Therapy Time

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Three one, and the Rose Arena hits it high in
the air and deep to left field. Alvarez won't even
move as that winds up in the second deck.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'll go ahead.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Two run home run for a Rose Arena who flips
his bat all the way to Seattle dugout. Mariners lead
five to three, one one. Alvarez hits it well and
hits it deep to right field. Rarely is going back,
and you can kiss that one goodbye. Eight rows into
the seats and right field, a three run shot for
Jordon Alvarez. That's Jordon's fifth home run of the year.

(00:30):
And the Astros are a little closer. It's nine to
six Seattle.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Steve Vincenzo inherits the basketball and the inbounds and it
is over. The Minnesota Timberwolves have ended their Rockets eight
game winning streak, eight wins sandwiched between two Minnesota lawsuits.
Final tonight here inside Tota Center, Wolves won thirty six
Rockets one thirty two.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
You literally couldn't buy a win last night in the
city of Houston. All right, let's get this show on
the road. Welcome on in Space a Saturday right here
on Sports Talk seven ninety sept friends, it's Cole Thompson
rocking with you for the next two hours. As this
is just going to be community therapy. I mean, like,
let's be real. What happened last night out of Toyota Center,
I think was a clear indication on what to expect

(01:16):
for potentially a postseason run with the Rockets, and then
of course what we saw out in t Mobile Park.
Pitching remains a problem. Offense went stale at times. You
relied on two key hits from one guy that wasn't
even on the roster a month and a half ago
and the other one that's en route to be potentially
an MVP. So seven one three two one two five
seven ninety is the guest line if you want to

(01:37):
join on in phone lines are open and I am
here to be your therapist getting you through what hopefully
is going to be one of the more quiet as
like I just beg for a quiet day in the
city of Houston because you really needed all. Right, where
do you want to start. Let's go with the Let's
go with the astroscause. I think that's a little bit
more poignant. I can get to the rockets in a
little bit, but when it comes to the Astros. You know,

(01:59):
last night, for me, at least just for me as
a sports fan, I felt good. Now, I understand, the
Assles were on a four game losing streak. They just
got swept by one of the worst rosters in baseball,
who's going to have likely fewer wins than the Dever
Nuggets have this year. But it was totsy Am I
and he my gave me hope because of what we
saw when he was out in West Sacramento. Two different sliders,

(02:22):
one with wicked movement that just automatically drops it and
makes a batter go down to one knee and pray
that whoever is on the mound is not gonna go
ahead and take their head off. You had a line
up that was really well put together, Like I actually
appreciate Joe Spot of looking and saying Bryce Matthews right
now can't hit, and I've no idea what I'm getting
in Taylor Tremmell, and we gotta get a win. So

(02:43):
your non dan the excuse to potentially us try to
make sure that you don't get injured. We gotta throw
you out in left field. You do Eastach Peretes, you
had j Josel Tuvey, you had Correa back, you had
Jeremy Panga. I like the lineup I did, and I
was optimistic because of when you're down, the only way
that you can can continue to survive is with optimism.
And that went away within like twenty minutes, and the

(03:06):
reality struck on in that it's gonna be a long
season for the Astros. Now do I think of the
offense is going to have its lowells, but for the
most part, probably be a contingency. I do. Like I
look at Christian Walker last night, who had two double
inning double plays, I say to myself, Yeah, he's probably
due for a bad one. He'll bounce back today and
I'll probably go to a four and I'll take a

(03:28):
walk and I'll drive in a run and we'll call
it a day. Like That's probably what we're gonna see.
Do I think that Jordan Alvarez isn't slowing down anytime
soon when it comes to the offensive side of just
torquing balls four hundred and fifty feet in the second
deck of stadiums, I don't think that's changed it anytime soon.
All two, it's gonna be fine. I think for the
most part, you get a little bit more of Korea
coming on back in. I want to see Eastside Parades

(03:50):
and Jeermy Page get their acts together because they do
not look like twenty twenty five versions of themselves. And
one you can go give a slight lean to because
of he missed most of of spring training, whether it
was with the WBC or the injury, the parade has
been struggling. I think it they'll figure it out. I'm
not hitting the panic button on anything offensively. From what
I saw last night, three were I mean two big

(04:12):
hits for six runs, bases loaded in one instance, two
on in the other. I'm not worried. I am passed
the point of just saying it's a concern. No, it's
a problem now for the pitching. It's a problem for
the pitching, and honestly, I don't think it's gonna get fixed.
It may get fixed enough to where you're able to
avoid what I would consider to be a sub five

(04:34):
hundred season, but it's not changing overall. Currently, looking at
the series tonight, as the Astros sent Lance McCullers Junior
onto the mound, starters are averaging in sixty innings pitch
five point five to five ERA. That's your era going
into the tonight's game. Oh, by the way, Lance McCullers,
you have no idea what you're gonna get from him.
You may get the six inning game, you may end

(04:54):
up getting the seven nighting game, you may end up
getting a game to where he's pulled on out within two.
You literally have no idea what you're getting right now
in Lance mcculluy junior. And that's okay. That's why he's
your number five. Here's what I do know. You need
Lance to go far because your bullpen it ain't much better.
In fact, it's far worse. Relievers right now, for the

(05:15):
Astros have a seven point eight ER as a team,
they have a six thirty two ERA. That's the worst
in baseball. They lead the majors in walks. Last night,
ten batters reach space for free, and then you gotta
throw in two more because if they got hit by
the pitch. Tatsui MAI's control was erranic. I mean, like literally,

(05:35):
I heard Dan Matthews talking about this yesterday saying that
he was a Jedi. No, you know what he was, Frankie,
he was a stormtrooper. Because stormtroopers can't hit anything like
you look at the like, you look at the way
that they go about, like somebody should have shot Luke
once Han Solo should one hundred percent be dead. But
you're a stormtrooper and you can't see anything out out
of the mask, so you just shoot everywhere. And that

(05:56):
was his control last night. Wild pitches count balls that
hit the dirt. They had one in against you, and
you go one point one innings. You went from being
a five point two guy with nine strikeouts to I
can't even finish the first frame, like that's what we
saw last night, And now you don't have to, and

(06:16):
now you don't have your work horse in Hunter Brown.
The other workhorse is currently playing at Camerica Park because
you don't want to bring him back. And I respect that.
I do, I personally would have, but I respect that
Christian Avire is now joined Hunter Brown on the IL
And by the way, just because it's a Grade two
strain and they say they're gonna shut you down for
two weeks, two weeks is the bare minimum before you

(06:37):
start ramping it back up. Then you have to ramp
it back up, and then you probably have to do
a couple of uh practice games simulated matchups on the mound,
and then if all goes according to plan, they'll give
you a passway to get back into the majors. So
we're really talking about six weeks probably, And for one guy,

(06:57):
it's the first time he's ever been on the il,
so maybe you'll say he'll ramp it up a little
bit faster, or they'll be cautious with him, so therefore
they're not gonna rush anything, and then you have the
next time. And the frustrating part, which is more frustrating
me more than anything else, is that Christian Navier, who's
dealt with injuries, dealt with shorter strains, dealt with issues.
All of that. You're probably talking about two and a

(07:20):
half three months potentially, So I don't got two starters.
You have no idea who are gonna be your starters tomorrow,
which you'll figure out today. Joe Spot's gonna make the announcement,
and then who's coming on up? Are you gonna do
a bullpen game when you play on Monday before you
come on back home to diyke in to take on
the Colorado Rockies, Which that's a series that you just

(07:40):
got to take advantage of. You were killing it at home.
Swing in the bat. Pitching was yah, But you'll live
with mia. If your offense looks like it did against
the Boston Red Sox, as it did in the second
two games against the Los Angeles, you'll live for that
against the Rockies because their pitching is not gonna be
able to be good. Like I don't think you'll see
another game of Kyle frielan looking like an ace or

(08:02):
a quality number two. But you're in a world of
hurt right now. You are. And for the first time,
it feels like in this regime since really the run
started back in twenty sixteen, I mean twenty fifteen, like
the first time that you felt like, Okay, times have changed,
We're actually gonna be competitive. There's not an answer to

(08:23):
fix this. There isn't like Dana Brown has brought up
multiple times, Yeah, we got arms in the bullpen, we
got depth on this team. Okay, you have quantity, what
about quality? And so I've been to having people all
the time, what do you want to do. Do you
want the quality of player or do you want the quantity?
Because with quantity, it's just like, yeah, you can go
ahead and replace a name. Willy Nilly but guess what

(08:43):
if it's still the same results, you're ending up finding
a way to lose. If you get the quality of player, yeah,
your banking you are absolutely dead to rights. If they
end up missing multiple weeks, multiple months, you are. But
but they're probably gonna bail you out of trouble a

(09:04):
lot more, put you in a better position a lot more.
And the Ashers right now, I don't know what you
want to make of it. Mike Burrows does not look
anywhere near what he did when he was in West
Palm Beach, which again you shouldn't have expected that, and
I was wrong for doing that. I think most people
were Christianavier and Hunter Brown their sidelined, and you got
a bank on guys like Spencer Arraghetty coming on up

(09:27):
and not being a number five and actually being a
number two, and that Tetsu. What we saw last night
was a one and done like that can't happen again
or else. This team is gonna be another year of
what ifs. What if we actually went out and brought
in X, Y and Z top tier pitchers, which you couldn't.
But I'm just saying that's what it is. Pitting's a problem.

(09:48):
You're in a world of hurt. And it's frustrating because
if I don't think it's gonna get fixed anytime soon,
I don't, I could be genuinely wrong. I'm not ready
to panic and say the team's not going to the
playoffs again. You look around the major leagues. Detroit, Detroit
is struggling beyond belief. Detroit I had as my World
Series pick. They're currently in last place in the American
League Central. Like they're dead to rights. They're not good

(10:11):
right now. I'm not changing my stands on them. Toronto
six and seven, I thought they would be probably the
second best team in the American League. Their pitching is
all over the place because of injuries. They'll be fine.
They'll figure it out. You have the I mean, you
still have the Marlins in first place in the NL East, Like,
come on, you can go on the phrases however you want.
I'm not changing my opinion on where I am with

(10:32):
the Astros. They'll figure things out and they'll still get
into that eighty plus win range and they'll still win
the division or at least be a wild card team.
I can stand on that. But I got an argument
with somebody earlier this week, saying, just because if I
think that they're a playoff team, shouldn't that mean I
believe that they're a World Series contender. I don't think so.

(10:52):
You're winning it if you're gonna have to win games
where it's a nine to eight finish and all of
your runs have got to come in the form of
low long balls from Jordan Alvarez, Christian Walker and Jose
al Tuve. You take those three out again, a one
nothing differential will be all it takes for the Air
team to go ahead and pull it on out. And
that's what we're kind of seeing right now. But ashers

(11:15):
turn to night, you canna listen to the game right
here on on seven ninety hopefully lance callers Junior does
not look like tatsu E Mai and said, looks more
like hunor Brown seven one three, two one two five
seven ninety phone lines or open if you want to
get on in. All right, Rockets. I said something yesterday
on the Morning Drive about how this team actually controls

(11:37):
the destiny of the Western Conference playoffs. I was wrong,
because I'm gonna tell you who actually controls the destiny
of the Western Conference playoff next one segment down six
more to go, don't go anywhere. It's space a Saturday
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Space a Saturday
rolling right along here on sports Soock seven ninety sep Friends,
it's Cole Thompson, rockin Wich You Frankie Westmoreland on the
ones and twos. Seven one three, two, one two five

(11:58):
seven ninety is the number if you want to get
on in. Astros lose last night, they now lose five straight.
Seattle Mariners hopefully going to be now punched in the
mouth by Lance mccolors this evening. Rockets lose last night
to the miss so Timberwolve, snapping an eight game win streak,
and we're only eleven days away from the NFL draft.

(12:20):
Or if the Texans to have picked number twenty eight,
let's discuss all that more. Seven one thirty two one
two five seven ninety. Okay, Do I want to talk
about the team that I think is going to control
the Western Conference? D I want to talk about the
Rockets game last night. I'm gonna go with the former,
and then we'll work our way into the ladder. So
yesterday morning, drive Dan and Coles Sports Tax seven ninety,
you should listen to it from six to ten every
single morning. I said that the San Antonio Spurs we're

(12:42):
going to control the pathway of the postseason for every
team in the Western Conference. And to a degree I
stand on that because if I was saying that, maybe
depending on what happened with last night's game San Antonio
and Dallas, especially with wemen Yama having to play one
more time to qualify for any postseason accolades, I figured, Okay,

(13:05):
if he doesn't play in that game, you face off
against Denver on Sunday, maybe you want to go ahead
and take on LA in the second round. Because no
matter what I think that you can look at both
Oklahoma City and San Antonio. They can face off against
whichever team gets the seven and the eight. That series
is gonna be done in five, so they're gonna have
time to rest. Who would you rather face Denver or

(13:29):
Los Angeles or Houston even for that matter, mostly would
be one of those two, LA or San Antonio. Well,
then here's what happened last night. Weben Yama played. He
got forty points in twenty six mants. He was fourteen
to twenty three from the field. He was ten of
eleven for the free thrower range. He had thirteen boards,
so he's probably sitting. He is probably sitting in Sunday's finale.

(13:49):
That's my inclination. So now the team that you have
to watch for is the Denver Nuggets. Really, that's what
you have to do. Denver wins last night over Oklahoma City.
It was basically a tankathon game between two teams that
truly had, in the eyes of the public, nothing to
play for. And that's not a shot, it's just the reality.
Starters were resting from both sides, and ultimately you felt

(14:12):
better about the bench of what you had with Denver,
which is why they won one twenty seven to one
oh seven. But it's not like you were seeing SGA
take the court. It's not like you were seeing Yo
kitch out there. It was backups, That's what it was. Apologies,
So now never sitting at four fifty three and twenty eight,
they still aren't locked in as a three seed because

(14:35):
here's what happened, ladies, gentlemen. I don't know if you
remember this, but this is why every game does matter,
even the quote unquote blowoff games that you have in December,
the ones that won't come back to bite you in November.
The Lakers own the tie breaker between both Houston and Denver.
So Houston loses last night, they're out of an opportunity

(14:56):
to get the three seed. They already were banking on
everyone else losing, so wasn't gonna matter anyways. But still
the other two teams win, they're locked into the five. Denver,
if they lose to San Antonio, they play Houston in
round one. If they win and LA loses, they're a

(15:16):
three seed. They could take on Minnesota. Now, the same
logic is gonna be used here. The same logic is
gonna be used here the way that it's used for
the Spurs. I said yesterday, what do I mean, who
do you want to face off against in round two?
Is a better question, because if you're the Nuggets, the

(15:38):
Nuggets could easily handle business against I think both the
Rockets and the Timberwolves. Now that's not a shot at
the Rockets. I'll talk about that in a second. I
just think that Denver is a more complete team. Do
you feel better about your matchup facing on against the
Spurs fully healthy victor women, Yama, a team that's beat
you three times in the regular season, or Golden State?

(16:01):
And why is this so poignant? Because if the Nuggets
lose to the Spurs, you're going to Denver here in Houston,
and that's round one. And for the Rockets, even with
as bad as it was last night defensively, I look
at the Lakers and I say, come on, thankfully you
got the wins earlier in the year. You don't have

(16:22):
Austin Reeves, you don't have Luka Doncic. You're basically relying
on insert second player to go along with Lebron James.
You're a lottery pick team or you're a playing tournament team.
And that's not to say that they can't find a
way to get an upset win here or there. But everybody,
I think would be very much on the same page. Hey,
can the Rocket I mean, can the Lakers win a

(16:42):
series without Luca and Austin Reeves and just rely heavily
on forty year old Lebron James carry them. Nobody's buying that.
Nobody is buying into that. So for the Rockets, even
with as bad as you looked last night defensively, I
still think that you would win the series. I don't
feel that way about Denver, and I don't think anybody
feels that way about Denver. I think it's right not

(17:04):
to feel that way about Denver. So it's really important
because of if Denver says the easier pathway for US
is to go face off against Minnesota and then take
on San Antonio as the three seed, then let's just
go ahead and win tonight. Let's play some starters, maybe
for only like half the game. They come on out there,

(17:24):
and now we're gonna face off against Timberwolves. A Timberwols
see that right now is healthier. A Timberwolves scene that
saw the return of ant It looked really good last night.
A Timberwols scene that does have some depth. It was
just too little, too late for them to move up
any more traction. They were stuck in the sixth seed.
I think that you still win that series in six
at worse if you're Denver. But I do feel like

(17:45):
it is a little bit more challenging compare to what
you would have with La. Do you feel better about
playing San Antonio or playing Golden State? Because if you
feel better about playing Golden State, I mean Oklahoma City.
Because if you feel better about playing Oklahoma City, Houston's
getting a front to go face off against the Joker,
and he's gonna have the last laugh on his way
to another first round exit. For you guys, that's just

(18:06):
the case. So I was very high on Denver going
into the year. I actually said I thought Denver was
the most complete team not named Oklahoma City, and that's
the roster that can go ahead and challenge the Thunder
in a seven game set. I was very high on them.
I'm not gonna apologize for it. I thought the Rockets

(18:26):
were gonna be the third best team in the Western Conference.
I did. I thought that they were gonna be much
more improved, much more consistent shooting. They were gonna have
a veteran leader in the middle of the of the
middle of the court, and for the most part, they've
had some of that this season. They've had a lot
of that this season, in my opinion. But I'm begging

(18:46):
the NBA lords, those who sit above that are deciding
how the Western Conference playoffs are gonna pan on out
for the sanctity of this city. Not for me, but
for the sanctity of the city. Let Denver beat the
breaks off of San Antonio on Sunday, please, Like I
think that we all need it, because if I can't

(19:07):
see another crash out. It would be a valid crash
out if for some way the Rockets who started playing
better offensively, they were on a run. You felt good
about Aman Thompson, you feel better about Jabari Smith defensively,
You're starting to play a little bit more cohesive, only
to run to the buzzsaw of round one of the
Denver Nuggets. When you thought, especially after Luca d Austin Reeves

(19:30):
went out, that you were gonna have a front row
seat to be able to make it to the second round.
I think a lot of people have gotten on board
to beat This is a team that has its faults.
But you know what, at least you could say you
got past the round of where you were a season
ago without Kad. You need Denver to win like this
entire city should be cascading in the Gold and the
Blue and the Crimson red because of you are pulling hard,

(19:53):
not because of some in state rivalry crap, No, because
of you don't want to face off against Denver. You'll
want La because you can go into the stable center
or whatever it's called now and handle business. Everybody knows that.
Like whoever faces off against La, even with as lacks
of days ago as I think that the Rockets were,
and they have been this entire season. You're gonna win

(20:16):
that series. You are. If there's no Luca and there's
no Austin Reeves, You're gonna win the series. It may
come down to the wire. You may have some anxiety,
anxiety panic attacks along the way. That might happen, but
you gonna win that series. And then your reward is
facing off against Oklahoma City. Okay, Oklahoma City is the
most complete team in the NBA this year. They potentially

(20:36):
have a back to back MVP on the roster. We'll
settle with losing to them. We will. It's not gonna
be pretty, but we'll settle for it. You're gonna be
very very very much on edge, dealing with non verbal
comments and just pure frustration for the next five months.

(20:59):
If you thought you were taken on LA and then
because of a loss last night to a team that
didn't have half of its starters out there, and yet
I'm and Thompson scoring a career high looking the part
of what you did when you drafted him out of
drafted him in the top five a few years ago.
That guy, you're gonna beyond frustrated that your reward for

(21:21):
turning the act around at the end of the season
is facing off against a Denver team because Denver saying,
you know what, let's rest our starters. We feel better
about playing OKAC in round two, then we feel better
about playing San Antonio in round two. Because that's really
what this is. Guys. If I'm being completely honest, I
feel like Denver, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City you can
put them against any team in the Western Conference. All

(21:42):
three are moving on to the second round. It's who
is going to be that fourth froster. I feel like
it's gonna be the Rockets. I hope it's gonna be
the Rockets, because for some reason, LA is gonna get
the four seed. I just have that gut inclination that
they are and it's because that they face off against Utah,
and Utah outside of Memphis, is the only team that
is guaranteeingly trying to openly tank and the NBA is

(22:04):
just let it fly on by. That's it. If you
face off against Denver in round one, my point still stands.
So you're pulling for Denver this week at hard and
you hope that Mitch Johnson and Wemby and all those
guys that they get abliterated. It's not because if you
want Denver, you're saying that Dever's great team. It's because
if you want La, you openly want Lac, you could

(22:27):
actually move on to the second round. Seven one three
two one two five seven ninety is the guest line
if you want to get on in. Let's stay on
the Rockets conversation what went wrong last night? Because a
lot of people are gonna be focusing in on the defense.
What if I told you it wasn't the defense that
cost the Rockets a ninth straight win. We'll discuss that
more coming up next right here on Space Space a Saturday,
Sports Talk seven ninety Dead Space a Saturday, rolling right

(22:49):
along here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Sub friends Cole
Thompson Rocking with Shoe Phone lines are open at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. You can
also listen to the show anytime that you download the
iHeart Radio apping your preset Sports Talk seven ninety as
your number one listen. Rockets lose last night one thirty six,
one thirty two to the Timberwolves. They are locked in
as the number five seed. The Astros, speaking of the

(23:11):
number five, have lost five straight after last night's nine
to sixty feet against the Seattle Mariners. Texas on the
clocket picked number twenty eight for now we know that's
probably gonna change, all right. Seven one, three, two two
five seven ninety. Shout out to listeners for call me
out because I spoke wrong last segment. So let's correct
it real fast. Dever doesn't need La to lose. If

(23:33):
Dever wins, there the three seed. So basically, if Denver one,
if Denver wins, they're gonna face off against uh, They're
gonna They're gonna face off against Masata like that, Like
that's what it comes down to. Cool, Now we got
that out of the way. I'm begging that they don't
have to face off against Houston, so I will say
I don't want to happen. Let's go to the phone lines.
William in League City, William, what's on your mind?

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Dude? Oh? How you doing? Coland John your show this morning?

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (23:57):
Think I think Rockets fans might want to be a
little careful about wanting the Lakers, because remember what happened
a couple of weeks ago. Even though the Lakers have
a lot of injuries, but it's the Rockets in the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Because I was picking the.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
Same things last year when they matched up against Goland State.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
I said, no way the Goland.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
State could clean the Rockets foul, and they did. So
I think you might want to be a little bit
careful about saying you know who you want, because I'm
watching all these different matchups and i can't see anybody
that the Rockets don't win against in the faish ramp.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
I feel you, Well, let me ask you a lot
of curiosity. Just if you look at right now the Lakers,
you have the Nuggets. Who do you feel more confident
in at least making it a series against?

Speaker 4 (24:48):
Okay, all right, I see them.

Speaker 5 (24:50):
I see them being competitive and competitive with the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
But I know Luca and Reeves are out right. You
remember here, and he'sa They cleaned the Rockets plied back
to back, So they.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Did they have Luca in that game? Man, Just a reminder,
they did have Luca in that game. So you know Luca,
Luca was going through all of this, was going through
all his personal life stuff, and he was taking down
on the Rocket like it was a frustration back. That's
what it was.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
But see, the only thing that I'm a little bit
deliriy up. Everybody is just so, oh, we want the Lakers.
We want the Lakers. That's what I'm saying. That's what
you gotta back up on a little bit, you know,
because it's the playoffs. Teams changed in the playoffs and
uh and and you know what what scared me last
night was a me and Thompson going off for forty

(25:43):
one points. You know, everybody said, oh, that's great, but
if a man is leading you in points, you're not
gonna win a game.

Speaker 6 (25:52):
So so he he.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Had a big game last night, and they still got
their their clocks clean.

Speaker 6 (25:57):
So I'm a little bit worse.

Speaker 5 (25:59):
So so I'm saying Rockets fans, be careful when you
ask about who you want.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
I tell you, and I appreciate the phone call, my man. Look,
I said this yesterday. I'll say it again. If the
Rockets lose to the Lakers, I don't think it's because
the Lakers are a better team. I don't. I want
you to honestly look at the rosters where they stand
right now. If Kevin Durant alpin ching gun, I'm and

(26:25):
Thompson Reed Sheppard coming off at the bench right now,
throwing some throwing, Tari Easton Jabari Smith. I want you
to look at that roster. Now, look at the Lakers
who do not have a Luka Dacic. They do not
have in Austin Reeves. Their best score is probably Lebron

(26:50):
and then it's a combination of either Rijachimura, DeAndre Eaton,
Luke Canarden and if you want to throw somebody off
of the bench, and maybe you could say Jared fan Belt.
Those are the two teams. Just to look at them
straight up. Who are you taking? There's a clear answer.
You don't have to know a single thing about the NBA,

(27:11):
and you know that you're taking Katie right now with
the cast of characters that he has behind him over Lebron.
And the has been a team that is currently being
put together now that the Lakers win the series, which
is possible. William did say that, and I won't push
back entirely because the Lakers can win the series. It's
the NBA playoffs. Anything is up for grabs. It's because

(27:32):
the Rockets beat themselves. The Lakers did not find a
way to prove that they were the more complete team,
they were more balanced, that they had better efficiency. It
would be because of what we witnessed throughout this entire
run over the last several months. That's what it is.
Last night, the Rockets lose. They lose to Minnesota, and

(27:54):
give credit recreds to having Anthony Edwards coming back into
your lineup is awesome. Twenty two points. He was seven
or fourteen for the field, so he shot fifty percent
of the field last night. You know, he's a game changer.
You still have guys like Julius Randall on this roster.
You saw Bones Highland. You still have a bunch of
good depth on this team where I could see a
s Anario where Minnesota could win that game. Here's the problem.

(28:14):
Half of them didn't play last night. You didn't have
Julius Randall out there. You didn't have a Bones Highland
out there. You had Dante Devincenzo as really your number two.
No Nasried, no Jada McDaniels, no where to go beer. Yeah,
had Anthony Edwards who came back in the lineup, and
Dante DiVincenzo who had eighteen points. So that's not the

(28:37):
same Timberwolves team that we're talking about. It's much like
when you face off against the Timberwolves the first time
where the losing started, or I guess came to an end,
because then you started the eight game winning streak. You
had one starter on the court in overtime and you
had a thirteen point lead and your offense was humming,
and then you played horrible defensively and you allowed Minnesota

(28:59):
to start gaining some momentum and it led to the
biggest comeback in overtime history. That's what happened. You got complacent,
and last night, if you were facing off against a
fully healthy Timberwolves team with your starters out there, one
thirty six, one thirty two, a four point deferential doesn't
look that bad. But it wasn't them, just like it

(29:22):
wasn't a Yannis led Milwaukee Bucks team a few weeks
ago to where you were up by twenty and now
you're only up by four, just like it was literally
the night before against Philadelphia, and I get it was
back back, so naturally anything is possible. You could lose
a game, and I did expect that the Rockets would
find a way to lose at least one game during
the stretch down to close out the year, but you

(29:42):
didn't have Joel Embie out there. And here we are
once again talking about a team that is now a
play in tournament roster and they've been without Joel for
most of the season. So it's not like that, you know,
this is the outlier of oh, well, they're now finding
a way to win without them. No, it was more
so they've dealt with Joelle missing time. But you go
from having a twenty point lead to a five point
lead and you're dealing with a bunch of G leaguers

(30:06):
And that's the frustrating part. What I thought really lost
the Rockets the game last night because we could talk
about the defense. Yeah, it was bad. I mean it
was basically just who wants to go ahead and shoot
consistently type of performance, but the three point shooting was
all was erratic. It was my opinion, that's what lost
of the game. You have one team that was scoot
that was shooting fifteen to thirty from the court, so
fifty percent they had. What would that be If I'm

(30:29):
not mistaken, matth that's not my strong suit. If you
can't tell thirty three points pretty sure, that's what it is.
Numb thirty We'll get back to that. Don't worry about it.
You had twelve, you were four to nine. I mean
four to nineteen. Two came from Reid, two came from Jabari.
That was your three point shooting last night. And in
a game where right now you're not playing defense, that's

(30:52):
gonna be the outlier. And it hurt the Rockets last night.
Rockets had a lead, was a close lead, found a
way to go ahead and blow out the line. Second
here becames Minnesota rolling on up, locked on into the
sixth seed. They were able to pull away. But in
a four point swing, when one team is fifty percent
for the three point range and you are nineteen percent
twenty one percent, you're not one of that game. It's frustrating.

(31:16):
And what the really frustrating part is that you had
a really efficient knie Fromkeviy Kd. I thought alprin Jingoum
played great. I thought Jabari in forty minutes five or twelve,
two or six from the court looked fine. I'm on
tops that at night. I mean not only he played
forty two minutes, but forty one points a career high
seventeen to twenty two from the field, seven to seven
for the free throw line, nine boards, seven assists, thought

(31:37):
an overall very solid game from him. It's frustrating because
of again, you knew that the other shoe was finally
going to drop. Does that mean going ahead and hating
on the Rockets. I don't like doing that. I don't
think the Rockets are a fine team. I think the
Rockets are gonna finish the year with a win against
Memphis because Memphis doesn't care about basketball anymore. They care
about the lottery picks. They care about getting as many
ping pong balls inside the rollerdecks as much as they

(32:01):
possibly can. That's what they care about. But it's frustrating
because of while you may tie your wind total from
a season ago, how much more improved are you? Actually?
He is there to watch for so I can say
seven one three two one two five seven ninety. Let's
get back to the Astros conversation. What needs to change

(32:23):
is something that can change. I'm genuinely wondering is there
something that can change? And also, Frankie, I have to
discuss this with you. It'd be really interesting conversation. Something
pissed me off last night. I'll explain next right here
on Space Aday Saturday Sports Talk seven ninety Space Aday Saturday,
rolling right along here on sports Sook seven ninety sep Friends,
It's Cole Thompson rocking with you. Seven one thirty two,

(32:45):
one two five. Seven ninety is the number if you
want to get on in Rockets lose last night one
thirty six, one thirty two to the Timberwolves. They are
locked in as the five seed, awaiting the outcome of
the Lakers and the Nuggets to figure out where will
they play first? Mariners be the Astros now making the
Astros drop five straight in the Texans. They're on the
clocket picked umber twenty eight. Where do they go? Genuinely?

(33:07):
Are they even going to stay there? Let's discuss, Okay,
before we get the more Astro's conversation, Frankie, I need
your opinion on this because if I know that your
nerdism is gonna come on out, and it's the one
thing that I think you and I get along get
along on some things, all right, So, okay, were you
a big fan of chimb One Pokemon? No, I can't
say I was. You were not a fan of Okay,

(33:27):
so maybe this is not gonna be made for you.
Maybe this is just me You know who they are though, right,
I'm familiar with some of the Pokemon. Do you know
who the top three are? The starters? Right? Well, I
mean there's Pikachu that's not a starter, but still, okay,
let's see. Do you know who the other three are?
I don't know. Uh? Do you know who Charmander is? Yeah?
Do you know who Squirrel is?

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Do you know who Bubble Star is?

Speaker 6 (33:47):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Yeah, okay, yes, so you know the starters? Right? Okay? Yeah? Okay.
So I got an argument and it set me off
for a good hour and a half last night fighting
about this. So I want to get your Yeah you
know what they look like? Yes? You know what type
they are? Yes? What's the it's bulbos? The is the grass?

(34:09):
Oh he's grass squirrels, water squirrels. Watch Charmander's fire? Okay,
right on? Yes? Who is the right starter Pokemon? Oh?
The one you like? The one I like? I know
who is the one I like?

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Right?

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Why are you like the rest of the public? I
gotten a forty five minute arguing about this why Squirrel
is badass and Charmander sucks? Okay, I'm sorry. We can
go ahead and go tip for tame with everyone about
how oh well, you know when you look at three
percent shooting, when you look at runners in scoring position,
erra of teams, how to build offensive lines. We can
all discuss on how things are supposed to be done.

(34:44):
I think it comes very clear as day. Number one
is freaking Squirrel. Number two is Charmander. Number three is Bulbasoor.
Nobody liked bobosare except for the kids that got picked
in last and kickball. That was what That's what those
Bulbostore people were. And there's a conversation that was going
on yes yesterday where they did a poll and fifty
four percent of people said, no, Charmander's the best. I

(35:05):
lost it. I could not stomach the fact that there
are people out there who could honestly come up with
this conversation and see any way, shape or form that
outside of the TV show, Charmander rocks and Squirrel plays
second fiddle. Screw you. It's a travesty, Frankie, It's a shame.
What's the X factor for Squirrel?

Speaker 6 (35:25):
For you?

Speaker 2 (35:25):
He turns into freaking blast to hoise, He's got cannons on
his back, he's gigantor oh, by the way, water kills fire.
You ever thought about that. I never thought about that.
That's say, there's a whole odd episode that made kids
cry in the nineties about Sharmader being left outside and
abanded by his owner. He's trying to keep the tail
alive because it's the flame that ignites his heart, so

(35:46):
a little drop of water could set him back in. Meanwhile,
he got turtle with tanks on his back. I mean,
I don't think this is a hard conversation, guys, thought
that we all came together on this seven nineties that
I'm gonna get in. We need to talk some asstros
because if not, you're gonna get me down a rabbit
hole that I'm not interested in going around today. So
the Asses have lost five straight? What needs to change? Better?

Speaker 6 (36:09):
Yet?

Speaker 2 (36:09):
What what can change? I guess would be the best approach, Guys.
I'm gonna be honest. The pitching is what it is
right now. The hope is that you can get at
least a starter moving forward, whoever it is you hope
that you can get them to go at least four
innings of work like that, Like, that's the hope. I

(36:29):
think that's fair four right now, because if you haven't
had that, your last two starters have gone to combined
one point one innings pitched, and they were supposed to
be year three and four. Mike Burrows is the only
guy right now that's gone every single game and giving
you five innings of work. He's the only one. I
may even say at this point, you're gonna have to

(36:51):
sell for three innings of work from your starter, and
then your bullpen's gonna be trained. I mean, like that's
that's just the bottom line. So what needs changed your offensive?
I don't know how Again, last night you have the
outlier of Christian Walker, which is fine. A couple of
double I mean couple of inning inning double plays. It hurts,
It looks dreadful. You know that it's not a good

(37:13):
look for your organization to have one of your better
hitters consistently rolling on over to short. But you're a
lot of bad game. I think it's okay. You gotta
get more. I think from Essach Paradis and Jeremy Pangam
something that is very intriguing to me that I did
not realize at first. Jeremy Payga is still struggling at
the plate. He is, it's been an issue this year.

(37:36):
Estac Parades is still struggling at the plate right now.
Last night was a step in the right direction. But
he has seven hits. He's I mean, he's got he's
got it. Currently a two to twenty six batting average
five or RBIs seff isn't in a home run his
obbs seven to twenty three. So it's not bad if
you put him in the four hole or the three hole.

(37:58):
I'm gonna need to see more consistency good news. Again,
last night was kind of the outlier. You put yourself
in a decent spot, had the big hit, got on base.
But I can't see more from him. I need to
see more from Jerry Pangham. And I'm not ready to
hit the panic button just yet. Partially more so than partially,
it's just the reality. I know that I knew. I

(38:19):
knew I was getting a guy who was gonna be
a little bit rusty because of him missing spring training. Now,
I didn't think it was going to be this bad,
because there was a point last night where situational hitting
I think plays it out. You never want to take
one for the team. I don't think that's the right move.
But there was a pitch last night when Andres Munnos
was at the plate and it came on in and

(38:40):
it's like, dude, just wear it, like honestly, just take it.
Not because I want you to get hurt, but you
know that you had the album pad on. You should
have been protected. And who comes up to the plate next.
You're not Alvarez with the go ahead run. You're not
already hit a three hundred and ninety eight foot or
four hundred and fifteen foot blast earlier in the game

(39:01):
to tack on three more and double the scoring for
the Astros offense like he did that. So you have
an opportunity to now go up with the best left
handed bat and baseball against a pitcher that clearly is
struggling with his command, and he was last night. You
could see that after the first two outs on just
Muno's the walk to Joey let Praffito, the Tanta Tramount bat,

(39:27):
he was starting to get a little erratic. And that's
what happened. With the closure that's supposed to be out
there for like fifteen pitches, you were able to work
it in your advantage. Now again, the swing wasn't terrible.
Leo Reeves has made a good play on the ball.
He got to first bat, I mean he got to
third base. Game over, but knowing that you have an
opportunity for Jordan and Alvarez to get to the plate,

(39:47):
just saying it's a little frustrating, just a smitch. There's
a little frustrating in something that I think that needs
to be changed just enough. But you need to see
more from them. I'm not asking anything else in the
OUTFA again right now. Jake Myers was fine as your
number nine hitter. It wasn't great, but fine, I guess
it'd be the right word. I think he an Smith.

(40:08):
It is probably the one guy that you can trust
when it comes to your hitting side of things. I
think you're fine with that, but outside that, I'm not
I'm not asking much from Joey Librafido, who again had
a couple of bad plays lost, I mean, had a
couple of bat swings last night. I'm not asking much
for Taylor Trammel, who just got caught on up. And
Taylor Trammell again is a guy that you just are

(40:29):
thrown in the bottom of your lineup, which is interesting
because of like he's like in middle of heart of
your lineup in triple A, Like that's who he is,
but who's saying. I mean, I on a hitting has
got a change. Christian Basquez also has got being your
starting lineup. I think moving forward, it's not a shot
at yer do I think that Yroner can figure it out. Maybe,

(40:50):
but more and more. And I hate a greeting with
Dan on this one, I really do, because then I
have to say he's right, and I don't like when
he's always right on stuff. Actually is frustrating, but I
can understand why the calls are coming on in for Vasquez.
Vasquez is more timely when it comes to plate. His
swing approach is much better. He's not going outside the zone.
I mean he had a one to two count, he

(41:11):
choked upon the bat and he was able to go
put the ball on the right spot over third base
and then watch it ricochet in the left field to
clear the bases. I mean, you'd love to see that
from Yiner. You would love to see just even a
consistent plate appearance where he's making contact and his swing
maybe a little late, but at least you know he's
putting the ball in play. You're not even getting that
right now. And defensively, he's been a fine pit He's

(41:33):
been a fine catcher. Both have been fine, not great,
not elite. Fine, they'll do. It's like a Matt Thomas
special word. They're fine catchers. Be a perfect Matt Thomas
catcher for being completely honest. If you don't have the
offensive approach from one side, which is again the thing
that makes a Yau Diaz consistent, then you have to

(41:54):
go with the hot hand. And the hot hand right
now is Christian Vasquez. He's got ninety four ops, he's
got three forty eight bad average. He's one of he's
in the top five. And RBIs for your team. Like
you saw that right like you everyone saw that last
night because the three run bagger, that the three run double.
He is now in your top five. Arbiyes he's played
the least amount of games of everyone in the lineup.

(42:16):
He's gotta stay hot. And maybe again you can say,
well he is gonna be utilized and because of I
thought that he was only gonna be utilized as a
TOATSI my catcher and then maybe a Christian Haavier catcher.
Well now you can say Yan's still is gonna get three,
but we're gonna give you two, and you go Emi
and mccullor's back back dates. Maybe that ends up working
on out. Who's to say. All I know is that

(42:38):
right now, hitting wise, you're getting it from your On,
you're getting it from Altuve, you're getting it from Walker
some you're mostly getting it from camp Smith. Again, like,
I don't think that Cam needs to be anything more
than your number six five hitter. You'll love it. If
he ends up being more so closer towards number three hitter,
You'll take that. You'll think that's an assive win. But

(43:00):
right now you just need to be able to get
more consistency from guys like Korea, who slowly was working
his way back last night, had a big hit, got
on base, scored a run. I really think you need
to see it more from Jerry Pangham. You need to
see it more from East SoC Paradies, both those who
start turning in a round. Maybe you'll be able to
score more runs because that's howestly the only way that

(43:20):
you're running at this point. Colorado comes down next you
get Saint Louis, and Saint Louis is one of these
weird teams that at the point where we're talking today,
they're in first place in the Central. They're gonna fall off.
They are, they're a young team, and honestly, it's sounds
like the Miami Marlins. Like Miami, at some point, we'll
look at their roster and say, we're too good. We're

(43:41):
trying to stink. We don't want to beat this good.
This is not the year that we're trying to be competitive.
We're trying to build for the future. So they'll end
up going back, right And I think the same thing
is being said for Saint Louis at this point. They
got some young players, they got some pieces that they
really do like the weather whole Kid's been killing it
as a leadoff spot hitter. But they're not trying to
win this year. So you got to get advantage of

(44:02):
that starting next week when you face off against him
on Friday. You got those two series, you got a
series against Cleveland Guardians. Then you get to talk about
it in the Yankees. A lot of these games right now,
I think you're gonna have to be won like seven
to five, eight to three, not even go eight to five,
probably actually eight to six. Being real, nine to four.

(44:23):
That's what you're gonna need because your pitching is gonna
be a problem. Your offense is gonna have to be
the belt wagon that carries your bond seven one, three, two,
one two five, seven nineties. The number let's sucks some Texans.
We don't do that enough because of again, it's the
twenty eighth overall pick I do want to bring this
on up. CJ. Stroud and Will Anderson have gotten the
fiftyear option. Is it approve it year for one of

(44:46):
those two orras he locked up long term. I'll discuss
that next right here on Sports Talks. Seven to ninety.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Three one and the Rose Arena hits it high in
the air, a deep to left field. Alvarez won't even
move as that winds up in the second deck. I'll
go ahead. Two run a home run for a Rose
Arena who flips his bat all the way to Seattle dugout.
Mariners lead five to three one one. Alvarez hits it
well and hits it deep to right field. Rarely is
going back, and you can kiss that one goodbye. Eight

(45:14):
rows into the seats and right field, a three run
shot for Jordon Alvarez. That's Jordon's fifth home run of
the year, and the Astros are a little closer. It's
nine to six Seattle.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
Steve Vincenzo inherits the basketball and the inbounds, and it
is over. The Minnesota Timberwolves have ended their Rockets eight
game winning streak, eight wins sandwiched between two Minnesota lossits
final tonight here inside Tota Center, Wolves won thirty six
Rockets one thirty two.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
You couldn't buy a win for the city of Houston
last night, of you tried. All right, let's get the
show on the road. Welcome on into Space City Saturday.
Right here on Sports Talk seven nineties, sub Brins caled
Thompson Rocke with Chew for another hour before we send
you on over the local programming. But don't worry, we'll
be back later on because if you have the ash shows,
hopefully I think a five game losing streak and moving
to seven and eight on the year tonight when they

(46:06):
take on the Seattle Mariners. Meanwhile, the Rockets they're locked
into the five seed because if they lost last night
to the minnesot Timberwolves. And as for the Texans, they're
gonna be picking at number twenty eight in less than
thirteen days when they're on the clock. Who is going
to be the pick is that pick even gonna belong
to them. I don't know seven one three, two one
two five, seven ninety. This is your therapy to call

(46:26):
on in. Tell me what's on your mind, how you
feel about where the Astros are, because it is brutal
these days. Guys, we can be honest. Pitching's been bad off,
it's been sluggish. You're relying heavily on the big time
explosive hits to be able to drive in runs. And
you're worried about this team you are. I'm not ready
to go ahead and hit the entire panic button. There
are things I think could easily be corrected. There are

(46:49):
I don't know how much. I don't know when, but
they can be corrected. Too early of the season to
go full on this is gonna be the worst team
in baseball. You are allowed to question when it comes
to what this pitching staff is going to be. I
think that's fair. But more on them later. Let's talk
some Texans. So this past week, Dimigo Ryansic Casceiro said
on down and said, we are going to trust that

(47:11):
our former top three picks will deliver. So let's go
ahead and opt another fifth year deal. So will Anderson
junior and c J. Stroud get the fifth year option
one is going to be used just as a sliability.
This is like a you know, a spacing to say
we're gonna get the contract done. You're gonna be the
highest paid player at your position, just give us some time.

(47:33):
It's a stop gap. That's Will Anderson Junior, which is
why he's making like twenty one point nine million dollars.
Now for CJ calling off a bad year, been caught
as is you know what I'll change that? Not a
bad year, underwhelming year. Yeah, ad your highs, yeah, your lows.
And then the lows stuck around and they decided to
go ahead and make camp and they said this is
where we want to stay for the rest of the year,

(47:55):
and then led to a seven turnover day in the
postseason and another lost in the divisional round, but still
Texas pick up CJ. Stroud's fit your option. Here's the
thing for a lot of people talk about this, this
is a proven year for CJ. Stroud. I agree it
is in terms of his persona around the public. Like

(48:17):
CJ right now is completely up for debate on where
you want to rank him. And we knew this kind
of going into the year. But I remember saying after
his rookie season, let's not put the wagon before the horse.
Over four thoud, I mean over four thousand passing yards,
highest touchdown interception ratio, and NFL history alongside Tom Brady

(48:38):
and Show Montana. Yeah, he may not have that record,
but let's not start getting the jacket fitted for what
he's gonna look like in Canton one day. Let's not
do that, Okay. And I got a lot of pushback
from Texans fans saying I was a hater. I don't
hate you. I'm just calling it as I see it.
That's what I do. Then you go into last season

(48:59):
two years ago, and regression sets on it. Defenses are
well equipped to handle his strikes. You start to realize
that your offensive line remains an issue, your defense is
staying good. And you go ten and seven and you
win against Cleveland to the playoffs, I mean, now Los
Angeles in the playoffs, and then you go lose to
the number one seed, which is customary. It happens all

(49:21):
the time. Kansas City gets the win, they move on,
they play the world, they play in the Super Bowl.
That's just the nature of what happens. With Houston. Then
last season, your defense basically reincarnates itself as the two
thousand version of the Baltimore Ravens, and your offense well, slow, sluggish,
not all on CJ. Get to the twelve wins and
you win the wild card round against a very docile

(49:44):
Pittsburgh Steelers team. That's it. That's it. But now you're
going into this season and people are saying ce J
Stroud has got to prove it this year. Yeah, to
a degree, But I think that if he still is
the same quarterback we saw this past season, he's gonna
be your quarterback of twenty twenty seven. I don't see
a change, like, not even a little bit, not even

(50:05):
a little bit. And you're probably saying to yourself, well,
why wouldn't you see a change? Why wouldn't they want
to just go ahead and move off of him. You
have a defense that's built to win a Super Bowl title.
You have an offensive line that went on and you
brought into pieces, You made sure that you went and
you fix the personnel look that was coming alongside with
Nick Cayley, and you brought in a running back that's
supposed to be the best option for you. Why are

(50:27):
you saying so idle with CJ. Stroud, and it's because
of it could always be worse, But more specifically, you
don't know what you're getting. That's where I'm at. What
do I mean? I do not see a scenario whatsoever
where if you end up being as good as you

(50:48):
think you are, even with CJ. Stroud, you can move
off of him, cause you're not gonna upgrade. Look at
the pics right now. Pick number twenty eight is where
the Texans are going into this year's draft. You see
a quarterback that's going to be available there, probably not,
probably not. In fact, Ty Simpson's not a better quarterback
than CJ. Stot We can all agree on that one.

(51:10):
So don't go ahead and throw out there. Well, then
need to be probably about don't okay, you're still gonna
be an eleven twelve win team. I think that that's
the fear right now with Texans, or the way that
I look at the Texans, they're kind of stuck in
a position of where you can't move off of CJ.
Because twelve wins is going to put you in the playoffs,

(51:31):
and as a tradition, you'll beat up on whoever is
that poor sucker as the four seed or the five
seed depending on where you are, or the sixth seed,
and you'll win the wild card around and you'll move
on to the division round. Now your own four divisional
round plays with your quarterback, but still twelve wins. Put
your pick number twenty seven, pick number twenty eight. It's

(51:52):
not a quarterback that's going to be there that's worthy
of going on out and adding in it's not. And
then go a step further. You can go ahead and
trade CJ. Okay, we're gonna trade CJ. Stroud, and we're
just gonna go hate reset. Great, who's coming on in
that's gonna be a better fit for you while you
still have all these defensive pieces under wraps. Because let
me remind everybody real fast, your defense is built for

(52:16):
two years. Every one knows that, right. This team is
actually kind of built for two years if they stay healthy.
Why tell her didn't sign a one year deal. He
signed a two year deal. Brad Smith signed a two
year deal. David mcgomy's here through twenty twenty seven. Read
Blake Ship's here through twenty twenty eight. Daniel Hunter's here
for another season after this one, So he's locked up,

(52:37):
so you're built for two years of success. You're just
gonna bring in a rocky quarterback or like a Malik
Willis two point zero and go here, man, go ahead
and list to the super Bowl, because that totally happens.
Like even Sam Darnold, who has seen all the reclamation
projects about right now, you realize that he was in
a situation that best fit his skill set. He gained

(52:58):
back the confidence and then went to a Seattle Seahawks
team that was good enough to trust it's run game
and its defense to build it out of trouble. But
he built up that confidence beforehand, Like you realize that
he also was a factor in the end of the season.
So you can't just say we're gonna throw a quarterback
into our offense that may or may not fit. It's

(53:19):
gonna paint on out. So either you're if you want to.
So the reality is, if you want to move off
a CJ. Stroud and you're done with him, you're like
after the next season, doesn't matter. If he ends up
being a problem, you're gonna have to tank, and you're
not tanking. You're too good to tank. This seems too
good a tank Defensively, They're gonna be probably one of
the best units in the NFL, if not the best

(53:40):
unit in the NFL. In the secondary. There's no faults
in this secondary. Their pastress is arguably going to be
remembered as folklore because of what you got with two
guys coming off at the edge and Deniel Hunter and
Will Anderson. You have a linebacker player that's efficient. You're
too good on that side of the ball alone to
tank to be a team that's not going to the postseason,

(54:02):
and you can't get a quarterback to come on in.
So you're with CJ for two years now. So really
the narrative needs to be flipped a little bit. It
needs to go from saying CJ. Stroud is under pressure
in twenty twenty six to more so twenty twenty seven
because the second that you decide to go ahead and
pick up that fifth year option, I think you gave
him a twenty game window to prove that he is

(54:24):
the guy. Now, during that span you can figure on out, hey,
let's go ahead and realize he's not gonna be our
long term guy. Look good, David Spills if we want to,
but he's your dude for twenty twenty six and twenty
twenty seven, And it's kind of scary to think of
because if you know that next year he's got to
get us act together. It's gotta be more poignant, it's
gotta be more decisive. He's got to be more of

(54:46):
an X factor for a team. He does because the
team is good enough to win. They're good enough to
win a lot of games. They're good enough to win
every single opportunity to take the field if you have
sufficient quarterback play. But the scary part is that you
not stuck with him just for one more year, and
if he struggles again, you're gonna go ahead and move
off him. Where are you going? I bring this up

(55:06):
because if I ask for solutions, where are you going?
Don't tell me, Davis Mills, don't do it. Don't lie
to yourself, don't lie to me. Just don't. He's not
going for seventeen games and get into a better result
of what CJ. Stroud is. So you need to upgrade.
You can't do it in the draft because if you're
too far down in the pecking order when it comes
to draft compensation, and if you trade those picks and CJ. Stroud,

(55:29):
you're gonna have to pay for an expensive quarterback, which
then hurts the rest of your roster. So it's a really,
really really steep slope that you're about to enter, and
it's one where I don't know if you have the
right answer. You're gonna find out pretty quickly. Like you're
gonna know pretty quickly. Hey, CJ's been working on some stuff.
It was your one of a new offensive personnel. Look
could it run the football. Now we're in a good spot.

(55:50):
Now we're in a really good spot. But that's your
quarterback for two years, because your team is not gonna
be able to go upgrade at that spot. Seven one three, two,
one two five seven nine. There's been news coming out
about what's going on in Pittsburgh. I like to discuss
it because I think for the first time since twenty
twenty three, we may see something with the Texans and
the NFL Draft. What is that? I'll explain next year

(56:12):
on Space Say Saturday, Sports Talk seven ninety Space Day Saturday,
rolling right along here on Sports Talk seven ninety sub friends,
it's Cole Thompson. Rocket with you until noon. Then we're
gonna take a break and then we're gonna come on
back and Hopefully we will hear Robert Ford and C.
Sparks telling us about the Astros winning tonight against the Mariners,
because they lost last night nine to six. You also

(56:33):
will not have to hear about the Rockets, but they
did lose last night. They played tomorrow against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Closed out the year they were locked on in as
the number five seed will either take on La or Denver.
We gotta wait to figure out what happens on Sunday
with that one. And the Texans pick at number twenty eight,
are they gonna stay there? Big question? We have seven

(56:54):
one three, two one two five, seven ninety before we
talk about what's going on in Pittsburgh two thursdays from now,
let's go to the phone lines. kJ, Good morning, what's
up man.

Speaker 6 (57:04):
Morning, morning, morning, long time listener. You love all the shows.
I've been at seven ninety caller for years, man, and
to get up. Keep doing what you're doing. You're definitely
good on the radio.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
I appreciate you. kJ. What's on in mind, my friend?

Speaker 6 (57:18):
Seriously, Well to the question that you asked, well, first
and foremost, what Seattle did in a route to winning
the Super Bowl. Yes, last season is to unless you degree,
I think the direction of the texts are heading gain.
And the reason why I say that is over the
past fifteen to twenty years, unless your name was Tom

(57:41):
Brady or in more recent years, Pat Mahomes with the
exception of the two Super Bowls that Philly.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Was in there just a little bit because he would
at least go to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 6 (57:52):
Okay, I'll give Payton that. So unless you're one of
those three quarterbacks, and actually I think there were much
less to degree Jalen Hurts, you're not winning. You're not
winning by overpaying your quarterback unless those are those those
three quarterbacks that have dominated Super Bowls the better part
of the last forty years. So unless you're one of them,
no disrespect to Josh Allen, no disrespect to Joe Burrow,

(58:13):
no disrespect to Justin Herbert, unless you're one of those
upper echelon got it from the neck up as well
as with your arm type quarterbacks. You paying fifty sixty
a year for your quarterback as a waste of money.
I've been saying for the past five years what NFL
teams need to start doing is building up an elite
defense and get you one. If possible to above average

(58:38):
to elite running backs and get you an average quarterback
you don't need. You don't need Joe Burrow. And again
this is in the slide against.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
Any of those quarterbacks.

Speaker 6 (58:47):
They're all for number of the quarterbacks, they're just happen
to play as of Tom Brady slash Peyton Manning slash
Pat Mahomes era. You need to get you a defense
that is dominant, a ground game that could keep those
quarters off the field, and have you a quarterback that
is capable, which is what I think the Houston Tasers
want from CJ. But this was the problem with CJ

(59:09):
Stroud last year. Obviously he's regretsed from his rookid season.
Rooked season was the league. Second season was solid. Last
season the bottom fell out. But this is when I
knew CJ's problem was between the Ears, the game the
Pittsburgh game of the playoffs, when Nico came out. If
everyone remembers, Nico actually came out of the game earlier

(59:29):
in that game too, but he came back. He came out.
The two passes that got Nko knocked out were what
I called when I played football, I played tight end,
what we called suicide balls. CJ got scared and was
just getting rid of the ball, and just two passes
that shouldn't have been blown because those guys had no
way of catching those balls, and he got them concussed.

(59:50):
He did the same thing to Dalton Schultz the New
England game. He threw a pass that I knew just
toward something in Kate Stover's knee when Kane had to
go goals were scared. I need to get rid of
the ball because I'm about to get in passes. No
NFL quarterback, Where's the salt was either the touch tip
to those passes. So it got to a point last
year where CJ was actually getting people hurt. So CJ

(01:00:11):
has one more year to prove himself. Hey, shout out
to him. If he does, I wish the best room.
I don't wish bad on him. However, if he does
a step up to the plate this season, you need
to go to the route of Seattle and the Philadelphia
Eagles pay for you. A good beef fish, get your
Domini ground game, and get your quarterback that you just
move to change. Let the show talk to you, lady,
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Appreciate you. kJ. Now they brought some good points. I
want to throw that out there. He brought some good points.
He missed on one of the biggest ones that I
continue to preach. I actually do not argue with him
by much when it comes to the quarterback thing. I
don't look at the top paid quarterbacks in the NFL. Yes,
you need them. I'm not gonna sit here neck like
you don't. And I think that we'd all be foolish
to say if you had an opportunity to go get

(01:00:52):
Patch Mahomes or Josh Allen or even Lamar Jackson, who
has improved drastically as a passer, he's actually one of
the more efficient passes in the NFL. He'll take them.
You'll be fool to stop to take them. It's no
longer the only way you can win. I'll say that.
I won't disagree with that. Sam Donald is a Super
Bowl champion, and he was the worst quarterback outside Josh

(01:01:17):
Rosen in twenty eighteen. Your three potential Hall of Fame
quarterbacks in that draft, two for sure in my opinion.
And then IL know what's gonna happen with Baker, but
Baker's at least fun and Sam Darnold, who was seeing
Ghost had Mono and was told by the Carolina Panthers,
thanks but no thanks. You suck is a Super Bowl

(01:01:40):
champion before Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, multi MVP winners.
It's proof that you can win.

Speaker 6 (01:01:47):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
The part that kJ left on out is the one
that I will continue to preach. It is the thing
that I've said for a while now is gonna be
the downfall of the Texans if they don't address it
long term. kJ, you left out the offensive line. Man,
You left out the offensive line. Texans don't have that.

(01:02:08):
And I want you to look at Seattle and I
want you to look at Philadelphia, And it's important that
to look at those two teams because they actually did
it the right way. What does Philadelphia have besides the
quarterback of Jalen Hurts that I think gets crapped on
way too much in the public, they have a homegrown
offensive line. Lane Johnson's been there for over a decade.
He's the dude at right tackle. He's arguably one of

(01:02:30):
the best, if not the best, right tackle in the NFL,
and he's definitely a top five right tackle in NFL history.
For my books, Jordan by Lotta played Rugby was there.
Now it was a flyer, homegrown drat talent, Cam Jurgens,
Joan La Dickerson, homegrown talents. And then they paid for
those talents to stick around because they realize, hey, who

(01:02:53):
cares about the wide receiver, who cares about the running
back room will make it work. Just come join the
squad and stick around. You gotta develop internally. Look at
the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle has to pay for Charles Cross,
their left tackle. They hit on him at pick number nine,
and they cannot have and they could not be more

(01:03:14):
thankful that they did. Look at what they did on
the interior line. Gray is Abel this past year, eighteenth
overall pick. Guy looks like he's got a Pro Bowl future.
It is in the works. Abe Lucas, who's their starting
right tackle, third round pick out of Washington State, got
probably developed probably a top twelve right tackle in the NFL.

(01:03:36):
And they throw in Sam Donald in a good defense.
I'd go, actually, great defense, that's fair, that's fair. It's
not elite like the Texans, but still it's damn good.
It's great. And Sam Darnald leads you to the Super Bowl.
So if you have the offensive line you can run
the football, you have the ability to trust your defense.
It'll bail you out of trouble. And is it boring? Yeah,

(01:03:58):
offensive line is not sexy. It's one of those positions
that we're all looking around and saying, can't wait to
see them celebrate in the end zone. I'll tell you
what you get in the end zone a lot more
when you have the five dudes up front beating the
crap out of the four dudes in front of them
and protecting your quarterback to give him time to throw.
And Sam had that, and Jalen Hurts had that, and
Kenneth Walker had that as a running back position, and

(01:04:21):
then Sakwon Barkley and rods to being, in my opinion,
an MVP candidate two years ago, had that blocking for him.
He had all that he did. Light became a breeze
and your defense was able to keep things within notion
and naked close and all you needed was one or
two drives. So you got to have the offensive line
and the Texans right now. Again, I'm appreciated that they

(01:04:41):
went out and they got two names that were going
to be valued on the open market. They were you'd
be lying and saying that there's no shot that these
two are actually going to gain any traction. Now Wyatt
Teller and Braden Smith two pro bowlers, two of the
past their prime, it's still very good options. Wouldn't have
offers on the table. They both did and then chose

(01:05:03):
to go to Houston. But in three years from now,
when they're gonna be free agents, and you've got to
pay for CJ. Stroud, cause you're gonna have to. I
just don't see a scenario where you don't and you're
paying for Will and Denil Hunter is probably still trying
to get another contract with you, and you're probably gonna
lose Kamari and Kaylen Block, and your linebacking corps is

(01:05:25):
probably gonna take a dip, and you're gonna have to
figure out what you want to do long term with
Nico Collins. And eventually, if Jaden Higgins loves up to expectations,
he's gonna want a brand new deal, and if Tank
Dell is up to expectations. But that's a big if.
I mean, like, let's be wrong, that's a giant if.
Right now, you're gonna have to be able to pick
and choose how you want to build your line and

(01:05:47):
You're not gonna be able to afford a Braden Smith,
and you're not gonna be able to afford a White Teller,
which is why it's important to draft, and it's why
it's still important right now. When looking at the draft
in less than two weeks, everyone said we gotta go
defense round one. Why why do you have to go
defense if you're staying at twenty eight, Well, because we

(01:06:07):
need an immediate starter. You're playing at pick number twenty eight. Guys,
I'm making this about only clear pick number twenty eight,
pick number thirty four. The only difference is how much
you want to pay them in the fifth year option.
From the talent level of player, there's not much of
a gap. You need to take the player that's gonna
benefit you long term with the pick like that, especially

(01:06:28):
with an organization right now that doesn't have that many
fonts and the ones that they do for the short term,
you're gonna find out within seventeen games if you're gonna
be able to salvage it for the rest of the
season or hit the tenure. You gotta look towards twenty
twenty seven with a pick number like twenty eight. So
I don't get when people are like, oh, you know what,
just don't even worry about the offensive lineman. We can
address that spot at thirty eight or fifty nine. You

(01:06:50):
have no idea if you can, I'd much rather feel
better about going on and adding in an offensive lineman
right now at number twenty eight or at pick thirty eight,
or back back at both spots and build my depth
and hopefully see Nick Cassio hint, which is again a
Chian if at that spot. And that's probably the biggest fear,
is that right now you need to develop lineman. You

(01:07:11):
need to get younger at the line, and you don't
know if you have a GM that can evaluate the
talent properly. You don't. You genuinely don't, because he's one
of six so far, and the one that you can
say has fifteen starts under his belt, so you don't
even know if he's actually gonna paint on out. You don't.
But it's the way you win. Philadelphia did it that
way for the most part. LA did it that way.

(01:07:33):
The Eagles did it that way. They have Lombardi trophies.

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
You can tell me all you want about Kaden McDonald.
I think Ktan McDonald's a stud player, I really do.
I'm taking him at thirty eight because of twenty eight.
I'm taking an offensive lineman a bill long term all right,
seven one, two, two, five, seven to ninety take quick
time out. When we come back again, history could be
made for the first time since twenty twenty three in
Pittsburgh for the Texans. What do I mean playing next?

(01:08:00):
Suspace say Saturday right here Sports Talk seven ninety. Frank
you have a question for you, Seth. What's your favorite
type of music? Classical? This is easy top, isn't that?

Speaker 5 (01:08:10):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
That's why I figured you seem like somebody who would
fit in the classics. You do like if I just
threwured a time machine, I'd dropped you back off at
nineteen seventy nine, you'd be a perfect fit. You'd be fantastic.
Out of Frankie, this is spaceally Saturday right here on
Sports Sucks seven ninety Cole Thompson rocking with shoe stuff
friends the Astros. You want to see rock in their
way to win, which could happen tonight when they take

(01:08:31):
on the Seattle Mariners because they are losers of five
straight following a nine to six loss. Last night, Rockets
fall to the Minnesota Timberwolves seven eight game winning streak,
but they are also now locked into the five seat.
They are done as a done deal. Who will they
face off against? Big question, no idea if it's going
to be Los Angeles or Minnesota, Denver, you just played Minnesota.

(01:08:53):
Caught myself there. I did ntext picket pick number twenty
eight seven one, three, five, seven ninet. If you want
to get in on the guest line, there is something
that could happen this year, Ladies and gentlemen, that will
be the first since twenty twenty three and only the
second time since twenty seventeen, the Texans could have a
player that actually meets Roger Goodell on the air, on

(01:09:18):
the stage they do the draught. Attendees have been released.
David Bailey, Ruben Baidin, Mansorta Lay and Caleb Downs, Keldric Fogg, Coltenhood,
mackay Lemon, Jeremiah Love, Frantis, Mayoga Kate and McDonald. Kaden
Proctor are of varrees. Ty Simpsons, Sunny Styles, Cardial Tate
and Jordan Tyson will be the sixteen attendees near Asher

(01:09:41):
Stadium when the Raiders make for Nanda Mendoza, who said,
I'm saying at a home in Miami, the number one
overall pick on the twenty third. So you guys don't
remember Texans for some reason don't like drafting in the
first round. They don't just the thing that they've done.
They do it in twenty eighteen, they do it for

(01:10:02):
years afterwards when they traded for Larmby Tunsel, Dan do
it when they made the trade for Roll Anderson. So
they have not picked in the first round since twenty
twenty three when they went and they got the two
big guys, and then twenty seventeen when they went and
they got Sean Watson, who we don't talk about anymore.
There is an opportunity for them to finally see their
jerseys be dapped on up and held with Roger Goodell.
When a candidate takes the stage, there is there's two names.

(01:10:24):
You got to know. It's only two. My opigon Number
one it's Caden Proctor from Alabama. Now, if you were
to ask me what do I think of Caden Proctor,
I'm optimistically nervous. This is just my Alabama's side coming
on out. Most of you know that I went to
the University of Alabama. Most of you know that I
love SEC football. I get it, it's no longer the
conference that just means more, but I still care about it.

Speaker 6 (01:10:45):
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
The thing about Alabama offensive lineman, and it's always scared
me on this. Their bodies are overutilized. When they get
to the NFL, they're torn, they're beaten, they're bruised, and
they don't asked. Can anybody name me the number one
offensive lineman? Look, you can call back in. I'll get
to your question a minute. Don't worry, dude, just call
back in. I got chim gave my name of the

(01:11:09):
lost good offensive lineman from Alabama. It probably being completely
Asso is Ryan Kelly the center, and he's like the outlier.
Everyone else was a first round pick ends up struggling,
but Coley wasn't. Underneath Nick Saban, I get it, but
I still my fault. He's a six foot seven lineman
that you don't know if his arm length is gonna
be good, if his past block he's gonna be good,

(01:11:29):
if he's gonna be able to last at the NFL stage.
So you ask yourself, do you believe that he is
gonna be a Day one plug and player. I mean
that he is gonna be worthy of the number twenty
eight overall pick. Probably not, but that would be the
one pick. The other one's Kaden McDonald. Kati McDonald, Texar
Canadon native superstar at Ohio State. One of the best

(01:11:51):
interior defensive linemen. Does not fit the Nick Casseio mold
or the Demigo Ryans mold. Like the thing that you
know about Tomiko Ryans's defense's kind of been impressive. They
go for smaller defensive tackles like they like the speed
they do. They're all about getting somebody who's like shot
out of a cannon and it's just gonna work their

(01:12:11):
way upfield and add in pressure out the middle. They
don't go for the big jolly rodgers. That's not what
they do. They're not going after three hundred and eighty
pound offense defensive lineman or three hundred and sixty pound
defensive linemen. They want the three ten dudes and it works.
It's why you've had one of the best interior defensive
lines in the NFL. But I do feel like at
some point you got to be able to add in
a piece that is going to disrupt teams into your

(01:12:35):
line play and more specifically, give you longevity at a
position that you consistently bargain been with. Now, the good
news is that you've been able to get really strong
results from a lot of the guys that you didn't
have high hopes for. Think about it. When Seanan Rankins
signed here back in twenty twenty three, the first time

(01:12:58):
did anybody view him as as the player he is
now now. They were like, guy has had a underwhelming
NFL career, has not been good, has had its fair
share of faults, but he played decent enough in Roberts
Salla's defense, killed it. Here, goes to Cincinnati, doesn't do
anything because if injuries comes back. Here has a good season,

(01:13:18):
but you got it for a one year cheap option.
Tommy Togii killing it right now underneath the direction of
Tamiko Ryans guys practice squad player. Yeah, look at Tim Settle,
Mario Edward Junior. They has been some other teams that
were just looking to extend the career a little bit longer.
Your bargain been shop. We don't bring it on up
as much because if you hit, it's not like the

(01:13:39):
offensive line like going out and adding in Laken Tomlinson,
and it's like this black guy that stares you in
the face knowing that this is going to be the
inevitable lost season. It's not that level, but they do
do the exact same thing when it comes to the
defensive tackle spot. They just do At some point, you're
gonna have to be able to spend a little bit
of money or at least give yourself some stability there.
Kate McDonald's Dan good play Katan McDonald, I think is

(01:14:02):
a complete one to eighty of what the Texans like,
which could be interesting because of if you work with
this type of player and work with the other type
of player, you feel really good about the direction that
you are building your trenches. You do, and again you're
gonna be able to find yourself probably a secondary pass
rusher and you can find yourself probably some decent safety

(01:14:22):
play later on. I think at some point you're just like,
we gotta be able to add in a piece to
this offense, I mean, to this defensive line this long term.
Kadan Brocker would be probably the only defensive player right
now that I would say you can worthy lead take
at pick number twenty eight if you stay there. If
not you gotta go offensive line. I'm not changing my
stance on that one. Like, I get it. You got

(01:14:44):
a coach that loves defense. You got a dude that
does not really know how to develop or look at
the premier offensive lineman in the draft classes and he's
been very hit or miss at it. You never have
too many offensive linemen, like, you just can't. It's like
when you were growing if you can't have too many
toasting the pizza rolls, you just can't, like you need
to have them out there. You did, Like, there's nothing

(01:15:05):
so much, there's nothing negative with that. And right now,
when I look at the team long term, hey, it's
something that needs to be discussed getting somebody like that.
But if Kata McDonald is there, I think that you
have to pull the trigger. That's the only defensive player, guys.
I'll stand on that. I do think that there is
reasons to believe.

Speaker 6 (01:15:24):
That.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
While yes, absolutely you can go with another name, it's
just not gonna be a good fit. Like, honestly, at
this point, I would much rather watch this Nickosario does
what he does every single year and trade out of
round one and go thanks. But I'd much rather that
extra third round pick than take any other defensive player.

(01:15:45):
Like if it's like, hey, Caleb Banks, the kid from
from Florida, who are high on I think that he's
gonna be a stud of the NFL level. I really do,
if he can stay healthy big time. If it's between
him and maybe like a wide receiver, trade the peg,
trade it, I would just get something in return that

(01:16:07):
where you're able to kind of go ahead, hit reset
and not feel bad about it. Seven one thirty two
one two five seven ninety Okay, let's say quick pause.
When we come back, I want to bring up the
status of Houston sports. Where are we right now? Very

(01:16:29):
interesting time, very interesting time moving forward? On what you
should expect from the city. I'll explain that next on
Sports Sox seven ninety space say Saturday, rolling right along
here on Sports Talk seven ninety sep Friends Cole Thompson
rock with you for a few more minutes, but in
a little while you will hear Sports Sex seven ninety
return with the opportunity to listen to tonight's game between

(01:16:49):
the Mariners and the Astros. Astros looking to end a
five game losing streak. Lancewo Colors Junior on the Mound
Rockets you heard last night with Matt Thomas and Adam
Wexler on the call, and it led to a four
point loss. Rockets now locked in as the fifth seed,
waiting to figure out if they will face off against
la or Denver based on the results tomorrow, and the

(01:17:09):
Texans pick at number twenty eight draft is less than
two weeks away. What do you do if you stay
put and don't trade back? Seven one three, two one
two five seven ninety is the number to get on in.
Sorry about the status of just Houston sports right now.
It's a little tiresome to be a Houston sports fan.

(01:17:31):
Not because of it. You don't you're not excited. It's
not because of you aren't impressed with seeing how your
team is able to go to the playoffs. I can
tell you there's worse places out there. There's far worse
places to be than Houston when it comes to being
a sports fan. Like I want you to go look
at the state of Minnesota, genuinely, look at the city

(01:17:51):
of Minneapolis. Can you tell me the last time that
they had CHOI up there in the sports realm nineteen
ninety three and they've had their shots in the Minneapolis Miracle,
not too long ago, but case keenem as the starting
quarterback for the Vikings. Before that, you had Brett Farv
betraying Green Bay and heading on over to arguably unsharted

(01:18:15):
and disrespectful Waters. And I'm taking them a game away
from going to the super Bowl. They haven't been back
in thirty plus years. You look at the Twins. Twins
baseball is absolutely under siege. They hired Derek Shelton and
they're basically saying, hey, we we have a bunch of
injured players. Gives a phone call, what do you want
for them? Like we're openly tanking. Like I get it.

(01:18:37):
They beat the Detroit Tigers this past week. By the
time that we get at the seasons end, Minnesota will
be one of five teams fighting ford lost season. They'll
be in that category. This will not This will not last.
The Timberwolves are back to back Western Conference Final appearance contenders.
That's it. And then they went through all of those
lackluster years beforehand. They watched as one of the better

(01:19:00):
gigs of the twenty first century decide to go ahead
and leave and then say anything is possible With Doc
Rivers as it's head coach in Boston, like I gotta
be painful for Minnesota fans, and the Wild right now
had an opportunity to go gain ground before the postseason
begins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they lose with
two god awful goals by the Dallas Stars to now

(01:19:23):
guarantee that they're playing in third place. They don't get
the home ice advantage. So it could be worse as
a sports team, as a sports team, as a sports town.
Pittsburgh is worse right now. The Pirates finally have some
life because of you go bring in the hot shot
conn of Griffin and you have Paul schemes, but they
haven't been in the playoffs in over a decade. The
Penguins are finally in the postseason with Sidney Crosby once again,

(01:19:46):
but they haven't had much talk about in a decade.
And then you talk about the Steelers. All you do
is you move off of defensive Mike Tomlin for offensive
Mike Tomlin and you're gonna run it back with Aaron
Rodgers and you're still gonna be a ten and seven
dem that gets absolutely blasted in the first round of
the playoffs. So it could be worse as a sports

(01:20:07):
fan in Houston. I just think that the anxiety ridden
roller coaster that fans have been on here has kind
of reached a point of no return. It's frustrating. It is.
Talk about the Rockets, for instance, Rockets win eight straight.
They're a five seed even without Fred van Vliet and

(01:20:28):
even without Steven Adams. If they win. Let me phrase
that when they win on Sunday against the Grizzlies, because
the Grizzlies. Did you see the score last night? Like
the two teams that are better at tanking most still
had one side. Go no thanks, We're not interested in winning.
Please do not give us an opportunity to gain any
traction and lose a ping pong ball like that was

(01:20:50):
the game last night. So you're gonna win that one
like you are. Spare me if you think that you're not,
because if your resting start, you could you're you're resting
starters and you're probably still gonna win by twenty five.
Like that's what's gonna happen. But to get here, look
at the losses that you had earlier in the season,

(01:21:13):
you probably should be fighting for the three seed, even
with the injury to Fred, even with the injury to
Steven Adams. Those early losses that people talk about like
not being that big of a deal that they are
now because of Even if you get to face off
against the Lakers, you're still going on the road. And
the concern is is that the things that we have

(01:21:33):
seen throughout the entire season, some has been corrected, but
one of the biggest issues hasn't. It just hasn't not
being able to close the door. You weren't able to
do it the last time you faced off against Minnesota,
even though you had a thirteen point lead in overtime.
You didn't do it last night. You didn't do it

(01:21:53):
against Milwaukee. You didn't do it against Philadelphia. The one
game that actually you did it against was the best
matchup so far that you've played over your last ten games.
It was the matchup against the Knicks. You killed them.
You set the tone early and you were able to
hold the lead. But outside that, you had your scares.
The Memphis game right after losing to Minnesota. You aren't

(01:22:18):
in jeopardy of ever losing that game, but you're asking yourself, Hey,
how much longer do we have to let the kid,
little brother stick around in this one. It's fearsome because
if you go out and you're adding Kevin Ourant and
you say this is going to be the move that
gets us over the top. This will be what makes
us a team that is actually viable as a legitimate
threat in the Western Conference and probably at best, on

(01:22:40):
a good night when everything is clicking, you're the number
four team in the Western Conference and that's on a
good night, and you probably not going to the playoffs.
I mean, you're probably not going to at the NBA
Finals this year. Now, that's not really on you. That's
more so I think on Oklahoma City, Denver, San Antonio
for improving in their ways. But you're frustrated because you

(01:23:01):
figured that this was the year where it would have
been different and it wasn't. Now, onto the Astros. The
Astros right now. You figured all the things that were
fixing the offseason, they'd be corrected. Sure, we'd have some walls.
It's okay. If Lance mc collors junior doesn't give us
six quality innings every single time he takes the field,
it's fine. And now it's like we kind of need

(01:23:23):
him to be our best pitcher because of the rest
of our pitching staff is awful and Mike Burrows your
hope can at least turn it around enough to make
you feel confident that he's going to be a piece
of your team, like a very solid number four. And also,
if you put him in the number four role, you
probably wouldn't be as upset with the results. The crazy
part is that, unfortunately he's gonna have to be your

(01:23:43):
number two moving forward out of necessity at this point,
not just because if he looked the part. In spring training,
your offense was really hot for a seven game period
where it felt like you were the only team that
was going to be able to be like you were
the only team that was going to be able to
average nine runs a game. And that's stalled. It's stalled
in Colorado. And part of the reason why I think
most fans are upset right now. It's not because if

(01:24:05):
they lost a series. It's gonna happen. You can lose
the Yankees, you can get spot by the Yankees and
it won't be shocking. It's who you lose to that
I think really adds a second level of disdain towards
the marker. And so now you look at this Astros
team in a year that everybody knows you're supposed to
be going for it because this may be one of

(01:24:25):
the last times before you really have to have that
conversation with the R word of rebuild, and it's like, well,
now it's more so a do we even have an
opportunity to get this ship righted before we ever ever
and I mean ever even kind of get back to

(01:24:47):
five hundred. I'm talking about the Texans. Texans right now
are good enough to be a playoff team. Texans have
a legit defense, arguably the best defense in the NFL.
Could have a record tagdy defence. And you're owing through
the divisional round. It's like you're almost there, but you're
not slap hit to the face. It's hard time to

(01:25:12):
be a sports fan of Houston, not because if you
know that you're not good enough, but because you know
the ceiling is probably going to be less than what
you expected. That is for me here on space Saturday.
I will talk to you all on Monday for Morning
Drive six am for Frankie West Moore Land, I'm Cale Thompson.
Have a good Saturday, Astros, get back to your winning ways,

(01:25:33):
give us something to talk about come Monday. Talk to
you then later

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