A Mid Silver Boot Series, Houston wanted WHO?, Rockets trade THIS player for HIM

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
My Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Nolan multipot with the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
That is Houston Sports Chill Late down for the only
home grown afternoon team is Talking your Teams.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team eight.

Speaker 5 (00:42):
What's Up Houston?

Speaker 6 (00:43):
It is a Monday edition of the eight Team Sports
Talk seven ninety Wex Ac col Thompson with you as
the show. We'll go and till five o'clock and then
we'll switch on over to Astro's pregame. They're on the
East Coast. They'll be in Tampa tonight to start a
series with the Rays, and so we will start a
little bit earlier on the pregame coverage than usual. They

(01:06):
are fresh off a four game split with the Texas Rangers,
and as Wex and I were discussing before the show,
you could look at this series in a million different ways,
and you could say you feel better or worse about
it depending on who you were rooting for in that series.

Speaker 5 (01:25):
Also depending on which way you look at it.

Speaker 6 (01:27):
I mean, wex brought up the point that the Rangers
led in all four games, but I brought up the
point that you know, Hunter Brown made basically one mistake
in the opener, and that was it.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
That was the game.

Speaker 6 (01:38):
That night, they lost one nothing in a game where
he absolutely should have gotten a victory. And then fromber well,
we know what happened yesterday. He was dominant again, but
the Astros didn't decide to wake up until they stopped.

Speaker 5 (01:52):
Getting no hit by some Jimoke. That's what I'm gonna
call him.

Speaker 7 (01:55):
It's not a timed event, so measured buy outs and
score earlier. You could score late as long as you
outscore the other team by the time the twenty seventh
out or fourth out has been recorded, then you get
it up.

Speaker 6 (02:05):
You know, this show is about semantics, so technically that's
not correct.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
It is a timed event. Now it's not.

Speaker 7 (02:12):
It doesn't as an activity get started and finished based
on time. They keep the time for no reason.

Speaker 6 (02:20):
No, I'm talking about the pitch clock. You have to
get your pitches off itself. Is not a timed event. Yeah,
I know, but there's timing in the event, and so
therefore it does have timing in the event.

Speaker 7 (02:30):
You're right, you as long as you comply with the
pitch count, you can make sure, your game last I
don't know how long, because it's not a time to event.

Speaker 6 (02:39):
I want to do this for the next three hours. Absolutely, Yeah,
I don't. Yeah, I definitely don't. They should not have
won the opener. They didn't score any runs. Their pitcher
was just as good, if not better. And that's what
the Rangers are. I keep saying this, and at some
point I actually hope it's not true for the Astros,
but these teams have struggled to score runs this year,
and you saw some of those reasons why Rangers got

(03:01):
out early a couple times. The Astros, as they have
not been able to do most of the season, score
early and it leaves them in position to potentially need
to make these comebacks. They've been phenomenal in doing so,
and it showed this weekend twice they were able to
do that. A six run inning that included a Christian
Walker three run homer, a three run homer in yesterday's

(03:22):
game which put them in front four to three after
not getting any hits until they were two outs done
in the seventh inning against the worst of the four
starters that they faced. And I think at some point
there's still belief in Arlington Land, that Jack Lighter will
be worthy of where he was drafted and worthy of
all the acclaim and the fact that he's Pitcher's kid

(03:42):
and all that. He just hasn't measured up to the
other three guys they faced. They were awesome.

Speaker 7 (03:46):
I mean the Astros were lucky to score one time
against the other three starters, which is what they did,
and that's why they were left in a very competitive situation.
We'll get into the Astros on deck show, as you mentioned,
at five o'clock, so we'll hear from a lot more
other particulars there. Did get the unfortunate news that was
expected if you heard our conversation with chandlerom on Friday
at three point thirty. Normally he joins us at five o'clock.

(04:09):
It was expected without being known until after the game
this weekend. Hayden was Nesky's season is over for the
Houston Astros, unfortunately after just a handful of starts, after
one brief hiccup in giving him some time thinking maybe
that would make him feel better, and obviously did not.

Speaker 5 (04:27):
He needs Tommy John surgery.

Speaker 7 (04:28):
The likelihood is he will have it fairly soon and
we'll see about the twelve to fourteen month recovery period
certainly would put his season at risk next year to
a certain degree.

Speaker 5 (04:37):
We've seen a bunch of other.

Speaker 7 (04:38):
Pitchers with this team specifically, that have gone through variations
of TJ and flexer surgeries on their throwing elbows, and
even shoulder surgeries. With a couple of the pitchers, three
of them currently on the sixty day IL that have
yet to pitch this year and have missed extended periods
of time themselves in France and Luis Garcia and Christian

(05:01):
Javier Aiden. Was Nesky has multiple years of control left
arbitration seasons. They have some options on what to do
with him contractually, as they did with jose Urkety last offseason,
but Urkety wasn't added to the team via a Kyle
Tucker trade. Hayden was Nesky was, I would be pretty
surprised if wz Nesky was put in any situation where

(05:24):
he could choose to play elsewhere, and I don't think
that will happen, But he won't be contributing, unfortunately on
the field for the team this year. He got another
start out of Lance mccullors obviously during these four games
and the Astros will continue to try to piece it together,
a meeting opportunities for others. Ryan Gusto ended up coming
out of the bullpen over the weekend. Colton Gordon will
make the start tonight against the Rays. There are a

(05:46):
lot of things that they need to keep going well
for them as they continue to await the return of
Jordan Alvrege, which is not expected to be today, probably
not expected until at least after they return home to
Houston this weekend. Out this seven game road trip, first
sitting it two and two with three now against the
under five hundred Rays. The Rays are one of two

(06:08):
teams in the Majors that have a losing record when
they play their home games and a winning record when
they play their road games. And any guests who the
other team might be, because it's fairly obvious when I
present it in this.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
Manner, say that again, they've got what now?

Speaker 7 (06:24):
They're the only team in the Majors that has a
losing record at home and a winning record on the road. Oh,
why would they be able to do that? Why would
it be this particular team who shares similar twenty twenty
five characteristics with one other major league team?

Speaker 5 (06:39):
Come on, this should be the home ballpark.

Speaker 7 (06:43):
Oh, the Oakland A's West Sacramento's version of the only
other team that has a losing record at home and
a winning record away from home. Because they don't have
a home, every game is technically a road game in
those three games this weekend, the Astros they've already played there,
even though they haven't played the Rays yet this year.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
How is that possible?

Speaker 7 (07:01):
Well, because they play in a minor league ballpark in Florida,
not too far from West Palm Beach. The Astros have
already played at George M. Steinbrenner Field, though on that
day to winnings of shutout baseball from Spencer Araghetty.

Speaker 6 (07:14):
That was against the New York Yankees. I guess this
is the third in March. Yeah, Well, much more pleasant
temperatures on spring training.

Speaker 5 (07:22):
I don't really think either team was kind of playing
to win, if you will.

Speaker 6 (07:25):
No, No, I was just thinking about the climate itself,
since the last time they went to go play the
Tampa Bay Rays in their home ballpark it was absolutely
room temperature.

Speaker 7 (07:34):
Yeah, it definitely changes our roof report, and we'll have
that for you coming up in the five o'clock hour.

Speaker 5 (07:38):
Won't get you into the astros Onda.

Speaker 6 (07:40):
You know what's crazy though, it's the first time I've
really even thought about this. It's not obviously the first
time that Tampa has. They've been dealing with it all year.
But I just I, of course know what happened, and
we talked about it when it did happen, and Tampa's
on the schedule, They're the next team up, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
they don't have a home ballpark, not a real one.
So it's weird that there are two teams currently going

(08:03):
through this for very very different reasons.

Speaker 7 (08:07):
Their reason is mother nature, and the Athletics reason is
I got a cheap owner and a bad situation. But
they travel to their home games and they travel to
their away games hoop all year long, for at least
this year.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
I was about to say, who has a solid home
field first out of those two?

Speaker 5 (08:25):
Oh, the raise no question?

Speaker 7 (08:27):
Why because the Athletics aren't going anywhere till at least
twenty twenty eight. The Race will have their home field
in place, possibly as early as twenty six.

Speaker 6 (08:36):
But didn't this whole thing kind of scuttle the original
plan for a new stadium.

Speaker 5 (08:41):
That really had already been scuttled.

Speaker 7 (08:42):
What happened here was they had not changed their roof
in so long because they didn't want to ste the
money on right because we were moving. Well, now they
have to because they're not ready to move yet and
it's all been approved and it's going to happen. So
that's really all their stadium needs. Need You need a
roof and that should be in place long before West

(09:03):
Sacramento's athletics moved to Las Vegas Sacramento. I like how
you put a directional let's if you get a release
for some odd reason from the athletics PR.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
That's what I says, it will be from West Sacramento.
Just say Sacramento.

Speaker 6 (09:18):
Why they don't say, You know, the Ashtos don't play
in East Houston at dyke In Park.

Speaker 5 (09:24):
Thank God, because I wouldn't know where it is. I
know you wouldn't.

Speaker 6 (09:27):
And you know it actually messes with you even more
in this city that it's on an angle. You did
you know that angle downtown? The grid is not a
perfect northeast southwest. It's actually a diamond because it's like
kind of tilted.

Speaker 7 (09:40):
Tilted on my map, sure, tilted on the Atlas, Yes,
tilted in my key map.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
If you still have a key map in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 7 (09:50):
Guarantee you there is a key map at my house somewhere.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
Guaranteed. Yeah, but it's not in your vehicle. Definitely.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
No.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
You never pull it out to use it.

Speaker 7 (09:57):
Last time I pulled it out to use it when
I was screaming out of this building after a long
day at work for the Houston Arrows to get out
to Spring or Ciplers or Cline to set up all
my equipment so I could record the game on a
cassette for high school football play by play? Is I
think that's when I was using my key map. There's
no play telephone now it has a map in it.

Speaker 6 (10:20):
There's no part of that statement that you just made
that isn't shocking to me.

Speaker 5 (10:23):
It was awful. It seems very nice.

Speaker 7 (10:26):
I scream in my car now when I make mistakes
with directions. Imagine if I was doing it while I
was trying to get the directions from a stupid key map.

Speaker 6 (10:36):
Let me ask you this. You know what, No, I'll
wait when we come back. I'm going to ask you
the most pivotal question about that.

Speaker 7 (10:43):
Very segment two. It's fine, you'll be a little question
of a week, and we don't have eighty segments this week,
so it's a little light.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
True, but I'll tell you why. I'm very upset with
Major League Baseball.

Speaker 5 (10:55):
You already know. Oh comical. Well, definitely disagree on that one.
All right, here we go. We will disagree when we
come back.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (11:10):
Oh yeah, yeah, wex you hear that. Sure, it's Buzzfest week, baby,
can you tell him?

Speaker 5 (11:18):
Excited? So Mary will be out there? Who?

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (11:23):
Mary Manson?

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Right?

Speaker 5 (11:24):
No, it's not Mary.

Speaker 7 (11:27):
Are there any fathers of insects we like to kill
with our feet at the Probably they'll be out there.

Speaker 6 (11:31):
No, not this year, Not this year. They came on
a solo tour about a month ago.

Speaker 5 (11:35):
Chavelle. They're headlining.

Speaker 6 (11:37):
Nice, nice Mary as you put him, could be right
before Chevelle.

Speaker 7 (11:42):
Is that not quite headlining? Well, it's a festival type lineup.
So I've seen the lineup and I just didn't memorize it.
I did either eight acts nine.

Speaker 6 (11:51):
If anybody anybody before Marilyn Manson and Chevelle, I don't know.
I mean, I'm sure I think POD's there. Which they're
actually really good dudes. From San Diego. But I couldn't
tell you. This is where I fail as a husband.
I don't know about that. Take it easy.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
There's many other ways. She's not playing, by the way. No,
she she's not.

Speaker 6 (12:12):
But she will d beat. She'll definitely be doing some
stage announcements that I.

Speaker 5 (12:15):
Was a huge part of the event. I would I
ever want to do.

Speaker 6 (12:19):
Like if I worked for the buzz and they were like, hey,
we're doing our annual sold out festival it's called Buzzfest.
We're gonna need you to do some stage announcements and
be like, well, it was good working here. I hate
that crap you got. You know that I've told you
about this, but I don't know if I hate getting
up in front of an actual crowd where they're looking
at me.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
Oh sucks.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
It's fine. No, it's not.

Speaker 7 (12:39):
You did fine when you had to talk to and
with and about our good friend Andy from the office,
along with Oscar.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
And crazy difference, It's that's different. Well, first of all,
you were up there. Oh yeah, that was I was
up there. Does that help?

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Is that?

Speaker 5 (12:53):
Michael Woody? Well, you know it really does.

Speaker 6 (12:54):
I'm not even kidding the fact that we were sitting
behind a table and there was a barrier between me
and the people.

Speaker 7 (13:00):
No stand up, microphone, handheld, walk through the crap?

Speaker 5 (13:04):
Are you serious right now? We ask the.

Speaker 7 (13:06):
People there if they bring us back, if we can
maybe do that.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
It's coming up. It's actually next month. But I've looked
at the lineup on the horn. Well, I don't think that, Yeah,
Norman didas shout out. I don't know that. I haven't
seen anybody that I would really want to necessarily interview,
unless you're like just really jonesing for an Anthony Michael
Hall one on one which I would go to watch
because I know he's he's that's in your wheelhouse.

Speaker 7 (13:29):
Well, I definitely would, even though many people that I think,
I hope the people were talking.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
I want to know, Hey, what have.

Speaker 7 (13:35):
You been up to lately? I probably wouldn't ask him that.
I would just want to talk about all the all
the good old days. I am credentialed, though, I would
say on a scale of one too obvious? Would you say,
Johnny be Good is your is your best movie role ever?

Speaker 5 (13:47):
Anthony? And he would say, Oh, that's obvious. Have you
ever seen somebody when.

Speaker 7 (13:51):
You run through the list of what actors have been
in football movies? What actors have been great in their
role as a quarterback in a football movie? He should
come to my he should, and especially now you know
why why because of Nil? Oh well, yeah, hilarious NIL spoof.
Way back then, Sean Salisbury probably didn't like it very much.

(14:14):
Not a very positive portrayal of fake USC. Fake USC.
Yes they were not the University of Southern California, but
they were quite obviously USC.

Speaker 6 (14:24):
Texas State, Texas State, San Marcus. So funny, such a
good movie. So I've actually never seen that by the way,
Thurman and Jim Rome. No, she was with Anthony then
high school Sweethearts.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
Okay, I'll talk about The Longest Yard.

Speaker 7 (14:39):
That's well, that's Sandler, different movie and people.

Speaker 5 (14:43):
I thought, uh, I thought Sean was in that one too.

Speaker 7 (14:45):
Sean was not in this movie. That's why I said
he probably would like the portrayal of his fake alma mater,
Sean McClain. No, when those movies are very different, his
roles are quite different.

Speaker 5 (14:58):
In the press box a few words, he had a
speaking roll. He's been known to appear as such very brilliantly.

Speaker 6 (15:06):
Taught me how to talk in movies and rat Okay,
so the thing from last segment I had to ask
you about.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
When you use Obviously you use.

Speaker 6 (15:18):
Ways or Google Maps or whatever you have patched into
your vehicle, because you know, we drive around modern.

Speaker 5 (15:24):
Vehicles at this point most of us.

Speaker 6 (15:26):
Uh, do you prefer the voice? What kind of voice?
If you do, or are you like me? Stop talking
to me. I don't want anyone talking to me. I
hate even having to plug in the directions because normally
I know where I'm.

Speaker 7 (15:41):
Going, not like you, definitely don't know where I'm non starter, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
Want them talking to me.

Speaker 6 (15:48):
You do, yes, loudly, point loud enough to hear the
music goes down a little bit, they dim, they dim
the audio. Let me do an impression of Teresa when
she talks and then it comes back on when she
gets in my truck and she wanting to use her
phone for whatever reason. I don't know why, because I'm like, no,
we're using mine. But she's always her battery's always running low.
But if she plugs in and address that I for

(16:09):
some reason don't know where it is, and she starts
listening to it, she'll go, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and
she'll turn the lady down because she knows how much
it drives me crazy.

Speaker 7 (16:17):
You drive here usually five times a week. It's the
same route from your house to the office. Do you
put the directions in? Yes, for one reason, and one
reason only, traffic flow. You have a much longer drive
that could be much more impacted by traffic, especially this
weekend idiots doing construction. A very much much shorter ride
yet has been.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
It's been impacted by construction for a good six plus
years now.

Speaker 7 (16:41):
I won't drive pretty much anywhere in my own neighborhood,
let alone to work without the directions.

Speaker 5 (16:47):
But you're so bad at it. Well, it's the direction.
Why are you taking it this way? What's going on
today in this area? Why is it taking instead of
sixteen minutes, why is it taking twenty four minutes? Maybe
I can come up with something better.

Speaker 6 (17:02):
You know what I don't like with ways. It's not
a contest anymore. Well, I don't use ways with Google Maps.
You put it in and then all of a sudden
you're shaving minutes off your drive, no matter how long
or short your drive is, and it'll let you do
that With Ways, It's like, nah, this is what it's
gonna take and you're not changing my mind.

Speaker 5 (17:17):
I thought you had a baseball question for me. I
can't remember it.

Speaker 7 (17:22):
Oh, four game series, Yeah, the Rangers and Long Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
I know what you're gonna say and why we're going
to disagree, and it's going to be completely condescending and
on brand for you, on brand probably. Well, of course,
they have three different ways for you to watch the game.
They're making money. Yeah, that's great if you want to
make money and that's your only goal, which it clearly
is with these people, these people being the powers that
be at Major League Baseball. But I don't need four

(17:48):
different ways to watch a four game series that is
taking place in the state I live in.

Speaker 7 (17:53):
So the Astros spend a little bit of time yesterday
on a streaming service. They spent time Friday night on
another different streaming service. Saturday we were treated to our
good friends over at Space City Home Network. Yes, you
are treated to it, and Thursday same Space City Home.
So it has three different options. I think one of
the games was also on MOLB Network, but that's not

(18:14):
relevant because the games were aired here on the station
that carries them. By the way, all four games. As
per usual, we're available right here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and we're available via the iHeartRadio app, which you
can have. Sports Talk seven ninety is number one on
your preset, So when you're where am I going to
find the app? Right there? Number one on your presets.
Skate Stalk seven easy to find the Astros. And when

(18:37):
you listen to the Astros with Robert and Steve, when
you bust up a no hitter, I guarantee you. I
guarantee you when the Astros broke up the no hitter yesterday,
when yan R. Diaz took care of business and put
the Astros on the board, I guarantee you that Robert
Ford didn't say YONDI DZ just homewred.

Speaker 8 (19:00):
Here's the three to two pitch driven a right center
field back, goes Haggerty still going back, looks up at
that Goes.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
He said, your yiner DZ who the Astros catcher.

Speaker 8 (19:15):
No hit or God shut out?

Speaker 5 (19:16):
God is three to one? I thought he said, yiner
ds Astros catcher homeward. Well he did because he's not
an idiot.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
Yeah, and I know people make mistakes, so I'm not
trying to crush the guy, But not until after he
crossed home plate was there a correction made.

Speaker 5 (19:31):
But apparently all home run trot.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
Wasn't his first ab wasn't their first game against each
other this year. It wasn't even their first game. He's
been on the broadcast for how many Astros games with
Yiner Diaz catching or at least in the lineup. So
me ask you this, And it's not like Tampa's in
the division. I just called a handful of games the
Yondi Diaz in the lineup, and I know it's it's

(19:55):
it's not even that crazy of a mistake, but you
know the preference. That's why I mentioned it. Just head
on over to Sports Talk seven to ninety and you'll
get the best. And that's what you were treated to
this week. And the whole point of this was you
don't want to go to three different places if you
want to view the game.

Speaker 6 (20:10):
So yesterday and again it's the weekend. I've got a
lot going on. And at the exact moment that I
was angrily texting you, we were already three innings deep
to a no hitter at that point, and I just
had not looked at the entirety of the series on
the schedule to see that. In fact there and again
I don't even Roku was yesterday's television option, yeah, where

(20:34):
they clearly took a member of one broadcast team on
the television side and paired it with another member of
the other broadcast team, as usually does that. Yeah, and
then made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now, I
would have preferred Todd Kallis at play by play because
he's better and wouldn't have referred to him as YONDI,
But that also probably would have meant that whoever their

(20:54):
color guy is would have replaced Jeff Blum, who had
some amazing insight into Elvis Durand's unfortunate foul ball. I
mean vintage Blum content right there. And we have contact.

Speaker 7 (21:08):
Yeah, Friday and Sunday very very different to me. Apple
TV plus Friday Night an exclusive MLB deal where they
carry a game or two games as a doubleheader on
Friday Night and essentially take all the games for themselves. Roku,
in a different way, has the early game or games,
and then everybody else goes about their regular day.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
The biggest difference is there's no cost. There's no free
preview either.

Speaker 7 (21:34):
You wanted to watch yesterday's game and you have a
cell phone with access to the internet, or you have
a computer with access to the internet, or a hundred
of their ways via your streaming services on your TV.

Speaker 5 (21:46):
It's free after news. Go to the site.

Speaker 7 (21:48):
There you go, you're watching the game. It isn't your
usual viewing method. But they're not asking you for anything.
They're just saying, here's where it's.

Speaker 5 (21:55):
Available, the free sample or whatever it is or free.
Didn't have to do a thing, didn't have to sign in,
didn't have to say I'll be decommitting soon.

Speaker 7 (22:04):
I didn't have to do a thing. I went to
their site and clicked on the button. Couldn't be any easier.
Apple obviously is different. They are definitely hoping more subscribed
and then the past they've you know, or you can
open up a seven day trial window, but you can't
do that all year.

Speaker 6 (22:18):
Let me ask you this, if it's a smart TV situation,
correct can be because on my cable provider. I'll just
leave it at that until I start speaking from the again.
I'm not giving any game drops here. That's not a possibility.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
It's not I don't think it was available on the
service I use either.

Speaker 6 (22:37):
So I'm outside yesterday and again, first world problems. I know,
major outdoor television.

Speaker 5 (22:43):
I mean, we're.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
Trying to swim out and watch the game exactly. But
I wouldn't have gotten on my indoor TV either, to
be fair, any of them.

Speaker 7 (22:51):
Right, I did not watch my television was on something
else as I watched the Astros game on my CPU.

Speaker 6 (22:57):
Yeah, I listened on seven to ninety on the I
Heart radio app on my cable provider before it went
to sleep, which is what it does. And then I
was just like, screw this, and I ran it through
a Bluetooth speaker on my phone.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
There you can for solving all the world's problems.

Speaker 7 (23:12):
Friday Night's broadcast does at least offer the ability to
sync up the radio brilliantly, so I know most people,
even if they're watching it that way, they'll get our
guys Robert and Steve to handle business for them. Nonetheless,
exciting series, exciting baseball, close games, befitting of what might
actually continue to be a useful rivalry. Neither of the

(23:36):
teams are currently in first place in the division.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
Both of the teams are nipping at the heels.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
And nothing was accomplished because they split the series as
far as well.

Speaker 7 (23:47):
You just now you're asking for help from the team
that's playing the team you're ahead of, and you're probably
not going to get it. Tonight, while the Astros take
on the Rays and the Rangers, after what a tough weekend,
have an off day, the Mariners begin a series against
the White Sox.

Speaker 6 (24:01):
Yeah, thanks for nothing, San Diego, Padres, you suck all right.
When we come back, we will get to what we
do every day around this time, it's best deves.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 4 (24:20):
We're putting out between five and fifteen posts a day.

Speaker 9 (24:23):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 7 (24:27):
History repeats itself type an.

Speaker 5 (24:30):
You'll succeed, Never doubt that you're the one who pus
with no one building. You're the best.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
X.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know, you're the best of
X posting ever seen.

Speaker 10 (24:45):
Little day and you're the best of X breaking the
entire Internet.

Speaker 6 (24:57):
One of the more inspiring pieces of audio that play
each and every day around this time, WEX emotionally giving
it his all on the vocals.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
Couldn't you tell how into it? I was?

Speaker 7 (25:07):
I appreciated the person putting all that time into writing it.
I figured I would do him a solid by giving
everything I had to singing it. You me and me
pat myself on the back here every day at two thirty.
That's the only reason we do it, Just to make
me feel good about me, which is what I think.
Two NBA superstars, both linked to the Houston Rockets. We're
doing this weekend on the old X platform now at

(25:29):
his own request, Jannis son at a Kompo said, hey, man,
what do you want from me? I'm here for you.
X got a question for me? Want to hit me
up with something? I'm not playing? He didn't say this,
I'm not playing in the playoffs. I have some time
I can go back and forth on this machine. Happy
to do it, and he did. In Kevin Durant's case,
it was typical of Kevin Durant's performances on the X platform,

(25:51):
some of them legendary. He is definitely employing people to
make sure he doesn't miss anything. Sometimes his name will
show up un at KD Trey fived, and he'll still
know about it because he's in it, And there'll be
a KD summer. I'm sure all of the alerts are alive.
If there's a tweet with KD in it, if there's

(26:12):
a tweet with Durant in it, if there's a tweet
with Kevin Durant it, if there's a tweet with Nets
in it, or Sons or Warriors or Draymond or Steph
or Steve Kirk, he probably has people to help him
see that.

Speaker 5 (26:24):
Because he likes to do this. He does it all
the time.

Speaker 7 (26:26):
And when someone said the best thing that ever happened
for the Knicks was KD and Kyrie choosing Brooklyn, it
took time, but they were forced to restructure and build
out organically. The Knicks, who just made the Eastern Conference Finals,
are attempting to do what none of the other cities
teams that are with them in the final four have

(26:47):
ever done. Only the Knicks have done it. The Knicks
have won a championship while being called the New York Knicks.
The Oklahoma City Thunder haven't done that. They have a
franchise championship that came in Seattle, and the Pacers and
Wolves have no franchise championships. So the Knicks lucked out
that Katie and Kyrie chose Brooklyn because they were forced

(27:10):
to restructure and build out organically. Anyone following the NBA
could have easily jumped all over this post from Anthony Puccio.
He actually covers the Nets, so the reason behind it.
I think he knows Kevin Durant as well. But Kevin
was one of the anybodies who could have jumped on
this for a number of different reasons. His response was,

(27:30):
I don't think the Knicks' success has anything to.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
Do with me or Kyrie.

Speaker 7 (27:34):
An organic NBA team, what does that even mean in
professional sports? And that's why I said I think anybody
could have jumped in on that. What does that mean
if you say a team built itself organically? Is that
is one of the closest to example or one example
to that.

Speaker 6 (27:54):
The Rockets absolutely are the thunder Yes, why shape jess
Alexander is not. But I will give them a pass
on this since it was his rookie year.

Speaker 5 (28:07):
That's the thing. I'm open to interpretation, but happy to
debate it as I just did.

Speaker 6 (28:12):
And you use draft capital in that deal, did you not? Well, again,
we're already down the path.

Speaker 5 (28:17):
What does it mean? What's organic? It means I've never
made a trade.

Speaker 7 (28:20):
It means I drafted and developed my entire I think,
which obviously nobody.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Organic would qualify.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
And this is just my subjective opinion as a core
of talent that has played all most, if not all
of its basic from the start minutes in your uniform
and Shade certainly qualifies as that.

Speaker 7 (28:41):
Okay, So now to the team he's specifically referenced the
Knicks organically built.

Speaker 6 (28:47):
No, Now, Jalen Brunson was not the Jalen Brunson that
we see today, but he was already established as if
nothing else, a very good NBA score for multiple seasons
before they Nicks traded.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Plus playoff performer.

Speaker 6 (29:02):
Yeah, I mean it's not the Knicks. I'm sorry the Knicks.
Karl Anthony Towns.

Speaker 7 (29:07):
Hello, what about the all the players around him, Carl
Trade Bridges, Yeah, they're all none of them, are there?

Speaker 5 (29:14):
Guys?

Speaker 7 (29:15):
Now again, again, what does organic mean? Does he really
does organic in the NBA and team building actually mean
didn't go star chasing or didn't land a star because
they did go star chasing the stars just said, you
know what.

Speaker 6 (29:28):
The best example of this is the Golden State Warriors
were absolutely organic until they were like, eh, we could
add Kevin Durant to this, who was super established by.

Speaker 7 (29:38):
Thompson, Draymond Green, and Steph Curry as your big three.

Speaker 6 (29:41):
And Harrison Barnes, who was a pivotal role player in
the first title team. As much as nobody wants to
admit it, he was used or he was pawned off.

Speaker 5 (29:49):
Well do you go to Sacramento or Dallas? Both?

Speaker 6 (29:52):
But what was the first stop after the Warriors? I
think they traded him. Okay, didn't they trade him Dallas? Yes,
but to make room for the for the cap space
you would need for the rant, permanent starter from the
moment he got there. That's perfectly good analysis. He was
definitely a part of that. I would I would agree
your example is great. It's very solid. They could have
continued that path. But who's gonna say no to We're

(30:15):
not really even chasing him. He just wants to come here.

Speaker 7 (30:17):
Of course we'll take him, and they obviously were extremely
good with him. But that's really I think where Kevin
initially went in on it, and then it turned into
a typical Kevin Durant on the ex platform. Hey man,
you want to come at me?

Speaker 5 (30:29):
I love it. Let's go.

Speaker 7 (30:30):
Let's go back and forth, says he's just salty because
the Nets didn't work out, and he's jealous that the
Knicks fans are having fun while the Nets fans aren't.
So you know they're gonna blame me and Kai for
taking their joy away.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
Lol. I mean, that's on brand.

Speaker 6 (30:43):
It would be the most fun part outside of the
obvious on the court of Kevin Durant being a rocket,
because now you've got him on your side. As you
go at it with any number of NBA fan bases, each.

Speaker 7 (30:56):
Team after his title has added him did not succeed
with him. It's only two teams, the Brooklyn Nets first
and now the Phoenix Suns.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
The Nets should have though if it weren't for his toe.
It's very very good. That's the thing.

Speaker 7 (31:12):
We're getting to the point where we I do think
what people say we need to push back from the
ring mentality.

Speaker 5 (31:19):
I agree with that. I think we do. I think
we do.

Speaker 7 (31:22):
The more knowledge we have, you have, our listeners have,
fans have the better because when you have less knowledge
and all you say is, oh, he didn't win a title,
he's no good.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
That's that's wrong.

Speaker 7 (31:30):
That's just not the way to evaluate how it worked out,
how they put the team together, how this player performed.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
It's too nuanced for that.

Speaker 7 (31:37):
There's much more to it, and we're watching it this
year like we do every year, and I'm glad someone
was pointing it out.

Speaker 5 (31:42):
One of the voices on one of.

Speaker 7 (31:43):
The TV shows that yells at you this morning was saying,
is you know this player was heard? Is that an
asteristh this player was hurt of that ask for it asterisk?
And I thought he was about to say yes, and
I was like, oh my god, come on, no, it's
the NBA Playoffs.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
It literally happens.

Speaker 7 (31:58):
You got fifteen teams that are gonna lose, so fifteen
series are gonna be played. How many of those series
are impacted by some significant injury? The series that just
concluded yesterday, I guess hat tipped to Aaron Gordon for playing,
because they didn't trust anybody on the bench to play.
But of course he was barely out there, barely able
to do that. Michael Porter Junior has done it for

(32:20):
more than half the series with one shoulder. Of course
it was impactful, But Oklahoma City isn't like an asterisk advancer.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
It's what happens.

Speaker 7 (32:29):
They were absolutely Minnesota is not an asterisk advancer.

Speaker 5 (32:33):
It's what happens. It's the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (32:35):
Either it happens to your team or it doesn't, or
it happens to both teams and you persevere. It's what
happens at almost like like I said, fifteen series, when
we get to the end of it, we're gonna have
nine teams that were affected by it.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
Ten it's gonna be a big number.

Speaker 6 (32:50):
I'm gonna carry over something rockets. Two things rockets related
to what we just got done talking about both with
regards to the Western Conference finals and the organic building.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
You say that.

Speaker 7 (33:00):
Pooch went back at him, say why do you always
feel like nets fans blame you. I'd say more blame
is throwing an ownership, front office and the mayor. But
I'll let you play victim if that's how it's gonna be.
And Kevin responded, brother, you're the one who spoke my
name up.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
You could explain the next success without using my name.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Right.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
I'm mad it didn't work too, Pooch. You know this again,
they know each other.

Speaker 6 (33:22):
Stop short of saying, keep my name out of your mouth,
because it's not that kind of relationship.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
It is always good stuff.

Speaker 7 (33:27):
We'll get to the honest portion of it, because he
does bring up somebody who could be a Rocket's teammate
should he become a Rocket. So we'll continue that conversation
as the NBA has reached its final four no games
Tonight tomorrow the conference finals begin.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (34:00):
So we're talking.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
About organically grown NBA teams, and UH Houston certainly qualifies
as one right now.

Speaker 7 (34:09):
Although I think it's organically grown almost totally, not quite
as well as the Warriors example you gave, but it's
it is totally grown organically, and then when it's ready
to bloom, you add the necessary.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
Dirt up up, you know, upkeep.

Speaker 7 (34:28):
Dylan Brooks Like they didn't sign those guys and build
them all, you know, out of the blue. The core
of our team is already here, the guys we're going
to win because of And remember I said this long
before those players arrived and as they were here, that
if the Rockets have built a championship caliber contender, it's

(34:48):
not because they signed Fred to play basketball, or Dylan
to play basketball, or Jeff Green or Aaron Holliday or
Jock Landale. It's because they added those players to make
the players that they're gonna win a championship with better
at winning champampionship or playing championship level basketball. And as
we watched this series, think about it, we're a couple
of weeks out from the series. I believe the player
we've talked about most is Jalen Green. I believe the

(35:10):
player we've talked about next most is Amn Thompson or
Alprin Shongoon. So there's two and three, and then we're
talking about Jabari Smith Chet. We're not talking about, well
if Fred could do this or Fred did that, or
Dylan this or Dling that, or Jeff or Aaron or
Zac obvious reasons, not them or even Steven Adams. It's
because that's not what it's going to win this team.
The organic building of this team by having three consecutive

(35:33):
drafts where you drafted players in the first round that
you felt like you could build your team around, which
is not something every team has been able to put
in place. And they were able to do that, they
had some faith in them. They might even have more
faith in them this offseason. We're not sure yet.

Speaker 6 (35:46):
By the way, Missy the ultimate Spurs fan who's trying
to weigh in and say that the Spurs were organic
because they drafted Manu number twenty eight and Tony was
a second rounder. It doesn't matter when you get the
first overall pick in the draft because you rested a
per perfectly healthy, good all star center and David Robinson
and you get Tim Duncan, the biggest piece of all.
So sorry, you're disqualified. What about this version? Um, yeah,

(36:11):
you got the you won the first pick in the draft,
you drafted some French stiff, and then you traded Ford
Aaron Fox. So nope, already disqualified. Sorry, So Fox, he's
your second best player right he is now, but he
needs to not be right because when Stefan Castle is,

(36:31):
if he's still there, is better than him. They'll be
in great shape and that will be so he can
be their third best player, because if they hold on
to their draft.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
Dylan Harper will be what number that needs to be
their second best player? Yeah, well he wasn't healthy with
ten games to go. Don't believe you.

Speaker 7 (36:50):
Yeah, so again we're we're being super specific, and I
think I understand where the person who posted the organic
building was coming from. But you can take in a
number of different ways, and as the rockets have reached
this stage, most people believe they need to move away
from that organic building and do exactly what I think
he actually meant. Start chasing, like we're actively looking at deals.

(37:13):
Would you trade this player for Kevin Durant? Would you
move these assets for Giannisana to Kompo? Are you okay
if these guys go out for Devin Booker or whomever else?
That is literally the opposite I think of what people
think organic team building would be. I mentioned that Yannis
was answering people on the old X platform this weekend.
He said, you and four this was sent his way

(37:33):
and he gave an answer that included a Houston rocket.
When I read the question asked of Yannis, I believe
you'll understand very quickly.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
Who the answer will be that is a Houston rocket.

Speaker 7 (37:43):
Hey, Honess, you and four other current NBA players have
to fight a gorilla life or death situation middle of
the jungle, no weapons.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
Who you want?

Speaker 7 (37:54):
Who are your four other NBA players to join you
in this fight against the gorilla life or death situation?
He chooses Nikola Jokic Zach Edie. He eats the Zubats
and Houston Rockets center Steven Adams. We're not allowed to
pick any teammates either. Really, he couldn't. He couldn't pick

(38:17):
Bobby Portis. Maybe would be a choice, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
He is. I mean, I hate to do this to Bobby.
He's so far past this, but we know he punches people. Wow.

Speaker 6 (38:29):
This goes back to last week though, where I'm just
I don't understand why Milwaukee like that whole report by
Kurt what's his face?

Speaker 5 (38:39):
Wow? What? Why Kurt? What's his face? Because it doesn't matter.

Speaker 6 (38:42):
Okay, you were turning your nose up to him and
you actually don't mind him.

Speaker 5 (38:46):
He's fine, He's exactly often a newsbreaker. He's fine. Well.

Speaker 7 (38:51):
He I think gained his much of his following by
the mic florial platform of aggregating. But he does write
his own original pieces, much like Mike. But he says
to write a book that he pedals one thing he
wrote only thing Mike does.

Speaker 5 (39:04):
Now, Well, people do that these days.

Speaker 6 (39:05):
They take advantage of situations to pedal their stupid books.
The uh, the BLib that he wrote about you know,
the Bucks. If they're going to trade Giannis to the Rockets,
they might actually prefer a trade centered around Jalen Green
versus Alprin Shingoon, And I'm like, good, do that.

Speaker 7 (39:25):
But as it was written, the sources indicated the Alprin
Shingoon angle and the Jalen Green portion was what Kurt
just decided.

Speaker 5 (39:34):
To make it up on his own. Well, it doesn't.
It's totally fine to makeup. They may prefer. I don't know.
I could say it too. I don't know.

Speaker 6 (39:41):
Maybe Jalen Green hasn't scratched the surface of what he'll
end up being. I still say it's worth the risk
versus giving up on a guy that is affectionately referred
to as Baby Joker.

Speaker 7 (39:51):
If, in fact, as Chris Hanes reported, there will be
a meeting at some point this week between the Bucks
and Yannis, do you think we get to the point
this week, right after the meeting, not long after the meeting,
that either they note it publicly so they can drum
up interest or see how it goes, or it's being
reported that they've come to an agreement that both parties

(40:14):
will look for a solution on having Giannis no longer
in a Bucks uniform.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
So give me odds right now. Not odds. Give me percentages.
I hate odds.

Speaker 6 (40:24):
Give me a percentage that he plays anywhere outside in
Milwaukee next season.

Speaker 5 (40:28):
I think if.

Speaker 7 (40:29):
More, if a couple more East teams would show interest,
I would put it at one hundred because leaving the
East is not super desirable as it continues to get
weaker and weaker. But joining the Rockets and Spurs sounds
pretty awesome. Or Spurs, I think would sound pretty awesome
from up.

Speaker 6 (40:43):
Given they don't, we're good purge their core to make
it completely not competitive, correct of course? All right, three
o'clock hour coming up next, we'll check back in on
the Houston Astros.

Speaker 5 (40:54):
Plus, was the NBA Draft lottery rigged? We'll check in
on that as well.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Team.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the eighteen eighty.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
It's straight up three o'clock, which means it's time for
the simulcast. It is the A team Sports Talk seven
ninety where we have been for the last hour and remain,
but also now simulcast over on Space City Home Network.
Thank goodness. The Astros game will be back on it's
regular home tonight. I already went on a rant about

(41:43):
that in the first hour, so I'm not gonna do
it anymore.

Speaker 5 (41:45):
But I was not happy about that whole situation yesterday again,
all those games and all these games this week.

Speaker 7 (41:51):
Right here on Sports Talk seven ninety six ZHO five
first pitch five point thirty five will send it to
Robert and Steve five o'clock, the A team as the
Astros on Deck Show, Rays and Stros.

Speaker 6 (42:03):
Yeah, we're looking forward to well the Astros winning another series.
They only split this one, although depending on which way
you look at it could have gone either way all
four times. Texas led all four games, but Hunter Brown
was so awesome in his loss that if the Astros

(42:25):
had just scratched a couple of runs across, which they
had ample opportunities to do, then maybe you're looking at
a three to one series win. Although Astros were no
hit through most of yesterday's game until that leaky bullpen
and as it turns out, injured bullpen.

Speaker 5 (42:42):
What was it one pitch he threw that.

Speaker 7 (42:44):
Was pretty hard his watch, and it's unfortunate that it
wasn't like Hayden was an esky but somebody, probably the
pitcher himself, knew that this still isn't quite right. Remember,
was an Eski had about eleven days off in between
starts or ten days off in between starts. While the
he maintained he was healthy, clearly he wasn't. And unfortunately
when he went out there just he didn't do anything.

(43:05):
He didn't have to come off the mound, but it
just didn't feel like he had the right kind of
stuff that day. And they've since learned and mentioned over
the weekend he was now set for Tommy John surgery.
Chris Martin, the reliever you're talking about for the Rangers,
had gone out there previously a handful of days before
and clearly was not right and came off the mound
and taken out of the game. And they felt like
things were good and it was a scare, but it

(43:27):
wasn't anything of great significance. He went out there, he
warmed up and was ready to relieve Jack Lighter after
he had been sent out to start the eighth inning
following the Janar Diaz homer. In the seventh first two
batters both singled Myers and Cam Smith, and Martin threw
one pitch and was disgusted, was angry, was cursing because

(43:49):
he knew something is very wrong with my shoulder and
he had to come out of the game. So Robert
Garcia had as much time as necessary to prepare the
lefty they brought out of the bullpen, got two quick
outs on three pitches. Pinch hitter Jeremy Pania popped up,
Mauricio Dubon grounded out, put the runners over to second
and third, which is a little bit better situation, but

(44:10):
now you're facing two outs and leadoff hitter. He sacked
Perettis with Jeremy Pania prior to his pinch hitting appearance
getting the day off. So essentially Joe Espada when he
was the manager, because he was only the manager through
the first almost three full innings of the game, he
had put the lineup out there just basically moving everybody up,
so Perettis was leading off. He ended up hitting that

(44:30):
three run homer down the left field line, barely over
the fence and barely out of the reach of Wyatt
Langford and the Astros took the four to three lead,
a very tough scene for Martin and in a bullpen
that it's been good, but not nearly as good as
the Astros bullpen. This weekend was more evidence of that.
They went out there and they shoved. You had a
solo home run hit off of Josh Hater and that

(44:54):
was it. You didn't need the bullpen on Thursday because
an eight inning performance from Hunter Broyn was a co
leak game, as the Rangers in bat in the bottom
of the ninth, so nobody else had to throw. They
kept him in all three of the other games for
as long as they could. Renald Blanco gave up those
three runs early and more to come with the Astros
only scoring one. But yesterday, once you were done with

(45:14):
your starter and Fromber was awesome again for seven innings.
He gave up four hits in one of those innings
all singles. In fact, all six of his hits allowed
were singles and were mostly ground balls that just found holes.
He had really good stuff, but you were down three
to nothing because he allowed three runs and four hits
in the one inning They got to him and scored,

(45:35):
But then you got two shutout innings for the back
end of your Bullpenebreo had his eighth and Hater had
his ninth. You head into this series against a much
less talented team in the Tampa Bay Rays. Good pitching
staff and little spots of offense, but overall not nearly
as good. It'd be nice if the Astros who are
throwing Colton Gordon tonight. He made his major league debut

(45:55):
the last time he pitched in a game, so this
is only his second appearance ever. I'm gonna go out
on a limb because I don't think Joe Spoda has
confirmed it yet today. There's another major league debut coming
for the Astros tomorrow. They don't have a listed starter
for Tuesday's game against the Rays, though they have added
Brandon Walter to their taxi squad. He's with the team

(46:16):
from the Space Cowboys on the taxi squad, so they
can elevate him to the active roster tomorrow and he'll
make his debut with the Astros.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
Left handed start.

Speaker 7 (46:26):
I've been pretty good with the Space Cowboys, but when
both Aragedy and we Znesky are out and you're playing
all these games in a row, and it looks like
they've decided Ryan Gusto's not getting starts, probably so somebody
can throw multiple innings out of the bullpen if they
need him to the Astros are trying to win games
with guys who.

Speaker 5 (46:44):
May or may not belong at the major league level.

Speaker 6 (46:46):
It was interesting in the finale of that series yesterday
to see the manager ejected for arguing balls and strikes,
in this case not anything involving a hit by pitch
with a OLiS Garcia and then a three run home
run late in the game giving the Astros their final
margin of victory.

Speaker 5 (47:07):
It was well deserved.

Speaker 7 (47:08):
Both teams were not happy with the umpiring behind home
plate brings up the same topic which is about to
be reckoned with at the major league Baseball level if
they are ready to move to an ABS system, and
there are some faults with it where I think are
actually coming to light which may result in pushback. But
to yesterday's game specifically, I mean very easy lip reading

(47:30):
with Joe Aspata. They said, that's the worst call I've
seen all year. It's only may do you think it was?
It was pretty It's hard to imagine.

Speaker 6 (47:39):
I mean, it was clearly a ball, but was it
the worst you've seen to miss as those are the
pitches that shouldn't be missed, like a pitch up in
the zone, a pitch outside or inside that one was
low and so low from the moment it left Lighter's hand.

Speaker 7 (47:54):
I just don't know how you can miss that one.
It wasn't close, it was it was nowhere near close.
Maybe there's comp ones, but you know, Joe got ejected
on this when his first ejection of the season, he
said it was. He said, clean it up after he
had been ejected and was done yelling at him. But
Pruce bose, she was equally alarmed. And if you were
paying attention to the game or watching it or since
seeing the umpire auditor post on social media, which they

(48:17):
do for every game in Major League Baseball, there were
some awful, awful misses. There were some awful misses that
benefited the Astros. The Cam Smith at bat certainly stands
out because he singled in front of Esach perettas Homer
when two pitches could have been called strikes against him
because they should have been they were in the zone.

Speaker 6 (48:35):
That's what's so thought about Rangers fans complaining that the
MVP of the day was the home plate umpire for
the Astros. I'm like, well, wait a second, this is
screwing both teams.

Speaker 7 (48:44):
The last thing I would say is the MVP of
the day when he was awful. He was terrible for
both sides. It was a bad, bad game to have
behind home plate. And this is it should be exhibit
one why whatever you're doing moving forward has to include
a better way of calling balls and strikes.

Speaker 5 (48:58):
When this happened, it's not every day.

Speaker 7 (49:01):
Rotating umpires is only good because you don't have to
see the bad ones as often at home plate. Maybe
they're fine at the bases, I would hope, so there's
very few plays there, But maybe you should just rotate
them out completely. They're graded not only by what we
see on X but internally. You know which ones call
balls and strikes poorly, and I imagine they sit there

(49:23):
most years. They're not getting better at it, So eliminate it.
Take them away from calling balls and strikes.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Right.

Speaker 6 (49:29):
And here's the thing about certain jobbles. You can grade
any number of different professions or tests obviously in school,
in different ways, and the percentages that you get are
different relative to the profession you're talking about. Like what
if a surgeon, a hard surgeon, was graded the way

(49:51):
major league umpire, Well, this guy is great, he's eighty
nine percent. Well, the other eleven percent of the time
the guy dies on the table, that's not cool.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
This is a game. Yeah, it's a game, but it
matter it.

Speaker 6 (50:04):
The eleven percent matters a whole lot more than it
would say on a algebra test.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
Oh, you got an eighty nine for great getting into
school with eighty nine's all the time.

Speaker 7 (50:15):
A's and b's are good. You need a's, I need
a ninety one. I need a ninety six. And you
maybe want to go to a school that doesn't give
you an A minus that makes your great point average
even worse.

Speaker 5 (50:25):
Is it an A or not?

Speaker 7 (50:27):
Yes, then give me the full four for it, please,
And why can't five for it?

Speaker 5 (50:30):
The full six for it?

Speaker 7 (50:31):
Whatever scale you're on, don't a minus me out of
my full achieved dominance in academics in your class.

Speaker 5 (50:38):
Please.

Speaker 6 (50:38):
You know it's been twenty years this month, in fact,
maybe to the day. I think we're three years so
day Shive when I graduated from sandriyallday.

Speaker 7 (50:47):
I know you didn't go to Texas State or Southwest
at the time. I know you don't jump in the
uh man made water moat that's nearby the school. If
they do, what do you guys do anything?

Speaker 6 (50:57):
I think we just walk across the stage and shake
some slimy politician's hand and then get our diploma.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
What who who? Commencement? John Cornyn? Oh wow, I cannot
stand that guy. That's rough. Uh And this was just
as you said a few years ago.

Speaker 6 (51:13):
He's no, it was twenty yeah, just a few years ago,
and he's still stealing our money in Congress.

Speaker 5 (51:18):
I believe I was pleasant.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
I was treated to a Dan Rather commencement maybe oh
did uh wait? Wait what not in the mid nineties,
did you go to one at the University of Texas?

Speaker 5 (51:32):
Oh, yours was Dan Rather?

Speaker 6 (51:34):
I believe so yours was Sam Houston State University graduate
Dan Rather at UT nice.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
I think so.

Speaker 6 (51:42):
I spent a lot of time Dan Rather communications building,
and then one day he showed up and everybody was like, ooh,
it's Dan Rather. And I was like, I responded to
him the same way I responded to John Cornan basically
same type of slime ball.

Speaker 5 (51:56):
Anyway, I I just going back to nineteen ninety five,
so says the old interwebs. So he was here, did
he say? Dan Rather? CBOs Evening News? I believe he
was a good luck and godspeed line in there at
some point.

Speaker 6 (52:14):
He had a very very fantastic professional reputation for a long.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
Long time and then he just completely threw it away.
Others have followed that same path.

Speaker 6 (52:25):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, definitely. So all right, we will
take a short time out when we come back. So
I was convinced Cole was convinced you were not, but
a lot of other people were.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
Draft lottery was rigged. Man.

Speaker 6 (52:43):
Well, a big, big NBA name is at least sprinkling
a little fuel on that fire, if not out and out,
just throwing more brush on top of it. We'll hear
from that person next.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (53:04):
It's the a team Sports Talk seven ninety. A lot
of Astros and Rockets conversation, believe it or not, but
more of the NBA variety when it comes to that
side of thing. NBA Playoffs conference finals are set. So,
as you mentioned, WEX the last time any of these
teams did anything that mattered like win a championship was

(53:27):
nineteen seventy three when the New York Knickerbockers, partially led
by Philip Jackson, won the NBA title.

Speaker 7 (53:37):
During my lifetime, just barely what were you in diapers?
I imagine I.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Were you swaddled in an infant class.

Speaker 7 (53:44):
And I not graduated from diapers in the first four
months of my life.

Speaker 5 (53:47):
Why did I think you were born in like seventy
six or something like that, because I don't look a
day over fifty. That's true.

Speaker 6 (53:54):
So and the other three teams have never won an
NBA championship, not.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
In their current cities. Obviously.

Speaker 7 (54:00):
The thunder franchise is the Sonics franchise. They did win
the title.

Speaker 6 (54:03):
The last time the Pacers and the Knicks were in
the conference finals was nineteen ninety four. I believe to
win the privilege of being slapped down by the Houston Rockets,
which the Knicks one and then got that done to them.

Speaker 7 (54:18):
By the way, Phil Jackson huh All led the league
in games played in nineteen seventy three in the playoffs,
played in all seventeen games almost twenty minutes a night,
dropped in almost nine points per game while grabbing just
over four boards per game.

Speaker 6 (54:31):
Huge factor, yeah, I said, partially led led to the
ed was that the one where Willis Reed came back
on a broken leg. I think those couple of years,
who was their best player in nineteen seventy three.

Speaker 5 (54:45):
Oh, I'm sure it was Phil. Just say it just
left Phil happening have the glory.

Speaker 6 (54:49):
No, because then he came back to ruin the franchise
later after winning all those titles in other cities.

Speaker 7 (54:54):
Put him in a position as a backup big was
perfect for him. With the Knicks a position of running
the organization less perfect. You know, their best player was
who had me more? Still with the Knicks to this day?
Is he announcing games? Mike Breen, Walt Fraser?

Speaker 6 (55:10):
Oh, okay, their team was awesome, Walt, Willis de Buscher, Monroe,
Bill Bradley. They probably did a lot of nighttime activities
in New York.

Speaker 7 (55:19):
Yeah, they somehow beat the logo, Wilt Gail Goodrich.

Speaker 5 (55:23):
Has everybody beat the logo?

Speaker 7 (55:25):
Pat Riley was also on the Lakers that lost to
the Knicks. Okay, Adrian Brody, if you will, how much.

Speaker 6 (55:32):
Time did that lineup of guys you just seventies legends?
You just mentioned. How much time did they frequent Studio fifty.

Speaker 5 (55:40):
Four, whenever they were nearby, whenever the game was not
being played. It's okay. They still made it to the
game barely.

Speaker 7 (55:47):
So we do have the conference finals set a Game
seven yesterday was left a lot to be desired. It
has happened multiple times even this postseason. It was pretty
good for about eighteen minutes or Oklahoma City pulled away
late in the second quarter. They pulled even further away
early in the third quarter, and that was that. It
was a pretty good fight from the Nuggets to get

(56:09):
to Game seven. They were blown out twice in this series,
and obviously, as we talked about earlier, two of their
starting five on a team that is not deep, had
injuries to deal with during the series. For MPG for
much of the series and for Aaron Gordon at the
very end of the series reported that he needed about
a month of time to recover. And then he played

(56:29):
and it was clear he wasn't himself, not nearly as explosive,
and every step he took with the bum hamstring looked
like it hurt and prevented him from doing what he.

Speaker 5 (56:38):
Wanted to do.

Speaker 7 (56:39):
So Wolves and Thunder on one side, Pacers and Knicks
on the other.

Speaker 5 (56:44):
Shaquille O'Neil has been a part of.

Speaker 7 (56:45):
This postseason with his voice, his commentary, and his comedy
through Inside the NBA, which will be in a slightly
different form next year. He also sits down for a
lot of interviews, including a podcast Asked. This weekend, Ashley
Neville hosted him on her podcast, and she was talking

(57:07):
about and he was talking about conspiracy theories because we're
just a little bit removed from the May twelfth draft
lottery and it's spilled into more conspiracy theories and that well,
when this team lost this player or this team moved
on from that player, they immediately were rewarded after the
draft lottery was played out with a new great superstar,

(57:27):
or Derek Rose to stay at Chicago, or Lebron James
to be there in Cleveland, or when Lebron James left
then to get the number one pick, Anthony Davis with
the Pelicans leaving, et cetera, getting Zion. And obviously this year,
many people without any real evidence other than well this
makes sense, have indicated that it might be Nico. Harrison
and the league got together and said, look, I can
get I can get you luc at La. You gotta

(57:49):
give me something. Why why does he sound like Ellis
and die Hard. I can get them. I can give
them to you.

Speaker 5 (57:55):
John, I'm your White Knight.

Speaker 7 (57:57):
Because that's what I tried to do and you picked
right up on it. Oh good, I don't know these guys.
Tell them, you don't know me. These guys are gonna
kill you.

Speaker 5 (58:04):
Man. It's such a great film.

Speaker 7 (58:06):
So yeah, it's believable if you want to believe it.
You see how the lottery works. And we were even
speculating so far into the ping pong ball process, like, well,
the number six came up all four times with all
four teams that landed the right combination. Is it somehow
lighter or heavier? Does it make it more susceptible to
being sucked up? The chamber and the manner in which

(58:28):
they prepare the ping pong balls is so widely dissected
and viewed and kept so that actually cannot happen. It
really is a little far fetched to believe any of this.
But Shaquille O'Neill, as I mentioned, sat down for this
interview and as he said something about, yeah, I know
there's conspiracy theorists out there, she said, yes, I'm one

(58:50):
of them. And he said something that he wondered if
everybody was aware of a little story.

Speaker 5 (58:54):
He had to tell. Shaquille O'Neal, going back to his
own draft and lottery.

Speaker 9 (59:00):
You heard this story, but in nineteen ninety two, I
believe what the draft was it in June or something.
I meet mister Stern in March and he says to me, hey,
no you are can't wait for you to come to
the NBA. Then he pulls me to this hot You
want to play where it's cold or it's hot? He
asked me that, Yeah, he did. He asked me that,

(59:22):
and I was like hot, and he smiled and I smiled.
And then a couple of days later they had the
draft thing and you know the top three things that
Minnesota was number three. I was like, and then Charlotte
was number two, and in Orlando, Florida it was number one.
I was like, I didn't think anything about it. But
you know, you hear a lot of these conspiracy theories,
and you know there's a lot of situations that could

(59:44):
make these things sound good.

Speaker 5 (59:46):
And sound truely.

Speaker 6 (59:48):
Okay, a few things here. The number one thing is that,
as you are very well aware, and most sports fans,
and definitely NBA fans are, David Stern is no long
longer with us. And I only bring that up for
this reason. If if he were, do you think Shaq
tells this story, I'm not even kidding.

Speaker 7 (01:00:08):
No, I'm honestly I had the very same thought. You know,
time passes and you start hearing things. We're almost I'm
sure both of us fully convinced. There's going to be
a point in time where the Astros and Mike Fires
and others involved in all this are going to have
much more to say about it. And maybe it's when
something happens with the League Rob Manford not being there,

(01:00:32):
or maybe what happens with one of the people involved
not being with us anymore. And yes, I think there's
probably something to it now. Adam Silver obviously has been
very close to the situation for a long long time.
Is his it's initially chief Lieutenant now obviously is the Commissioner.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
Hil Stearn's hand picked replacement. Was he not?

Speaker 6 (01:00:48):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (01:00:49):
And this even as he tells it, I'm envisioning Shack's
story as he tells it, like most of us do.
When someone tells the story pulled him off to the side.
You mean where nobody else was, where nobody else can
verify this, where nobody else heard this, And now the
only other person involved can't say anything one way or
the other about.

Speaker 5 (01:01:06):
List and Stern. You can say what you will.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
Every commissioner has his faults, but David Stern, pound for pound,
in my opinion, is the best commissioner in the history
of sports because David Stern, and again he had to
have the talent to do this, but David Stern fostered
in not only the golden age of the NBA and
this is pre Jordan, Like Jordan wasn't winning anything when

(01:01:31):
it began, but it's where he helped take the league
from you know, tape delayed NBA Finals starring guys who
were absolutely coked out of their minds. There's no other
way to say it. Cocaine was running rampant in the
NBA in the seventies. It was threatening to shut the
league down. David Stern took it out of that, made
it help, helped again make it a global sport. It

(01:01:55):
absolutely helps when you have Michael Jordan and Larry Bird
and Magic Johnson before that starring for two very very
heritage marquee franchises, but the Dream Team and all that
kind of stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:02:05):
Stern was a big part of all that for sure.

Speaker 6 (01:02:08):
I just highly doubt he would put his reputation on
the line to go have this conversation with whomever Shack
or anybody who's going to be at the top of
any draft.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
Why would he do that?

Speaker 7 (01:02:20):
Just keep this in mind, try to get to some
of the facts for those that may not remember the lottery,
as Shaq Kana said, it was three teams they selected
the first three picks this year and previously. It's now
four and everybody else has slots in behind him. They
were only eleven teams in the lottery. Minnesota had the
league's worst record. They won fifteen games. They had a
sixteen point six to seven percent chance of landing the

(01:02:42):
number one pick.

Speaker 5 (01:02:43):
Is it cold there, it's cold there?

Speaker 7 (01:02:45):
They were selected first or they were unveiled first as
the team at three. Charlotte was a thirty one win team.
They had the eighth position in the lottery. Like only
three teams were in a worse position than them. They
were the second team revealed. They had a six point
six percent chance of getting number one. Yeah also had

(01:03:05):
Alonzo Morning at the time, and they got two. The
Magic were right behind the Wolves. They were a twenty
one win team, better than fifteen percent chance, almost the
same odds as Minnesota, and they landed number one.

Speaker 6 (01:03:19):
Yeah, not one point eight percent chance after they traded
away their best player to the Lakers on a silver platter.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
It's different.

Speaker 7 (01:03:26):
I believe it is different. Alonzo Mourning was the second pick.
Christian Laitner was the third pick. Oh see, I didn't
was the eleventh pick. I know they were in the
same draft. They were, Okay, Rob Rory was a great pick. Yep,
big shot.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Bob the eighteen on Sports Talk steven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:03:58):
Is the eighteam Sports saw seven ninety. All right, so
assess the weekend series up in southern Oklahoma in one.

Speaker 5 (01:04:08):
Word, Uh, entertaining.

Speaker 6 (01:04:12):
That's not bad. That's not where I thought you'd be going.
I have one, Okay, inconsistent.

Speaker 7 (01:04:18):
It was consistent with their season and that that's what
they have been.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:04:22):
They obviously pitched very well. I mean even Ronelle's start
was win worthy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
He didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:04:26):
Both teams did. Actually, that's the thing.

Speaker 7 (01:04:28):
They're very, very similar in that their offense is being
carried by their pitching, specifically their starting pitching. One thing
that does separate the two teams as the bullpen. Astros
bullpen is the second best, based on some numbers, second
best in baseball with two seventy one era. The back
end is elite, definitely the back end and best back
end in baseball if you're taking the you know, your

(01:04:48):
top four relievers.

Speaker 5 (01:04:49):
I don't know there's anybody that.

Speaker 7 (01:04:50):
Has had more success with the fore most trusted relievers. However,
they set up their bullpen with O, Kurt King, Abra
and Hater and that all four of them have been
awesome almost from the jump. You got a you know,
maybe ten games total between the four of them, ten
appearances total between the four of them, The where they've
even allowed a single run definitely made a difference, made

(01:05:11):
a difference in the you know, finishing up the home
stand the way they did because their bullpen current bullpen
didn't give up a single run during those six games.
And you basically saw the same thing this weekend. And
that's they're pitching in general, is what has separated them
all year. This is a eighteen win team without their pitching,
oh maybe fifteen win ten. Yeah, and their offense has
clearly come around from the opening month, but the beginning

(01:05:35):
of this series and two of the four games in
this series looked a lot like the road offense they've
had all year, which is they're not very good. It's
nice to get a split. A split is a huge
step up from what they've been doing on the road.
They're very good at home, they had not been nearly
as good on the road. If they can take two
out of three or more from Tampa, that's going to
start to equalize things even more, and then you turn
into an actual good team. Steve Sparks said his weekly

(01:05:58):
visit on the Sean Salisbury Show, as he does each
and every Monday morning at eight a m. Chris Gordy
and Dan Matthews Today the hosts of the program with
Sean out so a little bit of their interview with
Steve Sparks wanted to give to you here, but you
can catch the full interview at SportsTalk seven ninety dot com,
r via the iHeartRadio app where you subscribe to their show,
our show, all the shows, and of course have Sports

(01:06:20):
Talk seven ninety number one on your presets.

Speaker 5 (01:06:22):
If you don't, please do. It's good for us, good
for you.

Speaker 7 (01:06:25):
Question and answer now begins with what he came away
with in the weekend split with the Rangers.

Speaker 8 (01:06:32):
Bye, I think it's the pitching again. Hunter Brown was great.
The Astros lost that one, but Fromber continues to roll
all the quality starts that he provides, and you know,
he's so consistent to be able to give get you
deep into the ball games. And that's so helpful now
with a couple of young guys in the rotation. Lance
in the rotation now who hasn't completely gotten stretched out,
So guys like Promper and Hunter to get deep into

(01:06:54):
the ballgames super important.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
And I like the way that they're.

Speaker 8 (01:06:58):
Kind of spread out in the rotation now too, which
kind of helps, you know, line up your bullpen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
The bullpen then unbelievable.

Speaker 11 (01:07:05):
Jose L two Bay we were talking about a little
bit earlier. Sparky two for his last twenty two has
not recorded a multi you know, hit game in the
past six games. I mean, seems like the struggles are there.
Are you seeing anything necessarily from him right now that
leads you to be concerned?

Speaker 8 (01:07:23):
You know, I think whenever he kind of so called
slumps or he goes to a little rough patch, we
see him come out of it with with crazy numbers,
so I would expect it get crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:07:35):
But what we see preclude.

Speaker 8 (01:07:39):
Him getting really locked in is start to go the
other way.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
A little bit.

Speaker 8 (01:07:43):
I think sometimes he gets a little pull happy, you know,
he'll start to roll over, the ball gets deep, and
we'll see a lot of six to three putouts, five
to three putouts. But once we see him start to
hit some balls through the right side of the endfield,
drive the ball on the opposite field gap, and we
know he's getting close, and then I think you start
to see the power numbers increase, and it's all about

(01:08:05):
you know, you know, you can talk about that approach
all you want, but it's all about keeping that front
shoulder closed longer to maintain that power. So his hands
are still quick, his bat speed is still really good.
I don't think it's anything other than just you know,
going through a rough patch right now.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
And I think just you know, focusing on going the
other way for a.

Speaker 8 (01:08:25):
Little bit, probably in batting practice too, will help him
get out of it.

Speaker 12 (01:08:29):
What about Christian Walker, you know, it felt like for
about a week or so there he was starting to
get a hit in every game and you're like, all right,
he's starting to come out of this funk. And then
an oh for five, and oh for three, and oh
for four and oh for four, and he kind of
slumped back again. Then Friday night we see the big
home run that was monster, you know, and on Saturday
gets the first inning, you know, hit drives in a run,

(01:08:51):
and then another oh for yesterday. I mean, is this
just kind of gonna be the ups and downs of
the season with with Christian Walker? And man, it's just
it's it's tough for a guy that's been, you know,
in his career, such a good hitter, but to see
that average right around two oh seven, it just makes
you go, man, is this what we're getting gonna get
all year from this guy?

Speaker 8 (01:09:10):
Well, I think getting off to a slow start, and
he talked about probably pressing coming to a new team
and trying to impress and do things that he typically
wouldn't do in a situation.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Where he was more comfortable.

Speaker 8 (01:09:21):
He was with the Diamondbacks for such a long time,
and you might go through some rough patches, but you're
so comfortable you're not trying to impress people because they
already know what you're like. So I think just the
fact that he's such a big threat in the middle
of the lineup for the Astros, I think we can
be pretty confident that he's gonna he's gonna drive in
some very important runs like he did in that Ranger series.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
Like you talk about the average or an zero for
four from time to time, but the three run.

Speaker 8 (01:09:47):
Homer in the single on the Rbid the night before,
those were big runs for the Astros. So I think
having him in the middle of the lineup, and then
when you get jord On back, I think those guys
provide the biggest punch that that the Astros are going
to be able to run out there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
So it's only a matter of time, you know, you
start to get healthy and everybody gets a little bit better.
I think when Jordan's back in the lineup.

Speaker 11 (01:10:11):
Yeah, And speaking of Jordan, I mean, for you, Sparky,
when does this start to kind of get concerning in
terms of how much longer we could be dealing without them?

Speaker 8 (01:10:21):
Well, for me, it's concerning the first day he goes
on the IL.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
Because he's so important to the Astros team.

Speaker 8 (01:10:27):
But I think the good news is right now that
there's still a couple of games over five hundred, and
I think whoever runs off twelve out of fifteen or
twelve wins out of fifteen games is going to put
themselves in a great position in this division, so.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
You get Jordan back in there.

Speaker 8 (01:10:42):
I love, you know, talking with Dana Brown yesterday, the
fact that they want to make sure it's completely out
of there. I think it is the smartest, most prudent
way to go about this, so you don't have to
deal with this for the rest of the season, hopefully.
I think it makes all the sense of the world.
So I think you go in a situation and Dana
was talking about, you know, not shaking hands or I

(01:11:03):
remember him talking.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
About rag Getty a few weeks ago.

Speaker 8 (01:11:06):
They went from a soft cast to a hardcast, so
he can't move his thumb around. It's things like that
that aggravate these injuries and prolong things. And he stays
on the high l for these players and it's nothing
more than just trying to see whether or not you're
healing or not.

Speaker 7 (01:11:20):
Jordan Alvarez update obviously has become a thing and Steve
updating a little bit there. Dana Brown updating a little
bit yesterday during his pregame visits on the Astros Radio
Network broadcast with Robert Ford, as he does each and
every Sunday, you are a little bit from Dana coming
up with us during the Astros on Deck Show, Joe
Aspada and Jordan have also updated his situation earlier today

(01:11:44):
as they get ready for their game at George M. Steinbrennerfield,
home of the Yankees. Even though the Yankees aren't playing,
that's where the Rays play their home game, so share
with you that update. The update to a change in
the Astros lineup from yesterday, with the return of Jeremy
paying it to the leadoff spot, Colton Gordon making start
number two, likely in advance of Brandon Walter making start

(01:12:06):
number one for the Houston Astros tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (01:12:08):
All that is next.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:12:18):
Obviously great stuff with Steve Sparks has mentioned if you
want to catch that entire interview, just at Sports Talk
seven ninety dot com or hit the iHeartRadio app and
you can find it there. The lineup that I alluded
to has Jose al to A in it and playing
second base. He and each of the four infielders are
batting one, two, three, and four. Jeremy Pania did play

(01:12:38):
in yesterday's game, but did not start for the first
time all season, the first innings he's missed all season,
But as soon as he came into the game, the
Astros took off and they won, so it was great.

Speaker 5 (01:12:47):
He's batting lead off again.

Speaker 7 (01:12:48):
Of course, esach Pertis, who's been all over the top
spots in the lineup. He's batting second, So the third
spot in the lineup and the third different spot in
a lineup that Jose Altuve has been in so far
this year.

Speaker 5 (01:13:02):
Well that's where he is.

Speaker 7 (01:13:03):
He's batted first, He's batted second today. He bets third, four, five,
and six, essentially unchanged with Carottini once again in the lineup,
getting him a left handed bat.

Speaker 5 (01:13:12):
He bets sixth.

Speaker 7 (01:13:13):
He will catch Colton Gordon, Yaner Diz fresh off Yandi
homering yesterday. He will hit fifth, and Walker obviously remains
the four hole hitter the outfield. They go seven, eight, nine.
That's also been very commonplace for the Astros. It's Myers
and Smith seven and eight in their normal positions, and
Chas McCormick is getting the start today in left field.

(01:13:34):
I joke about Yandi for obvious reasons, but good luck
tonight to Todd and Robert and all members of the
broadcast team because Yondi Diaz is batting leadoff for the Rays.
So best of luck to you with both why diazes.
The only why diazes that have ever played Major League
Baseball are in tonight's game together.

Speaker 5 (01:13:56):
Both are dhing. They're both dching plumber. So you won't
have to think about it too much as a base
hit from Whyds, just.

Speaker 7 (01:14:03):
The seven or eight times they come to the plate
and round the bases. Hopefully you will be able to
manage to get that correct.

Speaker 5 (01:14:10):
He smoked that yesterday.

Speaker 7 (01:14:12):
Uh yeah, he did it kind of didn't really sound
like it on the stream, not our stream. There's a
flyball and uh Haggard, he's going back on it and
it's gone like he was shocked by it.

Speaker 6 (01:14:27):
Well, can we just have a conversation about Rangers related
broadcasters here in this segment?

Speaker 5 (01:14:35):
Door has been opened? Well, did you.

Speaker 6 (01:14:39):
Enjoy and I'm using that very loosely, Dave Raymond's work
more or Jared Sandler's work more?

Speaker 7 (01:14:49):
Yeah, Jared Sandler's been on our program before, Friend of
the Show, if you will, on May seventeenth, today's May nineteenth.
You looked it up, so people May May seventeenth, twenty five.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
Yeah, it was two days ago. He was on our show.

Speaker 7 (01:15:04):
No, no, no, no, I'm just referencing why what happened,
what we're about to hear from Jared, not Adam Sandler.
It's a little confusing on how it's listed in our system,
which just says Sandler, no offense to Jared.

Speaker 5 (01:15:15):
Your name doesn't come to mine first when I see Sandler.

Speaker 7 (01:15:19):
May seventeenth, That was Saturday, seven to twenty five pm.
Real friend of the show. Actual friend Brian McTaggart and
from Arlington posted the following, let's go Astros chance break
out at Dyke in North because he's covering the team
and they did so. He reported it like reporters do.

(01:15:44):
That was met with a quote tweet from the aforementioned
Jared Sandler, and his included a picture of the twenty
twenty three Rangers sitting on the field at what was
then Minute Made Park after they had become American League
champion and as the good people over at Minute Made
Park are and now dyk and Park are the AL champions.

(01:16:07):
Is right there on the big screen under the Minute
Made logo at the time.

Speaker 6 (01:16:11):
Just like it was at Yankee Stadium when the Astros
swept them bingo.

Speaker 7 (01:16:14):
So it's a picture of that with the caption I
remember this from Jared who works for the Rangers broadcast network.
I remember when the Rangers won the al Pennant at
Globe Life South. I also remember going to Rangers games
at Globe Life South when maybe twenty percent of the
fans were Astros fans.

Speaker 6 (01:16:33):
So it's okay, how can we count how many ways
he's just wrong about this?

Speaker 5 (01:16:40):
We could.

Speaker 7 (01:16:41):
It did prompt an additional post like it did earlier.
We remember when I said, oh, Kevin Durant saw that
somebody had a comment on it, so he was a
context will, right. So you're just trying to give context
or answer the question more clearly when you've been essentially
called out, called the carpet, called out. I don't know
how you want to describe it here. So the originator

(01:17:02):
of this conversation, Brian McTaggart, I think correctly jumped back
on the X platform to say, I'm a reporter, not
a fan. I'm paid to cover the team. I did
not care who wins games, So not the gotcha. You'd
hope for see it tomorrow. And if you know Brian,
it's just so great to read it in his voice.
All right, So the postgame show then takes place Jared

(01:17:27):
Sandler's part of the postgame show, and he sounded like this.

Speaker 13 (01:17:32):
I saw some tweets tonight or X's or whatever you
call that about Astros fans channing let's go Astros at
Dyke in North. The Astros have absolutely had a really
nice run. It's been a dynasty. But there's only one
team in this rivalry that has won a playoff series
at the other team's ballpark. And if I recall, that

(01:17:53):
park was pretty empty of Astros fans by about the
seventh inning in Game seven. Back in twenty twenty three,
I went to a few rain Astros games at Globe
Life South in which the only Astros fans in the
building were the people who worked for the Astros.

Speaker 5 (01:18:07):
Everyone else Rangers fans. So this has been a great run.

Speaker 13 (01:18:12):
But before you try and get cute about calling this
dyke in North, let's not forget what life was like
before the Astros went on a run. Baseball did exist
before the Astros became a relevant team again, and baseball's
going to continue to exist after the Astros dynasty ends,
which is gonna be this year.

Speaker 6 (01:18:32):
Okay, there's so many things wrong with what he said,
not the least of which is the whole concept that
he's basing upon, his whole premise upon. The reason it's
called Dyke in North now is because it was Mimic
made Park or minute made North before the Astros changed
their name of their stadium.

Speaker 5 (01:18:51):
And the reason for that, Jared.

Speaker 6 (01:18:54):
Is that the Astros built the stadium they play in
about twenty five years ago, and then you guys decided, oh,
we played baseball in Texas, maybe we should use their conditioning.
And so when they decided to build a roofed stadium,
they decided to make it look a lot like the
Astros stadium on the inside, none of which you covered

(01:19:17):
in your rambling, incoherent rant about how there were fans
not in the building and all this other.

Speaker 7 (01:19:23):
Stuff back in North as a reference to the Astros,
Fans on the road in a road ballpark are loud
enough to be heard chanting, let's go Astros Yeah, and
global life's become We've overtaken to a certain degree the
ballpark with our traveling fans.

Speaker 6 (01:19:39):
And he's absolutely got a point in scoreboard to look
at when he's talking about the game seven win and
Astros fans filing out and they're the only ones that
have ever won.

Speaker 5 (01:19:48):
A playoff series straight up, which is good.

Speaker 6 (01:19:50):
You then got to graduate on to the least ever
remembered World Series in the history of time.

Speaker 7 (01:19:56):
Oh that's a tough one, man. Well come on, even
for you, which one was.

Speaker 5 (01:20:01):
You?

Speaker 7 (01:20:01):
You definitely think one was worse a recent one. I
saw the Justin Turner World Series Championship. Oh, people weren't
at that one, Micky, people weren't there. You definitely don't
even think it counts.

Speaker 6 (01:20:15):
COVID was there, Covid right there, So I called it
the we're there. But it's just like he just went
about this whole thing wrong. And see the last statement,
it's over man, it ends now, Yeah, but he's making
it sound like it's over because the Rangers are gonna win.
If anybody wins this division based on May, which is

(01:20:36):
usually the case, it's the Mariners. That's when they put
up their banner every year for the Al West changed.

Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
It it ends now, it's over. Your time is over?

Speaker 7 (01:20:47):
Well there, I would if I were them, I would
keep doing what they're doing, keep saying it every year
because eventually it will be true. I remember last year
when their first baseman said where the team to beat
all right, yeah, you're beaten.

Speaker 5 (01:20:58):
You did not win the title again.

Speaker 1 (01:21:02):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team. Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 6 (01:21:24):
Four o'clock hour underway here on Sports Talk seven ninety
It is a Monday edition of the A Team, which
means the good, the Bad, and the ugly is right
around the corner as we do a recap of what
we saw over the weekend. There was a lot to
get to, a lot to see. We've talked heavy Astros
Rangers series, and of course Astros and Rays are going

(01:21:45):
to get together at George M. Steinbrenner Field not too
long from now. We'll have you ready with the on
Deck show coming up at the top of next hour.
In the meantime, mentioned that we talked about the Astros,
talked a little bit about the NBA playoffs and as
it pertains to the Rockets off season that could or
could not heat up rather quickly. This whole meeting that

(01:22:08):
Giannis is supposedly having with the Bucks. First of all,
I don't get it. Why are you meeting with your
own player like it's well it's not that they're meeting
with him, it's it's a story. Well, he's going to
meet with them soon. I mean, don't they do exit
interviews long before this.

Speaker 7 (01:22:23):
This isn't about an exit interview. This is about what
are you plan for the future. Your exit interview is
it is far less detailed and far less lengthy and
as fewer people involved.

Speaker 6 (01:22:30):
Yeah, but you knew the agent in the front office. Yeah,
but you knew that Damian Lillard was in a bad place.
This is just you know, what's weird is the Celtics
and the Bucks are in very, very similar positions. In fact,
you might even be able to argue that the Celtics
are in a worse spot because of how much money
they're owed to a roster that will absolutely not compete

(01:22:52):
for anything next year given the injuries and the continued
injuries that we keep finding out about and hearing about more.
But it's you know, with the with the Bucks, it's like,
I feel like we're just waiting for when Jannis finally says, okay,
trade me.

Speaker 5 (01:23:09):
That's what this is about.

Speaker 7 (01:23:10):
And again, your exit meeting is basically the same thing
as for us is your postgame press conference. He doesn't
know what he wants yet. He hasn't spent time thinking.
Maybe maybe he has, maybe he hasn't. But he's also
playing games throughout that he's trying to advance in the playoffs.
He's trying to win, you know, more than one game
against the Pacers. They definitely should have won two. They
kicked away one of those games. I don't think they

(01:23:31):
would have won the series, but certainly should have extended
it more. But nonetheless, he's seen this team not succeed
in the playoffs for reconsecutive seasons. Obviously, they've changed coaches,
they've kind of changed the direction of the franchise with
the deal they made for Lillard, and now Lillard's not
likely to be a part of next year's team and
maybe not ever again as a plus plus level player.

(01:23:51):
But now he's had a couple of days a week
or two. He's talked with his family, he's talked with
his agents. He's got a little bit better feel of
maybe crystallizing what he he actually wants for the future,
rather than I just spent every moment and you know
possible outs of my body's effort for seven straight months
to try to win, and we didn't, so you meet
with him. Just happens to be, needs to be before

(01:24:13):
the end of the season. Is far away from the
end of the season, is possible. I mean the end
of the season to me is well, it's the draft.
The draft is happening. As soon as the season ends.
The draft happ is the very next thing to happen.
And depending on how long the finals go, maybe there's
a week, maybe there's five days.

Speaker 5 (01:24:28):
There's not a whole lot of time.

Speaker 7 (01:24:29):
So the more information they have, the more information the
other gms have, the better the sooner it comes. So
it's perfect timing for them to, I would hope come
to a conclusion. I'm not guaranteeing that it will, but
that's kind of the purpose. The purpose of this is
presumably for them to convince him, no, man, we absolutely
have a chance to win immediately. Next year, we're gonna

(01:24:51):
try the same thing we tried this year to win
a championship in the East. And here's how we're gonna
do it. And that's the part of the conversation that's
like good luck, good luck trying to paint a picture
where you're better than Indiana, better than New York, better
than Cleveland, and that's already your top three Boston who knows,
but and keeping everybody else at arm's length. It seems

(01:25:11):
like they don't. They shouldn't be in this awful of
a position with who their roster is. But their most
expensive player is actually Dame. He makes a little bit
more than Yannis and it's almost sixty million, so that's crushing.
Kyle Kuzma is their third highest paid player. If he's
paid ten dollars, that's too much, no offense, Kyle, but
paid he's paid twenty two million. Well, players like that

(01:25:33):
don't help you win, so whatever you're paying him is bad,
and you could argue to help you lose. The way
he played, you wouldn't have to argue very hard.

Speaker 5 (01:25:39):
You'd win.

Speaker 7 (01:25:40):
Twenty two million bucks is what he's owed next year,
and he's under contract for the year after that. Probably
can't afford to bring Brook Lopez bag even it's at
a very discounted rate.

Speaker 5 (01:25:49):
He's gonna go nicely here in Houston next to Yannis.

Speaker 7 (01:25:52):
He's he's gonna end up somewhere else where. He's gonna
fit in just like he did there. And they don't
have any future assets. That's the real problem. How are
they supposed to build a team without the ability to
trade for somebody or use them themselves or trade up,
or they just don't have much there. So I don't
really see how they could convince him to stay unless
he just likes living there.

Speaker 5 (01:26:11):
Nobody likes living in Milwaukee.

Speaker 6 (01:26:14):
But here's here's something to be A one organization player
wants to be a you know, the guy like he's
Milwaukee basketball.

Speaker 5 (01:26:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:26:21):
Hakeem Elijuan got traded to the Raptors over five million bucks.
Giannis can get traded to wherever, and I hopefully hopefully
it's Houston if that's the case. Because here's the thing,
Like I was thinking about this the other day, the
last time the Rockets made this major of a trade involving,
let's just say, a front court player. Although I know,

(01:26:43):
technically traced Hi McGrady was a front court player. He's
a small forward, but he was effectively their two guard.
So outside of that, I go back to the Barkley deal.
A trade of this magnitude. I mean, think about where
Barley was and also where the Rockets were, coming off

(01:27:04):
of two championships and then a sweep at the Hands
of the Sonics in ninety six. But like you know,
Yannis is in such a better place physically. I mean,
comparing those two and their upkeep upkeep in the offseason,
for example, is just ludicrous.

Speaker 7 (01:27:22):
When do you think Yannis or how old do you
think Yanis will be sixty seventy eighty before he's called
the round mound of rebound?

Speaker 5 (01:27:29):
Never like this is a.

Speaker 6 (01:27:34):
It is really a strike while the iron is hot,
because I know he's We always talk about how he's
an old thirty and he'll be thirty one, I guess
when the season starts or d in the course of
the season. He's played twelve years. But like like Kevin Durant,
if you're gonna argue that his game is not slowing
down and it's progressing or aging like a fine wine,

(01:27:55):
and I know they're two different games, but like Yannis Is,
you go get that guy. I mean, I really, even
if it's Shingoon, I still feel like, you go get
that guy. I don't want it to be Shingoon because
I'd actually like to see those two play together, but
I haven't.

Speaker 5 (01:28:11):
Given it a ton of thought. But he's first team All.

Speaker 7 (01:28:15):
NBA, right, Yeah, so that should tell you all you
need to know about whether or not you're willing to
part ways with Well, I'm just anybody or age is
and the tread on the tires because he's played so
much basketball since age nineteen at the NBA level. I mean,
of course there's some concern, but is he a rocket
for five years? Is he a rocket for three years?

(01:28:36):
His game's gonna be fine, absolutely fine, elite for the
early portion of whatever number of years it is, and
then then there's some moderate concern after that, but not
quite like baseball, where you're clearly playing paying for the
good years. And you do it with Trout, you do
it with Bryce Harper, you did it with Pooholes, lots
of players. You know what you're doing when you sign

(01:28:56):
him to ten twelve, one, so too another. You're not
getting great years out of one or at the end
of that deal. You're paying for the years now and
then you'll pay for it later. But Yannis is going
to be fine unless he arrives in Houston and gets
a brand new five year deal, which isn't necessary or likely.
He'll play under his current deal until he needs another
short term raise on a two or three year deal

(01:29:19):
or a two plus.

Speaker 6 (01:29:20):
One all this, you're getting Yannis and you give him
that five year deal that you just said, or you
get Durant and you give him a two year or
three year deal, whatever ends up being.

Speaker 5 (01:29:33):
Which one do you feel better about long term?

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
Well?

Speaker 7 (01:29:35):
I feel fine about both because it's not long term
with Durant, do I for the years? It's like Butler
and Golden State. Golden State shouldn't be worried about what
Butler's going to be. He'll be the same player he
as today when his contract runs out. In my opinion,
you are close to it. I expect some decay, some
down decay. I don't know if he brushes his teeth.
It's not out of water.

Speaker 5 (01:29:57):
Geeze.

Speaker 7 (01:29:58):
Decay to his game a strong term to say it
a little differently. Okay, there'll be some decay to Durant's
game as well.

Speaker 6 (01:30:05):
Fall off, Jimmy, shot man. He's decaying out there. Look
at his arm and I just fell off. I'm being
very over the top here as usual. But it's two years. Yeah,
it's a big deal because he's thirty seven. Though that's
why I said it.

Speaker 7 (01:30:18):
Now, Durant won first team All NBA material because he's
I think he's definitely adopted the older player.

Speaker 6 (01:30:26):
I want to, but I've got to rest on defense.
I want to play defense. Listen, that's not gonna fight here.
It's gonna be tough.

Speaker 7 (01:30:34):
These minutes are going to go way down in Houston
in my opinion next year.

Speaker 5 (01:30:39):
I just that's okay.

Speaker 7 (01:30:40):
So the important minutes are fine. He plays six seven
minutes in the first quarter, takes a long rest, gets
his eighteen first half minutes in, maybe probably less, and
then the final five minutes of the game of a
close game that your defense has kept you in. Now
he's on the floor for your offensive possessions at the
end of game to finish off his thirty three minutes

(01:31:02):
instead of his thirty six or thirty seven minutes, which
are still near league high use by Phoenix this year.
And for those minutes, you're fine. So see you. Let's
just say it is it's the trade that hurts the most.

Speaker 6 (01:31:13):
Okay, it's the Shingoon Jabari Smith Junior, the number ten
pick or whatever. I don't know what, give me the
package that you want to give to Milwaukee to get
Yannis back. And maybe there's a third team involved in
all that kind of stuff. But is Yannis helping you
win more games significantly than fifty two more? Or is

(01:31:38):
Kevin Durant with what you would give it for him
and a probably lesser deal.

Speaker 7 (01:31:42):
I mean, not answering your question is not my goal.
But I don't care how many regular season games you win.
It's not the indicator of what you're going to do
in the postseason.

Speaker 6 (01:31:52):
Yeah, but you could already argue right now, without them
playing a minute in Houston, that the odds of one
of them getting to the postse and in contributing are
far greater for one versus the other. In that I'm
not trusting Kevin Durant to stand one piece. And if
you traded anything of value for one or both of

(01:32:13):
either of these guys, you have to have that be
like set in Stone. We're just talking about the Celtics
breaking up their team because they couldn't stay healthy. Now
that's a complete different scenario. But if you trade for
Kevin Durant he's not available to you in the postseason,
well then your Steph Curry.

Speaker 5 (01:32:31):
You're the Warriors. You're way better than that. But I
know what you're saying, Yell, you have him in Thompson
and they don't.

Speaker 7 (01:32:36):
Seventy five games two years ago, sixty two this past year,
which was partially injury. He got hurt eleventh game of
the season, I think they started or ninth game. They
started eight and one, and then he got hurt and
he missed a few games.

Speaker 9 (01:32:47):
Then.

Speaker 7 (01:32:47):
I do think they were resting him a little bit,
not bringing him back too soon or taking days.

Speaker 5 (01:32:52):
Things like that happen.

Speaker 7 (01:32:53):
Yeah, there's injury concern for Kevin Durant, much more so
than any other player that's been.

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
Discussed the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:33:11):
All right, so.

Speaker 6 (01:33:15):
You know how I feel about what the Texans did
in the draft.

Speaker 5 (01:33:20):
Why don't you remind people, just in case they don't know.
I'm very upsad.

Speaker 6 (01:33:23):
No, I just wanted them to address the offensive line
a little bit more maybe than they did. I'm not
necessarily disappointed in the detection that CJ has. What a
great job done by Nick Casserio. Man another incompletion doesn't
have anybody to throw to.

Speaker 5 (01:33:40):
Okay, but was.

Speaker 6 (01:33:42):
There a perfect scenario where we would both be happy,
me and you about this draft, it would have been tough.

Speaker 7 (01:33:49):
I mean, you understand where it's going from. Oh, absolutely,
no question.

Speaker 6 (01:33:52):
So when I see a story that the Patriots turned
down trade offers from the Bears and the Texans to
draft a running back with the thirty eighth pick. You
can understand why I would want to find the closest
brick wall to start bashing.

Speaker 5 (01:34:12):
You're not telling it accurately.

Speaker 6 (01:34:14):
Well, I'm just reading the headline from who this would
be Pro Football Talk and who wrote the article.

Speaker 5 (01:34:20):
Michael David Smith.

Speaker 7 (01:34:22):
He works for Mike ol Florio, MDS, longtime football contributor
to that site and a few others normally. But read
it again where it says the Texans intended to draft
Trevion Henderson.

Speaker 5 (01:34:36):
I'm going to give you everything, including punctuations. Actually, where
where did he get this from? Well?

Speaker 6 (01:34:42):
He got this in a forged in Foxborough videos it Yeah,
well fortunate Foxborough.

Speaker 7 (01:34:51):
That's their series on their off season. Well, when that
part of the video came up, I hope this sounds good.
I've only listened to it once, but it sounded like this,
mm hmmmmmmmm.

Speaker 5 (01:35:05):
How many times should I push it? Another? Ten times?
Fifty times?

Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
Man?

Speaker 5 (01:35:08):
What's what's Cohen?

Speaker 9 (01:35:09):
Go?

Speaker 7 (01:35:09):
Do some Cohen for me? How many times? One hundred
times more? Five hundred times? More a thousand times more. Yeah,
that's the first thing. And Cohen's name right off the bat.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
Well, he was on trial for me.

Speaker 6 (01:35:21):
Hey, did you see this thing? Nope, it has to
do with politics. But you've got Cohen on speed dial.

Speaker 5 (01:35:27):
Well, it's so easy.

Speaker 7 (01:35:28):
It's a It's something that should absolutely be played ad
nauseum here on this show because it makes so much
sense so often. But this is actually what it sounded
like as they took a phone call, presumably as the conversation.

Speaker 5 (01:35:40):
I think you never skipped what do you have something
else in mind? Something nine?

Speaker 2 (01:35:46):
Next year three? Yeah, it goes back. What do you
want to do with this? Twe players?

Speaker 5 (01:35:51):
You really want to let's take the care some back.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
You guys want to do this? Wants to do it.

Speaker 5 (01:35:58):
I think it's worked, Yeah, it works.

Speaker 2 (01:36:00):
I think it's feeling offers.

Speaker 5 (01:36:02):
I think it's a good pick pick your ass, all right, thanks,
that's a tree. I get the trivia on.

Speaker 2 (01:36:06):
Henderson on the phone.

Speaker 6 (01:36:07):
Yeah, so they decided that's not Kevin Costner. No, this
is how it really happens.

Speaker 7 (01:36:14):
He doesn't put the phone on off of speaker and
look around the room at the other idiots that he
works with. And say, who do we want. We've done
zero draft preparation. We don't want anything about the players
in it. We don't want anything about the other team's roster.
We barely know our own roster.

Speaker 6 (01:36:29):
What about at the end of the deal, when it's consummated,
does he then look around to nobody in particular and say, damn,
I love this job.

Speaker 7 (01:36:36):
It does present us with the opportunity at some point
this NBA off season to mimic the Phoenix GM when
he's talking to Raffel, when he puts the phone on
hold and asks the room what they should do, and
then he puts it back on and says, Rafel, I
want all my picks back, all of them, all my
number ones.

Speaker 5 (01:36:56):
I want them all back.

Speaker 6 (01:36:57):
Fell After, maniacally laughing, stays okay, throw in d book,
You'll say with Katie click.

Speaker 5 (01:37:03):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (01:37:04):
So back to this particular instance. Yeah, at that point
in the draft, the Patriots were at thirty nine. That's
their selection. The Texans offered fifty eight and seventy nine,
which at the time is what they held because they
wanted to move up. They were also offering a third
round pick.

Speaker 5 (01:37:19):
In next year's draft.

Speaker 7 (01:37:20):
In next year's draft, So a little bit undetermined about
where it is, but probably if it's the Texans third,
which it would be, you have a pretty good idea
of where that would be in next year's draft, probably
upper eighties, somewhere in that neighborhood. So back to what
was written there the pick. As you heard, they said,
we're just gonna go ahead and pick at Travion Henderson
on the film they called Traveon Henderson said, you're gonna

(01:37:42):
be a Patriot. That's who they selected, running back from
Ohio State. Where in the write up from MDS does
it indicate the Texans were trying to trade up for
that particular player.

Speaker 6 (01:37:53):
Uh, well, technically it's the fourth paragraph, what's to say?
So it says the Texans also tried to get the
third thirty eighth pick, offering the Patriots package of three
picks in a swap the number fifty eight number seventy
nine picks in the twenty twenty five draft, as well
as a third round pick in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 5 (01:38:09):
Again, the Patriots declined.

Speaker 7 (01:38:12):
That's where does it say that Texans wanted Henderson? I thought,
that's what you're upset about. Well, it says that in
the headline again.

Speaker 5 (01:38:19):
You didn't let me reread it. You reread it one
more time. Re read the headline for me.

Speaker 6 (01:38:22):
Patriots turned down trade offers from Bears, Comma Texans to
draft Trevion Henderson at number thirty eight. Now, of course, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:38:33):
The Patriots turned down the offers to draft him themselves.
Does it say in order to it says to draft.

Speaker 7 (01:38:39):
Yes, Because it's a headline, they try to go less wordy.
If they were trading up for Trevion Henderson. From a
talent standpoint, I don't have any issue with it. But
in the normal people's thoughts about drafts, so not nicks,
that would be a very unwise thing to do with
all of those assets.

Speaker 6 (01:38:57):
And to be fair, at the very end of the
it's not a very long it's not a story, even
it's a blurb. Those were solid offers the Patriots turned down.
But they show how much New England liked Henderson. They
see him having a big role in their offense, and
they were willing to turn down extra picks to ensure
they got him. I think that was a really good deal.
I think it was hard to turn down, but I
like my misplaced rage better.

Speaker 7 (01:39:19):
Yeah, what the Texans were doing there to me, totally
guessing was probably the third that was probably already the
third or fourth team they'd spoken to at the beginning
of that day, because try and get up to try
to get apart. They succeeded at forty eight, and they
drafted to Nursie an offensive tackle. By doing so, he
had accumulated enough assets to that point with some earlier deals.

(01:39:42):
So when it came time for them to finally draft
an offensive lineman, and they do this every year with
the guys, they say, this is who we're going to
get today, this is what we're going to end up with,
and we have the assets to make sure we can
do it as long as we find another team to
say yes, and that becomes the hard part.

Speaker 12 (01:39:59):
I'm sure.

Speaker 7 (01:40:00):
Sure Again, I'm clearly speculating to a certain degree, but
this would strike me as very easy to believe. They
targeted Ursery well before the pick they used on him
for but they didn't get a team that they could
have a conversation with to agree with the deal until
they got to forty eight, and we My thought is
they were already trying to do it at thirty eight.

(01:40:20):
I'd probably get at forty and they get at forty
four and whoever else they had already.

Speaker 5 (01:40:23):
Had pre existing GM conversations with. That was my theory
and the reason why.

Speaker 10 (01:40:27):
Who was the pick right before the Travian Henderson pick
was an offensive lineman from Arizona. So they were already
losing assets on when they were going to be able
to land a lineman.

Speaker 5 (01:40:38):
Jonah Sobby, it's not going to work anymore. Yeah, exactly,
now what that exact name.

Speaker 6 (01:40:42):
And by the way, remember the Texans did trade up
anyways four spots ahead to take Jaden Higgins, so maybe
that's who they are trying to get with this pick.
They thought he'd be there at thirty eight instead of
thirty four.

Speaker 5 (01:40:54):
No, they have thirty four from the deal with the
Giants trade back.

Speaker 6 (01:40:57):
They already had that pick, that's right, Okay, So they
had just made Higgins the second pick of the run.
They were trying to get a pick after the Genehink. Okay,
I was mistaken, I'm sorry.

Speaker 7 (01:41:06):
And again the offensive lineman that would go off the
board between Sabinea and Ursery were none.

Speaker 5 (01:41:12):
Right, right, And that's what I was looking at was.

Speaker 7 (01:41:15):
But I think because of that, when you start seeing
a gap. And there were three other offensive linemen that
went within the ten picks that followed again at different positions.
I don't like grouping them all together. Tate Ratlige is
an inside player, and maybe some variants on the other
players that were drafted. But you at some point, just
like what happened after twenty five, you're missing on it,

(01:41:37):
this chunk of O line talent if you move back
or if you don't trade up soon enough or early enough.
But it's just it's simply not. It is very easy
for us to say, why didn't you just straight up
to thirty seven?

Speaker 5 (01:41:48):
Why don't you.

Speaker 7 (01:41:49):
Trade up to thirty because the other team has to
say s and you don't want to be so desperate
that so you didn't want fifty eight, seventy nine and
a third and a pick swap.

Speaker 5 (01:41:57):
Okay, let me give you more.

Speaker 7 (01:41:59):
Well you, in my opinion, you definitely weren't winning that
deal unless this player is awesome. But you have to
do something to entice the other team to pass on.
You heard Vrabel say the group of twenty players. Because
so they trade out of thirty eight to fifty eight,
they better feel pretty good about the next twenty players
unless they feel like they got enough to then trade

(01:42:21):
back up themselves.

Speaker 5 (01:42:22):
Some gyms don't want to do that.

Speaker 6 (01:42:24):
I wonder if they originally wanted Quinn Shawn Judkins, who
went two picks ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:42:27):
No, I hope.

Speaker 7 (01:42:28):
I don't think the Texans were in love with any
running back that we have to have that running back.

Speaker 5 (01:42:34):
I'm talking about the Patriots.

Speaker 7 (01:42:35):
I think he was, yeah, and I'm talking about I
don't think so that. I think personally they share the
same uniform for a year. I don't think they're very comparable.
Not in talent. They both have tremendous talent, but I
think they're very different backs. They're completely different backs, which
is why they won the national championship. But they won
the national championship because it was a total cakewalk because
of the team they were playing.

Speaker 5 (01:42:53):
Is just not very sure. We'll go with that.

Speaker 10 (01:42:55):
But Chicago, Chicago did want Travan Henderson reported throughout the
entire Chicago.

Speaker 5 (01:43:01):
We got luth Burdon instead.

Speaker 7 (01:43:04):
He may get it some carries this year, but not
quite that workload. Everything about this this again, I'll go
back to this. Come on, man, please, I'm begging you Texans,
please put this content out from your end, it would
be tremendous, probably the best stuff you'd ever put out.

Speaker 5 (01:43:21):
Please who's saying that? Though? MDS, Who's sang what? Or
Mike Florio? I want the.

Speaker 7 (01:43:29):
Texans Social Media team, Creative team, Digital team to get
the okay from Nick Caseario to have all this for
us this. Patriots just did it, the Giants have done it,
the Lions do it, the Cardinals do it, the Eagles
do it.

Speaker 5 (01:43:41):
Come on, man, I'm begging on, I'm on bended knee.
Please the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:43:52):
Now the good, oh good, the bad that's my good,
and the ugly don't make me get with the A Team.

Speaker 5 (01:44:04):
Zigure segment.

Speaker 7 (01:44:05):
Time Here on a Monday afternoon edition of the eighteen Mondays,
bring us the good, the bad, the ugly.

Speaker 5 (01:44:12):
We have say what?

Speaker 7 (01:44:13):
On Tuesday, we have Wednesday's bs on guess what day?
Thursday we have another parody I believe that day Russell
Westbrook part of that, what's up with that? And returning
this week, of course, we'll have our Friday A Team draft,
the results of which we could share with you at
any time because the poll has been completed and your

(01:44:33):
votes have been tabulated but today's the good, bad and
the ugly. I will bring up the rear. I've got
the ugly, Cole's got the bad. So after a split,
after game seven, after a golf tournament, you get to
tell us what the good was.

Speaker 6 (01:44:51):
Well, I'm gonna I could say, oh, that's true, as pitching.

Speaker 5 (01:44:54):
Was good or whatever. This is just in the Astros pitch.

Speaker 6 (01:44:58):
I'm gonna choose to take something that came from an
ugly situation.

Speaker 5 (01:45:03):
How about that? I'm all ears.

Speaker 6 (01:45:05):
Okay, you guys know, I'm not the biggest Tyrese Haliburton fan,
but what he's doing for that Pacers fan who was
pelted by bags of garbage by New York sports fans
because they are the swine of America.

Speaker 5 (01:45:27):
Is actually pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (01:45:28):
This guy, this guy named Hans Perez, Hans Booby. He
was on the Pat mcaveee show, and well, go ahead,
I'm just gonna say, is he an exceptional thief?

Speaker 5 (01:45:41):
No, I'll be on the beach all right. So there's
footage of him.

Speaker 6 (01:45:48):
He's a firefighter and a lifelong Pacers fan, and he
has a PACER's tattoo on his wrist. By the way,
in case you're wondering he was wearing a Tyrese Haliburton
jersey in New York.

Speaker 5 (01:45:57):
Not the smartest move probably, but he's a fan, he's
a diehard.

Speaker 6 (01:46:02):
And again this mob of people, of course, with their
camera phones at the ready, we're throwing multiple trash bags
at him. They were trying to pull the jersey off
of him. Anyways, he goes on the Pat mcavie Show,
where Tyrese Haliburton says, you know what, I'm gonna go
ahead and bring you in a plus one out to

(01:46:23):
Game four of the Eastern Conference Finals in Indianapolis.

Speaker 5 (01:46:27):
That's a pretty cool thing to do. It's very cool.

Speaker 9 (01:46:29):
Now.

Speaker 7 (01:46:30):
So Knicks have home court advantage, so first Conference finals.

Speaker 5 (01:46:34):
Game in Indiana.

Speaker 7 (01:46:35):
Obviously he's Game three, but we just have to go
to Game four. Pretty boorish. Poor behavior by Knicks fans
in this instance doesn't represent all of them, but there
were a lot of them there.

Speaker 5 (01:46:45):
Did you happen to see the Windhorst stuff. Yeah, again,
great weekend New York Nick fan.

Speaker 6 (01:46:52):
You're just absolutely And again, these are the people that
were throwing bottles at Astros fans in the bathroom.

Speaker 5 (01:46:59):
It's hard hard to.

Speaker 6 (01:47:01):
Not generalize them when they're all acting like the same
jerks every time we see them.

Speaker 7 (01:47:06):
Wendy was approached by someone with their camera phone and
somewhat of an interview style and asked him a question
about the Knicks winning the series, and before he could answer,
he kind of went rock on him.

Speaker 5 (01:47:16):
Nobody cares what you he started to be rating. At
least he handled it well.

Speaker 7 (01:47:19):
Wendy just kind of kept on walking, but later on
he was also some items were tossed at him similarly,
but less of a mob around him, and people didn't
chase him down. Nonetheless, it definitely shouldn't happen, And imagine
if this was some other reporter or any individual isolated reporter.
It's something that I think most people who cover evening

(01:47:39):
games at any stadium or arena are often aware. I
need to not leave by myself. I need to wait
longer till there are fewer fans out there. It's a shame.

Speaker 5 (01:47:49):
And different arenas and stadiums have different policies and different
access to where you're going. Yeah, I haven't been.

Speaker 6 (01:47:56):
First of all, you need have prefaces by saying I actually
love New York City, or at least I did, but
I haven't been there since the fall of twenty fourteen.
I only know that because it was a Texans Giants game.
Bill O'Brien's first year. I believe on the job. Just
some of the things I've seen. I know it's not
that that all the time. I just have no desire

(01:48:17):
to take me or especially my family to New York
City anytime soon.

Speaker 5 (01:48:20):
Yeah. I think that was two years ago. Our summer
Vaca New York City went without incident. Of course, of course,
where did you go? Is this name a tourist place?
We were there? Did you go to the Statue of Liberty?
Been there? I love ladies, Liberty? Were there?

Speaker 7 (01:48:36):
I saw a show, let's get some eats, Times Square,
you name it.

Speaker 6 (01:48:40):
We did it, and you weren't probably decked out in
any opposing gear.

Speaker 5 (01:48:43):
I don't. I did see one. We went to the
MLB store.

Speaker 7 (01:48:46):
I took a picture, sent it to you because someone
was inside wearing a trash stros T shirt. So I
sidled up next to him, took a little pic.

Speaker 5 (01:48:53):
Giant loser.

Speaker 10 (01:48:55):
All right, what's the bad coal? I'm never going to
beat the allegations after this one. But we are more
than just a city that is home to fans of
the Longhorns.

Speaker 5 (01:49:04):
So I gotta ask Aggies, you.

Speaker 10 (01:49:07):
Do it, okay, Bud, You're hanging in there because it's
been a bad, bad year to be a twelve man
faithful because not only did your head coach, Jim Sloshnagel
leave you in the middle of the night after berating
a reporter saying I would never leave College Station to
then go to the University of Texas right before they
joined the SEC. You then lose your first year of

(01:49:30):
the lone star showdown back in action as Texas then
goes to a conference championship in their first year. When
you get a twelve year head start, and that's.

Speaker 5 (01:49:38):
Just the start of it. Because if that's not bad enough, Kevin.

Speaker 10 (01:49:40):
Willer leaves for Villanova and Buzz Williams leaves for Maryland
to go take.

Speaker 5 (01:49:45):
Over as the new head coach of the Crab five.

Speaker 10 (01:49:48):
And you bring in a guy by the name of
a Buck if you can in for Bucky Ball whose
best asset has been the coach of Stamford. When you
praise yourself of being a team that is known for
one of the dominant pro programs in college athletics, and
we don't get turned down by anybody, and then you
think that baseball.

Speaker 5 (01:50:04):
Is going to turn the corner.

Speaker 10 (01:50:05):
Well, you were the preseason number one, and to guarantee
that you go to the College World Series tournament, you
have to win the SEC Tournament this weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:50:16):
But just the icing on top of the cake you had.

Speaker 10 (01:50:18):
Women's softball and softball number one team of the country
made history last night because while they were eliminated, becoming
the first number one overall seed in a loss to
Liberty to not advance to the super Regionals in NCAA history.

Speaker 5 (01:50:33):
Trev Alberts, you do it, okay, buddy.

Speaker 7 (01:50:36):
For the Aggies to win the SEC Baseball Tournament, they
will have to do so as the fourteen seed and
win quite a few games in a row over teams
all seeded better than them on their way to doing that.
They will begin efforting that tomorrow. Oh, by the way,
I missed out on one major thing. How the women's
softball made history yesterday by becoming the first team who

(01:50:59):
was ranked number one in the tournament to not make
it to the super Regionals.

Speaker 5 (01:51:03):
If the Aggies do not make it to.

Speaker 10 (01:51:05):
The NCAA Tournament this year, they will be the first
team ever ranked preseason number one to not make it
in the sixty four opponents that make it.

Speaker 5 (01:51:14):
To the regional I guess, just to you know, finish
it off.

Speaker 7 (01:51:17):
Who who's the top seed in the SEC Baseball Tournament?

Speaker 5 (01:51:20):
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Speaker 10 (01:51:21):
Jim Sloshnegle just won SEC Coach the Year and year
one and he's number two in college baseball on the
number one seed in the SEC tournament.

Speaker 5 (01:51:28):
So just throw more sol in the wound, all right.

Speaker 7 (01:51:31):
I'll keep this one brief, and that that's all the
time I have for the ugly. I guess it's kind
of twofold. It's kind of the rest of the field
with an ugly performance when Scottie Scheffler didn't even try
on the eighteenth hole and still won by five shots,
because that was the lead that he had and the
reason why he had such a lead, which was essentially

(01:51:53):
your ugly. The only other player that had a chance
to put any kind of pressure on Scheffler to not
drop shots late in his round was John Rahm, who
was having a great afternoon until he bogied sixteen, doubled seventeen,
and doubled eighteen. Very good pro gonna win more majors,

(01:52:14):
But that in fact was ugly. Scottie, three times major champion.

Speaker 1 (01:52:20):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:52:34):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety. Hey, that
segment carried over into the Break, The Good, Bad and
the Ugly does every single week sometimes.

Speaker 5 (01:52:47):
All right, so we are mere minutes away.

Speaker 6 (01:52:49):
From the Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays getting together.

Speaker 7 (01:52:54):
Yeah, sometimes when we close up shop at six o'clock
and turn things over to somebody else doing the Astro
on Deck show, I'll hesitate on sharing some information we
just haven't gotten around to during our show, because I
know they'll get to it during the Astros on Deck show. Yes, well,
with respect to Dan or Ross or even Cole or
anybody else who we know that works here that would

(01:53:16):
do an Astros on Deck.

Speaker 5 (01:53:17):
Show, just those people. But in this case, yes.

Speaker 7 (01:53:19):
In this case it's us. I don't mind stealing my
own thunder. We just didn't get into it a whole
lot yet. The IL stint for Jordon Alvarez has not
come to a conclusion, and I would again suggest it's
not about to come to a conclusion. He did speak though,
for the first time since going on the IL, and

(01:53:41):
it's been described by everybody pretty much the same way,
and Jordon really his own explanation of it isn't any
different other than as Matt Kawahara notes via the X platform,
or as Jared says, our exes or whatever it is
people put there, it doesn't sound all that promising in
own words. Again, if you ask me, I don't think

(01:54:04):
it's great. His hand is getting better, but he still
feels it when he swings. He played with the hand
hurting for a while, but it reached a point where
I had to stop because the hands started getting inflamed.
He's sitting in the cage, unsure of his timeline, said
he's paying free. Could be tomorrow, could be the next day,
but we're gonna keep working for it to be one
hundred percent. That's basically what Joe Spota also said each

(01:54:26):
of the last couple of times. I don't want it
to happen further down the road. They don't want him
to come back only to need to go back away.
So I applaud this process. There's no reason to bring
him back, no matter what the team's doing, good bet
or otherwise, if he's not healthy. But when Jordon says
what he said about for a while, how come Jordon's

(01:54:46):
got seven extra base hits this year. I again, I
am not a doctor. I don't know this for a fact.
Two plus two normally equals four, and I'm gonna say
in this case it does. Why do you think Jordon's
having a rough start to the year and not hitting
the ball as often with force. He's got a four
hun and thirty foot homer this year, but he only
has seven extra base hits. He's not hitting forever, He's

(01:55:08):
not doing what he normally does. He's not hitting as
many line drives.

Speaker 5 (01:55:12):
It's hard to hit.

Speaker 7 (01:55:12):
Percentages lower, his exit velocity is lower. Okay, I'm taking
this as the reason why.

Speaker 6 (01:55:18):
Yeah, that's what we've been saying for a long long time.
And we've also been saying that when he comes back,
he's absolutely hitting a home run that day. Not really,
but that tends to be what happens more often than not,
especially when he's been out for an extended period of times.

Speaker 7 (01:55:34):
He's going to feel better whenever he comes back, but
he needs to feel right. He needs to not feel
like well. I can get through it. I can manage
this team needs me. So I'm gonna fight through, fighting
through it with this particular injury means you're gonna suffer
from it, and it's probably going to and I don't
even know the specifics of it. I know his hand hurts,
it's inflamed. Well, he's going to only be doing the

(01:55:58):
things that hurt it more, swinging the bat, and it's
just something that until it heals or until they determine
there's a better way to fix it, and I doubt
they will because how different does this really sound from
when he and Dusty were talking about this for weeks
on end. It's the left hand, it's the right hand.

(01:56:18):
It doesn't feel right. I can't pick up a bat,
I can't swing this is it sounds so similar, And
again I can't tell you it is because I don't
know the specifics of it. But it doesn't just go
I don't know that it's just going to go away.
The idea that he needed less than ten days, that
they didn't even put him on the aisle to begin with,
that again, usually a mistake.

Speaker 5 (01:56:35):
And it's only a couple of days.

Speaker 6 (01:56:37):
But still well, as is usually the case when it
comes to any injury like this, that's keeping one of
your best, if not your best player out any significant
amount of time you try to look at other examples
of players dealing with something either exactly the same or similar.
I mean, it's just it's odd because it's like, well,

(01:56:57):
his hand is inflamed, but we're talking about break here.
We're not even talking about a hairline fracture, nothing like that.
But yet when he keeps using it, it keeps getting inflamed.
And I feel like this is the case with not
just jord On. I mean, it's just I'm not saying
this is Kyle Tucker all over again, But why is
it taking so long?

Speaker 5 (01:57:16):
Why is it taking so long? Why can't we get more?

Speaker 7 (01:57:18):
Often it's less about why is it taking so long?
Because we don't know how long it's supposed to take.

Speaker 6 (01:57:22):
Right, And in this case with with his hand, I'm
just the only way to really make sure it doesn't
happen is to keep him from playing.

Speaker 5 (01:57:33):
Perfect.

Speaker 7 (01:57:33):
I'll go out and beat the Rays without Jordan Alvarez
almost the sixteenth game with this injury, since he's gone
on the IL. When they take on the Rays tonight,
just how it's like I said, I don't and I
wouldn't bring him back if he's not healthy.

Speaker 5 (01:57:48):
Just wait, certainly against them I'm not concerned about who
it is.

Speaker 7 (01:57:52):
I don't want to. Oh my gosh, they they're back home.
Who do they play when they get back home? It's
Seattle for four bringing back no not if he's not ready.

Speaker 5 (01:58:04):
I don't like the prospect of playing Seattle Mariners for
four games.

Speaker 2 (01:58:07):
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:58:07):
One of their longer home stands of the season arrives
after these three games against Tampa Seattle for four, West
Sacramento for two, and then they finish their season series
with the Rays basically right when they started. All seven
games come over their next thirteen ball games.

Speaker 6 (01:58:24):
But if you do make some hay against the Mariners,
maybe you find yourself in first place when all of
a sudden done at Mariners.

Speaker 7 (01:58:30):
Astros and Rangers not separated by much. We'll get into
the standings. We get into the Astros on deck, showing
a little bit more on what they're probably doing pitching
wise tonight and tomorrow, likely throwing two rookies in some format.
Sounds like Ryan Gusto is available tonight if necessary, likely
not starting tomorrow, but not a given, probably till after

(01:58:50):
the game.

Speaker 5 (01:58:51):
Brandon Walter is not yet on.

Speaker 7 (01:58:52):
The roster, but as part of the taxi squad probably
is your starter. I mean, the Astros will throw three
consecutive lefty start if that's the case. Valdez went yesterday,
Gordon goes today, Walter today. Be nice if the Astros
faced that and we didn't even mention it. Regarding what
happened in the win yesterday, a rarity the Astros against

(01:59:13):
a left handed pitcher. It happened earlier in the series
when they made their comeback the six run inning started
against a left handed reliever, and when they hit the
three run homer yesterday to take the lead, that came
off a left handed reliever. Their right handed dominant lineup
has not been able to feast on left handed pitchers,
certainly not as starters because they basically never face them,

(01:59:33):
and bullpen arms a little bit more likely they'll see
them because there's only so many at a manager's disposal.
Who's got the ability to go today, who's fresh. Things
like that, and hopefully the Astros can continue to take
advantage of that their offense. Not so unsurprisingly, with the
way things have gone well, they're being led by one
player almost across the board. With what Esach Perettis did

(01:59:55):
his first road home run, a pretty big one and
yet another happy flight for the Astros because of it.

Speaker 6 (02:00:01):
At least Christian Walker showed some signs of life in
this series at times during this series. But yeah, you
would hope that you can make some hay against Tampa
Bay before again. That's I love those big long home stands.
You only get them like once a year at least
ones of this size. Yeah, Walker now up to one
seventy six on the road. He's got a five thirty

(02:00:22):
three OPS, so it's showing some signs of life ops
in May, big jump from April.

Speaker 7 (02:00:28):
It was only six thirty two in April. It's six
forty five this month, So he does.

Speaker 5 (02:00:33):
He has a pulse.

Speaker 7 (02:00:34):
He had three run bombs, got more RBIs this month
than he had all the last month. The bar's low
ten to nine with half a month left. Basically, well,
I should hope that he does add to that total. Hey,
he's got a great glove though, so I'll take that
every single day. Does deserve to be in the lineup
every day and is still a bad and clean up.
We'll confirm that on the Astros on Deck show coming

(02:00:56):
up next.

Speaker 5 (02:00:58):
The

Speaker 1 (02:01:00):
Talk seven ninety