September 10, 2025 • 17 mins
Entering the final stretch of the season with teams hoping to claim a playoff spot, the hype surrounding the start of the postseason has heightened, followed by tight races between teams all across the league. Setting a franchise record having made 8 consecutive playoff appearances, followed by 7 consecutive ALCS appearances, the Astros look to be on the brink of possibly being put out of playoff contention following the AL West's tight division race this year. Losing back-to-back series and still unable to score runs with runners in scoring position during this crucial time of the season, Dana weighs in on the Astros' recent struggles and hopes of pulling it together to win the pennant race.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Smarts TX seven ninety Sean Salisbury show, Astros in Toronto,
Huge Series lost last night ten innings. We joined by
the Astros GM and hopefully future World Series champion Astros.
Dana Brown joins us, Danny before I hit your team,
and thanks for joining us today as always for your
weekly visit. Then let me I want to go to
(00:22):
with your baseball expertise, with youth baseball and high school
and just the way we train and raise pitchers. Do
we have too much emphasis you see the videos? Do
we have too much emphasis on velocity and velocity only
for these young players? I don't we got Do we
(00:45):
still have Dana Danny there?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, I'm here, I think yeah, yeah, I was saying.
I think, you know, pictures are definitely chasing velocity and
spin rate and all those things that you know, make
the ball move and make the ball jump on hitters.
And so even at a younger age, you see guys
there throwing a little bit harder, and so they I
think there's some stress on the arms and and so
(01:10):
I think that's why we you know, we see a
lot of injuries today, but you know, ultimately, these are
competitive human beings, and you know, everybody wants that age,
and everybody wants to compete, and everybody's you know, working
hard to be good, you know. So it's you know,
kind of tough to to scale back on guys that
are so competitive.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Are wet, and then I'm gonna get into your team,
and I'm just curiacous from my insight and just trying
to get a gauge on this. Do we are we
raising more throwers than pitchers at a young age, Dana?
And you know you've seen great pictures when you were
from Atlanta to hear You've watched them and covered it
and been a part of it and scouted it in
general manage it forever. So do we need more emphasis
(01:51):
on pitching as opposed to velo?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah? Look, I think you know, with guys chasing Velo,
you end up being throwers instead of pitchers at times.
And you know, there are still a group of guys
that can really throw hard and really pitch at the
same time, right, you know, that's that's that elite group.
And so but yeah, I think guys, it's wonderful to
see when a guy can operate, you know, when he
(02:17):
can just pitch ninety to ninety four and move the
ball around and throw a lot of strikes. That's that's
fun to watch. And the games move along quickly too.
But look, these guys are all competitive, man. I mean
you you know, we're we're raising kids to compete, and
that's you know what this generation has chosen.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
David Brown Astro's GM here on his weekly visit on
Sports Talk seven ninety Sean Salisbury Show, gut wrenching what
we saw with Garcia last night, Any early returns on
your gut feeling about it and what you saw.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, I'm gonna wait for the doctor. Uh, he's gonna
go in today and get some imaging and we'll pick
a look and see what's going on. It's definitely, you know,
tough to watch. I mean, you see a guy battle back,
you know, from an injury from April twenty twenty three,
and you know, he finally gets a few starts in
the big leagues and you know, all of a sudden,
he goes back down. And so you know, we're gonna
(03:15):
wait for the doctor to get more clarity on this injury.
But for sure, definitely disappointing.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, and and data with that was there going into that,
there was no signs of any other discomfort at all
before the start, right this, this was one of those.
It happened last night, correct.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, Look think about it. His last start, he was
pretty good, really good, very competitive and through through his
size in between starts, no issues. You know, went out there,
was looking good for the first couple of innings, and
then all of a sudden, you know, you know, we
see him signal to the dugout and so right away
(03:57):
we're like, oh, what's going on? And so now we
know that, you know, he's got to get luck looked at.
But thank god blue Ball came in and threw the
ball well and kind of continue it.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
He's really good, Dana blue Balls impressive, right got his mentality,
he attacks the hitters. I would imagine you're pretty impressed
with what you've seen from him. And is he here
to stay at least this year? And will it be
in a starting roller in the bullpenner? Does it really
matter right now for you guys?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, I mean we're gonna take that, We're going to
evaluate that there is a chance that he could end
up in a rotation, you know, especially the way he's
been throwing the ball. You know, you talk about a
guy pitching. You know, you could see him adding adding
subtract with the fastball. You know, he was like ninety three,
ninety four and then all of a sudden he'll go
up to ninety seven to get a strikeout. And so
(04:50):
you know, he was really really pitching. And so he's
been throwing the ball very well. You know over his
last few appearances, he's been really good. Eight innings, ten
strikeouts up in those last four appearances, so he's really
making a push data.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
When with injuries, do you guys have in your in
the and how you guys go about it? Is it
a the same routine? You know, how we have check
we've been checking off as you're going through putting game
plan in and the same thing or when you're doing
whatever it is and been Business World or Baseball World
or Sports World, it's your checklist. Like for this show,
every day what we're doing. But when it comes to
the injury evaluation, is there a checklist you guys go
(05:27):
through for each and every individual or each and every situation.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, Look, our doctors are very in tune with each
of our players, and it's every individual is different, and
so now that's kind of like how we handle it
and you know, when a guy goes down, we have
certain protocols that we follow and you know, we try
to get them back as soon as possible. But we
(05:53):
you know, along with the doctors and the imaging and
you know, we do a lot of different things when
it comes to evaluating, you know, the return of players.
And so, as I mentioned, each guy his only individual,
so it's it's person related and so you know, we
definitely have a checklist of you know, what we go through.
(06:15):
And so it's unfortunate that this year we've we've suffered
so many injuries and you know, look the big pictures
were still a game up and we control our own
fate and you know, we just simply need to get
hot and we need to start swinging the bats.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, we see Josh Hater in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I think there's a chance that we see Josh Hater.
More likely it would be a postseason, uh, you know,
but he's grinding to try to get back. But I
think it's more like the postseason because we're at a
time we've got to we have seventeen seventeen games last
(06:57):
and you know, when you sit out for a certain
amount of time, it takes time to build back up, yep.
And so yeah, it's gonna take a little while to
get him back.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Did we know how electric a braid you is, Dana?
Do you think from your expertise he's comfortable in the
closer role right now?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah? I mean think about a brave man. He's he's nasty. Yeah,
two four nine earn ren average has got over one
hundred strikeouts. You know, he's closed out four of the
five staves since you know, Hater went down, and so look,
it's it's definitely a good punch to to lose a
game like that, Las Night. But you know, a Braid
(07:37):
has been really good for us, and so you know,
one of the things we you know, we just have
to stay focused on is you can't put give out
free passes. You cannot walk guys late in the game,
and I think the walks came back to haunt us,
and so that makes it very difficult to put a
team away. You know late you got to go right
(07:58):
after him.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And will he be I mean when it gets to
the ninth inning, he is going forward at least until
Hater's back or otherwise notified. Obray, who's going to be
the guy closing out the ninth inning.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Correct, Yeah, so I would say, look, he's going to
get save opportunities for sure, depending on you know, how
many days in a row he throws, or how many
pitches that he throws. I mean he threw I think
it was twenty nine last night. So he's probably not
available tonight to close out the game, right, But when
we have opportunities to close, he's going to be one
(08:31):
of the guys that we call on the close.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Dana Brown astros GM for a couple more minutes here
on Sports Talk seven to ninety his weekly visit. We're
always grateful for runners in scoring position, a bit of
you know, the timely hit data. You've talked about it,
great at bats, good at bats, working the count, all
those things. How do you buck this trend? You know,
when you're into game planning and working against the looking
at the analytics of the other team's pitcher and all that.
(08:55):
It's tough to work on those things during a season. Dana,
how do you how do you fix this with seventeen
games to go heading into the playoffs. When I say fix,
how do you buck the trend of runners in scoring
position not getting the clutch hit? Is it just you
got to get it or is there something you can
do to change the course of this.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, this is twofold one. Look, our pitching has been
really good all.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Year, Thank goodness, right, Dana, thank goodness yep.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, pretty much carrying us, right, And so when it
comes down to these last seventeen games, I just think
we're going to have to really force the pitcher to
throw the pitches that we want to see. You know,
right now, I think we're we're swinging at pitches on
the edges. They're a lot of a lot of these
pitchers are nibbling. If you watch the game and you
(09:42):
watch it closely like I do, you know they're they're
pitching around the edges and our guys are a little
too amped up, and they're swinging at some of the
pitchers pitches instead of grinding me at bat and making
a guy come in the zone. You know, you know,
you take the d eds at bat last night when
he got the RBI down the left field line. You know,
(10:03):
the prior to that, the pitch the pitcher threw a
ball like out of the strike zone. We kind of
chased it, but you know, Diez waited for the next
pitch and he threw it one in the zone and
he picked advantage of it. That's really the crux of
it right there. I think that, you know, we're gonna
have to force the pitchers to come in the zone
(10:24):
so we can get you know, get our pitches. Stop
being so over anxious. And I think guys are trying
to do too much because we you know, the hitters
understand and they feel it. They know they understand that, look,
we need to make some adjustments, and they're they're pressing
a little bit, I think, and so we're just gonna
have to be a little bit more patient. And as
(10:45):
I always talk about, they usually come in bunches. It's
just that we're seventeen games away from the end of
the season and we're gonna have to turn the corner
here soon.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And Dana, that's been a trend at the plate this year.
You've talked patients and good at bats and working to
get your pitch as opposed to the pitcher's pitch. So
at this stage, though, how do I mean trying to
convince them to do it? And as the pressure starts
to mount as you get closer to the playoffs, doesn't
that pine for well, you start to chase even more
because that's been the trend this year. How do you
(11:15):
buck the trend? We know what the answer is. How
do you get the answer to the test? So how
do you get to it on a daily basis? Right now?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, we're just gonna have to get locked in. I mean,
maybe we have to.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Just sit and meditate and just kind of focused on
you know eyes course, you know the old school thing
where you just close the eyes and you envision yourself
swinging at really good pitches and so and stop being overrangees.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You know, we're just gonna have to get creative like
that and really think this thing through and lock down.
I know that the players are very aware of it,
you know, so these hitters are not you know, this
is not new to the hitters. They understand that. Look,
we have to get locked in, and you know, thank god,
it's still control our fate. We're up one and we
(12:02):
need to put some space in between this right now
and we we play those guys. You know, we play
Seattle three more times. We you know, we play Texas
three more times, so you know we're going to get
the opportunity to deliver a knockout punch and we're still
in first place place, and we've been we've been in
first place for a long time. We just we control
our fate. It's just we've got to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
What do you see with Jsel two by struggle right now?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Just in?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Is it bats? Because we know he's a guy that
will go after high fastballs and chase a little bit,
but that's his he's a great ham and egg guy.
He's been great with that. But when he's going through it,
it's it's hyper sensitive. What do you see from your
expertise from him?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, sometimes these things unravel, you know, because you get
over anxious and you know he knows, he knows what
he needs to do. There's no question. I mean, Jose is,
you know, on the brink of being, you know, a
Hall of Famer. So look, this is not a guy
that's far into getting hits. He's a there's a plutch guy.
He can deliver and he can carry a club for
(13:04):
weeks and months. But you know, right now he's expanding
his zone a little bit. He's got to tighten his
zone up. And you know, once he gets locked into
that zone, I think good things are going to happen,
but you know, we got to get him there sooner
rether than later.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Dan, I know how much you trust your pitchers. We've
talked about and they've been damn good and carried this
team this year for the most part. And I know
the history of the guys at the plate. Do you
trust them the same way you did when this season started?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Absolutely? I mean think about this. We've gone through this
entire season with all the ebbs and flows of injuries
and the ups and downs, and these guys have continued
to maintain and hold on to what's dear to our heart,
and that's getting back to the postseason and getting deep
into the postseason. And you know, with seventeen to go
(13:55):
and one up, there's a lot that could happen. You know,
you can go on an eight game run and build
that lead up five and which I think we'll do.
We just need to get hot. We need to get
hot soon. These guys are really good. If you look
up and down our lineup, the lineup's good, the rotation's good.
You know, even losing Garcia, we can insert blue ball
in there. Who's throwing the ball. Well, So we're good enough.
(14:18):
You know, we just got to get the job done.
But they'll make no mistake. This club is good enough.
And you know we have enough pitching, we have enough hitting,
we have enough bullpen, we have the defense. We just
got to get the job done. And I believe in
this club. This is a big club, and uh, you
know we have playoff pedigree and you know that's where
(14:40):
we want to get back to the playoffs and get
deep into the postseason.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And I'll let you go simple one here with that
in mind, this, uh the comes you trust also the
postseason shops. So getting there is an advantage for this
resilient team that's been there many times before. Because that
does matter.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
To you absolutely. You Look, we want to win the
division and we want to get deep into the postseason,
and we want to continue to keep our Astro fans
excited locked in.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Uh. Look, we're we're a good club and we know
that we have the fan base pulling for us. Uh,
you know, we want to want this fan base to
continue to understand that. Look, we're locked in on the
postseason and that's where we're headed and we just need
to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It's go time, minimal rest for those stars, right, you
said it last week gets time. It's the dead Sprint,
and when they're healthy enough to play, they're playing. That's
what we'll go see in the lineup right.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Whenever look, whenever healthy enough to play, they're going to play.
You know. The one case we may have to do
is hit reset just mentally for you know, a guy
here and there. That's that. It's just part of what
we do. You know, it won't be because of any
physical thing. I think sometimes you just have to hit
reset with the day off, you know, And I don't
know how that's going to play out, you know, I
(15:58):
think that you know, for the most part, these guys
are going to be all in the lineup for the
for the rest of the way. But there are times
and you know, as a you know, a guy that's
been in sports your entire life, you have to hit
reset at some point mentally. Uh, just the WUSA a
little bit and so uh but let's hope that uh,
you know, these guys are locked in and ready to go,
(16:19):
and we don't need a mental break either. I think
these guys are these guys are ready to go. We
have a good enough team. It's it's it's as I
said before, it's go time. Like, it's seventeen games left
and we got to get the job done. Goes what
that's what, that's what. It boiled down.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
It starts tonight against a good Toronto team. Dana, thank
you so much. Look forward to next week and hopefully
that lead will be extended by our next conversation and
we'll get good news on Garcia. We appreciate your time, man,
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Absolutely the day, today's the day to turn it around.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
There you go, appreciate it. That's Dana Brown Astros GM.
We'll visit with him again next week. We'll come back
and close it out here with Dan and I. It
is Sports Talk seven ninety. Still is uh as optimistic
as ever, but he knows that hitting has to pick
it up, absolutely has to. Sports Talk seven ninety
Smarts TX seven ninety Sean Salisbury show, Astros in Toronto,
Huge Series lost last night ten innings. We joined by
the Astros GM and hopefully future World Series champion Astros.
Dana Brown joins us, Danny before I hit your team,
and thanks for joining us today as always for your
weekly visit. Then let me I want to go to
(00:22):
with your baseball expertise, with youth baseball and high school
and just the way we train and raise pitchers. Do
we have too much emphasis you see the videos? Do
we have too much emphasis on velocity and velocity only
for these young players? I don't we got Do we
(00:45):
still have Dana Danny there?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, I'm here, I think yeah, yeah, I was saying.
I think, you know, pictures are definitely chasing velocity and
spin rate and all those things that you know, make
the ball move and make the ball jump on hitters.
And so even at a younger age, you see guys
there throwing a little bit harder, and so they I
think there's some stress on the arms and and so
(01:10):
I think that's why we you know, we see a
lot of injuries today, but you know, ultimately, these are
competitive human beings, and you know, everybody wants that age,
and everybody wants to compete, and everybody's you know, working
hard to be good, you know. So it's you know,
kind of tough to to scale back on guys that
are so competitive.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Are wet, and then I'm gonna get into your team,
and I'm just curiacous from my insight and just trying
to get a gauge on this. Do we are we
raising more throwers than pitchers at a young age, Dana?
And you know you've seen great pictures when you were
from Atlanta to hear You've watched them and covered it
and been a part of it and scouted it in
general manage it forever. So do we need more emphasis
(01:51):
on pitching as opposed to velo?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah? Look, I think you know, with guys chasing Velo,
you end up being throwers instead of pitchers at times.
And you know, there are still a group of guys
that can really throw hard and really pitch at the
same time, right, you know, that's that's that elite group.
And so but yeah, I think guys, it's wonderful to
see when a guy can operate, you know, when he
(02:17):
can just pitch ninety to ninety four and move the
ball around and throw a lot of strikes. That's that's
fun to watch. And the games move along quickly too.
But look, these guys are all competitive, man. I mean
you you know, we're we're raising kids to compete, and
that's you know what this generation has chosen.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
David Brown Astro's GM here on his weekly visit on
Sports Talk seven ninety Sean Salisbury Show, gut wrenching what
we saw with Garcia last night, Any early returns on
your gut feeling about it and what you saw.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, I'm gonna wait for the doctor. Uh, he's gonna
go in today and get some imaging and we'll pick
a look and see what's going on. It's definitely, you know,
tough to watch. I mean, you see a guy battle back,
you know, from an injury from April twenty twenty three,
and you know, he finally gets a few starts in
the big leagues and you know, all of a sudden,
he goes back down. And so you know, we're gonna
(03:15):
wait for the doctor to get more clarity on this injury.
But for sure, definitely disappointing.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, and and data with that was there going into that,
there was no signs of any other discomfort at all
before the start, right this, this was one of those.
It happened last night, correct.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, Look think about it. His last start, he was
pretty good, really good, very competitive and through through his
size in between starts, no issues. You know, went out there,
was looking good for the first couple of innings, and
then all of a sudden, you know, you know, we
see him signal to the dugout and so right away
(03:57):
we're like, oh, what's going on? And so now we
know that, you know, he's got to get luck looked at.
But thank god blue Ball came in and threw the
ball well and kind of continue it.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
He's really good, Dana blue Balls impressive, right got his mentality,
he attacks the hitters. I would imagine you're pretty impressed
with what you've seen from him. And is he here
to stay at least this year? And will it be
in a starting roller in the bullpenner? Does it really
matter right now for you guys?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, I mean we're gonna take that, We're going to
evaluate that there is a chance that he could end
up in a rotation, you know, especially the way he's
been throwing the ball. You know, you talk about a
guy pitching. You know, you could see him adding adding
subtract with the fastball. You know, he was like ninety three,
ninety four and then all of a sudden he'll go
up to ninety seven to get a strikeout. And so
(04:50):
you know, he was really really pitching. And so he's
been throwing the ball very well. You know over his
last few appearances, he's been really good. Eight innings, ten
strikeouts up in those last four appearances, so he's really
making a push data.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
When with injuries, do you guys have in your in
the and how you guys go about it? Is it
a the same routine? You know, how we have check
we've been checking off as you're going through putting game
plan in and the same thing or when you're doing
whatever it is and been Business World or Baseball World
or Sports World, it's your checklist. Like for this show,
every day what we're doing. But when it comes to
the injury evaluation, is there a checklist you guys go
(05:27):
through for each and every individual or each and every situation.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, Look, our doctors are very in tune with each
of our players, and it's every individual is different, and
so now that's kind of like how we handle it
and you know, when a guy goes down, we have
certain protocols that we follow and you know, we try
to get them back as soon as possible. But we
(05:53):
you know, along with the doctors and the imaging and
you know, we do a lot of different things when
it comes to evaluating, you know, the return of players.
And so, as I mentioned, each guy his only individual,
so it's it's person related and so you know, we
definitely have a checklist of you know, what we go through.
(06:15):
And so it's unfortunate that this year we've we've suffered
so many injuries and you know, look the big pictures
were still a game up and we control our own
fate and you know, we just simply need to get
hot and we need to start swinging the bats.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, we see Josh Hater in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I think there's a chance that we see Josh Hater.
More likely it would be a postseason, uh, you know,
but he's grinding to try to get back. But I
think it's more like the postseason because we're at a
time we've got to we have seventeen seventeen games last
(06:57):
and you know, when you sit out for a certain
amount of time, it takes time to build back up, yep.
And so yeah, it's gonna take a little while to
get him back.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Did we know how electric a braid you is, Dana?
Do you think from your expertise he's comfortable in the
closer role right now?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah? I mean think about a brave man. He's he's nasty. Yeah,
two four nine earn ren average has got over one
hundred strikeouts. You know, he's closed out four of the
five staves since you know, Hater went down, and so look,
it's it's definitely a good punch to to lose a
game like that, Las Night. But you know, a Braid
(07:37):
has been really good for us, and so you know,
one of the things we you know, we just have
to stay focused on is you can't put give out
free passes. You cannot walk guys late in the game,
and I think the walks came back to haunt us,
and so that makes it very difficult to put a
team away. You know late you got to go right
(07:58):
after him.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And will he be I mean when it gets to
the ninth inning, he is going forward at least until
Hater's back or otherwise notified. Obray, who's going to be
the guy closing out the ninth inning.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Correct, Yeah, so I would say, look, he's going to
get save opportunities for sure, depending on you know, how
many days in a row he throws, or how many
pitches that he throws. I mean he threw I think
it was twenty nine last night. So he's probably not
available tonight to close out the game, right, But when
we have opportunities to close, he's going to be one
(08:31):
of the guys that we call on the close.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Dana Brown astros GM for a couple more minutes here
on Sports Talk seven to ninety his weekly visit. We're
always grateful for runners in scoring position, a bit of
you know, the timely hit data. You've talked about it,
great at bats, good at bats, working the count, all
those things. How do you buck this trend? You know,
when you're into game planning and working against the looking
at the analytics of the other team's pitcher and all that.
(08:55):
It's tough to work on those things during a season. Dana,
how do you how do you fix this with seventeen
games to go heading into the playoffs. When I say fix,
how do you buck the trend of runners in scoring
position not getting the clutch hit? Is it just you
got to get it or is there something you can
do to change the course of this.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, this is twofold one. Look, our pitching has been
really good all.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Year, Thank goodness, right, Dana, thank goodness yep.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, pretty much carrying us, right, And so when it
comes down to these last seventeen games, I just think
we're going to have to really force the pitcher to
throw the pitches that we want to see. You know,
right now, I think we're we're swinging at pitches on
the edges. They're a lot of a lot of these
pitchers are nibbling. If you watch the game and you
(09:42):
watch it closely like I do, you know they're they're
pitching around the edges and our guys are a little
too amped up, and they're swinging at some of the
pitchers pitches instead of grinding me at bat and making
a guy come in the zone. You know, you know,
you take the d eds at bat last night when
he got the RBI down the left field line. You know,
(10:03):
the prior to that, the pitch the pitcher threw a
ball like out of the strike zone. We kind of
chased it, but you know, Diez waited for the next
pitch and he threw it one in the zone and
he picked advantage of it. That's really the crux of
it right there. I think that, you know, we're gonna
have to force the pitchers to come in the zone
(10:24):
so we can get you know, get our pitches. Stop
being so over anxious. And I think guys are trying
to do too much because we you know, the hitters
understand and they feel it. They know they understand that, look,
we need to make some adjustments, and they're they're pressing
a little bit, I think, and so we're just gonna
have to be a little bit more patient. And as
(10:45):
I always talk about, they usually come in bunches. It's
just that we're seventeen games away from the end of
the season and we're gonna have to turn the corner
here soon.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And Dana, that's been a trend at the plate this year.
You've talked patients and good at bats and working to
get your pitch as opposed to the pitcher's pitch. So
at this stage, though, how do I mean trying to
convince them to do it? And as the pressure starts
to mount as you get closer to the playoffs, doesn't
that pine for well, you start to chase even more
because that's been the trend this year. How do you
(11:15):
buck the trend? We know what the answer is. How
do you get the answer to the test? So how
do you get to it on a daily basis? Right now?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, we're just gonna have to get locked in. I mean,
maybe we have to.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Just sit and meditate and just kind of focused on
you know eyes course, you know the old school thing
where you just close the eyes and you envision yourself
swinging at really good pitches and so and stop being overrangees.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You know, we're just gonna have to get creative like
that and really think this thing through and lock down.
I know that the players are very aware of it,
you know, so these hitters are not you know, this
is not new to the hitters. They understand that. Look,
we have to get locked in, and you know, thank god,
it's still control our fate. We're up one and we
(12:02):
need to put some space in between this right now
and we we play those guys. You know, we play
Seattle three more times. We you know, we play Texas
three more times, so you know we're going to get
the opportunity to deliver a knockout punch and we're still
in first place place, and we've been we've been in
first place for a long time. We just we control
our fate. It's just we've got to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
What do you see with Jsel two by struggle right now?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Just in?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Is it bats? Because we know he's a guy that
will go after high fastballs and chase a little bit,
but that's his he's a great ham and egg guy.
He's been great with that. But when he's going through it,
it's it's hyper sensitive. What do you see from your
expertise from him?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, sometimes these things unravel, you know, because you get
over anxious and you know he knows, he knows what
he needs to do. There's no question. I mean, Jose is,
you know, on the brink of being, you know, a
Hall of Famer. So look, this is not a guy
that's far into getting hits. He's a there's a plutch guy.
He can deliver and he can carry a club for
(13:04):
weeks and months. But you know, right now he's expanding
his zone a little bit. He's got to tighten his
zone up. And you know, once he gets locked into
that zone, I think good things are going to happen,
but you know, we got to get him there sooner
rether than later.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Dan, I know how much you trust your pitchers. We've
talked about and they've been damn good and carried this
team this year for the most part. And I know
the history of the guys at the plate. Do you
trust them the same way you did when this season started?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Absolutely? I mean think about this. We've gone through this
entire season with all the ebbs and flows of injuries
and the ups and downs, and these guys have continued
to maintain and hold on to what's dear to our heart,
and that's getting back to the postseason and getting deep
into the postseason. And you know, with seventeen to go
(13:55):
and one up, there's a lot that could happen. You know,
you can go on an eight game run and build
that lead up five and which I think we'll do.
We just need to get hot. We need to get
hot soon. These guys are really good. If you look
up and down our lineup, the lineup's good, the rotation's good.
You know, even losing Garcia, we can insert blue ball
in there. Who's throwing the ball. Well, So we're good enough.
(14:18):
You know, we just got to get the job done.
But they'll make no mistake. This club is good enough.
And you know we have enough pitching, we have enough hitting,
we have enough bullpen, we have the defense. We just
got to get the job done. And I believe in
this club. This is a big club, and uh, you
know we have playoff pedigree and you know that's where
(14:40):
we want to get back to the playoffs and get
deep into the postseason.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And I'll let you go simple one here with that
in mind, this, uh the comes you trust also the
postseason shops. So getting there is an advantage for this
resilient team that's been there many times before. Because that
does matter.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
To you absolutely. You Look, we want to win the
division and we want to get deep into the postseason,
and we want to continue to keep our Astro fans
excited locked in.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Uh. Look, we're we're a good club and we know
that we have the fan base pulling for us. Uh,
you know, we want to want this fan base to
continue to understand that. Look, we're locked in on the
postseason and that's where we're headed and we just need
to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It's go time, minimal rest for those stars, right, you
said it last week gets time. It's the dead Sprint,
and when they're healthy enough to play, they're playing. That's
what we'll go see in the lineup right.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Whenever look, whenever healthy enough to play, they're going to play.
You know. The one case we may have to do
is hit reset just mentally for you know, a guy
here and there. That's that. It's just part of what
we do. You know, it won't be because of any
physical thing. I think sometimes you just have to hit
reset with the day off, you know, And I don't
know how that's going to play out, you know, I
(15:58):
think that you know, for the most part, these guys
are going to be all in the lineup for the
for the rest of the way. But there are times
and you know, as a you know, a guy that's
been in sports your entire life, you have to hit
reset at some point mentally. Uh, just the WUSA a
little bit and so uh but let's hope that uh,
you know, these guys are locked in and ready to go,
(16:19):
and we don't need a mental break either. I think
these guys are these guys are ready to go. We
have a good enough team. It's it's it's as I
said before, it's go time. Like, it's seventeen games left
and we got to get the job done. Goes what
that's what, that's what. It boiled down.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
It starts tonight against a good Toronto team. Dana, thank
you so much. Look forward to next week and hopefully
that lead will be extended by our next conversation and
we'll get good news on Garcia. We appreciate your time, man,
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Absolutely the day, today's the day to turn it around.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
There you go, appreciate it. That's Dana Brown Astros GM.
We'll visit with him again next week. We'll come back
and close it out here with Dan and I. It
is Sports Talk seven ninety. Still is uh as optimistic
as ever, but he knows that hitting has to pick
it up, absolutely has to. Sports Talk seven ninety
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.