00:00Now, the thing that obviously we don't like coming back to the Astros
00:02is the way that the pitching has actually come out, right?
00:04There's the injuries.
00:05There's the ways that this did not show up.
00:07And Tatsi Emai, obviously, the weirdness that was,
00:10not just his bad start, but also just the narratives around it
00:18really took a lot of attention.
00:19But did all of that deflect away from the real issue here, John Lopez?
00:23Look, how often have we said, boy, you know,
00:27Joe's spot is really catching a break this year
00:29because, you know, the built-in excuse is injuries, you know,
00:32for all the bad performance.
00:33And, you know, what did he have to do with Tatsuya Emai getting here
00:38and having his emotional, mental, whatever you want to call it, issues and all that?
00:44And that's true.
00:46But, you know, I was watching Mike Burroughs yesterday,
00:49and I'm like, you know who's really catching a break here?
00:54It's Dana Brown.
00:56Is he?
00:56Dana Brown is catching a huge break here
01:00because he brought in two replacement starters,
01:04Tatsuya Emai and Mike Burroughs.
01:08They stink.
01:10Emai's turning the corner.
01:12Is he?
01:14We'll see.
01:15Because he pitched four and two-thirds innings.
01:18That's going to be so fun when I touch back down in the States.
01:20When I touch back down in the States in just over a week.
01:23All right, so what's happening with Tatsuya Emai?
01:25Where did we go?
01:26What does it look like?
01:27Oh, wow.
01:27Oh, he had a hell of a game.
01:29He got to five innings.
01:30Only gave up three home runs.
01:34He coming around.
01:36But, I mean, I'm sitting here going, yes, you can talk about, you know,
01:40Joe spot all you want.
01:41It's Dana Brown.
01:42I mean, because they're deflecting all the attention away from the guy that actually brought him in.
01:47And Tatsuya Emai, you know, you've heard us talking about him and the emotional state that he's been in
01:52and the lack of performance.
01:54Mike Burroughs was supposed to be the guy, man.
01:56And the thing about Mike Burroughs is he felt to me like a high-floor acquisition.
02:02It felt like you know what Mike Burroughs is as a relatively young pitcher out of Pittsburgh.
02:07He throws strikes.
02:08He should be able to get over.
02:10Like, this should be fine.
02:11Yeah.
02:11With some opportunity for, you know, upside on the backside of this.
02:17And it feels like neither of those things have hit in that way.
02:20Like, they have not.
02:21The floor somehow had a hole in it or a trap door.
02:24Now we've fallen a little bit from what felt like this is going to be the stability of the guy
02:29that you bring in.
02:30And then Tatsuya Emai, we knew that, you know, and one of the things that you know is that international
02:35players,
02:36there might be some trouble early on.
02:38It's not supposed to look like this.
02:40It's not supposed to sound like this.
02:41It's not.
02:42And so he's sort of in the background going, oh, darn the injuries.
02:46Nah, man.
02:47He's not worried.
02:48How about the guys that are pitching?
02:49He's not worried.
02:50Darn that Hunter Brown look.
02:52And the Javier and now McCullers.
02:55And by the way, I was going to say now McCullers.
02:57When McCullers was pitching, which I guess, you know, you had to put him out there with what you're paying
03:01him and all that.
03:02I get that.
03:04But he stunk.
03:05And a lack of issues.
03:06A lack of options, man.
03:07Yeah.
03:07Yeah.
03:08So then you can go into what Seth said in passing this morning.
03:13I was kind of nodding my head because, you know, that's exactly what I think.
03:17He doesn't have any pull at all.
03:20That's the big problem.
03:21Yeah.
03:22And that's interesting that I had not placed that at the feet of Dana Brown.
03:25Like, I did not make this a why is your magnetism, why don't you have enough aura to get this
03:29over?
03:30But that is part of it, right?
03:33Like, part of being a manager or middle manager, in a way, of speaking, is knowing how to manage up.
03:39It's not fair that you have to manage up, but it is something that you have to do.
03:43And I'm sure a lot of people listening, whether they are middle managers or whether they are privy to middle
03:48managers through, you know, obviously their manager.
03:50You see that there's a necessity to manage up.
03:53It feels like he does not have the capability or the capacity or just maybe the pull in order to
03:57make that happen.
03:58Because I do think that you're talking about the acquisitions that you make this offseason.
04:02Nate Pearson, one of them, though, and he did look good out of the pen yesterday.
04:05So that was cool.
04:06But, like, you look at a lot of the acquisitions and you go, it's bad to okay.
04:11But also, what was available?
04:13Because a lot of these are pretty marginal.
04:15Except for Tati Emi, there was a clear investment there.
04:18Yeah, yeah.
04:18And that almost feels very freakish the way that it's happening right now.
04:21But outside of that, there was not enough investment.
04:23And you do wonder, yes, it hasn't looked good, but how much?
04:27Which, and I think Jim Crane does need to, like, answer for the case, for the circumstance of, okay, what
04:32did you expect him to be able to make with all of these holes and this little bit of investment?
04:36Right.
04:36I think that it's interesting to think about that from the lens that you're setting up, which is, does somebody
04:42else come in and are they able to justify, to explain, to, you know, coerce more investment for what was
04:49clearly a big hole that you had to try and cover?
04:51I think the worst thing you can say, and worst thing and most damning thing you can say about a
04:56general manager in any professional sport, is it's not really his team.
04:59It's not really his call.
05:01And that's the case with Dana Brown for me, anyway.
05:03It's not really his call.
05:04That's funny because there are, especially more so now, and I'm thinking more of football than anything, but you're seeing
05:10more and more of instances where...
05:12No, you are.
05:12You have general managers who, you're right, it isn't actually their call, but they also still do the job really
05:17well within that parameter.
05:19But it also leads to the relationship that you have and the respect you have with owners, with coaches or
05:28general managers, et cetera.
05:31And I'm not saying he has necessarily a bad one, but I don't think he has enough pull, which it
05:35always comes back to go, hey, Jim Crane, this is the route we really need to go.
05:40Do you really want to buy at the trade deadline, you know, whether it was last year or the year
05:45before or whatever, when we can kind of see the...
05:47And Jim Crane says, yes, I do.
05:49Yes, sir.
05:50You know, which obviously he's the ultimate boss anyway, but...
05:54But that takes you away from being able to make the good decisions.
05:57Right.
05:57At that point, are you just yes man?
05:58Yeah, exactly.
05:59It's not his team.
06:00And maybe the biggest indictment here of Dana Brown and the ability and the pull that you're talking about is
06:06that he is sitting on a lame duck deal right now.
06:08Mm-hmm.
06:09That there does not seem to be enough belief from your ownership to be able to go, can we add
06:14another year to that?
06:15Can we tack a year on at the very least?
06:16They said, we'll see.
06:17In essence, Jim Crane said, well, we'll see.
06:19When your mom used to tell you, we'll see, what did that mean?
06:23It's not happening.
06:23It ain't going to happen.
06:26It ain't going to happen.
06:28So, yeah.
06:29And then here's the other thing that it's not like he's still new.
06:33This is year four for Dana Brown.
06:35This is year four for Dana Brown and still sort of not knowing if he has any say in some
06:42of the decisions they're making.
06:44And I get it.
06:44They've been in buy mode for a while.
06:46But how are they still ranked 29th in terms of – forget the acquisitions that we've been talking about.
06:53Oh, you're talking about the farm?
06:54The farm system is still ranked 29th by Baseball America.
06:56I also think that is a larger organizational conversation.
06:59It could be.
07:00But, again, it's not his call.
07:01I mean, that was his strength in Atlanta.
07:03Did it feel like this when we had James Click, though?
07:07Where would you feel like he didn't have a really say-so?
07:11I think toward the end, I think it started out well.
07:14Remember, they were kind of in lockstep, and then there was some butting of heads, it seemed like, behind the
07:19scenes.
07:20Toward the end, you're right.
07:21But you're in year four, and you still have the second worst farm system in baseball.
07:27Well, technically, that falls under the purview of, like, are we talking about the president and, you know, obviously the
07:33farm director?
07:34But, obviously, the general manager should have some level of impact in that.
07:37And maybe – it almost feels like we're banging on him in this instance for not having more charisma.
07:43But damn it if charisma don't help you get the job done sometimes.
07:46Yeah, it does.
07:47It's wild.
07:48I mean, he's benefited from these injuries and all these distractions, you know, et cetera.
07:54Which, by the way, the offense is really still kind of – they've got to get something going, man.
07:59That's their only hope.
08:00Yeah, I mean, even Jordan in the month of May, it's not been pretty.
08:06I think his –
08:07222 or something like that?
08:08Yeah, but the bigger thing is, like, the OPS is – did it dip under 700?
08:11It might now.
08:12Yeah, it might now.
08:13And that's still leading what you're doing here.
08:15Like, it's – if it's not one thing, it's the other right now.
08:19Yeah, yeah.
08:19And, yeah, again, it just feels like – it's almost hopeless at the general manager spot.
08:25And it feels – I honestly, within myself, don't love the feeling of, hey, you seem hopeless and I'm mad
08:32at you for that.
08:33But that has to be reflected somewhere.
08:36The OPS for Jordan in May, and keep in mind it's May 21st, happy Memorial Day weekend, everybody.
08:44694, batting average 209, 4 RBI.
08:50Got to get it going.
08:51Do indeed.
08:52Yeah.
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