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Speaker 1: Right now, we are joined live by the general manager

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of York Houston Astros.

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Speaker 2: It is Dana Brown. Dana, thank you for the time.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how many other general managers get talked

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about in the other twenty nine cities, but my man,

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you have carried a lot of conversation for the Houston

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sports show known as Matt and Ross.

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Speaker 2: So we thank you for that.

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Speaker 3: I love it. I love it, guys. I'm excited to

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be here. Let's talk some baseball, all right.

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Speaker 1: So I could bury it towards the end, or I

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could put it right in the beginning. I'm gonna go

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right to the start because there's other things I want

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to get to.

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Speaker 2: So you're right.

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Speaker 1: I've usually started a soft play it, but forget not

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not this time around. I've got a segment of a population.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Dana, you've got.

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Speaker 1: An extra great hitter who doesn't have a spot. Why

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would you get rid of them? Because the nature of

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the beast of a six month baseball season says somebody's

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gonna get hurt. Then I got a segment population and says,

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how do you keep a guy like that not in

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a position.

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Speaker 2: So I don't know what going through your mind.

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Speaker 1: You've not let me look at your text message, your

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phone calls, You're probably not going to but state of

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the still crowded in.

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Speaker 2: Field at this point as you see it today here

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in spring training.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is what I would say. It's always

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good to have depth, and it's always good to have power,

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you know, with that part part of part of that

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being depth, you know, part of that being depth is

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your power. So look, we we we know we have

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extra infielders. We think that it's going to be very competitive.

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You know, if we get an opportunity, uh you know,

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where we can make a move, we'll talk about it.

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But right now, as it stands, we welcome to depth.

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You never know when you're gonna hit up an injury.

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We think that we can get these guys a lot

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of playing time there are you know, we got some

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older guys on our roster that we have to you know,

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kind of give a breather too. And I'm just not

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excited about trying to give away a really good hitter.

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And so look, if there's something that's a match, you know,

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maybe we'll consider it, But other than that, we'll just

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roll with the depth.

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Speaker 1: You have that you've got a lot of young outfielders.

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I mean, we played GM on the radio all the time.

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I would think that if there's a deal involving somebody

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in the outfit that could obviously be a guy you've

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always been talking about a left handed bat. That may

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perk your interest up a little bit. But let's get

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to the outfield a little bit. Zach call out a

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great September cam in a great March.

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Speaker 2: I've said this before.

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Speaker 1: I've heard it from a lot of baseball people that

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I trust. You don't trust March. You don't trust September

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a whole lot.

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Speaker 2: So tell me.

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Speaker 1: About what you think and what is expected of those

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corner outfitters, in particular, knowing that you don't have a

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lot of people behind them fighting for it.

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Speaker 2: But maybe that's situation that could obviously change.

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Speaker 3: So look, let's talk about the left hand bat first,

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since you brought it up, so it would be nice

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to get a left hand bat. We would be excited

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about right if we get that opportunity, I think we

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would probably move on it because I've been talking about

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a left hand forever. It's just it's that hard to

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acquire a left hand bat. They're not growing on trees

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and No one's trying to give up a good left

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hand bat. It's just very difficult to do and you

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probably have to give up something to get a left

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hand bat. So is there a chance that we can

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get a left hand bat? Sure, there's a chance. That's

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why we're having conversations now. As it relates to the

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lefty did the young outfielders, I would say, look, we're

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gonna give them a good look in the spring and

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see what it looks like. We have some things in

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our thought process that we feel like those two guys

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have to make adjustments, Cole and Smith, and so we're

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gonna give him a close watch and see who makes

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the adjustment from last year that we think that they

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needed to make. And so if they make these adjustments,

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they could be part of the club. If not, you know,

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it's not too bad to have a guy starting triple

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A and build his way back up. So both talented

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enough to certainly make this team, and I would be

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excited if that happens. That means they're lighting the ball up.

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So uh, you know, we we welcome that, but you know,

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at the end of the day, we want to see

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them make adjustments that you know, that's fitting for the

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major league level, and you know that they're going to be,

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you know, pretty good offensive contributors.

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Speaker 4: And you mentioned both Smith and Cole, and of course

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as a general manager, you know things don't always go

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to according to plan. But the plan would be for

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camp Smith to find what he did early in the

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season and continue, and then the plan would be for

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Zach Cole into the season to keep that going. How

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do you just talk about both of those guys, how

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do you get them to do that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, we we got two new hitting coaches.

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We kind of got a new voice down in the

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clubhouse one of the guys a veteran, and Rodriguez we

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really feel like he's gonna make a big impact with

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these young hitters. He's got a rolodex of working with

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a lot of good major league hitters and so we

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feel like he can make the necessary impact and we'll

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really be leaning on him a lot for getting these

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guys over the hump. Uh. They both have teachable spirits,

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they're both really good athletes, and they both want to

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get better. So we think it's a perfect match. Now

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we got to see them execute it, and so, uh,

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there's a good chance we see, you know, exciting young

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players this spring that both could make the team, and

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we'll be all thrilled that that happens.

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Speaker 1: You've enjoyed a surplus in the infield right now as

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we speak. I think you're we were teasing this jill

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a couple.

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Speaker 2: Of days ago.

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Speaker 1: Uh, if people want to go see some future major

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league arms. You don't hear the commercials about that. With

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the Space Cowboys, you're gonna have at least three or

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four that you would probably make ninety percent of major

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league rosters, not front end, but certainly back in. You've

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got ten guys here at least that I could see

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being a starter.

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Speaker 2: For the Houston Astros in twenty twenty six. Yeah. Pitching.

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Speaker 3: Pitching is what Jim Crane and I talked about a

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lot this offseason, and you know, we wanted to stock

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up right, and we wanted to be able to get

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through you know this one hundred and sixty two, win

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a lot of ball games, get back deep to the postseason,

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and so that's why we did what we did. You know,

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we added four starters and two relievers and so and

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we're fired up about all all six of them. And

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so all all of these guys throw pretty hard, they

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have really good stuff, they have some deception and so

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you know when it comes to the starting pitching, we

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feel like it's on right and so, uh and that's

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going to be led by Hunter Brown. You know, got

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him at the top. You know, you got Hobby are

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coming back with some experience and we're looking for him

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to take that jump. And then you know, we got

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some guys that we added that we feel really good about.

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Speaker 1: Em I when did that conversation come into play? Obviously,

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the dr has been something that's been important for this

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organization for the long period of time. We've been fans

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this we were kids. There hasn't been a Pacific RIM

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connection to this. So when it was first brought up,

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what did you think? And then how did you then

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implement scouting getting people involved in your department to say

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is this really worth putting some money in his piggy bank?

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So the big thing is, you know, Jim Crane

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had the vision of you know, getting more active in

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the Pacific Pacific Rim. You know, we partnered with you know,

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Dyking right, and so we were thrilled about getting over there.

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You know, we sent you know, our special assignment scout

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to John Watson. We sent over Charles Cook, who's assistant GM.

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You know, we've had a few of our area guys

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over there see EMI, and so you know, when reports

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came back that this guy is pretty good, we looked

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at the data and the information, you know, you guys

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saw how the makeup is. He's a competitor and you know,

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so he checked off all three of those boxes, you know,

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makeup data and you know, scouting eye, and so you know,

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we were thrilled to jump in there. We started talking

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to bors, you know, early in the off season, and

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then things heated up, you know, right there at the

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deadline when we were when we got it done, like

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on New Year's Day. So we're fired up about him.

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He's fired up about being here, and so we're looking

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for some big things out of them.

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Speaker 4: Astros manager Dana A General manager Dana Brown with us

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here on a Sports Talk seven ninety speaking of the pitching, pitching,

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more pitching.

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Speaker 2: What was it like for you going.

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Speaker 4: Through the team building of knowing all the injuries last year,

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hoping that that's an aberration and not necessarily the new normal,

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but not wanting to overreact, but also being prepared for

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the possibility of more rash of pitching injuries.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, the pitching injuries last year were excruciating. I

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mean it was really really tough to watch. The injuries

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in general were excat excruciating, and so you know, we

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wanted to be more prepared with depth. And so you

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know when we look at this and we you know,

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we felt one game short, and we know that we

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had a ton of injuries. You guys have heard me

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say multiple times that at one point we had our

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one two and three hitter out. No other team experienced

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that in the course of the season last year. And

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then you experienced that along with some starters getting hurt

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and you come up one game short. So you know,

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it's not an excuse, it's just a reality that you know,

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the injuries, uh pretty much cost us the postseason, and

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so we wanted to make sure that, look, let's stock

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up and you know, let's be prepared and if anything

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goes down, we have the coverage, right and so, uh,

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you know that's where we are. We're locked in. The

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pitching is a big part of it. If you pitch,

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you were in every game, and then then it's a

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matter of you know, getting a big hit here, a

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big hit there, and make a nice play on defense

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and and you're you're you're victorious. So you know, that's

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kind of like what our thought process was, and we

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wanted to we wanted to stock.

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Speaker 1: Up for let your run. You mentioned Scott Boris. Have

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you invited him down for dinner this spring training at

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this point?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe Scott owded me a nice bottle of wine.

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You know, I'll tell him that too. Uh No, we've

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we've had We had dinner when we did the my

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signing at Jim's place at Potente. Very good dinner, very

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good wine. And you know, so we got a chance

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to fellowship a little bit and talk about, you know,

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even some future things that we may be doing with Boris.

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But you know, ultimately, you know, we got a bunch

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of guys that are gonna be a big part of

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the winning season this year. We're excited, we're fired up.

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Boris happens to have a few of our candidates. So

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uh so we're uh, we're we're locked in and we're

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fired up. The guys are fired up. The the energy

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around the spring around the cages, and you know, just

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having conversations is it's off the hook right now. So

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we hope these guys keep that type of energy. They're

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locked in and we're ready to go.

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Speaker 1: The crystal ball for Dana Brown need two years when

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we've got a new labor agreement, whatever that may be.

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Speaker 2: I said two hopefully it's one, hopefully maybe two. Who's

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is it gonna have?

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Speaker 1: You got to redefine how your budgets look. Are you

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going to redefine how contracts look? Well, they'll be as

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big of adjustments for the teams or for the players,

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do you think at the end of the.

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Speaker 3: Day, Yeah, I have no idea. It's you know, we

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talk about it and it's tough to speculate. We have

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no idea. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

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The one thing that I'm quite sure about is, you know,

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Jim Crane is definitely dedicated to putting winning product on

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the field. We're gonna be involved in whatever it takes

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to get players signed, and so we're you know, we're

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hoping for the best and you know we're locked in

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about that as well. So, uh, but we have no

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earthly idea how this is going to play out.

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Speaker 1: It's like it's almost to take a new math class

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or something like that, because there could be salary camps,

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there could be all sorts.

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Speaker 2: Of things there. Dana, thank you for the time. We

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really appreciate it. We'll see you back in Houston.

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Speaker 1: Wish you know they've been the very best this entire

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season and look forward to hearing from you often on

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this radio station.

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Speaker 3: Thanks absolutely, Thanks Matt, Thanks Ross.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate you guys.

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Speaker 1: Dana Brown joining us here from West Palm Beach. Matt

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and Ross continue here from our coverage of Astro spring training.

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