Astros end of season availability with Mgr Joe Espada & GM Dana Brown

Astros end of season availability with Mgr Joe Espada & GM Dana Brown

Uh so I I don’t want to talk about my contract, you know, uh right now. Uh but I will tell you that um I am the GM of the Astros. So as I said, I’m the GM of the Astros and that’s what I would expect to be tomorrow, the next day. Next day. Okay, Matt. Can you speak up, Matt? Sorry. Look, I mean, I I I made it very clear that look, Joe is the manager and Joe’s under contract. Another question. Go ahead. You guys promoted early. Yeah, I mean, look, we we needed an outfielder and so I felt like Cam Smith learned a lot at the major league level this year. Um, and I think this season that he had this year is going to be important for next year’s development. And so I would expect that he’s going to have a really good off season and he’s going to come back like gang busters. So I I I really feel like that need that we had in the outfield and and using him and letting him develop and get some time. I mean, at one point he, you know, was hitting over 285 with over an 800 OPS and, you know, just like everything else, you know, you uh you run into the ups and downs of this game, but I think he’s going to learn a lot and he’s going to be better for it. Okay, Dan, then Brian, Joe, first and Dana, if you want to hop in, statistically this year, you guys were middle to lower baseball. Is there anything you don’t believe that they can improve with the current structure you guys have in place or do you feel like that’s something uh middle and bottom of what you were referring to? OS home runs. Uh yes, I think there is areas in our offense that where we we can improve on. Um, you know, I think throughout the year we made some adjustments and we got better in certain areas, but that’s I think that’s an area that we as a organization need to um look into. How can we have better quality at bats? How can we improve on getting on base more frequently and and and be better um throughout the entire season. Yeah. Yeah. And look, I mean, anytime you get your missing four months, you get Pettis missing two months, you get Pena missing a month and a half, you get Meyers missing two months, I mean, your numbers are going to be down. You know, those are everyday major league players that you don’t have on your team. And so, um, you know, we’ll address, you know, some of the things like taking more pitches and being a little bit more selective, but, uh, make no mistake, when you take pillars out of your lineup, it’s going to affect your team. It’s going to affect some of their at bats. When Yordon Alvarez is in the lineup, you have to pitch him. You have to pitch guys around them differently. And so, I think u, the absence the absence of Yordon really affected us big time. Okay, Brian. Have you any of your staff membach? Uh, you know, Brian, you know, season ended 48 hours ago and and we are really trying to um have some conversation and see how we’re going to move forward. Um, so that’s where we that’s where we at right now. Okay. Chandler. Look, I think this is an ind industrywide uh issue with the inj injuries and um you know, but like everything else, we’re going to you know, take a look at you know, every one of our departments, right? And so, uh, just to make sure that we’re not missing anything. But I think we have these industries, the the injuries are industrywide and there’s, um, you know, the there’s guys throwing harder. There’s guys chasing spin. I don’t think there’s a magic bullet to why there are so many injuries. Um, I know we were affected big time from it. And I think it cost us, you know, you know, the postseason because of all the injuries, you know, one I figure we get two or three more wins with if we had all of our guys. But I don’t think there’s a magic bullet. Um, you know, and as for just, you know, taking a look at this, we’ll take a look at every department, you know, uh, in baseball operations. Yeah, I mean look for Alvarez u potentially more imaging. U I think that may have helped us. Uh but it’s it’s difficult when imaging is telling you telling you one thing and um you know so you try to go with what you’re seeing but maybe if we would have got more imaging you know with Alvarez. I mean I think with Myers uh Myers felt like you know he was trying to push it. He knew other guys were, you know, hurt and he was trying to, you know, push it a little bit. And, you know, um, we just, we need to get away from this injury bug that we’re up against. Okay. Matt. Yeah. Part of it is, as I said, look, you know, with with some of our guys being out, I think that affected, you know, us. I think we, you know, when Pettis went down, we started seeing less pitches pitches per at bat. And so, um, look, I think that’s going to be a big focus, you know, for us that you got to hunt your pitch, stick with hunting your pitch, and get to two more two strike counts, uh, because you’re making the pitcher work a little bit harder. And I think the the fact that we chased a little bit early, it’s just I think our guys were pressing a little bit because we had guys missing in the lineup and we tried to do too much. You know, just to add and and I think there, you know, there was a period of a time when we had some younger players uh at the major league level uh trying to um fill some of those holes. Um, and so it takes them time to set their feet in in what the major league at bat will look like. Um, potentially trying to do too much because of the void of other players. Uh, but I think they handled themselves really well. Uh, there was a stretch there in June and July where we had younger players performing at a high level. Um, you know, grinding at bats, putting great at bats together, doing little things very well to help us win games. So, that’s also going to take away from uh overall numbers on pitch selection and stuff like that. But, I think as a whole, uh there’s ways that we can we can address that and and and and we’ll do that. We an offense that uh when we do the little things well, we take pitches, we drive the ball in hitters count, we’ve done it in, you know, all the years that I’ve been here, we just got to get back to that discipline approach where we know that we are an elite offense when we all work together. And there were times where we kind of got away from that, but we we have to do we have to do a good job of bringing that mentality back. And we will we will. There’s no doubt about that. Uh yeah, I was in there. I was in there all the time and I and and we did um you know but there’s times where you know the there is the the the level of game that we are playing the platform the expectations that sometimes you know players get away from that approach which is is very is very normal. Um, we just got to com, you know, continue to emphasize the importance of controlling the things that you can control and be the best hitter you could be in that in that in that in that at bat. And if you do that, it will trickle down and now you get a whole, you know, whole entire offense working together. Okay. Ari, Christie, then Brian, for either of you, you guys have to look at stuff. What have you been able to evaluate so far and what are your priorities to evaluate? Yeah. I mean, so, um, we first of course been able to evaluate that, um, you know, you came up a game short, right? And you dwell on that, you know, for more than you’d like to. Um, and it’s it’s frustrating. You start looking back at, you know, every single close game, the one, you know, some of the ones that you you blew. Um, and you just play that back in your head. And so, you know, that’s something that we’ve been dwelling on a little bit. Um, but I mean, that’s a big part of the the first 48. You know, it’s just it’s it’s just hard to envision that you’re not, you know, playing in the postseason and it’s it’s been tough. So, that’s pretty much what I’ve been dwelling on. I haven’t really gotten to much uh after that, you know, and for me personally is having conversations with our players. Um, I want our players to be proud of the effort and their fight till the end. So, it’s me having conversations in the clubhouse, you know, picking up the phone before they they start the off season and let them know that this they fought till the end and we came out short and I could hear in their voice how they ready to start next spring training. Um, you know, this is going to put a chip on our shoulders like we we are a postseason team. we are built to play in October and uh it was disappointing that we’re not playing today. Um I’m not happy about it, you know. Um but also we are learning from things that we could have done better. How can we improve our club and our players are hungry to get back to spring training and play. That’s what my 48 hours have been. Um aside I was spending time with my my girls. All right, Christie, Brian and then Dan. Joe, I mean obviously certainly But because you had so many and you were able to get so many young players meaningful bats, do you believe that will help you guys moving forward to have that experience? You know, I I think that’s a positive that gets kind of lost out on the narrative of the injuries and and and I don’t want it to be part of the I don’t want the injuries just to be the narrative. Let’s talk about also our young players who came up and did exceptionally well and we going to need those players moving forward. we have been able to sustain the success because young players come up and they play and they turn out to be great players, all-star players and I think we were able to find that out through these injuries where hey some we got some young arms that came up and you know help us get to these late run uh position players who came up and you know fill some big shoes of some big-time players um because they knew they need to do it. So that that aspect not only performing but knowing that you know what this team needs me. I’m also um this is I’m showcasing showcasing myself for next season. I need I want to put my name on the radar where I think this team can count on me moving forward. And I saw that development on our players which I think is very important when you try to sustain winning at an organization. Okay. And I know you talk about evaluating players, evaluating your staff, but do you like self evaluation? Oh, 100%. Uh, yeah, it’s already cut you off, but absolutely. Um, I I look at myself in the mirror every night after every game. Um, what could I have done better? Um, how could I communicate myself better with the player, my staff? Um, this is my second year on, you know, managing this club and I continue to grow. Uh I’m open-minded about suggestions and ideas. How could I make myself not myself better and make my players better? Uh absolutely. Um if not, I I’ve been I I would not be helping I would not be helping this organization if I’m not holding myself accountable because at the end of the day, I’m the manager of this team and I’m responsible for uh what goes on in that clubhouse. Um so I care about that deeply. I care about the organization and I care about, you know, putting the best product on the field. Um, because our fans expect us to win and I take that very seriously. Okay, we’ll go Brian, Dan, Michael, then Matt. Brian, you guys going into spring health? Yeah, I think that’s what the offseason is for. I think is a great problem to have. Uh but I think that will solve this itself by itself. Okay. Dan Dana, two parts. Financially, where do you guys feel like you’re going to be in terms of how aggressive you guys when it comes to trades? Do you feel like you guys have any untouchable guys? Uh first, uh nobody’s really untouchable. I mean, you have to keep every avenue open to try to get better. And um you know if there’s an opportunity to make a trade, we’ll make a trade. But you know, right now our roster is put together very well. I think we have a really good team. If we stay healthy, uh we will for sure be back in uh the dance in October. So what was the other part of that question? Uh financially, just how aggressive you guys can possibly. Yeah, I mean Jim Crane is never held back. So, I mean, I I would think that we’re going to have the uh full ability to go out and, you know, acquire and get better. And if there’s areas that we think we need to improve on, whether it’s a starting pitcher or a left-hand bat, um, you know, I think we’ll be, you know, in the market. Okay. Michael, Matt, and Jesus. baseball time in October. Um I’ll I’ll I’ll tell you I’ll share you know a personal story with my little one. Um she she was very disappointed that we’re not playing October. Um and um you know I asked her you know daddy’s home um we get to spend some time and she wasn’t very thrilled about the the fact that we’re not in the dance and I told her that you know what uh maybe we we’re going to work really hard to get back to October because everything she’s known is October which I you know appreciate that from her but you know she she said daddy you guys are a good team and you know thank you for um for being here for the next couple of days, but I wish you guys would be in the postseason. She mentioned Halloween. We we’ve been in hotels for Halloween. Uh all this, you know, nice stuff that a 10-year-old would and and and that, you know, it touched my heart because, you know, how much I care about my kids, but also about playing October and I was expecting to play today and it’s really difficult not to be on a baseball field today um suiting up and representing uh the city. But at the same time, it’s it’s time for us to for me to reflect and, you know, honestly how, you know, grateful I’ve been and how lucky we’ve been to be in a postseason for a very long time. So, for me is it’s time for me to, you know, reflect and how can we make this team better? How can I make myself better, my staff better so we can get back to October. Okay. Matt, Jesus, and then Jason. Well, you know what? For for me, Matt, uh we’re going to sit down and go go go go go go through that. Um obviously, you know, things were shuffled around because we were missing players. Um so you go from plan A to plan B to plan C. And uh what I do want to say is that it’s important to Again, reme remind how important Josel Tub is for this organization. You go in there with a plan A. Um, injuries happen. Number one, this guy is posting every single day. You know, he plays through pain. Uh, ups and down, easy in there. Joe, where you want me to? Left field. Okay. Second base. Yes. DH. Yes. Here we go. That’s very important. Now my job is our job is to you know once all these guys are healthy put another plan in place where uh where we could maintain all these guys healthy throughout the season. I I think that’s going to be where my main focus is going to be. How can we play these guys where there’s DHS for everyone and you know who’s going to be playing here and there so we could keep these guys healthy and once we do that once these guys are healthy we we’re going to find oursel uh playing deep in October for for me is Alu um he’s always open to do whatever is best for the team and um respect him immensely for that. Yeah, I mean we would have interest in bringing him back and uh you know having some conversations um because we if if you don’t bring him back you definitely need a backup catcher and he’s been like I think one of the best backup catchers in the league and so we would like to bring him back um and we’ll have conversations about it you know but um if he’s going to be a free agent, so if he decides to go somewhere else, um you know, we have to be in the market for a backup and so but we would have definitely have interest in talking to him. Okay. Jesus, Randy, and then Chandler is Yeah, I mean I think uh you know it’s going to be headed up with u with Brown and uh you know we’re going to have some conversations uh like we’ve had in the past with you know with Valdez. Um and then you know we got you know some young guys that uh you know we’re going to see what they could do. Um, but you know, then we going to have some other guys coming back off the IIL. You know, Javier is one that I think he was the one that I thought once he came back, he he started getting it up to 95. He had a couple games where he touched 96. And so I I think he could be a big part of it. You know, Blue Ball, you guys saw what he did at the end of the year. you know, he still had the consecutive scoreless innings, you know, uh so we’ll give him, you know, a good look. And so, look, we’re gonna have some options. We’re gonna probably be in the market for sure to, you know, trade for an arm. Um, but, you know, we we we definitely have options and um, you know, I’ll let Joe talk to some of some of the other guys because he want to get in on this, too. But uh but I do feel like you know we’re going to have enough options uh in terms of our rotation. Yeah. And you know just to I I think he touched on Jav. I think Jav was uh really show towards the end of the season that we we going to see the Javier that we saw in years back. Obviously Hunter Brown uh Sai Young candidate for me he’s one of the best in the game. um feeling great about him uh you know coming back and being that that that workhorse that he was this this past season. And there’s some young players that we really excited about. We were talking uh August, September about you know all the some pieces some of these younger players that are that are coming up which we will have conversations uh once we start putting this together. Uh but I’m really excited about the future guys. Uh, I think that it’s going to be a fun offseason for us trying to figure all these out and trying to put the best team on the field. I’m looking forward to it. I could follow situation. Some people wonder that did a really good job. Yes, to answer your question, I think our catchers did a really good job uh on that aspect. Okay, Randy, led the league in strikeouts. Randy and then uh Chandler leadership on the field. Yeah. Uh obviously the Carlos huge impact. um happy to have him back and um I’ll be I’ll be you know touching base with him in the next couple of days. Um we we’re going to go have dinner and we’re going to talk about um a few topics that I want to bring up and um but he will be very much involved in my discussions about um you know how we going to make spring training uh how things the way we’re going to address in spring training. Um I I personally like to empower some of our leaders to have a say in how we going to address these uh you know our the aspects of our games that we need to address up and so Carlos will be in the middle of those conversation and Zack Cole obviously came in and uh you know I was very impressed with the power uh the how calm and collective he was at doing his at bats how well he played center field um the throw he made in LA that last uh the the pre that the second game of that series that was really impressive. That was a big out in a big moment. Um and he was able to execute that throw uh which I thought it was very impressive. Um, so I’m really excited not only about him, but a lot of the younger players that came up this year and as we plan for our future, we got to really, you know, consider some of these guys uh because they they did show some ability to play at the highest level in during during a playoff run. Okay, Chandler. I guess looking. Yeah, look, I I would say that um you know, we were really relying on you know, Javier. He came back. I thought he did over did pretty well. You know, Eric Getti, uh, he came back off. Uh, you know, he had some good moments and not so good moments. Um, but, you know, we really have confidence in those guys and, um, you know, we felt that they were going to be good. And so, you know, could we have maybe addressed some some pitching? I think our focus was more on the bat. And so, um, but I mean, I still believe in some of those guys that, uh, you know, we had that were coming back, but I mean, I think the bat was the way, the bats were the way to go because we were, you know, so beat up, you know, and we needed also to get a left-hand bat. Yeah, look, so I talk to Jim on a regular basis. Um, and you know, we consistently talk about, you know, the major league team, the staff, you know, front office staff, and so our our conversations are constant. Yes. Yes. Okay. One more in English. Kimalance. Yeah. So, Lance, I’ll answer that one. Um, look, the plan is for Lance to come into spring training and and try to compete and and and help this club. I mean, he had some really bright moments, you know, this year. And it’s very difficult coming back off an injury where you haven’t pitched in two years. And so, I think that, you know, he gave us his all and he had moments where he was really good, particularly the one in uh Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Uh but, you know, we would expect that, you know, pitching this year, we would expect them next year to be even better. And so we’re hoping, you know, that uh, you know, he comes in and he’s, you know, ready to go because he we we can use him in that rotation and we can get, you know, you know, the lance that, you know, he’s capable of of being. Second part. What was it? Hater update. Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. So, the hater update, uh, you know, we continue to get inconsistently. He’s getting better. He feels better. And so, I I feel like, you know, confident about it. Uh but you know, of course, we won’t know fully until he starts to throw. He’s going to start throwing at some point and then we’ll know more. But it’s moving in the right direction. Okay, we’ll switch over to Spanish now. Right here.

#astros #houstonastros #houston #mlb #baseball #houstontx #houstontexas