The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - What is The #1 Concern for Dana Brown Going into 2026

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

What is The #1 Concern for Dana Brown Going into 2026

105 on Sports Talk 790. So the question I threw at Ross was, what is the number one concern for Dana Brown now that he's firmly under contract? Well, at least the contract's there, and he's going to work for it in 2006. To me, it's pitching. No if, fans or butts. I think the first, I think the infield positions will be addressed.

I think there will be some tendering of some contracts, maybe some non-tendering. This is the way you fix the infield is if you non-tender somebody supports Harvey. And do you both tender Mauricio Dubon and Ramon Urius? I would think not. I think not. My guess is that Urius is more infield. Dubon is more everywhere. Yeah, and Dubon's probably going to cost you a little bit more. It would be my guess on the numbers on his contract

situation. This is last year of arbitration. Yes. So I think it's going to settle itself. I think the Isak Paredes hamstring will settle itself ultimately. to what he can do and cannot do. Again, I think it's either going to be first base or they try to move him. It seems to be going to be set for Christian Walker. I don't think you start Predace as a candidate for second base

because then you're going to have a long jam at second base, especially if you use Jose L. Tuve at second base a handful of times. But to me, going back to the essential issue, you have, is it unfair to say one and a half starting pitchers, or do you think are you going to put Christian Javier in the solid number two club? as a second second starter for this team. One and a half sounds about right. Because if you were to really judge Christian Javier, it's a mixed bag.

And that should not be a huge surprise because he's fresh off of Tommy John surgery. Guys are not supposed to come off of T.J. surgery and come out here and start throwing 98 miles an hour and throwing seven innings or two hit ball. Well, maybe he'll get a, well, he threw six innings of no hit ball and one of his starts. Right? No hit. No shut out. Yeah. Sorry.

But that was a one-off. That was typically what he was giving you every single time. Man, if you're Hunter Brown and you know this organization is in depth, desperate need of starting pitching, and you've had your best season as a major leaguer. Yeah, no, it was six innings and no-hit hitting against the Angels. Six no-hit innings? But it's the Angels. That's a double 18.

Three walks. Still counts. Still a no-hitter if it would have counted. But he ran into a pitch count issues on. assuming, right? 85 pitts or something like that. Okay. So, still to me, one and a half.

I don't know if Christian Javier, I think Christian Javier's got a spot, but is he a guy that I'm trusting on the second day of the start of the season? I don't think so. No. So back to my point on Hunter Brown. Hunter Brown, Rossi,

he's going in saying, where's your checkbook? I'm going to fill it off of what I want to fill it off for. Right? I mean, if anybody's got the leverage, who's he represented by? Rot Roars. He's not. He's not a

advertising entity. Yeah, but I don't like him. Scott Boris. Oh, man, it was a hundred mile an hour fastball in on the hands that Judge sent out too.

That's pretty clutch. He's a throwback to the yesterday power hitters, isn't he? He's the best hitter walking. He's the best head on the planet. Well, show him. I would take Otani

he didn't strike out as much. Okay, well, Judge has better. But Judge has more power. Houghtani's a better player because he pitches. But anyways, sorry, what we're talking about? N.OB trade rumors puts out their projected arbitration. They have Dubon at 5.8 million.

Okay. And Ureus at 4.4 million. And these are generally pretty accurate. They do it. This website does a good job. Okay. Hunter Brown. 5.7 million.

Jeremy Pena, 7.9 million. Okay. You can overpay those guys, that number to keep them happy. buyout arbitration years give them more than what they think they're worth it's more what the numbers say they're worth invest in them give them a little bit of a bonus

for Jeremy Pena's career season but let me also say about Pena that's two instants on the injured list this year okay for an oblique and for he got hit by a pitch in the ribs I know and I know but you also know

attendance is part of the grade, regardless of the situation. All right. It just is. Okay. If you want to discount him for that, I'm not going to discount. I'm saying he played 125 games. And they were gray 125 games. How many years you're buying? How many? What?

He's 28. I don't know. I know the Astros don't have the reputation doing it. They've done it a handful of times. They're going to try. They're going to try. They tried to do it with Coray. He didn't want to. They tried to do it with Springer than he didn't want to. They did it with Jose Al-Tuvian and Alex Bregman.

They didn't try with Cald Tucker. They probably tried. There was probably some discussions. Cald Tucker said I'm good. They said, we'll see an arbitration court, and they lost, and Kyle Tucker's like, well, good. I lost, you lose. I'm getting out of here. And now he's a cub.

And now he's going to get paid. He bet on himself. He's going to get paid. It's going to get paid, hopefully for seven years. Some people bet on themselves and they don't get paid. Jared Kellanick was one of the top prospects in baseball. Seattle offered him a long-term deal. And then two years later, he was DFA.

He was like, I don't even know where he is. He was in the Bravesant. I believe he was in the Canadian Rocky League. Canadian Rockies? Wow. He's at Banff? Yeah, he's playing for the Calgary sheepherters. The Banff Bears?

Sorry. Can you give me a second city in that part of the world? What do you mean? Saskatoon. Okay. Yeah, he's playing for the Saskatoon Sasquatches. I like that. Bat in 209.

with plenty of power, got a huge OPS. Yeah, so we'll see. Man, that's... For Dan to earn his... My gut feeling has been, and I'll stick with it, is that of the two, Hunter Brown gets paid. They figure something out, and he gets a long-term deal,

because he's younger as well. So on the big board, we have both get paid, neither get paid, one gets paid. Favor feels like neither. I know, I don't want to think that. Scott Boris wants to hit the open market.

Are they both Scott Boris clients? Yes. Oh, we're screwed. That's the reality of it. Right? Is it? Let me ask you this. Jose L. Tuvae, Scott Boris client, but Jose was a special situation.

He bought out, the Astros bought out arbitration years. Does Scott Boros have a history of players buying out arbitration years? I'd have to go up and down his client list. I don't want to do that. You got much more important things to do. My point is that probably not much. I don't hear that a lot, you know? Generally, he, well, first of all, Scott Boris,

if you're like a quadruple-A player and you're struggling and on a Monter League deal, you're probably not a Scott Boris client. Scott's like that. He's a shut your bum ass up. Talk to me when your OPS into 1100. Exactly. So, I mean, you're dealing with a kind of a different level of client. Isn't it crazy, though, some of his clients, a lot of his clients, frankly,

are guys that were with other agents that were just trying to get their feet wet into being major league players, and all of a sudden he scoops up and takes. guys once they hit that level because hunter brown knows if scott boris takes care of you you're going get paid and jeremy pain they thought the exact same thing yeah i'm just trying to find a list um man matt chapman signed a big deal i'm just looking at Wikipedia literally right of scott one soto that guy got paid but he had he went to free agency uh blake snow remember blake snow was all upset they he did a one-year deal with the giants and then opted out but then got a brand new deal after that.

Yes. Now he's got a big deal with the Dodgers. By the way, the Dodgers are beating up on the Phillies. I'm trying to see somebody who did like a, it got paid early. See, the thing of it is, here's the question. I don't know if the Astros are going to think this way. I don't think they're going to go, let's go all in a one guy because we got a better chance of keeping him.

Everything looks like. I would hope the Astros is an organization would say, look, we got a lot of money coming off the books here in the next couple of years. Let's do what we can. to try to keep both. And I think they will do so. But it's almost like the same thing we were talking about

Nick Cicero last hour, Ross. If you say, well, we put together an offer and you don't get them, you don't get brownie points for at least trying. Unless the deals elsewhere are so astronomical

that it doesn't make sense. That'll be the question is if they don't sign here and they get these ridiculous. For instance, the Astros, in theory, could have signed Kyle Tucker to a 10-year deal worth

$375 million, right? There's, they're within their opportunity to do so. They just chose they didn't want to do that. If those two guys eventually two or three years down the road go somewhere else and get paid astronomical money, then you're going to say, okay, that makes sense. But if they get mid-level money for being who they are and the asteros could have afford them, and that's when I think the criticism of ownership would be fair. That's why Dana, go to go have dinner with Jim. Have us few cigars, drink a bottle of wine, and do something outside the norm. Because you're in a, not a tumultuous time for an organization.

You still have a lot of star power. But you got to start thinking two to three years down the road. It's hard to get these elite short stops that have turned the corner in their professional careers. It's hard to find a one-dash-one in a rotation. And I think Hunter Brown has certainly proven that. And by the way, you're about to lose your second best starter due to free agency. You got to, you got to, if you're going to put them back if you want. will they even qualify offer?

I would say yes. I would say yes and he rejects it and hits the market. And I'm basically going off of what I read from Chandler-Rome. Yeah, that's Framber. I mean, he knows. I mean, he's pretty smart. Chandler-Rome thinks that they will give a qualifying offer. Framber Valdez will reject it, hit the market, and then probably go somewhere else,

but if they might circle back late in the game if Frommber's not liking the deals he's seen. I don't know. Do you think people would be excited if Frommberg came back? No, they would not be. would say actually there are a lot of more Framer supporters than I thought. I'm out on him.

I understand. That's okay. Yeah. It would depend on the money, of course. Yeah. If it's like one year $20 million deal, why not? If it's around what the qualifying offer is, what if it's a one year $30 million deal?

30 million's too much, no chance. $125. Lower. $120. That seems about right. We just put the range game. Did we not? I think so.

116 on Sports Talk 790. We have, believe it or not today, coming up at 150, that's in 35 short minutes. 713, this little time cue for Ross. 713, 212, 5, 790. There's no topic. All right, I'll come up with one here. I did dinner live yesterday. I did my part.

713, 212. I didn't know who those people were. You didn't help out of people.