Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He is Dana Brown and he joins us here for
a few minutes on the show. Dana appreciate the time.
Let's just get right to it, Renel Blanco, we get
the news yesterday. No, he came back to Houston to
meet with doctors. Do we have an update on him.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Not yet. We will have an update probably later on today.
You know, there's always a concern though when you hear elbow,
you know, we're hoping for the best. But we could
have something by later today.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
And with jord On, I mean, I know it's kind
of still a wait and see with him. Was he
able to hit off a machine yesterday? I think I
heard that maybe it was alluded that he was going
to try. Where are we at with him?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, we did some tea work with him, and so
you know, he felt a lot better. And so the
key is that we wanted to be one hundred percent.
We don't want this injury lingering. It's one of those
hand injuries that you have to let heal of this
muscle strain. And so, you know, some swings yesterday he
(01:01):
felt pretty good. That's a good sign. We'll we'll let
him take some swings again today to see how it feels,
and then we'll kick it from there.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, what is the next step, Dana? And are we
with it now coming up on three weeks tomorrow since
he's been in the lineup, I mean, are we approaching
where he's gonna maybe need to step out and get
some at bats at the lower levels.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
No, I don't think so. You know, you remember Joranon
he had a slow start in camp, you know, in
twenty twenty four, and you know, as soon as he
got back in there, he started to hit, you know,
right away. So this guy's, you know, such a good hitter.
I don't think we need to send him out. You know,
he was you know, he was swinging the bat, you know,
(01:49):
a lot, you know, during the course of this season.
So I think he feels like his timing and everything's
going to be fine. He's just got to get the
hand right.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Dana Brown again joining us astros G He hops on
with us every single week right here Sean Salisbury's show.
I hate to make it about injuries here at the beginning,
but I mean, obviously, you know, it's just that part
of the year where it's starting to creep up on you.
But Spencer Arraghetti, are we kind of turning a corner
with maybe he can start throwing soon and start working
his way back, not.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
At this time. You know, it's healing fine though, and
so you know, he's been out for a little while,
so it's gonna take him, you know, a little time
to get back, but you know, hopefully we can get him,
you know, somewhere in the the month of July, because
he's gonna have to go through a complete spring training
(02:42):
type thing because he's been shut down for so long.
And so, but the healing of the bone is coming along.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Nicely and final one on the injury front, because I
promise you there's plenty of baseball to get to Dana
Hayden was nesky. I believe. Did he already undergo his TJ,
so now it starts his recovery.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Uh No, not yet. It's it's coming though the next
few days or so. But you know he's gonna he's
gonna end up, of.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Course, having a Tommy John and you know, it's unfortunate
that we're losing you know, him as a starter for
the rest of the year, you know, but it's gonna
happen within the next few days.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
All right, And now let's get to the uh you know,
action on the field. I mean, you guys, you go
to Tampa, you lose two out of three, tough one
there on Tuesday nights, and then yesterday, you know, just
a tough one for a Hunter. But just overall with
your team heading into this series three and a half
games back of the Mariners, I mean, how do you
feel like you guys shape up with trying to balance
(03:47):
the healthy guys that you have, but also to trying
to make up for the guys that you're without.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, you know, look, yesterday's game was tough. You know,
I just you know, the one thing I thought about,
like how much the heat melts you down and takes
your energy, zapsh you from your energy, and you know,
just looks like our guys, you know, struggled to play
in that heat yesterday. You know, Hunter Brown, you know,
who's been outstanding all year. Uh, you know, had one
(04:17):
of his first starts. But you know he's in he's in,
he's in good space, good headspace. So I'm sure he'll
bounce back. Uh. But you know, overall, look, we're you know,
we're at the position where our pitching's still been pretty good.
You know, we uh let us down a little bit
the other day out of the pen, but excuse me.
For the most part, you know, the pitching has been
(04:39):
really good, the defense have been pretty good. Still waiting
on the bats to heat up collectively as a group.
You know, we still have some guys struggling. But you know,
we're coming into a big series this week. And so
you know, we got them for four. We're three and
a half back. Like to put a dent into that
three and a half, you know, and so I think
(05:00):
we got a good chance to, you know, make a
dint in that. And so I'm looking forward to this weekend.
You know, we played these guys before. You know, we
lost two out of three, but we gave one of
those games away as well, So we match up well
against these guys, and you know, I'm looking forward to
putting a dent into that lead. So I think the
guys are ready to go. And yeah, so well at home,
(05:23):
we played so well at That's what I'm looking forward to.
So yeah, Dand that's all I was going to say.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You guys, come back home where you I mean, it
feels like every time you come back home, you're you're
winning the series that are played. Here, So, uh feel
good about coming back home. How big is tonight for
a guy like Lance mccullors, who you know got better
at his last outing, was able to get the four
innings on eighty three pitches, Uh, two runs unearned for
him and just the one walk, which I thought was
big because you know, control was kind of what he
(05:51):
was missing there to those first couple of outings. But
you got to feel encouraged by that last outing and
going into tonight. I mean I would say the hope
is maybe he could stretch it a little bit further.
If he can give you five innings of two run
ball or something like that tonight, that would be very encouraging.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I feel the same way. You know,
I mentioned last week that the second start, when you're
coming back from you know, rehab, it's always tough because
the first start you pour so much energy into it.
It seems like you never bounced back that well for
the second start. So his third start was a lot
better like we expected, and so we're looking for good
(06:28):
things tonight. You know, he should be dialed in. The
command as you mentioned, is better and so you know
that's a good thing. I like his delivery and this
secondary stuff. The fastball seemed like it was playing, and
so we're looking for good things at a Lance tonight
and he's fired up about it.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
The other three guys on the back end of your rotation,
Ryan Gusta will get a chance to go presumably Friday night.
Colton Gordon, we've seen a couple of outings from so far.
He shown some good stuff. And a guy that I
think most ASTROS fans wasn't on their radar said, who's
Brandon Walter. He gets an opportunity the other night and
gives you five strong innings. Uh, just that collective group.
(07:12):
I mean it feels like Dana, you know, depending on
the diagnosis with with Ronell and having Spencer still out,
like some of these guys are gonna have to step up.
So just talk about that collective group of Gusto, Gordon
and Walter. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You know last year when you know our guys went down,
you know, we had guys like Eric Getty come in
step up, and so you know we have depth in
our minor leagues. You know, we haven't even started talking
about boot Ball yet. He's another one that's got depth.
He gives us step But these guys, you know, Gusto, Gordon,
you know, and Walter. Uh, these guys all can really
(07:46):
give us innings and help fill in the gaps, you know,
in that rotation providing these injuries, and so we feel confident.
You know, Walter was really good the other day, really good,
mixed the pitches, you know, it's throwing the pretty decent
slider fastball with a little sneaky change, pulling the string
on the change up. He gave us a really good
(08:06):
out and it was actually really good to see. And
of course Gordon pitching in front of his hometown guys,
you know, he threw the ball very well, punched out
a few guys and look really well. So those are
two really good left hand options you know, that we
like to see, and so we're feel good about our
depth again.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Dana Brown joining us here on the Sean Salisbury Show
for his weekly visit. Dana, you've been bullish about this
lineup all year long, and you've said it's not a
question of if, but when that group gets going. But
I mean, you know, we've seen struggles from Christian Walker,
from Janar Diaz, jose L Tuve too. What makes you
confident that those guys can can get things going in
the right direction.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, these guys have always hit, you know, even when
it comes to Jordon yourd irons off the slow start,
we know that he's gonna definitely come around. We know
Yaner is not going to hit two twenty. I know
Walkers and I hit one ninety nine, you know, and
these guys I think they will. You know, at some
point they would definitely hit. And I'm really not worried
about how Tuvay, you know, as he chases three thousand.
(09:12):
But you know, these guys collectively have all, you know,
struggled some and so I think it's really difficult. When
a group of guys are struggling, it really hurts your offense.
But at the end of the day, I think these
guys are going to turn the corner. We're still one
game over five hundred, and you know with once these
(09:34):
beats start to pick it up with the way we're pitching,
I think that's when we'll run off. As I said,
five in a row, seven in a row, and potentially
ten in a row. And so you hover over five hundred,
and then when you get hot with the offense, you know,
that's when things really take off and you build the lead. Remember,
you know last year we got off to a slow start,
(09:56):
we actually picked it up and turned things around. I
don't think we're or you know, as far back as
we were last year, but you know, being a game over,
you know we're right there striking distance from getting hot.
And so once we get hot, I think that's when
we will see a lot of good things happen, particularly
in the standings.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
And the positives in your lineup get you out of
here on this one. The positives the bottom end of
your order has been really getting going. I mean, Jake
Myer is putting together good at bats, But I want
to talk about Cam Smith. I know he rides the
over four yesterday, but it seems like his at bats
even more competitive than we've seen early on this season.
I remember about a week or so ago you pointed
to about one hundred and fifty at bats. That's when
(10:35):
you feel like a guy kind of becomes a major leaguer.
I mean, is it encouraging to see him put together
some of these at bats after the few days of
layoff that he had to be able to give you
the production he has, you know, just now north of
one hundred at bats in the season.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, very encouraging. You know, we know we struck out
four times yesterday. It was a tough day. Look, he's
learning at the big league level. He's twenty two years old,
and we really feel good about you know, the things
and the adjustments that he's making. And so ultimately we
think he's gonna hit and we think he'll be, you know,
a big part of our lineup. But he's you know,
(11:11):
going through the excuse me, he's going through the bumps
in the road as you know any major league hitter
as a youngster would do. And these things happen. But
you know, when guys are learning at the big league level,
you know, there's no nights off when you know when
it when it comes to good pitching at the big
league and I mean, it's it's gonna be ninety two
(11:35):
to ninety eight every single night, you know, and so
regardless of the pitcher. And that's why, you know, these
dumb hitters are learning to make adjustments. And I think
he's coming along nicely. He's gonna have pockets where there's
still going to be some struggle, but I think he'll have,
you know, some pockets where he really turned the corner
and it start to look really good and to that
(11:56):
point where he really feels comfortable in the box every night,
which we looked forward to happening. And as I mentioned,
one hundred and fifty at bats that's the real thing.
You know, these young guys that get those that one
hundred and fifty, they start to steel, you know, comfortable
they've gotten around the league once or twice and things
start to look a lot different.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Well, Dana, we appreciate your time every single week looking
forward to this series this weekend. I mean, as we've
talked about three and a half games back and you know,
a chance of four times against them to be able
to in your words, put a dent into this lead.
But no, once again, we really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
All right, guys, I appreciate you guys having me on
go Astros.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's good there you go astro GM Dana Brown joins
us every single week. Come back react to some of
the things he talked about with both the healthy side
of this team, but also some of the injured guys
too that I know people are anxious to see return.
For the ones that we expect to see come back
in this season, we'll do that right here. It is
a Seawn Salisbury show, Sports Talk seven ninety