Speaker 1: Dana, welcome in. It's good to have you on. Let's
Speaker 1: start with Lance mccollors. There's been some great, there's been
Speaker 1: some really good, and there's been some what you'd expect
Speaker 1: from a guy who's hadn't touched for two years and
Speaker 1: is still in like his fifth or sixth start assess
Speaker 1: him for us as if he.
Speaker 2: The post injury.
Speaker 1: But are you surprised that he's been even sans last night,
Speaker 1: that he's had such success and going pretty deep in
Speaker 1: games for the most part these last couple starts before
Speaker 1: last night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, it's a testament to his grit, how much
Speaker 3: he's worked. He's worked really hard to get back, and
Speaker 3: you know that the intriguing thing is he's still has
Speaker 3: the strikeouts. You know, he's been striking a lot of
Speaker 3: guys out, which is encouraging to the stuff. You know,
Speaker 3: every now and then he runs into a bumping a
Speaker 3: row with his command and that's to be expected for
Speaker 3: a guy who hasn't pitched, you know, in over two years.
Speaker 3: So U, you know, we've been very encouraged by Lance
Speaker 3: and what he's doing. And as I mentioned, the strikeouts
Speaker 3: is you know, the one thing that you can hang
Speaker 3: your hat on Dana.
Speaker 1: From your as a as a guy who knows talent.
Speaker 1: Now he comes back and you're just watching him pitch
Speaker 1: from a general manager's point of view, forget the injuries,
Speaker 1: just how he's pitching. Well, what do you see that
Speaker 1: tells you, oh, there is still another left obviously the
Speaker 1: history of his game, but we're still gonna see the
Speaker 1: best of what's the next step to see the best
Speaker 1: of Lance mccollors in your eyes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, when you just evaluate him, you know,
Speaker 3: I love that he still has really good timing and
Speaker 3: his delivery and his breaking stuff is very effective. So uh,
Speaker 3: you know, those are things that you look at that
Speaker 3: you know that's going to at least, you know, deceive
Speaker 3: the hitters with a good delivery, and of course you
Speaker 3: can get breaking balls by guys, you know, with the
Speaker 3: effectiveness of the break and so those two things are
Speaker 3: very very encouraging. You know. It's just that every now
Speaker 3: and then, as I mentioned the command, you know, he'll
Speaker 3: lose lose the command a little bit and so, but
Speaker 3: the strikeouts are real and that's very very encouraging.
Speaker 1: Dana Brown astros GM for his weekly visit here on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven to ninety Dana, You're so encouraging. You
Speaker 1: know your team, and I know you believe your team's
Speaker 1: going to get hot and sustain it. You told us
Speaker 1: last year and they did so this year new season.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you see that says not only can
Speaker 1: they get hot offensively, because the pitching staff's been pretty
Speaker 1: damn brilliant, especially the bullpen that you see. Okay, we
Speaker 1: can get hot, but we can sustain this with our
Speaker 1: bats because at some point the bats may have to
Speaker 1: carry the pitching staff. Hopefully not, but they may have to.
Speaker 1: What tells you they're closer than they've been at any
Speaker 1: time this season?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think with the addition of Pinion the leadoff spot,
Speaker 3: you know, the fact that he's hitting like you know,
Speaker 3: like three sixty plus, you know, and that and that
Speaker 3: leadoff spot, I mean that's encouraging up top. You know,
Speaker 3: you know, A Parrettits has been really good. You know,
Speaker 3: he's leading the ale third basements and home runs with
Speaker 3: like fourteen and thirty nine ribbies, so he's been really good.
Speaker 3: I think those two guys really anchoring the top. It's
Speaker 3: going to be very important for us. We know that,
Speaker 3: you know, our two v is gonna heat up. He's
Speaker 3: been showing us signs of heating up. Jordon should be
Speaker 3: back you know here shortly. He's about eighty percent healed.
Speaker 3: And you know, Christian Walker has had some really big
Speaker 3: hits for us, and we know historically he's been really
Speaker 3: good in the months of June, July, and August in
Speaker 3: his career. And so you know, these are some encouraging
Speaker 3: things that we feel really good good about down the stretch.
Speaker 3: And so once this all clicks and comes together, I
Speaker 3: think you'll see an offense and a pitching staff that's well,
Speaker 3: you know, well oiled and into you know, their thing,
Speaker 3: doing their thing by you know, the mid part of
Speaker 3: the summer. And so I'm very encouraged by this club.
Speaker 3: Look we're three games up, you know. Uh, you know,
Speaker 3: we were fighting with grit. We got the grit every day,
Speaker 3: and these guys come to play.
Speaker 1: Dana thirty six and thirty I believe right now. And
Speaker 1: you mentioned the you know gonna get hot. If I'd
Speaker 1: have told you and be we're just talking brass tacks
Speaker 1: here on the Bingo card. For me, I didn't have
Speaker 1: I mean paratus good player. But when we say paradus,
Speaker 1: look at the way Jake Myers is hit and then
Speaker 1: moving pain into the leadoff spot. In the way he's
Speaker 1: doing that may not have been the full three bingo card.
Speaker 1: And with Christian Walker the struggles al tuve the inconsistency,
Speaker 1: but we know he gets them in bunches. And you're
Speaker 1: on being hurt and not having the power early in
Speaker 1: the season, but sitting at thirty six and thirty days,
Speaker 1: just the real.
Speaker 2: Just the truth about this.
Speaker 1: There's no way we would have thought considering that bingo
Speaker 1: card that you'd be thirty six and thirty considering the
Speaker 1: end reason as well.
Speaker 2: So that's got to make you happy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, this team, as I said before, they have
Speaker 3: a lot of grit and guys will step up. Man.
Speaker 3: That's the beauty of a good team. When one of
Speaker 3: your buddies go down, you know the other guys was
Speaker 3: stepping it up. You know, we got two really good
Speaker 3: starts from our young starters that came up, and so
Speaker 3: you know, we have a group of guys that are
Speaker 3: stepping it up. And as you mentioned, yeah, I forgot
Speaker 3: to mention Jake. Jake's been swinging the bat very well
Speaker 3: and of course he's really good defensively. So there are
Speaker 3: some signs with this club that will tell you, Look,
Speaker 3: we're not even on all cylinders and we're actually playing
Speaker 3: pretty good baseball. Can we be playing a little bit better? Yeah,
Speaker 3: because our offense has not hit their stride yet. But
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, you know, these guys
Speaker 3: have shown some grit and it's a good group of guys.
Speaker 3: This is a good team and we feel really good
Speaker 3: about it. When we get these guys on all cylinders,
Speaker 3: our pitching comes back. Uh, you know, this should be
Speaker 3: this should make it really fun for the stretch run date.
Speaker 1: I want to go back with whether it's culture or
Speaker 1: just your guys, the whole organization's ability to see through
Speaker 1: this and get these kind of type of guys. We
Speaker 1: hear culture, and we hear that these guys, you know,
Speaker 1: the grit and the step up that you mentioned that
Speaker 1: they just guys back up, step in and do their job.
Speaker 1: But the question is why and how well? Why is
Speaker 1: it that when they come here or when somebody gets hurt.
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 1: You know, we all want to bottle that up and
Speaker 1: sell it. Why with the Astros do you guys have
Speaker 1: this unique ability to do this? What's the main what's
Speaker 1: the main ingredient and that's in that pot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's first of all, it's a winning
Speaker 3: culture and we've been that way. You know, when you
Speaker 3: go to the postseason eight straight times, guys come in
Speaker 3: and they know that, Look, this is a winning call up.
Speaker 3: As you start off with that winning attitude, you know,
Speaker 3: and then you have the leadership under Joe A. Spada,
Speaker 3: who has he's very familiar with these guys. He has
Speaker 3: great leadership in the clubhouse. Uh he's not a raw,
Speaker 3: raw guy, but he's the guy that you know, gets
Speaker 3: with each each and every guy and and encourage. He
Speaker 3: encourages guys when you have to encourage him, and he
Speaker 3: has you know, when he has to discipline, he'll discipline.
Speaker 3: And so look, I think it's the culture that's been created.
Speaker 3: You know. Uh, you come here, you come here to win.
Speaker 3: You know, as our owner has said so many times,
Speaker 3: our windows always open and so look, this is this
Speaker 3: is just the way it is here in Houston. I
Speaker 3: mean we you know, we played good baseball. We have
Speaker 3: great fans support. I meant these the fans just continue
Speaker 3: to show up and continue to support us, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean I run into fans all the time when
Speaker 3: I'm you know, walking the streets of Houston, are just
Speaker 3: going out for a bite. You know, these guys are
Speaker 3: encouraging you know, they they they they encourage us so much.
Speaker 3: They show up and that's the beauty. The Astro fans
Speaker 3: show up. You know, you cannot do that without fan support.
Speaker 3: And I tell you, these guys show up every single
Speaker 3: day and that's where we get our drive from.
Speaker 1: Dana Brown asked those gm for a few more minutes
Speaker 1: here on Sports Talk seven ninety seven sALS Reshow. All right, Dan,
Speaker 1: if I put a monitor on you, you know, a
Speaker 1: detector that told me that when I asked the question
Speaker 1: of concerns on this team, it would light up and
Speaker 1: we'd all be able to see it. What is your
Speaker 1: biggest concern sixty six games in about your team?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just, you know, we got to get on
Speaker 3: all cylinders with the bats first of all, you know,
Speaker 3: because as you mentioned before, the pitching has been really
Speaker 3: good and the pitching that's been carrying us. So we
Speaker 3: can get on all cylinders with the bats, and we
Speaker 3: can get our guys back from injuries. I think those
Speaker 3: would be the two things that would light up for
Speaker 3: me because once that happens. I think we're going to
Speaker 3: go into a nice little run, a nice little stretch,
Speaker 3: you know, whether it's ten out of twelve or you know,
Speaker 3: seven in a row or whatever it is. I think
Speaker 3: we'll hit all cylinders at that point, you know, And
Speaker 3: that's the big deal. That's the real big deal of
Speaker 3: just getting the bats to get on all cylinders and
Speaker 3: you know, just getting getting this machine, getting this machine
Speaker 3: running in the right direction.
Speaker 1: All right, let me be the Devil's advocate just because
Speaker 1: for listeners and viewers and debate this. What if this
Speaker 1: is your team the way Let's just say, now, this
Speaker 1: is who you are at thirty six and thirty Can
Speaker 1: you win a World Series? Hitting like this with the
Speaker 1: way it's been and pitching like this with the way
Speaker 1: it's been. If this is who the astros are, can
Speaker 1: you play in the late October and beyond?
Speaker 3: Listen. I won't really get into the hypotheticals, but I
Speaker 3: will say this, this team, the roster is built for
Speaker 3: the World Series. I think we have guys that have
Speaker 3: to get on all cylinders, and you know, guys have
Speaker 3: to really get hot. You know, we're gonna need our hitter,
Speaker 3: you know, to turn up the dial. You know, that's
Speaker 3: gonna have to happen. And I think our pitching has
Speaker 3: been really good and we're gonna get guys back, So
Speaker 3: we're gonna get guys back from injuries. So yes, the
Speaker 3: roster is definitely built to get into the World Series.
Speaker 3: I think some things have to happen, like the you
Speaker 3: know players, the hitters are gonna have to get hot,
Speaker 3: and we're gonna have to get some guys back, you know,
Speaker 3: off the eel, which I feel like we are gonna
Speaker 3: get guys back. You know, Arraghetti uh is the guy
Speaker 3: that's already starting to throw, and you know there's a
Speaker 3: potential of him going out to West Palm after this
Speaker 3: homestand and and starting to throw even more and get
Speaker 3: off the mound, and so, uh, there's some good things happening.
Speaker 3: I think the roster is built to win. I don't
Speaker 3: think any team would expect to, you know, go all
Speaker 3: the way without there without their their horses, right and
Speaker 3: so but ultimately, this team, this roster, this club is
Speaker 3: certainly built the and we have the leadership to do it.
Speaker 1: Is Christian Walker. How's he handling the pressure of some
Speaker 1: early season woes.
Speaker 2: That he's not used to it. He's hit it hard
Speaker 2: at times, and we have.
Speaker 1: Expectations that he's going to be better data and so
Speaker 1: do you you know this that's why he's here. It
Speaker 1: was an upgrade at first base. But with that, how's
Speaker 1: he handling the struggles right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he understands from an analytics standpoint and
Speaker 3: data information standpoint, he is hitting the ball hard, and
Speaker 3: we would say he's been very unlucky, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: just looking at his Babbitt which is about two sixty
Speaker 3: and balls in play, you know, so he's been very
Speaker 3: unlucky and he's hit the ball very hard, and so
Speaker 3: that's just you know, that's part of the game. You know,
Speaker 3: the other teams have really good defenses, and sometimes you're
Speaker 3: going to hit the ball hard and you're not going
Speaker 3: to get anything out of it. But we know historically
Speaker 3: that he turns things around in the month of June, July,
Speaker 3: and August. You know, that's just who he is, and
Speaker 3: so we're really looking for good things. He's been really
Speaker 3: good defensively, his attitude has been great, and so he's
Speaker 3: not panicked because he's a true professional, and so we
Speaker 3: really expect him to, you know, to turn the corner
Speaker 3: and get hot.
Speaker 1: Danny, you're the ability to throw runners out. Tony, who's
Speaker 1: a regular listener and caller, and he broached this subject,
Speaker 1: and so I'm gonna ask for him about are you
Speaker 1: and we You and I talked about this coming out,
Speaker 1: you know, early after spring training, about the struggles of
Speaker 1: throwing runners out, holding pitchers hold them, and catchers, you know,
Speaker 1: doing all the things they got to do to be
Speaker 1: in position to throw a gut when he runs, getting
Speaker 1: the pitch quick. You know, you're you're to be able
Speaker 1: to pop out of that the pounce time and get
Speaker 1: it down the second Mason b act all those things.
Speaker 2: Are you doing it better? And why is it getting better?
Speaker 2: Do you see it? And what have they worked on
Speaker 2: to make this better?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's all about the timing, you know. But
Speaker 3: first of all, I would say before I get into that,
Speaker 3: the most important thing for the pictures to get the
Speaker 3: hitter out right. And so you have to really focus
Speaker 3: on the hitter and you can't lose sight and hitter.
Speaker 3: This is not like the nineteen eighties when teams had
Speaker 3: a bunch of rabbits on the bases and they would
Speaker 3: steal bases consistently. Now we have guys hit the ball
Speaker 3: out of the ballpark, and you have to focus on
Speaker 3: the hitter. Now with that said, you know, you also
Speaker 3: you cannot let guys just run the bases and allow
Speaker 3: it to be a track meet. And so I think
Speaker 3: what we've done is we've worked on this timing thing.
Speaker 3: We've worked on holding the ball as long as we
Speaker 3: can hold it at times to take the spring out
Speaker 3: of the runner's legs, you know, because sometimes when you
Speaker 3: hold the ball and you hold it tight and then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden you go to the plate, you
Speaker 3: know you can throw their timing off. And so you know,
Speaker 3: we've done things. We've talked to our pictures about it.
Speaker 3: But you know, we've made it very clear, do not
Speaker 3: lose sight of the hitter, because you know, if a
Speaker 3: guy stills the base, he's on second base. If you
Speaker 3: get to hit her out, you're still in good shape.
Speaker 3: If a guy steals a base and then he gives
Speaker 3: up a triple or a double or a home run,
Speaker 3: then you got problems. And so the main thing is
Speaker 3: to keep the main thing the main thing. And so
Speaker 3: we got to focus on the batter, and we have
Speaker 3: to you know, pay attention you know, to the runner
Speaker 3: at times depending on who's on the basis, but you
Speaker 3: can't lose sight of who's hitting.
Speaker 1: So the priority has been get the batter out and secondaries,
Speaker 1: get the runner out, even though you'd like to do
Speaker 1: both extremely well.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, you've got to get to hit her out,
Speaker 3: you know, if you you know you can still it's
Speaker 3: very difficult to steal home. You can still. Second, still, Third,
Speaker 3: if I get to hit her out, you know, I
Speaker 3: got a chance, right, you know, And so you can't
Speaker 3: lose focus of that.
Speaker 1: And about the minute I have with you, and you know,
Speaker 1: the gray area, Dana, you're I don't envy. Your job
Speaker 1: is talent scout, a general manager. All the things you've
Speaker 1: done and understanding that having to deal with all of
Speaker 1: us that want to know injuries, it's a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass.
Speaker 2: So to remove gray.
Speaker 1: Area for fans and for anybody like in Jordon's case, First,
Speaker 1: where is he Number one? How close are we sixty percent?
Speaker 1: About ten days two weeks ago of that thing healing?
Speaker 1: Where are we timeline wise? But what's the protocol with him?
Speaker 1: You know, at first we thought it was soft tissue,
Speaker 1: and then we found there fracture. How long between like
Speaker 1: MRIs do you ca the swelling? See it just kind
Speaker 1: of take us through it so we get a better
Speaker 1: advantage of what you have to go through when you
Speaker 1: have to come on and talk to my ass about
Speaker 1: injuries and what happened in Jordon's case, where are we
Speaker 1: and how do we get to that point with all
Speaker 1: the medical stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so he's eighty percent healed, which means he's getting
Speaker 3: very close. No pain, he can shake hands, he can
Speaker 3: you know, he can pick up a bat. We're just
Speaker 3: not going to allow him the hit for a few
Speaker 3: more days. And you know, so in terms of the
Speaker 3: injury itself, hand injuries are very very difficult. You know,
Speaker 3: any of these hand injuries are very very difficult because
Speaker 3: what happens is you get you know, when you get
Speaker 3: these bone injuries, Uh, you have so much swelling and inflammation,
Speaker 3: and you you know, to read the MRI eyes are
Speaker 3: very very difficult, and so you have to allow you know,
Speaker 3: the swelling to go down and before you can see it.
Speaker 3: And I think he was playing, you know, and he
Speaker 3: originally it was the muscle strain in the hand, and
Speaker 3: I think he played through it. Find the grind through
Speaker 3: it with the grit and you know, I think he
Speaker 3: by him playing through it, I think that's what may
Speaker 3: have caused this small fracture. I don't know for sure,
Speaker 3: but potentially could have. And then you know, we were
Speaker 3: looking at all the inflammation with the with the muscle strain,
Speaker 3: and then you know you missed the small fracture because
Speaker 3: of all of the inflammation. And then the key here is,
Speaker 3: you know we've learned to keep getting him, just continue
Speaker 3: to image it because as the swelling gowns, you can
Speaker 3: see a lot a lot more and so look, ultimately
Speaker 3: he'll be back. We don't think it's going to be
Speaker 3: too much longer. As I mentioned, he's eighty percent healed.
Speaker 3: And you know, we've played very well. You know, the
Speaker 3: guys have stepped up. You know, we're twenty and fifteen
Speaker 3: since your ion went down, and so you know we
Speaker 3: are playing over five hundred. The boys are playing good.
Speaker 3: Just like last year when Tucker went out, the boys
Speaker 3: stepped it up. You know, even when Tucker went out,
Speaker 3: we played even better. And so you know we're thirty
Speaker 3: we're forty nine to thirty four or whatever it was.
Speaker 3: So look, ultimately the guys have stepped it up, but
Speaker 3: we'll get yourd I'm back here soon. I know. It's frustrating.
Speaker 3: It's frustrating, you know when when guys get hurt, but
Speaker 3: it goes with the territory. It's part of the game.
Speaker 3: It's we're not the only team that are suffering injuries,
Speaker 3: and so U you know, we're dying to get them
Speaker 3: back and soon he's able to swing the bat. We're
Speaker 3: going to try to expedite it, you know, by maybe
Speaker 3: having him face some pictures and you know, instead of
Speaker 3: sending them on a rehab, hopefully we won't have to
Speaker 3: send him on a triple A rehab. Maybe we can
Speaker 3: get it done at the ballpark and give him some
Speaker 3: live at bats.
Speaker 1: Eighty percent of good number. Appreciate you walking us through that.
Speaker 1: Takes a long time for swelling to go down as
Speaker 1: the basic point before you can see the fracture.
Speaker 2: On the MRI data.
Speaker 1: Great stuff, man, Good luck today, and we'll look forward
Speaker 1: to talking to you next Wednesday. I always wish we
Speaker 1: had more time with you, and thank you for your time. Man,
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you guys having me on every week. Let's
Speaker 3: go astro fans. We're fired up.
Speaker 2: There you go. That's Dana Brown Astro's GM.
Speaker 1: We'll come back to finish up quickly and i'd love
Speaker 1: to have him for four segments.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back