AC is Back, MLB All-Star Game, NFL's Top QBs, Rockets Offseason Grades

Tuesday on The A-Team, AC was back with Wex as the guys previewed the All-Star Game, discussed where CJ Stroud ranks among QBs, shared their thoughts on the Rockets' offseason, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into a Tuesday edition of the A Team. It
is Sports Talk seven to ninety. Wex AC back together, reunited,
and it feels so good. Look the mic is already loose.
I'm already matched.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
July fourteenth, this is our second show together this month.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
And as I told my little guy when I got home,
we're not going anywhere for a long long time. By
the way, I need to tell you, we're going to
do a KC Christmas. I just haven't requested the dates off.
That's December.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
We got time.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's good to be a whole again. Josh along here
with us as we get through the All Star break.
No games yesterday, today, tomorrow, and no games for the
Astros or almost everybody else in baseball on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
There's one game on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Astros rezume on Friday like most of the rest of
the league, and we know where they will stand when
they do. Some of the things that have happened over
the last week and change. We'll revisit a little bit
with your arrival back to the program here, but clearly,
where do they go from here is a big top. Obviously,
we'll talk about the eight performers from last night's home

(01:04):
run Derby for all the little bits and pieces that
come out of that when people complain about everything or
they're excited about everything, and the same thing will happen
again tonight. At bat number two of tonight's game belongs
to Jordon Alvarez, and we'll see how much he is
asked to go to the plate. Probably twice if I
were guessing, He'll get to at bats and then call

(01:25):
it an evening and make his way back to relaxing
doing nothing. Obviously, the question here the last few days,
and a couple people asked me yesterday how come jord
On Alvarez isn't in the Home run Derby? And I'm
telling them back, the question shouldn't be that. It should
be aren't you excited that he's not in the Home
run Derby? Just do nothing. Yord On Alvarez is doing

(01:45):
everything he can to carry this offense and team and
teams that they play are getting smarter and smarter about it,
seeing as how he's pitched around quite a bit, especially
in their last game. He will be at the All
Star Game, but hopefully takes some time away to be
prepared to have a lengthy season. He's been very available
so far this season, and his availability is the reason

(02:07):
why the Astros, mathematically at four games under five hundred,
are absolutely still in it.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Were you aware of a very this is a very distinguished,
very interesting fact, Jordan Alvarez. His home runs look even
more majestic in Mexico. Were you aware of this.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
As adio that's along with it watching somebody read highlights
over it in Espanol?

Speaker 3 (02:29):
No, no, no, no, it wasn't that.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Everything I told WEX this and some others before the
show started. I did not turn a television screen on
the entire week. And it was crazy because it wasn't intentional.
It's just the way it went down.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
I was on my phone and I would check, you know,
social media, specifically you know X and Instagram. Those two
were the most I was traveling, and when it came
to sports, it was very much I'm going to scroll
X see what's going on. I listened to I think
the first few innings of I want to say, Friday's
game against the Rangers, the opener of that series on

(03:03):
the iHeartRadio app, which yes, it does work south of
the border. It's free, by the way, you should download
it right now. But that's how I kind of kept
track of what was going on, but I was just like,
this guy is unbelievable. He's totally going to be, pending
no injury, the American League MVP this year.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
He has to be.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, I think that's definitely where things are headed. We
talked about it quite a bit. Most people have of
them mid season MVP, and they could have said that
seventeen games ago, because we're long, long past the actual
halfway point of the season. There's only sixty four games left.
He is leading the American League in enough categories that
he's definitely the front runner, and he definitely has a

(03:42):
chance to win the triple Crown. I don't think it
matters very much where the Astros finish this year because
everybody is basically the same outside of the Rays and
maybe the Royals and Angels on the other end of things,
so not a factor. I wouldn't think in this year's race,
somebody over the final two weeks of this that's outside
the playoff race. If some one player that's in the

(04:05):
hunt goes crazy for two weeks, a starter who spins
three unbelievable games, which is very unlikely, it's a position
player award. Most of the time, or some offensive player
junior Camon Arrow and the Raids are holding off the Yankees,
let's say, and he goes berserk again. Something like that
might turn a voter's mind. But we got into the
All Star Game, and it's also an opportunity for writers

(04:28):
around the country, many of whom will have votes for
different awards. It's again two per city in a Major
League Baseball town, that's who wins MVP votes. Two people
in Houston will vote for it, and two people in
each of the other American League cities will vote for it,
and that's how you fill out of ballot. It's not
necessarily a national award from that perspective, But they're all
writing their same stories here at the All Star break,

(04:49):
and they're all saying the same thing. Yeah, he's the
best offensive player, he's the MVP. He has no peers,
and many other people are starting to realize he didn't
come from out of nowhere to reach this point. He's
probably having his best season, but he's done things like
this before.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
I mean twenty twenty two was the last time we
saw him put up these kinds of numbers. But these
kinds of numbers are shrinking in comparison to what he's
on pace to put with this year.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Put it this way, he's at thirty one homers, so
when he hits seven more of them, he'll have a
new career high. He's seven away from setting a new
career high, and this is his fifth thirty home run season.
He's done this before, and playing in one hundred and
fifty games is something he's never done before, and the

(05:41):
obviously it remains to be seen if that happens, but
that's the kind of baseball he's been able to produce.
He leads the league in hits, which is why he
has a chance to win the Triple Crown, hitting three
to eighteen, trailing only one other player, and he also
leads the league in homers. RBIs on base percentage, slugging
percentage opsops plus total bases, and his intentional walk total,

(06:05):
partially because of the rest of the team. He'll set
a new career high in that this year as well.
He's one shy of the sixteen he had two years ago.
He's been intentionally walked fifteen times in ninety six games
this year. That number is going to rise rapidly if
somebody's else around him, the leadoff hitter in front of him,
and the seven guys that bat behind him don't start

(06:25):
doing a little bit more offensively.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, there have been many, many occasions, and in that
Rangers series specifically, because as I kind of got back
into the groove of things, just watching how that series unfolded,
Sunday was particularly excruciating.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, the Astros had a chance to win all three games.
They had a chance to win only two of the
games they did, and the Astros didn't.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, Friday sucked.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Sunday or Saturday was obviously fantastic, and then Sunday was
just like a roller coaster. And I believe either Todd
or Blummer referred to on the television side during the broadcast,
It's just that's what I was thinking, though.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I'm like, come on, somebody's got to come through. Somebody
has to.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
And look a lot of times you find that it's
Christian Walker coming up with either a walked yord on
or he's put himself on base with something other than
a home run, because as we always like to say,
he's a professional hitter, not just a professional home run hitter.
But you a lot is left to be desired at times,
and that's kind of been the theme of this twenty

(07:27):
twenty six Astros campaign.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Offensively, Yeah, once they got Esach Perettis hitting the way
he is currently and now his overall season numbers look
very good again. He's definitely had a nice second part
of the first part of the season, and that's why
he's in the in the spot behind Yordon and even
though they elected to pitch around yord On and send
him to first base, that put Perettas in the situation

(07:50):
to come through. He did, and a two run single
tied the game. Unfortunately, Christian Walker followed and did not
come through, and.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
He's he's still buoyed a little bit by his awesome
start to the season.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
He hasn't been awful.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
He's clearly fits in this lineup near the top of
the order, and that's both a factor of how he's
played and a factor of how everybody else has played.
Altwovey is I think best suited to bat somewhere other
than the lead off, even though his numbers by far
are better than anywhere else in the lineup when he
hits first, but it's not because of him.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
That's the thing. The Astros leadoff hitters.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
It really probably doesn't even matter who you put there,
because they're batting in front of yord On and so
they're going to get pitches to hit, because walking batters
in front of him makes no sense. Jeremy Payne, his
numbers in front of yord onn are great and have
been for two years. Altuove's numbers are significantly better when
he bats first, as opposed to pretty much anywhere else
but Altuve, cam Smith, whoever else is filling out your

(08:45):
housefield on any given day, and yaner ds those guys.
Some of those players have got to produce more. They're
signs with the peripherals some of the deeper analytic numbers
on cam Smith that continue to look very good. It's
hard hit rate is way up from last year. His
barrel percentage is right behind yord On Alvarez and has
been in most of the year. His batting average with

(09:06):
balls in play is what is unfortunate, and it's more
a matter of luck as opposed to not doing anything right.
Last year was significantly higher and this year is way down,
and yet his batting average is identical, so it should
tell you he's just kind of run into hitting the
ball as hard as he can at players far too
often this year, and tod as his credit. Since he's

(09:26):
been back from his injury, he's been significantly more helpful offensively,
both with his power, his swing, decisions, taking pitches, all
those things that separate him from the other catcher offensively,
there's a little bit of a difference to the other direction,
working with the pitchers and everything else that goes with

(09:46):
why they added a player in Christian Vasquez who can't
hit at all, but does matter on your baseball team
for how he handles the pitching staff and what he's
all about defensively.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
All Right, the state of the Astros will definitely be
a huge part of today's show, simply because it's the
first time we've been back together since the proverbial first
half is in the books. How many games was it though, thirteen?

Speaker 2 (10:08):
I mean we were together for the eighty first game
of the season. Wow, that seems like forever ago. It
was seventeen games ago, almost three full weeks. Man, there's
only sixty four games left. Here's your scale. There's ninety
eight on one side and there's sixty four on the others.
This is even remotely close to the halfway point.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
I think esh, no, I think it's bogus Evic that
was saying that that this is going to be a
legit sprint to the finish.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, the thing that I again, I've done my best.
I did say first half one time over the last
couple of weeks. But it makes me even more angry
with all of the nonsense that we got the last
week or so. Oh, this is the most home runs
anybody's hit before the All Star break. This is the
most hits it because it changes every year. You're taking
a moving target and saying, well, this is the best

(10:54):
we've ever seen before the.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
All Star break.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
So you're telling me somebody who played in ninety six
games did more than somebody who played in eighty one.
No way, you gotta be kidding me how that happened.
Same thing they do this, You know, this is the
best anybody's done before the end of April, because they're
playing like seven games in March this year. They used
to start the season on April fourth. Whatever you can
do to make something sound spectacular, I am here to

(11:16):
reign on your parade.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Someone call that a wet blanket.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Summer league ongoing. You heard from their head coach during
Summer League. The Rockets head coach earlier today on the
Matt Thommys Show with Ross. They'll play game number three
and under an hour, and then we'll play game number
four on Thursday. Figure out the rest of their schedule
after those results are in. We haven't talked much about
what has actually now taken place for all of these teams.
Nearly all of the reported moves have become official all

(11:42):
around the league. The Miles Bridges acquisition for the Suns
became official yesterday. A couple other deals became official. Jonas
Valanchunis is not going to be in the NBA next year.
Apparently he's gonna sign overseas, and all of that as
it applies to the Houston Rockets worth our discussion a
little bit. Obviously, we're all waiting on if Kawhi Leonard
will in fact be shipped north of the border and

(12:03):
become a Raptor. That deal, for other reasons is on hold,
And of course we are less than three weeks away
from training camp. Technically we are within two weeks and
one day of training camp. Our show two weeks from
Wednesday will be after the first Texans practice of the
twenty twenty six season and training camp. So looking forward
to some of the discussion that that brings up quite

(12:25):
obviously with how everybody looks at this roster positionally overall
as it relates to the AFC, and you know, off
season predictions of where it all fits together. Tons of
that to discuss, including your quarterback again, not just today
but merely every day. And if you missed the end
of yesterday's show, I did give you a little bit

(12:46):
of what has happened at the All Star Game regarding
Justin Verlander. But I'm sure many of you would love
to hear it.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
We'll do that in Best of X about twenty minutes
from now the AED on Sports seven ninety. It's a
Tuesday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Before we get into it here, I have to tell
what something that happened on vacation.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
The wife and I went.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
It's the first time we've been away from the kids
a kid period and then later both kids in over
a decade.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
This is partly our anniversary trip.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
It was like a combo of her birthday, which is
will Well that was March of twenty sixteen. Got it,
But it was like, okay, why don't we go to
Cabo for our ten year anniversary, slash your birthday and
we'll actually fly out the day after your birthday.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
So that's what we did.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
And we are big fans of a certain energy drink
that I will not name on this program until they
pay me to do so, because believe me, I will
endorse the crap out of this drink if they pay
me to do so. But until that happens, I'm not
going to say it. But it's a temperature, so she'd
kind of give you an idea of what it is.
There is a there's many different flavors, and we both

(14:00):
have our own that we kind of like more than
the other. And a lot of times one person likes one,
the other person completely can't stand it.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
So keeping the stock that the house is tricky. Right.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
All of this, all of this is to say we
discovered something while we were in Mexico. They make a
greape flavor and when I tell you, it tastes like
carbonated dimatap, And I'm dead serious. And when I say
we both love it, I cannot be more serious about
something It tastes like your ingesting dimonatap that's been carbonated.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, just in case, there's a handful or one listener
that doesn't know dimetaps medicine. Yeah, so the people you
and your missus are enjoying carbonated medicine as your drink
of choice.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
And not lean all you seven to one to three
years out there.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Not that that's coding if it tastes like medicine. I mean,
I know that, especially for kids. What flavor would you
like when you're picking up your medicine when they're making
it for you at the pharmacy, let's say, or obviously
when you're buying it off the shelf. You can cherry
or grape or whatever. But it still tastes no matter

(15:06):
bubble gum flavor, it still tastes like medicine.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Can I tell you about the worst in my life
as a child when I was too old to get
liquid amoxaicillin, which tasted like legit bubble gum? What'd you
go with instead of liquid pills? As form it was pills?
I'm like, what is this? And I remember asking the
doctor can I have it in liquid? Well, we'd have
to give you like eight bottles to equip, you know,
be the equivalent of what you need to take. I'm like,

(15:30):
that's fine, what's the problem. So, in case you can't
tell I'm back on the show because we're talking about
diamond tap flavored energy drinks, Yes, I'm back. But we
had a nice little streak, gum stretch of just normal sports,
docking sports.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
This segment met the Astros again, and we'll hit the rockets.
We'll do the Texans and back to the Astros. I mean,
I had a few off topic segments over the last
six shows.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
And you saw of me when that happened, didn't you.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Uh, you would total this, but there was still a
way to spin it back that it's really I was
really talking about sports.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
You kept you kept it on the truck.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Some link to a sporting angle that I could do.
I haven't found one.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
In the.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Carbonated grape flavored medicine that we couldn't get enough of
on vacation.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
This is not that flavor, but it's good right now.
Maybe it's not available here in this neck of state,
so it is.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
I had it shipped to our house in bulk at
the airport so that it would be there when we
got home.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
What a country. Whatever keeps you alive and cooking here
on this program. By the way, one more thing on
this subject.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
The reason this is even a thing, we can't find
this particular drink anywhere in Mexico. It's not sold except
for this one place called the California market.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
So today you're talking about your first world problems. Was
it a first world problem there?

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Also? It was a first world problem in a third
world country.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Okay, guys, when I say this and listen, anytime you
go somewhere like you've been out of the country for
vacations before. Correct, Yes, it like I'm not trying to
like be that guy. We have it so good here.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
We just got all these from all of these other
countries to visit. A lot of our major cities still going.
We got a game at Dallas Stadium today and they
were saying all the things you're about to say, and
in their case, it didn't seem to be a lot
of what they expected, those that were here for the
first time. And again it's not a full picture of
the entire country. Correct, And they were where did they go?

Speaker 1 (17:26):
They went to Los Angeles, they went to Philadelphia, they
went to Boston, they went to Houston, they went to Dallas,
They Kansas City. Let's just take something that's because That's
a good topic as far as what we are hearing.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Can show you back here. It's great. It's a sports
World Cup.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
We were hearing this kind of stuff, both of us
as the World Cup was playing out, and then to
go to and I'll just take something as simple as
the freeway from the airport to where we stayed.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
That's it. Nothing else.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
I won't talk about the squalor that I passed on
the side of that where people were living no air conditioning,
no running plumbing, any of that kind of stuff. Take
the worst city in America that you think is whatever,
like the worst city to go visit?

Speaker 3 (18:09):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (18:10):
I mean, the first major city that has freeways. I mean,
oh man, you were just in Cleveland. That's a pretty
bad one, right.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
It seemed fine. I would probably, Well, I haven't been
in Detroit for a lot of time, but.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
That's a good one to put that one on. The
people crap on Detroit all the time. Detroit's worst freeway
is approximately ten eleventy billion times better than the freeway
that we were on. It's just insane. It just really
is so not to like go all perspective. Second segment,
it's nice here in America, it's fine. Really is nice
here it is?

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Now. Do you you watched the Derby every single year
without fail? Right? I really didn't.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
We were, you know, everybody's at the house and everybody
was available, so we were making dinner, and so I
was it was on. Well that's what I do when
I literally I walk in the door and I peek
into the kitchen. I'm like, I guess I gotta start dinner,
even though we've already decided what we're having.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yeah, so I gotta planet out.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
This is gonna take this long, Gotta start this, Gotta
make sure that's happy. This person's gonna help cooking that,
and then we get our dinner. Usually we don't. We
don't have not that much anymore. Have sports on the
TV while we're eating something. It's you know a lot
of different things right now, we're in a pop culture
Jeopardy while we're eating Watch that a lot.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
But I didn't really start watching the Derby until they
had just wrapped up Round number one. I mean, I
know what happened, and I've gone back and watched a
bunch of clips of some guy's full first round performances.
But I picked it up starting then and watch it
the rest of the way.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
I feel awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
I thought, of all the things, especially baseball, related to
our terrible things to bet on, this has to be
right up there at the top. Because when's the last
time a favorite quote unquote won this thing?

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Weber, Yeah, you're you're taking into account guesswork. Oh, listen
to what they were saying when when Jordan Walker was
up there as a right handed hitter. Oh, it just
doesn't it looks like such a free and easy swing.
He's got easy power. Well, then why was he the
the biggest underdog Because they weren't saying that before he
started hitting all these home runs in front of their eyeballs.

(20:05):
It's hard to gauge who's going to absolutely crush in
a scenario like this. And they also were trying to
figure out, how do we think it's gonna play with
this new setup, you know, just yesterday afternoon, and I
figured he would cop to it later in the day.
All these national analysts are asked, what do you think.
Jeff Passingers happened to be one of them, and he said,
I think the Derby is going to stink, and mainly

(20:26):
because of how they've changed the rules. And immediately after
Walker hit the walk off homer, he said, I was wrong.
I you know, leave it to me, because it's not
always going to be this way, and I'm sure these
rules are gonna stick at least for one more year.
But because of the way the participants performed, it led
to the drama. What if Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper
were eliminated early, well, then the fans wouldn't have been

(20:48):
into it all the way until the final swing of
the entire event. What if other players had hit home
runs on their last swing which gave them more swings,
which happened in only the final Like all of these
things had to come together in such a way last
night that it became what it was. We're not guaranteed
to see this again, but I thought my just my
thought on the whole thing overall was I never really

(21:10):
felt like it dragged on, and almost every other year
it has, whether it was a time thing or he's
just hit his twenty seventh homer, thirtieth homer, or his
fortieth homer. And yes, fatigue becomes a part of it,
which I think this helps to eliminate. Yeah, my only
concern going in didn't play into it. I thought hitters
would be even more selective than they were because if
they're only counting your swings, yep, if you know Senor

(21:34):
Pena who was throwing, or Jack's dad who was also throwing.
If they're not throwing a pitch you want to swing at,
don't swing at it. You're you're limited. Every pitch you
swing at counts. So taking pitches, which Walker ultimately did
after he hit the tying home run and before he
hit the game winning home run, walk off home run,
game winning huh, he took a couple pitches because he

(21:54):
just didn't I'm not about to hit this out or
I'm not completely locked in. But it didn't really slow
things down. If we want to discuss the Will Ferrell
Luke Wilson portion of the Evening, I'm open to it.
But I hope people realize this is what every network
has done in the history of sports broadcasting. Usually, when
it's like on Fox, they'll show up somebody in the stands, Hey,

(22:18):
there's so and so and so and so can't wait
for the debut of there.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
This series is gonna be awful coming on Fox on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
And in this case, Netflix has people that are about
to be featured on Netflix, so they gave them their microphones.
People's thoughts on what Will Ferrell is as a comedic
performer is definitely worth discussing.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
He did not rate very well last night.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Well, and as we go to break really quickly, I
do think it's hilarious every time, something like every time.
I don't know how every time when you've got a
guy who only is making just under eight hundred grand
per year is now made to be some sort of
sympathetic figure because the prize of a million dollar exceeded
his annual sun.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
I don't know if he's a sympathetic figure. It's just
if you are paying any attention at all to baseball,
if you're even a small, tiny little fan of baseball casual.
Everybody now knows because nobody could stop talking about it
after it happened last night. I mean, somebody even went
through the trouble of posting on x Here's how much
money Jordan Walker has made every day this season. Started

(23:22):
in March on the twenty fifth, when the season began
and ran all the way through the end of the season.
It's basically two hundred and ninety seven dollars a day.
Except for yesterday when he made a million, two hundred
and ninety seven dollars in that day.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
And yeah, it is more than his annual salary. So
it is. It's cool, it's this is I mean.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
I think they almost always get most of the right performers.
They hit homers, they had power, nobody embarrassed themselves, and
there were a good mix of hometown people. You had
two of the eight participants playing for the home the
team where they're playing, the having the exhibition. You got
a couple of young players, obviously they're making very little money.
Walker was one of them, Kaglio was another, and some

(24:01):
other recognizable names or guys who are hitting bombs this year.
The two guys that are closely chasing Jordan Alvarez in
the American League, we're both in the derby, Ben Rice
and Junior Cameron Earray.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Because they'll now lag even further behind them when their
arms fall off, we'll see, yee, that's what usually happens.
Love the fact that Jordan was nowhere near that event.
Best of X that's straight ahead. Then all right, I
think I think you might have discussed this yesterday, but

(24:34):
I'm honestly not sure.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Did the a Rod thing happen last night or the
day before.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yesterday is the day where everybody has arrived from their
respective final games of the pre All Star Break portion
of the season, So Monday is media day. Everybody has
their podium, makes the rounds. If people want to interview them,
bring them on set. Fox has their on field set
everything else. So Fox with Burkhart or Teaz and Jeter
and Rodriguez have their set and they invite people of

(25:04):
consequence to join them.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Sometimes they say yes. JV said yes.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Verlander joined their set yesterday, and our friends over at
you can find them on the X platform at Sports
Talk seven to ninety posted a video of an exchange
between Alex Rodriguez and Justin Verlander. More than two million
people have now viewed it. Yesterday was in the low
one hundred thousands. It obviously gained a tremendous amount of
traction because a Rod is polarizing and comes across as

(25:33):
a i'll be nice a boob.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Sometimes he's an idiot, as Kevin Durant would say, and
in this case he did yesterday.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
So yeah, we played just a little bit of it
late in yesterday's show before we had the Nightcap, which
will be coming your way again tonight at six o'clock
with Josh Jordan. But we wanted you guys to really
soak it all in. This is middle of the day yesterday.
JV is at the All Star Game because the commissioner said, hey, man,
you want to come to the All Star Game. You're
a legend and all and even just announced your retirement

(26:01):
from baseball, and your one game this year was not
All Star worthy, so somehow you didn't make the team.
But my request, I'd love to have you here. And
it's something the commissioner has the power to do the
last couple of All Star Games, and I'm sure moving
forward they will do that when necessary. Justin Verlanders's career
is absolutely why you have these couple of days for

(26:21):
people to soak it all in. And having him there
is absolutely the right thing to do, and it's awesome
for him, and it's awesome for baseball, it's nice for
the Tigers all the things that go with it. So
he was in the middle of the interview and this
is what A Rod had for him, and we'll give
you the full A Rod experience as he aligns JV
up for this very important well thought, out fully researched.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
I know what I'm talking about. Question justin.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
First of all, I've been a huge fan of your
career from day one when you stepped into the OLDI
Ange Stadium and.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Blue balls right by me. Good memory.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
You know for you always had three thousand. So course,
so I guess one. I also look at you as
like I look at Tom Brady, Jeter, you know, Poppy
Mariano's guys that played into their forties and is doing
at a high level.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
But this is for the young ones that are out
there watching.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
How do you explain being a late draft pick being
designated for as Simon a couple of times with two
different teams?

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Right me? Yeah, no, I'll get it. My question have.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Got the wrong At that point the question is irrelevant. Well,
he like I said this this afternoon. I said it
again yesterday when we played it. It's like he was
setting up for him up for a question that he
never got around to asking. Because he described him and
then was being serious about it. Apparently that made it
just flat out wrong and in this case so wrong.

(27:44):
Before I introduced that audio yesterday, I said, just for
those of you who are getting ready to hear this,
keep this in mind, and I ran through the entire
transaction history of Justin Verlanders's career.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Drafted. He wasn't the first pick in the draft. He
was the second. That's not a late round pick, that's
the second pick in a draft. And he has performed
just like you would hope a second pick in the draft.
Has all the moves that have been made. He's become
a free agent a couple of times because, like hundreds
of other players, every year their contract expires. He's been
traded a couple of times to Houston, and he's played

(28:17):
for a couple of teams now, the Astros and the Mets,
and the Giants and of course the Tigers wants and
the Tigers again at no point which is why, And
you can see it on the video when they actually
still have a shot of more than just a rod
and JV, the look on David Ortiz's face is like
wait what wait? Well, designated for assignment twice. He didn't

(28:37):
even just butcher it softly. He butchered the whole freaking thing.
And of course JV handled it like a pro, said
I think he got the wrong notes, and then he
answered his totally inane question that came after that.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
By the way, do you think the Padres would like
to have that draft back.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Before him?

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, Baseball's nuts, and we haven't talked.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
We didn't.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
I didn't talk about it yesterday, the first day back
for the two day draft Saturday and Sunday for Major
League Baseball and all the new baseball players, the Astros
and their picks. But it's definitely worth discussing a little bit.
Just keep this note in mind, there's nothing like the
baseball draft when compared to the other sports.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
It's night and day.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
We think NFL teams stink at evaluating quarterbacks, well, the
equivalent of that in Major League Baseball is one hundred
percent of the draft position players, pitchers, college players, juco players,
high school players. Look at the hit rates of the
number one pick in the draft, and you'll be appalled

(29:37):
at how infrequently they matter. Some have made it, or
some have not even made it to the major leagues.
Others have been in the majors for such a short
period of time. We're talking about negative point two war
career players and a couple have done some great things well,
but it's insane how little you find out that you

(29:58):
knew we'll find out what the Astros new in a
couple of seasons.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, I mean, justin Verlander far and away the best
player of the four draft.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, he's one of the best players that's everard on the.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
You put on a uniform.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
So in that sense, you're absolutely correct that he's you know,
taken exactly where he should have been. But I mean
you pought of Matt Busch, non talent, non major league talent.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
I guess you could say, right.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Well, Mission Bay High School just doesn't crank him out
the way they used to.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Well, he's attempted, and I don't mean he's not played
in the major leagues. But this is this is our
our new We're gonna build our franchise around him. He's
gonna be the next great player that we have acquired
through the draft because we stink and it just doesn't
work out that way you did.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
After Verlander.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
You did not have another All Star in that draft
until what eleven picks later? It, uh, well, I should
say ten picks later technically, Jared Weaver. I mean you
have to actually go down to the bottom of that
draft to really start saying, oh, these are some great

(31:08):
players that would pick like Houston Street, and you.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Can think of Jared Weaver as an All Star, and
I think that's fair. He did make it three times.
I think of Jared Weaver as one of the many,
many people in baseball that hated Kyle Seger well because
he intentionally threw at him, which was awesome.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
Did you know how much I hate when people throw
it guys?

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Right?

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, you talk about it all the time. Now.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
He did it not because his team had been thrown
at and not because that guy owned him. He did
it because he was mad at his antics and his nonsense,
the Wan Soto stuff that he was doing to Zach
Greenki in the twenty nineteen World Series.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
He was just like, stop asking for time out. Stop
going through your ridiculous routine.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
You would be automatically out in the current era of
baseball because the pitch clock would run out every single time.
So after he called time out over and over and
over again, he just threw the baseball at him.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah, it was great.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
In fact, I don't know anybody who didn't hate Seeger
other than Corey Seeger.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
That's the list because of that very thing. But yeah,
Hunter Pence was in that draft. Taken by the Astros
sixty fourth overall, Dustin Pedroia, Kurt Suzuki, who I.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Think is still playing. He's managing. Oh, that's right, he
just stopped playing last year. Right.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
He was also someone who visited the postgame podium.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Did he not? In Houston in twenty nineteen, didn't happen?

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Some stupid Walgreens logo was on the screen there and
I walked out of the stadium.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
I was very bitter.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
So, yeah, A Rod's an idiot. That was the moral
of this segment.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
It was pretty easy to come up with that, and
obviously we did not need to hit the comments because
that's the feeling that everybody had before yesterday and continues today.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Speaking of Orlander, let's get this debate out of the way.
We'll explain when we come back. The Age on Sports
Talks on a Tuesday edition of the program, wax A
c back together again, Josh Jordan producing as per usual.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
By the way, when's Josh taking some vacation time?

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Uh, he's been taking some vacation time over the last
couple of weeks, saying well, I'll still show up for
your show, but I'm going to vacation. On the morning
show here and there and take some time away from
you guys.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Busy, very busy. You're yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
This is something that as soon as we saw the
Verlander is retiring news. It's something that Astros fans actually
have talked about, probably more than I thought they would
at the time. But given his resume and given what
happened here, I think it's a really good debate. But
I don't think it's much of a debate. Let me
just get this out of the way. I'm not going

(33:40):
to do the one two three thing that the show
before us does, But justin Verlander's going into the Hall
of Fame with an Astros cap on.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
Right, I do not believe that will be the case.
See that's stupid on his part. Well, it's not his choice.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
The Hall of Fame makes that choice, so we avoid
the putting it on the choice in that way. I
believe there's and I'm not even sure if it's completely
one hundred percent that way. I think input is gathered
from him and maybe others, but ultimately I think the
decision is still theirs, and I don't know that that's
changed much over the years.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
So if it was only justin Verlander's choice. Do you
still think it would be a Tiger's.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
It's hard to say what people think, and going inside
his mind, why is he even a Tiger today? Because
of how much he values his time in their organization.
He was their draft pick, he made his debut with them,
He went to the World Series twice with them. He
built what basically is the best pitcher in baseball resume

(34:37):
with them. If he'd never pitched for the Astros. Currently,
there's only one pitcher in baseball right now that has
more wins than he had with the Tigers' just Sureser,
nobody else. If you took away all of his Astros wins,
he'd be number two on the active list. And he
won a bunch of games here in Houston because he

(34:58):
was so awesome. He won seventy three games. He's won
eighty three games out of a Tiger's uniform. He won
four with San Francisco last year, and he won six
of the Mets.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
I did love when people were asking him to recount
his favorite times as a Met.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yes, I'm sure somebody that likes to steal MT's shtick
that lives in New York probably tried that one out.
What was your favorite Justin Verlander as a met moment
something like that, inement no doubt the extreme success he
had here and it being in such a short period
of time and him clearly being better here than he

(35:35):
was there. The down years here in Houston were never
basically until his last year here, he was arguably the
best pitcher in baseball from the moment he put on
their uniform until the moment he left in twenty twenty two.
And you probably had an argument this year or that
year when he was with Detroit, because he had down

(35:56):
years in Detroit. He went five and eight, He went
and had a four fifty four RA, He led the
league in losses with a four eighty four RA. Things
that never happened here in Houston because he was better,
He was more successful over that time period. Now he
was the best pitcher in baseball probably three times, maybe
four times with the Tigers over a twice as long

(36:19):
period basically thirteen years there. But he was healthy all
of that time versus the I don't know how to
categorize his time here, did he was?

Speaker 3 (36:25):
He was here for eight.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Years, part of this year, part of that year, missed
all of twenty twenty one, essentially missed all of twenty twenty,
so equating those is a bit difficult. But he had
a Hall of Fame career before he arrived here, in
my opinion.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
But that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
If you talk about, well why is he back in
a tiger's uniform because of the sentimental aspect in this,
you know, the full circle thing.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
Well, if it was so great, why do you ever leave?

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Look how tough it was for him and Kate to
decide that. He's told the story many times.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Twenty seven seconds to spare or something like that, Like
he did not want to leave. He did it.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
They weren't. He wasn't being shopped. It kind of came together.
They were obviously in a place where he wasn't. They
weren't expected to compete that year, and they weren't expected
to compete in the years to come. And is this
an opportunity for me to go somewhere else and do
something that I haven't yet done?

Speaker 3 (37:15):
And that's when we come.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
I mean, most of what I said is for the
position I took last week when it came out, and
I'll share again today. I would have him go in
as a tiger. Your position is the opposite and that's
when he threw another no hitter and won the Cy
Young Award again and again, and when he won the
World Series for the first time and the second time.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, I've got a very good argument, but I get
where your argument and others in Detroit come from. I
think if you were to just sample people on the street,
six or seven out of every ten would say Tigers
because you know.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Do they also go to stadiums and boo Jordan Alvarez.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Probably, and Kyle Tucker. Yeah, and Alex Bregman.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Well, Alex Bregman was much more of a part of it.
I would think, like they boot players, don't boot Garrett Cole.
It's that's where, Yeah, they don't like the Astros.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah, they're much justin as much.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
As he did not step to the plate and try
to see if he could hear the bang when he
was swinging the bat, he was a.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Part of it.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
You would thinker who that would directly affect the position
he plays would have been a little bit more demonstrative,
but he didn't say anything.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
It benefited him and that he would be the pitcher
of record and games they might have won because they
did a little bit more offensively Yeah, it didn't really
benefit him in having a one to seventy five VRA.
It didn't really benefit him as leading the league in
whip three times with the Astros.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Also, you lost two home games Dodgers in the World Series.
Just want to remind you that again one more time.
You don't carry your back to back defending World Series champions.
All right, speaking of Astro's pitchers, this is the other direction,
Mike Burrows. That whole situation is that first of several
moves for the Astros. We'll get to that, plus the
state of the team heading into the All Star break

(39:06):
when we come back for hour number two. Team, it's
Sports Talk seven to ninety. WEX over there ac right here.
Josh Jordan is our producer. We're taking you up until
six o'clock. Matter of fact, we're doing that all week
as no scheduled Astros games until Friday, when the All
Star festivities will be over. Yeah, the derby last night,

(39:27):
as the All Star Week continues. Traditionally WEX the slowest
week on the sports calendar, but I think it was
while I was gone. The Texans officially released their schedule
on training camp. They report to twenty eighth. They start
work twenty ninth, if you will, and then we're off
and running. I mean we're we're on the countdown for

(39:48):
that's it's July fifteenth tomorrow, so this is when you
really start to And.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
By the way, we're gonna hear from CJ. Stroud later
in the show.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
I don't know if Houston's gonna like it too much
what he had to say two years ago, two years ago?

Speaker 3 (40:03):
What do you mean? Oh?

Speaker 1 (40:04):
When he said that, well, why is it just now
coming to light? I guess when stuff like that social media,
it's just like it was posted. I'm sure two years
ago too, but he was a darling two years ago.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
It happened in the off season of twenty twenty three,
between this rookie season and its second season, when he
was pretty much everywhere and had his old hairstyle.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
It's not resurfacing by accident, then who knows?

Speaker 2 (40:28):
I never there's no I mean, same thing of how
come this person just liked my post from March twenty seventh,
twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Happens all the time. I don't get it. That didn't
happen to me, but I guess I would like it
if it did.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
But anyway, Yeah, the Astros, for example, I wouldn't say
they limped into the All Star break. I mean injuries
happened to every team, so I don't even mean that
from the standpoint of an injury situation, although they're not
completely healthy. But for example, this is Mike burrows thing.
When you see the tweet that came out from the team,

(41:04):
we have nullified the optional assignment for right handed pitcher
Mike Burrows and have placed him on the Major League
fifteen day injured list with right elbow neuritis, which is
not discomfort, by the.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Way, basically as a pressure funny bone area.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
It's an inflammation. That's what itis means.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
His IL placement is effective July seventh, following yesterday's game,
we optioned right hander Alan Bersonta to Triple A Sugarland.
I just I don't know, I don't know what to
I don't know what to do with Mike Burrows this year.
It's not good.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
You don't need to anymore.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
And my best guess is he and I said it
when he was actually sent down the first time. I
don't know why he'd ever pitched for the Astros in
twenty twenty six. What situation are you going to be
in and this is before the injury, and this is
the second time they've taken a picture out of the
rotation and sent him down because he has options, and
then reversed course and nullified it with we're gonna put

(42:04):
him on the IL instead. They did that with Kaiwai Tongue,
who actually yesterday, I don't know if everybody was paying
close enough attention, I mentioned that Bennett Susa was part
of that release because they transferred his rehab to the FCL. Well,
Minor League Baseball takes off the same days that Major
League Baseball does. There's no games this week until Friday

(42:25):
other than stuff that you could take care of in
the FCL. Well, the Astros had an FCL game yesterday,
so you know how many rehabbing Astros participated in that
game yesterday, not all major leaguers, but names of note.
Bennett Sussa got his one inning in the game was

(42:46):
started by Dung, who is like Burrows on the IL
rather than option down. He got two innings in to
get the game started. And then two other hopefuls in
the Astros farm system Ethan Fry I was a draft
pick last year, but he's dealt with a few injuries.
He was their center fielder yesterday and the number one

(43:06):
catching prospect in the organization. Still, for some reason, waker Yanik,
who has dealt with significant injuries, not to mention the
fact he cannot hit at all in twenty twenty six,
hit in about one fifty or less. He was in
the game yesterday. But in the case of Mike Burrows again,
even pre this designation of the injury, how many more

(43:27):
pitchers are going to be unavailable because they have a
full staff of pitchers minus one because they haven't replaced
Sonta yet at the major league level. And then they
have Hayden Wiznski, who's probably a starter two away, Renel Blanco,
who we discussed yesterday. I believe he'll be in the
rotation when they break from the All Star break. They
have Lance mccullors junior. They have been at SUSA. How

(43:51):
many of these players, plus the currently healthy pitchers need
to do something health wise or pitching wise badly to
say we need to get Mike Burrows back up here.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
No, I mean it's it doesn't It's the exact worst
possible time for him to be pitching, his worst possible baseball,
and that's saying something.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
It's the whole reason why.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
If you want to pluck out a bunch of different
individual reasons, they're there. This is one of them. He
started eighteen games so far this year. Of course, that's
the most on the team. They won seven of those games.
How many games under five hundred are the Astros four games? Literally,
if you wanted to paint that picture, they're forty and
forty When he doesn't start, They're an average baseball team

(44:36):
who would be one game out of first place if
he didn't. If those games were wiped off the board,
you'd probably be in a little bitter situation because other
things would also be factors in that.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
But yeah, it was not what you expected.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
And then some two of the three worst starters in
Major League Baseball are on your staff.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
Both were at in the offseason.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
They're not kind of bad, they're not subpar and miraculous
one eight of the thirteen starts from Tatsuya Emi.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
But they're two of the worst pitchers in baseball. We
have to say this. I figured that's what the sounder
would be for.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
So Janie McNair has passed away the I mean, she's
the co founder and senior chair I would say, not
principal owner, but she was the senior most owner obviously,
and she has been in that. She's been a part
of this organization since the very very very beginning. Obviously,

(45:34):
eighty nine years old, survived by four children, sixteen grandchildren,
and thirteen great grandchildren. But the Texans just putting out
that release like five minutes.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Ago, eighty nine years old, and she had been at
several off season practices just in the last yeah, these
last this current off season. Last couple of practices they
had during OTA's in minicamp, saw her out there and
very difficult to determine from that standpoint any any health
situation beyond what we already know at age eighty nine

(46:06):
and you know, been in a wheelchair for quite some time.
The team had an opportunity to celebrate her and induct
her along with now Bob again in the Ring of
Honor for this football team, and deservedly so. She's part
of this organization as much as as the family could be,
and spent time as the principal owner. I just mentioned

(46:28):
this vacation I took was part of it at the
Pro Football Hall of Fame, and one of the The
only picture that I noticed there that they had of
an owner's meeting picture just happening with the year that
they chose to use on one of their displays and
one of their exhibits.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
She was in it.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
That was the Texans owner that season, between the time
of Bob's passing and you know, cal McNair taking more
full control of the team.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Very unfortunate obviously, she.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
And Bob and the McNair family, or the whole reason
football is here in Houston. Who knows when an if,
another opportunity would have even come along, And with the
sale of the Seahawks this week, it's kind of brought
everybody's attention to football franchise purchase prices. The Texans purchased
price of seven hundred million dollars was a big, big

(47:18):
jump up from previous franchises. Obviously, they purchased it from
the league as an expansion franchise, and then other franchises
that were sold from owner to owner in the years
that followed were back under that total again for several years.
The jumps we've seen in the last few years are astronomical,
but there was a long period of time where you know,
if you could still buy a team for seven hundred

(47:40):
million dollars.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
It was.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
It was kind of a good, a really good deal,
like the in front of the price the Texans in
ninety nine at seven hundred million, and then years and
years later, ten twelve years later, the purchase price had
not risen above that total by significant amount, but clearly
and you know, I remember on anfortunately being there inside

(48:01):
the stadium when they held their celebration for Bob, and
I would imagine something very similar will be held in
her honor as well. So thoughts with the McNair family
and everybody inside the Texans family keep this in mind
when you hear from most of the people that have
spent a short time there or a long time there. However,

(48:22):
you know, whatever their role is, whether it's administrative, football side,
promotional side, marketings, any any which way you want to,
you know, look at some of the employees they've had
over the years, and then clearly on the football side,
with coaching staff, players, Demiko quite specifically, you know, one
of the very first things that was shown to us
as he was named head coach was his visit to

(48:45):
the McNair's house and talking with Janis and it is
a Some organizations are owned by a family, but I
don't know that they would be considered a family organization.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
This one would be. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
No, That's why I'm not saying it's a big deal,
because anytime an active NFL owner passes away, it's big news.
But from that particular standpoint that you just mentioned, I
think it is especially here in Houston, where you had
two of those owners type situations back to back, and
even though you can point to flaws in how the

(49:21):
Texans organization has been run over the years, it is
a polar opposite how Houstonians in general, I would say,
I think I'm speaking for most people here in Houston
feel about that family ownership versus the prior family ownership,
especially because that guy was so disenfranchised that he took
his franchise and left. There's a lot that they've done.

(49:42):
Not everything's perfect.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
There's definitely some downtimes, whether it's football wise, and we
talked about it quite a bit yesterday when you were
out that each of the three teams here had had
a recent three year period of being absolutely awful product
and all in an attempt to be a much better product,
and it's worked for all three teams, and maybe more
so them here recently with where they sit as a franchise,
So some downtimes, There some obvious personnel downtimes, players that

(50:06):
have been in and out just in general that's the
nature of the business.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
But for the overall period of time that.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
They've been involved with Houston Professional Football NFL Football, I
think there's a lot for the family to be proud of,
and a lot for the city of Houston and the
fans of the team, certainly the community to be proud of.
And that would obviously also include the enormous amount of
money and efforts the McNair Foundation and the Houston Texans

(50:32):
Foundation has contributed to trying to make this city better
over now almost thirty years.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
All Right, we will continue to react to that, that's
very very breaking news, and also continue to talk about
your astros heading into the All Star break. Oh in
that whole bam out of Bio Tyler hero drama that happened,
That's something that Wex and I have not been able
to discuss on the show yet. Might get into that
as well as the three o'clock Hour continues. The Aight

(51:01):
on Here Tuesday afternoon edition of the program. Hope you're
staying dry out there, since apparently the entire city is
underwater or at least under rain right now. Should clear
up the rest of the week. I'm hoping it's just
amazing weather in Mexico. You should really go there, wex
you should go. All right, I'll start the planning next summer,

(51:21):
next summer.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
Got it.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
In the meantime, in case you missed it, last segment,
breaking news Janice McNair passing away at the age of
eighty nine, Texans making that release public about I don't know,
fifteen minutes or.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
So ago.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
As they prepare for Ironically, we say this a lot,
but I think this is definitely applies, and it's one
of the main reasons why I'm counting down the days
of training camp. I mean, it's like the most important
season in the history of the franchise. Is that too
much to say when you consider what's on the line
with CJ and not an extension and everything else with
a Super Bowl caliber defense?

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Not too much to say? All right?

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Because later in the show, Oh man, am I going
to get up in arms again?

Speaker 3 (52:05):
You already know why. I'm guessing.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
You know, people this time of year put out lists
and that's what they do and it makes me angry,
and we'll definitely get into it. But that's a little
bit later on. One thing that happened while I was gone
that I could not wait to talk to you about,
which kind of like I thought would be the case,
we're getting much more details about just in time for
my first show back. Is this whole BAM out of

(52:30):
bio punching Tyler hero situation? I mean, you can't tell
me that he's not loathed around the league. First it
was Aman Thompson. He's had several dust ups before with
different players, but his own ex teammate just walking onto
a floor and punching him in the face.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
What are the details beyond what I think we already knew,
and what you just said is the only thing I know.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Well, he wants to move on. That's a detail you
didn't know about until just now. No way, who's he Tyler? Oh,
Tyler wants not bam. That was fine with it. He's like,
let's go. No, he is focused on the next chapter
in Milwaukee. Nobody focuses on the next chapter in Milwaukee
unless they have to, which he does because he got
traded there.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
Back home, he said.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
He told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, Honestly, I'm just trying to
move past all of it. I'm focused on Milwaukee and
building something special. They obviously just traded the greatest player
in their history, so we want to come in and
help continue what they've been doing.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Now.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
The end of that quote being funny because he was
referring to himself, whether you believe it or not, may
or may not have been a fake account with DMS,
because that's how NBA players role Apparently these days. He
was referring to himself as the best player on the
Heat at some points during last season and then talking

(53:54):
about the trade that happened away from Miami like that.
He could post a picture of himself and Heat fans
would go why on social media.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
There are times during his career there, and he's all
of his career there were spent with Bam out of Bio.
He was the teammates with him from the moment he
became a member of the Heat. Unless some other star
like Butler was there at the time, you probably could
have made an argument that Tyler Hero was the best
player if you were Tyler. If you really know basketball,
and the value of what Bam even a couple of

(54:24):
years ago, was bringing to the team, because clearly that
had shifted and Tyler only had a partial season this year.
I don't believe he scored eighty four points in any
games this year that Bam.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
Scored eighty three.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
But you're supposed to be confident, you're supposed to talk
yourself up, you're supposed to be happy with your abilities,
and he is.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
And I should, you know, put the disclaimer out there,
full disclosure, whatever you want to call it.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
His hometown is Milwaukee, so I said, coming back home.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
So he's not just saying that if he had to
play anywhere other than Miami, it would be Milwaukee. Quote,
I'm ready to come home and not prove everyone wrong,
but just be able to represent the city in the
state because I wanted to do that coming out of
school as well. Who are the most notable residents of
Milwaukee in the history of celebrity, sports and pop culture

(55:15):
Tyler Hero, Jeffrey Dahmer.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
That's about it. That's all I can think of. Okay,
we'll leave it there. I figure that was not a
real question.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
I'm such a jerk, it's insane. Sometimes he does things.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
He talks a lot of mess, and he gets under
people's skin while being pretty good at basketball. So did
Jeffrey offensive line are the offensive lee? And that's why
people have had at it, have had it with him.
I asked the question when this news broke during our show,
that there was an altercation between these two on a
practice cord in Las Vegas, in a hotel ballroom practice court,

(55:48):
And I said, if you knew nothing about what was
going on in the NBA today, and I said, hey,
guess who just got punched. It's an NBA player. Raise
your hand if you think you would have said Tyler
Hero first. It's either him or Jose Alvarado or Draymond Green.
Those are the three, right. I mean, can you think
of anybody else as likely to punch somebody else as

(56:09):
to be on the receiving end?

Speaker 3 (56:10):
Right? But I'm saying you're punching him back because of
his antics.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Well, I'm just saying in general, like Draymond Green off
the court and talking like Draymond screams at the officials,
he doesn't really. I don't think he trash talks opponents
all that much. Heck, he's too busy yelling at his
teammates in the yard punching them, right, that's a little
bit different. So Tyler hero is he's a verbal agitator, right.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
And Okay, I was today years old when I realized
that he had an AAU team.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
A lot of players do, but you just don't hear
about it, I guess, right. And the fact that I
just saw a video of John Morant's AAU team, how
are they doing? I'm not sure what their output is.
I'm sure they're doing fine. He probably has some really
good players.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Do you think he's a leader to them on or
off the floor with what he brings.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Also, if you go look at and you recent Ja
Moran quotes, they're going to be the same as Tyler's.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
I'm ready to move forward. I'm looking ahead to my
time here in Portland. A lot of people moving forward
this offseason with all the movement. Well on, it's once
you've done what you've done.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
And Tyler, whatever those things are, and Jow whatever his
things are, it's part of who you have.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Become in the public eye.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
So you can tell people to forget about it, and
you can tell people you want to move on from it,
but it's a part of what has gotten you to
this point in your life and career, so expecting people
to forget about it. It's probably not going to happen.
But John doesn't want to hear anymore about what he
did and what he has done. But he's going to
real quickly. The synopsis is my favorite part.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
It started when at a Bio approached Hero shortly after
nine am Pacific on Friday.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
I believe that's eleven o'clock our time this time of year. Yes,
that's correct.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
So at a Bio in the heat had come to
train on the same court that Tyler Hero had worked
out on earlier in the morning and stayed for a
practice with his AAU team. According to sources with knowledge
of the encounter, at a Bio confronted Hero about comments
the guard had made critiquing the center on social media
after their seven year run his teammates in Miami ended

(58:11):
when he was traded for Giannis. Hero responded verbally in
a way that at a Bio took exception to, and
the encounter became physical. Sources with knowledge of the encounter
told ESPN that at a Bio struck Hero near his chin,
although descriptions of the nature of the physical contact is
in some dispute, and the final paragraph, which is my

(58:33):
favorite hero did not get knocked to the ground, according
to sources with knowledge of the interaction, who added that
he was restrained by others in the gym from responding physically. Right,
That's what all NBA players do. They wait until about
one hundred people are between him and the person he's
in this altercation with, and then they try to respond.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
I mean, this is a non NBA fight, right, Well,
an NBA fight happens in the game, and what you
just described is what happens in the game. This is
not like that, in my opinion. I don't know what
played out. I don't think we're ever going to see
video of it, and we'll get different people's descriptions, i'm
sure in the days that come.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
But I wouldn't put it that way. To me. What
was all ironic about this is because it all transpired.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I mentioned it. It broke during the show. It broke
while the Bucks and Heat were playing each other in
Summer League. Obviously not involving those two players or really
anybody that matters to those two players. But what do
you do when you're broadcasting a summer league game. You
do interviews, Well, you do. Tyler Hero did an in
game interview, obviously after it had happened, but before it

(59:38):
was known that it happened.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
And there's people dissecting the screen caps of him because
this says he gets hit in the chin, but it
totally looked like, yeah, hit near the eye.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
I looked at him. I didn't really notice anything.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
My favorite part, though, is the well of all the
favorite parts, that this is all about at a Bio
taking issue with comments from a social media account allegedly
associated with him, the question whether or not at a
Bio was justified in his sixty million dollars salary and
suggesting that if Tyler had been healthy, he's the heat
player who needed more help from his supporting cast. The

(01:00:14):
funny part about this is that neither one of these
guys are paid what they probably should be.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
I think they're both grossly overpaid. But that's just me.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Lesson nature of the league as we know, and in
Heroes as some of those comments were essentially, why are
teams focusing on you know, I'm the guy they need
to shut down and why are we doing this with
this player? Whether they were his comments obviously that remains
to the two of them if they were him. Basically,
if he wants to acknowledgey, yes, they were screen caps
from conversations he had with we don't even know who

(01:00:41):
that were then posted on his story. So it's very
easy to believe somebody associated with him was upset with him,
and the immediate response from him when they encountered one
another resulted in Bam saying, I might as well. They
haven't punched him in the face, him in the face,
hit him in the face, hit him in the chin,

(01:01:02):
didn't knock him down, calling it a fight is probably
all seems like a bit of a not quite right now.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Well, and amn, Thompson didn't knock him down either. He
threw him down. They picked him up and threw him
to the court. That was such a great probably one
of my favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
You kind of remember, as much as it stinks Tyler
has scoreboard.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Because he won the game. He out he's part of
the reason they won the game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Late, Yeah, and then what happened the last and thoms
had got mad at him, so he threw it to
the court. Thompson not only basically shut him down, he
scored one of his highest scoring games of the season.
So it was it's a push. Okay, it's a push.
Fights not a push. No fight was one sided, but
the spirit of the basketball. Unfortunately, Tyler and his postgame

(01:01:47):
interview sunglasses was the victor, climbing the notches of most
punishable faces in the league.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Tyler Hero, We'll see the Bucks and Heat on national
TV this year. I have no doubt we would have anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Absolutely, this means Christmas. These two flights playing on Christmas
guaranteed better way to get into the Christmas spirit than
the return of Ya. The return of Tyler Hero and
Bam out of Baio on the.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
Court together is how it will be builled the A team.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
It is Sports Talk seven ninety Tuesday afternoon, rolling along
here WEX and AC with you alongside Josh Jordan. I
was reading about this story earlier today and it made
me think, boy, we are in for just a delightful
summer of this kind of stuff a year from now,

(01:02:35):
where we are just talking about not stats, not home runs,
not your Don Alvarez chasing a second consecutive MVP award,
but rather MLB Player Association meetings and negotiations with the
owners and how we're not getting anywhere and how they're
I believe the number right now is four hundred and
forty one million dollars is the gap between these two

(01:02:57):
parties when it comes to a new CBA. I can't
wait for that stuff all summer next year.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
The discrepancy between the top of the bottom spenders.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
Maybe that's what I believe. Just awful, awful, boring, monotonous.
This is going to be the worst summer of our
live stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Well, it's interesting that he did mention that the gap
is four hundred and forty one million on payroll disparity.
It defies human experience to ask a fan to think
that the bottom end of that gap has the same
opportunity to win as the top end here at the.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
All Star Break.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
That's a pretty easy response when that gets posted or
written about twenty twenty six All Star Break. Major League
Baseball division leaders and their payroll rank. The number one
payroll in baseball does have the best record in baseball,
it's the Dodgers. There are two teams that spend the
tenth that are in the top ten that are division leaders,
the Dodgers and the Braves.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
Braves are eighth.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
There are three teams in the top twenty that are
division leaders. Now you can add the Rangers to it.
They have fifteenth biggest spenders and then three of the
division leaders and there's only six of them are among
the ten spenders at the bottom of the list twenty
first of the Brewers. You really have to go far
down the payroll list to find these two division leaders.

(01:04:13):
The White Sox twenty seventh in payroll and the Rays
are twenty eighth in payroll. The Rays have the best
record in the American League and the White Sox are
leading their division. You literally what you just said, this
today hard, it defies human experience. Well, we're watching it happen.

(01:04:34):
We're literally watching exactly what you say is hard to happen.
It is happening, and it's not the first time.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
It probably won't be the last. For being home, it
shouldn't happen. It defies logic. Maybe, but what the player's
side will always be. When the team with the twenty
eighth highest payroll, which means the third lowest, and the
team with the twenty seventh highest, fourth lowest payroll is
competitive and has a chance to win the World Series,

(01:05:02):
then why aren't you just better at what you do? Owners,
general managers, personnel staffs, rather than saying, well, you got
to put a cap in there. We gotta make it
even if the teams that aren't spending any money can win,
which they clearly can, then you guys just to mean
to be better at your jobs. Yeah, and this is honestly,

(01:05:23):
this story wasn't even about that so much as I
think it's hilarious that we're talking about this dispute that's
inevitably going to cost us all of, if not most,
of next season.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
I'm first shelved, the first shelved through May. I'm not
ready to say the whole season yet. I'm giving you
no spring training on time, no games in March, no
games in April, no.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
Games in May.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
I'm holding out a little bit of hope that one
hundred and twenty games can be played starting in June.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
So you're more optimist than being than the COVID way
for sure, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
But like you said, there's so many different arms of
what they're fighting about.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
Just keep adding on.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
Well, the next thing they'll fight about after that, Like
imagine they get it all squared away and we get.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Some semblance of a twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
So yeah, you're ready to sign, absolutely, and you're ready
to sign for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Perfect. Now there's just one more thing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Major League Baseball has gathered support from owners to allow
big leaguers to participate in the Olympics for the first time.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
Nice LA twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
If only it were so easy, Yeah, twenty twenty eight,
So the summer after they screw up this upcoming season
after this one. But of course, as per usual, there's
disagreements with the Players Association over hotel rooms, tickets and
a mandatory participation agreement, and that's going to complicate things.

(01:06:48):
By the way, the twenty twenty eight Olympic Games of
the summer variety to be played right here in America
in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Yeah, these while they're I'm sure this is being accurately reported,
not sure, the pace is very steadfast and what they
want on their end. These are the types of things
that get worked out and they so much easier, really,
I mean, I'm sure it absolutely should be a part
of the CBA, but it doesn't. I don't think it's
really truly keeps them from having a Major League Baseball season.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
You with timing of it is bad.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
If you didn't like the world Baseball Classic exhibition games
being played right before the season started. You're really not
gonna like the Olympic exhibition games being played while you're
no longer able to continue your season because you're gonna
have to take hiatus. Yeah, like the NHL did.

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
They they don't.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
So basically the proposal is, and this is what MLB
is pushing for, shutting down the sport for eleven days.
I know, right, it's basically an All Star game on
the West Coast that we precede the sixteen tournament schedule
to be played at Dodger Stadium. That's I mean, given

(01:08:02):
what we're talking about here, that's not unreasonable, right.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Not for the how many players in Major League Baseball
and minor league baseball up at the upper levels will
be playing versus how many will not, how many will
get eleven days of rest in season. Keep doing what
you're doing. If you're a pitcher, you're gonna throw on
the side. You're not gonna want to get too far
away if you're a major leaguer. But I mean, this
is four days off Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Almost every

(01:08:31):
Major League Baseball is off those four days. Gotta be
back with your team on Thursday. If you're on a
road trip, you'll fly out. If you're at home like
the Astros are, maybe you get an optional workout and
then you play the next day, and then the two
teams that play on Thursday you chop one day off
of that. That's enough time in season for players to
take care of whatever it is they want to go
to the beach like the haters did, go to Jersey,
like the low perfeedos did, And now you can call

(01:08:54):
them that. Since Joey proposed to Faith over the All
Star break, she said yes with my blessing in New Jersey.
They were in Jersey for this. But congrats to Joey
and Faith. But eleven days off in season, it won't
be any issue.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
I don't. I wouldn't imagine for the fans.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
You're gonna have baseball just will be under that different format,
and your players will be getting healthy and getting rested,
and maybe it it rejuvenates them for the second part
of the season.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
I would hope.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Who knows what it could do if it's the other way,
But to me, that's the kind of thing they'll they'll
they have thought about things like this before and we
just watched a bunch of insurance issues and other things
prevent Korea and Altuve and this player can and this
player can't. That part of it is the actual hard part.
Like we're just talking about Jordon Alvarez. Please don't participate

(01:09:43):
in one night of hitting home runs as far and
as hard as you can versus It would be nice
if Jeremy Pania wasn't playing for this country, and Jordan
and Christian Xavier and you know Ryan Presley in years past,
and Bregman and Tucker and on. I think if you're
a competitive team with a lot a lot of good players,
they could be playing for their countries and the games

(01:10:06):
could impact your season.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
I would imagine if as many international and let's face it,
domestic players felt as strongly as they did about a
complete exhibition in the World Baseball Classic, then you're gonna
get approximately ten billion times more of a want to
participate if a gold medal's on the line from all
of these players.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
I think that the country the World Baseball Classic because
baseball in the.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
Olympics has not been a thing. Nobody grew up saying.
I want not many people.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
I want to say nobody, because it's been around before
then they took it away and now they're bringing it back.
But I do think the World Baseball Classic is something
of greater significance, and we saw it. I don't know
that we're going to see these emotions that we saw
during the WBC.

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
That's crazy. I don't think we are.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
You're talking about the Olympics though, that supersedes any sort
of World games of any yes.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
And no, including the World Cup. But in baseball it doesn't.
But it would because of all the other sports where
they're bringing all this Olympic emotion.

Speaker 3 (01:11:09):
There's nowhere else to go. The Olympics are the pinnacle.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
But I would argue that last sentence is the argument
in and of itself.

Speaker 3 (01:11:17):
The Olympics are the pinnacle, but not for baseball. But
now it is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Yes, now it is. I that's interesting. That's an interesting argument.
Like I wonder if you were just a poll, let's
just do it another Olympic sports.

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
When you're five, that's the pinnacle. When you're twelve, that's
the pinnacle. When you're competing individually in gymnastics or whatever else,
it is track and field.

Speaker 3 (01:11:39):
This is your goal.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
If you're an elite athlete, a player that's twenty five
right now in Major League Baseball. At any point during
those twenty four years leading up to that, was he
dreaming of winning an Olympic gold medal in baseball?

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
But now he can't. Well now he can't.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
At age twenty five, a five year old, I now
could start dreaming about that. But that's just it's still
to me, it's so easy to think that the World
Baseball Classic would be a higher standard of success on
a world stage than an Olympic gold medal.

Speaker 3 (01:12:08):
And that's just my opinion. You have the opposite. Many
of our listeners might be on either side of that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Well, it's just something else for the Players Association in
Major League Baseball to argue about in a list of.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Many long, long list, and I am hopeful that's not
anywhere near the top. I wish it was, because I
think I could get that one solved before many of
the others with much more money and factors on the
line than that. Go ahead, Baseball. You're on the All
Star break, everybody's in Philadelphia. Why don't you to continue
your negotiations while you're watching home runs?

Speaker 3 (01:12:40):
The aight plas needs a sippleitz.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Explain that to our listeners who are not from that
generation or era television.

Speaker 3 (01:12:49):
Hey, don't talk to me like I'm Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
Well, I wasn't gonna make any Matt reference because I
know that show wasn't from the seventies, which he would
refer to as.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
His wheelhouse bingo, it was from the nineties. There's my wheelhouse.
That's a long time ago.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
It is, it's getting longer. Gosh, So what does that mean? Well,
sipowit's is the character in question that you heard during
the liner heading back into the show.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
And yeah, he was kind of more of a secondary
focus of a more ensetumble like show.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
But he's a fictional character.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
Well, yeah he was, Well, he was that in the
first season, but then he became the focus. He was
a little rough around the edges when it came to
questioning suspects and whatnot on NYPD Blue, he was not
afraid to.

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
Yeah, it was just a lowly detective when the series began,
became sergeant as the seasons can do.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
Well, that was the last I mean, like the last
scene of the show. Hard work and perseverance exective first,
that's what you mean. Everybody needs a sipo with someone
that works hard and does their best, and even during
some dark down times, especially when everybody saw your backside,
you still came out on top. Well, some people need
to have the shades pulled and a little you know,

(01:13:55):
you get to tune up a suspect is what they
called it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:57):
Tune them up?

Speaker 1 (01:13:59):
Yeah, are what you're saying?

Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
He was dirty?

Speaker 2 (01:14:03):
I wouldn't say dirty, Okay, intentional rough around the edges, yea.
Why does everybody need a Sipoid's.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Well, because you got to have people kept in line.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
Heavy if you will, some security, some support, some backup.

Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
A bam out of bio if you will, maybe a
Draymond Green.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
Except they're picking fights with people you don't need protection from.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
How awesome was it to see Draymond make it about
him as usual?

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
Well, I never got into that earlier in the week
when he said what he said, Draymond, because he turned
it into oh, heat culture, this is what we're doing here,
the heat culture. We hear everything about it. I guess
it's not what it once was. I mean, remember he
brought up his own fight, internal fight, and they were
teammates at the time. We saw the video of him

(01:14:49):
punching Jordan Poole during a practice. Amazing that we got
that video, but it happened and he was suspended for it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
Whatever happened happened.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
But he thought at the time, hearing from Heat legend
Eudonis haslam basically ripping Draymond for that act at the time,
this was Draymond's opportunity to get back at Eudoni's verbally
and saying, well, this is the culture. You were there,
you taught Hero, you taught Bam, this is these are
guys you brought up in the league with the vaunted

(01:15:22):
Heat culture, and this is what is happening now is
these are your guys, your disciples, so to speak. And
he didn't use that word, but that's what he was
getting to. And obviously in his platform, that was his
verbalizing all those things. Because he's got his own podcast,
he sits in front of his microphone and has things
to say. Eudonis was not afraid to respond, and he did.

(01:15:42):
He basically said what most of us think.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Just I mean, it's so long, but he just ripped
Draymond to shreds as you should have. I mean, I
don't even has Draymond responded at this point I know
this is more than twenty four hours old.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
His response E Donna, Yes, Yeah, I have had that.
It was the evening of Sunday night. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
When you Donnis posted on the X platform five paragraphs
worth of nonsense verbals to Nuclear Nap podcast, I shouldn't
call it nonsense. It's just I keep being given more
reasons to repeat myself. I don't think Draymond is all bad.
I don't think Draymond has only said things that are

(01:16:27):
ridiculous or impossible to agree with. There are times where
he has said and or done things that are worthwhile
and reputable. But overall, especially with his actions on the court,
which turned into him talking so much about things off
the court, the respect level for him is something I
still do not understand.

Speaker 3 (01:16:46):
How can so many players.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
I guess they're pretending, and they're trying to steer clear
of what obviously would turn into something that they don't
want to be a part of, and they're just pretending
they hold him in high regard, Respecting his game totally different.
He's a useful player. He's basically a Hall of Fame
caliber discussion player because of what he meant to big
time winning teams. The only thing worthwhile in Draymond's career

(01:17:11):
that remains is, as we continue on the unofficial Lebron Watch,
if he can successfully recruit him to be one of
the old heads in Golden State.

Speaker 1 (01:17:22):
Well, we'll get to that as we start the four
o'clock hour, but not until we get to some off
season grades, specifically those surrounding your Houston Rockets, two of
which the well three technically moves were made while I
was out of the country.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
We have to talk about those next the eighteen on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Well, if you didn't hear me before, maybe you'll hear
me now. Do not ignore these things and get together
with Center Genics and Low te Center and take care
of yourself. Let them take care of low testosterone. Some
of the things you might be feeling, low energy level,
low sex drive. How about brain fog. Have you realized

(01:18:08):
that you're not quite as sharp as you should be? Well,
some of these things may be low testosterone related. In
this month of July, Centergenics and Low t Center want
to make sure you take advantage of something they're offering you,
and that's their two fifty for two to fifty sale.
And it works like this, You start with a free
T test at any Cynergenics or low T location. You
can find them at fixmlow t dot com. Then you
get started on a TRT plan, a testosterone replacement therapy

(01:18:32):
plan any day in July, and after ninety days, that's
your two fifty. You're getting a two hundred and fifty
dollars credit with low T Center and Synergenics. That's the
two fifty for two to fifty sales. Celebrate America's independence
by declaring your own independence from low testosterone again, Synergenics
and low T Center, and you get it all started
with that free T test at fixmlow t dot com.

(01:18:55):
That's fix mylow T dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
Our number three underway here on a Tuesday edition of
The A Team, It's Sports Talks seven ninety, WEX and
AC together again. The MLB All Star festivities continuing as
the game will be underway before you know it, and
then we'll be able to count down the hours until
the Astros can resume the proverbial second half of their schedule.

(01:19:23):
Baltimore Orioles on deck Friday, as the Astros currently sit
three games out of first, behind the Stupid Rangers and
the stupid Mariners. That's their team names. Here on the show,
we were talking a little bit about the NBA offseason,
and it's so funny because there's been I mean, there's
always movement. I can't remember the last time this many

(01:19:45):
big names moved and continue to When will they eventually move?
Like Lebron James, for example, We'll get to him. But
a couple of well one sty put in two came
to the Rockets. Who do you want to tackle? First
the fact that the Rockets saw Marcus Smart go gangbusters

(01:20:06):
shooting the basketball for basically two games against them in
the playoffs and said we've got to have some of that.
I know that's not the only reason they signed him.
Bogdan Bogdanovic, which I think happened right before I left,
Like we had one show together where that was already
a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
Yeah, at the beginning of the month, before some of
this was able to become official, those things had come
in and then while you were gone, they were made
official and the transaction went in. The Lakers, along with
a host of other players, had renounced their exception rights
for Marcus Smart and Lebron James and Dwight Howard and
Carmelo Anthony and Avery Bradley and a host of other players.

(01:20:44):
And this is dead serious. They just did that this
offseason for like six or seven players that are in
out of the league for several years. Right, But that's
just part of how the cap works, and you do
technically open up more space when you renounce rights to players.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Marcus Smart will start there. Well, what he.

Speaker 1 (01:21:01):
Brings from just a leadership standpoint, locker room guy, professional
way to go about your business.

Speaker 3 (01:21:11):
Data.

Speaker 1 (01:21:12):
He is one of those guys that's on that list
of guys that you don't like if they're on the
other team and they're facing you, and you will probably
inevitably love having them on your roster and in your
locker room.

Speaker 2 (01:21:22):
I kind of described it simply last week as an
acknowledgment from the Rockets that they miss what Dylan Brooks brought.
They did not intend to trade him away that offseason.
They would have liked to not have included him in
the deal, but in an effort to add Kevin Durant
to the team, they reluctantly said, it's what we're getting

(01:21:42):
will allow us to make that tough decision and move
on from a player we know we need, and quite frankly,
his play more than just his leadership, grit, attitude, defense,
et cetera. His offensive play. The basketball player. He was
good here in Houston, and then he was good in Phoenix.
You guy this year, he's just he was not the

(01:22:05):
offensive whole bad way that people made him out to
be in Memphis as his numbers declined there, and then
he got Offensively speaking, I think he resurrected his career
here in Houston. Like you said, I think it continued
in Phoenix. They're not looking for that from Marcus Smart
because I know they're not going to get it. His
track record is way way too long. He's not a
good offensive player. He's quite frankly, he's a bad offensive player.

(01:22:27):
He's a terrible shooter. He's a bad three point shooter.
He's like the anti Reed Shepherd. He's yes, he is.
And yet Red Shepherd versus Marcus Smart was just played.
They defended each other. They played against each other on
both ends of the court, and Reed Shepherd did not
win that matchup.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
He got his clock cleaned on both ends.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Yeah, the beginning of the series was what you said,
Marcus hit a bunch of threes. Then there were opportunities
for him to take read into the post and that
worked also, and he obviously was involved in the same
in the same awful way. At the end of the game,
they never should have lost. Reed Shepherd made a huge
mistake with his long down court pass. Marcus Smart made

(01:23:08):
a great play with his steel that helped net the
Lakers all those points right before the buzzer. He matters
to winning. He's had multiple long playoff runs. Clearly if
you are unaware, he has a long standing relationship and
played for Imyi Doka. He's played in the conference finals
multiple times. And I think the fact that he's been

(01:23:31):
a part of winning basketball teams many many times over,
nobody in the league doubts it. Everybody in the league
knows it. They think he matters to winning, and they
on off numbers. If you want to look at some
of the actual numbers, whether you believe in them or
not is.

Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
Up to you. But everywhere he's been and the Lakers
were no different. Last year.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
The Lakers became more capable of winning when they lost
players and were forced to play Marcus Smart Moore, and
you saw it against the Rockets. They weren't going to
beat the right. It's the same way that they could
have with Luca and Austin Reeves filling it up for
fifty five points. But they were capable of beating the
Rockets because he helped lead a defensive effort that kept

(01:24:11):
the Rockets from making any shots for two and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:24:13):
Well, listen, if nothing else, because I do believe, and
you can tell me if you agree with this. I
think if the Rockets are a successful team this year,
Marcus Smart's going to be on the flooring crunch time.

Speaker 3 (01:24:26):
I just feel like that's going to find a way
to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:24:30):
I still think that's hard to believe. I know, I
know why you're gonna say that. Let's get let's run
through how to make that happen. Katie's out there, A
Men's out there, and Alperin's out there.

Speaker 3 (01:24:38):
Right, that's three of the five.

Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
Okay, Now tell me who else is out there? Of
those two spots, with Marcus getting one of them, who's
the other guy?

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
Fred?

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
So Fred's on the So now Jabbari and Reed and
Tario are all on the bench for crunch time yep,
because you have Marcus Smart.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
Well, and here's why I say, I don't think they're
going to be closing games with Marcus Smart Fred van Vliet.

Speaker 3 (01:24:58):
I don't think. I mean, I'm not saying him right.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
What was your weakness last year? I mean, besides offensively,
you just had no identity. Your perimeter defense was not
just bad, it was a joke at times.

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
Exactly How this is I mean this in the nicest
use of the word. Usually this is a word use
in a negative way. How saggy do you think the
opponent's defense will be at the end of games against
the Rockets when a men Alpa and Marcus and Fred
van Vlier out there.

Speaker 1 (01:25:28):
And yet, if you had to tell me right now,
I mean, if Marcus Smart and a Men Thompson are
on the floor at the end of a game, they're
out there primarily for their defensive prowess, right, And yet
you would by far trust Marcus Smart to make a
three in that situation ten out of ten times over
a Men Thompson corner or otherwise. But I don't want

(01:25:50):
how do you run your offense so badly at the
end of the game that you're left with a Men
Thompson shooting a three? It should never have I never
But I'm just saying if the ball found its way
to one of those guys because of said sagginess, I
would rather go floating into the hands of him.

Speaker 2 (01:26:09):
With those two other guards on the court, it should
prevent a mend from drifting out to the three point
and the men's.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
Going to hit a game winner from inside the three
point line. Anyways, he's already done it against Let him
take his shots from much better. I believe Marcus Smart
was defending him on that play, was he not?

Speaker 3 (01:26:26):
Was that not when he was still a particular play?
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
Well, Marcus Smart came over to the Lakers last season
from the Celtics. That was his only season there, right,
I believe because he was on the Celtics team two
years prior when they won the championship.

Speaker 3 (01:26:41):
I think I'm right, And so are You're.

Speaker 2 (01:26:42):
Talking about this game winner against their whole defense. Yeah,
Marcus Smart with.

Speaker 3 (01:26:47):
The Celtics, I think so.

Speaker 2 (01:26:49):
Marcus spent quite a few years with the Celtics.

Speaker 3 (01:26:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
I think a men Thompson's game winner over the Celtics,
which was before last season, it was a year prior.
I think I'm not sure if he was defended by
Marcus war What difference does it make?

Speaker 2 (01:27:03):
Well, I was saying, that's a good defensive player who's
also given up a game winning shot.

Speaker 3 (01:27:07):
Yeah, that was all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
Yeah here, But the one that got me, I know,
Bogdan Bogdanovitch.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
I don't know where he's at in his NBA career. Like,
I know he's a.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
Good three point shooter, but I don't he might be
on the floor in a time like what we just
talked about, right, he's at the end of his career.

Speaker 3 (01:27:25):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (01:27:26):
The third guy that was on the Rockets roster last
year is the one that got the most attention of
my part because of how he reacted to the deal,
Like what Blessed. That's not what he said.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
When they announced the deal. That's what he said, Blessed.
When it was reported he said something else.

Speaker 1 (01:27:43):
What he say, I guess that's what he said, but
he didn't actually quote post the report.

Speaker 3 (01:27:50):
In that instance, you don't know what he was.

Speaker 2 (01:27:52):
He could have been on vacation, He could have been
in the gym, he could have been at breakfast, he
could have been dancing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:57):
Who the flagship station of the Rockets on the radio
when we are simulcast on television. We are also doing
our show on the flagship television station of the Rockets,
and I could not have been more turned off by
a current Rockets reaction.

Speaker 3 (01:28:10):
To his own doing this.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
Guy said no to one hundred million, so then he
gets eighty five and he's upset. That's your fault, dude,
you played yourself out of fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:28:22):
I know he wasn't happy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
I guess you can read between the lines. That's not
how you react when you're happy. So I know that
maybe it was a scheduled post and they come out
in an opportune time. And again, this is all me personally,
And I actually like Tary Easton. I like what he
brings to the floor, but like, just handle it worse man,
try I don't know if you can. Then is posting

(01:28:44):
pictures with him and Cam Whitmore. That's the first thing
I see from a social standpoint. Again, this is me personally.
He reacts that way. Then I see him hanging out
with Cam Whitmore, who I don't know, didn't exactly you
know ingratiate himself to the culture that E may wanted
because they tip basically discarded of him for a.

Speaker 2 (01:29:04):
Song typical social media activity, and Tario Easton on July second,
middle of the day, six o'clock posts I guess bruh
three point three million views, seven hundred and sixty comments.
Seven days later on in the afternoon, he posts blessed

(01:29:24):
sixty three thousand views, not even a fifth, not even
twenty percent of you, So you're not judged by your
latest performance. Only thirty one people even bothered to comment
on it. Seven hundred and sixty people commented on I
guess bruh.

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
So sex cells is the principle we're applying here, and
you say, I guess bruh. That's different. That's if it bleeds,
it leads compared to blessed.

Speaker 3 (01:29:45):
Somebody. Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
The first comment I see on the I Guess bruh
was you'll be playing good basketball. No guess is left
brouh with a blue heart?

Speaker 1 (01:29:54):
Was that from mom? Yes, that's what I thought. So
she got a hold, she shook him and said, hey man,
not a good look. I'll handle being demonstrative on social
media on your behalf, which she does.

Speaker 3 (01:30:07):
That's the only reason I'm saying that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
I think some people evaluators of the offseason seem to
like this deal.

Speaker 1 (01:30:14):
Look, do I think they're better with him on the
roster than they would have been without him, especially when
you consider who they've added.

Speaker 3 (01:30:21):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:30:22):
Did I like that reaction? Noop, not even a little.
Don't don't like that on these rockets acquisitions slash signings
re signings in this case a minus for Marcus Smart.
Did you think that was kind of high? Given his

(01:30:44):
age and injury history for example, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:30:46):
It's related to how much they need the intangibles from
him versus the basketball from him, quite honestly, and I
would rate it similarly if that's how it plays out,
which is why I was so hesitant to see him
in at the end of games. Maybe if you're protecting
a seven point lead, I could see him being out there.
If it's a possession for possession game, I'm not sure.
Sure you need stops, but you also need to figure
out how to get your scores even with KD and

(01:31:08):
they struggle with that last year. Adding an additional low
offensive talent, I don't know that that makes the most sense,
but I'm acknowledging the team knows they need something and
they're hoping he brings it. It's not making threes, it's
not driving to the basket, it's not taking charges. It's
his attitude and all those things play into it, and

(01:31:29):
the fact that you're going to get extra possessions, you know,
twenty times a year, because he's going to draw a charge,
because he's going to create turnovers, because he's a pest,
because he's gonna get under guy's skin. You remember when
he was playing it with the Celtics against James Harden
all those years working with the Rockets. Annoyed the ever
living Jesus out of it. He was effective, though he
wasn't just annoying, right, effective? Sure, that's part of it.

(01:31:51):
So I can see that being regarded as a positive signing.
And it goes back to the numbers that I'd mentioned.
His teams are better when he plays, His teams are
better with him on the court. The numbers are all
there to back it up. With Boston and obviously even
most recently with the Lakers, they played better basketball. The
Lakers became to me a tougher team to beat when

(01:32:13):
they lost players.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
Do you look at how they played.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
They did not play like a Luca and Austin Reeves
led team when they played the Rockets because they had
to do things completely differently, and we just weren't paying
close enough attention to how they were going to win
games because that's how they beat the Rockets.

Speaker 3 (01:32:28):
Do you agree with this assessment that?

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
And it says which ended up happening, they would likely
lose the Rockets Josha Kogi in free agency, which they did.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
He went to Utah twelve million over two years.

Speaker 1 (01:32:39):
But can replace his seventeen point four minutes per game
with a better version of the same player.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
Well, they got an incredible three point shooting for Josh,
an incredible three point shooting season from a Kogi most
everywhere else, I would think they're better off with Marcus
on the court. But a team that didn't shoot three
pointers well enough last year, that's swapping a better three
point shooter out for Marcus Smart is definitely something to consider.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
I'll tell you this, He's one of those guys. Maybe
it's because it's his jersey number. I thought he was
older than he was. He's like Fred van.

Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
Vaik, he's not wearing his age.

Speaker 1 (01:33:15):
I thought he was closer to his number than he
Actually he's thirty two, which is not obviously a spring chicken,
but it's better than thirty six, which is his jersey number.

Speaker 3 (01:33:25):
At least it was. I don't know he'll wear here.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
Age is at some point it becomes less of a
a it's just a number, and more of it is Well,
he's gotten to this point in his career. How healthy
can he be? And he's gotten to that point, and
that question has to be asked. You're hoping you get
two years of Marcus Smart. Last year he played sixty
two games. The year before that he played thirty four.
The year before that he played twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:33:46):
Yeah, and I'm sorry, but adding that kind of guy,
specifically this guy to a roster that has Kadie who
will never again play seventy eight games for the Rockets,
I just don't believe it. And then obviously we don't
know what Fred van Vliet is. We think we do,
and by all accounts, missing the entire season and having

(01:34:06):
an entire offseason, he should be in as good a
shape as he can be from a rehab.

Speaker 2 (01:34:10):
Stand The best shape of my life should be leg
Vanessa Richardson, who's obviously covering Summer League for both SEHN
and ESPN. One of the interviews she was able to
catch up with Fred van Vliet a little bit and
said everything is going according to plan on target for it. Obviously,
when we were spending March, in April and May wondering

(01:34:31):
if he would come back, doesn't really seem like that
was reality and doesn't really sound like it was reality
from Fred now talking more publicly about it, and did
the same on his own Unguarded podcast. But plans he
said very definitively, as almost if it's a given, not
I'm telling you this that he should be ready to
go for training camp. He probably also means by saying

(01:34:53):
that he'll be ready to go for where he got
hurt last year. They're going to work out together as
a team before training camp starts. They probably done a
little bit of that in Vegas already. I don't know
what his participation level would be, but you know how
many of the rockets are out there, Jabari, Reid, Amn and.

Speaker 3 (01:35:07):
Host of others.

Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
Sometime before they convene for training camp, they will probably
get together again just like they did last year, and
try to come out of it healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:35:16):
It's just, uh, you're banking out a lot of unknowns,
both from health and just physicality.

Speaker 3 (01:35:24):
Not physicality, but physical be real.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
The team that walked off the court last year for
the second straight year not winning in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:35:31):
That's who's coming back. It's the same team.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
The little tweak here Avodanovich maybe, well, I mean, I'm
just saying roster wise, Fred's the same team that they had.
They didn't make any major change. And yes, Fred comes back,
that is a major change when you didn't have him
play at all last year with Kevin Durant. You just
I mean, I know that people don't want to hear that,
but it is the truth in that you don't know

(01:35:54):
what they look like together.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
I mean, I know what you're saying, and I'm not
saying you're traking about it by any means.

Speaker 3 (01:36:01):
No me neither.

Speaker 1 (01:36:02):
But you're talking about a season where they were awful
at turning the ball over. He he absolutely can help
fix that, and I'm fixated maybe on other things. I
think Kevin Durant needs to help Fred at least as
much as Fred needs to help the team, because the
Rockets are going absolutely positively nowhere. If Fred van Vliet's
return is a repeat of his shooting in his last

(01:36:25):
season with the Rockets, yeah, they can't win with a
thirty eight percent shooter and a guy who shoots under
thirty five percent on his threes. That's not winning basketball.
But that's also not that's not his career numbers, is it?
I again, no way.

Speaker 2 (01:36:38):
Below those are his Rockets numbers and his last healthy
season here his first season, they were a little bit better,
significantly better, forty two percent overall and thirty nine percent
on threes. They were actually what I would call good,
you know, funny, better than his career numbers. And then
as he played, he played the same minutes. It was
terrible at the beginning of the Golden State Series. He

(01:36:58):
was unstoppable at the end the Golden State Series. So
somewhere in between.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
That, Okay, there are two people whose names we've mentioned,
probably the least them out.

Speaker 3 (01:37:07):
One of them's Jabari Smith.

Speaker 1 (01:37:09):
And I think the funniest part is that all of
this that we're talking about probably actually because we know
what Katie is, we just do, Yeah, a.

Speaker 3 (01:37:17):
Turnover machine who can score you start in candy apples, Well,
I don't even maybe I.

Speaker 1 (01:37:22):
Don't know, and then we know basically everybody else if
you don't see a big step forward and frankly on
both ends, and I'm talking about from last season in
both cases from Alprin Shingoon, That's where I think you're
actually not going anywhere because they made the decision to
hang on to him instead of trading him, and you
could have traded.

Speaker 3 (01:37:43):
Him for a lot. Helped them make that decision.

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
Yeah, but I think you could have packaged him in
some deals for guys that have changed hands, and it
had been those. He was going out and that guy
was coming to Houston and you didn't, And I think
that was intentional.

Speaker 2 (01:37:59):
All this whole converse station drives us back to what
I think is the same one we've had since the
back to back to back drafts where they got all
those first round picks, the core young players. I said
it before, Fred van Vliet played a game here, Dylan Brooks, similarly,
Kevin Durant. They're only going to win if these are
the players taking you there. Amen Thompson and Alprin Shingoon

(01:38:20):
are here. They have to be the players you're winning
with and because of or you're not going to win.

Speaker 3 (01:38:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:29):
And I just think defensively Outbran Shingoon, it's just like, Bro,
you have to I mean, you have to take like
leaps and bounds forward. You cannot be a Cone this year.
I'm sorry. There's no other way I can put it.
I can't sugarcoat it. You can't make me want to
kill myself every time I watch you on the defensive end.

(01:38:49):
I'd never take my life over an NBA player not
playing well. I wanted to the floor.

Speaker 2 (01:38:52):
In reality, I think in twenty twenty six that word
is like the most disrespectful word for an NBA player.
That's why it makes me laugh every time. Well, that's
what he was, and I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:03):
Hey, look there he is standing there like an orange object.

Speaker 3 (01:39:06):
That's nanimate.

Speaker 2 (01:39:08):
But you know, on a roadway it means don't come
through here. On a basketball court, it means absolutely positively
come through here. And here's the resistance.

Speaker 1 (01:39:18):
You could at least excuse some Cone like behavior in
the past when he was so dominant offensively.

Speaker 3 (01:39:27):
And doesn't dunk and whinds about.

Speaker 1 (01:39:30):
The officials not giving him the foul he's so richly
thought he deserved when he didn't all the way up
the floor on the ensuing possession.

Speaker 3 (01:39:36):
Oh my gosh, I can't do that this year.

Speaker 2 (01:39:39):
Hopefully you won't have to signature segment time comes your
way next Weich with, say what, it's a Belichick story
and I'm so happy a much younger woman involved in
this Belichick story and related We'll get to that next.

(01:40:00):
It's the off season for football, both the NFL and college.
You'd think wouldn't come across this story. Say what our
signature segment. Read the headline, see where it goes. Judge
orders arrest of Bill Belichick's daughter in North Carolina. So

(01:40:23):
Bill Belichick has sons and in this case we're talking
about DC for his football team, North Carolina.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
Steve's wife.

Speaker 2 (01:40:34):
So my immediate thought was haven't I heard about something
regarding Steve's wife before? And the answer is yes, if
you've paid attention to the Jordan Hudson era of Bill
Belichick's life, his girlfriend, Steve's wife Jen, the other gen

(01:40:56):
that now makes it to the airwaves this football off season.

Speaker 3 (01:40:58):
Sorry to Jen Vrabel.

Speaker 2 (01:41:02):
She has spoken out negatively against Jordan Hudson, quarreling with
her if you will, back in twenty twenty five, or
a number of different things. None of that has anything
to do with this. Judge orders arrest of Bill Belichick's
daughter in law in North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
You know nothing at all about this story. What would
your first guess be as to why a judge would
order the arrest of Bill Belichick's daughter in law? What
could have happened? It's a warrant, right, I mean, I'm
reading the headline orders the arrest most of the time
when things like Bill Belichick's daughter in law is wanted.

(01:41:41):
If there was a wanted poster in North Carolina, her
face would be on it.

Speaker 3 (01:41:46):
It's not domestic violence. She didn't beat Steve up right, okay,
or attempt to catan.

Speaker 1 (01:41:52):
Maybe she tried to cut his mullet off. Well, that
would be an arrestable offense. No, it's rather simplistic and
tame mundane. I would say so because the matter stems
from an A twenty first traffic stop.

Speaker 3 (01:42:08):
The NCSHP stopped a gin. That's a mouthful.

Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
That's the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. Of course, right,
eighty eight miles an hour didn't even change the year
she was driving in when she went eighty eight miles
per hour. I don't know if she was going eighty
seven or eighty nine, but I'm sure the writer of
this article put it in there specifically to state that
she was accused of going eighty eight miles an hour

(01:42:35):
energy in a seventy mile an hour zone. Order on
that infraction is you got to appear before the county judge,
which she declined to do. Did not show up, so
the order for the arrest was issued. A couple options
when that happens. You can file a motion to recall
the order, you're gonna hire attorney to handle the matter,
or you can just go ahead and turn yourself in.

(01:42:56):
I will be sure to update everybody on the A
team as soon as I have more up to date
information on what she's decided to do.

Speaker 3 (01:43:07):
You know this is and I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:43:08):
I've never looked at some statistics because I don't even
know where this would be found. The amount of celebrities
that get hauled in over some sort of traffic citation
or traffic related incident has to.

Speaker 3 (01:43:22):
Be the leader in the clubhouse.

Speaker 2 (01:43:23):
Most times, violation explain to you, probably when the ticket
was handed. This is not an admission of guilt. This
is you need to appear in court on this date.
Sometimes the officer is unavailable and doesn't appear in case
goes away, or you can choose to not appear, which
is what she has chosen.

Speaker 1 (01:43:41):
To do, and as long as you've taken care of it,
whether that be with a course or a lawyer who
goes in your place, or any number of things, you're
good and don't get arrested.

Speaker 3 (01:43:51):
But clearly that wasn't the case here.

Speaker 2 (01:43:53):
Again, doesn't appear to be something of great consequence. Maybe
it's not even a pattern behavior. Maybe she normally drive
sixty nine and seventy rather than eighty eight, but in
this instance it was a little bit too fast and
she was cited.

Speaker 3 (01:44:06):
Eighty eight and a seventy is a pretty good clip.

Speaker 2 (01:44:08):
It is a pretty good clip, and hopefully energy Again,
nothing bad happened, no accidents took place, and everybody continue
to go about their day, which she has continued to
do without what appears to be doing anything about the
fact that she was issued this ticket. And usually there
are things you need to follow which she has chosen
not to do.

Speaker 1 (01:44:26):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
Just the names that somehow keep finding their way into
the news, well, the Belichick name continues to be one
of them. Came across this earlier and the first thing
I read on this post definitely was to say what
because the very first post or a caption on this
post is it's from Serious XM NBA Radio and it

(01:44:48):
says Trey Young is worth that. It's the very first
thing I saw and my immediate thought was, Oh, my god,
who in the heck is saying this? And how badly
are we going to rip them apart for saying it?
And it includes an interview with Wizards GM Will Dawkins.
Oh geez, he's the one who signed him to the deal.
What do I don't expect him to say anything different,

(01:45:08):
but it's wild that My first thought.

Speaker 3 (01:45:11):
Was, it's like the worst deal ever. It's like a gear.

Speaker 1 (01:45:13):
It's an awesome deal for the player, it's a terrible
deal for the team because now you're saddled to this player.

Speaker 2 (01:45:19):
I actually think Washington is night and day from what
they were last year. The Boons is going to be great,
hopefully as good as Darren Peterson. We'll find out, and
I think some combination for the next year or two
of Anthony Davis and Alex Sar and Trey Young. They're
not a pushover, They're not an automatic w every time
you play them, which they currently were, and of course

(01:45:41):
the return of a healthy Cam Whitmore. But I'm not
like you traded for Trey Young. I thought, to continue
doing what you're doing, we got to build something. You're
not building anything around Trey Young. You're just spending a
lot of money and holding up from spending other.

Speaker 3 (01:45:58):
Money by having him on the roster.

Speaker 2 (01:46:00):
Well, he's gonna be playing with the best players ever
played with, presuming Anthony Davis is there and healthy. I
will say that, but I don't think you can do
anything of consequence, And they got a long way to
go the best player on their team to win with.
Like we just said with Houston as ag it's not
Trey Young, it's not Anthony Davis, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:46:17):
Not even star.

Speaker 2 (01:46:18):
If he becomes a star, then maybe something happens.

Speaker 3 (01:46:21):
But many know you.

Speaker 2 (01:46:23):
Knew this when they figured this when they acquired him,
and I think Trey Young and his agents did know
the same. This is perfect a team that really has
no choice if they're going to engage in this deal.

Speaker 3 (01:46:33):
We know what's coming. We're going to get a big
fat extension.

Speaker 1 (01:46:35):
Well, it's still not the worst contract handed out this
offseason by an NBA franchise. That designation goes to Joe
Dumars and the Pelicans for guaranteeing all that money to
eighty six year old DeAndre Jordan.

Speaker 3 (01:46:48):
You saw that story. Well, I'm not sure what angle
you've got yet.

Speaker 1 (01:46:51):
Well, it's basically because they gave him a two year
deal as opposed to two separate one year deals, which
I guess if Joe Dumars had a basic understanding of
the collective bargaining agreement, he would have known that they
wouldn't have.

Speaker 3 (01:47:06):
Been on the hook for all nearly nine million.

Speaker 1 (01:47:09):
I know that's not a lot, relatively speaking for an
NBA player, but when that NBA player is eighty nine
year old DeAndre Jordan.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:47:17):
I mean, you gave a guy four million this year
and four million next year. I'm probably not gonna call
that the worst deal ever. Tool the fact that he
doesn't know if this is in fact the case, and
I haven't seen anybody else mention it.

Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
I'm sure I saw the same post about it that
you did.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
We saw eight years ago, maybe seven years ago, Darryl
Mory did something somewhat similar with Nana, and then the
league came back and said this, you can't sign him
to that deal. That's not a valid deal for this
age contract veteran player.

Speaker 3 (01:47:48):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
He seems like something in here is similar but for
a different reason. Yeah, just sign him to a one
year deal. But then what do you do with the
second year? Is it a player option? Is it a
wink wink deal? The worst deal this off season is
a wink wink deal. That's the deal that Gary Trent
got from the Bucks.

Speaker 3 (01:48:04):
Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:48:05):
But the reason he got it is because clearly, and
I'm saying this with no reporting, source knowledge, and I'm
saying it clearly, Gary Trent and his agent, Rich Paul
got together with the Bucks the last he signed a
deal two years ago, and then he was a free
agent and they signed to do a deal very basically
a little over to the veterans minimum last year for
one year or one year deal with a player option

(01:48:28):
which they knew he would opt out of, and then
they would make good on the contract they could not
offer him the year before.

Speaker 1 (01:48:34):
He was not a helpful play. You remember Patrick Peterson,
that ring a bell, the guy that was traded for
runar test, the guy that was a rocket. Yeah, Kansas, Yeah,
he sense. Of course I still follow him on the
X platform.

Speaker 3 (01:48:49):
Well, of course you do.

Speaker 2 (01:48:51):
On July eleventh, his first post on X in a
month and not a very frequent poster there at all.
Who knew that averaging eight points in one rebound and
one assist while shooting thirty eight percent from the field
would grant you sixteen million dollars a year? Wow, what
is going on with the NBA? Basically came out of
the NBA would work to say, Gary Trent Junior got

(01:49:13):
what after doing what.

Speaker 1 (01:49:15):
This guy who never posts about anything, let alone NBA
contracts of the current variety. By the way, we did
have a submission that Donovan Mitchell's deal is worse than
both of these.

Speaker 2 (01:49:26):
But can you even hold out any hope if you're
the calves of bringing Lebron on board, if you don't
sign Mitchell to that deal, No, because if he's then
you have to sign Mitchell to that deal exact and
hope it works out.

Speaker 1 (01:49:43):
Or you have to have Draymond say he'll play for free.
In the case of the Warriors, We'll see. It's just
that is just a lot to stomach. He's he talks
a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:49:52):
Raymond.

Speaker 1 (01:49:53):
All right, there's still some NBA stuff we need to
get to, like what they are saying to make fun
of Lebron g for example, like whether or not you
believe he's either in demand or nobody's calling. It's probably
truth is somewhere in between. We'll get to that, and yes,
we will get to some NFL and Texans specifically related things,
one of which is gonna drive me insane on air,

(01:50:15):
and you'll have to hear that.

Speaker 3 (01:50:16):
It's all coming up next.

Speaker 1 (01:50:19):
The a Broz posted a little montage.

Speaker 3 (01:50:23):
Of Jordan and his All Star gear.

Speaker 1 (01:50:27):
He's gonna get booed tonight when they announce him just
because he plays for the Astros, and it's gonna be hilarious.
And it's not even gonna be because of what he
did to the Phillies in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
It's gonna be because.

Speaker 1 (01:50:38):
People that you know why I can say that, but
how he he did do something to the Phillies. Yeah,
it makes sense for them to boo yord On Alvarez
in this case. Well they would have booed I mean,
they could have bowed Trey Mancini or Kyle Tucker, Ryan
Presley and none of them would have been at this
high level of it's because because of.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
Him, Well they should.

Speaker 1 (01:51:02):
They could boot Christian Javier even though he plays for
the Cubs in Iowa right.

Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
Uh, it's just I love seeing it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:12):
They will probably be booing him because of his costume,
but they could also be booing him.

Speaker 3 (01:51:16):
Because he turned the game upside down. In fact, he did.
Vererling was back. It didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (01:51:24):
It's just I do think it's fun for me personally
to enjoy multiple Jose Alvarado disgusted Jose Alvarado, NBA, Jose Alvarado,
Major League Baseball.

Speaker 3 (01:51:35):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
Well, one of them is not discussed this offseason. He's
doing very well after winning a championship.

Speaker 3 (01:51:41):
And got resigned.

Speaker 1 (01:51:42):
He sounded he looked, you know those pictures of his
family holding the trophy. Afterwards, he was downright likable. He's
a New Yorker. It was unreal. I can't even I'm
not even that mad at him. I mean, he helped
beat those idiots in San Antonio. So it's great. So
just quickly here. I didn't actually get into this, and

(01:52:04):
I meant to yesterday. What apparently Victor wembin Yama has
done contractually to remain a Spur forever. I'm in it
for good, as he said, for the long haul.

Speaker 2 (01:52:18):
That was a good thing for the Rockets that he
did that It's obviously bad that he was going to
stay there and play, but that was inevitable.

Speaker 3 (01:52:25):
That's fine, but it's a good thing.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
That it is another player doing what the Rockets have
been doing for years, finding a way to get players
that they've drafted and developed to stay with them with
a new contract that is not for the max. They've
done it with Jabbari, They've obviously done it with Tari
through restricted free agency. They did it with Alprin Schagun,

(01:52:46):
they did it with Jalen Green, and they would be
ecstatic if they did it with a men Thompson.

Speaker 1 (01:52:53):
They're going to have to do it with a men
Thomps because he ain't got no jump shows. It's happening. Yeah,
Victor has been extend this offseason. He's on the exact
same timeline as the player drafted three spots after him,
a men Thompson, and he's he's going to sign this offseason.
There's no he's not signing for more?

Speaker 3 (01:53:12):
Is he? Are you?

Speaker 2 (01:53:13):
In that discussion with he and his agent, he's like, well,
look this player he plush to play in the finals.

Speaker 3 (01:53:18):
He's drafted before you.

Speaker 2 (01:53:19):
He's on a little bit tint of a higher salary
pitch because of the draft slot. But that's a pretty
good argument to make on the rocket side of the table, isn't.

Speaker 3 (01:53:28):
It, Especially if you can point to him and you would.

Speaker 1 (01:53:30):
Be able to and say, look at him up there,
and look at all the things he does that are
intricate to you winning on the at the highest level
versus you don't have a jump shot.

Speaker 2 (01:53:41):
And if I were the Rockets making all those points
on their side of the table, I would still fully
and wholly respect a men or his agent or both
of them.

Speaker 3 (01:53:51):
At the same time God saying I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:53:53):
Care, screw that guy whatever, he's stupid, tell me what.

Speaker 3 (01:53:59):
To do with his contract.

Speaker 1 (01:54:01):
I know, once upon a time on these airwaves, I
said I would never trade him in Thompson for Victor Wimbinyama.

Speaker 3 (01:54:06):
Guess what, I still Wouldn't you want it to be fun? Well,
I just.

Speaker 1 (01:54:12):
Everybody's just assuming that they're gonna just start lining up
parade routes because he went to the finals in year
three or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:54:18):
Yeah, not a Garwaks built in this. Here's our parade route. Well,
I hope he falls in.

Speaker 2 (01:54:23):
Put Victor and Stefan and Dilan on a boat and
we're often boating.

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
That is not a foregone conclusion. We would have.

Speaker 2 (01:54:34):
Never picked any of the other twenty eight teams to
win the title this year. We would have never picked
anybody but the Thunder. Nobody thought the Spurs were gonna
win this year. By the end of the year, they
were the only two teams anybody thought could win the
title this year, and neither of them won.

Speaker 1 (01:54:48):
Well, if I'm the Thunder this offseason, since we're on
the subject, I'm having some sort of like full metal
jacket style brainwashing of chet Holmgren because you cannot keep
being such as a little passive, a little passive when
it comes to playing that of all guys, like, come on, dude,
I know he wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:55:09):
Even head to head so much. He just excused himself
from the series. He just that I'm not gonna do anything.
I'm going to hang out in the corner. I'm gonna
shy away from everything, whether it's Wemby related or not.

Speaker 3 (01:55:20):
Yeah, and I'm just not gonna help the team. But
in the in the.

Speaker 1 (01:55:24):
In the situations where they did wind up playing in
a one on one on either end of the floor,
like he was so scared of that French turd, Like,
come on, dude, I know you're Chet Holmegrin and you're
seven foot five and weigh fifty pounds, but you've got
to like, you just can't have some French guy show

(01:55:46):
you up from a physical standpoint.

Speaker 3 (01:55:49):
That's embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (01:55:50):
Like, it's so embarrassing, and it makes me think that
Chet and Victor wm Nyama are gonna suffer the same
fate from a from a physical standpoint. He's already missed
one year because his body wouldn't hold up. It's just
a matter of time before it happens to VICKI So,
I mean whatever, I hope those guys just annihilate each other.

(01:56:12):
I just it's so gross to see the Spurs go
back to the NBA Finals.

Speaker 3 (01:56:18):
Am I bitter? Yes, absolutely, I'm bitter.

Speaker 1 (01:56:21):
It's been nineteen ninety five since the Rockets have even
been to the finals, and of course they won it,
and they should have gone in twenty eighteen, but like
should have, could have, would have.

Speaker 3 (01:56:30):
I'm sick of waiting.

Speaker 1 (01:56:31):
There are eight teams that have waited this long now
to go back to the NBA Finals or make an
appearance in the NBA Finals, and the Rockets are on
that list. That's unacceptable. It just is, especially when you
consider how good some of the teams they've tried it
out there have been over that time period.

Speaker 3 (01:56:46):
And they've been some stinky ones as well.

Speaker 1 (01:56:48):
But all of that is to say, Football at five
is coming up next, and well, if you think I
was upset about the Rockets, wait until you hear what
one person or se several people. Actually it is several people, coaches, executives,
they put that guy on that list.

Speaker 3 (01:57:07):
We'll explain when we come back the A T on
Sports Talks. Can I just fast forward to the part
that makes me mad?

Speaker 1 (01:57:18):
Yeah? Saved it for you. Well, now I've lost the link,
but I'll find it.

Speaker 3 (01:57:24):
Sorry. What are we talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:57:28):
So? NFL executives and coaches put together their best of
basically so the ESPN lists, Yeah, their top ten.

Speaker 3 (01:57:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57:41):
Jeremy Fowler has been doing a series polls executive scouts,
personnel people and then rolls out what their votes turned out.
Top ten edges, linebackers, cornerbacks, running backs, tight ends, you know,
all the positions that NFL players play. And the list
for quarterbacks was released yesterday. Off Ball linebackers came out today,

(01:58:02):
but we're I'm pretty sure focused on the quarterback list,
which I did bring up yesterday without necessarily getting into
some of what was said about those players.

Speaker 3 (01:58:12):
Heavy focus on c. J.

Speaker 2 (01:58:13):
Stroud, who was not listed in the top ten, did
not receive honorable mention though one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven others did so that would put CJ. Stroud in
the back half of the league's thirty two starting quarterbacks.
He did receive votes. Essentially, he was the twentieth best
quarterback of these votes that were taken unofficially from executives

(01:58:36):
and other people around the NFL by Fowler over at
to ESPN. Now we can focus in on the top
quarterbacks in the in the AFC, please if you would.

Speaker 1 (01:58:46):
Well, Josh Allen at number one is not a surprise
in that his team made the playoffs last year and
Mahomes didn't. That's why he's number two. He was one
at number one last year. He's number two, the number one. Yeah,
they you were number two. Yeah, he's out turned in
his wings exactly. You're number one. Yeah, so Mahomes number two.

(01:59:06):
I get that. Matthew Stafford was six last year and
climbing all the notches up to number three. That was
a little bit of a surprise. Even with a what
the Rams did last season and be what they are
poised to do this season, I still think that's pretty
high for him.

Speaker 3 (01:59:24):
MVP.

Speaker 2 (01:59:25):
His two top receivers are back there's nothing about their
offense that looks like it should turn backwards other than him. Yea,
his age, and then you got to in order to
have him not jump to three, then you got to
be voting for the people that are immediately behind him
over him, and I think that's why they didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:59:41):
That's why what surprised me second most, because we'll get
to what surprises me the most was the fact that
Lamar Jackson is number five, which sounds low until you
consider he was four last year.

Speaker 3 (01:59:53):
I thought he was higher.

Speaker 2 (01:59:54):
How about until you consider somebody didn't at least one
person didn't even rank him at all.

Speaker 3 (02:00:01):
Yeah, that's stupid.

Speaker 1 (02:00:02):
Whoever has that among the important vote, right, It's just stupid.
Joe Burrow's number four. He was three last year. I
guess that's normal. No, no, no, I just think that Joe
Burrow has a giant asterisk next to his name, even
though he took his team to the Super Bowl like
five minutes after getting drafted.

Speaker 3 (02:00:20):
I get all that, but it's.

Speaker 2 (02:00:21):
Like I'm never healthy that two of the other AFC
quarterbacks in the top five have still yet to do.
No Josh Allen, No Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 1 (02:00:28):
Now I don't know what I'm more offended by, but
it's one of the next two choices. Dak Prescott was
unranked last year and is suddenly number six. Why please
tell me what.

Speaker 2 (02:00:41):
Did you dislike about his twenty twenty five season? Now
when you got to consider the rest of your list,
like who's behind him that you're like that?

Speaker 1 (02:00:50):
How could you put Dak ahead of him? Or him
or him? I'm a Dak fan, but I just didn't
you like what he did?

Speaker 3 (02:00:56):
Sure? Do you think the Cowboys fans liked? He's not
a are you? Is it? All? That's unfair?

Speaker 1 (02:01:03):
Well, if you're going to take a guy and put
him on this list who was unranked last year, shouldn't
Drake may be ahead of him since we're doing ridiculous
choices since he at least went to.

Speaker 3 (02:01:13):
The Super Bowl. Absolutely not well good because he's eight.

Speaker 2 (02:01:17):
I mean, I'm I know what his numbers said last year,
and Drake may nearly won the MVP and he had
sensational numbers. But this isn't year one of Dak having
sensational numbers. Probably year five. Yeah, I know he's been
in the league almost ten years, but probably five of
those seasons are incredible number. Drake May's had one good season.

(02:01:37):
I'm really like if his defense was a huge part
of why they did what they did.

Speaker 1 (02:01:42):
I feel like if Dak Prescott were in the AFC,
he'd be just another guy. He'd be so lost in
the shuffle. And I don't because I think they played
for the Cowboys.

Speaker 2 (02:01:50):
The Cowboys would be worse off because they would be
counting on him to do everything. A really talented offense
and a miserable defense.

Speaker 3 (02:01:58):
I agree with. Patriots were the exact opposite.

Speaker 1 (02:02:00):
He played well, yeah, but their defense was good, their
team was good. They're welcome to see that this year.
When he gets fall with he and Day fall off
a cliff, it's coming.

Speaker 3 (02:02:09):
Don't worry. So Dak is six, Let's get.

Speaker 1 (02:02:11):
To the good part. Yes, right there in the middle,
smack dab where he was last year. It's not even
about him rising or climbing. What is this infatuation with
Justin Herbert? Seriously, I'm asking you people, Jeremy Fowler, anybody
who this first sentence, Herbert's career has reached an inflection point. Really,

(02:02:32):
it's just now reached it. He hasn't done squat when
it matters.

Speaker 2 (02:02:37):
Ever, well, that's during the season, because he has not
even been in the playoffs often enough to just say, well, his.

Speaker 3 (02:02:45):
Teams weren't good enough.

Speaker 2 (02:02:46):
Like they have infrequently participated in the playoffs during his
six years. They've been there three times, they've lost all
three times. The last two years they've been there and
they lost again. And his personal performance in these games
is awful. Granted we know one of them very very well.
He played against a great defense. He had about offensive line,

(02:03:08):
and it showed thishow they won all their other games
that year. This, oh my god, just get to the
second sentence and come back to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:03:15):
She's an immense talent who recorded his historic numbers in
his early years. Correct, what has he done since then?

Speaker 3 (02:03:23):
Nothing? And again this is my favorite.

Speaker 1 (02:03:26):
This is a quote from an NFL personal exec If
you're picking quarterbacks to build around, you're still taking him
pretty high. That proved true in the voting, with Herbert
appearing on nearly eighty percent of the ballots, and his
pairing with this new offensive coordinator has the league intrigued.
You're talking about Mike McDaniel. They go on to make
excuses for him. His previous coordinator was Greg Rohman, who's

(02:03:48):
known more for his running game prowess.

Speaker 3 (02:03:51):
Okay, that's why he wasn't more successful.

Speaker 1 (02:03:53):
Like every single year, this guy gets free pass after
free pass after free pass after excuse a free pass.

Speaker 3 (02:04:01):
And I get it. I'm not even This isn't even
about him.

Speaker 1 (02:04:03):
Versus c J Stroud, which is where I was sitting
in this chair a year ago, looking stupid now because
CJ made me look stupid.

Speaker 3 (02:04:09):
Thanks CJ.

Speaker 1 (02:04:10):
But like, come on, dude, this guy has done next
to nothing to deserve this kind of love.

Speaker 2 (02:04:17):
Again, I do agree he's a little too lofty, but
now you're going to have to pick other players to
push him down the list. Drake May's right behind him.
I can't imagine you'd rather have Drake May than Justin Herbert.
It's probably a push. You hate them both. I don't
think you want Jared Goff more than you want Herbert.
That would be fair. He's clearly passed his way individually.

(02:04:38):
To loftier goals lock on my career.

Speaker 1 (02:04:40):
Of the honorable mentions on this list, I mean Sam
Darnold did just win the Super Bowl, and case would
take god one of two of them on the honorable mention.
Jaden Daniels, No, really, He's.

Speaker 2 (02:04:52):
Had one good year, which is not more good years
than Herbert's had. He's reached the NFC title game, which
is very impressive.

Speaker 1 (02:04:58):
I know you wouldn't take Brock. You better not take
Trevor Lawrence Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 3 (02:05:03):
Nope.

Speaker 1 (02:05:03):
Jalen Hurts has two Super Bowl appearances in one win.

Speaker 3 (02:05:07):
That's one of the players I would take over.

Speaker 1 (02:05:09):
He's lopsidedly more successful when the lights are brightest.

Speaker 2 (02:05:13):
If Sam Darnold was Mike McDaniel's quarterback with the Chargers
this year, they would have at least as good a
chance to win with Justin Jervis.

Speaker 1 (02:05:21):
That's the Packers don't win more because of Jordan Love.
I don't, no, but I don't.

Speaker 2 (02:05:26):
Jordan Love hasn't done anything with his career, even with
beating the Cowboys in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (02:05:31):
Well, he's won a playoff game, which is more I
can say for number seven Justin.

Speaker 2 (02:05:35):
Right, But I'm gonna take one day of football over
their perspective five six, seven years careers.

Speaker 1 (02:05:40):
Yeah, but how many times has he been there to
win a game and hasn't done it?

Speaker 3 (02:05:44):
Three times?

Speaker 1 (02:05:45):
He's a Texans bitch all three times.

Speaker 3 (02:05:49):
It's factual.

Speaker 2 (02:05:50):
They were, for effect, not supposed to win right now,
They weren't supposed to win when the game was kicked off,
but they absolutely positively were supposed to win when they
played the Jaguars, and they had I don't know. They
were up by a few points, and they scored seventeen
in the first quarter and then another ten in the

(02:06:10):
second quarter before Jacksonville had even gotten on the board,
and Justin Herbert led that team to a loss while
leading twenty seven to nothing. That means they were favored.
They were on the road, as they've been for their
playoff games. They got clobbered by Houston defensively. He had
no chance against them, and he lost his other playoff

(02:06:32):
game rather in a rather lopsided manner this past year
against the same Patriots defense that beat two other teams,
his team scored three points. He led his team to
three points in their playoff game this year. I still
think you're right he's wildly overrated for the amount of
time he's played in the NFL and accomplished as a

(02:06:52):
team literally nothing. If we're if our only bar is
winning a playoff game one time in six years that
has not happened. So for that, it would be impossible
to put him on a list this high and not
right wildly overrated. But I can't help watching him play,
looking at him throw, doing things that he can do,
and not thinking it's there, it's going to happen. And

(02:07:14):
so it's just like the executives and everybody else who
rates him this high every single year is just waiting
to say, see, I knew it was there in.

Speaker 1 (02:07:20):
The same paragraph where they're making excuses for him because
Greg Roman is known for his running game prowess over
two seasons with Roman, Herbert had a very effective twenty
twenty four season, but through thirteen interceptions last year, albeit
while the Chargers dealt with a battered offensive line from
much of the season.

Speaker 3 (02:07:37):
Yeah, you're right. No quarterback who throws a bunch of
picks has ever dealt with.

Speaker 1 (02:07:41):
A battered or any both tackles who cares kind of matters. Okay,
so now atrocious, when's the what is the best offensive
line CJ's ever played behind?

Speaker 2 (02:07:55):
Right, That's what Herbert was playing with last year. For
the most part, we did get votes votes. Now he
had never got to it, So I'm not getting out
of the segment until I get to it.

Speaker 3 (02:08:04):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:08:05):
One NFL coordinator said, this is awesome. He plays young.
He's incredibly talented and has made progress, but he doesn't
have the maturity level of other guys as far as
how he runs the overall operation of mastery of the position.
That's a negative comment. That is a I didn't vote
him seventh. That's not my fault. I see him for
who ac sees him as, and that is a do nothing,

(02:08:25):
accomplish nothing Madison Beer boyfriend and nothing else.

Speaker 3 (02:08:29):
That's his biggest accomplishment. He's dating Beer.

Speaker 1 (02:08:33):
Like every one of these there's what one, two, three, four, five,
six little mini paragraphs maybe one real paragraph in this
little synopsis of him. Every one of them has an
excuse in it, including regardless his playmaking is still prolific,
that's a prolific. If you just say his playmaking is
still prolific, that's fine, but you have to put the
qualifier word in front of it, because he's Justin Herbert,

(02:08:57):
but we got to put him number seven. He's definitely
better than like all of the other quarterbacks beside six.

Speaker 2 (02:09:03):
That's so stupid. He's pretty good. He just hasn't done anything.

Speaker 3 (02:09:08):
Which is it?

Speaker 1 (02:09:08):
So?

Speaker 2 (02:09:10):
Which is it? Gosh, make a great mind break debate
Justin Herbert. Right here in Houston as always your home
for let's see your home for Yankees baseball, sporing and
your home for Justin Herbert hate the.

Speaker 3 (02:09:25):
Eighteen Do they play the Chargers this year in the playoffs? Oh,
that's going to be a win for not.

Speaker 2 (02:09:30):
I guess Justin Herbert's getting this team to the playoffs
for the fourth dime in seven years, and that's pretty awesome.
That sounds like he's accomplishing things. Chargers and Texans in
the playoffs again with the Texans defense, I don't know.
I'm sure the rematch from the November eighth game at
so Far will be something on everybody's mind.

Speaker 3 (02:09:50):
The mom Texan and says, calm down, Tiger.

Speaker 2 (02:09:55):
The list for quarterbacks came out during your vacation yesterday.

Speaker 3 (02:10:00):
It's a good thing I can see.

Speaker 2 (02:10:00):
Specifically, held off on getting into that conversation till you
arrived today.

Speaker 1 (02:10:05):
Well, it would have ruined it it being the vacation
in Mexico if I had to see that crap again.

Speaker 3 (02:10:12):
Go do something. We'll see if it changes.

Speaker 2 (02:10:14):
This year, he's been repeatedly expected to do something of
significance for his football team with his football team, and.

Speaker 3 (02:10:21):
It has not happened. As he heads into year seven,
we won't keep.

Speaker 1 (02:10:23):
Doing this, But how many times has I mean, we're
at least going on third offseason in a row where well,
this season's going to be different because they've added this
head coach or assistant or coordinator or play call ort. Oh,
now he's got an offensive line that's not beat up,
so it's all good now. And he's still just He's
like the law of diminishing returns. You keep going back

(02:10:46):
for more and it's just worse every single time. Could
be enjoy that.

Speaker 2 (02:10:51):
Chargers fans, I mean Chargers, they're not asking the question,
and nor should they be. The Texans are asking the
question they absolutely should be. Do we have our quarterback
at the future. It's not being questioned in LA nor
should it be. Focus here it is.

Speaker 1 (02:11:05):
My focus has shifted from is CJ better than Justin
Herbert to why is Justin Herbert so high on this
list and just ignore CJ because maybe nobody will notice that. Ugh,
because that's kind of where we're at right now with him.

Speaker 2 (02:11:19):
I think there's a could I see him playing his
way into multiple playoff wins in a Super Bowl absolutely
hadn't happened yet, and he's been part of the reason. Well,
he plays the way he has been playing, it's never
gonna happen. He obviously needs to get better. It's not
just a Charger's front office, Chargers coaches, and Chargers teammates issue.
Maybe some recognition that Herbert is part of the issue

(02:11:42):
would help. And that's what that last comment really had
to do with and in the case on him to
a certain extent, and he continues to have none of
it placed on him externally.

Speaker 1 (02:11:52):
Well, and in the case of CJ, it's probably because
he's dealing with too many bougie women La Houston or
otherwise as to why he has not taken his game
to loftier heights. And if you don't believe me, well
it's not me that said it, it's him.

Speaker 3 (02:12:12):
La Bro.

Speaker 5 (02:12:13):
It's not very closed bro being at Californikia. I'm proud
about that, Like, right, you respect the hustling and grind
you see the women going through where we're from.

Speaker 3 (02:12:23):
I love you.

Speaker 5 (02:12:23):
Houston women are great. But for me, La bro like
you can get a little bit of everything bro out here. Like, yeah,
they got some varieties, but hey, one thing about La
girls like they they they real boogie.

Speaker 3 (02:12:36):
Houston girls are fake boogie. Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:12:38):
First of all, that was from two years ago, first
and foremost. Yeah, March of twenty twenty four. Yeah, and
for some reason it's recirculated on social media. Secondly, when
he's talking about variety, I'm not going to give one
state a heads up over the other. They're both the
women he's talking about Geographically where we're speaking of, which

(02:13:01):
is both areas are relatively close to the southern border.
I'm never going to say, well, one, you know, mix
of women is more diverse or eclectic or whatever you
want to call it than the other. I'm just not
going to go there. Because you can get all of
the colors of the rainbow in either city. You just
can more so than you would in the northernmost you.

Speaker 2 (02:13:23):
Get March of twenty twenty four, he was drafted let's
say May of twenty twenty three.

Speaker 3 (02:13:29):
Right, so he's been here all of one year and
change when he does.

Speaker 2 (02:13:33):
Less than one year, and more than half of that
less than one year. He was in season all of August, September, October, November, December, January.

Speaker 3 (02:13:44):
On how much.

Speaker 2 (02:13:45):
Learning he was able to do about the bougeness of
the women here in Houston. Now, he spent a lot
of his life in California, so he probably had plenty
of time to do that. Some of his life in
Columbus as well. So this actually feeds into the man
that media blitz, if you want to call it that
oh man, the accessibility, the saying yes to everything that CJ.

(02:14:07):
Stroud did in the off season following his fantastic rookie season,
and the future being so bright. This was one of
those interviews he sat down with a very long podcast.
That's where this interview comes from, along with many other things,
lot of just lots of things. He said yes to
that off season draft coverage, you know, kind of giving

(02:14:28):
the business trash talk wise to Michaeh Parsons and you know,
talking about everything everything and we get kind of got
dissected to pieces and it doesn't look very good now
and that his career individually hasn't gone in that direction.
Since it's gone in the opposite direction, it's why he
lands way outside the top fifteen. I'm pretty very much
everybody's thoughts about the quarterbacks this year, ourselves included, I

(02:14:51):
don't really care. You can do whatever you want. I
don't think one begets the other. He did all this talking,
and that's why this has happened. He wasn't focused on
his career, so that's why really don't buy into that.

Speaker 3 (02:15:01):
But I'm sure he would.

Speaker 2 (02:15:02):
Probably he might even look back on some of the
things he said, yes too, and some of the things he.

Speaker 3 (02:15:07):
Said and think that's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:15:09):
I can't believe I'm the same guy.

Speaker 1 (02:15:14):
Okay, First, going back to what you originally said, yes,
when he was going on that tour, it has aged.

Speaker 3 (02:15:20):
Well, that's what it was.

Speaker 2 (02:15:21):
It was just if you wanted a piece of c. J.
Stroud's conversation, you got it.

Speaker 1 (02:15:26):
Honestly, coming off of his rookie season that you mentioned.
None of us should to this day blame him, but
all of us can without hesitation say it aged like
milk in July, which.

Speaker 3 (02:15:37):
Is where we are right now in the calendar. By
the way.

Speaker 1 (02:15:39):
So go out and put some milk out there on
the on the sidewalk and let me know how that
looks in about an hour.

Speaker 3 (02:15:44):
That's CJ.

Speaker 1 (02:15:45):
Since then from a public persona standpoint from his play, Yeah,
I mean he's a nice kid for by all accounts.

Speaker 3 (02:15:53):
But yeah, like I just always have same thing with Herbert.

Speaker 2 (02:15:57):
If season begins again, you just go out there and
you have the opportunity to change all that. You have
the opportunity to make something happen. You play the quarterback position.
Things can change very quickly both directions. I doubt I
really Again, the game itself, the Patriots games, it's never
gonna go away no matter what he does. I mean,

(02:16:17):
winning a super Bowl will be awesome, and his play
in that super Bowl will be great. Otherwise you're probably
not gonna win, and it'll still be hard to just
completely say I can't you know.

Speaker 3 (02:16:27):
Well, it want to go to the same guy. It
won't matter anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:16:30):
And the question, well, is this what you're gonna get
from CJ in the playoffs, Because he's had six playoff games,
he probably hasn't had three really good games. He's definitely
had two really bad games. And then somewhere in the
middle on them going out there and crushing it in
a playoff game is something he really has. I wouldn't
say he's done, he's played well, but just dominating, looking great,

(02:16:52):
absolutely killing it, carrying the team toe to speak, which
pretty much any quarterback who wins three or four games
in a postseason probably at least once and the questions
should be there, and there.

Speaker 1 (02:17:03):
Are three years Unfortunately, what we've gotten to as far
as the best case scenario for that is if he does,
you know, say he plays his way to the Texans
play their way and he doesn't play them out of
getting to the Super Bowl. So we're seeing all these
stories leading up to the game because of course, as
we know, the two weeks leading up to it is
just excruciating, and by the time you get to like

(02:17:25):
Sunday morning, you're just wanting to claw your eyes out
because you're tired of all the feel good stories and
subplots and all that. But his story will be look
at how far he's come from a year ago good
when he exactly great. That's the best case scenario though.

Speaker 2 (02:17:40):
Yeah, and the Cleveland game is very first playoff game,
probably would rate a little higher than just good. The
defense was so good, and maybe Cloud's judgment myself included.
He didn't do anything wrong that day, and he made
every play he needed to. He threw three touchdown passes
in a playoff game without throwing any picks, without turning
the ball over. That's awesome, that's great. That's winning that

(02:18:01):
you're winning the game because of you. Maybe the scor
is a little closer, but in this case it wasn't
because the defen.

Speaker 3 (02:18:06):
Saying he didn't lose it.

Speaker 2 (02:18:08):
No, I don't mean to say that at all. I
mean that won by thirty one. So they didn't blow
them out only because of him. They blew them out
because their defense also scored two touchdowns. But he was
nearly flawless. He only had five incompletions. He threw three touchdowns,
he threw no picks. It was a breeze to do
what they needed to do offensively. He's played five playoff
games since then and has matched that total just three

(02:18:31):
more touchdown passes in the five combined playoff games since,
and has thrown six picks in addition to the other fumbles.

Speaker 1 (02:18:39):
Yeah, it was a just a very weird postseason. In
twenty twenty technically twenty twenty six, but the twenty twenty
five season into the postseason, you felt like you won
almost in spite of him in the Pittsburgh game, and
you don't. You're not really, it's not that you're you're
not giving credit where it do because they were playing

(02:19:01):
eighty six year old Aaron Rodgers. Because I think that
defense would have made life miserable for a lot of
guys on in a playoff game, playoff quarterback, right.

Speaker 3 (02:19:10):
Took him a while to get there.

Speaker 2 (02:19:12):
Yeah, leading seven six, six, thirteen and a half minutes
on the fourth quarter clock.

Speaker 1 (02:19:17):
Yeah, you would have never guessed if you're a Pittsburgh
fan in the stadium that night and you're going into
the fourth quarter, you would have never guessed the final
score would be the way it was. And then they're like, basically,
you know, reading a eulogy for Aaron Rodgers and he's
totally playing this year.

Speaker 3 (02:19:34):
I know, I can't wait. It'd be awesome one less
real quarterback in the the AFC, right, no question about it.

Speaker 2 (02:19:41):
So we will get into CJ tomorrow and Thursday and
Friday and probably almost every single day that's it, literally
almost training Campbell's day and then we'll have training camp
here in case you missed it.

Speaker 3 (02:19:54):
Is next the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (02:19:58):
We're gonna get you into the case you missed it all.
Also want to note that in the final segment of
the show, we will give tickets away to the Big Three.
Have a pair of tickets to the Big Three July
twenty six over at Toyota Center. The Rig Hans Houston's
Rig Hands of Course, coached by Calvin Murphy, will be
taking part. I've Got the Dallas Power, the DMV Trilogy,
and the Miami three to five all part of the

(02:20:20):
afternoon the evening's activities.

Speaker 3 (02:20:22):
Just one ticket needed.

Speaker 2 (02:20:23):
You can buy your tickets now at Big three dot
com or win them with us here at next segment.

Speaker 3 (02:20:27):
We also have a four pack of tickets.

Speaker 2 (02:20:29):
To give away to the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live
Glowing Fire happening over at Toyta Center also at the
beginning of August. Give you deats on that and what
you need to know to win those tickets. But it's
always as simple as we say, listen to the show
and you know the answer to the simple question we
we'll ask you in the final segment and those tickets
would be yours in case you missed it. Some items
we've not gotten to enough or at all. What do

(02:20:51):
we have today?

Speaker 6 (02:20:53):
All right, it's that time of your boys a little
list radio. But I thought this one was interesting because
as a Texans fan for this many years, I always
thought of them as playing in pretty much the worst division,
and that is not the case anymore. Our friends at
NFL dot com have ranked the divisions the best to worse.
I guess at the top, maybe you could debate a

(02:21:13):
little bit they have. Number one is the NFC North.
I thought you could have a fair argument with the
NFC West with Seattle and the Rams, of course, but
coming in for your Houston Texans, AFC South coming in fifth,
and it rounds out with NFC ET six, AFC seventh,
and NFC South eighth as the worst division. Do you
guys agree AFC South the fifth best division in football?

Speaker 3 (02:21:36):
That's the back half.

Speaker 2 (02:21:37):
Well, that's one of the four worst divisions one way
to look at it. I can't believe I saw anybody,
and I wish I could remember who it was that
actually predicted the Colts to win the division. If more
people thought the Colts could win the division, because clearly
some people think the Jags can win the division, and
no doubt people think the Texans can win the division.

Speaker 3 (02:21:55):
That would kind of fall in line with this.

Speaker 2 (02:21:57):
A division that has two potential division winners, the two
teams that won twelve and thirteen games respectively last year,
kind of makes me put them in a little bit
higher position because it means you have two teams capable
of doing something, reaching the playoffs and doing something when
you get there.

Speaker 3 (02:22:13):
That's half your division.

Speaker 2 (02:22:14):
Doesn't really matter if the other two teams are awful
when you only have one team, and that's what some
of these other divisions might be. Clearly, the NFC South
has none, so that's probably about where they belong. I
look at the AFC West, Mahomes, Knicks, and of.

Speaker 3 (02:22:33):
Course justin Herbert.

Speaker 2 (02:22:35):
That's three teams that probably think they can win this year,
and I think that's reasonable. Just you at least have
the Bills and the Patriots. Obviously, in the AFC East,
I think both the Jets and the Dolphins are a
clear several steps behind those two. And then the North,
while maybe nobody's awesome, you definitely have two teams that

(02:22:57):
should think they're going to the playoffs. The ones that
have Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. The Steelers will find
out if Mike Tomlin's magic is a thing because they
have a very similar group coming back but now being
led by Mike McCarthy. And then you got it, one
crappy team. That's probably about right if I heard your
list correctly.

Speaker 1 (02:23:16):
And it's everybody can agree on the fact that the
NFC South is absolute dog lick.

Speaker 2 (02:23:22):
Well, yeah, I'm not sure what would make it much
different this year. I don't think that the teams are disasters,
but they're not really good. There's not a really good
team in that division. Somebody's going to make the playoffs.
It'd be shocking if two teams made the playoffs out
of that division. And look at what we were doing
on the last weekend of the season. Well, even if
they lose to fall to eight to nine, they could

(02:23:42):
still win the division via a tiebreaker. That's what we
were looking at the final week of the season with
Carolina and what the Falcons did and what the Bucks
were trying to do. All while the Saints might have
been playing the best football in the division at the time,
they stink. There's no really good team that nobody in
that division should be printing up and having slogans and
even inviting fans out to practice and thinking I think

(02:24:04):
we got something special.

Speaker 1 (02:24:05):
No, but I think even with the departure of Mike Evans,
who's old but still effective, I just don't think a
Baker Mayfield Todd Bowles.

Speaker 3 (02:24:16):
Unit is going to be.

Speaker 1 (02:24:18):
As bad as they were. I don't think what they
ended up being last year was who they really are.
Let's put it that way.

Speaker 3 (02:24:23):
Yeah, they tied for the division lead. Well, I mean
an eight to nine record. They're not good.

Speaker 1 (02:24:28):
They're not a super Bowl contender this year. Yeah, but
I also don't think they're eight to nine bad. They'll
have a winning record this year. Let's put it that way.
We'll have predictions later in the offset. After all, they
can get fat on their own division if nothing else,
what you're not afraid of, like Carol, No, I'm not,
and they couldn't I know, I know, but.

Speaker 3 (02:24:48):
One of those eight wins was here in Houston, very
aware of that part. All Right, what else do we have?

Speaker 6 (02:24:55):
Okay, this is like a hell scenario for act acafee.
Was it Taylor Swift's wedding watching Patrick Mahomes dance. Imagine
if Ace had to do that, and his takeaway was
he thinks Mahomes is gonna be ready early in the season.
How much stock do you guys put in dancing at
weddings for zero? Your lateral agility to be ready for

(02:25:16):
a football less than zero?

Speaker 1 (02:25:18):
Like it's true, though, what you can't dance though that
he is going to be ready early in the season,
probably for game one.

Speaker 3 (02:25:27):
Yeah, what it's really going to come down to.

Speaker 1 (02:25:30):
And no matter who you are, including the great godlike.

Speaker 3 (02:25:35):
Patrick Mahomes, small g.

Speaker 1 (02:25:41):
He's going to in the back of his mind be
thinking about this until he doesn't.

Speaker 3 (02:25:45):
And I don't know how long that's going to take.

Speaker 2 (02:25:47):
But you think to the point that it impacts his play.
I don't know how it can't, because every other quarterback
who's had these injuries has gotten over it when they
were at his level or close to it, right maybe
like are there quarterbacks you think that had seven years
left in their life but this way that have been
hurt that weren't able to mentally overcome that.

Speaker 1 (02:26:08):
Who's the greatest quarterback to have this injury? Who is
a scrambler? And you felt like it just it was
effortless that they just picked up right where they left off.

Speaker 3 (02:26:21):
Nobody.

Speaker 1 (02:26:22):
I mean, Tom Brady had this injury, right, but he
was he was a traditional pocket passer.

Speaker 2 (02:26:27):
Like you've kind of left it with a pretty limited group.
It's already limited because he's elite. There's not that many
players at his level. But part of what makes him
elite isn't just his arm, it's it's right. So now
you're eliminating Brady, you're eliminating Burrow from even able to
comp to them, right, But that's just because they don't run.

Speaker 3 (02:26:44):
Yeah, but that's a big deal. When you're talking.

Speaker 2 (02:26:45):
About this, I know what you're trying to say, and
I'm not being dismissive at all. I think it's a
very There probably aren't many I could list, but I
don't think.

Speaker 1 (02:26:53):
The Chiefs want him to be as mobile as he's
been before this. I doubt it.

Speaker 2 (02:26:56):
They already they didn't want him to be as mobile
as it was long before this injury.

Speaker 1 (02:27:00):
Right, So I think between that and just him, he's
also he didn't get hurt because he's mobile. No, he
doesn't get hit because he's mobile, true, But if he
does get hit because he's mobile, you see what I'm saying, like,
but they're gonna get an extra nineteen plays where it
worked because he's mobile, and he's gonna gonna get hit. Actually,
when inevitably somebody gets a flag off, some bs we

(02:27:21):
breathed on him.

Speaker 2 (02:27:22):
I'm probably a little dismissive to the whole idea, but
I don't think this injury matters at all for Pat
mahomes future. He's capable of being just as awesome as
he was before.

Speaker 3 (02:27:34):
I hope you're wrong. I hope I'm way wrong. As
usual anything else.

Speaker 6 (02:27:40):
Yeah, quickly, I just saw something that said Channel Rome, listen,
Jeremy Panna is the Astro's most valuable trade chip, even
over yourd on in this article, and I just I
thought that was interesting. Do we think that's just because
the salary is so much less for Paynya?

Speaker 1 (02:27:53):
No, we think this because Paynia is more likely to
walk in free agency. And apparently, according to both the
Astros and Jordan himself, like when guys say I want
to play the rest of my career in X uniform,
well of course they say that they if sounds like
Jordan actually will.

Speaker 3 (02:28:14):
It's put it this way.

Speaker 1 (02:28:15):
Everybody can say, whatever this has been the most demonstrative
quote I've seen of any Superstar Star player. Whatever that
you think might be lost because Jim Crane doesn't give
out whatever amount of years deal. I think Pania, it's
a foregone conclusion. He is gone, just like every every
one of the rest of them.

Speaker 3 (02:28:32):
Simple to the statement, I don't see that at all
about with Penia or Jordan.

Speaker 2 (02:28:39):
I would disagree with what Chandler wrote. I don't know
why you would. Why other teams would value him more.

Speaker 3 (02:28:46):
Well, because they think he's actually available where they don't
think you're on is different. I guess.

Speaker 2 (02:28:51):
I guess I'm not reading it properly. Trade asset because
he could actually be moved. That's fine, but that's not
really how I read it. I don't maybe he should
or I should assume.

Speaker 1 (02:29:00):
Well, the Houston Astros are not likely to sell at
this year's trade deadline. Is the very first sentence of
the article. That kind of sets the tone. And then
if you're gonna.

Speaker 2 (02:29:09):
Say, first of all, I believe you're rereading from an
aggregated article. True like how he wrote it, we know
the Astros are likely to be buyers of the players
the team would actually consider trading, which players do you
think would have the most trade value. There's the answer
to my problem. That's how it's written. So he clearly
states what he's trying to say, which is not how

(02:29:29):
I read the pulled out of the original article aggregators story. Well,
like you, I just clicked on a link he did
a Q and A via The Athletic yesterday. I had
read that earlier yesterday. I was actually reading it as
he wrote it.

Speaker 3 (02:29:42):
They're going to be buyers. We all know it. I
just don't know how they're going to buy. We will see.
It'll unfold right here with you on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (02:29:52):
The eighteen on Sport is the edition of the eighteen
Sports Talk seven ninety. So we're gonna give away some
tickets here mention what they are.

Speaker 2 (02:30:01):
Here are all the details on them. Four pack of
tickets to Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live.

Speaker 3 (02:30:06):
That's the glowing fire.

Speaker 2 (02:30:07):
The tour is coming through Toyota Center August first and second,
and the new Rhino mit truck had never before seen
stunts the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks along with thrilling tricks
from the FMX Riders. Tickets are on sale now at
Toyota Center dot com. If you don't win a four
pack here from us, and we'll give them out throughout
the week. We also have a pair of tickets to

(02:30:27):
again go over to Toyota Center this time. How about
July twenty sixth, the first of two stops for the
Big three H Towns team. That's the Houston rig Hans,
coached by Calvin Murphy. Of course, rockets legend. They're taking
on the not very strong team from Dallas, despite the
fact they're called Dallas Power. And there'll also be a
game between DMV Trilogy versus Miami three oh five two

(02:30:51):
games one ticket. For more info or to buy your tickets,
you can get those at Big three dot com. If
you don't win them here, if you listen to the show,
you're gonna have an oh problem whatsoever? Answering this very
simple question about something we talked about more often than not.
It's something we just talked about either in the most
recent segment or overall in the five o'clock hour.

Speaker 3 (02:31:10):
It's very very easy.

Speaker 1 (02:31:13):
He has become a sort of a team, specifically with me,
whipping boy of sorts, who's the quarterback.

Speaker 3 (02:31:20):
That got me all hot and bothered and not in
a good way.

Speaker 1 (02:31:23):
A couple segments ago when we were talking about the
top ten quarterbacks in the NFL. It was a theme
last year at this time.

Speaker 2 (02:31:31):
So if you've ever listened to the A team, here
is your question. What quarterback in the NFL always, without fail,
gets AC to want to jump through the television screen,
jump out of his chair, need some time alone, maybe
need a towel to cool off from, maybe have his

(02:31:52):
mic turned off?

Speaker 3 (02:31:53):
Who is that quarterback? Who?

Speaker 1 (02:31:57):
I don't want to give you that hint yet. Yeah,
don't go full wex on the first day back together.
I won't wait till tomorrow at least who is that quarterback?

Speaker 2 (02:32:04):
We were running through the list of ESPN's polling of
executive GM scouts, et cetera that put in ballots to
Jeremy Fowler and said, here are top ten quarterbacks and
where this particular quarterback landed on the list, And with
all the excuses made for him, blood was boiling in
the studio.

Speaker 3 (02:32:24):
Well, here was one more hint. Who's the quarterback? Same
spot as like ninety exact you know the answer to
the question.

Speaker 1 (02:32:32):
Are you aware that I recently started rewatching the Sopranos
like I said I.

Speaker 3 (02:32:37):
Would now that's rewatching.

Speaker 1 (02:32:40):
Yeah, I've seen it before, Okay, but it's been a
minute and the only time I seen it it was
the first time to watch it was back in I
want to say, twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen. I just was like, finally,
I've heard enough about this. The whole series is out.
I'm gonna sit down and watch it now. Okay, that
makes this SoundBite, which I believe happened on Seth Meyers
Show in the last twenty four to forty eight hours.

Speaker 2 (02:33:02):
That's like the late late, late late late Sure, the
Seth Meyers Show.

Speaker 1 (02:33:06):
They're all the same to me at this point, not
the funny those that are still around. I'm not sure
that's Mike Mike imperially. Yeah, he played Christopher. He did
play Christopher. If I told you that I was on
vacation with a guy named Chris and he's Italian, how
many times approximately do you think I referred to him
like that in front of the group all of last week?

(02:33:26):
Does his significant other call him Chrissy?

Speaker 3 (02:33:29):
Nope? Okay, just curious that every time I said something
to him, I said Christopher.

Speaker 2 (02:33:35):
This was Mike telling Seth a story about the Sopranos.
Television boss that he'd related to Christopher offset.

Speaker 4 (02:33:45):
Caelfini got a call in the middle of the night,
anonymous call.

Speaker 3 (02:33:49):
He never figured out who it was. He answers the phone,
and the guy says, listen, we like what you're doing,
doing a really good job. But no one thing a
dawn never wear shorts. Click, that's true.

Speaker 1 (02:34:06):
Can you imagine, like it was clearly yay, how'd you
get this number?

Speaker 3 (02:34:11):
Exactly?

Speaker 1 (02:34:11):
I don't think so. I don't think that's what he
was saying like that. You know, I've always thought about this.
It's not I mean, it's not just one of the
great greatest mob shows, movies, whatever you want. It's one
of the greatest shows ever if you've ever seen it.
You know that for a fact.

Speaker 3 (02:34:26):
So fun Yeah, well uplifting, it really is. But I mean,
think about that. What is it about.

Speaker 1 (02:34:31):
It's about the mafia and then a real waste management,
right the mafia, and then a real member of the mafia,
probably allegedly, Well, how did they get that number? Then
just some guy could have been a prank call.

Speaker 3 (02:34:47):
I mean, it's a great prank call.

Speaker 1 (02:34:48):
But the only thing that makes it greater is that
he never found out who it was, so maybe it
was a prank.

Speaker 3 (02:34:54):
Do you know how far along you are? And the rewatch? Oh?
I just started.

Speaker 2 (02:34:57):
Okay, So Aj hasn't tried anything yet. I just feel
okay with his life.

Speaker 1 (02:35:02):
I just like I started the week before we went
to Tacbos. So we're talking about five six episodes in.
I think the last episode I completed was he went
to the college tour with Meadow.

Speaker 3 (02:35:13):
So it's super early on tomorrow's four hour show, Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (02:35:17):
I will tell people what series I binge watched during
my vacation.

Speaker 3 (02:35:22):
Started it, finished it, so it must not be that long.
Two seasons. I think I know what it is, but
I'm not going to give it away.

Speaker 2 (02:35:30):
That's good. Another hour with us here locally coming up.
You got the Nightcat coming your way next, Josh Jordan
will have that for you. As I just noted, we'll
be back with you tomorrow two o'clock. We'll recap Jordan
Alvarez is one for two performance tonight at the All
Star Game and everything else important that happens between now
and tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (02:35:50):
At two o'clock. Pay attention, we'll have it for you then.
The ad on Sports Talk seven night