Dana Brown Talks Injuries, Framber's Status, Verlander's Timeline

Assessing the Astros ups and downs to what's been a rocky start to this season, Dana joins the guys in talks of injuries, lineup rotations, and expectations he and the team have moving forward as the season progresses on.    

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I had to live for the SeanFelsbury Show. Continued for our weekly visit
every single Wednesday at nine thirty.Grateful to have uh Dana Brown on Dana
welcome in. Let's let's get startedhere. First update on Frombert. Nobody
likes to hear it's an elbow severity. How do you feel and where are

(00:20):
we at with that right now?Yeah? I talked to Framber and you
know, we had a nice gootsit down and ultimately we just put him
on an IL for fifteen days.We feel like he's going to be fine.
He's going to miss a couple ofstarts, you know, and I
don't want I don't want the groupto panic, you know. So I
think he's gonna be okay. Youjust you just needs some time off,

(00:41):
you know, Framber. I've mentionedthis a lot on the show. Frember
is one of those guys who postevery year, all throughout the year into
the postseason. And as I mentionedbefore on the show, guys get tired,
you know, they go through theseyou know downtimes with you know,
with their arms sometimes and now whenyou throw as hard as he throws,

(01:03):
you know, you're going to gothrough these periods. You know, thank
god, it's just a fifteen dayd L. And you know, we
think he was gonna be all right. Is there is there any concern about
being tired? Yeah, the aisle, Yeah, I got you. Is
there any concerned ain't about him beingtired? If it is this soon?
Is this more I guess? Isthis more precautionary? Been worried about structural

(01:25):
for you? Yeah, it's moreprecautionary. Uh. You know, as
you remember last year, you knowhe ran to something similar, you know,
Uh, he needed some time off. I think it was the ankle.
Sometimes you guys, these guys,they you get banged up and and
you need some you need some restand and sometimes rest will just will cure

(01:47):
all. And so when you're postingand you're and you're throwing as much as
these guys throw, it's just inevitablethat it's gonna you know, you're gonna
need some time off at some point. You look around the league. You
know you can see that Dan isit is. It speaks to something.
I know it's early in the season, as we've talked about, but special
that you you know, with Erkeitiand Fromber and Verlander and Garcia and Lance

(02:14):
mccullors that you guys are able tohang in there and still call on people.
And we'll get to Spencer here ina second. To be able to
post as you say and still showup. It hadn't been the start you
wanted, but teams don't lose fivestarting pitchers and can survive it. It
speaks pretty good volumes to your teamand the way they can also swing the
bat. Should I tell you this, I'm sleeping well. Even though we

(02:37):
got some guys that are hurt,right, I think they're gonna you know,
they're gonna get back. I'm not. There's no panic, h I.
You know I've mentioned in this onthis radio show often. I've been
in a game for thirty four years, had done thirty five, and you
know, you go through these downtimes during the season. You have to
remember it's one hundred and sixty twogames. It's a marathon, it's not
a sprint. And you can't panic. If you panic, your toast.

(03:01):
So you know you have to staythe course. You know you're good,
you put the work in. Wegot my guys that are in the minor
leagues that we can call up thatlike Rrigating, he's going to be good,
and so you know, we'll staythe course. We'll get these guys
back. You know, once theseguys come back, you know, JV.
Verlander, he has to start onemore start in the minors and then

(03:23):
he should be up. And soyou know, look, we're gonna we're
gonna grind through this. But youknow, at some point, as I've
said often, we will get onall cylinders. We'll run off eight in
a row, we'll run off tenin a row, we'll run off eleven
in a row, we'll run offsome some games here, and so,
you know, just we just haveto tele fans, Look, we're still

(03:46):
good. Don't panic. This guy'snot falling. This is a good team.
Trust me. The bats are startingto come alive right now. Uh
so we're a good team. AstroGM Jane Brown, for his weekly visit
joins us here on Sports Talk sevento ninety Salsbraciow mentioned JV. So the
plan, at least as we sittoday, is one more minor league start,
and hopefully the second start now,which would be his third obviously this

(04:09):
year, will be him on amajor league mound. Yeah, that's the
goal. I mean, hopefully,you know, you know, we can
continue that, but that's the goal. He's been feeling good. He's been
up to ninety five in his outings. He was up to ninety five even
before you know, the rehab starts. So and he's never stopped throwing.

(04:30):
That's the one thing I want tokeep emphasizing with JV. You know,
he's just got sidelined a little bitthere, but he'd never stopped throwing.
He's always you know, been atleast playing cats flat round mound, you
know, throwing lives. So youknow, we feel good about him coming
back. And once we get himback, you know, and then you

(04:50):
know, we'll be on all cylinders. We've got some good things that are
happening, like you know, guysare throwing well, that's stepping up in
there, like Blanco, you knowthese you know, JP France is still
throwing. Well. We're getting goodstarts. So, uh, you know,
we're in the ballgame. You know, we've lost four one run games,

(05:12):
won by two runs. You know, it's got the start that we
wanted. You know, we're youknow, we're four and four since the
only four start over four start againstthe Yankees. Uh, you know,
and even in the Yankees series,those are three close games that we lost.
So I want I want everybody tohang in there. Look, the
team is good. We're gonna begood. I'm not panicking. Let me

(05:33):
ask you this real quick before Iget to Spencer on paper. Just the
everyday lineup going into this season,in your mind better than last year's.
Yeah, the lineup, The lineup'sreally good, you know, I mean
think about it when with this timelast year, you know, we didn't
have you know, guys, youknow, we had some guys on the

(05:54):
I l as well, right,you know, and so I think that,
you know, the lineup, thelineup's really good. You know,
we didn't Brantley, we didn't haveour two Bay early on swinging up.
Yeah. Yeah, the Aner wasn'tstarting. So look, the batch of
the bats are good. We gotsome guys that are really swinging the bat,
you know how two ve Alvarez tingyaYaner swinging a bat. You know,

(06:15):
Tucker's been solid, you know,he's so Look, we're we're gonna
be fine. We're gonna be fine. We're twelve, We're twelve games in
with one hundred and fifty left,you know, and I wear it every
day, you know. So I'mlooking at it every day. I'm in
I'm in the constant grind, andyou know, I'm constantly talking on the
phone and we're going through it everysingle day. So it's at the forefront

(06:41):
of my mind. And so Idon't want us to I don't want us
to panic. Just twelve games inSpencer Araghatti gets that start today. Give
give us a scouting report on whatwe'll see from him, the strengths and
is he on a pitch count?Yeah, I think he's got an explosive
fastball, you know, takes offat the top of the zone. Got

(07:01):
a really nice uh sweeper that he'sgonna you know feature. You know,
he can backdoor to the left piece, he can get right, he's to
chase it, you know. Youknow, we'll see about the pitch count.
We'll see. You know, whenyou when you call up a young
starter, the one thing you wantis for him to have you know,
easy nons, not stressful innings.And so if he's coasting along, we'll

(07:25):
let him go a little bit.But if you get into some high you
know, high pressure innings where he'sgonna throw thirty pitches or twenty five pitches,
then we may have to think aboutpulling them soon. But if he
could, if he can get throughthose innings without stress, you know,
you know, we'll see may Hopefullyhe can give us six today, that
would be outstanding. Yeah. Sure, but yeah, we're we're exciting about

(07:46):
the young man. He's fired up. Astro GM Dana Brown joins us for
his weekly visit here on Sports Talkseven ninety Well low Brafito continues to hit
the ball out of the ballpark.Our weekly update from about from you about
him and what you're seeing. Yeah, just you know a guy that you
know, I talked earlier about howwell of the spring he had. You

(08:09):
know, I played very well inthe spring. He's carrying it right into
the season. As I mentioned before, it's a nice left hand bat.
He's a utility player who could playmultiple positions. So you know, at
some point we may see Oprafito.Don't know how soon, but at some
point we'll see him. I thinkif he continues to swing the bat and
the key is having quality at batswith these young men. When you call

(08:31):
him up, you know, thisis a tough game. It's the toughest
thing to do in sports. Hitaround object with around object square and so
if he continues to have quality atbats, you know, we could see
him here soon. But we're excitedabout the start he's off to, no
doubt about it, absolutely, Dan. If I were to ask you,
and it just came up to youand we didn't know each other, and

(08:52):
I said, hey, what aboutthe having yin I dias in Victor Caratini.
What's your comfort level when one ofthem's not the other play in first
base? What would you say tome? Yeah, I would say that,
you know, we have a firstbasement right now. And the Brave,
who as we talked about before youflip over the back of his baseball
card, he's going to show upat some point, and so he's notorious

(09:16):
for having slow starts, you know, so you know, let's let that
play out and and and and seeif he could turn on and get hot.
I believe he's going to get hot. You know, Uh, if
something happens to a Brave, ifhe gets if he gets hurt, or
if he goes down. You know, we'll kind of entertain some of those
things. But you know, rightnow, you know we you know he's

(09:37):
thirty four a bats, then wedon't, you know, we don't want
to prejudge. I mean, he'soff to a slow start. He's been
here before, and you know,we'll get him some extra hitting. We'll
figure out what is it the timingof device and his stride, you know,
So we're looking at things like that, uh to to get him back
on track, you know, inthe in the course of this, if

(09:58):
he needs the day off, we'llget the day off. But ultimately,
you know, we believe in abrave you know, he did the heck
of a job for us or thesecond part of the season last year,
and so we'll give him some timeto work some things out. And as
I said, if we have togive him a break, we'll give him
a break. Hey, Dana,with you your expertise, like you said,
you're in that grind. We talkedabout it all last year. You're

(10:20):
grinding, I mean with a coatand tire or a golf shirt on.
Damn near as much as the playersare watching and calling and seeing and talking
and visiting with them. With yournaked eye and baseball expertise and no talent,
where's his bat speed? I mean, is this just typical? I
know he's a slow starter, butdo you see anything in the bat speed.
What do you see that maybe usamateurs don't see. Yeah, you

(10:45):
know, that's a great question becausewhen I when I watch him in batting
practice, he you know, hewas launching balls the other day and I
mean they were going pretty far,you know, in Texas, and you
know, just the BP relaxed andthe bat looked explosive through the zone,
you know. And sometimes in thegame, you know, because these guys

(11:05):
are you know, their job isto get you off time, and you
sometimes you start thinking too much aboutthat breaking ball and you wait a little
too long, and then you waiton the fastball. And so I think
he's got some timing issues, youknow, in terms of I thought about
the bat speed thing, but whenI saw him launching balls into the seats,

(11:26):
I'm like, week, the batspeed looks fine from a scouting eye
perspective. So uh, I thinkit's more timing and maybe thinking too much
about off speed and maybe it lookslike he's slowing the back down because he's
worried about the off speed pitch andthen he's laid on the fastball. So
but we're working through these things,and you know, it's thirty four bats

(11:46):
in twelve games in and uh,you know, we got them get it.
We realize we got to get themgone. And so we're we're on
it. We're on it. Danawith Blair Henley. I want sports is
tough, man. I mean Imade it look tough at times, quarterback
trust me and pitching and hitting it'stough. And in such short notice,

(12:07):
the kid came in what psychological Isaid on this show. In the long
run, this is going to turnout good for him. He's going to
file it away understand it's a toughgame. And if he's as tough and
mentally and emotionally as you guys thinkhe is, and I think he is,
that it's going to be okay.Although trying to tell you that when
you're struggling, it's tough to gothrough, Well, how do you how

(12:28):
do you get through this? Youknow, some of the embarrassment of the
tough times and get yourself back towork knowing that the next time will be
different. I felt for the kidin this first start. Two things,
great question. So first of all, we you know, we let him
know. Look, kid, thisis not the first time this ever happened
in baseball. You have guys thatquite frankly, have become Hall of famers

(12:50):
that probably had just a slow start, you know, or have great careers.
They've been All Stars before, they'vehad slow starts, and so you
know, you talk him true inthat way. And the other thing is,
you know you could tell by talkingto the young man after the start,
you know that he has the heartbeatfor this. There was no panic.

(13:11):
You know, he realized what hadhappened. Things unraveled. You know,
if we make a great play hereor there, you know that ball
we told for up the middle,things could change. You know, the
blue hit that fell in, youknow he had the walk already in the
blue hit that fell in, youknow, uh seeger hit, you know
that was that was a close one. I mean that they it ain't could
have gone a different way, buthe just didn't catch a break and it

(13:35):
unraveled fast. But the main focusthat we talked about with him is,
look, these guys in the bigleagues, they don't really chase. You
have to get the ball in thestrike zone. And you know, I
think the message was well taken fromus. You know, when we talked
to him after the game, Ithink he's totally confident he believes in himself.

(13:58):
I think, as you mentioned,I think he's gonna go down in
the minor leagues and he's gonna,you know, work on Hey, first
fitch stripe, Let's get it overthe plate. I told him, Look,
the great hitters hit three hundred,they gonna fell seven out of ten
times, So you got to throwthe ball over the plate. And so
ultimately, I think it's a goodlearning lesson for him. And you know,

(14:20):
we gave him that start because ittimed up. You know, he
was the next guy in Lyne timewise, you know. But I think
he's gonna learn from it, andI think astro fans, you know,
will see him at some point againand I'll say, hey, this guy
learns his lesson and he's back atit. Awesome stuff. Good luck today,
good luck in this series, andwe'll see you back home when the
take on the Rangers again. Twomore in Kansas City. Appreciate your time,

(14:43):
Dan, and we'll look forward tonext week. Absolutely when I talk
to you guys next week, hopefullywe'll be right back in the grind.
And I'm excited astro fans hang withus. You got it. Appreciated,
Dana, come back and discuss,as well as give you a few masters
picks. Who do we like SportsTalk seven ninety