SAN DIEGO -- As his team moves closer to its seventh American League West title in eight years, Astros general manager Dana Brown sat down at Petco Park prior to Tuesday's game against the Padres and took time to answer some questions. MLB.com: When do you start talking about your postseason roster and rotation and what goes into those decisions? Brown: "We feel like we're going to get in, but you'd rather wait a little bit longer and give the guys a chance to show you what they can do. And so then you'll start having discussions. The first discussion will be more so about the rotation. How do you plan to attack that? Then you kind of know what your depth will be out of the bullpen and then you get into the position players. What's your projected starting rotation vs. righties? Vs. lefties? And then maybe get into the extra players. Of course, after you do the starting pitching, you have the relievers to look over. We'll have some really tough conversations." MLB.com: Considering the number of extra games the Astros played over the last few years -- their 97 postseason games since 2017 are 24 more than any other team -- how do you think your pitching is equipped for another deep run? Brown: "One of the big things for us is being able to go to a six-man rotation a few times during this year. You roll out the six-man and give some guys a breather, and that allows you to go a little deeper into the postseason. We would like to give our guys some rest. It would be nice to give the position players a rest if we could clinch sooner. That would help us a bit, as well. There are a few ways to do it. You have to try to find some down time and rest for all these guys." MLB.com: What gave you the confidence early in the season this club would turn things around? Brown: "I've been in baseball for 35 years and I know what a bad team looks like. I knew we were a good team and so I was pretty confident that we would turn it around, because in my career I've seen what some bad teams look like and this team did not look like a bad team at all." |
MLB.com: Did you know the trade for Yusei Kikuchi would be met with an unfavorable reaction, and what gave you the confidence it would be a good deal? Brown: "I figured there would be minimal backlash in giving up young prospects. I guess I didn't anticipate the heavy backlash, and I felt like the players that we gave up were pretty good prospects. Even those prospects still had some obstacles, and I knew we had to get a starter. … We [felt] like Kikuchi was really good and we could tweak his arsenal and change some of his usage. It was a team effort that we all put together. We made the acquisition, the pitching coaches made the changes and it's working out. Hopefully, we'll get to see him in multiple postseason games." MLB.com: You have said a few times free agent-to-be Alex Bregman would get a contract offer from the Astros. Where does that stand? Brown: "We were in Anaheim the other day and I ran into [agent Scott Boras] and we started talking a little bit, and we both said, 'Look, once we get towards the end of the season and things are over, we'll definitely engage and talk about it.' We had a small conversation about it. Right now, we're not in any discussions about contract offers. We both agreed we will meet back up." |
|
|
MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
SUGAR LAND PILING UP WINS |
Triple-A Sugar Land has become the fifth Pacific Coast League team since 2001 to win at least 90 games in a season, joining Oklahoma City ('23), Memphis ('17), Tucson ('06) and Sacramento ('03). A series split this week in Sacramento would give Sugar Land 93 wins, a number that hasn't been reached in the PCL since Albuquerque in 1981 (94 wins). "It was cool showing up to the park when everybody was bought in and playing to win," said catcher César Salazar, who spent most of the season in Triple-A. "That's the mentality we had since the beginning of the year. It's been a fun group of guys all year." |
|
|
Shortstop Brice Matthews, the Astros' No. 3-ranked prospect, was promoted to Triple-A Sugar Land on Sept. 10, went 4-for-20 in his first six games with Sugar Land with two doubles, two walks and 10 strikeouts in 20 at-bats. That came on the heels of 42 games at Double-A Corpus Christi, where he posted an .873 OPS with nine homers and 16 steals. Last week, Matthews told MLB Pipeline's Kenny Van Doren that he was "very surprised" to reach Triple-A only 14 months after being drafted. "It's a great opportunity for me to get better, learn more baseball, play a different type of baseball," he said. "The further and further I get up, I wouldn't say it gets more competitive, but it's more condensed in a sense of everything matters. Just getting to experience that again, I'm very thankful and grateful." Matthews said he's tried to become a more complete hitter this year, which includes understanding better how pitchers are throwing to him. "It's kind of been a blur," he said. "It's happened so fast, just taking it every day, trying to be present, be where my feet are and just thankful for the guys that I'm around every day, thankful that God has a plan for me and just trying to be a better person every day. This game is very challenging, stressful. At the end of the day, it's just a game, and you just have to think of it like that." |
|
|
FORWARDED FROM A FRIEND? SUBSCRIBE NOW |
|
|
To subscribe to Astros Beat, visit this page and mark "Astros Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Astros or that they're checked as your favorite team. |
|
|
© 2024 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
Please review our Privacy Policy.
You (gahleexholly.hdhask@blogger.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB.
Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.
Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment