Finally, Alex Bregman has a new team. Is he leaving the door open to return later?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcomebore, Welcome to another Space City Saturday on Sports Talk
seven ninety Dad Matthews Live and local h Town breakdown
of the world that matters to you, the Houston sports world.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
All these great Houston fans here.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
We love you all, So finish up on that to
do list. Flute up the cooler, because you can't drink
in talk sports all day if you don't start.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Now bear me the eight. This is Space City Saturday.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
That's insane.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Here's seven nineties Dan Matthews.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Anyway, we go here on Space City Saturday, Dan Matthews
here with you, as we will be with you this
week all the way until noon as no Texas Longhorn interruption,
no Astros interruption, although that gets started next week so
we can talk about that a little bit later on.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
But it's fun to be here with you this morning.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
And you know, it's one of those things this time
of the year weatherwise and then also sports wise.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Weather wise.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
First is today, I think we're supposed to get like
up into the high seventies, so it's false spring.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
We're getting it where we're like, okay, hey, this is nice.
The sun is out. You know, it's a nice day.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Shorts and t shirts and then for the next week,
mother Nature says, not so fast, my friend. Like mother
Nature straight up goes lee corso on us and has
the pencil in her hand and is pointing it at
us and saying, yeah, guess what you're getting another week
of winter. So that's what we have, the helter skelter nature.
That is our weather, especially here in South Texas. So

(01:47):
enjoy today. Everything that the guy just told you right
there in.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
The production is true.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
You can absolutely get out there and enjoy this beautiful day.
Go out to all of our great spots city. I mean,
you know, a couple of weeks ago, we were out
at Cedar Creek. I said it numerous times. If you
were out there and you heard me up on stage,
that's the best patio in the city. So go out
there and see Gunner, Danny, everybody out there and the
crew as part of the Creek Group. You got Cactus Cove,

(02:16):
You've got Canyon Creek, you got Onion Creek, all the
other places. So those are some great places you can
go check out and be able to enjoy a nice saturday.
Sports wise, I mean, February is pretty much sports purgatory month.
I mean, we're bailed out a little bit here in
Houston because the Astros have been relevant these last few years.

(02:38):
So of course when they hit spring training, we've got
plenty to talk about.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
That's a blessing.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
The Rockets are good this year, so that's another thing
that helps us out because in the past when both
of those teams, I mean, remember you know the first
time that I was here in Houston the early twenty tens,
where the Rockets were just kind of ho hum, like
they were somewhat competitive, but they weren't necessarily a threat
to do anything of real value in the Western Conference

(03:05):
or in the playoffs. They just were kind of there.
And then the Astros, I mean, they weren't even in purgatory.
They were in hell in terms of where they were
as an organization at the time. But you know, rising
from the depths of that place and being able to
come back and you know they bear fruits and bear flowers.
For what this last ten year run at plus has

(03:26):
been for the Astros, you know, it kind of was
a means to an end right there. So the Astros,
as I mentioned in spring training, and I know that
some of you probably want to be able to weigh
in on this today. So here's what I can offer
to you, because the unfortunate truth is sometimes of live radio,
technical difficulties do happen, and we have run into said

(03:50):
technical difficulties. So the phone system is down right now,
so we are trying to work on that. I know
engineering is at work on that at the moment, and
you know, just trying to be able to get things
back on track with that. So we'll do our best
with that as the show goes along. So if you
want to communicate with me in the meantime, find me

(04:12):
on X and you can find me at Dan Matthews Hou.
That's where we can have the conversation and be able
to do that. Until Melvin told me in my ears,
Hey Dan, good news. The phones are back up. So
that's where you cannot find all of that. But again,
the Astros pictures and catchers they are in West Palm Beach,
so is Chris Gordy, and bottom of this hour, we're

(04:34):
gonna check in with Gordy from there in West Palm
as the Astros, you know the pictures some days and
you know, you get out there and just to kind
of take you through how everything goes I mean, last
year I had a chance to go with Ross. I've
been in you know, a couple of other spring camps.
And in the morning you go in there in the clubhouse,

(04:55):
it's relaxed atmosphere in there, and you can also see
on the wall, all right, who's gonna be taking live
BP today.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
I mean, you know, you get to a point next week.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
Especially after you've got pictures in and they're able to
throw side sessions and get built up enough to be
able to throw a simulated inning. And on one of
the backfield's there at West Palm Beach, you're able to
see Josh Hater throwing against jose L Tuvey and against
Essak Perettis and whoever else to go through a simulated inning.

(05:27):
And that's when that will happen. And when you get
into the clubhouse, you can see up on the wall,
all right, these guys are throwing a side session today.
These guys are down and these guys will be throwing
to live hitters on the backfield. I mean, that's just
kind of all the work that they go through there.
So Gordy is out there and like I said, we
will check in with him, and you know also too,

(05:50):
as I mentioned spring training action on the field and
of course right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
coming your way this coming week, next Saturday, it's gonna
be the first games that we're going to have.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
And notice I said games.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Plural, because the Astros right out the gates split squad
action both at Kecti Park there at the ballpark of
the West Palm Beaches against the Nationals, of course, the
team that they share the complex with, but also too,
you'll also have some guys heading on the road to
Port Saint Lucy and taking on the Mets there for

(06:25):
the opening action of spring training. But of course, if
you're talking the Astros right now, you have to talk
about a guy who is no longer an Astro. The
carrot is no longer dangled in front of us. It
is now completely eaten, put away, whatever you want to say,
Alex pregnant is gone. And I'm going to make a

(06:47):
deal with y'all that I'm going to talk about here
in just a few minutes. But I think that you know,
you pretty much know where I'm going with this deal,
that we're all over and done with this, I mean,
and I think that we were all pretty much over
and done with it at a certain point where we
had a lot of different emotions, and I compared it
to a little bit of a breakup, you know, where

(07:10):
you have the breakup. There's the different stages of grief,
because I mean, it is a loss in your life,
whenever a relationship comes to an end, and there's sadness,
there's bartering, there is soon enough, you know. I don't
even know all the stages of grief. There's four of them,
I guess, or is there five in that what they
say that you know grief is actually an acronym for

(07:31):
I don't know. But anyway, there's many different stages that
you go through where soon enough you reach acceptance and
you just say.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Okay, that is what it is.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
But I think for the most part, you know, and
it's one of those things I try not to do
preachy radio. I try not to do lecture radio to
you guys, So in that vein, I will say, I'm
I'm pretty happy with you astro fans, I really am.
I think that for the most part, people when the
new came down on Wednesday night that Alex Bregman was

(08:03):
going to be a Boston Red Sox, I think that
most people said, you know what, happy for him.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
He did.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
He did everything that he set out to do here
in Houston. He was a Gold Glove winner, he was
a two time All Star, he was nearly an MVP,
and he was also a huge cornerstone of winning two
world titles here. So I think for the most part,
Astro fans have had the reaction. And I brought this
up with Ross when me and him had our brief

(08:29):
nightcap on Wednesday night that this kind of has shades
of when Lebron the second time left Cleveland, where remember
the first time the breakup was was publicly out there
with the decision that it's him and Jim Gray, and
he tells the world taking my talents to South Beach, which,

(08:50):
by the way, too, that created a monster of its
own of being somebody who used to cover recruiting and
going to recruiting announcements, and it became every single kid
announcing wherever they were going to school. It was I'm
taking my talents, I'm taking my talents, and it was
just like, oh my god, dude. Like so, anyway, that's

(09:12):
a side note there, But the second time around, you
had cavalier fans who, for the most part were saying,
you know what, Lebron, I'm happy for you. Go get yours.
You did what you set out to do here in Cleveland.
You wanted to come back, you wanted to bring a
world title to this city.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
You did that.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Maybe it would have been nice to have had more,
but at least you gave us that happiness, and for that,
we're happy for you. So I think that astro fans
the overwhelming majority that I've seen, and I think that
also though too. I mean, remember I was talking about
the stages of grief. I think that astro fans were
kind of at that point as well, where it was
just like, if we're being honest with ourselves, we didn't

(09:50):
expect you to be back here.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
But it was also kind of to a point where we're.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Just like, dude, just like, if you're going to the Mets, fine,
If you're going to the Red so cool.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
If you're going to the Cubs.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
In Detroit, Tigers, whoever it is out there, just great.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Let's just have that closure.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Let's move on, and let's just stop having to talk
about this. So again, getting at me on X if
you want to do that the next segment. The deal
is we're not talking about it anymore after the ten
to fifteen segment.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
Alex Bregman is now with the Boston Red Sox.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
We're done. It's over and done with. The Astros are
not getting him back. More than likely he's not going
to opt out either of the two times that he
has a chance to opt out of this deal to
a three year deal one hundred and twenty million, so
about forty per for Alex Bregman over the life of
his deal with.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
The Boston Red Sox.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
It's just I think we can all agree that stage
is done.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
It's over and done with.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
So we can do that and again at Dan Matthews
hou on Twitter if you want to get at me
on that topic. But that'll be next. We will talk
about that here in just a few minutes. Of course,
another storyline from there in West Palm Beach is Louis
Garcia and Lance McCullers Junior. Slow and steady is the

(11:10):
race with those guys right now. So that's the way
that they are handling things. We're gonna let you hear
from Lance mccullor's here in just a few minutes. But
also to Louis Garcia guy that's coming off Tommy John.
Last year, it looked like towards the end of the
season he was going to have an opportunity to come back,
and then a little bit of a setback happened. So
the Astros just decided this is done, We'll go ahead

(11:32):
and try this again next year. And I think that
the other thing as well that people have to keep
in mind is just because someone's not full go at
this moment does not mean that it's never going to happen.
You have to remember we're in the middle of February
at this point, there is still another seven plus months
of this thing to get going, and I think the

(11:54):
Astros just kind of look at it as, Hey, we've
got an opportunity to get a guy back, and if
we can get him back, then we want to be
able to make sure that we give ourselves every opportunity
that once he is activated, he stays that way. And
that's the way I think they're handling both of those guys.
I mean with McCullers, for example, he hasn't pitched in

(12:14):
a competitive game in over two years, so that's another
reason why you have to be slow with him, because
it's not like, no matter the stuff that he's had
in the past, that he can just all of the sudden,
flip a switch and he's ready to go. And he's
going to be snapping off curve balls, having that high
powered fastball and everything else that he has in his repertoire,
and he's gonna be the Lance.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Mccullors that he was.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
Again, the Astros are trying to build that up, So
we will hear from Lance McCullers here in this hour.
Over the course of the show too, we're going to
get into the Texans. We heard from their new OC
Nick Kyley, meeting with the media earlier this week, as
well as Tamiko Ryan's talking with the media to officially
announce the news.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
And there's one thing.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
I already really like about the and I gotta tell you,
I hope it sticks. So we will talk about that
as well as he already likes some parts of this team.
Plus I think he's saying the right things in regards
to this other part of the Texans offense. Again, that's
gonna be fair game as the show goes along, and

(13:18):
the Rockets and the rest of the NBA on the
All Star break at the moment, fifty five games into
the season, they are thirty four and twenty one, so
fourth place in the Western Conference as it stands, and
still a lot of really high profile basketball to still
be played the rest of the way over the next
couple of months before we get to playoff time. But

(13:41):
as I mentioned too at the top of the show,
other than that February of sports purgatory month, I mean,
unless you want to talk Daytona, which I gotta tell you,
even in the most NASCAR heavy regions of this country,
the Southeast, it is about as niche as niche can get.
People think, you know, oh, everybody you know over in

(14:02):
that part they love NASCAR.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Not the case.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
But I mean I followed it as casually as could
possibly be. But I know that a lot of people
like watching auto racing.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I'm not.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Saying that that's a topic of conversation because like I
told you, I could probably if you told me Dan
name five current NASCAR drivers, I would really struggle. So
that tells you that, I mean, you know what you
want Genesis Invitational talk, Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
I don't think any of us want that. So we're
gonna stick to what we know here.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
We're gonna We're gonna stick to what we know best,
and that's the Astros, the Rockets, and also to the
Texans for the Lion's share of this show. So as
promise coming up next your last chance, this coming segment,
one last time on this show that we were going
to talk intentionally about Alex Bregman. After this, we're moving on.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
So I will keep you all up to date on
the phone system as we go along. If I get
the thumbs up from Melvin Brown, then we can start
getting you guys in on the phone lines. But until
then it is me talking to you all right here
on Space City Saturday.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
So we'll do that next.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
I' also let you hear from Astros players and Joe
Aspata on Alex Bregman not finally moving on, so we
will have all of that as we're just getting going
here on Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with you
until noon on your Home with the Astros and the Rockets,
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Space City Saturday.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
On Sports Talk seven ninety, it's Rush Man.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Remember the movie I Love You Man? With What's It?

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Jason Siegal and Paul Rudd. Every time I hear that song,
that's what I think of. So anyway, that's just my
weird mind that goes to work. But you still have
me Dan Matthews here on Space City Saturday, as we'll
be with you here until noon. In about ten minutes,
we're gonna head out to West Palm Beach. We're gonna
hear from our program director and good buddy courtesy at

(16:06):
Carbach Brewing, Chris Gordy out there. As you follow us
on Twitter at Sports Talk seven ninety and across all
of our social media platforms, you've seen he's already had
a chance this morning to catch up with Zach Decenzo,
who could be a huge part of this twenty twenty
five Astros team, as well as Joe Aspata as a

(16:27):
Spata talking about the news that was made official today
and again there on Twitter if you saw with Alex
Bregman the news being made official by the Red Sox,
and I mean there was a little bit of sadness
this morning of seeing the video of Bregman walking into
the clubhouse there in Fort Myers with the Red Sox

(16:49):
and he puts on the Red Sox hat all of
that kind of stuff, So I.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Mean it is a little bit of oh no, he's
moved on. Oh Man, that stinks.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
But the Astros of course putting out there thank you,
Alex Bregman tweets as they should. I mean, for everything
that I mentioned, he did everything that you hoped that
he could do as an Astro, and then some I mean,
I think he even exceeded expectations of what people hoped
that he could bring here once you drafted him second
overall in the draft, and then what he became here

(17:22):
in an astro's uniform, and he became a clubhouse leader,
he became really one of the catalysts of this team.
And then it came to a point of are the
Astros gonna be able to bring him back? They reached
a number they said, this is as far as we're
willing to go, and Bregman and his representation team said
that's not good enough.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
We've got to look elsewhere.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
And they did, and the Astros also, i mean decided
on their own it's time for us to move on,
and they pull off the trade to send.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Kyle Tucker to Chicago.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
You get Estakperetis, and you also get Cam Smith, who
Gordy was also able to catch up with. There in
West Palm Beach and the seem like they are going
to be the guys that you look to count on,
at least in the immediate peretis over at third base,
and then in the future Cam Smith likely over there
at third base. But with Bregman, as I mentioned one

(18:12):
last time, we're talking about this and we've got some
audio that Chris Cordy was able to pass along to us.
As we'll start first earlier today with the Astro skipper
Joe a spot him being asked about the news being
made official, and he talked about the fact that he
is very happy for Alex Bregman.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
He spoke with him and wishes him well.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
He told him about how happy I am for him
and his family. I think these players were extremely hard
to get to that point in their career, and they
had the right.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
To choose where they want to the next chapter in
their career.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
And you know, he made his decision. I respect his decision.
I wish he would have chose differently, but he didn't.
But I have you know, Alex is a tremendous player.
He's a great human and I just wish him the best.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
There you go, put it in a box, put it away.
It's over and done with. He's made his decision, he's
moved on, and I think that for the most part,
we've all done the same things. And I mean, you're
happy for him, Yeah, I mean, you know, I understand
how some people might feel. But it's also too it's

(19:19):
not a reality that is foreign to us. It's not
like we necessarily thought that this wasn't a distinct possibility.
Was even more than distinct. It was a real possibility
and ended up being as much. So, you know, the
Astros now have to move on without Number two stepping
back through the doors there in West Palm Beach and
then soon enough through the home clubhouse doores there at

(19:43):
Minute May Park. I mean, the next time we're gonna
see him as gonna be in August when the Red
Sox come to town. And I'm sure that probably, just like
usually is the case whenever a key member of a
team is now elsewhere, that the first time they come back,
there's gonna be the tribute video.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
There's gonna be the.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
The first time he comes to the plate, everybody's gonna
get up, give him a standing ovation. Umpire goes out,
starts brushing off the plate a little bit the catcher
tells them, hey, man, step out, you know, tip tip
the hat to the fans, and he'll do that, and
you know, you see.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Different reactions from certain players.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
I mean sometimes it can be a you know, a
return where it becomes emotional for them and the emotions
start to bubble up, and the umpire even says, you know, hey, hey,
we're not gonna start the pitch clock yet. Just kind
of get yourself back in and once you do that,
then it's time to play baseball.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
And after that that's pretty much what it is.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
It's, you know, the old adage in football, especially once
the ball is kicked, all of the other emotions go
out the window the game is there, same deal in baseball.
Once that first at bat happens, hey, it's over and
done with. The tribute videos have been done, the standing
ovation is done, and now they are just a member of.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
The other team. But Astros players.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Have been weighing in on this, and one of the
first guys we had a chance to talk with this week,
Chris Gordy and company in front of his locker, Chas
McCormick able to offer some thoughts on Alex Bregnant and
I mean nothing but high praise for the guy that
was such a huge part of this organization.

Speaker 6 (21:15):
Yeah, it's fun.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
I mean, you know, you know, Justly had a good
deal and he took it.

Speaker 7 (21:19):
I wish obviously he came back.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
But I get it's business.

Speaker 7 (21:23):
But you know, he's one of the best teammates's ever had,
just like a leader aspect, even you know, obviously watching
him play every night, but even off the field, like
every day.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Like ready to win, ready to compete.

Speaker 7 (21:35):
He's out about himself to I'll help the team, help
any anybody.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
So I try to get I try to pick his
brain as much as possible.

Speaker 7 (21:41):
I'm happy for him, you know, make good money playing
at Fenway, plays great Frienway. Obviously, you know, wish wish
he was here with us. It's one of those teammates
ever and he deserves every penny. Again, watching him play
every single night, and even just off the field, him
coming to a clubhouse at one o'clock for seven o'clock game,
he's ready to go. First one of cage, last one

(22:02):
out of the field.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
He's pretty awesome.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
And I mean for everything that Chas McCormick just said
right there, that is pretty much everything that we got
to know about the guy. I mean, if you want
to it's the old adage, Oh, you want to build
the perfect ballplayer, Well, number one, there is no such
thing as a perfect ballplayer. You're going to have parts
of their game that you're not going to like. And

(22:29):
for Bregnant, a lot of times it was ever since
twenty nineteen the offensive numbers kind of being in a
steep decline, and I think that was something that the
Astros looked at with him and said, man, going above
thirty million for a guy that year in and year
out is kind of starting to kind of take a
step back with the bat. Maybe that's not something we
necessarily want to do. But for everything Chaz just said

(22:50):
right there, that was what we knew about Alex Pregnant.
He was a guy that was all about the work.
I mean in every sense of the word. I was
talking with a buddy of mine up there in New
England week, you know, and he was doing the old
proverbial off the air, Hey, you know what are we
getting in this guy? And I said, a gamer. I mean,
he's a guy that I think Alex Coorra is gonna
have to tell him, Hey, you're taking the day off,

(23:11):
like don't even bring the spikes to the dugout, Like
that's not even remotely a possibility for you. Every day
he has a chance to post, he's gonna post. I mean,
the health aside, if he can play number two, wants
to be out there on the field. And the other
part of it is I think he was to a
certain point a vocal leader, but I think that he
really was motivated for the vocal part of it by

(23:34):
his work and that's what he brought to the field.
And I mean, you know, we had stories from of
course Hunter Brown last year, also from you know guys
like I think Spencer Righetti had he even said as
much about how helpful he was. And also I know
that Taylor Scott had talked about it with Rob Friedman,
the Pitching Ninja, about how much of a help he

(23:56):
was there. And then a few weeks ago when we
were at FanFest there at Dyke and Park, you remember
the story that Jeremy Paniot told with both Sean and
Brian about him being such a help to him where
he facetimed him at two am during the World Series
of you know, showing him the iPad and you know, Hey,

(24:17):
this is how this guy's going to attack you all
those different things. So that's another thing that he brought.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
So he was.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
Nothing more than a guy who absolutely went about his
business the right way and was also able to be,
you know, such a huge part of this team with
not only his production on the field, but with you know,
kind of being the benchmark for how you do this job,
how you are a pro. A pro's pro in every
sense of the word, was Alex Bregman. But the leadership

(24:45):
part of it, I mean, over the years, we've seen
different astros leave. We've seen George Springer leave, We've seen
Carlos Corella leave, We've seen Garrett Cole leeve. We have
now seen twice Justin Verlander walk out the door this year.
You trade away Kyle, who I don't think was necessarily
counted on in that regard in the clubhouse, but Alex
Bregman definitely was.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
And I mean Jose.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Altuve had talked about his wishes to have Bregman back
and just you know how much he thought highly of
Alex Bregman and a lot of guys in that clubhouse.
But now the question becomes to Joe Espada. Earlier this week,
the leadership void that has now left.

Speaker 5 (25:23):
There were leaders here and they led and we won
because they were exceptional leaders.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And leaders also develop other leaders.

Speaker 5 (25:31):
So I expect some of those guys we'll step up
and take over that leadership role.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yani ds he's one of those.

Speaker 5 (25:38):
So the mound visit from the third baseman now becomes
a visit from our short stuff who's very capable of
taking that leadership role from our.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
From our from our catchers. They do that, you know,
we have a first basement.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
That you guys are going to be very impressed when
you see the intangibles that he brings to the table
when he comes to his leadership. So I'm excited, guys,
I'm very excited.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
So well, there you go.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
I mean, you know, we now have the completion of
you know, the story.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's over and done with.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
But notice what Joe Spot had talked about there of
guys that have been waiting for their opportunity. And he
even went as far as to say on two different occasions,
once there and then once earlier last week to Channeler
Roam with the Athletic on his podcast, that a guy
like Jeremy Pania might now have an opportunity to do that,
and the spot had talked about that a little bit earlier.

(26:29):
Maybe we can get into that on a later segment
here on the show today. But coming up next, we're
gonna head out to West Palm Beach. We're gonna talk
with Chris Gordy as he is out there Curtsey at
Carbach Brewing, so we'll get our daily spring training report
from Gordy there, and that is coming up right here
on Space City Saturday, on your home of the Astros

(26:50):
in the Rockets Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
Ninety, Sports Talk seven ninety, Sports.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
Talk seven ninety, Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with
you that right now, we head out to the phone
lines and as promised, le saalk with our good buddy
Chris Gordy out there in West Palm Beach at Astros
spring training. Gordy of course joining us courtesy of Carbach Brewing.
We'll get to that here at the end of the conversation,

(27:17):
but let's just start first. I mean, you know, the
news is made official today. I know that you're out
there with Chandler Rome, with Brian McTaggart everybody else. You know,
the graphic goes up from the Astros it's official. What
was the tone this morning out there?

Speaker 6 (27:34):
Yeah, I mean a little bit kind of moved on.
I know, you know, we talked to Joe Spot and
he kind of gave his thoughts now that it's official
that you know, he reached out to Bregman and he
didn't really disclose what he said to him, but kind of,
you know, reiterated that's his preference was to have him
back here. They really wanted him back. And I think

(27:54):
his words were very interesting, he said, but Bregman didn't
choose us, you know, he kind of he put the
onus on more on Bregman as opposed to, oh, the
Astros didn't give it there all to resign him, you
know what I mean. So I just thought it was
kind of interesting his word choice that, you know, Bregman
chose to leave us. But yeah, you know, it's look,
they're gonna have to turn the page. They're gonna have

(28:16):
to move on. It was a little weird seeing that
little video that was dropped this morning with Bregman in
full Red Sox gear. I know he's gonna be having
his press conference here this morning, but yeah, man, just
a little weird. But I think some of the most part,
everybody's kind of ready to turn the page. I mean,
Maricia and Dubon is here in camp today along with
jere mc tania, and I think it's gonna be very
interesting to see how this plays out. I mean it

(28:38):
feels like they are still I'm playing out tu bay
and left field a good bit this year. I mean,
it's it's it's still a very real thing. And I
think if that happens, I think you can envision seem
you know, we're gonna see Mauricio Dubon playing in some second.
You're gonna see Eastak Paratus at third, of course, Christian
Walker at first, and that will be your new infield,

(28:59):
and I think will be pretty good defensively. Now. I
was talking Joe'spoto this morning a little bit about it.
I mean he said, look, fans are gonna have to
understand whoever we put a third is not going to
be as dominant defensively as Alex Fregman. I mean, Bregman
would lay his body on the line, falling out a bounce,
big miraculous throws to first base. So you know you're
not gonna have that.

Speaker 8 (29:20):
But.

Speaker 6 (29:21):
They'll still be really good defensively, no matter who's playing
that third base spot.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
And I mean you talked about some of the guys
that showed up this morning, Mauricio Dubon being one of
those guys, and I can't remember who threw it out
on Twitter that I guess he yelled out to you all. Hey,
you know, let it be known that I put on
some weight this this off season, that I'm coming in
with a little bit more muscle on. I mean, just
anything different from any of those other guys, aside from

(29:46):
what I just mentioned with Dubon.

Speaker 6 (29:49):
No, I think. I mean, you know, Jerry Penney always
looks to be in good shape, so you know, there's
nothing really different there with him. But you know, it
sounds like al Tuove will make his way to camp
here tomorrow and then, you know, and then it's kind
of just waiting on your on Alvarez, and I think
that'll be the majority of your position guys here, so
it yeah, I mean, it's one of those storylines every

(30:13):
time you get here spring training, you oh, this guy
looks in miraculous shape and that sort of thing. But no,
I mean, it's just it's it seems like business as usual.
Like I said, I mean, nobody's really hanging their head
here going on. Man really missing pregnant and Tucker. They're
all going business as usual.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
And again Chris Gordy joining us here on Space City Saturday.
He is out in Westbalm Beach courtesy of Carbach Brewing.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
We did get one bit of news this morning.

Speaker 4 (30:39):
Sean Duben, a guy that was really counted on for
some innings last year.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
He's kind of got the Justin Burlander thing happening.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Gets there, starts throwing shoulders, not feeling so good, and
they decide to put him on the shelf momentarily. Is
there anything necessarily that is leading them to have concerned
this could be a long term thing.

Speaker 6 (31:00):
It doesn't seem that way. I mean, he was still
taking part in you know, the pitcher fielding drills this morning,
so I mean he's still doing it. You know, he
was lightly tossing it the first as opposed to throw
an overhand. But I mean it didn't seem to be
any major concerns there. Just kind of seem like they're
out of an abundance of caution, just kind of you know,

(31:23):
shutting him down for a couple of days from throwing
so certainly something to keep an eye on there, because
you know, one of the story lines I've been following
is who's going to be those longer leavers? You know,
those guys when a starter gets blown up and you know,
can only you know, leaving the game in the second
or third inning, Who's going to be that guy to
come in? The two most likely candidates right now are
Sean Dubin and Forced Whitley. And oh, by the way,

(31:45):
both those guys are out of options, so you know,
if they don't make camp, they'll they'll be free agents
and moving on elsewhere. So I would put both of
those guys kind of in the driver's seat right now
in terms of, you know, the favorites to be longer leavers.
But Dana Brown, who are some other guys that could
be candidates? And he's kind of they're out there, you know,
Caleb Bard, he said, could give us a multiple innings,

(32:06):
Nick Hernandez, I mean there's guys like that that can
pitch multiple innings. But you know, you think about all
the rest, I mean from Josh Hater, Briana Bray, you,
Taylor Scott, you know that a lot of these guys
are kind of guys that use for just an inning,
and that's kind of it. So you know, it's certainly
a storyline to keep an eye on. And who are
gonna be those long relievers that make the team.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Sticking with pitching. I mean, you mentioned Forrest Whitley.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
I don't think we've mentioned Lance mccollors just yet, but
you guys finally had a chance to talk with him yesterday,
And I mean, Lance has been a guy whenever the
R word has been brought up with him, reliever, he's
pretty much shuddered at the fact that he shut it
down immediately. He did that again yesterday, maybe not quite
to the way that Marcus Stroman did it at Yankees camp,

(32:51):
but he's seemingly pretty convinced, like, no, hey, when I
come back, I'm a starter. I guess my question is, Gordy,
is there room for him to.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Be a star?

Speaker 6 (33:01):
I think so. I mean, I think one of the
guys was saying yesterday, I mean, on average, you know,
in an average season, he ended up using about twelve
guys to starters throughout a year. You know, just because
injuries are going to happen, skip a start here and there,
you know, like it's just to get through a full season,
you're gonna have around twelve guys are gonna make starts

(33:21):
all year. So yeah, I mean, look the five man
rotation I feel pretty good about right now of who
they have healthy. But yeah, the season goes along, you're
expecting to get Luis Garcia back, to get Christian Havier back,
to get way some Colors back. I mean, these are
all big name guys that are starters. And yeah, I

(33:43):
mean the vibe I get is it's all gonna be
about mccolors and where his conditioning is when he gets
back and he's throwing in triple A. And what you
don't want to do, Dan is bring him back up
to the big league club and you know he's only
giving you a three four innings, uh, you know in
his outings. It's just that's that's a real detriment to

(34:03):
the to the bullpen if if you know you're putting
him back as a starter but he can only give
you multiple innings. So yeah, it's I think it's something
that will work itself out because you know, by that
time he already said it. I mean, he knows he's
gonna have to go to sugar Land and have a
rehab stent there, and so I think that'll tell us
a lot about where McCullers is and works his uh,

(34:24):
you know, works himself up, his workload up. And you know, again,
if he can get back up here and give you
five innings per outing, I would take that, you know.
But I don't know, are we ever going to see
the dominant lance McCullers we saw many years ago. I
think at this point we just we just want to
see him on the you know, with an astro's uniform
on it and pitching again. And I think all that
stuff will figure itself out. But yeah, I mean the

(34:46):
whole reliever starter thing fortquently is resigned. I mean he's like, well,
that's my role right now. If I got to make
the team as a reliever, yes, would still love to
be a starter shore, but I'll be a reliever, whereas
McCullers is kind of nah, I'm a starter. I'm not
going to the bullpen. And I love how he framed
it too. He gotta framed it, as you know, that's
not fair to those guys in the bullpen, and they

(35:06):
are fighting hard for their spots, so kind of a
funny way to hackle it. But yeah, I do think.
I mean, look, if everything stays consistent and you start
to get these guys healthy, you're gonna have a surplus
a pitching post all Star Break, and that could be
a good thing.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
No, absolutely, again, Chris Gordy joining us here on Space
City Saturday for a couple of more minutes. Sticking with mccullors,
I mean, he brought up a great point right there,
and it's a point that I brought up numerous times.
He hasn't pitched in a competitive game in over two years. Like, so,
I mean, is it kind of to what you alluded
to right there? Fair to him to expect that he's
going to be the Lance mccullors that we came to expect,

(35:44):
But also too, I mean early on the timeline, what
are we looking at there is it's you know, a
lot of the minor league games on the backfields early on,
and then maybe towards the end of camp we start
to see him on the mound at Cacti Park.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
Yeah, I think he kind of you know, all this
is not kind of up in the air, but the
timeline he kind of gave was he's gonna, you know,
he's gonna keep throwing that like he's been throwing. He's
gonna face live hitting soon. You know. He said he
kind of hope to maybe on the back end of
spring training get into a couple of games and go
that way, and then the expectation is if he stays

(36:22):
on track, he would start the year in sugar Land.
And you know, he kind of in the way he
kind of intimated it seemed like kind of a month's
you know, like he thinks of several weeks there of
just kind of building himself back up, which makes a
lot of sense. So yeah, I mean, I think in
a perfect world, you're looking at maybe sometime in May
getting getting Lance mccullor's back. But that's what I said, like,

(36:44):
you know, how much does he build himself up? Is
he only going you know, three and a third four
and a third in sugar Land? I mean, And honestly,
if he's only doing that, that's not good enough to
come back up to the big league club. This Astros
team is not built to have starters have an early exit.
They need guys to go deep. And you know that's that,
Like I said, I think it'll all figure itself out.

(37:06):
But that's kind of where we are with McCullers right now.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Again.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
Chris Gordy joined us from West Palm Beach and Gordy,
you're there courtesy of our friends at Carbok Brewing. I mean,
you know, it's a beautiful day here. I'm assuming it's
the same there. I mean, is there a better time
to be able to not only at Crawford Bok pop
a top on, but any of the other great products
they have over there.

Speaker 6 (37:30):
Yeah. Well it's funny if I get some people back
home and they were saying, now, you know, got cold
again in Houston, I'm like, well, it's like eighty four
out here. It's beautiful weather and made me yearn for
being back home and have an ice cool Crawford Bock
from our friends at Carbok Brewing. And we'll be back
at the ballpark real soon at dyk And Park. Now
getting used to saying that that a minute made and

(37:50):
you know when you see it those Sequilla Senturai stripes
on the can and goes perfectly to Basters baseball. We
always say it's always in season, but now we're back
in season, so it's even better time to here to
crack open ice col Carbok Brewing and of course mind
everybody check out all the great events going on over
at Carbock Brewing always, festivals, concerts, all kinds of stuff

(38:12):
going on there year round. And when the weather starts
to warm up again, perfect time to get out there
watching Masters games and crack open ice. Col Crawford Boch,
no doubt about it.

Speaker 4 (38:21):
Soon enough we'll be having viewing parties out there and
everybody will be there in their lawn chairs watching the
big screen there at Carbock Brewing. Gordy, you're the best man.
Appreciate the time as always. And what another tiki bar
right there on the beach in West Palm Beach tonight?

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Is that in the fold? I hope.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
So I've been editing a lot of videos, so hopefully
maybe get a little time away. But yeah, I'll be
here again tomorrow morning, and then a couple of days
Matt Ross will be out here and they'll be doing
their shows and getting a lot of great interviews, a
lot of great content. By the way, Ben Gamble in
camp today, so when Al Tubn gets here tomorrow, Ashes
will have all their outfielders in camp, so that'll be fun.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
There you go, there you go, even if some don't
necessarily buy intose al two Bay, the outfielder Chris Gordy
right here on Space City Saturday.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Gordy, we'll talk.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
To you soon, all right, an tell you all right,
see buddy again. Chris Gordy out there, And yes, he
mentioned Ross and Matt gonna be out there next week
for the start of full squad and then as I mentioned,
next Saturday, first games being played, and I got to
echo what Gordy said right there. As a matter of fact,
I was at the grocery store the other day and

(39:30):
I saw that they had both varieties of Crawford Bach.
You had, of course the tequila sunrise stripes there, but
they also had the gold star ones on the shelves.
They're inside the coolers at the grocery store I was at.
So if you want to go either of those eras
of Astros baseball, feel free. It goes down the same,

(39:51):
It goes down deliciously. So there you go, all right.
Coming up next, we talked a little bit about Lance McCullers.
We're gonna let you hear from him next about some
of the things that he had to say about his
return back to competitive baseball.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Will do that.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
To close out the first hour of the show today
and then coming up in the next hour we'll get
into a little bit of Texans talk as so we'll
let you hear from a new offensive coordinator, Nick Cayley.
All of that still to come right here on your
home with the Astros and the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 9 (40:20):
Ninety, Space City Saturday continues Sports Talk seven ninety Dan
Matthews here with you as the first hour of the show.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Where'd it go? Man? Camon went just like that?

Speaker 4 (40:37):
But anyway, special thanks to Chris Gordy for joining us
for a few minutes from out there in West Palm
Beach and kind of take you behind the curtain here momentarily.
Last night, you know, just asking Gordy out there, I
was like, Hey, what was dinner? And he said, oh,
you know, found a nice little beach front sports bar
to take in a nice meal.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
So good for him. Good for him.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
I mean last year when me and Ross went not
complaining by any means, but a certain Northeastern gas station
kind of like their version of BUCkies if you will
up there, or Rookies.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
I guess we're gonna do the Matt Thomas thing.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
But no free plugs, no free shot outs, any of
those things, but they make really really good sandwiches. So
I told this to Ross, and I said, all right, hey,
we're looking for quick meals, that's where we can go.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
So both of the full days that.

Speaker 4 (41:26):
We were there, lunch was sandwiches from these places, from
this place, and they were delicious, So we enjoyed that.
So good on Gordy for being able to get out
and try out the local fair there in West Palm Beach.
Speaking of live sports that's happening today, mentioned no Texas
basketball to preempt us, but it doesn't mean that they're

(41:49):
not going to be on your radio a little bit later.
On six point thirty tonight, you're gonna get them right here,
taking all the Kentucky Wildcats, as the Horns badly in
need of some wins here down the stretch, and this
would be one tonight that could be huge for them
as they try to sneak into the NCAA tournament field.
But you get Kentucky after their great win over Tennessee,
the Horns losing to Alabama just the other night, so

(42:14):
that was a tough one for them, but they're trying
to get back. So six point thirty tonight you're gonna
get the Horns and Kentucky Wildcats, and then twelve forty
five over on our sister station, KPRC nine fifty, you're
gonna get the Koogs in Arizona to take on the Wildcats.
So huge game for U of H, which you know,
just kind of looking at the sharp action already on

(42:36):
social media a lot of people riding with the Coogs today,
so hopefully they can be able to power through and
get a nice road when they're in Tucson. We shall see.
But we're sticking with the Astros right here. As mentioned
Lance McCullers, and he has been a constant storyline these
last couple of years because, like I said, ever since

(42:56):
that World Series start Game three against the Philadelphia Phillies,
we have not seen Lance McCullers on the mound. So
that means for twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, he's
not been out there, and now you're hoping in twenty
twenty five he can make his way back onto a
competitive mound. So let's hear from Lance McCullers right now.
We're gonna start first with, like I said, the conversation

(43:19):
with Cordy Slow and Steady is the race with him
as McCullers is just saying, Hey, give me some time
on the mound in spring training before we start thinking
about the next step.

Speaker 10 (43:29):
So I've thrown seven pins, which is a good amount,
which is coming through like an offseason. I'll throw another
pen I think Sunday, and then probably a couple more
and then look into face hitters. I love to I
love to get in some games sort of the end
of the camp and you know, from there, probably break
a triple A. It's been a little while since i've
you know, really faced competition. Spring training is good, but

(43:50):
it's not you know, a little of the gap from
spring to the season.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
So I think it.

Speaker 10 (43:54):
Would I think we all feel it will be the
best to try to get a game or twitter my
belt down here in Florida and then before you know,
making a decision.

Speaker 6 (44:02):
To join back.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
And I mean that is something that has pretty much
been the storyline with him from the beginning, that they're
just going to kind of take it step by step
the side sessions, maybe even soon enough a simulated game
on one of the backfields with some of the hitters
and then be able to finally ramp him up to
a point where yeah, get him out there for an
inning or two, then maybe build it up to three

(44:27):
and then send him to sugar Land and get him
into four innings, five innings, and then once I think
he kind of reaches that point and he gives the
Astros the thumbs up and says, yeah, I feel good
to go, that's when he gets a call to join
the team.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
So if I had to take a guest.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
Right now, when we see Lance McCullers back on the
mount at Dyke and Park, I would probably say middle
of May, I think is a good point to look
at with him of being able to get some good
work down at the minor league level and then be
able to come back up and hopefully be a contributing
strong member of this Astros rotation this year. The stuff,

(45:04):
what is the stuff for Lance McCullers. And we know
that when he's pitched in the past, the stuff has
been really good. Velocity pretty good, all of the breaking stuff,
all the other stuff that's been pretty good as well.
But Lance McCuller is saying, well, the velo, we're building
it back up.

Speaker 10 (45:21):
I mean I actually went back to like twenty twenty
one and just was watching my film from spring and
the velos is pretty much where I was. So my
first lived in twenty twenty one, I was like eighty
nine to ninety one, so I'm I'm pretty much in
that in that range right now.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
The fastball velocity is really solid.

Speaker 10 (45:40):
The off speed is in the curveball slider like in
the upper seventies, so I'm not too far away from
from game speed. And once again, it's just it's bullpen.
I'm trying not to I think in the past I've
made I made some mistakes during the rehab process, like
trying to force philosophy the bullpen, so I wanted to
see those numbers and I think that's been part of
some of the some of the back So just kind
of taking taking every day with in the bullpen with

(46:04):
what it gives me, and I'm sure my body will
move the way it's supposed to when the when the
hitters are in games against situation.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
And notice I didn't bring up the reliever word with
Lance McCullers because it seems like in the past and
I've been warned at numerous times when I've said, hey,
maybe it's you know, a chance to stay healthy on
a consistent basis is to throw less innings and you know,
ergo go to the bullpen, which the first time I
brought that up, I remember hosting with Ross and Ross

(46:31):
immediately said, oh, don't say that to him. Or actually
it was with Matt. Matt Matt Thomas was the one. Sorry, guys,
I get the midday show. You know, the interchangeable parts confused,
but uh, anyway, that's what I was told pretty quickly
in talking about that with Lance McCullers. But that very
conversation was brought up because I believe the question to

(46:53):
him was Dana Brown alluding to a chance that Lance
McCullers could work out.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
The bullpen this season.

Speaker 4 (46:59):
And I think it's kind of safe to say that
Lance is a little down on the reliever talk.

Speaker 10 (47:05):
Yeah, I don't know where that came from, but I
don't think. I don't think that's an easy job and
being a reliever. I think a lot of times, you know,
people almost say, well, just make them reliever. I mean
that's not an easy thing to do. Uh, to be
a reliever at the big league level. It's not like
a fallback position. I think that it's doing a disservice
to the guys who are in that in that role.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
It's very specific. It's very hard.

Speaker 10 (47:29):
And I don't think pitching you know, back to back
days or even you know, you know, three out of
four days.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
For me, I think it's physically harder.

Speaker 10 (47:37):
I think the things that the guys in the bolt
that have to deal with throughout a long season, the
ups and down, the usages, not really knowing when they're
going to be called upon. Sometimes that's not that's a
harder in my opinion, it's a harder it's a harder job.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
It's a harder way to stay healthy.

Speaker 10 (47:51):
And I'm and so, like I said, it's not just
something that you can just decide you wake up one
day and feel like, you know, you know, being a reliever.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
It's a very specific job.

Speaker 10 (47:59):
If they think suggesting otherwise as a disservice to the
guys in the bullpen that have you know, in our pen,
and then every pinning around the league. And so you know,
for me, I'm I'm interested in doing what I've always done,
is what I know.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
That's what I feel I can.

Speaker 10 (48:12):
I can give this team you know, the most successful.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
All right, tiin the final one from Lance, We're actually
gonna hold over till the top of next hour, so
we're up against it here. Let me carry that to
the other side and then we're gonna get into a
little bit of Nick Cayley and Demiko Ryan Sauk with
the new Texan ZC being introduced, So we'll do that
to open up the eleven o'clock hour, as one hour
is in the books, and one more to go here

(48:38):
on Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with you until
noon on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Welcomeboard, Welcome to another Space City Saturday on Sports Talk
seven ninety, Dad Matthews Live and local h Town breakdown
of the world that matters to you, the Houston's sports world.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
All these great Houston fans here.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
We love you all, So finish up on that to
do list.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Flute up the cooler because you can't drink in talk
sports all day if you don't start. Now bear me
in the eight. This is Space City Saturday.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
That's insane. Here's seven nineties Dan Matthews.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
It is indeed Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with
you for one more hour here on your home of
the Astros and the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety. As
we've been in a lot of Astros conversation, and we'll
carry one part of it over to the other side,
because this was a piece of audio from Lance mccullors

(49:47):
that I definitely wanted you all to hear. But then
we're gonna get into a little bit of the Texans
conversation because new oc Nick Kyley introduced this week over
at NRG Stadium, So a chance to hear from him
for the first time. So excited to see what he's
able to do once he's able to go to work
with the Texans, and also to some good stuff from

(50:07):
Demiko Ryans.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
So we'll have that here for you in just a
few minutes.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
But carrying over Lance mccaller is from last segment, the
question now becomes, I mean, you know, as we've mentioned
all of the players who have left over the years,
and I would say that probably this offseason was a
finality for the Astros that we had come to love
and know from twenty to fifteen up until just this

(50:32):
past offseason. That's I mean, we've all seen the memes.
I think, what was it the UK Astros fan, the
guy over there in England that is a huge Astros guy.
He put together a little kind of disappearing it wasn't
even a gift. It was a video that had music
over it, and it was a photo of the Astros

(50:54):
doing the handshakes and high five line after winning a game.
And slowly and surely you start to see players disappear,
like I think the first one to disappear is George Springer,
and then the next one to disappear is Carlos Correa.
Then the next one is Kyle Tucker who's jogging in
from the outfield, and right behind jose Al Tuv it's

(51:16):
Alex Bregmant and soon enough you only see jose Al
Tuvey standing there. Well, a guy that's part of that
group is Alance McCullers man. He's still around at least
for a couple of more years, and he was asked
about the Astros trying to remain competitive even with some
really good players over the years starting to fade away.

Speaker 10 (51:36):
You look at a lot of teams that go through
amazing periods of time, not necessarily as long as we had,
but other teams they build up, but they have a
nice two for your run, make some playoffs, andy win
or go to a World Series, and then they kind
of they kind of fade for a while and then
you know, if they kind of have to the whole
rebuilding process. I think what you're seeing happen in front
of our eyes is the team trying to stay actively competitive.

(51:59):
I think they're trying to continue to put good team
in the field that have a true chance to win
the West, a chance to make you know, runs to
the playoffs. So I think the trajectory is is good.
I think it's much better than a lot of clubs
that have.

Speaker 8 (52:13):
A lot of success.

Speaker 10 (52:15):
Ultimately have to go into a massive rebuild for many
years to come, you know, because the draft and things
of that nature. I think we have you know, haters
sticking around for quite some time. Yabl to the jord
On Janar Diez, I mean, we have a lot of
really Hunter Brown, a lot of really great players that
that are here that they're going to be here for
years to come.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
And I mean that seems to be the tone that
you get from the Astros, not only the players, but
manager Joe Espada, from Dana Brown, and I mean, let's
just start first and foremost. I mentioned Kyle Tucker. That's
why that trade was made. That trade was made with
the express purpose of Dana Brown and his team looking
around and saying, hey, look, if we don't do this,

(52:56):
then we're putting ourselves in danger because we know that
we're going to Who's Kyle Tucker after this season? He
after the deal that Juan Soto just got this last season,
He's going to be upwards of a three four hundred
million dollar a year or not a year, but a
three four hundred million dollar deal type of guy. I mean,
that's what he is probably going to be searching for

(53:17):
next offseason. And if the Astros weren't willing to go
above six years and one fifty six or however much
the improved offer was to Alex Bregman, what do you
think is gonna happen with Kyle Tucker? They're not gonna
get anywhere close to that. So, knowing that reality, Dana
Brown said, Okay, let's retool a little bit and let's
give ourselves an opportunity to plan for the future.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
And that's what they did.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
You have Esak peretis here for the next three years
under club control. You've got Hated Loznsky same deal. You've
got Cam Smith also in that same boat. So you're
putting yourself in position to hopefully maybe even with more
moves down the line. I mean, you know, you make
the move to ship away Ryan Presley, you get the

(54:00):
a Bray You and Montero money that comes off the
books after this season. So next off season, maybe you're
able to make a strong run in free agency and
add a good outfielder to be able to add to
this lineup to the middle of the order and give
yourself another opportunity at going for it in twenty twenty six.
But as for twenty twenty five, this is a team

(54:20):
that fully believes that they can still win the American
League West, and as a team that hopes that they
are able to put together enough offense to go along
with this strong pitching that they have to go further
in the postseason that they did last year. And I
saw people getting hung up on Dana Brown talking about
the other day, you know, feel really good about a

(54:40):
chance to win the division. And I saw somebody respond
and say, we're not worried about winning the division. Well
you should be, because you saw it last year with
the Astros. If you are in that wildcard round, you're
completely wide open to being an early exit because best
two out of three, you just need to be really
good for two games and then you can continue on.

(55:01):
And that's what Detroit was last year against the Astros.
The Astros offensively fledgling is not even a beginning to
say where they were as an offense. I mean, you
had one extra base hit that entire series. The two
games that you played, you had one extra base hit.
And that was kind of a theme for the Astros
all last season. When they were able to hit with

(55:21):
runners in the scoring position, it seemingly came in bunches,
and when that was not there for you, then you
completely saw a team that was incredibly frustrating offensively at times.
So that's something that they're hoping they can rectify this season.
And I understand that there is a little bit of
concern about what's out in left field, or I guess
in this case, what is not out there at the moment,

(55:44):
because you don't feel like you have a strong, everyday
starting left fielder at this point. That's why you get
the Jose al Tuove conversation of him maybe going out there,
because at least you know what he can bring with
the bat, and you're hoping that you're able to get
another defensively out of him. To be able to kind
of raise the level of play out there from Jake

(56:06):
Myers and also from Chas McCormick. And you know, we
heard from Chas McCormick a little bit earlier. I know,
he had the line about they're going to surprise people
this year. Hopefully he is confident and hopefully the you know,
the production out of the bat comes back from him,
because that would be a huge boost to this team
if he is able to be the Chas McCormick at
the plate that he was a couple of years ago,

(56:27):
because that was a guy that helped you make a
run to the Alcs. That was a guy that even
two years ago when you won the World Series, was
able to help you win said World Series because of
what he was able to do with the plate. I mean,
you know, the Alcs remember that Game three against Garrett
Cole up there in New York, and he's able to

(56:47):
hit a huge home run to put them in position
to win that game and then soon enough sweep that
series and move on to the World Series. And I mean,
you know, with the glove, the huge play that he
made in game I mean, he makes that play, you're
kind of feeling like maybe this World Series is a
little bit different than the last two times we've been
here because the other team's been making plays like that

(57:09):
against us.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Now we're the ones making that play, and then game sticks.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
You get Jordan Alvarez sending it absolutely to the moon
and the Astros able to hoist the Commissioner's Trophy when
it was all said and done.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
But I mean, you look at it. Is this team
good enough to be.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
Able to say, if they were able to make it
all the way the end, are they good enough to
beat the Dodgers currently constructed? Probably not, But the Dodgers
are a darn all star team at this moment with
all their deferred money. And there's other teams too that
I think people would look to before they would look
at the Astros. I mean, Baltimore expected to be a
strong team again this year. The Yankees will see what

(57:47):
they are even after losing Juan Soto. Although I gotta
tell you, I think I feel a little bit better
about the Astros than I do about the Yankees at
this point, because I mean, it's going to be even
more pressure now on Aaron Judge, It's going to be
even more pressure on Mike Stanton excuse me, gen Carlos Stanton.
You know, we need to call him what he wants
to be called now, Gen Carlos Stanton. But with you know,

(58:09):
you saw a lineup that was incredibly top heavy for
the Yankees last year, and you take Juan Soto out
of that, I mean, it showed you what that team
was last year. If Soto and Judge don't hit, the
rest of the offense doesn't perform. If they do, then
the rest of the offense follows suit. And they've made
some other moves this offseason to try to shore up
that team. But for the most part, I think when

(58:31):
you lose a huge part like they did in Soto,
they take a little bit of a step back.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
So I say all that to say I think the.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
American League is there for the taking if the Astros
can get some strong contributions this year. But unlike other years,
there are more questions about this team than there have
been in the past, and we'll have to just see
the season play itself out. And you know, even guys
that you're not necessarily counting on at this moment. I
mean a guy like Taylor Tremmell, a guy that was

(58:57):
a former first round pick that is kind of bounced around.
Is he one of those kind of reclamation projects that
the Astros can have that they've been able to have,
Let's say, guys like Mauricio Dubont who was not counted
on offensively before he got here, and look what he's become.
I mean, you know, the pitching side, We've seen countless examples.
So maybe the Astros are able to pull that out

(59:19):
of him, and he's a huge surprise for this team
this season. They could absolutely use a surprise or two
from a couple of guys if they do want to
see this thing all the way through.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
But I did mention we.

Speaker 4 (59:30):
Get into some Texans Talk, let you hear from a
new OC Nick Kyley, as well as some thoughts from
Damiko Ryans will do that next on the other side.
As we continue to roll along here on Space City Saturday,
Dan Matthews here with you on your home of the
Astros and the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety. Welcome back

(59:51):
to Space City Saturday, Sports Talk seven ninety, Sports Talk
seven ninety, Space City Saturday, forty five minutes or so
with you here on your home of the Astros and
the Rockets. We have been all Astros so far to
this point. Now a chance for us to get into
a little bit of the Texans. As mentioned Nick Kayley,

(01:00:16):
a chance to speak with the Texans media earlier this
week as they introduced the new Texans ZC over there
at NRG Stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
And I mean, you know, a huge.

Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
Part of you know, just kind of going back through time.
I mean, why Bobby Slowick was the odd man out
and why they decided to move on from him. I
think we knew immediately why they decided to move on
from Chris Strasser, because well, we saw the way at
the offensive line was last year, so it's time to
make a change, and that's what they did. But with
this team, it was also seemingly centered around the relationship

(01:00:52):
or maybe fractured relationship that CJ. Stroud and Bobby Slowick had,
and that kind of trickled to the rest of the offense.
So and hearing from Nick Hayley here in the early going,
First let's hear what he has to say about his
excitement to work with his new quarterback, c J.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Stroud.

Speaker 8 (01:01:13):
I mean, he can he can spin it, he throws
the ball. He's an accurate thrower of the football. He
has a natural. He's a natural thrower of the football.
He's instinctive, he's got the it factor, and and he's
a he's a warrior in terms of his competitiveness, and
I have I've admired him dating back to his college days.
So I'm really really excited to have an opportunity to.

Speaker 6 (01:01:35):
Work with him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
And I mean, that's what you want to hear.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
And I don't think anybody necessarily doubts that he feels
that way. But it's how good is your offense. It's
only as good as your quarterback is. You know the
line that I've given you all before that if you
don't have a quarterback, you're dead on land. If you
don't have an offensive line, well you're dead in the water,
or you know, in either of those orders. But still,

(01:02:01):
those guys are so important, the five guys up front
and then the guy behind them, to be able to
lead this offense and to be able to lead it
at a high level, which we saw it at times
last year from CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Stroud.

Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
But we also saw at times I think the Fears
realized that we had heading into his rookie season. I mean,
we were not feeling good about c J. Stroud's chance
to be a high impact quarterback in his rookie year
because of the guys upfront, the offensive line. But I
think they played better than people expected them to play.
And then c J Stroud the second year, the league

(01:02:32):
caught up to him a little bit, but the league
more importantly caught up to Bobby Slowick and this offensive
front and how they were trying to block up teams.
And I mean you pretty much saw teams saying, well,
we throw a twister a stunt against these guys. They
really don't have an answer for you. And then he
had no time for CJ to be able to throw
the football. He got himself into situations where maybe he's

(01:02:55):
not trusting his feet in the pocket as much, so
then he's trying to run to find a play and
then he throws an interception and you're just kind of like,
oh man, this is just not good. But anyway, Nick
Keyley continues with me talking about the offensive line. He
talks about the offensive line, and he said, Yep, there's
no doubt about it. That's where things start.

Speaker 8 (01:03:16):
I think it all starts up front, obviously, and it's
it's really all eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
I mean, we all got to be in sync.

Speaker 6 (01:03:21):
And I think.

Speaker 8 (01:03:21):
Protection starts obviously with communication, with trust and communication, cohesiveness
up front and really having clear, you know, rules in
the protection system. So we're gonna, you know, we'll be.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Going through that process.

Speaker 5 (01:03:33):
Obviously.

Speaker 8 (01:03:34):
I got a you know history with Cole dating back
to my time in New England.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
He was our offensive line coach and I coached the
tight end.

Speaker 8 (01:03:39):
So I have a really good working relationship and a
level of trust with Cooley. He's a very good football
coach and I'm excited to go through this process with him.

Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
And we'll get back to Cole Popovich here in just
a second when we hear from a Texans head coach,
Tamiko Ryans. But I mean that is the first and
foremost is how good is your offensive line?

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
You just saw it from the Super Bowl Champs.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
What the Philadelphia Eagles were able to do in that
game is not only defensively, they were able to dominate
the Chiefs. And that's something that we'll get into a
little bit later on in the show, not necessarily from
the Eagles perspective, but how it pertains to the Texans.
But also, what did you hear all season long about
the Eagles how good their offensive line was and how

(01:04:22):
dominant that offensive line was. They even showed the graphic
during the game. I think they said that all five
of their starters averaged about being six five six six
in like three hundred and thirty eight pounds. The Texans
don't have that on their offensive line at this moment,
and I'm not necessarily sure that an off season of
free agency trades anything else, maybe even the draft, if

(01:04:44):
you go that way. I'm not even sure that you
can build that up in one off season, but you
can at least take a significant step forward. And that's
what I think the Texans and their fans are hoping
they do this year on that side of the ball. So,
I mean, you know, that's a group that you just
heard Nick Kayley. The emphasis that's going to be put
on that group, I'm sure that the evaluations have already
begun of who still fits here, who doesn't fit here anymore?

(01:05:08):
All Right, once you get past the combine and soon
enough free agency opens up, who is somebody that we
can bring in to maybe play right guard, or who
is somebody that we can bring in to play even center.
If that's a direction that you want to go. So
all of those things are on the table for the Texans,
and Nick Kyley has that front of mine.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
You heard him mention his time in New England.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
And it's funny how you know, narratives are built over
the years, Like let's take you back to the Gary
Kubiak time. Remember the narrative that was built out there
of Gary Kubiak. A new coach hired. Oh, Gary worked
with him in Denver. Oh, great, another guy that he
worked with in Denver. That's awesome. And then it was
pretty much every single draft, Oh, a guy drafted from

(01:05:50):
Colorado State, who knew what a surprise, you know, taking
a fifth rounder from Colorado State. Well, his son plays there,
so that makes a lot of sense. So it kind
of got to a point where people were like, enough
with the Colorado Tree, Okay, enough with going to the
Denver Broncos, enough with going to Colorado State and drafting

(01:06:11):
players out of there. Was fast forward it to now
because there was seemingly this obsession with former owner Bob
McNair with the New England Patriots and that you know
Patriots way that was out there, that even so much
that he decided to bring on Bill O'Brien, and it
seemed like every single meaningful hire that was made by
this organization was somebody that at a time was with

(01:06:33):
the New England Patriots. And of course people were like, stop,
there is no Patriots way. I sound like WEX right now.
You remember how wex when he and Ac were talking
about this sometime last year. There is no Patriots way.
It was Tom Brady. That is the Patriots way. That
is why they were able to win all those championships.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
There wasn't some.

Speaker 4 (01:06:53):
Secret formula up there that they were just doing better
than everybody else. And I think obviously once Tom Brady
left it, you found out that was pretty much true.
Bill Belichick is still an incredibly highly respected coach in
this game, and now he's on the college level, but
still you've worked with Belichick and another guy that I
think has kind of taken that mantle from him at
the moment. He's won a Super Bowl, but he hasn't

(01:07:15):
had the level of success of Bill Belichick. But he's
widely respected on the offensive end of the football, and
that's Sean McVay and Nick Cayley has worked for both
of those coaches, and he talked about what he took
from his time both in New England and in LA
with Sean McVay.

Speaker 8 (01:07:31):
Yeah, well, there's a lot of things that I could,
I could, you know, point to in both of those situations.
But yeah, I think just going back in my time
in New England, you know, embracing your role, keeping your
head down, working working hard, and and really the more
you can do, uh, the more value you have. And
and just you know, there's no you know detail, that's
that's you know, I would say too small. You turn

(01:07:52):
over every rock. You try to find a way to
give yourself an edge as a as a as a team,
through your players, through coaching, et cetera. And I would
say thoroughness, attention to detail, accountability. That's what really stands
to mind. With coach Belichick, you know, Sean, same thing,
just the the energy, the passion, the leadership. Obviously both

(01:08:13):
men are incredible football coaches. But you talk about the
way he goes about the day in LA, the way
he moves away, he communicates, the way he invests, the
way he pours into players. Those are just a few
things about both those coaches that I that I've obviously
taken along the way.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
And I'm kind of reminded with Nick Kayley talking right
there of when I was in my former stop and
dan Quinton was hired as the head coach there, and
I asked him about his past with both Nick Saban
and also with Pete Carroll, and his response kind of
echoed what you just heard Nick Kayley say about working
for both of those two coaches. Is he said, the

(01:08:50):
common theme that they both had is they throw a
great practice. And I know a lot of people look
at practice and say, all right, yeah, you know, how
much can you work on blocking? Tach You're throwing routes
on air, doing all of those different things. But you
hear a constant theme from really successful organizations on any
level of football talk about how practices are harder than games.

(01:09:13):
And the Texans do have that reputation. And not only that,
I mean you hear it from some of the players
of talking about, you know, how Demiko Ryans puts them
through work during the week that prepares them for game
days on Sunday. And I know that sometimes it's hard
to see that because the presnat penalties and other things
that the Texans have had, you know, on the frustrating

(01:09:34):
end of things. And we saw that in full scope
this season. But I mean that's something that if you're
able to have that as part of your organization, then
you feel like you're going to be able to win
when it's all said and done. And that's something that
it sounds like Nick Keyley carries over from his time
both with the Patriots and also with the Rams, working

(01:09:55):
with Bill Belichick and also with Sean McVay. But Tamiko
Ryan's side of things, now we get to him, we
get to the Damico Ryans wing of the audio here,
and first and foremost it's talking about what made Nick
Cayley the right guy for the job.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:10:12):
I talked to a lot of great people throughout this process,
and just it was clear as I kept going through
it talking to people and going through my process, it
was very clear that Nick was the right guy for
our team, just with his energy, right his leadership ability.

(01:10:33):
I think with him being able to understand the run
game past game, with him being in multiple schemes, multiple
schemes that were successful, understanding how to tailor the offense
to the players that we have, that led me to
Nick and I feel really strong in my conviction that
he can lead us and get us over the hump, right,

(01:10:55):
we've been We've had a lot of good success these
first two years, And the reason for doing it is
I think there's another level that we can go to.
And so I said earlier, it's my job to take
this organizations and new heights, and I think hire and
Nick will help us to get there.

Speaker 4 (01:11:10):
All right, But hold the phone for a second, because
what has also been a consonant storyline since the Texans
hiring of Nick Cayley was made official. He's never called
plays before, and some people out there might be saying, well,
wait a minute, didn't the guy that you just fired.
Wouldn't he kind of in the same boat right there?
So it kind of gets to that point of asking

(01:11:31):
the question to Damiko Ryans, Hey, Okay, well if that
guy wasn't good enough, what makes this guy the right guy?

Speaker 11 (01:11:38):
There's always everybody has that first time. I was the
first time play caller, right There are a lot of
guys we have that first time. So I wasn't beholding
into or nervous about hiring someone who was the first
time because it's about the person, and I think you
get the right person to do the job.

Speaker 6 (01:11:53):
And I think I truly believe that Nick can do that.

Speaker 11 (01:11:56):
And it's play calling is also about who you surround
yourself with. I think, you know, we have a really
strong staff offensively and defensively, surround ourselves with the right
people who can help when it comes to calling it
for the first time, all.

Speaker 4 (01:12:11):
Right, And I mean that's all fine and good, and
I can appreciate Tamika Ryan's feeling that way. And obviously
he feels like he is somebody that is fully capable
of handling this job.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
Otherwise he wouldn't be here.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
And I'm sure that probably throughout this process, you know,
not only do you interview the candidate, but you talk
with people who know him. And clearly there are people
in that building, Nick Casario, Cole Popovich, you know, at
least who come to immediate mind. But I'm sure he
probably even has Sean mcvay's number, and I'm sure he
probably called him up and said, hey, what about this guy,

(01:12:43):
And I'm sure McVeigh talked him up and said, yeah,
incredibly helpful to putting together our offensive schemes. And he's
not wrong about you know, everybody needs their first chance
to be able to show that they can do the job.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
The only I.

Speaker 4 (01:12:58):
Guess hesitancy that I have with this is you, more
often than not when hiring a coach and firing a coach,
is you want the complete opposite of what you just had.
And that was what was kind of surprising to me
that the Texans didn't really try to find somebody that
had previous play calling experience, and they did. I mean,
Bill Laser was a guy they talked with a couple

(01:13:19):
of other former ocs around the league that they had
talked with that had had experience calling plays that were
under consideration, and then they finally settled on going with
Nick Cayley. But I mean that was to me where
it was like, Okay, if you just fired a guy
because his experience wasn't good enough and when adjustments were
thrown at him, he could not be able to adjust

(01:13:41):
to those adjustments being thrown at him, then what makes
you think it's going to change.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
This time around?

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
That I think is a valid question to ask of
Tamiko Ryans and also of the Texans brass of what
makes this guy that much better than the guy that
you just had? And I guess as time goes on,
we'll be able to ask that question.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
But for now.

Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
Well, another question that people had was with the offensive line.
The Texans decided to promote from within and make Cole
Popovich the new offensive line coach, and Damiko Ryans was
asked about that very thing of wait a minute, you
had this guy on staff already, you fired the guy
that was in front of him.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
What makes this guy the right man for the job?

Speaker 11 (01:14:19):
Cole as our offensive line coach to lead that room,
just having one voice to lead it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Feel really strong about that.

Speaker 11 (01:14:26):
Cole helped a lot of our young players when it
came to developing.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
He had a really great relationship.

Speaker 11 (01:14:32):
With a lot of guys, and guys think very highly
of Cole and what he's able to do. And I
think him having a prior relationship with Nick as well
and them being able to work together and them to
get hit the ground running instantly. Think that also led
to my decision, and I know we'll be.

Speaker 6 (01:14:49):
Better for it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:52):
So, I mean, he at least is putting his belief
behind Cole Popovich at this time. And you heard him
talk about the one voice in that room. I mean
maybe they felt like that there was a little bit
of a Chris Drosser was telling him one thing and
Cole Popovich is telling him another and now saying no, Now,
this is Cole's room.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
It's going to be his room.

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
And he is going to be the guy that is
the lead voice in that room and trying to get
this group of five together. I don't necessarily think that
Texans offensive linees we're an issue of coaching.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
I think it was the sum of the parts.

Speaker 4 (01:15:21):
I mean, despite what you think, Larry Mytunsel when the
ball snapped is one of the better left tackles in
this game.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
You don't just replace that guy.

Speaker 4 (01:15:30):
And when he did move Titus Howard over to the
left guard, you were able to get some good things
out of him. It's kind of the rest of the
offensive line that are question marks. And I mean, one
thing that kind of makes me wonder if the current
leadership of this team has a blind spot towards the
offensive line is remember heading into that Chiefs playoff game.
I'm not saying that Shaq Mason was the reason he
lost that game, but the question I had was, you've

(01:15:52):
been getting really good play out of this offensive line,
better than you've had all season long. Why do you
put that guy back in? And I understand it's the whole.
Oh well, you don't want him to lose his job
because of an injury. That's all fine and good, but
you're trying to win a football game. It's survival at
this point. Why mess with what's been a good thing.
At least good enough is probably what has been the case.

(01:16:13):
And you saw the way that it went in that game.
He got dominated as he had for most of the season.
So I don't know if Cole Popovich is going to
be a loud enough voice in that room, but he
needs to be because seemingly the Texans, the way they've
gone about their offensive line for the better part of
the last couple of years, it's been awful. It's not
been good, and it kind of makes me wonder if

(01:16:34):
they are capable of improving that group and making it
into the type of group that you need in order
to beat the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Bills, now the
Eagles and teams that are in front of you of
getting to your ultimate goals. So again, only time will
tell if they are able to turn that corner in
regards to the offensive line. But those were a couple

(01:16:55):
of answers from Zamiko Ryans that kind of left a
little bit to be desired from me. Voices outside of
the Texans organization, one in particular, who knows a lot
about the defensive side of the ball, and he had
an interesting thing to say about your Houston Texans and
how they could compare to the team that currently has
the Lombardi Trophy. We'll hear from him next as we

(01:17:18):
continue to roll along here on Space City Saturday. Dan
Matthews here with you until noon. This is Space City
Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety Sports Talks seven ninety
Space City Saturday, Dan Matthews here with you a few
more minutes here on today's show. Don't forget tonight six

(01:17:41):
point thirty Texas basketball taken on Kentucky Horns.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
Badly need that one.

Speaker 4 (01:17:46):
And uh here in just a few minutes, I think
actually an hour from now, twelve forty five is when
you're gonna get the radio call of the Coogs taking
on the Arizona Wildcats. Coog's on the road a two
and a half point favorite, so we'll see if Kelvin
Sampson's team can pull off a huge win. There After,
they were able to get Emmanuel Sharp back against the

(01:18:08):
Baylor Bears took them out on Monday nights and now
trying to get a huge win over an Arizona team
that lost a tough one on the road to Kansas State.
So they're trying to get back on the winning side
of things, and the Koogs are hoping they can keep
them up from that. So that's coming up a little
bit later on. We saw sheer domination in the Super

(01:18:28):
Bowl last week the Eagles, and you know, you see
the score forty to twenty two, and you're kind of like,
you know, maybe they pulled ahead late.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
No, that wasn't the case. They all from the beginning.

Speaker 4 (01:18:39):
Those were garbage points by the Kansas City Chiefs to
get those final two touchdowns and pull it within eighteen points.
And the Chiefs were just completely again, I mean, everything
they tried to do offensively they could not get it going.
And defensively as well. You know, they were able to
stop the Eagles run game for the most part. Sakuon

(01:19:00):
Barkley was held in check. But then it was also
Jalen Hurts able to bust off runs to hurt you
and then throws down the field to be able to
hurt them. I mean, you know, you saw if you
saw the NFL Films footage from Nick Sirianni wanting to
go ahead and land the death blow right there of
the deep bomb to DeVante Smith and the Eagles able

(01:19:21):
to score, and at that point it was I mean,
I think that's when I threw out the Vince Carter
gift from the slam Dunk contest years ago of it's over,
it's done, and we knew that it was the case
at that point. But the Eagles and what they were
able to do, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
I mean, we're two the off season, and this is
when we start wondering, Hey, who's the next?

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
Who can be the next?

Speaker 4 (01:19:44):
And Luke Keigley was on with Kay Adams on up
In Adams part of the Fan Duel Network, and she
asked that very question to him and he mentioned a
team that I think will make a lot of us
very happy.

Speaker 12 (01:19:58):
Another group is Shuston and with dan El Hunter and
Will Anderson, they can find a good guy on the
inside of that defense to push the pocket.

Speaker 3 (01:20:07):
I think they've got a chance.

Speaker 12 (01:20:08):
But that's what Philly does so well, is they've got
guys off the edge and that Jalen Carter on the
inside pushing that pocket vertically. If you've got edge guys
that are really good and that quarterback can step up
and step out and there's no inside threat, it's easy.
But if you have two edge guys that are monsters
and inside guy, it just all works together.

Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
And I mean his point is incredibly valid because the
Eagles have that and then some with Jordan Davis and
Jalen Carter on the inside, then they were able to
do that against the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
And we saw numerous times.

Speaker 4 (01:20:43):
So how many times we see Patrick Mahomes, you know,
drop back in the pocket and he had no time
to throw. It either came from right in front of him,
from the interior, or as he just mentioned, with the
interior pushing the pocket into him. Then that kind of
threw him to one of the two edge guys and
they were able to take advantage of him not having
it really any time to throw. And the Texans at

(01:21:06):
times were able to get that. I mean, that was
a little bit of a concern we had this season.
Without Sheldon Rankins and without Elite Collins, were you going
to be able to get that pressure up front from
your interior? And they got some good things from some
of the guys they had up front, and I mean
Deniko Autry was able to do some good things that
you counted on more on the interior, but also at

(01:21:26):
times you counted on them from the edge, and that
is something that I think the Texans will be looking
for this offseason. I don't know if that necessarily comes
your way through the through free agency or trade. I
mean maybe if you are where you are in the draft,
which is in the late twenties, trying to figure out,
all right, do we want offensive or I mean, yeah,

(01:21:47):
offensive line help. Do we feel like that there's a
good offensive lineman that we can pretty much plug in
and play day one and can be a significant starter
for us, or do you go a secondary receiver because
you're probably not going to have Tanked next season. And
I don't think that that's saying anything untoward right now,
just everything that he had worked on in his knee,

(01:22:07):
that does not sound like that's a quick return. So
at least for a good portion of the season. Let's
just say, you're not gonna have Tank Dell out there,
so you need somebody to be able to counteract what
you're trying to do with Nico Collins. Nico Collins can
only do so much. Soon enough, you start getting coverage
rolled his way. You get the double teams there, do
you get the bracketed coverage, whatever it might be that

(01:22:29):
You've got to have somebody else that can step up
and make plays for you. And you weren't getting enough
of that out of the tight ends. You weren't getting
enough of that out of the other receivers you had.
I mean, I think Xavier Hutchison and John Metchi and
some of the other receivers, I think they did their best.

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
They're just not those guys.

Speaker 4 (01:22:44):
So then the question becomes, Okay, do you bring back
Stefan Diggs or do you go through the draft, or
do you go outside in free agency? I mean t Higgins,
I don't see that being the case. It sounds like
that T Higgins more than likely is gonna stay there
in Cincinnati, especially based off what Joe Burrows said about,

(01:23:04):
you know, really putting pressure on his front office of saying, hey,
you can work my contract and be able to make
sure these guys are here.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
We have the ability to do that. And if your.

Speaker 4 (01:23:13):
Quarterbacks saying that, well, then that puts you in a
spot where you need to try to make good on that.
But for the Texans, I mean, I think it gets
to a point of maybe interior defensive line, do you
feel like that there's a guy that you can be
aggressive for and trade up for if you really like them.
And we've seen Nick Serio be aggressive with his draft
picks in the past, and maybe that is somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
That they look at.

Speaker 4 (01:23:34):
But you know, Luke ke Eeqley's point is one hundred
percent valid. I mean, you were good there, you were
not great. The Eagles are great there, and you know,
the Chiefs are pretty good there too as well, and
other teams are really good on the interior of their
defensive line. And the Texans are hoping that they can
build up that part of that group this season. Because

(01:23:55):
everything else that he said is incredibly true. This Texans
secondary is really good. The linebacker corps when healthy is
pretty good, and your edges on the defensive line they're
really good. You just need to be able to shore
up the interior. And if you can do that, this
really good defense becomes an elite defense next year. In
elite defenses put you in position to play for the

(01:24:15):
Super Bowl when it's all said and done. And that's
what Sexans are hoping they can do all right. Coming
up next, throw some rockets talk at you, and also
to a couple of bits of audio out there that
I wanted to play for you because we have done.

Speaker 2 (01:24:30):
I hear voices in the past.

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
We're gonna do kind of a pared down version of
that because there were a couple of things that happened
this week that really made me laugh and I do
want to pass.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
Those along to you, So we'll do that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:39):
To close out this edition of Space City Saturday, Dan
Matthews here with you for one more segment on your
Home with the Astros and the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 9 (01:24:47):
Ninety Space City Saturday continues on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
Ninety Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with you again.

Speaker 4 (01:25:00):
Apologize we weren't able to get you all in on
the phone lines today.

Speaker 2 (01:25:03):
I mean, look, you know live radio, it happens.

Speaker 4 (01:25:06):
Technology sometimes decides that it wants to be on you know,
union time, and there are a lot of their smoke
break their break time. And once that happens, then well,
you know, we got to call in our own union
rep and that's our engineering department to be able to
fix things up. So hopefully by Monday morning when Sean

(01:25:27):
and Brian are on with you, guys, we'll have that
all fixed up. But appreciate your patience on that, and
sorry we couldn't get you all more involved in the
show today, but you know, like I said, such as
live radio sometimes. All right, the Rockets fifty five games
into the season, they are off until Friday. When they
get back on the floor, they will start the next

(01:25:49):
half of the season. But thirty four and twenty one,
that is good enough right now to have them fourth
in the Western Conference. They are just a couple of
games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for seconds in the West,
and they're actually two and a half games back of
Memphis and two behind Denver for the three seed. I mean,

(01:26:14):
it's one of those things that you don't necessarily have
to worry about playoff seeding just yet.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
But the Rockets would probably.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
If you ask them again, you put them in the
room of truth, they'd like to be able to get
out of that four or five area, because well, I mean,
you can win that opening round series. And I do
think if the Rockets were in that category and they
played against the Lakers, I do think that they are
the better team than the La Lakers, and they can
win that series and be able to move.

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
On to the next round.

Speaker 4 (01:26:42):
The problem is, there's a forty four ten Oklahoma City
Thunder who are running away with the Western Conference at
this moment, and you've proven for the most part that
you are not good enough to beat that team.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
So that's the.

Speaker 4 (01:26:55):
Charge of the Rockets here in the next half of
the season, as they will start things up next Friday
night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. That's going to be over
at Toyota Center. Then the very following night they head
on the road and go to Utah and take on
the Jazz before coming back home for the Milwaukee Bucks,

(01:27:15):
the Spurs, and then also the Sacramento Kings there as
the Kings will start the month of March. But I mean,
you know, you've got about two full months of basketball
still left, because the final regular season game is going
to be that home game on Sunday, April thirteenth against
the Denver Nuggets. I mean, the way things are playing,

(01:27:37):
that game might be for who is the four seed
and who is the three at that moment, So that
could be a huge game when it comes down to
that point. But I mean this is a Rockets team
that's battled some key injuries, Fred van Vliet being down
that's not been good. I mean, you've seen kind of
at times the inconsistencies of this offense and also on

(01:27:58):
the defensive end. I mean, some of the things that
he's able to do communication wise on the defensive end
to cut off some of those driving lanes for teams
to be able to go to the basket and put
up a couple of points there that you've seen kind
of happening more regularly without Fred van Vliet on the floor,
and he shows his importance in that way.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
And same with Jabari Smith Junior. I mean, you know,
I think.

Speaker 4 (01:28:23):
That obviously Fred he'll be probably ready to go in
that first game. If I had to guess, I would
probably think that ima Udoka will have him in the
starting lineup to start off that first game next Friday
night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. As for Jabari Smith Junior,
I mean, I think now we can pretty much say
that Amen Thompson is a starter, and maybe also too

(01:28:45):
as you saw with the men Thompson he was probably
one of those guys that I May was talking about
in terms of being fried. Both mentally and physically, as
you heard him in the postgame press conference after the
loss to the Golden State Warriors. And maybe that's kind
of an interchangeable thing that Emay goes with on the
starting five of some games, you like the matchup you

(01:29:08):
go with the men Thompson and then you know, other
games you like the matchup of putting Jabari Smith Junior
in the starting lineup, and that's kind of at your
disposal now. So sometimes you find out just how deep
you are as a team. That's what we found out
about this Rockets team, and we heard about this Rockets
team heading into this season was just how deep this
roster was. But injury has kind of tested that depth

(01:29:30):
and now you're hoping that you're able to put that
depth to good use going forward. So I mean, as
I said top of the show, we have competitive basketball
here in this town.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
Again. That's exciting, that's fun.

Speaker 4 (01:29:42):
I know that you all have responded to going out
Toyota Center and seeing this team. Toyota Center is sounding
a lot louder than it has in previous seasons. That's good.
So at least this is a team that is in
position to compete and maybe be able to make a
deep enough run in the Western Conference in this offseason.
We'll see where they go from there. But that's where

(01:30:04):
the Rockets are to this point. All right, a couple
of bits of audio. Like I said, we've done the
segment I hear voices in the past. Well, we are
going to hear a couple of different voices here in
this segment. First from one of the beloved figures in
all of basketball, and the other from a guy that's
a little bit of a villain in basketball, but the

(01:30:25):
beloved guy in basketball, Shaquille O'Neil. Who doesn't love Shaquille O'Neil,
I mean, having met him personally numerous times, one of
the best. You love that guy. And there's a reason why.
You know, you're looking for a printer, Shaquille O'Neil will
sell it to you. You're looking for a couch or
a sectional, Shaquille O'Neil will sell it to you. Pretty
much anything out there that can be sold and marketed.

(01:30:46):
Shaquille O'Neil has some part of that. So the other
night on Inside the NBA, it was the final regular
season game before the All Star break, and Inside the
NBA was already out in the Bay Area for the.

Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
All Star Game.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
And you know how Kenny the Jet Smith will jump
up from the desk and run back to the video
screen and sometimes Shaq will run there with them and
try to beat him to the screen. Well, after they
had done that, they were going to break and Shaquille
O'Neal offered this very fun and viral clip of how
he was feeling running back to the desk and the

(01:31:24):
words of I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
Tired of americawhere.

Speaker 4 (01:31:36):
As only Shaquille O'Neal can do. And turns out he's
not getting fired a fifteen million dollar a year deal
to stay with TNT. So we'll see what that looks
like with Shaquille O'Neil. And we know that inside the
NBA also too going to be contracted out to ESPN
and that group will be able to work out of
Atlanta after the TNT deal is done. So of course,

(01:31:57):
you know the NBA going to ESPN, ABC, NBC and
Amazon going forward. So just making a little light of
the situation right there of saying, hey, look, you know
what they gonna do. They're gonna fire us early. They're
not gonna take their best show off of this channel
off while they still have getting good at this point.
So funny stuff from Shaquille O'Neil. The villain out there

(01:32:21):
is Yukon head coach Danny Hurley. Now I like personalities
like Danny Hurley whenever they do things like this, because look,
you're letting your emotions show you're having fun. And it
was a closely contested game that the Huskies had against
Creighton on Monday night and they were able to pull
off the win. And as Hurley was coming off the

(01:32:44):
floor going towards their tunnel there at the arena in Omaha,
you had some Creton fans right there letting them hear
the business, and Danny Hurley decided to return with some
similar insults. And the funny thing at that is the

(01:33:14):
immediate reaction that people had, well, wait a.

Speaker 2 (01:33:16):
Minute, you're bald, dude.

Speaker 4 (01:33:17):
But it was what I said on Twitter is it
was the way that he did it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:23):
It was the point.

Speaker 4 (01:33:24):
It was the eye contact right there of yeah, I'm
letting you hear it right here. And that's the thing is,
you know, you want to get your point across. Those
two things are important. You got to have the point,
you got to have the eye contact. And I like it.
I like it when you have things like that, And
of course, if you're an opposing fan, you probably hate
a guy like Danny Hurley, and then sports hate. It's relative.

(01:33:45):
In this case, it's all perspective. But I you know,
I like when you have people like this who want
to be the villain. They want to be the wrestling heel.
And that was almost kind of like, you know, a
huge crucial wrestling match and the heel is able to
distract the referee and somebody comes in and hits his
opponent with a chair and then you know, the referee

(01:34:06):
comes to it and you know, gives them the three
count and they're you know, walking back to the locker
room up the ramp there at the you know, whether
it's a raw or whatever it is, and the crowd's
kind of giving it to them and they're like, no, no, no,
I'm gonna give it right back to you. And that's
Danny Hurley right there. So look, it's fun. I feel
like college basketball allows for more more personalities their coaches

(01:34:28):
in any other sports, and you know, if you have
them on your side, you love them. If you don't,
well then you're probably like the Creighton fans and you
want to be yelling back at him, so well, you
know it was. It was a lot of fun and
Danny Hurley having some fun. They're coming off the floor.
I had no problem with him. I was gonna do
it for us here on at Space City Saturday. I
want to thank Melvin Brown back in the studio, does

(01:34:49):
a great job as always with the music, and I
threw a lot of audio at you, Todave Melvini, you
did a fantastic job, so appreciate you. Also, Chris Gordy
out in West Palm Beach again out there with Carbox
brewing it great stuff from him. I'm Dan Matthews. Until
next Saturday. This has been Space City Saturday. Enjoy the
rest of the day. Don't forget Texas basketball Kentucky six
thirty tonight right here on Sports Talk seven ninety

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