#astros starter Spencer Arrighetti is now pitching at Minute Maid Park l Baseball Adjustments

Intro I saw 100 lost seasons and I saw World Series parades and I've seen everything in between and I've seen some of the greatest starting pitches this game's ever seen come through this building and uh and Thrive here and obviously as a as a high schooler as like somebody that had aspirations I always uh I tried to take what I could away from everybody but [Music] Journey playing baseball with Astro's rookie right-handed pitcher Spencer erti Spencer I always start this off because you have to come from your roots and you know baseballwise how did this journey start for you you know when did it pick up that it was going to become I mean I've told I was crazy enough as a kid to tell people back then I was going to do this for a job and I think I kind of just always believed it a little bit more than I should have and because of that I I worked extra hard and I would say I mean started playing when I was 11 years years old and I would watch baseball every day on TV I would make my brothers play with me in the backyard I got all the video games I mean I was genuinely obsessed like I had I had one goal in life and it was do this and I mean obviously looking back now it's like very surreal and and I I understand that the statistics were never in anybody's favor to make it this far playing a kids game but reality for me is that I was I was able to and I'm really really fortunate and I'm very thankful and uh I think that the Journey's the journey has been more than I ever thought it could be and uh yeah I mean I owe I owe everything I have to to this game and to the people that have made it possible for me to keep playing I mean you're close to the Grew up coming to Astros games Houston area going to high school at CCO Ranch uh even College I mean Navaro I you're Texas boy really did I mean you did go to Louisiana Lafayette but few months but um you know did you come to any of these Astro games back in the days with the players I mean kind of who idolized game after I saw 100 lost seasons and I saw World Series parades and I've seen everything in between and I've seen some of the greatest starting pitches this game's ever seen come through this building and uh and drive here and obviously as a as a high schooler as just like somebody that had aspirations I always uh I tried to take what I could away from everybody but I would say uh like in in 17 18 19 when we started to get good I I really I loved watching Lance when he debuted I loved watching uh Morton I loved watching Cole Verlander obviously like all of these guys that have been such Staples in in starting rotations across the league for the last as long as I can remember honestly like a lot of these guys debuted when I was a kid and now I'm getting the chance to to play alongside them or play against them and uh it's just really it's such a crazy such a crazy crazy journey to to go from sitting in the stands the same stands that that I get to look out at now from the mountain instead of the other way around it's just uh it's crazy and was Pitching was the No. 1 position pitching always kind of like on your radar that's what you wanted to do kind of yeah since I was like 12 I've kind of known I mean I was a pretty good hitter at one point I never really considered trying to do it in college because it just takes a lot more honestly reality is is playing every day is a lot harder than playing every five days and I've always liked uh I've liked the element of control that you have over a game as a starting pitcher it's kind of people look at it as your game especially at this level it's it's your game to influence every 5 days and I take a lot of pride in that and obviously my my record's not the best this year but I feel like every time I've gone out there the the goal has been uh influence it in our favor give the guys a chance to to do what they do on offense and put up some runs and just keep the game keep the game close always so i' I've always loved pitching I like more than anything in this life I like striking people out so and myly pitcher of the year last Heading into 2024 Spring Training year you know being with Sugarland uh going into to the 24 season you're regarded as the number one top pitching Prospect in the astr farm system heading into spring training what was going through your mind uh going into West Palm Beach did you think you had a shot at making the opening day roster did you think you had a shot at making your debut this season what was going through your well I mean I I just said a couple minutes ago I've kind of always been a little bit in over my head so obviously I think some of the thoughts that I had were in that ballpark like oh like I want to go do the best I can so I can break camp with the team and I want to impress everybody every single day every time I pick up a baseball but reality is that's really not the nature of this game and and especially spring training it's just for the guys to get going I mean the after the little break that we all take it's just uh kind of everybody getting their feet wet again and I think that I I took a good I took a good approach to camp this year and I I definitely I did what I set out to do which was prove that I can handle the workload prove that I can handle big league hitters prove that that I can command the ball a little bit better than maybe I have in the past and uh I mean going into Camp I wasn't too concerned about what the roster was going to look like it was just more about my own uh my own status or the the way that the people in the OR thought of me on the big league side just because it was my first time being around most of them and I feel like the the biggest takeaway for me was just getting to start to form relationships with some of these guys that I would end up becoming teammates with not too long after and uh just just getting a feel for the clubhouse and what the culture is like here and I think that I I I learned a lot in spring training and I've learned a lot every day since then just being around everybody that we've got all these veterans all of the guys that are that are finding their way in the big leagues as well it's just there's a there's been a lot to learn in the process and obviously I i' I've tried to make this season a lot more about that than anything else and I think that it's ended up I've benefited a lot from it because I've been able to learn so much MLB Debut. Who was the first phone call to? and like you said you were in The Stance growing up watching the Astros play getting drafted by the Astros take me to that day when you debuted though making your major Le debut getting that call you know who informed you that you were going to the big leagues and who was that first phone call too when you got the notice well the phone call that I got was from a number I didn't have saved from Deerfield Beach Florida and that number is Mickey stories I now have it saved he's our manager in triaa and uh Mickey if you ever watched this I'm sorry I didn't have your number saved I was going to ignore the call and take a nap instead but I'm really glad I picked up the phone because it was uh it was a call telling him I had actually just flown into Albuquerque where I was I was born and I lived there a little bit at the beginning of my life and uh I was supposed to see my grandparents that lived there for lunch and I had to end up calling them to tell them that I wasn't going to be able to have lunch because I was going to be on a flight to Kansas City to pitch the next night so uh it was pretty cool I mean it was I still I grew up I I was born in Albuquerque and lived there until 2013 and uh my grandparents still live there so I do have a I do have a bit of a background there as well Alex bregman and his younger brother were actually part of the same travel ball organization as I was and I I grew up around Alex as well kind of watching him play and watching him become the star that he is today and uh Albuquerque meant a lot to me so it was cool that it happened there and it was it was really cool that my family was actually able to come join me in Kansas City as well so it was a it was a really special experience and I mean Ru and Bubby St to Which teammates picked Arrighetti up through his rough starts your first first debut to Mid part of the Season you know a lot of obstacles in your first coming as a rookie especially um tell me who kind of helped you out through them ways like which teammates kind of picked you up let you know like it's still a long journey for you you're still rookie you're still learning you know what what teammates were there and which pitcher or which teammate it could even be a teammate kind of guide you and put you under their wing to help you out uh I mean I think everybody everybody on the pitching side is going to have their uh their two cents when somebody like one of our own is struggling because we all take such pride in our craft and we know it very well so I would say like during the early struggles I at times like I lean too much on my own understanding even and I think that's why some of them persisted was just a little bit stubbornness based on me wanting to do what I felt like got me here and not adjusting to the curve necessarily but I mean there was a there was a Which pitcher helped Arrighetti conversation that I had with JV that really changed the way that I thought about pitching and I I I truly since that day have kind of Incorporated that whole conversation into the way that I say yes or no to throwing certain pitches in the game and uh Hunter Brown again like kind of dealt with some of the same things that I dealt with in in his rookie campaign and in his his sophomore season as well and uh he kind of he's he's helped me understand how to outlast those struggles because at the end of the day we all know what we're capable of doing regardless so what the scoreboard says and he kind of actually reminded me of something that I had said in an interview when I was in doublea after I had had a kind of crappy start to 2022 I had a really bad April there and then proceeded to have a two for the rest of the year pretty much so he reminded me that there's uh there's a lot more to take away from the work that you're doing in between games than what's actually occurring in the game and I feel like I kind of just accepted that one day and it snowballed from there and that's kind of where we where we're at now and I feel like uh everybody's really been able to help me in different ways like guys guys specialized in certain things at this level and maybe they have more information about a certain a certain thing than another and uh everybody's got really really really valuable advice at this level obviously I mean I'm I'm like you said I'm a rookie I'm still trying to learn the ways so I just try to take a little bit from everybody I have two more questions too because I know your your time is valuable um you Baseball Analytics know how has analytics kind of played a part of this game into your pitching repertoire to scouting reports and things like that because back then it wasn't like that now you're in a new age of baseball and analytics is really you know a key fact to yeah well it's kind of been a part of my whole professional baseball Journey just with when I got drafted I mean 2021 was definitely not even the peak of it but well actually I think it was kind of past the peak of it I think the technological revolution of sorts in our game occurred a little bit before that and because of it it's kind of all I've known in professional baseball and and surprisingly you actually take a step away from it when you get to the big leagues because it's it's a game it's at the end of the day it's not a video game it's it's a game that we play and we're human and we make errors and because of that the game is a lot more than just the data behind it but the data behind it paints a picture of how maybe you can get better results in the game so it's kind of just the two having a balance more so than it is analytics influencing one thing or another in this game I I firmly believe that it's got to be both so it's just General traditional baseball field meets the The Cutting Edge of technology and somewhere in the middle there's a happy balance where guys play the game the way that it always has been but play it in a smart way so the August that you had was A month of August to remember very impressive um 189 ER 47 strikeouts a 12.7 strikeout per nine innings in that month I mean you go to Baltimore going against on the other side you had a Sai Young Award pitching and Corbin Burns next thing you know you're going Philly that's a 2022 World Series rematch and you're no hitting one of the best offenses in not even the national league but Major League Baseball and then to add on a little bit of what you're doing right now do you know who's the only rookie pitcher that's over you and strikeout for nine innings I know he has less Innings than me who is it I know who it is paulk's um 12. 23 sh for nine innings you're at 11.93 but I mean tell me what's been the success that you're having in this later month and really getting closer to that postseason for deep run into um you know for the astr make the playoffs again uh kind of just like I said like not really caring what happens in the game necessarily and just making my uh my general feelings about where I'm at in the game about what I'm doing those days in between I feel like reality is is you only see the work that I've done on the mount but all the work that I do in between the times where I'm on the mound is what makes all of that possible so I I I I firmly believe it's just finding or I've found a little bit better process to get ready for games and I think I I feel more prepared for them now both analytics wise and and and my body and my mechanics and everything so I think it's kind of just a perfect storm of of me finally turning a corner in terms of like having a solid routine having a a go-to in terms of what I'm looking for scouting wise and and then just generally making it more about the next pitch I throw than what's happened up to that point in the game I mean even even in the even in the game in in Philadelphia There's there's like pretty glaring stuff that I was like mad about afterwards like regardless of what the result is I just generally feel like there's something to improve upon every time and when you give up seven runs it's really obvious what you want to improve upon but when you don't I think it's it's it's really easy to get complacent when it's not quite so obvious and I think a lot of the success that I've experienced is is because of not getting complacent and still like picking apart outings that I feel like I threw the ball well in to find where I could throw the ball better so last ly Biggest Adjustment what has been your biggest adjustment throughout your short career than baseball or it could be just anything generally in life uh my biggest adjustment in in in baseball so far was trying to be a pitcher a little bit more than I am a thrower just cuz I mean I I was a big kid and I threw harder than everybody else when I was 12 and pretty much until I was like 16 17 18 when other guys started to get big too and uh I think that Advantage is is nice like obviously you watch the GU like the only guy that has more strikeouts per nine than I do as a rookie throws a 100 so there's an obvious clear-cut advantage to throwing the ball harder and I've had to kind of swallow the pride a little bit and understand that I don't throw 100 miles an hour but I can make my fast ball feel like a 100 by actually pitching so that's really it is just like Shifting the focus from throwing everything as hard as nasty as I can to throwing it to a good spot and then in a in a well thought out sequence if that makes sense it's just uh kind of playing chess more than Checkers so that's definitely been it for me spetti starter for the use Asos