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June 4, 2025 • 13 mins
Moving on from the Rays and now taking on the Pirates, the Astros look to be on quite the roll as they continue to add wins, climbing the American League division rankings now placed 3rd right behind the Yankees and the Tigers. Taking a moment and assessing the Astros success over the last few series including yesterdays Game 1 shutout against Paul Skenes, Dana joins and shares a couple of takeaways from the recent weeks and how this run can be sustained moving forward still without key players in the lineup.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports TX seventy ninety. It is the Sean Salisbury Show.
Dan Matthews, Ross Villareal hanging out with you here in
this nine o'clock hour. It is that time of the
week we catch up with the GM of the Astros.
He is Dana Brown. Dana appreciate the time. As always,
we'll get the injuries out of the way first and
then we'll get into baseball and we'll start first with

(00:23):
you know, you addressed it over the weekend with Jordon
and Dana. You know, you guys went through this last
year with Kyle Tucker of you know, the injury looks
like it's this way, then we find out later it
was another way. The same deal with jord On here.
Is it safe to say after what you guys just
went through with Jordon that things will change in terms
of how you approach injuries that maybe you think it

(00:44):
looks one way, but you want to be one hundred
percent sure that it's not another way.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I think one of the things that you know we're
going to do here more is get more imaging.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
You know, sometimes we get this imaging early in the injury,
and you know there's so much inflammation and fluid and
some of these injuries. And so you know, the thing
here is if we could continue to do multiple imaging
and then maybe you get a better look and a
little more clear view of what the actual injury is.

(01:18):
And I think that's one of the things that we're
going to do more of going forward.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
And I mean on that front, you know, you've even
mentioned it before about you know, players, you know, their competitors.
They want to be out there, they want to try
to find their way back. But is it a little
bit of part of the job too, Dana of sometimes
you got to protect the player from the player and
just say, hey, look, cautious is the way to go.
We'll we'll go from you know, off of what the

(01:45):
medical people tell us before we decide our next step.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, Ultimately, these guys are highly competitive. To get to
this level of baseball, you have to be highly competitive.
And sometimes you know, the guys are like it shouldn't
get back these guys, but they feel well, they feel better,
they feel good. You know, these are some of the
statements you get. And then sometimes you feel like, okay

(02:10):
with that particular imaging, the way that now that the
way the players feeling, you know, you know, maybe we're
out of the woods here, but sometimes you know, you know,
these guys are so competitive, they want to get back.
They're biting at the bit, and you know, we just
have to slow it down a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Astro's GM Dana Brown join us for his weekly visit
here on the Sean Salisbury Show. One more real quick
on jord On, where do things stand with him right now?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah? So, uh, he's just going to continue to rest.
You know, he'll he's not going to hit and he's
not going to throw, but he'll continue to rest there.
But he'll he'll be, he'll run. He can do baseball
activities in terms of shagging fly balls, but no ticking
up the bat let the hand rest and it should

(02:59):
he'll it was that sixty healed and so you know
he's progressive.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Two parter here, Final one. Injury wise, Spencer Arraghedtty playing
catch last week, Where did things stand with him? And
also Luis Garcia throwing off the mound in the bullpen
over the weekend. Is that cause to believe that he
could be progressing towards a return this season?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes? And first on Arragetty, you know, Arraghetty feels really good.
He's you know, he's throwing flat ground right now. He's
also biting at the bit. I mean, we have to
slow him down because he's ready to cut it loose,
and so he's got to go through a full spring training.
So we have to gradually, you know, bring him back

(03:42):
because you don't want to, you know, see any other injury,
you know, other than the thumb, because guys start to
come back too fast, you know, they could hurt their bleak.
There's other things that you have to worry about. So
you have to go through a full spring training. And
yeat Garcia he's uh, he's going to be throwing live
vps at the end of June, and so we do

(04:05):
expect him to get back sometime in August.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Dana Brown with us and Ross with you here as well. Dana,
you're always looking to improve the team, and you've always
talked about starting pitching and how important that is. And
there have been the injuries and thankfully Lance mccullor's junior
back to back quality starts, so maybe a little bit
less of a need. But what is it like for
you conversing possibly with other teams and it brings early
in the market and a lot of time teams not

(04:30):
being sellers right now and trying to improve the team
in that way rather than later and closer to the
trade deadline.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, Lanston's been outstanding. You know. Over the last five
starts we've won, you know, four, he's with four and
oh in his last five starts, he's been thrown the
ball very well, twenty nine strikeouts and over twenty innings
right at twenty innings, and so he's been really good.
I'm I'm more on record always saying that we're always

(05:00):
in the market for pitching. We know, one hundred and
sixty two games, it's a very long season. So you
always have to have the open mind to acquire pitching
because you know the fact that the matter is the
season so long, things happen, guys get hurt, and so
you're always in the Market's very difficult, very early right now,
not many teams or sellers. It's still early in the process,

(05:24):
you know. But we won't miss any stone on term,
you know, we won't leave any stone or in turn
because you know, we're always in the market for pitching.
So if there's something out there that makes sense for us,
we'll definitely be active.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
What it's for you as a general manager just throughout
the calendar year, really trying to plan for pitching. And
how different is it now in twenty twenty five than say,
you know, ten years ago or even longer ago, with
these injuries that have been happening, which you can never predict,
but it almost seems like it's almost if not it's

(05:58):
not if, but when with with pitching injuries the last
several years, Yeah, you just.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Have to be very conscious of your depth and and
you know, because you know, it's like you anticipate, you know,
something will happen. It's it's the nature of the beast.
You know, you're not the only club going through it.
There's there's multiple clubs throughout baseball that are fighting an
injury bug, and so you have to be prepared. And so,

(06:24):
you know, thank god, some of our depth has stepped up.
We're gonna have some guys coming back from injuries, and
so we'll be able to ride the ship and and
and and stay the course. Uh, you know, on this journey,
you know, it's good to see that the team is
playing well right now. We're back in first place, and uh,
you know, our goal is to like get on a

(06:45):
really good run right now. And uh, you know, we're
playing well, We're still pitching well, and so the bats
are heating up and you know we're trying to we're
grinding through this.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
In a couple of those bats doing I mean, last
night's against a really good pitcher, Christian Walker able to
send one over the wall. That's good to see out
of him. Jiner Diaz has put together some good at bats,
but you know, not one hundred percent back to what
I think we expect from Janor Diaz. What are you
seeing from those guys at bats to lead you to
believe that maybe they could be turning the corner.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, we're seeing a little bit more pitches. I mean,
that's going to be helpful. Uh. I mean Paul Schemes
is his stuff is filthy. I mean he was ninety
seven and ninety nine, heavy sink and movement on the fastball.
Change up was really good, really good slider. I mean,
it's just a very difficult guy to navigate. You know,

(07:37):
Walker got a really good pitch there to hit and
he took advantage of it. And you know he's done
that a little bit in the past, you know, with
the home run he got in Arlington, against the Rangers
and the you know, the one versus Seattle. You know, Walker,
he's turning the corner. And so you know, as I
mentioned before, these guys are grinding, and uh, you know,

(07:59):
I really feel that the bats are turning the corner.
We're starting to see more flashes of of of of offense,
and so that's a good thing. Along with our pitching
and our defense. You know, we start to really heat
up with the bats, we'll go on a nice little run,
and right now it feels like we're on the verge
of a run.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
What'd you think of High Levers Sean Dubin last night?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, Duben's you know, he's been stepping it up for us.
You know, he's throwing the ball very well. He comes in,
you know, he gets stouts and that's what we like.
And he's been really good for us. You know, this year,
we're you know, we're hoping that he continues that progress.
Since he's come off the I L you know, he's
been he's been doing an outstanding job. And you know,

(08:42):
we gave him an opportunity in high leverage yesterday he
answered the bell once again and so, uh, you know,
he's he's been dialed in.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Again astros GM Dana Brown joining us here on the
Sewn Salisbury Show for his weekly visit. A couple more
minutes with Dana, you know, you've talked about it with
the pitching staff and you know, being able to try
to you know, keep it going, you know, with what
you've been able to do in the bullpen. But also
you know, just talked a little bit about Sean Dubin there.
But I mean, you guys had Jordan Wims the other

(09:12):
day on a minor league deal, and I mean I
assume that that that search is always out there for
trying to find guys that have major league experience or
maybe even have potential to be able to you know,
be somebody that can help you along the way. I mean,
like just take us through those conversations with with your
staff and how that happens, the scouting that goes in
and everything else of the sort where you're trying to

(09:35):
be able to find somebody that you know, maybe you
see they've got the stuff, but they just haven't been
able to put it together at this level quite yet.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, you know, led by Matt Hogan, you know, Aaron
Doug Judas, you know, both those guys are always in
the grind. You know, you sign a guy like Wings
because of the arm strength and as you mentioned, he's
got some experience, and you know he's a guy that
you know that a guy that are pitching group, you know,
they do pretty well with and our our guys have

(10:05):
done some really good things with some of these guys
that we've acquired as relievers that we've you know, kind
of got off, you know, set off the market and
they these guys were available and our guys could turn
them into something pretty good. And so with Wings, we
feel like, you know what, there may be some upside here.
And uh, you know, our guys are continually grinding, you know,

(10:29):
whether it's our front office group or you know, guys
that we have out there scouting, you know, in the
fields and and and you know, our player development continues
to send us pitching. You know, it's a group effort,
you know, throughout the entire organization to continue to grind
through these seasons and try to win ball games.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
And I mean along the scouting fronts, we're about a
month away from the draft, and I know that you're
deep into that at the moment. You got Super Regionals
happening in college baseball? Is the draft different now, Dana?
Like where you guys, if you take somebody in the
first sandwich pick round or even in the second round,
there that that's somebody that you're taking with the express

(11:08):
purpose of, Hey, they can be here pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
Look, Scotting led by Derek Latinair and Cam Pandino. Look,
these guys are out in the grind every day. I
try to get out and I see, you know, different things,
and I try to participate and give my two cents
on it, you know, with the goal as you mentioned,
of ultimately getting these guys to the major leagues to
make some type of impact. I think, you know, ultimately

(11:35):
being in this grind and looking at these players and
you try to get these guys that will have that
short stay in the minor leagues if possible. It's very difficult,
you know, but we're not afraid to move guys along.
We feel like we have, you know, good development people,
we have good pitching people. You know, are hitting guys
to turning the corner and so look, we're always in

(11:56):
the market to get these players, and I know we
grind through the daily, you know, with the draft coming up.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Uh. You know, I'm on the phone constantly, you know,
with Campandino, our director, and so look, we're looking for guys,
you know, uh to come up here at some point.
You know, it's very difficult for a guy to get
in here, get up in the big leagues within you know,
two years. But you know we have guys that are
turning the corner. Bright nice Matthews is playing well in

(12:24):
Triple A, and so you know, our goal was to
continue grinding through it and get guys to the big league.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
And one of those guys you've gotten up a couple
of games under his belt, Jacob Melton. Just one of
your thoughts been on what we've seen out of him
so far.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, Melton, Uh, you know, he's he's kind of getting
through it. You know, I love that. You know, he
got that Mfield hit for his first major league hit.
He got that out of the way. I had some
really quality at bats. You know, think about that bat
last night against Schemes. You know, Uh, he ended up
working out a walk. I mean he's facing Schemes who's

(13:01):
ninety seven and ninety nine, good breaking ball, you know,
good change up, and just grinding through those at bat
and that's what he's gonna see, you know, at the
major league level, you're gonna see that come out of
that bullpen. You're going to see those out of some
of the starters. And you know, I look at that
at bat as a guy that's you know, coming into
his own he's making progress, and we're looking for some

(13:23):
good things from Melted Astros GM.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Dana Brown joins us every single week here on the
Shawn Salisbury Show. Dana, appreciate the time. We'll catch up
with you next Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
All right, appreciate you guys. Let's go Astro fans, Let's
get on the roll.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Here we go, Here we go, Astros GM, Dana Brown,
come back. React to a couple of the things that
we talked about with Dana right there. As we continue
along here on the Seawn Salisbury Show. Dan Matthews, Ross,
Philoreale hanging out with you here on Sports Talk seven
ninety
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