April 17, 2024 • 16 mins
Falling short in their games and suffering another loss to the Braves yesterday, Dana Brown joins the show along with Sean in assessing what the team has shown thus far twenty games into the season, along with some big questions many are looking for the answers to.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We're valued for The Sewn Salisbury Showcontinued. Welcome back to the Shawn Salisbury
Show here on Sports Talk seven nine. You can also listen to us on
the free iHeartRadio app. Shawn Salisbury, Brian Lolima, Emmanuel Elmore. It's
that time of the week. EveryWednesday at nine thirty, we welcome in
(00:23):
Astros general manager Dana Brown. Yeah, we sure do every Wednesday, and
grateful for he's always This is yeartwo with us and we're so grateful to
have him on. Dana, sincewe talked last Wednesday, we do every
week at this time evaluate as anoverall, you know, looking at your
team, some of the things youliked and maybe a few things you didn't
over the course of just this pastweek in a bundle. Yeah, I
(00:45):
would. I would say, youknow, I'd like to see that the
bats are coming alive, but they'vebeen a little bit inconsistent. You know,
the bullpen is still struggling a littlebit, and we did get some
good starts from some of our starters, so you know, ultimately, uh,
you know, we're six and thirteen, just three and a half back
(01:06):
with one forty three to go,and so I think, you know,
it's been a tough ride for usearly, you know, simply because we're
playing really good teams. You know, this is you're getting the strongest part
of your schedule at the beginning ofthe year, which is which is always
tough. Yep. So I mean, I think once these guys hit their
(01:26):
stride, you know, and we'replaying some of those teams that are that
are not as tough, I thinkwe'll run off some you know, some
multiple game winning streaks and so ultimately, as I mentioned last week, you
know, this guy's not fall I'vegot one hundred and forty three games left
and with three and a half gamesback, So you know, we this
(01:47):
division. You know, it's notgoing to be easy, but we are
as the champion of this division fromtwenty twenty three, so we have to
defend that type no doubt. Andno team in the Mary New World continue
like this, But no team inthe American Quest is playing over five hundred
baseball So still bunched together. DanaBrown astros GM for his weekly visit.
All right, you mentioned that bullpen. Uh. We would give a lot
(02:09):
of people asking and I have thequestion, and so does My co host
is Ryan Presley, Okay, whyhasn't he pitched since Friday in some of
these situations? Let us know,Yeah, he's okay. I mean ultimately
last night, you know, becausewe used Hater two days in a row,
Presley was gonna pitch if we gota lead, you know, in
(02:29):
the ninth, so we were holdinghim off. He was going to close
the game out. So, uh, Presley's fine. I mean, he's
he's totally okay. I mean,it's just, you know, one of
those things, you know, youknow, we got a guy like uh,
you know, Hater who's kind ofpitching that role a little bit because
we hadn't had a lead late andhe's only had the one opportunity for to
(02:50):
save and he didn't close that oneout against Toronto. But you know,
ultimately, I think the tide isgonna turn. I think things are gonna
be okay. You know, wejust haven't had leads and so it's kind
of tough to orchestrate the back endwith the big boys on the back end,
the big three that we have,right and so it's tough to orchestrate
(03:12):
that when you're losing games late.And so that's been that's been sort of
the struggle but you know, ultimately, we look we still have a good
team. Oh yeah, you know, I'm not worried about it one bit.
We still have a good team.Our guys are going to hit their
stride. As I mentioned before,you know, you're hitting the tough part
of your schedule at the beginning ofthe year and you haven't hit your stride
(03:32):
yet. So we're going to befine. Yeah. Oh and you know
data with this town. I thinkthat's the thing, is this team the
expectations and spoiling everybody. They've beenso good, just like last year and
when you were in Atlanta and theywere winning here as well, and you
come here and see success. Imean, they've set the bar so high
anything it's like, what what,We're not supposed to be six and thirteen.
(03:53):
So everybody's just trying to figure outwhy. And you mentioned hater,
are you seeing anything other than thesituation of the game. Is are his
pitch is flat? Because you knowhe's an elite closer hits while you went
out and got him, Dana,what are you seeing that maybe we're not
with your expertise naked eye, Yeah, I think, uh, you know,
ultimately, uh, you know,when I talked to him today,
(04:14):
just you know, stick with what'sgot you here. You know, he's
got a really good fastball. Youknow. Uh, if you're gonna get
beat, get beat with your beststuff, you know. And sometimes you
try to mix and match with yourpitches, and you know, you leave
one hanging here and one hanging therebefore you know it. You know,
you know, things unramble on you. But uh, you know, ultimately,
look, the fastball is still good. I think he's going to be
(04:36):
more aggressive and tack attacked his ownearly. And uh, you know,
Hater had a slow start. Youknow, even when he went over to
San Diego. Sometimes you get youtry to get adjusted to a team,
and but I think he's gonna befine, and you know he's going to
close out a lot of games.So the talents there, as you've heard
(04:57):
me say before, you look onthe back at all of these guys baseball
cards, and you know at theend of the day they're going to have
success. The success is coming,Dan, Let me ask you about that
about it. Let me ask youabout and the history of these great players
or guys that have had great careerswith the back of their baseball card.
But is there a point in timewhen the back of the baseball card doesn't
matter and we got to focus ontwenty twenty four or is that is that
(05:18):
though? Like, is that thewhen you get to that point that wins
out over Well, he's not playingwell, we assume that he's going to
get back out of it. Whoever, we're talking about when does the the
baseball card become I got to seethe results? Now? When does that
hit for you? Yeah? Imean, if a guy starts to free
fall, you know, then youhave to you know, you have to
(05:39):
hit reset and try to think thinkthrough it, you know. But if
if the guy hasn't free hasn't hitfree fall, you know, you stick
with the back of the baseball card. There are times where guys will we'll
hit free fall, you know,and and then you have to make some
decisions as to what direction you're goingto go in. But that's it.
(06:00):
You still have to give guys timeto see if they could make adjustments.
And that's why the season is solong. That's the beauty of baseball.
You play a lot of games,right, you know, unlike any of
the sport there's a lot of baseballgames. And I can certainly see in
our future us running off eight toten games straight multiple times. So I
think that's the type of club thatwe have. And I think once,
(06:24):
once we get on all cylinders,I think we'll be good. You know,
we're getting JV back, you knowthat's going to help. We'll probably
get Framburg back the week after.So you know. The other thing is
we're you know, we're struggling,you know, with our boat, with
our starters. I mean, imaginehaving five starters, you know on the
i L. I mean right now, right now, we we lead the
(06:46):
league in i L days. Soyou know, this is a tough time
that we're going through, and it'sa tough part of our schedule. I
think if we weren't playing these toughteams, we may be five hundred.
These teams are all good, nodoubt, There's no doubt about it.
So at some point, you know, you'll get a chance. We'll get
we'll get a chance to catch up. You know, I want to ast
(07:06):
fans to hang in there with us. You know, I'll let you know
when the panic we're We're fine.We're going to be good. This is
a good team. We could stillpitch, we could still hit and we
can still defense and I'll rapid firea few of these things for you,
and we appreciate you as always.It's Dana Brown ASTs GM for his weekly
visit. So do we Verlander gettinga start in Washington? Yes, the
(07:30):
plan is to get Verlander a startin Washington. Uh, he's been feeling
good. He had a couple ofrehab stints in the minor leagues and uh,
you know, so the plan isto get him going. I mean,
he looks good, he feels good. The velocity is back, and
so you know, we're we're readyto see him back. We need him.
Hey, and with with Fromberg,you know, when whenever we hear
(07:50):
the elbow soreness or tightness or uncomfortable, whatever the verbiage is that choose,
we all cringe, and I'm sureyou do too, Danus, And especially
this year with all the injuries withFromer, why didn't he get an MRI?
What was it? Was it thelocation of the injury? Why why
would he not get an MRI tokind of ease everybody's thoughts so it wasn't
(08:11):
hurt as opposed to being sore ortired. Yeah, I mean, ultimately
there's there's times when you know,you get an MRI and there's times where
you say, yeah, I feelpretty good. I've felt this soreness before,
you know, and fromber you know, ultimately I want our you know,
all of our fans know. Look, we've played in ninety seven postseason
(08:33):
games in our seven year run ofstraight CSS, and so what's what's going
to happen. It's guys are gonnaget tired, they're gonna wear down.
That's a lot of any that's almostan extra you know, that's over half
of the season. Ninety seven postseasongames. That's that's adding almost a half
more than a half a season tous to your schedule. And so these
(08:54):
guys go late into October. They'vegone late into October. They're going to
get and sometimes you just have torest. And that's one of the reasons
why when we get the opportunity,we're going to try to go to a
six man to get these guys abreak. And you know, you have
to sort of wean that in toget these guys a break because the season
(09:15):
is that long, and we havethe depth and the starters to do it.
You know, it's just that youknow, we have multiple starters down
at the same time, you know, when you talk about jav was out,
we got Frameers out, we gotArkdi out and not to mention the
colors in Garcia. So that's alot of starting pitching. And you know
(09:37):
the fact that you know we're we'rehanging in there. We're only three and
a half games back. We gota bunch of guys that are out,
but we got guys that are goingto start coming back. Uh And as
I mentioned, we're in a toughpart of our schedules. So uh,
you know, I would tell everybodysit tight, fasten the seatbelts. It's
going to be a good ride,and ultimately we'll get on the roll and
(10:00):
things will turn around for us forsure. Dana Brown for his weekly visit
a few four minutes here on SportsTalk seven ninety GM of the Astros,
Dana, did Hunter Brown well encouraginglast night? Did he show enough that
he belongs in the starting rotation intwenty twenty four after three tough starts?
Yeah, three tough starts. Youknow, ultimately last night was a really
(10:24):
good start for him, you know, against a really good team. I
mean, if you look at thatAtlanta Braves lineup, they're really good.
I mean, there's there's nowhere torun, there's nowhere to hide. And
you know he was pounding its fastballlast night, you know, up to
ninety seven. He looked like thehundred Brown of old, you know.
And I talked to him a littlebit before the game. I said,
hey, you got this, don'tworry about it, you know, don't
(10:45):
get it, get after it.And so you know, he kept us,
he kept us right there in thegame. And it's a good start,
and you know it's a much neededstart for him for sure. Yeah,
and Danny, you've mentioned getting backto the bats. I mean how
important scoring runs and early and it'sa tough division. Pain you start unbelievable
al two base Uh, well,he's been out of his mind his whole
career with the way that guy playsand everything beloved and we know what Jordon's
(11:07):
bringing to the table, yainer,Diaz, who you've been sold on since
you came here to Houston. Sowith all those the great starts by some
and the average starts by others,is it a bit maddening with the that
that somewhere in between, it seemslike things been extreme. Right, you're
either winning big or you're losing somegames, you're not holding leads or getting
beat big that in between win fourto three. So I guess the timely
(11:31):
hitting with those great starts by thoseguys, but an overall roster, it's
got to be a little maddening.Does that become more physical or mental when
you're not getting that clutch hit atthe time we usually see the astros do
it. Yeah, I think guystry to do too much, so it
becomes a little mental. They youknow, they think, you know,
when you start off slow, youknow, and then you get an opportunity
(11:54):
to get to drive in runs,and you know, ultimately, you know,
you try to a little too much, you know, and sometimes a
good line drive base hit to write, you know, is better than you
swinging, you know, for thefences and trying to do too much.
And I think guys, you know, they get they get caught in between,
and they you know, they youknow, they try to do a
(12:15):
little too much. I mean,we got have a few guys off to
a slow start, and now aboutsome point they're gonna heat up, you
know. At some point McCormick's gonnaheat up. At some point, Brager
is gonna heat up and and soultimately I think our guys are gonna heat
up with the bats. Sometimes theseguys are you know, it takes a
little time. Some guys are slowstarters, and then some guys really turn
it on. And uh, asI mentioned, once we get on all
(12:39):
cylinders, I think good things aregonna happen. You have to like that.
I'm curious this with with Forced Whitleyand even before you got here,
Dan, I know you know abouthim, but all that he's been through
and this organization patient and rooting forhim, and I couldn't root any harder
for him. And I'm sure youguys feel the same way. What kind
of investment are you're expecting and youknow, I'm sure nerves were with him.
(13:01):
Is your overall assessment of where thisis? And this really what could
be a great comeback story if itworks. Yeah, I mean, ultimately
we got him in the pen nowI think that's probably where he's going to
setle in. You know, it'sgood to see the high velocities last night,
you know, ninety six to ninetyeight, so he's still showing the
arm strength. Got to tweak thecutter a little bit more, get a
(13:24):
little bit more break on it.No nerves got him. It was just
you know, it was his debut. Uh you know, but ultimately,
I think, you know, thefans got a chance to see this young
man come in there and pitch withsome velocity and maybe if we could tweak
you know a few things. Andyou know, it's different at the major
league level. You know, theseguys do not miss that fastball if you
(13:48):
throw it down the middle. So, I mean, he's got arm strength,
he's got a chance to pitch,you know, in in our in
our bullpen, and so it wasgood to get an eye to get a
look at him, you know,and so hopefully, uh, you know,
we'll get more of that v loand he could tighten up that cutter
and uh, you know, he'llbe on his way. What's the leash
(14:09):
for him right now at the bigleague level in the bullpen? For you
guys, what what kind of leashis this for him? How many?
How many times do we get tosee before you say, okay, he
did work out that cutter, thevelos continues to be there. What what
what kind of optics or visual shouldwe expect? Yeah, I mean I
think what we're gonna do is.You know, we have to make a
decision today on our on our roster. So at some point we'll figure out,
(14:31):
look he is, he's still goingto fit to we send them back
to Triple A to get a littlebit more innings because he just came off
the I L. We'll have tomake that decision probably some point, you
know, today or tomorrow or thenext day. Uh, you know,
because we have JV coming back.So so at some point, well,
(14:52):
you know, we'll make the decision. But it was good to get him
up here to get his feet wet, to let him get a taste of
this and then to see what heactually could do, how he would compete
against batters, and so you know, we'll have some conversations downstairs with the
guys and and we'll get him.We'll get him to his to his ceilings
(15:15):
so he can help us out,you know on the back end of that
bullpen sounds great, Dana, goodluck today and uh then good luck on
the road trip, and we'll talkto you next Wednesday. We always appreciate
you, thank you, I appreciatebeing on and uh ashtill fans hanging there
with us, We're gonna be allright. Appreciate that. That's Dana Brown.
We'll come back and finish it up. Talk about for sweetly getting his
chance. Sounds like he's a bullpenguy. Uh, on a regular basis.
(15:37):
Yeah, at least that's where atleast just start, should I say,
because the velo and got to workhim into it so interesting. Yeah,
and he alluded to Justin Verlander goingto be starting Friday against the Washington
National so that they will have tomake uh a roster move to open up
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We're valued for The Sewn Salisbury Showcontinued. Welcome back to the Shawn Salisbury
Show here on Sports Talk seven nine. You can also listen to us on
the free iHeartRadio app. Shawn Salisbury, Brian Lolima, Emmanuel Elmore. It's
that time of the week. EveryWednesday at nine thirty, we welcome in
(00:23):
Astros general manager Dana Brown. Yeah, we sure do every Wednesday, and
grateful for he's always This is yeartwo with us and we're so grateful to
have him on. Dana, sincewe talked last Wednesday, we do every
week at this time evaluate as anoverall, you know, looking at your
team, some of the things youliked and maybe a few things you didn't
over the course of just this pastweek in a bundle. Yeah, I
(00:45):
would. I would say, youknow, I'd like to see that the
bats are coming alive, but they'vebeen a little bit inconsistent. You know,
the bullpen is still struggling a littlebit, and we did get some
good starts from some of our starters, so you know, ultimately, uh,
you know, we're six and thirteen, just three and a half back
(01:06):
with one forty three to go,and so I think, you know,
it's been a tough ride for usearly, you know, simply because we're
playing really good teams. You know, this is you're getting the strongest part
of your schedule at the beginning ofthe year, which is which is always
tough. Yep. So I mean, I think once these guys hit their
(01:26):
stride, you know, and we'replaying some of those teams that are that
are not as tough, I thinkwe'll run off some you know, some
multiple game winning streaks and so ultimately, as I mentioned last week, you
know, this guy's not fall I'vegot one hundred and forty three games left
and with three and a half gamesback, So you know, we this
(01:47):
division. You know, it's notgoing to be easy, but we are
as the champion of this division fromtwenty twenty three, so we have to
defend that type no doubt. Andno team in the Mary New World continue
like this, But no team inthe American Quest is playing over five hundred
baseball So still bunched together. DanaBrown astros GM for his weekly visit.
All right, you mentioned that bullpen. Uh. We would give a lot
(02:09):
of people asking and I have thequestion, and so does My co host
is Ryan Presley, Okay, whyhasn't he pitched since Friday in some of
these situations? Let us know,Yeah, he's okay. I mean ultimately
last night, you know, becausewe used Hater two days in a row,
Presley was gonna pitch if we gota lead, you know, in
(02:29):
the ninth, so we were holdinghim off. He was going to close
the game out. So, uh, Presley's fine. I mean, he's
he's totally okay. I mean,it's just, you know, one of
those things, you know, youknow, we got a guy like uh,
you know, Hater who's kind ofpitching that role a little bit because
we hadn't had a lead late andhe's only had the one opportunity for to
(02:50):
save and he didn't close that oneout against Toronto. But you know,
ultimately, I think the tide isgonna turn. I think things are gonna
be okay. You know, wejust haven't had leads and so it's kind
of tough to orchestrate the back endwith the big boys on the back end,
the big three that we have,right and so it's tough to orchestrate
(03:12):
that when you're losing games late.And so that's been that's been sort of
the struggle but you know, ultimately, we look we still have a good
team. Oh yeah, you know, I'm not worried about it one bit.
We still have a good team.Our guys are going to hit their
stride. As I mentioned before,you know, you're hitting the tough part
of your schedule at the beginning ofthe year and you haven't hit your stride
(03:32):
yet. So we're going to befine. Yeah. Oh and you know
data with this town. I thinkthat's the thing, is this team the
expectations and spoiling everybody. They've beenso good, just like last year and
when you were in Atlanta and theywere winning here as well, and you
come here and see success. Imean, they've set the bar so high
anything it's like, what what,We're not supposed to be six and thirteen.
(03:53):
So everybody's just trying to figure outwhy. And you mentioned hater,
are you seeing anything other than thesituation of the game. Is are his
pitch is flat? Because you knowhe's an elite closer hits while you went
out and got him, Dana,what are you seeing that maybe we're not
with your expertise naked eye, Yeah, I think, uh, you know,
ultimately, uh, you know,when I talked to him today,
(04:14):
just you know, stick with what'sgot you here. You know, he's
got a really good fastball. Youknow. Uh, if you're gonna get
beat, get beat with your beststuff, you know. And sometimes you
try to mix and match with yourpitches, and you know, you leave
one hanging here and one hanging therebefore you know it. You know,
you know, things unramble on you. But uh, you know, ultimately,
look, the fastball is still good. I think he's going to be
(04:36):
more aggressive and tack attacked his ownearly. And uh, you know,
Hater had a slow start. Youknow, even when he went over to
San Diego. Sometimes you get youtry to get adjusted to a team,
and but I think he's gonna befine, and you know he's going to
close out a lot of games.So the talents there, as you've heard
(04:57):
me say before, you look onthe back at all of these guys baseball
cards, and you know at theend of the day they're going to have
success. The success is coming,Dan, Let me ask you about that
about it. Let me ask youabout and the history of these great players
or guys that have had great careerswith the back of their baseball card.
But is there a point in timewhen the back of the baseball card doesn't
matter and we got to focus ontwenty twenty four or is that is that
(05:18):
though? Like, is that thewhen you get to that point that wins
out over Well, he's not playingwell, we assume that he's going to
get back out of it. Whoever, we're talking about when does the the
baseball card become I got to seethe results? Now? When does that
hit for you? Yeah? Imean, if a guy starts to free
fall, you know, then youhave to you know, you have to
(05:39):
hit reset and try to think thinkthrough it, you know. But if
if the guy hasn't free hasn't hitfree fall, you know, you stick
with the back of the baseball card. There are times where guys will we'll
hit free fall, you know,and and then you have to make some
decisions as to what direction you're goingto go in. But that's it.
(06:00):
You still have to give guys timeto see if they could make adjustments.
And that's why the season is solong. That's the beauty of baseball.
You play a lot of games,right, you know, unlike any of
the sport there's a lot of baseballgames. And I can certainly see in
our future us running off eight toten games straight multiple times. So I
think that's the type of club thatwe have. And I think once,
(06:24):
once we get on all cylinders,I think we'll be good. You know,
we're getting JV back, you knowthat's going to help. We'll probably
get Framburg back the week after.So you know. The other thing is
we're you know, we're struggling,you know, with our boat, with
our starters. I mean, imaginehaving five starters, you know on the
i L. I mean right now, right now, we we lead the
(06:46):
league in i L days. Soyou know, this is a tough time
that we're going through, and it'sa tough part of our schedule. I
think if we weren't playing these toughteams, we may be five hundred.
These teams are all good, nodoubt, There's no doubt about it.
So at some point, you know, you'll get a chance. We'll get
we'll get a chance to catch up. You know, I want to ast
(07:06):
fans to hang in there with us. You know, I'll let you know
when the panic we're We're fine.We're going to be good. This is
a good team. We could stillpitch, we could still hit and we
can still defense and I'll rapid firea few of these things for you,
and we appreciate you as always.It's Dana Brown ASTs GM for his weekly
visit. So do we Verlander gettinga start in Washington? Yes, the
(07:30):
plan is to get Verlander a startin Washington. Uh, he's been feeling
good. He had a couple ofrehab stints in the minor leagues and uh,
you know, so the plan isto get him going. I mean,
he looks good, he feels good. The velocity is back, and
so you know, we're we're readyto see him back. We need him.
Hey, and with with Fromberg,you know, when whenever we hear
(07:50):
the elbow soreness or tightness or uncomfortable, whatever the verbiage is that choose,
we all cringe, and I'm sureyou do too, Danus, And especially
this year with all the injuries withFromer, why didn't he get an MRI?
What was it? Was it thelocation of the injury? Why why
would he not get an MRI tokind of ease everybody's thoughts so it wasn't
(08:11):
hurt as opposed to being sore ortired. Yeah, I mean, ultimately
there's there's times when you know,you get an MRI and there's times where
you say, yeah, I feelpretty good. I've felt this soreness before,
you know, and fromber you know, ultimately I want our you know,
all of our fans know. Look, we've played in ninety seven postseason
(08:33):
games in our seven year run ofstraight CSS, and so what's what's going
to happen. It's guys are gonnaget tired, they're gonna wear down.
That's a lot of any that's almostan extra you know, that's over half
of the season. Ninety seven postseasongames. That's that's adding almost a half
more than a half a season tous to your schedule. And so these
(08:54):
guys go late into October. They'vegone late into October. They're going to
get and sometimes you just have torest. And that's one of the reasons
why when we get the opportunity,we're going to try to go to a
six man to get these guys abreak. And you know, you have
to sort of wean that in toget these guys a break because the season
(09:15):
is that long, and we havethe depth and the starters to do it.
You know, it's just that youknow, we have multiple starters down
at the same time, you know, when you talk about jav was out,
we got Frameers out, we gotArkdi out and not to mention the
colors in Garcia. So that's alot of starting pitching. And you know
(09:37):
the fact that you know we're we'rehanging in there. We're only three and
a half games back. We gota bunch of guys that are out,
but we got guys that are goingto start coming back. Uh And as
I mentioned, we're in a toughpart of our schedules. So uh,
you know, I would tell everybodysit tight, fasten the seatbelts. It's
going to be a good ride,and ultimately we'll get on the roll and
(10:00):
things will turn around for us forsure. Dana Brown for his weekly visit
a few four minutes here on SportsTalk seven ninety GM of the Astros,
Dana, did Hunter Brown well encouraginglast night? Did he show enough that
he belongs in the starting rotation intwenty twenty four after three tough starts?
Yeah, three tough starts. Youknow, ultimately last night was a really
(10:24):
good start for him, you know, against a really good team. I
mean, if you look at thatAtlanta Braves lineup, they're really good.
I mean, there's there's nowhere torun, there's nowhere to hide. And
you know he was pounding its fastballlast night, you know, up to
ninety seven. He looked like thehundred Brown of old, you know.
And I talked to him a littlebit before the game. I said,
hey, you got this, don'tworry about it, you know, don't
(10:45):
get it, get after it.And so you know, he kept us,
he kept us right there in thegame. And it's a good start,
and you know it's a much neededstart for him for sure. Yeah,
and Danny, you've mentioned getting backto the bats. I mean how
important scoring runs and early and it'sa tough division. Pain you start unbelievable
al two base Uh, well,he's been out of his mind his whole
career with the way that guy playsand everything beloved and we know what Jordon's
(11:07):
bringing to the table, yainer,Diaz, who you've been sold on since
you came here to Houston. Sowith all those the great starts by some
and the average starts by others,is it a bit maddening with the that
that somewhere in between, it seemslike things been extreme. Right, you're
either winning big or you're losing somegames, you're not holding leads or getting
beat big that in between win fourto three. So I guess the timely
(11:31):
hitting with those great starts by thoseguys, but an overall roster, it's
got to be a little maddening.Does that become more physical or mental when
you're not getting that clutch hit atthe time we usually see the astros do
it. Yeah, I think guystry to do too much, so it
becomes a little mental. They youknow, they think, you know,
when you start off slow, youknow, and then you get an opportunity
(11:54):
to get to drive in runs,and you know, ultimately, you know,
you try to a little too much, you know, and sometimes a
good line drive base hit to write, you know, is better than you
swinging, you know, for thefences and trying to do too much.
And I think guys, you know, they get they get caught in between,
and they you know, they youknow, they try to do a
(12:15):
little too much. I mean,we got have a few guys off to
a slow start, and now aboutsome point they're gonna heat up, you
know. At some point McCormick's gonnaheat up. At some point, Brager
is gonna heat up and and soultimately I think our guys are gonna heat
up with the bats. Sometimes theseguys are you know, it takes a
little time. Some guys are slowstarters, and then some guys really turn
it on. And uh, asI mentioned, once we get on all
(12:39):
cylinders, I think good things aregonna happen. You have to like that.
I'm curious this with with Forced Whitleyand even before you got here,
Dan, I know you know abouthim, but all that he's been through
and this organization patient and rooting forhim, and I couldn't root any harder
for him. And I'm sure youguys feel the same way. What kind
of investment are you're expecting and youknow, I'm sure nerves were with him.
(13:01):
Is your overall assessment of where thisis? And this really what could
be a great comeback story if itworks. Yeah, I mean, ultimately
we got him in the pen nowI think that's probably where he's going to
setle in. You know, it'sgood to see the high velocities last night,
you know, ninety six to ninetyeight, so he's still showing the
arm strength. Got to tweak thecutter a little bit more, get a
(13:24):
little bit more break on it.No nerves got him. It was just
you know, it was his debut. Uh you know, but ultimately,
I think, you know, thefans got a chance to see this young
man come in there and pitch withsome velocity and maybe if we could tweak
you know a few things. Andyou know, it's different at the major
league level. You know, theseguys do not miss that fastball if you
(13:48):
throw it down the middle. So, I mean, he's got arm strength,
he's got a chance to pitch,you know, in in our in
our bullpen, and so it wasgood to get an eye to get a
look at him, you know,and so hopefully, uh, you know,
we'll get more of that v loand he could tighten up that cutter
and uh, you know, he'llbe on his way. What's the leash
(14:09):
for him right now at the bigleague level in the bullpen? For you
guys, what what kind of leashis this for him? How many?
How many times do we get tosee before you say, okay, he
did work out that cutter, thevelos continues to be there. What what
what kind of optics or visual shouldwe expect? Yeah, I mean I
think what we're gonna do is.You know, we have to make a
decision today on our on our roster. So at some point we'll figure out,
(14:31):
look he is, he's still goingto fit to we send them back
to Triple A to get a littlebit more innings because he just came off
the I L. We'll have tomake that decision probably some point, you
know, today or tomorrow or thenext day. Uh, you know,
because we have JV coming back.So so at some point, well,
(14:52):
you know, we'll make the decision. But it was good to get him
up here to get his feet wet, to let him get a taste of
this and then to see what heactually could do, how he would compete
against batters, and so you know, we'll have some conversations downstairs with the
guys and and we'll get him.We'll get him to his to his ceilings
(15:15):
so he can help us out,you know on the back end of that
bullpen sounds great, Dana, goodluck today and uh then good luck on
the road trip, and we'll talkto you next Wednesday. We always appreciate
you, thank you, I appreciatebeing on and uh ashtill fans hanging there
with us, We're gonna be allright. Appreciate that. That's Dana Brown.
We'll come back and finish it up. Talk about for sweetly getting his
chance. Sounds like he's a bullpenguy. Uh, on a regular basis.
(15:37):
Yeah, at least that's where atleast just start, should I say,
because the velo and got to workhim into it so interesting. Yeah,
and he alluded to Justin Verlander goingto be starting Friday against the Washington
National so that they will have tomake uh a roster move to open up
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