you actually said, “Can they stop playing that buzzing sound now because the killer be just stung them or it was something like that?” And I was like, “Oh.” I was like, “Yes.” Cuz all they did during between every bat when Bagwell, Beio, Blum came up, it was Yeah. I was like, “Do you remember what you do you remember what you did to my locker the day we showed up?” So, we get it. We get in there for the workout and I don’t know how you found it, but they had these uh placards like they had these big They were not big posters, but they were post almost poster size and they had the Killer Bees World Series 05 and all this and you you plastered my locker with them. You were a killer B. We didn’t know what side you were on until you took that swing. We didn’t know which side you were on. We were debating. We We had a long talk with Aussie about whether you should have been on the roster. Kenny and Aussie and I, we had a long talk. We’re like, you know, where’s his where’s his loyalties at? I think we found out. Yes, we did. Thank you. Thank you. Thank God I was on your

Geoff Blum—Astros broadcaster, 14-year MLB veteran, and World Series champion—joins the show to break down Houston’s “inevitable” feel this season. We dig into how organizational depth and culture have covered injuries, rookies stepping into the rotation and lineup, and why the offense reaching that four-run threshold is the key down the stretch. Blum weighs Houston’s AL West push against the Rangers and Mariners, bullpen and rotation questions, and how home field really matters. He also spotlights Josh Hader’s Roberto Clemente Award–caliber community work and shares White Sox–Astros memories from 2005.

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0:00 Astros are inevitable
2:06 Do they have enough?
4:30 Who’s pitching?
6:20 Mariners series preview
8:13 Home field advantage
11:01 Isaac Paredes
13:35 Winning the division or missing the playoffs?
14:42 Josh Hader
17:03 Love for White Sox