Space City Saturday w Dan Mathews 9-28-24

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
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 sports world.

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

Speaker 3 (00:23):
We love you all. So finish up on that to
do list.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Flute up the cooler because you can't drink in talk
sports all day if you don't start now bear me
the eight.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
This is Space City Saturday. It's insane.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Here's seven nineties. Dan Matthews, very true. What's going on? Everybody?
You're with you for the next couple of hours. Melvin
Brown behind the glass. Appreciate you all tuning in to
us right here on. You're home of the Astros and

(01:01):
the Rockets. Sports Talk seven to ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
As we ought to do here in the first hour
of the show, heavy Astros in this hour, So if
you want to weigh in, do so seven one three
two one two five seven ninety. Once again, that's sebon
one three two one two five seven ninety. As you
have a chance to be able to talk end of
the season and also too as well what's ahead for

(01:25):
the Stros. We will do all of that as we
move along here in the program today Texans. In the
second hour get to a lot of what was said
this week over at NRG Stadium. But not only there,
but also too Not very often do you hear a
loss carried over to the following week and the coach

(01:45):
and the players are asked continuously about it. But that
was the case with Dimiko Ryans and CJ. Stroud and
whoever else was asked about it over there, because well,
that was not a fun performance in Minneapolis last weekend
against the Vikings. So the Texans trying to bounce back
from that, and we will see if they are able
to do that. Also in that second hour bottom of

(02:09):
the hour, Ryan Hacker Green from ten ten XL in Jacksonville,
he joined us on the A team. Some good stuff
said by him on the Jacksonville side of tomorrow's matchup.
We'll get into that, but also too as well, you know,
just how is this Jacksonville team looking coming into this game.
I think Ryan used the term lost with no real direction.

(02:32):
There's some people even wondering if tomorrow does not go well,
does Doug Peterson get shown the door. They're in Jacksonville.
And also this is a team that did extend their
quarterback after last season, So who's to say that the
Texans cannot prolong that those issues for Trevor Lawrence in

(02:53):
the Jacksonville Jags gotta believe they're gonna be emptying the
kitchen sink tomorrow because that is a team badly a win,
and not only are they badly need of a win,
but also to the Texans would like to be able
to put together their best performance of this season, because
again we'll talk about it in the next hour, but
this is a team that could very easily be in

(03:15):
the Jags position right now. That win at Indianapolis, it
could have absolutely gone the other way. The win at
home against the Bears on Sunday Night football, same deal.
The Bears could have very easily won that game over
the Texans. And then last week, of course, we saw
how bad that went. So we will talk about that
a little bit later on in the show. But the

(03:38):
Astros just kind of going beginning of the week until
now Tuesday night.

Speaker 5 (03:42):
They got the good one.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
They got the win over the Seattle Mariners that closed
the door on the Mariners at least winning the al
Wes their chances of still making the postseason.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
We're alive for about a couple of.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
More days because they prolonged it the next day with
a just a weird game there for the Astros where
tons of players were resting. That was the hangover lineup
that a lot of people will call it, not saying
that guys had hangovers, but anyway, I mean, you had,
you know, Joe Aspota after the game emphatically saying that
players would be rested going forward. Because also to the Astros,

(04:18):
knew that their playoff fate was already sealed. They were
going to be the third seed, no more, no less
than the third seed. They were locked in to that
spot because they were not going to catch the Yankees,
they were not going to catch the Cleveland Guardians for
either of those top two spots to be able to
skip out on the wild card round. So in that case,
it was, why do we even need to necessarily, you know,

(04:39):
press our guys even further. Let's give jose al Tuova
some rest. Let's give Kyle Tucker some rest. Let's give
Alex Bregman some rest. Let's give you know whom I'm
missing out on here that needs some rest. Last night
we saw Jeremy Pania get some rest. It's almost kind
of one of those when you reach this certain point
of the season that the man is almost like the

(05:01):
principal in the movie The Breakfast Club with jud Hirsh
you know where he's talking back to him. Oh you
want a Saturday, all right, Well you get another one though,
Oh you want one more? Well, guess what you just
bought yourself another one. That's pretty much what managers are
with players with rest days. Hey, you're getting a rest day.
Well I don't want one. Well, guess what you just
got another one. I mean, it's pretty much protecting yourself
from yourself, and that's what I think Joe Aspota is

(05:23):
up against right now. So if I had to suspect today,
I think the lineup will look pretty similar to what
it has most of this season.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
Obviously, no Jordan Alvarez.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
He's back here in Houston going through some light work
right now. We heard Joe Aspotta telling Brian McTaggert and
the collected media there in Cleveland yesterday that he was
doing some walking on the treadmill. Well, I've got to
agree with Brian McTaggert if that does not translate to
maybe we hear today that he was taking some batting

(05:52):
practice on the field, doing some light running something like that,
and we're not training, you know, we're not getting close
to that point. And I guess Monday will be kind
of a tell tell sign. I believe the Astros will
be doing a workout there on Monday in kind of
a media day with not only them but also too
as well. You know, if the season ended today, you

(06:14):
know that old that we like to do in baseball,
the season ended today, Well, if it ended today, the
Astros would be bringing the Kansas City Royals to town
over the Detroit Tigers. As it currently stands, the Tigers
are now the fifth seed in the American League playoff picture,
as they would be taking on more than likely the

(06:34):
Baltimore Orioles in the first round that wild card round,
and the Astros would get the Kansas City Royals. But
of course we've got today, we've got tomorrow, and the
Royals a little bit of a tougher path to try
to climb their way back into the fifth spot, because
not only are they playing a much better team, but

(06:55):
the White Sox are playing a team that has lost
the most games in the modern era of baseball, in
the Chicago White Sox so the Tigers a little bit
of an easier path to be able to get to
that point, and the Royals are in Atlanta taking on
a Braves team that as of right now has climbed
their way back into the wildcard picture for the National League.

(07:16):
But not only that, they are trying to be able
to stave off both the Mets and the Diamondbacks to
keep them out of the postseason. So you know that
Brian Snickers team is very much trying to win those games.
And the Royals, I think at this point, now that
they are clenched and locked in, it will be pretty
interesting to see how they handled tomorrow and even today

(07:39):
against the Braves. I mean, I think, obviously too you
want to be competitive, you want to be able to
put your best foot forward. But I think at this
point it's probably best to assume that the Astros will
be seeing the Royals, and at least for the last
couple of years, that had not been a good proposition
for the Astros, But at least the last series it
was a lot better than what it had been, as

(08:01):
the Stros were able to take care of Kansas City.
So don't think that's not gonna be on the Royals'
minds as they more than likely come here on Monday
and get ready for those hopefully just two games. Hopefully
the Astros would only need those two games, but again,
Cole Reagan's seth Lugo, it's gonna be tough pitching on
that side, but the Astros have some tough pitching on

(08:23):
their side as well, So the Astros again, I mean
improbable of all runs I think that we've seen for
the Stros. I mean I think even last year, I
think even heading into that final weekend, we were still
kind of thinking, well, I don't see a scenario where
this team misses out on the postseason. And of course
I believe it was that Friday is when they at

(08:43):
least clinch a chance to go the postseason, either as
a wild card or as a division winner. And then
what was it that Sunday when they beat Arizona and
also to the Rangers loss of the Mariners, then they
clinched the AO West, so they were able to get
in that way. So they did it a little bit
earlier this year, but still I think it's kind of

(09:04):
what happened early on in the season that came back
for the Astros this year that would again lead me
to signal that this is one of the more improbable runs.
The seven and nineteen start oh and four to start
the season against the Yankees. They came in here and
absolutely dominated you, and you're just kind of like, man,
that sucks. I mean, you couldn't take one of those four.

(09:25):
I mean, you're still not feeling one hundred percent great
with a one in three start, but at least you're
feeling a lot better than oh to four. Then you
get the Renel Blanco no hitter on that Monday night
against Toronto and the Astros. Then after that, continuing their slide,
going to Kansas City getting swept, just getting absolutely blown out.
Aside from that first game, the series against the Nationals,

(09:48):
not a fun one. Getting swept by the Cubs, getting
swept by the Braves, just not a fun start.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
That all boiled to a seven and nineteen start.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Then you get to twelve in twenty four and then
as the season goes along, Kyle Tucker goes down, same
with Justin Berlander, and still this team found a way.
So we'll see how it all shakes out when it's
all said and done. Last night, though, saw some good
things I don't think there's any doubt about that. Again,
I mean, you know, some people on the surface might say,

(10:17):
and you know, I've even kind of used the line
as well that this is almost kind of extended spring
training at this point because the games themselves do not matter,
but for Cleveland it does because they're trying to be
able to get the top spot there as day again
already locked into one of the top two spots, but
the Yankees winning last night and also to the Guardians

(10:41):
losing it to the Astros, so that definitely hurts their
chances of being able to get to that point. But
I mean, you know, the Astros trying to be able
to just carry any momentum they can into the postseason.
I said the Yankees one last night, I lied they
actually lost to the Pirates. Forgot about that too. They're
in the Bronx. But I mean, you know, the good

(11:04):
things we saw Jose Altuve, a couple of hits out
of him, three hits out of Kyle Tucker, three from
Alex Bregman. That's something we're going to talk about a
little bit later on in the show, because I think
that absolutely is something that you love to see. It's
a sight for sore eyes if you're an Astros fan
heading into the postseason. So we will definitely be talking
about that a little bit later on. And tonight's again

(11:27):
five to ten, first pitch from there in Cleveland, and
a programming note about that as well. We're gonna have
Texas in Mississippi State from there in Austin right here
on your home of the Longhorns in Houston for football
and men's basketball Sports Talk seven to ninety, so the
Astros all coverage in between gonna be over on news

(11:47):
Radio seven forty k TRH. I will be coming your
way at four o'clock with Astros on deck over there
on news Radio seven forty. And also we will have
Robert Ford Steve Sparks over there, and the Astros tenth
Inning Show will be there with you as well on KTRH.
But one last chance, I think for Justin Verlander to

(12:08):
prove he can be a possibility to pitch in the postseason.
I don't envision any scenario where Verlander has left off
the postseason roster. But I also think as well, here's
the scenario, say in the Alds if you get to
a Game four and you're kind of thinking about all right,
do we use that day off and bring back fromber
if you're down to one in the series. I think

(12:30):
that's probably the route you would have to go. I
do not pitch Justin Verlander in an elimination scenario. I'm sorry.
He has not proven to me that he can be
reliable in that scenario. In a game where you badly
need a win and you badly need to keep the
opponent off the scoreboard. Verlander has not proven to be
that guy right now. So I don't know. I mean,
is it, you know, one start against a team that

(12:51):
is still playing for something right now that if he
goes out today and say, throws five and third, five
and two thirds six innings, maybe even more, that you
say to yourself, Okay, there's that guy.

Speaker 5 (13:02):
He's back. We can go with him.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
Or is it one of those that he's kind of
just ho hum and maybe the bats show up for
him and he's able to win the game. I mean,
I think if he's that then you probably feel a
little less certain about what he can bring you in
terms of starting pitching potential. But as of right now,
we've talked about it at nauseum, I think your starting
rotation is pretty simple in terms of the wildcard round,

(13:26):
and this is where I think things start off right now,
because that is where the Astros would start.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
You got to go from Or one.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
You got to go Hunter Brown two, and then I
think if it's a if necessary Game three, you go
with Yusay Kakuchi, who has been able to prove that
he can get out via the strikeout. And he's also
too I think for the most part limited the damage
against him on the bases and of feet touching home plate.

(13:54):
But that is something that we're going to be continuously
keeping an eye on because I think Renelle Blanco showed
some good stuff last night. So could Renel Blanco maybe
even be a guy that you throw in to a
game three start. I don't know a lot to see
how Joe Aspota plays it all out.

Speaker 5 (14:09):
But speaking of.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
Joe Aspota coming out next, a storyline of the twenty
twenty four season that is not getting enough run and
I think should be talked about a lot more. We'll
discuss that and much more. Richard John, I see you
guys right there on the phone lines. Get to you
on the other side as well. You want to join them,
you can do so. Seven one, three, two one two five,
seven ninety. Once again, that's seven one three two one

(14:31):
two five at seven ninety as we continue to roll
along here on at Space City Saturday on your home
of the Astros and the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Welcome back to Space City Saturday one, Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
I had that breakfast club mentioned in there, So there
you go. Like I said, I'm Judd Hirsh on the
football field, throwing the fists in the air as I'm
walking off. Don't you forget about me? Don't you forget
about the breakfast club? Emilio Molly. Everybody right there, you
little troublemakers. You're having to hang out in the library.
And then you've got the guy who was the actor's

(15:10):
name at Dan Matthews Hou if anybody remembers who the
actor was that played the principal like he played every
single eighties like just pain in the ass, like authority figure.
I mean, remember he was Deputy Marshall Dwayne whatever on Diehard.

(15:30):
He was the coach I think in Johnny b Bad?
Are Johnny be Good? And what was it he was
in that? I mean that guy just an absolutely you
know what buster, that's what he played in eighties movies.
So if you know that actor's name, please learn me
something right there. It would be much appreciated. All right,

(15:51):
Before I get to the storyline that I think has
not talked about enough for the Astros this year, as
I promised you on the phone lines, you get to
take part as well. And he is Richard, who wants
to weigh in here to talk some Astros. Richard, what's up, buddy?

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Hey? Dan? I got a comment and a question. So
the comment is, I thought Blanco and here and Daddy
coming out of the pen last night looked great, and
I sure hope they feature as we go into this
long series. Were about the Embarkhan, But my question is
more kind of technical. I should know and I don't.
How do they use the farm team as they get
into the playoffs? Dan, And you know, I've seen that,

(16:30):
like Gazenzo coming up last night and looked great, But
you know, with the kind of likes of all the
players are kind of injured right now, I'm just kind
of curious about how that farm team can use as
they go forward.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
I appreciate the call, Richard. I'll start with the second
one first. It's called the taxi squad is how the
farm team is used. There is a certain amount of
guys that are designated to be part of said taxi squad.
And this was something that came about during COVID when
they did not have minor league baseball that year. So
anybody that could be promoted to the major league level,

(17:06):
they were part of said taxi squad, and they were
able to practice maybe even if you had enough guys
inner squad, and be able to try to stay fresh
for if indeed you were called up to the major
league level. And so that is what they've carried over
to now. So you'll have almost kind of like a
practice squad on an NFL team, where you'll have a

(17:29):
certain amount of guys. I don't know the amount that
you're allowed to have that can be a part of
said taxi squad. But I note that last night I
was listening on my way home to Joe Espada with
Robert Ford talking about Shay Whitcomb where he of course
was sent down, and some people probably wondering, how man,

(17:49):
you know, I mean, that's got to be kind of
tough after he just made all those errors against the
Mariners and you demote him. I mean what's that going
to do for his psyche? He said, well, you know,
we've already told him that Monday, join us back on
the taxi squad, so he will be there. I would
probably suspect that, Like say, it wouldn't surprise me if
even you see Rafael Montero be part of that, and

(18:12):
who knows, maybe even Forrest Whitley be part of that
group as well that are being told, hey, stay fresh,
stay ready, because if there's an injury or if we
feel like you fit a matchup problem for the opponent,
if we are able to move on to the Alds,
then you're gonna be a part of it. So you
have those guys ready for you and looking to be

(18:33):
ready to go. So that's where those guys guys are.
In terms of Spencer Arraghetty and him coming out of
the bullpen, I mean, Blanco did give you a good
start last night, and Blanco does have bullpen experience. We've
seen him come out of the pen in the past.
I mean, this was really the first season that you
had Dana Brown saying hey, let's think about him as

(18:53):
a starter, and boy, it worked out a two point
eight zero e er A for him. This season. But
for Araghetty some good things last night. I mean, you know,
the strikeouts will be there. If he finds the zone,
he's got the stuff that's gonna miss bats, and he
did that four times. The only problem with raic Getty
is sometimes that command can become an issue from a
walks perspective, and that's what it was last night. Three

(19:16):
in that category, but also two as well, with the
lack of command, at times, he can have the baseball
float up in the zone, and those are baseballs that
get barreled up and put over the wall. And you
want to try to limit runs as much as possible
in the postseason because of how finite your chances are
to be able to score against them. It's the same

(19:36):
deal that you want to be able to limit their chances.
That's why you see pitching changes used so liberally during
the postseason, and that is something that Joe Spoda has
to keep in mind. But also two, I mean, we
saw Hunter Brown get some very good innings last year
out of the pin I mean, I remember the back
to that game four. He came out, He's throwing a
hundred and dotting it up on the outside corner against

(19:58):
the Rangers in that game or when to even up
the series. So I mean, Arraghetti could possibly fit that
role again this year.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
And you saw it used a little bit last night.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
Two and a third innings out there and you get,
you know, two thirds of an inning out of Brian
to bray you and Josh Hater. I'm sure that's gonna
be brought up as well. I mean, Hater, is it
a little bit of a concern right now? Sure, you
don't want to see your closer giving up runs, but
it also is too as well. I mean, you know,
we know what Josh Hater is in save situations, at

(20:29):
least the majority of the season. I think what three
blown saves this year, I think that's what he had.
So you know that's something that you're gonna see. Closers
are gonna give up saves. That's gonna happen during the
course of a year. But also too as well, you'd
like to see them be able to get good work
done when it's a non close situation, and that's what
it was last night. I mean the walks when Josh

(20:52):
Hater is not effective. If you see him give up
a walk, then you need to start worrying because that
seemingly is when he starts to what kind of you know,
off a little bit in terms of his effectiveness. But
if he's coming in and the slider is biting, I
think that's the pitch that Steve Sparks said was what
he looks for in terms of if he's got that

(21:12):
pitch biting, then it's gonna be a good day for him.
But if it's kind of spinning up there, then it's
not gonna be a good day for him. And these
are things that the Astros are hoping that pitch in,
all of his pitches are effective in the postseason, because again,
most of the times you're gonna come in during the postseason,
you're gonna have maybe a one run lead, maybe you're
gonna be tied, maybe you're gonna be down by one,

(21:32):
whatever it might be. You need him to be able
to be that guy. And that's why I think a
lot of times, you know, we're incredibly critical of him
when he's not that guy, because the money is one thing,
and the money is probably the catalyst for us having
that frustration when he has his frustrating outings, but also
too as well. I mean, you know, you are that

(21:54):
guy and you've been, you know, portrayed to be that guy,
then you need to be them.

Speaker 5 (21:58):
When you come out there on the field.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
But last night, obviously giving up those two runs, a
couple of hits there as well, he does strike out one,
but still you'd like to see Josh Hater be.

Speaker 5 (22:08):
A little bit more effective.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
I think if Joe Espata had his brothers today, you
would not see Josh Hater being used whatsoever in this game.
So we'll see if indeed that does play out today
there in Cleveland again, A five to ten first pitch
coming your way over on news radio seven forty k TRH.
All right, finally the storyline that I don't think has

(22:30):
been talked about enough this season, and we can carry
over the most of it to the next segment, but
I do want to play this audio right now, as
earlier this week, had a chance to catch up with
Joe Aspota along with the rest of the media in
the Astros dugout before the series finale against the Seattle Mariners,
and one thing that has struck me the most about

(22:50):
a Spota this year is his ability to stay calm
when things are really bad. He was the same guy
when things were really good. Same deal, same guy, and
just tried to always stay right there in the middle
and didn't try to get too high, didn't try to
get too low. So I asked you a spota as
a first year manager trying to fight off those emotions.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
What allowed you to stay so calm?

Speaker 3 (23:11):
A couple of things.

Speaker 6 (23:12):
Just faith in God, man, I you know.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
That's number one. My family. I got an incredible family.
I go home to.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
A wonderful wife and kids who love me and support me.
And that that's very important because at the end of
the day, I'm not, you know, not only a baseball manager,
but I'm a father and a husband, and that's that
will always be there, right. That's the most important thing too.
You know, I got an organization who support me. I
got players who will have my back and I have

(23:41):
their back. And you know, front office who do whatever
it takes to put players in, you know, bring players in.
Jim Crane as an owner, he he cares about winning.
If you ask for something, he's you know, let's go
what do we need? Player development, you know, getting players
for the big leagues and and us just sustain what
we do. We need a lot of things to go

(24:01):
our way, and we do that well because we communicate,
we work together, and that's very important. That helps me
to do my job.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
That's just you know, how we sustain that.

Speaker 6 (24:13):
It's important and we've been able to do that for many, many,
many years, so.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
That that's a good feeling.

Speaker 6 (24:20):
Now they're emotional struggles that yeah, I'm a human, right
and I see you know we're not playing well, and
you know I take it personal, but I know if
I stay strong, these guys will.

Speaker 5 (24:31):
Find a way to win.

Speaker 6 (24:32):
They've done it for many many years.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
That's good perspective to have.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
And again, as a first year manager, you don't see
that a lot, even from veteran managers. I mean, remember
the guys who ran hot when things weren't going well,
Guys like Bobby Valentine and Loupanella boy Jeff Blum huge
Loupanella fan, isn't he? But I mean even you know
a Tony LaRussa another guy that used to go that
route and for the old school guys, maybe that worked

(24:59):
for the guys now it doesn't seem to work. And
Joe Espada again, to have that type of perspective, that's
something I do want to carry over. So I'll expand
on that on the other side, as well as get
into an Alex Bregman topic here. I think that Bregman
is handling himself a certain way because he doesn't want
to make a mistake someone else made while wearing an

(25:21):
Astro's uniform. I think you can probably deduce who I'm
talking about with the other name, but we'll do that
on the other side as well. If you want to
weigh in, please do so. Seven one three two on
two five, seven ninety. Once again, that's Semon one three
two on two five at seven ninety. As we continue
to roll along here on a Space City Saturday on
your Home with the Astros and the Rockets sports Talk

(25:42):
seven ninety. This is Space City Saturday on Sports Talk
seven ninety. Okay, there we go, Delvin Brown telling me
it is the og. It's it's the one that was sampled,
not not the newest one that of course, you know
for everybody, anybody that's in a relationship. I'm sure that

(26:05):
probably your spouse has used that in an insta story.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
I know mine has numerous times. So there you go.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
So we've got the emotions by the way too. Before
I continue the Joe a spot of thought, but also
to get into a little bit of a thought about
Alex Bregman a show correction right here, an eh, right
here air on the host I had called Judd Nelson
jud hirsh.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
And as a joke with somebody on Twitter.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
No, he's not Jeff Goldbloom's dad in Independence Day. He
is jud Nelson, of course, who has been in numerous
different movies. There was the brat Pack little documentary that
just came out recently. I think that it was Amazon
Prime that had it. I believe it was Prime. I
can't remember exactly, but Judd Nelson was not famously part

(26:54):
of it, but his voice was heard because I guess
he called the actor. I can't remember his name now again,
you know, I didn't throw out a name this time,
so I can't be wrong in that regard. But it
was the member of the brat Pack that kind of
was going around talking to a different actors, producers, whoever
it might have been. And Nelson at first had declined

(27:14):
to be part of it, but it did leave the
door open that maybe they could do a sequel to
it and that he would possibly be part of it.
But Judd Nelson of course definitely part of that eighties
crew of actors that we affectionately knew as the brat
Pack during that time. Demmy Moore part of it as well,
I think was Jason Bateman part of it. I guess

(27:37):
that was the other part of it as well, as
it kind of left to interpretation who could be part
of the brat Pack. So anyway, Judd Nelson and then
Paul Gleeson was the guy that I said was the
you know what buster of eighties movies.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
He was in Diehard, he was in Johnny B.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
Good, he was in The Breakfast Club as well. So
that guy, I mean, you want to talk about being
tight asked for a role. He was definitely for that
role of being the either principal or the coach or
the cop that just won't listen to John McClain and
of course then gets dressed down by John McClain on

(28:13):
the CBE radio. As you know, he was telling him,
you don't have anything figured out down there. I've got
everything figured out here in the building, because guess what,
I'm a New York City cop. I mean, you know,
Sergeant al Powell tried to tell him, hey, things, He
said he could be a bartender for all, you know, Powell. Well,
Sergeant al Powell was correct. So you know what, we'll

(28:35):
definitely always, you know, believe Sergeant al Powell before we'll
believe Deputy Dwayne.

Speaker 5 (28:41):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
So anyway, Paul Gleeson was that actor. But you heard
from Joe spotted there in that last segment talking about
why he was able to stay calm all season, and
that is something that I believe all throughout the year
was a huge reason why the Astros were able to
ultimately have the success they had this season, because you've
seen it numerous times and again, like I said, even

(29:05):
from experience managers, you see them kind of let their
emotions get the best of them and say, yeah, you
know what, it's time to do the nuclear option. It's
time to start calling out jose L two Bay. It's
time to start calling out Kyle Tucker and Jordan Alvarez
and whoever else it might be, because we need hits
with runners in the scoring position and you guys ain't
doing it. And he declined to do that every single

(29:27):
turn this season. It was every single time either take
the blame himself or to also too as well, say hey,
you've got other guys on the other side of the
field that are pretty good players as well. Those guys
are pretty good pitchers, so let's give them credit and
let's not put the blame on our guys. That was huge,
and that's something that even with a veteran laden team

(29:49):
like the Astros have, you could very easily ruffle a
lot of feathers in there. Because let's also take it
from the perspective of the context, given where it's if
you're a former player doing that, then I think guys
are probably willing to listen to it a little bit more.
But Joe's not. Joe is a guy that's a baseball lifer.
He cut his teeth in the minor leagues. He had

(30:10):
been a bench coach, he had pretty much had every
single job at the major league level possible, and now
he finally got his chance to be a manager. And
it's also too that sometimes you don't get the chance
other than once to be able to learn from your mistakes.
Some managers do. I mean, we've seen some guys get
fired and then have success elsewhere. Terry Francona one of

(30:30):
those guys. Joe Tory another one of those guys. He
had two chances somewhere else and finally got his chance.
So with the Yankees, and you can talk about, oh, well,
look at all the players he had, Well, he could
have also messed that up as well, so that needs
to be factored into the equation as well. But in
this case with Joe Espada, I mean, you know, to

(30:51):
have the perspective that he laid out of the support
he gets from not only from Dana Brown but also
from Jim Crane as well, but also the player that
he has on his side, and trying to be able
to work with those guys and being able to let
them work. That's something that sometimes as a first time manager,
you'll see the guy who goes the opposite route of

(31:13):
that of well, these guys have created these expectations. They
know what the standard is here, and they're not living
up to it, so I need to remind them of it.
He declined to do that, and I think all in all,
you know, taking the long road and taking the you know,
bigger picture approach here, he decided that it's best to
go ahead and you know, have those guys backs no

(31:35):
matter the situation, and make sure that they know that
they're supported. Just like as he laid out, he is
supported on his side, because we've seen other examples before.
I mean, you know, let's just take Gabe Kapler for example.
He's had two different chances at being a manager, and
he has been let go from both of those opportunities.

(31:55):
When I was in Atlanta, Walt Weisse, who was once
the manager of the Colorado Rockies, he had talked about
at least once that I can remember, of learning so
much from Brian Snicker in terms of how to take
the everyday approach of no matter how good it is,
no matter how bad it is, just be the same guy.
They'll respect you for it, trust me, they will. And

(32:16):
he had talked about he made mistakes at doing that
when he was in Colorado, and he said if he
got another opportunity that he would be a totally different
manager and he would handle it a totally different way.
Because you know, it's also to certain guys. I mean,
baseball is the ultimate the individual matters game of You
have certain guys that can deal with having a boot

(32:36):
put to their backside. You also have certain guys that
they respond to having an arm put around their shoulder,
and those are things as a manager you have to
be able to take inventory of that you can't have
a one size fits all approach to everybody. You've got
to be able to handle your players the way that
I mean that they are accustomed and comfortable being handled.

(32:57):
And if you don't, then the result might not follow
the way that you want him to. And for Walt
Weiss in that scenario, it didn't. It landed him out
of a job because, yeah, he would do the callouts,
he would do the you know, I'm pissed off after
this loss and and you know, calling out players at
nauseam and doing all those different types of things that

(33:18):
for certain guys can kind of really turn them the
opposite direction of them saying I'm not fighting for this guy.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
You kidding me? And Joe Spotted did none of those things.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
I mean, he completely stayed the course all season long.

Speaker 5 (33:31):
And it was funny too.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
We had Chandler Rome once on the A team and
he said that he had joked with Brian McTaggart of
this is the day that Joe's going to snap.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
This is the day he's gonna snap.

Speaker 4 (33:41):
He's going to freak out, he's gonna get angry, he's
gonna do all those different types of things.

Speaker 5 (33:45):
And to Chandler's words, and he's right. He never did.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
I mean he every single time if they had left,
you know, ten runners on base and they were zero
for eight with runners in scoring position, he would come
out and say, hey, we just didn't get the hit.
You know, that's baseball. That happens sometimes. And of course
people like me did not like that. But it's also
too he understands because he's in that clubhouse, he has
to face those guys on a daily basis, and I

(34:10):
think his thought process at that time is why take
a you know, short term win, and social media probably says, yeah, Joe,
you call out jose L two base for striking out
looking with runners on second and third and one out,
you call out Jordan Alvarez for grinding into that double
play right there, Absolutely you do that. But he said, no,
you know what, because I know who these guys are

(34:32):
and I know what they're capable of, and I'll take
the long term right here of maybe we don't win
right there, but as the law of averages work out
in baseball, you'll get another chance, and maybe you'll get
another chance after that. And it's it's about what you
do in that spot as opposed to what you didn't
do in the first spot when again, you know it precipitated,

(34:53):
maybe a call out is necessary at that point, but
he never did, and that was huge, and that was
something that I definitely want to share with y'all here
on Space City Saturday.

Speaker 5 (35:02):
Today.

Speaker 4 (35:03):
Didn't get a chance to get to the Alex Bregman topic.
We'll do that coming up on the other side. And
we'll also as well get into what is the key
for the Astros starting on Tuesday in the wild card
round because the Astros making a run. It's pretty simple.
It's these guys cannot be left behind. We'll talk about

(35:23):
that on the other side, and also too, if you
want to weigh in on the phone lines, you can
do so some one three two one two five seven ninety.
Once again, that's Semon one three two on two five
seven nineties. We continue to roll along here on Space
City Saturday.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Space City Saturday continues on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
On Space City Saturday.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
Dan Matthews here with you for about another hour and
fifteen minutes. You want to weigh in, do so someone
three two one two five seven ninety. And of course
Space City Saturday not complete without the People's champ Paul Wall.
He was in the building on Tuesday night for Clinch Day,
as he had even said that he knocked his popcorn

(36:07):
over on Slim Thug and bun Bee as well, so
everybody was excited. I think he said he knocked his
popcorn over after the Jason Hayward to run Homer, which
of course was the difference in the game. So Jason
Hayward what in addition to this team. He has been huge,
no doubt about it for the Strows and hopefully he

(36:29):
is able to continue to.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
Be huge for this team moving forward.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
Again, if you want to weigh in, do so sub
one three two one two five seven ninety. Once again,
that's sub one three two one two five seven nine
zero is the way to get in. And before I
get to who's important to this Astros potential run in
the postseason, wan't to spend a few minutes on Alex Bregman.
So Bregman the other day getting the curtain call on

(36:55):
the field and the belief fourth inning, I think is
he got a couple of at bats in that Wednesday
game against the Mariners, and you know he was able
to tip the cap to the fans, take it off
and you know, be able to walk off the field
and had players coming up to him and slapping him
on the back. You know, hey, great job, all those
different types of things, and a lot of people took

(37:17):
that to mean that that is the end of Alex Bregman,
and an Astros uni Joe a Spot of course, talked
about it and said, well, look, I mean, even if
it is, it's not like we're never going to see
him again. But not only that, it doesn't mean that
that's the end. But I do appreciate his thought process
on it of if indeed it could be the end,
why missed the opportunity to give him that chance? Because

(37:38):
Alex Bregman has been every step of the way for
the Golden era of Astros Baseball, this organization that has
never seen any type of success like he has been
a huge part of these last seven plus years that
the Astros have been on this run of making it
at least to the Alcs and a couple of times
winning the World Series. So when you have a guy

(37:59):
that was so huge in the build of this organization
and was kind of I think the final part of
the build because we knew that George Springer was coming,
we knew that that Carlos Koream was going to be
here and they were already here, and Jose al Tuve
before them as well, and Alex Bregman I think was
kind of that final piece. I think probably when Jeff

(38:21):
Luno drafted him, he probably thought to himself, this is
a guy that's a college player that could be up
here soon enough and also be ready sooner than later.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
And he was and he was ready to go.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
And sixteen struggled a little bit, but then seventeen was
able to be a huge part of that team winning
the World Series, and you know, has been able to
put together almost MVP seasons in between and has always
been an elite defender over there at third base. So
I mean he's been able to provide all of those
things for this team. And after the season, once he

(38:55):
goes to free agency, it's kind of all bets are off.
I mean, are they able to be able to to,
you know, bring him back or is he going to
take the money from someone else. So I think all
of that kind of come in, you know, came into
play when it came to Bregman. But in regards to
Bregman himself, you know, talking about this a little bit
with Ross and also with Gordy and talked about a

(39:17):
little bit on air those guys did about just how
he's approached everything. I mean, the other night there is
the Clubhouse celebration, and I think Gordy made the comment of,
you know, he was almost kind of stoic in terms
of his responses. I mean, we've seen a guy in
the past that had been pretty free with his words
in terms of, you know, in certain cases, being pretty bashful,

(39:38):
but not only that, also to really enjoying it. And
not to say that he wasn't enjoying it, but I
think that Bregman kind of you know, he knows that
anytime a microphone is put in front of him, the
question of his impending free agency is going to be asked.
And also too as well. I mean, you heard the
comments that he said after the curtain call in that game,

(39:58):
saying I didn't know it was coming. And also too,
you know, just kind of trying to keep the emotions
out of it right now and trying to make sure
that that's not the focus. The focus is on this
team trying to accomplish the goal that they've done twice
before and being able to do that with this team
and then worry about everything else a little bit later.
I take it a little bit of a different step.

(40:19):
Remember once the twenty nineteen World Series ended and Garrett
Cole and you know, at first had declined to talk,
and then I think the media in there. Again, I
wasn't here at the time, but you know, I'm just
going off of secondhand accounts of what I was told that.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
You know.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
Of course, they went to the Astros and were like, hey, look,
he might not be here next year.

Speaker 5 (40:38):
We want to be able to talk to him, like, you.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
Know, I feel like he needs to to talk with
us and kind of address all of that. And finally,
you know, that was when Garrett Cole put on the
Boris core pat and called himself a representative of himself
at that point, and people took that to mean, oh,
so you're already mentally out of here?

Speaker 5 (40:57):
Is that what it is?

Speaker 4 (40:58):
And of course then he went on to sign with
the hated Yankees, which I think we all knew eventually
he was going to do. But still it was not
a good feeling to not only lose the World Series
but then also too seemingly have somebody who was just
so over being an astro, they were ready to go.
Bregman would never do that. But I think that kind

(41:18):
of his approach right now is to completely avoid being
anywhere close to being thought of in that same way.
And that's why he's shutting down the free agency talks,
That's why he's shutting down anything else in immediately saying
but I'm focused on right now, I'm not worried about
that all of these different types of things, And I
think that probably a huge part of that. Again, I've

(41:40):
talked about it before the Room of Truth that if
you put Bregman in the Room of Truth and asked him, hey,
is it because of what happened with Garrett Cole, I
think he'd probably tell you, yeah, it is, honestly because
we saw how people reacted towards him when he acted
that way.

Speaker 5 (41:55):
I don't want to be remembered that way.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
I don't want to be remembered if indeed I am
with the Cubs, with the Diamondbacks or with the Red
Sox or whoever it is next year that I come
back here and you know those turn into booze. I mean,
I think that as currently the way it is right now.
If Alex Bregman signs with somebody else, it's going to hurt,
it's not going to feel good. But I don't think
you're going to have fans booing him, you know, full

(42:19):
throats in that case because of you know, the way
that he either acted or you know, didn't act during
this time. I think that if he continues down this
path and he has a good postseason, he'll be remembered fondly.
And we've seen at different places. I mean, the second
time that Lebron left Cleveland, he came back to Cheers
instead of Booze because again, he did it the right way.

(42:42):
He helped them win a world title, and when he left,
it was I've accomplished everything I needed to accomplish here.
And I think that, you know, Cavalier fans at the
point we're at the time, we're kind of like, Okay,
you know what, you're not wrong. You did, We appreciate it.
Go kill it in LA and when you come back here,
you're always going to be welcome back here in Cleveland,
as opposed to when he publicized his breakup the first

(43:04):
time and did the whole decision with Jim Gray and
then went to Miami, and you know, they had the
huge celebration there, and it was almost kind of like,
you know, oh, you think you're really really better than us. Okay,
that's cool, Thanks buddy. We really appreciate you saying that
not only are we ugly, but also to your new
partner is incredibly good looking, and that you know, there's

(43:29):
so much better than I ever was. Nobody ever wants
to hear that in the breakup. I mean, I think
kind of the similar deal as well, you know, the
you know, the team that I used to cover the Braves.
It was a similar situation in regards to Bregman, and
hopefully it is kind of a similar ending because remember
when Freddie Freeman hit that home run that I think
at the time it was Joe Buck who was on

(43:51):
the call saying that might be the final home run
that he hits in a Braves uniform, And of course
fans there did not like hearing that at that point,
but eventually he was right because then after the lockout lifted,
they went out and traded for Matt Olsen and extended him,
and Freddie Freeman was with the Dodgers and he came
back very emotional, and you know, I'm not saying that
when Bregman comes back, he's going to be incredibly emotional.

(44:13):
But I think also too as well, that you know,
you want to be able to not burn any bridges whatsoever.
And he loves this organization, he loves this city, and
he loves everything that he's been able to do during
his time here.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
And you know, there's no need.

Speaker 4 (44:29):
To have a messy exit if you can avoid it,
And that's what I think he's trying to avoid at
all costs, really deep down when it's all said and done,
because I think that Alex Bregman would like to stay here,
if I'm being honest. I mean, that's just the sense
that I get. I think that if it worked out,
he would absolutely want to come back to the Astros.
But I think also too as well, he's a guy

(44:49):
that realizes he's on the cusp of getting the last
huge payday that he's going to be able to get
in this game. And if you don't take every advantage
of doing that, then you kind of have some regrets
when it's all said and done. And I know that
some people out there might say, oh, how much money
do you really need? Well, I mean that's for him
to decide it's not for any of us to decide.
I mean, it's kind of like us in our professional lives.

(45:11):
I mean, you could take a job with somebody else,
and you know it is going to slight somebody out
there because they really want you to stay with a company.
But I think that if you can look that person
in the eye and say I'm doing what's best for me,
and you say it with conviction, then they probably look
at you and say, I respect that, I understand that.
And in this case right here with Bregman, I think

(45:31):
that's kind of what he's setting himself up for. So
we'll see how it all shakes out when it's all
said and done. I usually only keep the astros to
one segment, but the topic, the topic B that I
teased for this segment didn't have a chance to get
to it here, so we'll do that on the other side,
as well as get into some Texans conversation. If you

(45:53):
want to weigh in on the astros, you can do
so seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
Once again, that's seven one three two one two seven ninety.
As also to in the second hour, we'll get into
some Texans conversation as we continue to roll along here
on Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here on your home
of the Astros and the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Welcome aboard, 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 (46:36):
All these great Houston fans here.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
We love you all, So finish up on that to
do list.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Flute up the cooler, because you can't drink in talk
sports all day if you don't start now bear me
the eight.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
This is Space City Saturday. That's insane. Here's seven nineties
Dad Matthews.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
Indeed, it is Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with
you for another hour. You want to weigh in, do
so someone three two one two five seven ninety once again,
that's Sebon one three two one two five seven nine
zero as the Astros again today taking on the Cleveland Guardians.

(47:22):
Gonna be Justin Berlander against Ben Lively. First pitch five
to ten. Coming your way again over on news Radio
seven forty KTRH. Everything Astros related today gonna be over
on news Radio seven forty KTRH because the Astros are
right at the same time that the Texas in Mississippi

(47:43):
State game is going to be finishing up.

Speaker 5 (47:46):
And before I.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
Get into my final Astros topic right here, another team
that we have here on the airwaves is the LSU Tigers.
And I'm sure that last week some of you either
were watching or paying some what attention. But if you
weren't paying too close of attention to that game, LSU
taken on UCLA.

Speaker 5 (48:06):
They win the game.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
But what the storyline kind of became was the fans
that had left the game, especially on the east side
of the stadium, because of the incredibly strong heat that
was there at Tiger Stadium for the game. I believe
they showed ninety seven degrees with one hundred percent humidity
at kickoff there for that two thirty kick against UCLA.

(48:28):
And eventually you had fans who said, I can't do
this anymore. I cannot stay for this. I have to leave.
I'm going to go back to the tailgate or I'm
going to go home watch the rest of it. But
I mean, it's just this is too much. And you know,
I know some people might say, oh, well, hydrate, do
all those different types of things look you're in a
concrete structure like that, with metal benches and hundreds of

(48:49):
thousands of people around you, that heat really becomes overwhelming
at a certain point. And I did not know this
until it was brought up to Brian Kelly that in Air,
Arizona they have a law that in the month of September,
you cannot start a game before six o'clock, which I mean.
I also took to social media on top of that

(49:11):
and it said, I think that needs to be adopted
by states in the golf region Texas, Louisiana, especially Southern Louisiana.
Melvin Brown, you know that from growing up in the
area that just like Houston, the heat and humidity it
is relentless, especially in the month of September. Mississippi even too,
you know, for Lower Alabama right there, Mobile Southern you know,

(49:34):
South Alabama.

Speaker 5 (49:34):
I don't know how they handle their games. Florida.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
I would probably do the same thing as well, because,
I mean football, you think about it, it's a physical game.
It's also to a game that you wear a lot
more equipment than other sports. I mean baseball. You know,
catchers probably are pretty close to football players in terms
of the pads the helmets, everything else of the sort.
So you've got to make sure that you're trying to

(49:59):
keep yourself as cool and hydrated as possible to be
able to, you know, be able to stay healthy and
finish out those games. I mean, we see cramps this
time of the year, all those different types of things.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
But it's also too as well.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
I mean, you know, I understand that you can't be
able to try to, you know, look out for the
well being of everyone out there. Some of that is
up to you personally, but I mean, there's zero reason
for that game to be played at two thirty on
a Saturday, I mean, especially to when you factor in
how hot it is this time of the year. You
can very easily have that game played at seven o'clock

(50:34):
or you know, even a little bit later as well,
if you want to, because I mean, I just, I
just I shudder to think of, you know, the type
of dangerous game that you're playing when it comes to
dealing with those type of temperatures with not only players, coaches, trainers,
whoever it might be, but fans as well, that eventually

(50:56):
you're going to have somebody succume to heat stroke. And
when that happened, and then you're dealing with other legal
issues that again, I just I feel like some of
these schools and also too.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
I mean the network. I know the game was on ABC.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
There's zero reason why that game can't can't be played
later and you can have I don't know, you know,
South Carolina playing at that time or anybody else playing
at that time, as opposed to a team that is
right there on the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana where
the heat and humidity is unreal that time of day.

(51:30):
So I think you can you can have the better
part of valor at that point. I mean LSU, for example,
taken on South Alabama tonight in that game is gonna
be at six forty five, so it'll be a little cooler.
But two at the same time, just don't really understand
having to say, oh no, no, no, no, this game has
to be played right now. I just I think that

(51:51):
you're running into risks and issues that just don't need
to be there. So that's just me on that front.
To close out the ASTRA topic right here, one of
the things that has been a little bit of a
point of frustration and contention this year for the Astros
has been runners in scoring position, and the Astros, with

(52:12):
two more games left in this regular season, are thirteenth
and all of baseball hitting with runners in scoring position,
they're batting two sixty nine this season with a seven
to fifty six OPS.

Speaker 5 (52:23):
So middle of the pack. Not bad.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
I mean, you've got the Diamondbacks of the best in baseball,
the Yankees are fourth, got the Dodgers who are seventh,
and the Astros of the postseason teams still left out
there are you know, a little bit further behind those teams.
I mean, got Arizona hit in two eighty four in
those spots. I mean, they've been outstanding this season. So
I just think that that's number one of a thing

(52:48):
that hopefully, with the flip to the postseason, it's going
to be kind of a little bit of a mental
reset of, Hey, that happened. We don't have to have
that happen in the postseason. We are we are now,
we were who we were then, And I think that
that's kind of a little bit of a switch that
needs to happen. But also too as well. I brought
up the stats of last night as encouraging things to

(53:11):
see from this team, because these are things that we
want to see the Astros be able to have going forward.
I mean, a couple of doubles last night for jose
al Tuve. I've said it numerous times, jose L Tuove
is a lot like Craig Biggio in that fact, where
what was Bigio known for him?

Speaker 5 (53:27):
He was known for the two baggers, he was known
for doubles.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
If he's hitting doubles and you know that Craig Bigio
is swinging it well, Jose al Tuve the same deal.
You love to see the home runs, you love to
see just the base hits in Moss, but you'd love
to see it even more so. I think in this
case right here, seeing that last night out of jose
L Twovy, that was huge. You're gonna need jose al
Tuova in the postseason. He's going to be a guy

(53:51):
that has to factor for this team. We'll see what
we get out of Jordan Alvarez. But Kyle Tucker, I
mean last year he struggled in the postseason. Probably Kyle
Tucker's struggles were a huge reason why this team did
not move on to the.

Speaker 5 (54:03):
World Series last year.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
Now, on the surface, you hear that and you hear
me kind of putting the Astros losing in seven games
to the Rangers on the shoulders of Kyle Tucker. No,
it's not fully on him. Other guys also needed to
help out as well in terms of getting a huge
clutch hit to be able to win at home, but
him being a non factor definitely hurt the Astros last year,

(54:25):
So you would love to see hopefully he's a little
bit more fresh from being out for the time that
he's been out and now has an opportunity to be
able to be a huge part of what the Astros
want to be in terms of getting back to the
World Series and hopefully winning it the World Series. And
last night, three hits out of him, you love to
see that. Three hits out of Alex Bregman, you love
to see that as well. Janar Diaz even able to

(54:48):
chip in with a base hit last night, and then
Victor Carrottini of course the home run. You love seeing that,
especially after the struggles that he's been going through as
of late. The strikeouts have kind of gone up for
Victor Kartini, but you'd love for him to be able
to help out and he's kind of become an everyday
player at this point, especially while Jordan Alvarez is out,
you want to get somebody in there that can be
able to put the ball on play, but not only

(55:09):
put the ball in play, can be able to have
huge results when they do. So you've got a runner
on second and third. He's able to put a single
out in the center field. That's two runs right there.
That's huge.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
Two runs.

Speaker 4 (55:21):
That's a massive rally in the postseason, and if you're
able to get that out of him, that's huge. So
I've said it numerous times, and I know that you
know it's one of those that you know, some people
might say I'm obsessed in bringing up this point when
it comes to the Astros, But yeah, call me obsessed.
I would actually say that I'm committed in terms of
saying what is needed for this team because those guys

(55:44):
have to be what pushes this team forward. You've seen
it numerous times when Jose Altuve, when Kyle Tucker, when
Alex Bregman, when Jiner Diaz, when they are hitting the
baseball and they are able to be the guys that
we know that they're capable of being. I think he
translates to the rest of the lineup. I think that's
why you see production out of the bottom of the order.

(56:04):
I mean, you'd love to see Jake Myers get going
a little bit. I know that he struck out a
couple of times last night. That's been a little bit
of an issue for him as of late. Jeremy Pania,
maybe these couple of days off are kind of the
mental reset that he needed, and you know, maybe he's
been able to work on some things off to the
side in terms of, you know, pitch selection and what
to offer at and you know, for the longest time,

(56:27):
it was the outside slider was kind of his kryptonite. Well,
seemingly it's been the inside fastball, well off the plate
that's been his kryptonite. It's what ended the game against
the Angels the other day, and he also struck out
on a similar pitch against the Mariners in that last series.
So I think he's somebody that Joe Aspotta looked at
and said, yeah, need to have a little bit of
time off for him to be able to try to

(56:47):
be fresh and be a guy that we can count
on in the postseason. But it starts with the top.
It starts with the top guys. If they are going
and they are swinging it well and they are able
to produce for this team, then I think good things happen.
I think not only good things happen in the Wildcard Series,
but I think also too in the DS. Again, if
you take on the Cleveland Guardians, I think the Astros

(57:07):
feel like they match up pretty well against Cleveland, and
then you move on to the LCS and whoever you've
got in in that round, and you know, feel like
you've got a good chance against them, because I mean,
you know, it's one of those things. I know that
the Yankees probably really want to see the Astros because
of what the Astros have done to them in at
least three lcs's against them, and also to the Wildcard

(57:28):
back in twenty fifteen. But also too as well, I
think you're seeing teams that are trending in totally different directions.
The Astros are not the same team they were when
they lost the Yankees early on in the season, and
then when they face them up in the Bronx about
a month or two later, they're a completely different ball club.
I mean, you know, they are a team that is
hitting the ball better, They're pitching so much better, they're

(57:51):
healthier on the pitching side than they were at those times.
And also too, this is a Yankees bullpen at the
beginning of the season was outstanding and it's kind of
fallen off. It's kind kind have become a little bit
of a liability for Aaron Boone's team. So I think
that's one of those that if you're in those situations,
the Astros fuel even more confident facing that group. You know,
Chad Holmes and and you know other guys that come

(58:13):
out of the bullpen for the Yankees that you know
in the past they probably were like, man, I hope
we can get to them. Now I think they kind
of feel like, no, we can get to them, and
we will get to them. So I don't think that
there is this fear of the Yankees whatsoever. I think
if the Astros seam of the postseason, they're like, hey,
we've handled these guys in the past. We can do
it again, And I think that it would be a

(58:35):
very advantageous matchup. But again, you got to get through
so much more before you can get to that point,
and hopefully the Astros can get there all right. Coming
out next, let's get into some Texans conversation because Demiko
Ryans got to prove a point that he's been trying
to prove. Tomorrow will be proof if indeed he has

(58:55):
been heard. We'll talk about that on the other side
as we continue to roll along here on Base City Saturday.
Dan Matthews, you're on your home of the Astros in
the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
It's Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven nineteen.

Speaker 4 (59:11):
Come on, not wrong LL backing up the Astros in
this regard. I'm sure he's a Dodgers guy. That's all right,
we won't hold it against him. But anyway, Astros and
Guardians today again, I mean, look, you know, these are
games that I think you're looking at if you're an
Astros fan of the result doesn't necessarily matter because the

(59:32):
result really doesn't matter. You're going to be here on
Tuesday regardless. You're going to be in the wildcard round
on Tuesday regardless. So in that case, I mean, I
think that you're kind of just looking at it as
don't get people hurt, and that's what you're hoping is
the case for the Shrows. So again, it's gonna be
justin Berlander and it's been lively coming your way at

(59:53):
five to ten is first pitch. Four o'clock is Astros
on deck again with Longhorn Football here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. We'll be over on news Radio seven forty
KTRH coming your way for the game and both on
deck and the tenth inning show for that all right,
coming up right now. I wanted to get into some

(01:00:14):
Texans conversation as the Texans bring in the O and
three Jacksonville Jaguars tomorrow over at NRG Stadium, and the
ask excuse me the Texans coming off a tough loss
last week to the Minnesota Vikings, not fun whatsoever. This
was a Texans team that would you say was playing

(01:00:35):
good football in the first couple of weeks of the season.
As I said in the first segment, they weren't. I
mean the team that, if you're being honest with yourself,
you could look at and say, man, they were lucky
to win both of those games. They were a Joe
Mixon performance away from starting off the season oh to
one on the road against Indianapolis, a game that I
thought possibly they were going to lose, but they ended

(01:00:57):
up not losing it, so that was nice to see.
And the following week against a rookie quarterback in Caleb Williams.
You were lucky enough to be able to win that game.
So you're two to zero after the entire offseason of
being told that this is a Super Bowl contender and
that this team is going to be prib you know,
prime to you know, win you know a lot in

(01:01:18):
this season. I just talked about, you know, the possibility
of being able to play for and maybe win a
Lombardy but also too for the first time in their
franchise history, make the AFC Championship Game.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
So what do we call all that?

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
Well, a few years ago, remember Nick Saban said it's
called rat poison, and Demiko Ryans, being a good Alabama
man that he is, I think he's kind of subscribed
a little bit too. Don't take the rat poison, don't
take the cheese. It's got that poison in there. So
Demiko Ryans asked this week about said rat poison and
wondering is that a reason why they lost to Minnesota

(01:01:53):
last week?

Speaker 7 (01:01:54):
Last week, we didn't play well at the end of
the day, That's that's all it came down to. We
didn't play well. We had some good moments where we executed,
made some nice plays, but they were negated by us.

Speaker 5 (01:02:07):
So it's very hard to win.

Speaker 7 (01:02:08):
Again, when you got the Texans and the Vikings playing
against the Texas, that's pretty hard to win that game.
So once we get the Texans out of the way
and we just go focus on our opponent and we
handle us well and we'll be just fine.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
So I mean, it's one of those things that Demiko
Ryan's in an outward way, because we talked about this
all the time. I think I've mentioned this to y'all
before that coaches will talk to their team through the media,
and in this case, I think that probably the message
has been from Demiko to his players in not a
contentious way, but at least the way of, hey, I
played in this league. I know what it takes to

(01:02:44):
win in this league, and what you did and what
you've been doing is not the way that you do
that in this league. And it's kind of a do
you believe me now to his players because we've also
heard from others not only in the building, you know,
on the team as players or coaches, but remember Nick
Casserio at the combine this year, he had talked about, hey,

(01:03:07):
you know, we did a lot of great things. Last year,
we also won a lot of really close games, and
we can't count on that result being the same this season.
So everybody just believing that we're going to you know,
move ahead and going to be, you know, the the
champions of the NFL just because of what we did
last year.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
That's not how this league works.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
I mean, one year's success does not translate to the next.
And I think that, you know, it's a little bit
of kind of battling through that right now, because human
nature does come in. I don't think that you have
Texans players out there saying, oh, we're good, don't worry
about it, it'll get figured out. I think they are
trying to work towards getting to that point.

Speaker 5 (01:03:44):
And c J.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
Stroud even talked about it as much this week, I
mean in a ridiculous way. He was asked about the
confidence in Bobby Slowik and he was like, no, of course,
we still have confidence in Bobby Slok.

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
And here's the other part of it as well.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
Usually your offense is not what it's supposed to be
until about week five, five for week six. So yeah,
there's some disjointedness right now in our offense. But it
doesn't mean that's who we are as a team, and
it doesn't mean that's going to be who we are
going forward. But you heard Dimiko talk about it as well.
You don't want the Texans playing against the Texans while

(01:04:16):
trying to play against the Vikings, and that's what they were.
Because the pre snap penalties were the ones that definitely
get most of the notoriety in terms of what he's
talking about, and a lot of the people want to
put that blame on Laramie Tunsel and on Titus Howard.
I mean so much to the point that Titus Howard said, Hey, Twitter,
I don't need you anymore. I'm deactivating my account. I
just don't even need to worry about it anymore. But

(01:04:39):
in terms of the pre snap penalties, especially on the
offensive side of the ball, Tamika Ryans talked about hammering
down on set issues.

Speaker 5 (01:04:47):
The pre snap definitely has been addressed.

Speaker 7 (01:04:49):
Again. We spend time on that, talked about it, we
addressed it, and well we see on Sunday that has
been addressed and we'll handle our handle it really way.
Offensive line had a great day of work today. Everybody's
dowt in. Everybody understands who we are what we're about
and what is going to take for us to get
back on track, and that's what we're.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
Focused on, all right. A couple of things right there
from what Demiko just talked about. I mean, yes, I mean,
you know, you've got Laramie Tunzell, who I get it
too as well. Tunsill kind of brings some of this
on himself of I mean, you know, coming into the
league where he dropped in the draft because of that
video that surfaced, but also too as well. I mean

(01:05:29):
I think that he's kind of thought of as a
guy that he could do a little bit more in
terms of his career. And I think that fans whenever
things like this happen, they point to those things. Well,
maybe if you're in training camp on the field, some
of these things are not an issue for you right now.
And maybe if you're putting in the work that way
and you're practicing during the week and all of these

(01:05:50):
different types of things that go into what we think
is a winning formula for a player to you know,
be able to perform the way that we hope they can,
especially when they're making the type of money that Tunsil
is on Sundays and yeah, when he does have the
false starts or he does have the illegal formation or
whatever it might be, that people look at him and say, dude,
you've got to be better than that. Like you're supposed

(01:06:11):
to be one of the best in the league. Well,
then play like one of the best in the league.
And when you don't, we're gonna let you know that
you don't. Kind of like what we're talking about with
the Astros, when jose Al Tuv and those guys are
not hitting, then we of course circle in on them
because we expect those guys to hit. It's the same
deal with Larry Tunsel in that regard. But I think
the final part of it is it's going to be

(01:06:33):
proof positive tomorrow. Are these messages being heard by the players.
Are they being heard in terms of, hey, guess what,
because I think that we'd even heard Dimiko say it.
But you know, maybe I'm kind of paraphrasing here of
what we just did to win a game could get
us to lose a game later on in the season.
And in certain cases, I think that players and people

(01:06:55):
are just willing to, you know, not willing to listen
to criticism when things go their way, as opposed to win,
you know, things don't go their way because when you lose,
then obviously you're saying, Okay, clearly we did a lot
of things wrong. And if we did a lot of
things wrong, then we need to be able to fix
those issues because otherwise we're going to be on the

(01:07:16):
losing end a lot more than we're going to be
on the winning end. And I think that's something that
will need to be looked at. Tomorrow. We'll see if
Joe Mixon plays in the game. I know he practiced
on a limited basis yesterday. I would think that if
you practice in the game that they feel pretty good
about being able to throw him out there on Sunday.
So I expect Joe Mixon to be able to go.
But it's also too as well the offensive line. I

(01:07:38):
think it's a little bit of a gut check of
what happened last week and now you you know, need
to make sure that you're able to you know, have
those things you know kind of you know short up,
so this week it can go a lot better for
you against a team who badly needs a win.

Speaker 5 (01:07:54):
And speaking of.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):
The Jacksonville Jaguars, will actually transition into hearing about them
next because what kind of team is coming in the
face of Texans tomorrow. My good buddy Ryan Hacker Green
joined us from the A Team earlier this week. You'll
have a chance to hear from him next right here
on your home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Space City Saturday. On Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Saturday.

Speaker 4 (01:08:25):
A couple more segments to go here on this Saturday
on your home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports
Talk seven ninety Dan Matthews here with you Astros in
the first hour, mostly Texans. In this hour and tomorrow
we are focused on the matchup happening over at NRG Stadium.
The winless Jacksonville Jaguars are in town the take on

(01:08:48):
the two and one Houston Texans. Both teams really looking
for a win this week. The Jags, as previously laid out,
really looking for one this week. And earlier this week
on the A Team, we had a chance to catch
up with my good buddy, Ryan Hacker Green from ten
ten XL there in Jacksonville. The conversation got started with

(01:09:09):
what does the number three h five mean to the Jags?

Speaker 8 (01:09:13):
Three hundred and five is the number of days it's
been since Trevor Lawrence won a football game as the starter.

Speaker 9 (01:09:18):
Ironically enough, it was in Houston last season.

Speaker 10 (01:09:22):
Trevor Lawrence eight starts, eight losses since that day, including
all three this season. Our listeners here in Houston know
that I once thought he was going to be very good.
I gave him all the benefit of the doubt for
having to be the quarterback during the Urban Meyer era
and everything that went along with that team had no
chance to win because they were led by someone who's

(01:09:44):
not capable of coaching an NFL football team. But it's
been very easy for me to say, no, it's on
Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence is not a good NFL quarterback.
Proved otherwise. Trevor, what have you seen over those last
eight games these several seasons with Doug Peterson? Are things
where they are with Trevor and the offense and the team?

Speaker 9 (01:10:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:10:04):
Look, I think that's fair. And that's what the Jaguars earned.
On Monday night when they went out and fled out,
embarrassed themselves on national TV.

Speaker 9 (01:10:11):
I mean that was a disgraceful performance.

Speaker 8 (01:10:13):
And believe me, all our shows on ten ten xcel
all week long, I had to stay up to do
a twelve thirty to two thirty in the morning postgame
show after that nonsense, So I was pretty fired up,
as you can imagine.

Speaker 9 (01:10:26):
Why hasn't it worked out? Well, There's a.

Speaker 8 (01:10:28):
Lot of reasons, and I'll try to be brief. The
offensive line hasn't been very good. They can't run the ball,
and because they can't run the ball, obviously teams don't
fear the run, so they can put guys back in
pass coverage. The wide receivers have been okay. Christian Kirk
has been bad the first two games. He was actually
all right on Monday Night football. Evan Ingram's injured. Their

(01:10:51):
Pro Bowl tight end is hurt and has missed of
the last two games. And Trevor just quite frankly, has
lost a lot of his confidence. I think when he's
getting teed off on by opposing the lines, and there's
some questions about the play calling with Doug Peterson and
Press Taylor. It is becoming a soap oper here, guys.
I mean, that's the bottom line. When he was forty
seven to ten, the fashion the Jaguars did on Monday Night,

(01:11:13):
We're looking for answers to a lot of questions and
we don't have a lot of answers right now.

Speaker 10 (01:11:17):
Humor me briefly, since you brought up the additional coverage
you had late that night after the game, you had
a former player Leon Searsly and a former coach, Dave Campbo,
both in the NFL at this level with you. What
were their thoughts on what they saw that night and
in general for this one and three football team.

Speaker 8 (01:11:34):
Yeah, Leon, I think he used the term disgraceful. It
was an embarrassment. I mean, all the verbids you would imagine.
Coach Campo tries to be a little more stipil than
Leon and I were, but at one in the morning
we kind of teed off, so we really didn't care.

Speaker 5 (01:11:46):
But coach just.

Speaker 8 (01:11:46):
Said, look, it looks like a team that's lost, a
team that has no direction. And there are questions about
Doug Peterson. Now, I mean, the bottom line is they've
lost what eight out of nine going back to last season.
Doug Peterson is an under five hundred coach. Now in
forty regular season games here in Jacksonville, it is not good,

(01:12:08):
and that's an understatement. There were expectations coming in. I
think most of us picked Houston to win the division.
But I thought most of us also picked jacksonvie'll be
second and be competitive and right now being one of
the three zero to three teams. After you extended, Trevor
Lawrence extended Joshua Hinz, Allen Tyson, Campbell Foyer looking got
contract extensions as well.

Speaker 9 (01:12:29):
The owners fed up. The owner's angry.

Speaker 8 (01:12:32):
There's reports that the owner was the angriest shot Con
was the angriest he's been in his time as Jackuar
owner watching what he watched on Monday night. So clearly
the hot seat talk has really been ratcheted up here
in Jacksonville this week.

Speaker 9 (01:12:45):
When it comes to Doug Peterson.

Speaker 11 (01:12:47):
We're talking to Ryan Hacker Green of ten ten XL
Radio in Jacksonville, and yeah, I mean I can imagine
because we kind of if you're in Houston, we went
through not the same scenario because Sean Watson wanting to
be out of Houston and then everything else that came
from a legal standpoint that just right on the heels

(01:13:07):
of that, it was unlike anything I've ever seen anywhere.
But you know, when a quarterback, I don't want to
say lose his favor because I don't know if that's
happened in Jacksonville yet, but I was talking with Wex
about this just earlier this week. He was the latest
once in a generation guy at the top of the draft,
and you had every reason to believe early on he
would be that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:13:28):
Is it worse obviously.

Speaker 11 (01:13:30):
Because of the contract they just gave and how much
of that is similar to what might be going on
in Dallas, where you know the alternative is to basically
blow it up, so you either have to pay the
guy who might not be the guy or go that route.

Speaker 5 (01:13:43):
Do you think that applies in Jacksonville?

Speaker 9 (01:13:46):
Well, I think a couple of things, Adam. When it
comes to Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 8 (01:13:50):
Number one, he's not as bad as he's looked the
first three games. That goes back to what I said
about his confidence. I also think, you know, you brought
up the contract.

Speaker 9 (01:13:59):
That's a lot to live up to, man, fifty five.

Speaker 8 (01:14:01):
Million dollars a year. I think he's out there pressing
a little bit. You know, we've watched the all twenty
two of the last three games. He's trying to do
things that quite frankly, he shouldn't be doing. He's not
taking the eight yard sure thing, and you know the
down and out on the sideline, he's trying to go
to the twenty five yard you know go route.

Speaker 9 (01:14:18):
He's airmailing the ball.

Speaker 8 (01:14:20):
Brian Thomas Junior was wide open on that interception that
DeMar Hamlin had Monday night.

Speaker 9 (01:14:25):
That's a terrible throw. There's no defense for that.

Speaker 8 (01:14:27):
But that's also a throw that Trevor makes ninety nine
percent of the time. So I know what it looks
like now is absolute garbage. And I get that Trevor
is better than what he's shown the last three games.
Having said that, the generational talk that to me was
nonsense from the beginning. There's one generational guy and he
resides in Kansas City and until somebody beats him. I

(01:14:48):
don't want to talk about any other current quarterback being
generational because Mahomes is the only one. I still think
Trevor potentially could be very good, but I do think
he is trying to live up to that contract. There's
a confidence in issue. Particularly there's an issue with the
play calling between oc Press Taylor and head coach Doug Peterson. Again,
a lot more questions than we have answers, but they're

(01:15:09):
saying all the right things this week. I'll be very
interested to see. Look, if they're ever going to have
our backs against the wall, if they're ever going to
have a look yourself in the mirror moment, it'll be
this Sunday in Houston after getting slat out, humiliated on
national television. So I'm very curious to see how the
fifty five million dollar man, Trevor Lawrence responds to that

(01:15:29):
criticism this Sunday out there in Houston.

Speaker 11 (01:15:31):
Well, it leads me to the next obvious question, because
while I think it's a little bit different since you
guys are in the division as the Texans, so maybe
that that kind of shade your answer a little bit
more than it would if it was just another market
that's not in the AFC South, What do you think
of CJ.

Speaker 5 (01:15:49):
Stroud?

Speaker 11 (01:15:50):
And also that needs to include the first three games
of this season, where I don't think he's overwhelmed anybody
from an expectation into this season, especially standpoint, because we
heard that kind of talk, Well, this is a guy
that could be the closest thing to Mahomes. I agree
with you wholeheartedly that there's only one guy like that
until there isn't. But what do you think right now

(01:16:11):
through three weeks at the twenty twenty four NFL season
of a CJ.

Speaker 5 (01:16:15):
Stroud.

Speaker 9 (01:16:16):
I know we hate Carolina for taking Bryce. Yeah, I
can tell you that much.

Speaker 8 (01:16:21):
We talk about that all the time. Carolina is on
our naughty list, no question about it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:25):
Now.

Speaker 9 (01:16:25):
CJ.

Speaker 8 (01:16:26):
Child is a good player, man. I mean he came
in here his rookie year. I think it was Week
three last year. And aside from your two hundred and
sixty pounds full back returning a kickoff for a touchdown,
which was interesting, Shroud had a great game in beating Jacksonville,
and look, Trevor repaid the favor out there in Houston
when the field goal hit the crossbar last year. Obviously,
that was Trevor's last win as the starting quarterback of

(01:16:47):
the Jaguars. But I think this CJ. Stroud Trevor Lawrence
rivalry could be a good one for years to come. Now,
what Houston has done is they went out and they
got a Stefan Das, they went out and they got.

Speaker 9 (01:16:58):
A Joe Mixon. Jacksonville got Christian Kirk.

Speaker 8 (01:17:02):
Okay, that's all right, Gabe Davis, Okay, he's not Stefan Diggs.
I do think though, Brian Thomas Junior is a guy
that not a lot of people were talking about because
the Jaguars zero and three, he and Malikue Neighbors are
the only two rookie wide receivers. I believe to have
at least forty five yards receiving in each of the
first three games. Brian Thomas Junior is going to be

(01:17:22):
a stud and I think a year, probably next year
at the latest, he will be quote unquote wide receiver
one here in Jacksonville. Gabe Davis will be kind of
the second guy, and I'm not sure how much longer
Kirk's going to be here following this season, But you
need the guy, right c J. Strout has Nico Collins
and now he has Stefon Diggs. Trevor needs that guy,
and I think Jacksonville has finally got him that guy

(01:17:45):
with Brian Thomas Junior.

Speaker 10 (01:17:47):
Yeah, Ryan, to a lesser degree. I think people here,
myself included, weren't real excited about how Jacksonville manipulated the
twenty twenty four draft to get assets and then also
be able to draft Brian Thomas Junior.

Speaker 5 (01:17:59):
I totally agree.

Speaker 10 (01:18:00):
I think he may be a wide receiver one sooner
than that, just because of the competition at the position.
I just think he is a bigger, better talent than that.
Just real briefly here about a minute on the other
side of the football, because as much as Trevor Lawrence
and the offense clearly took a while to get anything
going against Buffalo, they also were giving up touchdowns every
single time the Bills had the football their opponents. And

(01:18:21):
that's a Deshaun Watson led team and a two lead
team and now Josh Allen led team. Are there season
statistics a little skewed because of what Allen did? Is
this a team that you can throw the ball against
with relative ease? Which is kind of what the numbers suggests.

Speaker 8 (01:18:36):
I mean, they held a healthy Miami team in Week.

Speaker 9 (01:18:38):
One to twenty points in Miami.

Speaker 8 (01:18:40):
The Cleveland only scored one touchdown on them in eighteen points.

Speaker 9 (01:18:46):
The rest were field goals.

Speaker 8 (01:18:47):
I mean, the defense was defense up until Monday nine,
and Monday night was a flipping disaster.

Speaker 9 (01:18:53):
That again a.

Speaker 8 (01:18:53):
Lot more questions than answers, because we thought the defense
was pretty good the first two games. They had lost
those games because of the ineptitude of the offense obviously
that was completely out the door on Monday with what
Josh Allen did.

Speaker 9 (01:19:05):
And the defense has some injury problems.

Speaker 8 (01:19:07):
Tyson Campbell has been out for Lucan's going to miss
this game potentially Devin Lloyd maybe in jeopardy because he
missed practice today with a knee. So injuries are starting
to pile up. But no, I mean the defense has
been better than the offense. I do think it is
skewed because of the Buffalo game, because again Miami and Cleveland,
the defense performed a lot better in those two contests.

Speaker 5 (01:19:28):
Great stuff, Ryan, We really appreciate the time.

Speaker 10 (01:19:30):
I personally owe you one and I'll let you know
on that here shortly, but we really appreciate the time
joining us here. It's really good stuff you have there,
both on the air as you mentioned after dark and
even covering a coach Napier's team, which has also been
kind of an interesting way to do things. But we
certainly appreciate you joining us this afternoon.

Speaker 9 (01:19:49):
Hey fellaws, anytime, Take.

Speaker 4 (01:19:50):
Care all right, Great stuff there from a hacker. Always
awesome to be able to catch up with him. If
you missed any of that, download our iHeartRadio app and
it is free, so you can get all of our
content right there at the convenience of your device. All right,
coming out next a new segment here on Space City Saturday.
That'll be here during a football season. It's me hearing voices,

(01:20:14):
but I'm not crazy. Well, isn't that something a crazy
person would say? Well, it'll be less crazy. That's next.
I'm Dan Matthews here on your home of the Astros
and the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
We now return to Space City Saturday, Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
Dan Matthews back here on your home of the Astros
in the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety one. Final segment
to go here on Space City Saturday. Before we get
into I hear voices, I need to give you a
programming note. So, with the Texas and Mississippi State game
coming up a little bit later on here on your
home of the Longhorns in Houston, Sports Talk seven ninety,

(01:20:52):
the Astros and Guardians going to be over on News
Radio seven forty KTRH. I will be there for Astros
on at four o'clock. Robert Ford, Steve Sparks on the
call again over there on News Radio seven forty KRH
and then after the game stick around with me as
we will have the tenth inning show, so we will

(01:21:12):
have all of that coming your way again. Four o'clock
is Astros on deck five to ten is the first
pitch from there at Progressive Field. It'll be Justin Verlander
against Ben Lively for Cleveland. And if the Astros win today,
they not only clinched this series, but they also win
the season series over the Cleveland Guardians. So maybe that's

(01:21:34):
something that come into play if they are able to
get past the Detroit Tigers or more than likely the
Kansas City Royals in the wildcard round that will be
coming up starting on Tuesday. All right, without further ado,
I teased it last segment, let's do.

Speaker 5 (01:21:49):
It right now.

Speaker 4 (01:21:50):
As again, I'm not crazy because I het your voices,
and in this segment it is something a little bit
new on the show. It's not a little bit. It
is one hundred percent new on the show. As we
usually hear about this during the off season, that's talking
season in football. Well in this case, talking season extends

(01:22:11):
into the season. And for this edition of I Hear Voices,
we go for one example in the NFL and two
examples on the college ranks and in the NFL. We
start with the Las Vegas Rager Raiders and their head
coach Antonio Pierce. So, last week, the Raiders faced a

(01:22:32):
Carolina Panthers team that had made a change at quarterback.
They go from Bryce Young to Andy Dalton, and Andy Dalton,
the former Katie product, comes in and helps the Carolina
Panthers win the game.

Speaker 5 (01:22:44):
That's not the story here.

Speaker 4 (01:22:45):
It is after the game Antonio Pierce calling out some
of his players for saying, yeah, you guys were being
independent contractors out there as the.

Speaker 9 (01:22:55):
Game went on. I don't think it was.

Speaker 7 (01:22:58):
I think that jeffisonon that make business decisions and we'll
make business decisions going forward as well.

Speaker 4 (01:23:03):
Now, the reason I bring this up is Pierce, just
like Demiko Ryans, a former player, and not only a
former player, a former linebacker in the league. And his
style at least, you know, I'm not around Pierce on
a daily basis, but at least from what I can
see from a thousand foot view, does seem like it
is a little bit more in your face.

Speaker 5 (01:23:22):
I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (01:23:22):
Probably he raises his voice a little bit more at
his players than Demiko seems to do.

Speaker 5 (01:23:27):
Over on Kirby.

Speaker 4 (01:23:28):
But in this case, right here, the reason why I
bring this up is because, just like Tomiko, Pierce is
a former player. Now again the similarities right there. Like
I say with Dimiko and I talked about this a
little bit earlier on. I don't think he is a
ra ra in your face, yell at you type of guy.
But I think if he does see somebody that's doing
something wrong, pull on the side, and maybe if there
is a little bit of back talk to him, his

(01:23:50):
response is, well, I played for this amount of years
in the NFL, so I think I kind of know
what I'm talking about when I bring something like this
up to you and Pierce doing the same thing right there.
Antonio Pierce is a Super Bowl winner as a player.
He is now a new head coach. But also though too,
I think he's taking some of those leadership tactics that
he used when he was a player and applying him here.

Speaker 5 (01:24:11):
And usually former players whenever.

Speaker 4 (01:24:12):
They say things like this, I'm willing to listen because
if these guys knew what it takes to go out
there and play every single Sunday, maybe it's a Monday night,
maybe it's a Thursday night, whenever you're playing. It goes
beyond that as well. It's the work in the weight room,
it's the work on the practice field. It's hey, are
you in the film room? Do I see you on
your tablet watching film? All of those different types of things,

(01:24:34):
the nutrition, it all comes together, and in this case
right here, that's Antonio Pears calling out players, saying, hey,
I know what success looks like in this league and
what you were doing that, ain't it? So if you're
going to be a member of the Las Vegas Raiders,
well then I need to see you not do what
you did on Sunday. And it's also too it's kind

(01:24:55):
of one of those things as well that usually nowadays
we seem to bristle at whenever a coach, an executive,
an owner, whoever it might be, calls out effort from players.
And I remembered hearing this a few years ago from
Mike McCarthy, where again not a former player at least
the NFL level, but a guy who talked about you
got to be very careful when you're calling out effort

(01:25:15):
of players. But I do think that players whenever you
hear things like this coming from a guy who again
has the credentials that Pierce does that it is going
to be at least taken in with some constructive criticism.
At that point, you're willing to listen to it is
kind of what I'm saying right there. And Pierce felt
like that was the button that he needed to push
with his team. And after that effort again against a

(01:25:38):
putred and low lead Carolina Panthers team that felt they
were so bad that they had to move on from
the top pick overall just a year ago in Bryce
Young and go with Andy Dalton. That kind of shows
you where Antonio Piers felt like he was pushed to
and that is why he pushed that button to say, yeah,
you're making business decisions out there, so guess what. This

(01:25:59):
is a business right. We hear players say it all
the time. Well, if you're gonna treat it that way,
we will too. So some of you probably won't like
your playing time going forward. And Antonio Peers feeling like
that was the button that he needed to push with
his team. Now let's go to the sec as first.
We'll start in Auburn. Auburn taking on Oklahoma today, but

(01:26:21):
last week they lost to Arkansas and it got so
bad that they had to make a quarterback change. They
had to go back to Peyton Thorn. And Hugh Freeze
is a guy that I think kind of is in
the same mold of a Dabo Sweeney, where he seemingly
never gets the benefit of the doubt from the media,
the opposing fans, whoever it might be, whenever they say

(01:26:42):
something like this, and that usually brings out the critics
that will be coming after him. But in this case,
right here, it was Hugh Freeze throwing his quarterbacks and
running back under the bus after their loss to Sam
Pittman and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Speaker 12 (01:26:55):
Unfortunately, this is what I know, and I know that
there's people open, and I know that we're running the football,
and we got to find a guy that won't throw
it to the other team, and we got to find
running backs that hold on to it. You know, that's
a huge play there. I mean, we're going in to school.
I don't know what was a seven nothing then or

(01:27:16):
so it was seven to seven and our defense gets
the stop and who knows what happens. But you know,
the scheme is what most everybody in the country is
running some sort of. But you've got to have a
good play at quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:27:31):
For sure to.

Speaker 12 (01:27:33):
At whatever system you're going to choose.

Speaker 4 (01:27:35):
Now, it wasn't only media opposing fans. It was also
a former quarterback who came out against you Freeze this week.
Did you see on Twitter that Bo Wallace, who was
a quarterback for Freeze when he was the head coach
at Ole Miss. He came out and was incredibly critical
of Freeze for how he handled him when he played
for him, but also to his coaching tactics. And I

(01:27:58):
get that when you're a coach, not going to make
everybody happy.

Speaker 5 (01:28:02):
That's just the way it is.

Speaker 4 (01:28:03):
I remember Kirby Smart had that speech at the SEC
Media Days a couple of years ago talking about leadership.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
In one of the lines he.

Speaker 4 (01:28:10):
Said was, despite your best efforts, you will not be liked.
And in this case right here, I think Freeze understands that.
And could his tactfulness been a little bit better in
terms of describing what happened on the field, and maybe
he could have done a little bit more falling on
the sword.

Speaker 5 (01:28:25):
Sure he could have. But I also want to enter
this into the equation.

Speaker 4 (01:28:29):
I guess, if nothing else making my argument right here,
I want to enter this into evidence, maybe he's tried
to do that numerous times behind the scenes. That's the
other part of this as well, is there's so many
things that happened behind the scenes that we don't know about,
and maybe Freeze had tried to do that with Thorn
or whoever his quarterback is at Auburn or also too
on the practice field. Maybe they've had fumbling issues and

(01:28:51):
he said, hey, we need to work on ball security, okay, coach,
all right, Well, nay, we need to work on ball security,
all right, coach, Yeah, hey we will. And then you
see it happened on Saturdays, and that's where Freeze says,
all right, that's it. Wits end has been passed, and
now it's time for me to go the nuclear option
in this case, and that is calling people out.

Speaker 5 (01:29:10):
So we'll see how it all works out. Again.

Speaker 4 (01:29:13):
Peyton Thorn likely going to start today for Auburn against
Oklahoma as the Tigers really looking for a huge bounce
back win and Oklahoma making a quarterback change in their
own right. So we'll see how it works out for
Brent Venables club as well. Now here's the chaser to
that shot I gave you with Hugh Freeze it's a
guy that never minces words, and in some cases we

(01:29:35):
like it.

Speaker 5 (01:29:36):
And in the past we did not like him for
doing that.

Speaker 4 (01:29:39):
But I think we can all agree now that Lane
Kiffin is a changed man in terms of not only
picking and choosing his spots for when he says things,
but also too how good of a coach he is
as well. And Lane Kiffin talking about what you do
in terms of handling quarterbacks after tough games, and in
this case right here Kiffin saying, you know what, I

(01:30:02):
try to take the focus off of them and put
it onto me.

Speaker 13 (01:30:05):
I think it pays off, you know, when you have
the relationships and the quarterbacks trust you too. You know,
and can go back to Matt Crown when you through
six interceptions and before I even got to the media,
sitting now with him telling him, you know, we got
to do a better job of calling plays, I got
to coach better, and don't worry, we got your back.
And so I think that goes a long ways and
goes a long ways with kids in recruiting, you know,

(01:30:28):
of knowing what they're going to get when they get
here from a relationship and that they can trust us
to have their back.

Speaker 4 (01:30:35):
All right, could that I've been a shot at freeze
maybe who knows. But Kiffin right there talking about, Hey,
if a quarterback has a bad day, then I'm going
to take the blame. I'm not going to allow them
to take it. And you appreciate that for sure, but
also too as well. Again, it's every coach has their
style and every coach has their ability to be able

(01:30:55):
to either say, hey, I can call these guys out
because let me actually take it to a more local example.
I remember last year we had a chance to talk
with Ima Udoka during one of his weekly visits on
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross, and one of the
things he was asked about was calling out players, and
he said, you know what I actually give you, guys,
The mild version of what I say to them, or

(01:31:16):
the call out to you is a lot more mild
than the way I called them out in private. And
I know that a lot of people prefer if you're
going to do the call out, do it in private.
But for Kiffin right there, I mean, again, let's talk
about the guy who has completely rehabilitated his career.

Speaker 5 (01:31:31):
At first, he was thought of as being a daddy's boy.

Speaker 4 (01:31:33):
Hey, You've got this job because of who your dad is,
Monti Kiffin, not because of the coach you are. And
soon enough after you went to Alabama and Nick Saban said, no,
actually he's a really good coach.

Speaker 5 (01:31:43):
That's what people started to believe in him.

Speaker 4 (01:31:45):
And then he kind of earned his dudes all over again,
went to FAU and now is at Ole Miss

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