Dana Brown on the Astros Flagship said this this morning and oh my God I am now starting to freak out about Kyle Tucker so here's the good he's starting light baseball activities on the field and hitting inside he's dealing with soreness and the deep bone bruise is really sore he needs to be fully healthy but he's making progress light baseball activities making progress but he also said I'd be really disappointed if it was September but we're optimistic it'll be before September that Kyle Tucker returns okay so this has gone from a couple of days to before September I mean at this point my if I was a bet on this my bet is we'll see Kyle Tucker in 2025 just the way it's going it's just it's going so slow yeah and now they're talking about September Dana Brown never ever does that he never gives a real timeline to say they'd be disappoint if it was September yeah they're optimistic but it's going so slow that is that's that's terrifying that KY Tucker maybe they are going have to do a lot more at the trade deadline than just add a starting pitcher and a bullpen arm because you you're not going back to the World Series you're not going back to the ALCS without KY Tucker I just I don't see it especially with the struggles of the offense of late to the point where in this conversation with the Astros Flagship Brown mentioned that Pedro Leon who is the Astros best player in the miners right now at the Triple A level at the very least he's hitting 300 plus he's got I think 17 homers 80 RBIs or so he apparently could actually be up on the major league roster at some point and that's interesting because of the LA the depth that the Astros have in the Outfield that you at least think they have but all right if they're thinking about moving Pedro Leon up at some point that makes me wonder if it's because Tucker is going to take a lot longer to get back yeah I mean if they don't if they if they see Pedro Leon coming up it means to me a couple things obviously they didn't trade him with the deadline duh um but it will probably speak more to Chaz and his struggles Jake and his recent struggles as you know he's now below 240 on the season if that continues and you're not going to get Kyle Tucker back you might have to really explore finding an alternative option and Pedro Leon if you're not going to acquire someone at deadline he might be that and I still think that when you talk about a bullpen arm the most logical player to trade is Chaz McCormick or Jake Myers and trading those to a team that has great Bullpen depth but struggles in the Outfield that to me is still the most logical trade that will happen at the deadline is that Chaz is traded for a bullpen arm and as soon as that happens it will or could happen logical trade that will or could happen I think it will happen you think it will happen okay yeah I don't think Chaz McCormack will be on the Astros when we start our show next Wednesday interesting I like that one I think he will get traded write it down I wonder who will actually trade for with the way he's played this year but he did have a very good season last year as far as the deadline priorities for the Astros as we continue are you down with Dana Brown he said this here he is being a politician we have a chance to move the needle that's our goal we just got to get a deal done we want to get a starter to really impact our rotation and a bullpen piece we in the grind to make it happen interesting that he brought up starter and Bullpen not a bat continued Brown we're looking at all avenues anything to make this club better but most important is a starter if we can add a bat we'll try and do that too I don't think they're expecting Luis Garcia to come back this year and I don't wow Joe you're just dropping takes on us let's go and I I I don't understand Justin Verlander as much as I don't understand Kyle Tucker I was talking to Port Marine about this yesterday on Twitter when I put out that you know Dana Brown needs to be on the phone he brought up Tucker and JV and I'm where I'm at with Justin Verlander where I'm at with Kyle Tucker I just don't understand because they're not telling us the severity of the injury you know it's a neck injury that was it was just a stiff neck and it's just he's not making real you know substantial progress both these guys you're talking about September for them JV is going to need a rehab start as well at this point last update we got was what he threw 15 pitches last week I think it was something like that so he he's a September guy end of August KY Tucker might be end of August September guy the Rangers are on your ass like yeah they're three games back like they're playing the white socks and they're playing bad competition right now and you're more concerned with them than you are the Mariners 100% and last night just reaffirmed it with what the Mariners did against the Angels they lost 5-1 to the angels yeah and the Rangers beat the White Sox 32 so I I just I can't trust that the Astros what they're saying about Tucker and Verlander and Garcia is actually the truth because these small injuries supposedly have turned into major injuries they've kept them out for a while and and maybe they are just being cautious with Garcia that jumped when I heard you say that well because he had the little setback mhm and but but it felt like the last update for Garcia was well he's doing what he was doing not that long ago again it's just he still seems so far away like it still feels he's two to three rehab starts away from coming back so you're still talking 15 days I I I get that I I heard you say that that you you aren't expecting Garcia back and maybe you were talking McCullers no I mean yeah I mean no I mean Garcia like just it's if he needs two or three more rehab starts at this point I'm just I'm Negative Nancy right now I'm just expecting something to go wrong ah it just feels like everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for the Astros in their rehabing of their injured players this year whether it's McCullers Garcia verland or Tucker like it's just it's not they're not unfortunately they're not probably doing anything wrong it's just a lot of bad luck but I don't think you can go into the trade deadline on Tuesday next week and say with confidence that Justin Verlander and Luis Garcia are the savior to the Houston Astros in 2024 what are you talking about Dan is going to tell us that those are the trade deadline Acquisitions and Pedro Leon also a trade deadline acquisition and well if Kyle Tucker comes back also a trade deadline acquisition but it's like the waiver trade deadline September old school trade deadline when they got JV yeah Dana Brown's bringing it back at least with how he frames it uh are you down with Dana Brown the last couple of things that he had to say he is focusing on pitchers a third or fourth starter would be great it's going to cost you it would be nice to lock one down and put them in our mix it'll be difficult to try and get a number one or number two in this market so they're looking for a three or a four contined Dana we're in the market and acquiring the best pitcher possible well hang on I mean then then try and get a one or a two right Dana if we can lock down continued Dana a starter we feel really good about that and also adding a bullpen piece we're working our tail off to make that happen it makes a lot of sense they don't have the prospects to go get uh Terk scoble or Garrett crochette the white sock pitcher you mentioned I can't remember his name I was talking to a buddy about him last night uh the white sock pitcher's name is Eric Freddy they might have enough for him but you know if they're the white sock have the fortune a position that if they're talking to three teams about Garrett crochet then they can say hey well if you don't get crochet what do you want for for this guy and they can kind of raise the price of him as well so you might be out of that market and your best Prospect right now is Jacob Melton and you know you know TK and Blum talked about this last night last night Dana Brown has been quoted last year at the deadline saying that he would lose sleep if he traded Jacob melt imagine having nightmares over that that's your Kyle Tucker replacement what a weirdo I know but that's that's who's rep I traded Jake Melton oh god oh man oh God he waking up in a cold sweat what I mean I would more have nightmares about I don't know my training staff being a bunch of six 1600's Barber surgeon accidentally hacking people's limbs off yeah allegedly I I don't know if they're actually doing that it just feels like that at sometimes