Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Live out there. But the ShawnSalisbury Show continues. It's that time all
of the week, as we doevery single Wednesday, we welcome in Astros
General manager Dana Brown, the Astrostaking on the Blue Jays tonight up in
Toronto. Dana, over the lastsixteen games, first of all, welcome
in and thank you for joining usmaking some time out on the road.
The Astros in last sixteen games aretwelve and four. And you have said
(00:23):
it yourself, especially here on theshow, that you know, you've stayed
consistent with this, We're gonna gethot, We're gonna go on a roll.
You won nine in a row atone point, outside of a tough
one last night that she almost cameback from. The Astros have played some
very very good baseball, especially inthe last sixteen games. Astros twelve and
four in the last sixteen games,and you've said a time and time again
it's about getting hot. We're gonnago on a roll when these bats get
(00:45):
fired up. And sure enough,last sixteen games they've played some really really
good baseball. Yeah. I mean, ultimately the goal was if we get
back to five hundred, we'll getback into thing. We got back to
five hundred. Now, as Iwas talking about, before we can get
that five seven game run, youget five over, seven over, you
know, and then just keep playinggood baseball. Before you know it,
(01:07):
you build yourself a league and youknow you're back in first place. So
you know, give give the guyscredit for having grit to fight through it,
you know, with all the injuriesand different things that we've been faced
with this year. You know,but ultimately this is a really good team
and you know, these guys areused to it. And I think the
craziest thing is Astros general manager DanaBrown joining us here on the Shawn Salisbury
(01:29):
Show. The craziest thing, hDana, is that these Astros have been
playing some really good baseball without KyleTucker. What's the latest update on Kyle
Tucker. Yeah, I mean he'sstarting indoor baseball activities and he's filling a
lot better. You know, thegoal is in the next few days to
get him out there, you know, on some baseball activities on the field.
But he has started to take someswings off the tee and he's filling
(01:55):
a whole lot better. And youknow, these bone bruises they get so
deep some times. You know,it's it's it's really difficult to get out
of it. And so I thinka lot of the swelling has gone down
and uh, you know, notas much fluids or it's around the area.
So ultimately I think he, uh, he's in a he's in a
(02:15):
better space. Dana. Is arehab assignment on the horizon for him,
Yeah, I mean, once hestarts the baseball activities on the field,
we will get a feel for wherehe is at that point, and then
we will have some updates on whenhe will go out for the rehab assignment.
But he would definitely have to doa rehab assignment one more obviously,
it's a huge part of this team. Justin Berlin or you get the news
(02:38):
last week. Starting to throw fromsixty feet. Where is he at right
now? Yeah, starting to throwfrom sixty feet, not not as sore
as as he was before, whichwhich is a really good thing. And
so just don't have the strength youknow in you know, in the shoulder
area. We've got to get alittle bit strong because he's been he's been
(02:58):
off for the neck and so onewe could stretch that out, you know,
he should he should be back onhis way but the good thing is
he's back to throwing and he's gotto get the arm back built up.
Astros general manager Dana Brown joining ushere on Sports Talk seven ninety the Seawan
Salisbury Show. Another guy that's makinga rehab start is gonna be Luis Garcia
(03:19):
tomorrow night. What do you expectout of him? What's the pitch limit
going to be for him down atCorpus CHRISTI yeah, I think he's gonna
go a couple of innings. Youknow, we'll probably get him around thirty,
I think, or so. Thebig thing with him is he's been
thrown well and the velocity is up. You know, he's ninety three ninety
four. You know, that's agood thing. You know, I had
said it before, I think,you know, right before you know,
(03:42):
he gets into this whole rehab thing. I think he's going to be up
to you know, ninety six maybein the game. You know, we
just don't we don't want him topresident press the pedal to the meddle too
too soon, too hard, youknow, But ultimately the ninety three ninety
four, those are encouraging velocities.So he's throwing the ball well with no
issues and I know you say youdon't want him to pedal the metal and
(04:03):
kind of rush him back, butdo you have you yourself, do you
have a goal in mind as faras when we could see him back at
the big league level. Yeah,I think we'll know more and depending on
how the rehab goes, you know, the rehab assignments. So you know,
I think we'll start him off witha couple of innings and try to
build him up. This is basicallyhis spring training right now is where he's
(04:26):
starting to get loose and cut it, cut it loose, you know,
in a little game situation. Soas we you know, get maybe two
weeks from today, we'll have abetter field because he would have had a
couple of starts, and we will, you know, really have a feel
for how he's bouncing back. Andthat's pretty much the big part. How
does he bounce back after an outing? Astros general manager Dana Brown joinning the
Sean Salisbury Show for his weekly visit, Dan Matthews, Brian Lilima. Dana,
(04:51):
you know, when it comes topitching, I mean, we see
a deal made earlier today in MajorLeague Baseball with a trade of a starting
that you're going from one side toanother. Just how do you see the
market shaping up? And I meaneven before we reach the end of the
month, when the deadline hits.I mean, do you feel like there's
there's a possibility for you guys outthere to be able to add in the
(05:12):
short term. Yeah, I mean, we'll try to add. You know,
the whole difficulty of this thing isso many teams are in it,
you know, so it's you know, you have so many buyers and you
just don't have enough product to goaround. That's probably the biggest thing.
And so I'm sure some of theseteams will probably wait a little longer,
you know, because they feel likethey're still in it, and so hopefully,
(05:35):
you know, we could get sometype of deal done. You know,
we could use a starter, youknow, with with seven you know,
starters on the il. Ultimately,you know, we're grinding through it.
You know, we had meetings yesterday. We're talking through some different scenarios,
so you know, we'll be inthe grind. And you know,
(05:56):
Dana, there's so many similarities.You've even brought up the similarity to the
way this season's going here in Houstonto the season that you guys had when
you were in Atlanta in twenty one, and I mean it was kind of
a series of small moves that Alexmade at the deadline to be able to
build up that team. Do youkind of see any kind of similar scenarios
here and what was it about thosemoves that made that team kind of go
(06:20):
for that final stretch of that season. Yeah, if you remember, Acunya
went down, and you know,Acunya was our most productive player, and
so we just decided to go outand get a few outfielders, and you
know, it just worked. Youknow, those outfielders all got hot.
You know, Solare he got hot, Rosario he got hot, Peterson got
(06:40):
hot. And so you know,the big push on that was that we
had our most productive player go down. So we you know, we threw
a few players in there in themix, and you know, from all
three of the players, you know, they all got some awards postseason awards
because they got hot. And soultimately here, I think it's a little
different, you know, in thatknow, we more more so have you
(07:01):
know, pitching injuries that are reallyplaguing us right now. So ultimately,
if we could slide another starter inthere, you know, that's gonna help
us down the stretch. But makeno mistake, getting garciea back, it's
going to feel like a trade becausehe's you know, he's got a chance
to be so productive. He's wellrested down, he's been sitting out.
The rehab seems to be going prettywell, and so ultimately that would be
(07:24):
a big shot in the arm forthe club. But you know this,
this is a really good club,though. You know, if we get
quality starts, you know we're gonnawin baseball games, you know. And
last night, no rage, heran into a roadblock there. He just
made a couple of bad pitches lost. He was really good up the ninety
seven. He was strowing the ball. Well, he missed a couple of
spots. You know, he gota one two pitch in a bad area
(07:46):
for a home run, and youknow, floodgates open. But if we
get good starts, I think we'regonna win these games because right now the
batcher hot, the bullpen has turnedthe corner, and good starts will put
us, will set us up forsome win. And that's what we were
on. We were on a row. And the key is we got to
get back on that roll. Toget you know, seven games over five
hundred, that's you know, thegoal. Now we're gonna go we get
(08:07):
five over, seven over, tenover, and that's how we're trying to
play this thing. Astros general managerDana Brown joining us for a couple more
minutes here on the Shawn Salisbury ShawnSports talks seven ninety and its just another
thing. On Spencer Arighedty last night, you talked about missing some spots.
It seemed like when he got barreled, for the most part, he was
missing locations. I know a coupleof fastballs were left middle middle. You
(08:28):
just talked that up as hey,hey, young young guy, learn your
learn your taking on the chin andlearn from you know, from this and
you know you'll get the experience aswe go on. Or is there a
little more to it. Well,I think he's just got to hit the
spots. You know. One ofthe things with the pitchers, you know,
you have to execute the pitch.You know, whether you're a rookie
or whether you're a veteran, ifyou don't execute the pitch, these make
(08:50):
you league hitters are pretty good.So if you don't execute the pitch,
you're gonna get hit. Regardless ifyou're a rookie or a veteran. And
so I think he just simply missedthe spot. If he hits the spot,
he gets through those innings and it'sa different ball game, you know.
And that's that's really the key.And you know, ultimately, when
we get good starts, we're gonna, as I mentioned, we're going to
(09:11):
be in ballgames. So I thinkhe's definitely gonna learn from it. You
know. Uh, we got tominimize our mistakes in that respect, and
uh, you know, we we'llwe'll have good, good outcomes, all
right. And and Dana, youhave Renel Blanco on the mountain night fromber
on the bump Tomorrow afternoon it's anoon start, and then Friday back here
(09:31):
home at Mini May Park. Nobodylistened. I'm assuming that's gonna be another
bullpen game. Could we see uhSean Dubin start that game or maybe somebody
else? How do you see thatgoing on Friday against the Twins. Yeah,
we got a two horses going thenext two nights, and uh yeah,
it seems like what we're thinking aboutis, you know, we could
we could go Duban again. UhDubin pitched very well for those three and
(09:54):
the thirds. Uh, what happenedis his pitch count got up. We're
trying to build him up, andso if we can continue to build him
up, he could fill in thatspot, maybe into Bloss comes back,
or maybe until we make a trade. But ultimately I thought he threw well,
you know against the Mets. Youknow, he no hit him for
three and the third his pitch countgot up, so we had to pull
(10:15):
him. And so you know,he's got good stuff. He was up
to ninety seven the other day,had the breaking ball was working, and
so he gave up a couple ofhard hit balls, but you know,
no damage was done. And youknow, so Duban, you guys may
remember, pitched some big games forus, even last year. He had
some big starts, so I couldcertainly see him fill in that role and
(10:37):
then that turns it back over andthen we'll be in good shape. But
our guys are in the grind andyou know where we're going to continue to
move forward and astros Zenner manager DanaBrown for two more questions. Dana,
you mentioned Bloss Obviously he's coming backfrom a little bit of arm arm soreness.
And then there's the names of BlueBob, Bryce Matthews. You've also
(10:58):
got Paige Leone down in the minorleagues. We've had a couple of calls
this morning. Obviously, as thetrade trade deadline gets closer, the names
are going to be ramped up,the rumors, you know how it goes
here in Major League Baseball page.Leone is a guy that I want to
ask you about because he's playing reallywell down at Triple A, hitting close
to three hundred ohps of over eighthundred, and he's been around. It's
been a popular name amongst Astros fansfor our minor league system. Do you
(11:22):
foresee him being a guy that couldcome up to the big leagues at some
point this season or is it kindof a little bit too crowded for him
right now. Well, we dohave a lot of outfielders, but we
are paying attention to Leone. Uh. You know, he's been a big
time prospect here for a while.It's really good to see him turn in
the corner. I wouldn't say that, you know, he's coming up this
(11:43):
week, but I would say thatwe have our eyes on him, and
you know, if he continues toplay well, you know, there's an
opportunity for any of our minor leagueguys that are at the Apple levels playing
well. You know, we're notafraid to go with young kids at times,
and so you know, hopefully hekeeps up and then you know,
we'll see where it goes from there. But it is exciting to see him
play well. Do you know whatthe first base spot we were talking about
(12:07):
starting pitching a little bit earlier,I mean, just the first base market.
Everybody wants a guy that can puttogether great production, put together good
defense over there. Just what youguys have gotten out is Dubond but also
John Singleton this year. And alsowhat could be you know, down the
pike for you guys of a possibilityof being able to upgrade that spot.
(12:28):
Yeah, I mentioned, you knowearlier last week. You know, if
there was an opportunity that made sensefor us, you know, without mortgage
in the farm, if we couldyou know, do something at first base,
that would be great, you know. But in the meantime, we
have a little bit of a runwayfor you know, for Singleton to you
know, show show some of thegood things that he can do. You
know, he had three hits theother day with the Mets played very well,
(12:52):
and so we do have a littlebit of a runway for these guys.
You know, do Bond Singleton,you know, and and Low Perffedo
you know, got in there latein the game at first base. So
we have a little bit of arun way to see what these guys can
do as we continue to grind throughsome of our trade possibilities. But we're
(13:13):
in the grind. We appreciate thetime as always, save travels, enjoy
the Fourth of July holiday, andlet's hope the Astros can get back on
another run. Dan, and thankyou for thank you for your time.
Absolutely hanging there, Astrol fans.We're coming, We're coming.