Speaker 1: Right now, we are joined live by the general manager
of York Houston Astros.
Speaker 2: It is Dana Brown. Dana, thank you for the time.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many other general managers get talked
about in the other twenty nine cities, but my man,
you have carried a lot of conversation for the Houston
sports show known as Matt and Ross.
Speaker 2: So we thank you for that.
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it, guys. I'm excited to
be here. Let's talk some baseball, all right.
Speaker 1: So I could bury it towards the end, or I
could put it right in the beginning. I'm gonna go
right to the start because there's other things I want
to get to.
Speaker 2: So you're right.
Speaker 1: I've usually started a soft play it, but forget not
not this time around. I've got a segment of a population.
Speaker 2: Okay, Dana, you've got.
Speaker 1: An extra great hitter who doesn't have a spot. Why
would you get rid of them? Because the nature of
the beast of a six month baseball season says somebody's
gonna get hurt. Then I got a segment population and says,
how do you keep a guy like that not in
a position.
Speaker 2: So I don't know what going through your mind.
Speaker 1: You've not let me look at your text message, your
phone calls, You're probably not going to but state of
the still crowded in.
Speaker 2: Field at this point as you see it today here
in spring training.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is what I would say. It's always
good to have depth, and it's always good to have power,
you know, with that part part of part of that
being depth, you know, part of that being depth is
your power. So look, we we we know we have
extra infielders. We think that it's going to be very competitive.
You know, if we get an opportunity, uh you know,
where we can make a move, we'll talk about it.
But right now, as it stands, we welcome to depth.
You never know when you're gonna hit up an injury.
We think that we can get these guys a lot
of playing time there are you know, we got some
older guys on our roster that we have to you know,
kind of give a breather too. And I'm just not
excited about trying to give away a really good hitter.
And so look, if there's something that's a match, you know,
maybe we'll consider it, But other than that, we'll just
roll with the depth.
Speaker 1: You have that you've got a lot of young outfielders.
I mean, we played GM on the radio all the time.
I would think that if there's a deal involving somebody
in the outfit that could obviously be a guy you've
always been talking about a left handed bat. That may
perk your interest up a little bit. But let's get
to the outfield a little bit. Zach call out a
great September cam in a great March.
Speaker 2: I've said this before.
Speaker 1: I've heard it from a lot of baseball people that
I trust. You don't trust March. You don't trust September
a whole lot.
Speaker 2: So tell me.
Speaker 1: About what you think and what is expected of those
corner outfitters, in particular, knowing that you don't have a
lot of people behind them fighting for it.
Speaker 2: But maybe that's situation that could obviously change.
Speaker 3: So look, let's talk about the left hand bat first,
since you brought it up, so it would be nice
to get a left hand bat. We would be excited
about right if we get that opportunity, I think we
would probably move on it because I've been talking about
a left hand forever. It's just it's that hard to
acquire a left hand bat. They're not growing on trees
and No one's trying to give up a good left
hand bat. It's just very difficult to do and you
probably have to give up something to get a left
hand bat. So is there a chance that we can
get a left hand bat? Sure, there's a chance. That's
why we're having conversations now. As it relates to the
lefty did the young outfielders, I would say, look, we're
gonna give them a good look in the spring and
see what it looks like. We have some things in
our thought process that we feel like those two guys
have to make adjustments, Cole and Smith, and so we're
gonna give him a close watch and see who makes
the adjustment from last year that we think that they
needed to make. And so if they make these adjustments,
they could be part of the club. If not, you know,
it's not too bad to have a guy starting triple
A and build his way back up. So both talented
enough to certainly make this team, and I would be
excited if that happens. That means they're lighting the ball up.
So uh, you know, we we welcome that, but you know,
at the end of the day, we want to see
them make adjustments that you know, that's fitting for the
major league level, and you know that they're going to be,
you know, pretty good offensive contributors.
Speaker 4: And you mentioned both Smith and Cole, and of course
as a general manager, you know things don't always go
to according to plan. But the plan would be for
camp Smith to find what he did early in the
season and continue, and then the plan would be for
Zach Cole into the season to keep that going. How
do you just talk about both of those guys, how
do you get them to do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, we we got two new hitting coaches.
We kind of got a new voice down in the
clubhouse one of the guys a veteran, and Rodriguez we
really feel like he's gonna make a big impact with
these young hitters. He's got a rolodex of working with
a lot of good major league hitters and so we
feel like he can make the necessary impact and we'll
really be leaning on him a lot for getting these
guys over the hump. Uh. They both have teachable spirits,
they're both really good athletes, and they both want to
get better. So we think it's a perfect match. Now
we got to see them execute it, and so, uh,
there's a good chance we see, you know, exciting young
players this spring that both could make the team, and
we'll be all thrilled that that happens.
Speaker 1: You've enjoyed a surplus in the infield right now as
we speak. I think you're we were teasing this jill
a couple.
Speaker 2: Of days ago.
Speaker 1: Uh, if people want to go see some future major
league arms. You don't hear the commercials about that. With
the Space Cowboys, you're gonna have at least three or
four that you would probably make ninety percent of major
league rosters, not front end, but certainly back in. You've
got ten guys here at least that I could see
being a starter.
Speaker 2: For the Houston Astros in twenty twenty six. Yeah. Pitching.
Speaker 3: Pitching is what Jim Crane and I talked about a
lot this offseason, and you know, we wanted to stock
up right, and we wanted to be able to get
through you know this one hundred and sixty two, win
a lot of ball games, get back deep to the postseason,
and so that's why we did what we did. You know,
we added four starters and two relievers and so and
we're fired up about all all six of them. And
so all all of these guys throw pretty hard, they
have really good stuff, they have some deception and so
you know when it comes to the starting pitching, we
feel like it's on right and so, uh and that's
going to be led by Hunter Brown. You know, got
him at the top. You know, you got Hobby are
coming back with some experience and we're looking for him
to take that jump. And then you know, we got
some guys that we added that we feel really good about.
Speaker 1: Em I when did that conversation come into play? Obviously,
the dr has been something that's been important for this
organization for the long period of time. We've been fans
this we were kids. There hasn't been a Pacific RIM
connection to this. So when it was first brought up,
what did you think? And then how did you then
implement scouting getting people involved in your department to say
is this really worth putting some money in his piggy bank?
Speaker 3: Yeah. So the big thing is, you know, Jim Crane
had the vision of you know, getting more active in
the Pacific Pacific Rim. You know, we partnered with you know,
Dyking right, and so we were thrilled about getting over there.
You know, we sent you know, our special assignment scout
to John Watson. We sent over Charles Cook, who's assistant GM.
You know, we've had a few of our area guys
over there see EMI, and so you know, when reports
came back that this guy is pretty good, we looked
at the data and the information, you know, you guys
saw how the makeup is. He's a competitor and you know,
so he checked off all three of those boxes, you know,
makeup data and you know, scouting eye, and so you know,
we were thrilled to jump in there. We started talking
to bors, you know, early in the off season, and
then things heated up, you know, right there at the
deadline when we were when we got it done, like
on New Year's Day. So we're fired up about him.
He's fired up about being here, and so we're looking
for some big things out of them.
Speaker 4: Astros manager Dana A General manager Dana Brown with us
here on a Sports Talk seven ninety speaking of the pitching, pitching,
more pitching.
Speaker 2: What was it like for you going.
Speaker 4: Through the team building of knowing all the injuries last year,
hoping that that's an aberration and not necessarily the new normal,
but not wanting to overreact, but also being prepared for
the possibility of more rash of pitching injuries.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, the pitching injuries last year were excruciating. I
mean it was really really tough to watch. The injuries
in general were excat excruciating, and so you know, we
wanted to be more prepared with depth. And so you
know when we look at this and we you know,
we felt one game short, and we know that we
had a ton of injuries. You guys have heard me
say multiple times that at one point we had our
one two and three hitter out. No other team experienced
that in the course of the season last year. And
then you experienced that along with some starters getting hurt
and you come up one game short. So you know,
it's not an excuse, it's just a reality that you know,
the injuries, uh pretty much cost us the postseason, and
so we wanted to make sure that, look, let's stock
up and you know, let's be prepared and if anything
goes down, we have the coverage, right and so, uh,
you know that's where we are. We're locked in. The
pitching is a big part of it. If you pitch,
you were in every game, and then then it's a
matter of you know, getting a big hit here, a
big hit there, and make a nice play on defense
and and you're you're you're victorious. So you know, that's
kind of like what our thought process was, and we
wanted to we wanted to stock.
Speaker 1: Up for let your run. You mentioned Scott Boris. Have
you invited him down for dinner this spring training at
this point?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe Scott owded me a nice bottle of wine.
You know, I'll tell him that too. Uh No, we've
we've had We had dinner when we did the my
signing at Jim's place at Potente. Very good dinner, very
good wine. And you know, so we got a chance
to fellowship a little bit and talk about, you know,
even some future things that we may be doing with Boris.
But you know, ultimately, you know, we got a bunch
of guys that are gonna be a big part of
the winning season this year. We're excited, we're fired up.
Boris happens to have a few of our candidates. So
uh so we're uh, we're we're locked in and we're
fired up. The guys are fired up. The the energy
around the spring around the cages, and you know, just
having conversations is it's off the hook right now. So
we hope these guys keep that type of energy. They're
locked in and we're ready to go.
Speaker 1: The crystal ball for Dana Brown need two years when
we've got a new labor agreement, whatever that may be.
Speaker 2: I said two hopefully it's one, hopefully maybe two. Who's
is it gonna have?
Speaker 1: You got to redefine how your budgets look. Are you
going to redefine how contracts look? Well, they'll be as
big of adjustments for the teams or for the players,
do you think at the end of the.
Speaker 3: Day, Yeah, I have no idea. It's you know, we
talk about it and it's tough to speculate. We have
no idea. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
The one thing that I'm quite sure about is, you know,
Jim Crane is definitely dedicated to putting winning product on
the field. We're gonna be involved in whatever it takes
to get players signed, and so we're you know, we're
hoping for the best and you know we're locked in
about that as well. So, uh, but we have no
earthly idea how this is going to play out.
Speaker 1: It's like it's almost to take a new math class
or something like that, because there could be salary camps,
there could be all sorts.
Speaker 2: Of things there. Dana, thank you for the time. We
really appreciate it. We'll see you back in Houston.
Speaker 1: Wish you know they've been the very best this entire
season and look forward to hearing from you often on
this radio station.
Speaker 3: Thanks absolutely, Thanks Matt, Thanks Ross.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: Dana Brown joining us here from West Palm Beach. Matt
and Ross continue here from our coverage of Astro spring training.
At the Moment How on Sports Talk seven ninety