Astros Drop 2/3 to Rangers, Home Run Derby, Buy or Sell, Where Stroud Ranks

Monday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler reacts to the Astros' series loss to the Rangers. Plus, Wex discusses if the 'Stros should be buyers or sellers, and where CJ Stroud ranks among NFL QBs.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Team Wex and Josh He are back with you one
more day with no Adam Clinton should be back with
us tomorrow, just in time for the second of the
four consecutive days without substantive baseball. Astros will play again
on Friday, and when they do, they will be in
a less desirable position than I think they figured they
would be in when the weekend series and the final four,

(00:23):
five and six games of their six game and road
trip began in Arlington. As we left you on the
program last Friday afternoon, I did have a tenth inning
show Following Friday night's disappointing loss and then yesterday a
second disappointing loss. The Astros outscored the Rangers over these
three games, hit a bunch of balls over the fence,

(00:44):
and even got two quality starts. As suspected, flipping it
to the front of your rotation helps. Hunter Brown gave
him six innings three runs. Peter Lambert gave him six
innings one runs. Had a chance to win only well.
Rangers had a chance to win two of the three games.

(01:06):
Astros had a chance to win all three of the games.
Astros won one, and with the two wins they had
a chance for they got them both ninth three game
on Saturday that was total domination by the Astros. Three
home runs in the first four innings, they had a
huge lead and they coasted to a nine to three
victory Friday night three to three game in the eighth inning.

(01:26):
Sunday afternoon, Astros were down five to one, came back
to or down four to one, came back to tie
it and then take the lead in the eighth inning,
and then they lost two of the three games. They
are third placed in the West, where they have been
for now quite some time, with the Athletics no longer
a factor in the race unless they play somebody. That is,

(01:48):
because they headed the break with a nine game losing
streak and they're now fourteen games under five hundred, more
likely flirting with the worst record in the American League
then a playoff spot at this point, and they made
changes on their coaching staff. Today. Astros at forty seven
and thirty one. They've played ninety eight times. The Rangers
have played ninety six times, but have two more wins,

(02:09):
and by virtue of taking two out of three, they
turned their two game advantage over the Astros into a
three game advantage. Over the Astros and also tightened up
the season series. With three games remaining, Astros have won
six times, the Rangers have won four times. They will
meet three more times in Houston, and, barring a Ranger sweep,
which would really be tough to overcome for the Astros,

(02:30):
not only would they avoid the sweep and again with
no other math involved, be six games back of the Rangers,
but presuming that doesn't happen, and those are no reason
to think it would all, the Astros would also claim
the season series. Yeah, that means the silver boot. Much
more importantly, it means if they're involved in a tiebreaker,
the Astros would fare positively, unlike they did last year

(02:51):
in a tiebreaker with the Tigers, whom they lost their
season series too. The Mariners finally won a game yesterday,
their lone win on their road trip, playing two really
good teams first place or a playoff bound, potentially playoff
bound Marlins team and the best team in the American
League at least based on record, not based on their
matchups with Houston. Since the Astros just got fished taking

(03:13):
two out of three from the Rays, the Mariners won
a game, so they were able to stay and then
move back to a game and a half ahead of Houston.
The wild Card race bad stuff Friday night, good things happened,
even with the Astros lost. Pretty much all the teams
in the race that they're looking at outside of the
Red Sox lost, and the Red Sox haven't lost in

(03:33):
over a week. So the Red Sox the low low
we're going to be selling We've done a lot of
things wrong. Red Sox, well, they're not ahead of the
Astros and the Wildcard race obviously overall now they've only
played ninety four times, so their post All Star Break
schedule is going to be jam packed with baseball, while
the Astros probably won't be. With the wild Card race,

(03:54):
where the Astros are still within striking distance, now once
again includes multiple teams. They've got I outplay the rest
of the way, got out play the Red Sox, and
I outplay the Twins, and got to outplay the Mariners.
Those are three teams ahead of them in the race.
The Orioles are only a half game behind them, The
Blue Jays are another half game behind them. The Tigers
are a mere two games behind Houston. A lot of

(04:14):
teams are playing the type of baseball that suggests ownership
and management might consider buying, and that means there might
not be a whole lot of teams looking to sell, which, unfortunately,
if the Astros are buyers, well, the market's going to
be tough for them to emerge with something of consequence.
Decision needs to be made by us on the radio

(04:36):
for the next couple of weeks and by management when
they finally get to the deadline, because I don't know
that they're going to do anything before the week of
the August third deadline. Are you buyers? Are you sellers?
If you're watching this Astros team, which I said very
very clearly, if you're listening to the postgame show, the
tenth Inning show on Saturday night had some real good
conversation about the Astros and coming up short and why

(04:57):
is this managerial move getting made and why aren't these
players doing this. It's a talent issue. The Astros are
four games under five hundred because of their talent. They're
ninety eight games into the season. You can't fool anybody anymore.
It's not injuries, it's talent. Their offense is essentially fully
hole except for one player, and that's Carlos Korea. They

(05:21):
are an average offense with the best offensive player in
the American League, which is a shame because Jordan Alvarez
hit another two home runs over the weekend, continues to
live the dream at the ballpark there Globe Life Field.
He's just been absolutely unstoppable there, unless he's being told
to walk down first, which he was twice in yesterday's game.

(05:44):
Part of that comeback inning they had, they decided to
put him on base with a couple runners on base,
and Eesakparitis actually came through, driving in a pair of
runs with a single. Unfortunately, Christian Walker could not continue
that rally and they left it right there, tied. Cam
Smith's home run put him up five to four. Brian
King one of the three home runs he allowed this weekend.

(06:05):
It allowed one home run in twenty twenty six. Allowed
two home runs in Friday night's game. The debacle eighth
inning where he gave up four runs were the first
five batters all reached against him, and then of course
the one yesterday to their nine hole hitter, their catcher
Kyle Higashioka, and the Astros were down, they were able
to or were down early, and then it goes to

(06:26):
the ninth inning tied, and then Josh Hater pitched like
Brian King in the ninth inning. Recent Brian King. Remember,
reliever life over relievers is pretty tough. You go out
there and have ten great outings, you pitch some shut
out seventh and eighth innings and everyone's like great, but
don't think a whole lot of it. And then you
go out there and have a bad eighth inning as
a setup reliever, and all of a sudden, you stink

(06:47):
and why is he being used? Got those questions all
weekend long. Understand why the questions are asked, but don't
understand why they don't already know the answer, but I'm
happy to give it. And then Josh Hater, who's been
close to now untouchable, not perfect, but close to untouchable
since his return from injury. He didn't retire a batter,

(07:08):
nearly retired the final batter. He got a glove on
the comebacker which was hit hard enough to go over
his glove. Calling it a comebacker maybe is not accurate,
but it was hit to right to add him, but
just over his outstretched glove, ticked off his glove and
on into center field. The runner from third obviously scored
easily and the game was over. Having Wyatt Langford back
for the Rangers, as I mentioned on Thursday when he

(07:29):
came back, was likely going to play pay dividends. And
in the three games they've won since his return, he's
played a huge role in all of them. Scored the
winning run in that game, not in the winning run
in the two other wins. He's been very, very helpful
to them. And we're at the All Star break and
the Texas Rangers are in first place in this division.

(07:50):
The Chicago White Sox are in first place in the
Central and the Rays widely picked to finish fifth in
their division, like the White Sox were picked to finish
fifth in their division. Those are the three teams that
are inside the playoff picture thanks to their division leads,
the Yankees, Guardians, and Mariners and Twins. There's only three

(08:12):
wildcard teams, but the Mariners and Twins have the same
record right now, one game under five hundred this deep
end of the season. Qualifying for the playoffs in the
American League does not require you to win half of
your games. So yes, the math continues to say the
Astros are alive, and the math will continue to say
that all season long, I have pretty pretty confident in

(08:35):
that the Astros have managed to survive a one to
nine road trip to open the season, and again on Friday,
I said what I hoped would not turn out to
be true, but I thought the road trip was starting
to feel like that they'd started off one in three
after the Friday night final on this road trip, had
not pitched well really at all, and in terms of

(08:55):
giving up seven runs in that game, after what they
gave up to the Nationals twenty three run over those
twenty five innings, they just kind of had that same
feeling of we can't pitch, so we can't win. If
you're the Astros and you're their fans, managed to pitch
well enough on Saturday. It's why I've been calling Peter
Lambert their first pre All Star Break MVP as a

(09:16):
pitcher for about a month now. That's what he has
continued to do. The longer he continues to do it,
the less doubt there should be and that he will
kink doing that. And I hope the Astros have a
good idea of what they want to do coming out
of the All Star Break. From a pitching standpoint, they
did make a couple of roster moves today and definitely
notable that Mike Burrows will not in fact slide into

(09:38):
the rotation with the Sugarland Space Cowboys. Instead, he's on
the IL. They effectively canceled the move to send him down,
and instead, because of an elbow injury, he has been
placed on the fifteen day IL. Specifics on that should
come over the next couple of days, if not at
least coming on Friday when Joe spot Of meets with
the media Dyke In Park Friday afternoon as they restart

(10:02):
the baseball season game number ninety nine. They open up
the post All Star Break potion portion of the season
against the Orioles. The Astros also after the games and
Ali Bersonta back down to Triple A. The minor leagues
and the major leagues are doing the same thing this week,
some All Star festivities, the Futures Game yesterday, but no

(10:23):
baseball games until we get to the weekend. When we
get to the weekend, and I'll do this on the
other side and update on where things stand with the
rest of the Astros expected to return in the very
very very near future, specifically several pitchers. The other thing's
going on this weekend. Obviously we are a little bit
closer to the football season, but not out of the

(10:44):
window of who has the best this and how do
we rank that and what do you expect from this
team as we now know what they look like for
the upcoming season. So we've gone through where CJ. Stroud
quote unquote ranks. We've gone through where the Texans as
a whole, as a roster ranks need to kind of
walk through the rest of the offensive sides. Haven't done

(11:06):
that with tight ends. Mentioned that a couple times on Friday.
I haven't done that with the running back group. But
we'll do that on both fronts. The Summer League continues
two games for the Rockets Friday and Saturday. Two more
games this week ago Tuesday and Thursday. The love for
Bruce Thornton on social media is fantastic. It's fun to
watch what people think when they see these players at

(11:29):
Summer League PLA against non NBA players. But we will
discuss that. A couple of things that were said from
Summer League from Bruce, from Jamari Smith Junior from rafel Stone,
who as usual sits down during the national broadcast and
shed some light on what they've done so far this season,
and again how the national perspective views this Houston Rockets
team as it fits into the rest of the Western Conference.

(11:52):
On a Monday, when we come back, that means we
hit you with our signature segment at four thirty. That
means the good, the bad, the ugly at four thirty,
and of course in about fifteen minutes, we will hit
you with the best of X. It is delicious, and
it is Texans related, and I cannot wait. We're gonna
talk about the Astros bullpen and the Astros pre All

(12:13):
Star Break Baseball club? Who are they? When we come
back here on the A Team, A team, WEX and
Josh Jordan here with you this afternoon seven one, three, two, two, five,
seven nine, A're gonna dig in on your Houston Astros,
who dropped two of three to the Rangers over the weekend.
Those two losses each coming late, with the Astros unable

(12:33):
to keep the game tied in the bottom of the
eighth inning on Friday and unable to keep the game
tied in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday. Pitchers
on the mound at that point, obviously they're gonna take
the brunt of the heat Brian King. He actually gave
up runs in both of those outings, gave up the
home run in the eighth inning of the game yesterday,
and then Josh Hader came in and gave in the

(12:55):
gave up the run that lost the game. A pair
of last at back victories for the Rangers. Three of
their last four games have come on last at back victories,
and that's usually the sign of a team that's either
got the mojo magic or simply put, they're the team
that's in first place. They're finding a way. Doesn't seem
like they're a particularly good team. Maybe they're gonna be

(13:15):
a little bit better team if health helps them, maybe
the return of Corey. See, you're not too far off.
They have Josh Young and why at Langford in the
lineup now what looks like on an everyday basis and
a lankfirst case, he's missed about half the season. Who knows.
Still unlikely that any of these teams are these three teams,
the Astros, Mariners or the Rangers are about to go
on some kind of run that puts the division in

(13:36):
their back pocket long before the final month of the season. Obviously,
all three of these teams can consider themselves in the hunt.
Thus the next three weeks decisions to be made about
what they should do. We're gonna get into that obviously
for your Astros. But about what went down this weekend.
Hunter Brown got the start on Friday and didn't pitch
particularly well in the first inn and then it was

(13:56):
fine for the next five give it just one more run,
ended up leaving the game with three runs allowed over
six innings of work. Off of an off day, The
Astros were in very good shape from a pitching standpoint.
You had whoever you might need for the rest of
the game ready to go, and that's the direction they went.
Steven Oker gets the seventh, Brian King gets the eighth,
and if you're not down by a bunch of runs,

(14:18):
Josh Haters gonna get the ninth ty game. He pitches
in the ninth inning of thy games this year. If
you hadn't noticed, it's why he has three wins. That's
why he was in line to potentially pick up a
win yesterday if he had not allowed to run, and
then the Astros somehow pushed across the gift runner in
the top of the tenth inning. He pitches when the
game is being decided. It's not restrictive of he is

(14:42):
our saves guy. There's no position in baseball that's called
saves guy. We do have closer. Closer exists, and closer
means he's trying to you to help you close out
a game, close out a win. Well, closers can help
you close out a win even in games you aren't
currently winning. He doesn't pitch in a lot of games
they're lo losing, but he pitches in a lot of
games that are either tied in the final inning, ninth inning,

(15:05):
or extra innings, or obviously when the Astros have a
small ish lead. Would have been nice for Hater to
go in super fresh yesterday, And you may be wondering, well,
how was he not super fresh? He pitched in the
astros lone win in Washington, and that was Tuesday. He
didn't pitch on Wednesday's game. He took the day off
like everybody did on Thursday, didn't pitch on Friday's game,

(15:26):
he didn't pitch Saturday's game. How fresh do you want him?

Speaker 2 (15:28):
WHATX?

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well, there's no way he should have gotten up in
Saturday's game. Absolutely positively, no way, and even with one
unfolded in the game in the ninth inning. I know
these games are important, and I know you're trying to
lock down the victory. I was absolutely shocked that Josh
Hater was loosening up after AJ Blueball had allowed the

(15:52):
game to go from nine to one to nine to three.
I don't really think that's what I would do out
a manager, But I just sit here and play one
on the radio. You got six runs to work with,
You got AJ Bluebaugh out there. You have a couple
of other arms who have least have not pitched, especially

(16:13):
since you went to blue Ball for multiple innings in
that particular game, which may have not been what I
would have done either, considering who the starter was gonna
be the very next day. But Josh Hader did get up,
didn't throw a ton of pitches, never really truly got hot,
and AJ blue Ball finishes things off and they get
to win. They win one game. Hater yesterday, just to

(16:33):
kind of paint a picture of what his season has
looked like. He faced three hitters in yesterday's game, and
they all got hits off of him. He had faced
fifty seven batters this season before yesterday, and three of
them had also gotten hits. Off of him. Three of
the fifty seven batters faced on the season had gotten

(16:54):
a hit off of Hater. That's it all year, and
then three consecutive batters got a hit off Hater yesterday
with Nemo driving in Langford and the game is over
again a grounder up the middle. It happens. He wasn't
gonna have a perfect season and says he wasn't gonna
have a perfect record. He wasn't gonna have a perfect

(17:14):
set of appearances. This now again just his seventeenth appearance
of the season. He has fourteen where he's factored into
the decision. Closers factor into the decision all the time
when they're in a safe situation, presumably they clean it up,
they get the save. He's ten for ten. He's also
had a actual decision. He's won three games and he's

(17:35):
now lost one game. These are the games that you
have him for, and the vast, vast majority of them
he's been successful. This was one of the two games
he's even allowed a run. But in this game, obviously
he's pitching in the bottom of the ninth inning of
the tai game. You give up a run, the game
is over, and that's exactly what happened. Not really very
concerned at all about him, and as you might learn,

(17:59):
I'm not very considered. They're not very concerned, I should
say about Brian King either, and just look at his
season before you start asking that, what is Joe Spotted
doing putting him out there? And in yesterday's game, what
is he doing throwing him for two innings? Spin it
right back to the beginning of these games. They got
six innings from their starter on Friday, they got six

(18:19):
innings from their starter on Saturday. They should have had,
in my opinion, a long reliever available for Sunday because
of both how those games went. You only needed nine
outs from your bullpen both days, technically only six yesterday.
And you know who's starting on Sunday. They might not
have told the public who was starting on Sunday, but

(18:41):
by the time Saturday's game reached the late innings, I
think they knew who was pitching on Sunday. Not to mention,
they'd already given kind of most of that away with Well,
here's who's continuing to rehab, and Renel Blanco is throwing today,
and the miners and Lance McCullers Junior is gonna make
another rehab start on Friday, and Aid was desky just
through yesterday. Yes, Christian Javier is starting on Sunday. You

(19:03):
might probably definitively, without a shadow of a doubt, want
to have somebody available that is capable and is conditioned
to get multiple innings worth of work, not the way
that Joe spot had played it on Saturday. It's why
Paul brought up the usage of the aj Bluebaugh meant
he was not going to be available, and obviously he

(19:24):
did not pitching yesterday's game. And Christian Javier. You know
who Christian Javier looked like on Sunday yesterday in his start.
It's pretty easy guess it's rhetorical. He looked like Christian Xavier.
He's a tractor pull of a watch. The game is
going to take forever if Javier is out there, because
at bat's take forever, and the innings take forever because

(19:47):
he doesn't throw enough strikes, he doesn't get enough swing
and miss. He was actually trying to kill his outfielders
yesterday unintentionally, but two different outfielders in the first two
innings of the game went crashing into the wall. They
ended up playing three different players in centerfield and yesterday's game,
Bryce Matthews nearly made the one of the catches of
the year. He technically did go right in the glove,

(20:08):
but even before he made his way down to the
ground after crashing into the wall, the ball bounded out
ended up being a triple for Josh Young, who was
then stranded at the third in the first inning, and
while Matthews did stay in the game, he ultimately left
in the top of the second inning when he was
pinch hit four by Taylor Tremmel, who then followed him
into crashing into the wall when he and Cam Smith

(20:29):
were chasing one hit between right and center and he
went into a slide to try to make a spectacular
catch before crashing into the wall with the Jack Peterson
smash and slid into the wall pretty hard. Camp Smith
recovered it and threw it on back in. It brought
home two runs and Tremmel then stayed in the game.
Later he was pinched hit four and cam Smith got
some work in in centerfield. He got sixty pitches and

(20:52):
nine outs and not very good ones from Christian Xavier yesterday.
Why didn't Christian Xavier back to the Astros that immediately
get put in the rotation is what Chris Gordy and
I discussed when he was in with us last week.
Why did they put him in the bullpen? This is why,
because they have to now accommodate for almost a given

(21:14):
that they're gonna send him out there, and they've got
to have to replace him early in the game. It
seemed like they were doing that too often with Emai,
and they have, and you probably didn't have to do
it with Burrows very often, but you knew you weren't
going to get a successful outing either. But intentionally putting
someone into the rotation that you had almost no confidence
in who's gonna pitch you into the fourth or fifth inning,
it's not smart. They waited till the very last game

(21:36):
of the pre All Star Break portion of the season
to do it, and it still bit them because Brian
King had to try to give the team too outs
two innings worth of work because you're kind of running
through everybody.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Now.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
You didn't use Saunta, you didn't use Nate Pearson. Kind
of wonder what role they're playing if they're not used
in either of the two games on Saturday or Sunday,
And you probably want to see that change. Probably you
want to see a little bit different. And I know
Santa has since been sent down. That move was announced today,
but sent down after yesterday's game and the Brian a

(22:09):
Bray situation not five seconds after I said, maybe, maybe,
just maybe, is the Astros trade deadline acquisition because of
how well he's been pitching. His last two appearances have
looked a lot like Brian A. Brady twenty twenty six
wasn't terrible, but he doesn't throw enough strikes. He puts
batters on base and they come around to score, which

(22:32):
is what happened. One of these six runs that scored
yesterday was off of a Brian a Bray. You walk.
The Astros are number one in Baseball in gifts to
the opposing team As a pitching staff. Nobody has walked
more batters. Nobody has hit more batters. They've played ninety
eight games and have put almost three hundred batters on

(22:53):
base via walk or hit by pitch. Come on, now,
what are you doing? Not easy for me to sit
here and say throw strikes, and I'm sure the ABS
has something to do with it, but that was no
way to go out of the pre All Star break
going to Texas playing the first place team and having
a chance to close the gap, maybe finish the first

(23:13):
part of the season at five hundred. Instead, it's completely
in the other direction, and now the first handful of
series immediately out of the All Star break bring that
much more importance to this team trying to decide what
they are, whether they're a seller for the first time
in forever, or at least a moderate seller, or they're
truly buyers like they've been for about a decade. We'll
get into more of that, obviously and including your input

(23:36):
in that conversation. But halfway through our number one we
hit best of X. If we were listening to the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross, that might include a hippo,
And if you were listening earlier, you probably know what
I'm talking about because it's totally ridiculous and it's not
a hippo, but it is going to involve the Texans.
We hit the best of X Texans Style. Next. Social

(23:57):
media not exclusive the ex platform Instagram, snapface, Facebook, snapchat,
I'm aware, and anywhere else we might find stuff on
social media. We usually bring that to the table here.
The rest of the show also not off limits. Often
a huge part of what we discuss every day comes
from something we might have seen there. We don't always

(24:19):
get into the comments. We almost always get into the
comments when it's time for best of X. We may
or may not do that here, but simply a post
in general is the gist of today's entry, or first
of the two entries today. If you recall last week,
I'd asked for Josh's assistance on something when we saw
a report from New Orleans indicating that Trey Murphy wasn't

(24:42):
really going to be moved, and everyone kind of fell
for it. All he's been talked about here and he
could be moved there, but rather it was just kind
of a fabrication of what people thought on social media.
The organization never intended to see him moved, and his
teammate Rookie Now said, heading into his second year, Derek
Queen a quote posted that report and said death row.

(25:03):
I asked Josh, what do you think he means by that?
What's the meaning behind that? And he offered is his advice,
which I will ask for again here with today's entry.
But for those that are maybe still wondering after we
talked about it last week and weren't really sure. He
was just kind of referring to him. Man, we're together
for life. You're here, I'm here. Let's go get it done.

(25:25):
Death Row. I think you can understand the meaning. My
question for Josh is it's an audio question. I'm curious
if he could tell our listeners what this music means
currently in our social media atmosphere. He's coming up with

(25:46):
an answer. He tends down in about ten seconds. See
what he comes up with. What is your final answer, Josh?
What does that music? When you hear that music? What
does it mean?

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Man?

Speaker 4 (25:58):
I hear in commercials all the time. That's where I'm
getting it from.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Is there an at Josh Jordan on TikTok dot com.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
I have no idea like it personally, It's not mine.
If there is, it's not mine.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
How about on Instagram? We know you have an Instagram account,
So yes, Reels, maybe you'll see it. But it's currently
a very very very popular piece of music becomes it's
taken from the Netflix documentaries. That's where you will hear it.
So people have taken to that and they've set up
their little pseudo set up and wherever they've decided to

(26:32):
film this usually some a mockup of a documentary set.
You'll see maybe a ring light or some TV lights.
You know, the microphone, you'll get yourself micd up. You'll
sit down in a chair, you know, the the one
on one interview where we get all the juice we
need to make this documentary great. So people have taken
to that. They played the music underneath it, and you'll
see them kind of get into the room to prepare

(26:54):
themselves for a documentary, like, but it's all a joke,
the documentary of me telling my wife that the dishes
are clean, or me telling my husband he needs to
take the trash out, all these kinds of ridiculous things.
I said it was Texans related, and I think many
of you know why, because there is a TikTok account
it's at DeAndre Hopkins, and he used that music and

(27:16):
he posted the following. He comes on screen, he sits
in his documentary style chair and it says with the
caption there's no other audio, it's just the music preparing
for the Netflix doc on why I don't start nothing.
I just finished it now. That was actually the second
thing he posted, And if you weren't paying close enough attention,

(27:36):
this weekend. You might have missed the first thing he posted,
because if you go to his account now, this is
the only Netflix doc related post you will see there,
because the one that was originally posted no longer is there,
but if you search for it, you'll see right there
on the search page what appear to be two identical entries,

(28:00):
but one of the entries as a completely different caption.
That's the one that came first, which I think was
very definitively associated with the second one where he says,
I don't start anything, I just finish it. And I'm
hopeful that's exactly what's happened, because it makes perfect sense
when I tell you what his original caption for the

(28:21):
DeAndre Hopkins obviously never to be released Netflix documentary is.
That's part of the trend. That's the joke. The caption
on that one reads as follows with that very same
Netflix music as DeAndre sits down preparing for the Netflix
dock on surviving turned NFL General Manager, preparing for the

(28:48):
Netflix doc on surviving a pastor turned NFL General Manager.
That would be the highest rated, most viewed Netflix documentary
in the Greater Houston area of all time. That would
be phenomenal. I would love it. It's a perfect entry
into this social media trend. But it doesn't exist anymore.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Well.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Thirteen second clip, fourteen second clip which I do know
some other people that actually captured and it's been running
around on some other social media platforms, just screen recorded
and you fired off. But you can see that it
was really truly created when you do go search for it,
it just no longer exists outside of those search engines.

(29:33):
Surviving a pastor turned to NFL general manager. The Texans
went through three seasons where they didn't do a lot
of winning. They were there's the lowest point of the
franchise and it's not even close. And those three seasons
they went through three coaches, technically three head coaches. Bill
O'Brien the head coach to start the first of those

(29:53):
four or fewer win seasons. He didn't even last the season.
They lost their first four games. So they brought Romeo
in off the bench. He was already with the team
and he got him four wins. Then the Dave Cully
era and then the Lovey Smith era. Now the best
era of Texans football, of course, has followed the Demico
Ryans era, but all through those seasons with Bill O'Brien's

(30:15):
rise and power came with Jackie Easterby's rise in power.
Someone who had absolutely positively no business being a part
of an NFL organization on the football side. Ever, and
still to this day, even with experience from being inside
with the Texans, nobody's ever going to hire him for
that again. Ever, he will never be a part of
an NFL football franchise. If he is involved in football

(30:38):
making decisions will never happen again. It should never happen
to the first place. Some people here in Houston, probably
most of us, but definitely on this show. I told
you that from the jump, even when he just became
a small part of the organization, when you get the
right person's ear, and that was Cal in this case,
you can do amazing things. You can rise through the
organization to the point that you are the most powerful

(30:58):
person in the organization on the football side. And he
is still properly described by DeAndre Hopkins, he is a
pastor who was given the title of general manager after
he and Bill O'Brien work together. That's where DeAndre Hopkins
was moved to Arizona. Texans still had enough to win
with but it also then coincided with the decline of

(31:21):
everything the organization had. Having a good statistical season from
DeShawn Watson, but you couldn't win any games, and then
the debacle of his personal life and what has transpired since.
They've recovered wholly and completely. But if you follow along
the old TikToker reels and other places, these are things
you find out there on social media. And I know

(31:42):
it's just a joke. I know it's just a trend,
but I love DeAndre Hopkins When he does stuff like this,
I think all wide receivers kind of get lumped in together.
And he's done his football related diva activities, moving from
team to team, and you know, I need a new
contract again and again again. I don't really blame players,
and I think the diva tag probably doesn't really fit.

(32:04):
Oh my god, this NFL player, this athlete, wants to
make more money. Why because he's really good and he
knows he's going to and he's worked. It's worked every time.
We'll see what the future holds for him from an
NFL standpoint, if anything, but I wouldn't rule it out
just yet. His time here in Houston quite obviously was
the best he's ever been in the NFL and currently

(32:25):
the second best receiver this team has ever known. On
social media, he's probably the best wide receiver this team
has ever known. That's best of X for Monday, July thirteenth,
eighteen continues swetch Josh back here with you. An awful,
awful time in Houston, Texas history, but you can survive

(32:45):
it and thrive after it. Each of the three teams
here in this city went through almost the exact same
thing at almost the exact same time. The Astros were
first saw the writing on the wall, and under Jeff
Luno's guidance, said let's if we're gonna do this, We're
going all in, and they basically liquidated the roster of

(33:07):
quality baseball players, and they went about the process of
losing for three consecutive years, the most losing this franchise
has ever seen over a three year period, and the
draft capital that came with it, strong development program, great scouting,
other moves. They then launched the Golden era of Astro's baseball,
which they may or may not still be in. We'll

(33:28):
get to that again at the top of the hour.
The Houston Rockets James Harden era was one of the
best eras of Houston Rockets basketball, but it was drawing
to a close when they went with the Blue Jerseys
and brought John wall in and DeMarcus Cousins was there. Heck,
Victor Oladipo, who's begging for another NBA job, And I
don't blame him because if he's healthy, probably is an

(33:49):
asset to a team. They were all part of that
era of Okay, James is talking his way out of
this team, which he will then do multiple times again.
He's currently in Cleveland waiting for them to re up
with him and wondering if he will be teammates again
with Lebron James. I think he will. But they went
through a series of again three seasons of extreme losing,

(34:14):
and they landed in the top four of the draft
in three consecutive seasons. One of those players isn't here.
That's Jalen Green, but partially so they could get Kevin
Durant to be here. Another one, of course, Jabari Smith Junior,
and the other is Aman Thompson. Two of those three
players are expected to be even better next year and
would be two of the three main reasons along with

(34:37):
alprin Shin Goon. If it works out, why another era
of very good, excellent level Houston Rockets basketball could be
on the horizon no matter what else it looks like
in the NBA, Because clearly the Thunder and the Spurs
look really, really good and unfortunately neither one of them
have won the title if you want to look at
how strong the league might be. But yes, they're probably

(34:58):
headed into a much more desirable pier then winning about
fifty nine sixty games total over three years. And of
course the Texans, who I initially referred to those three
seasons where four wins where their max and four head
coaches were employed, were intentional losing seasons. A pair of
those seasons orchestrated by their current GM Nick Cassio, in

(35:20):
an effort to quite simply turn this franchise around. And
it may or may not have happened without Demko Rans
I think it definitively was likely to happen because he
became their head coach. He and Nick Cassaria, once they
were partners in turning this football franchise around roster wise,
they began to acquire even more of the talent. That
is the reason why the most commonly said thing this

(35:44):
offseason about the future of the Houston Texans is if
they can just get average quarterback play, if they can
just get regular season CJ. Stroud quarterback play, then they're
going places. Then they're advancing into the playoffs further than
they ever have before, which would again mean the three
years of extreme losing and testing your fandom, in my opinion,

(36:10):
would be worth it. Year four of Demiico, year four,
Will Anderson Junior, year four of CJ. Stroud. It is
on the horizon, to be sure, or under fifty days
from the opener, or under three weeks now from training
camp beginning. When we discuss the Texans two weeks from
Wednesday on the twenty ninth, it will be after I

(36:30):
have been at practice that day. That will be their
first practice of training camp twenty twenty six. They'll report
the day prior, and they'll put this thing together again
an attempt to do more than they ever have. Not
winning a game on the road for the first time ever,
which they did this past year, not winning their first
playoff game for the fourth consecutive year, which is one
of the things they probably will have to do again. Well,

(36:53):
if they're going to advance, they definitely will have to
win their first game. It's just a matter of whether
it is the first game a wild card round game
or for the first time in France history. Did they
already earn a number one seed and thus the off
week in the opening weekend and their opening game is
actually a Divisional round game at Reliant Stadium, which the
building is now soon to be called once again, we'll see.

(37:13):
I wouldn't forecast that, but I would forecast them at
least reaching where they have been the last couple of years.
But it's not progress unless they do more. Bunch of
items we still haven't gotten to from over the weekend,
another NBA superstar says, sure, I'll take less money, which
again is not very good for the league, but really

(37:37):
really good for the Houston Rockets. And I'll tell you
why as we get back into the Astros and flip
it over for the top of the three o'clock hour.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
A team final day without Adam Clinton should be making
his return to the program tomorrow. Major League Baseball on
their mid season hiatus. I think it's kind of okay
to call it mid season. There's some season left. Some
season has been played. It's not okay to call it
the first half, even if you know it's not even close.

(38:15):
They've played ninety eight games. There's not a half a
season left. It'd be nice if there was, so maybe
the Astros can get things figured out. But there was
sixty four games for the Astros to play on the
other side of their forty seven and fifty one start
to this season, and they sit, because of losing two
out of three over the weekend, a game and a
half back of the wild card leaders for the final

(38:36):
wildcard spot, because both the Mariners and Twins are now
a game and a half ahead of Houston for that
sixth spot, and the Red Sox are in between those
teams and Houston for the final spot, the three games
back of the division leading Texas Rangers, just two wins
behind them but four losses behind them as they handed
their break. The break did also include a roster move

(38:57):
that was announced today. All Star lineups have been announced today,
so if you want to catch the very very beginning
and maybe only appearance of the Astros in Tuesday Night's
All Star Game, you've got to be ready for the
first handful of pitches. Usually it's a free swinging type
of game. And after Mike Trout faces Christopher Sanchez of

(39:19):
the Philadelphia Phillies with the game being played in the
National League Stadium in Sanchez's home ballpark, well yord On
Alvarez will step to the plate Manager Schneider of the
Blue Jays who's managing the game for the American League.
That is his lineup. Trout followed by jord On Alvarez,
who makes another All Star appearance. He had another fantastic

(39:40):
weekend in Arlington, and he has basically nothing but fantastic
weekends in Arlington. Nineteen home runs now hit there in
the thirty seven games he's played at that ballpark since
they began using it in twenty twenty, which is by
far the most of any road player in that ballpark.
Sen Then, by the way, Jose al Tuve is next.

(40:03):
He's hit eleven home runs in that ballpark since they
begin using it in twenty twenty, and he hit a
nice weekend offensively in that regard, especially this road trip
in general, hitting the ball over the fence at least.
I don't know about a great road trip offensively for Jose,
but it is how you can like the lineup if
you get the long ball from a couple of other players,

(40:24):
and they did get that, janer Diez being a part
of that, Christian Vasquez homerd Lamont Wade hit a grand slam,
Cam Smith hit a go ahead home run in the
eighth inning of yesterday's game. Those are all the things
they're going to have to have, because, as we pointed
out the numbers that Jason Stark sent out in his
Friday article about the Again mid season Awards, the rest

(40:44):
of the Astros baseball team is a slightly below average
on average hitter in every other spot in the lineup.
Number two spot in the lineup is Jordan Alvarez. He's
the best hitter in baseball. The Astros have the best
numbers of any team in baseball from their numbers two hitter.
I've got a nine to seventy two ops from the
two hole in the order. The vast majority of those

(41:05):
of bats have been taken by yord On Alvarez, but
not all of them, he said, twenty nine of his
thirty one home runs, which lead the American League in
that spot, and it is the number one spot among
all teams. Or they are the number one batting team
when their number two hitter is up again, that's basically
Yordon Alvarez. They rate in the top ten, surprisingly at

(41:25):
two other spots in the lineup, and neither of them
is the leadoff spot. Now, Jeremy Paine's numbers are a
little bit better that when he bats lead off than
anywhere else, and he's almost exclusively been lead off, and
Jose al Tuvey's numbers are a little bit better when
he bats lead off as opposed to everywhere else combined.
But as a team, the Astros number one hitter, the

(41:48):
guy who's number one in the batting order, it's about
twelfth best. It's not about it's exactly twelfth best in
baseball with a seven sixty six OPS, which is the
second highest spot in their or for any position other
than the number two spot, essentially where Yordon hits. So
he helps produce the third best numbers OPS wise in
the entire lineup by hitting behind that spot. Five spot

(42:11):
is where they are number two. Actually that's the seven
to seventy one, four spots seven to fifty four, the
number three spot at seven oh two last in the
American League, the spot right behind jord On Alvarez nearly
every game this year, is sixteenth out of sixteen in

(42:33):
the American League. That's part of their problem. The sixth
spot in the order also sixteenth out of sixteen in
the American League. Both of those are bottom five spots
in the in major leagues overall, but two of the
top six spots in the Astros order, where Joe A.
Spotta has clearly made every attempt to put his most

(42:56):
trustworthy hitters every day. It's why they've settled in on
a top four pretty much every day. The leadoff hitter,
which now once again is Jeremy Paenya. Previously it was
Jose al Tuvey while Payya was hurt, followed by the
very typical Alvarez, Perettis Walker two three four. It almost
is now locked in every day of those three guys
are in the lineup, they're batting two, three, four, and

(43:18):
that's how it should be. He's done all sorts of
changes with five, six, seven, eight to nine, and with
five and six especially, just finding somebody who can lengthen
that lineup a little bit, maybe do something after yord
On Alvarez, of course, has reached base He reached base
four times in yesterday's game, two singles and two walks,
intentionally walking him late in the game to avoid him

(43:40):
doing extreme damage. And then Essak Perettis did come through
with a two run single which tied the game. But
as you can see, overall this team offensively, they'd probably
be one of the five worst offenses in baseball. Without
yord On Alvarez. They have managed to prost the thirteenth
best ops in baseball at this point in the season,

(44:02):
nearly one hundred games in which remarkably has allowed them
to stay in the race. Even with their disaster pitching.
They're bottom five in the league in runs allowed, they're
not far off with their era also bottom five of
the league, where they're really in tough spots. And I

(44:22):
brought this up earlier, and I actually gave the wrong data.
I said they had walked and put runners on base
bea hit by pitch, oh, almost three hundred times. I
meant to say actually almost five hundred times, because when
I was saying the number in my head, I was
actually doing the math as I said it, and I
was thinking, well, they're close to one hundred games, that's

(44:42):
almost three hundred runners gifted to the other team. That's
too low. That doesn't make sense. It's because I gave
you the wrong data. It's almost five hundred, so almost
five hitters per game go to the plate, and if
they forgot to take something with them, it wouldn't matter.
They would reach first base. And that item is their bat.

(45:03):
Four hundred and twenty seven walks issued by the Astros
pitching staff worst in baseball, fifty six batters hit by
a pitch worst in baseball, as four hundred and eighty
three batters who've left the on deck circle, stood in
the batter's box and have not needed their bat to
reach base. That is losing baseball. And that is why

(45:24):
this team, even with yard on Alvarez, even with a bullpen,
which for the better part of two months up until
this past weekend has been really really good. So the
games you've played into winning, as in you've gone six
or seven innings and you're in position to win, they
were winning those games. This team has to win those games,
and that's why this weekend stands out so much as

(45:44):
a killer. It's not that they lost to out of three,
which are the clear hard facts, It's that they were
in position to win all three a tie game situation,
when Brian King is on the mound. It's not like
they had to win or they were supposed to win.
But you're in the eighth inning of a game, in
a tie game, and you feel pretty good about it
with your bullpen lately, not the case with King in
that particular game, home run to the lead off hitter,

(46:06):
and then after he put two more on base, a
second home run, and all of a sudden, it's a
seven to three game, which is what they ended up
losing by. And then in yesterday's game, you trailed four
to one, you scored three times to get it tied.
You got another run in the eighth on the Cam
Smith homer to take the lead. With six outs to go,
you went back to Brian King, which is the right
thing to do based on where they are in the lineup,

(46:27):
or just simply how he has performed, and he again
was unable to come through, got the three outs necessary
in the seventh inning, although it was far far from clean,
and then went back out for a second inning because
your starting pitcher had only given you three innings, and
the way that billpen had been used prior to that game,
it's kind of all you were left with in a
high leverage situation. So second inning was attempted to get

(46:50):
it come from Brian King, and he allowed a two
run solo homer to one of the worst hitters that
the Rangers have, Kyle Goshioka, and all of a sudden,
now the game is tied. You know, they lost in
the bottom of the ninth inning when Josh Hater didn't retire.
Anybody gave up three hits to all three batters or
one each to all three batters that he faced. They
have so little margin for error. And the reason they

(47:12):
stayed in the race the last couple of months was
because the games they put themselves in position to win,
they were winning. There weren't a lot of blown games.
There were a lot of those early in the season
if they were even in him, but they'd given up
so many runs it'd become problematic. Noteworthy that they made
a couple of roster moves today, very simply on the

(47:33):
Mike Burrows side. He is not in TRIAA with the Astros,
and technically he never was because that move was canceled
so they could instead deal with his right elbow injury
called right elbow neurritis, so he is on the fifteen day.
IL no definitive word on exactly what is next when
we come back on the other side, we wanted to

(47:54):
get into that a little bit and we'll give you
some insight on what exactly that is and what might
be the few and a where things stand for the
other side of it. Because yesterday was also another rehab
start successful for Renel Blanco. Sunday you had another rehab start,
also successful for Hayden wiz Nesky. You got Bennett's SUSA

(48:15):
being transferred to the FCL because he had another rehab
bullpen appearance Saturday successful with the Space Cowboys, but with
Minor League Baseball off for the next couple of days,
I think sending him there is an effort to continue
his workload wherever they can, whether that's in a DSL
game which probably not more like a simulated game. I'm

(48:36):
sure this is where the players are, so that's where
he will likely be able to throw some sort of
simulated inning to keep him on track for resuming his
rehab appearances. But he's not far off. Lance mccullor's junior
is set for what should be his final rehab appearance
coming up on Friday, So the future of the Astros
thirteen man major league pitching staff, among other things, when

(49:00):
we return here on the A.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Team, the A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
So, what to do with the Astros pitching staff, what
to do with the remainder of the season from a
cell or buy standpoint, That's what we're going to discuss
here as we continue here on the program. A little
over an hour from now, we get you into our
signature segment, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from
the weekend five o'clock. Of course, we'll hit you with
Football at five. Today happens to be the day that

(49:27):
the series that ESPN is putting out from Jeremy Fowler
talking to execs and scouts and personnel people inside organizations
to rank the position players on the offensive side, quarterbacks.
That's the list they cranked out to day. Gave you
PFF's list of the top thirty two quarterbacks in the
NFL last week, So we'll touch on that coming up

(49:48):
in Football at five, if not sooner. But the Astros
still center stage here on the program today. Before I
get into the particulars of what they have at their disposal,
it's worthwhile to kind of discuss what they have at
their disposal. I kind of ran through the list of
pitchers who could be ready to or close to ready
to make their returns. Yesterday, Renaul Blanco made a start,

(50:13):
It just was not for the Houston Astros. When Dana
Brown had talked about his progress earlier in the week
right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety and Joe
Spata had not yet announced a starter, we all knew
that Blanco's day to throw after his Tuesday appearance was
Sunday if he was staying on regular rest. Turned out,
he did stay on regular rest, but just did his

(50:33):
work with TRIPLEA. Pitched again and successfully again. As I
would think, all of his appearances have been in that
he hasn't had any issues in game. He's also had
good results, but more to the point from a health standpoint,
he has pitched his games. He has gotten his pitch
count back up again. One of his appearances, the most
recent one before yesterday, was obviously cut short by the

(50:54):
rain they had at Constellation Field, so he only threw
twenty seven pitches over two innings. They sedid just the
sick so got real workload in Yesterday for Riddell and
as I suggested to somebody on the X platform earlier
today when I got this very question about what I
think they're going to do coming out of the break,
Renel Blanco is going to be in the rotation in

(51:15):
my opinion, when the Astros returned to play. I have
an idea of what I think they should do with
the rotation. I'll share that with you, But I don't
think there's any more needed rehab work for Renel based
on the progress that he's made. Doesn't necessarily mean he's
going to have the same kind of stuff and pitch
the same way effectively like he did before the injury.
But I think he's reached the point where he's passed

(51:37):
all of his hurdles. He's not having any health reasons
that are slowing him down, and he should be a
part of the rotation moving forward because that's where they
need the most help and that's what he has been
built up to do. Any outs you get from anybody, obviously,
they are very worth it and very necessary. He ended
up getting thirteen out so pitching into the fifth inning
through sixty eight pitches, only gave up four hits walked

(52:00):
to batters, was a pretty uneventful which is a good
thing outing for Renel Blanco and also was part of
a double play. That's what they need. They need someone
who can get them into the meat of the game.
Whether that happens at the major league level, I do
not know. Last week I already told you what I
think the top two spots in the rotation should be.

(52:21):
Exactly what they were to close out this weekend. They
should be to start next weekend. They don't have any
margin for error, and the seven days off is about
as much as they could hope for. So go back
to the start. Hunter Brown and Peter Lambert started Friday
and Saturday of last week. They should start Friday and
Saturday of this week against the Orioles. It might mean

(52:41):
you're starting less successful pitchers in succession in spots three,
four or five, and if you go to six men
rotation six. They got a bunch of off days in
the post All Star Break portion of their schedule, so
they probably won't go that route, and they can still
keep an eye on certain pitchers innings, and Peter Lambert's
probably one of them, even though he absolutely positively emptied

(53:02):
the tank with one hundred and seven pitches to get
those eighteen outs over six innings on Saturday night, and
it was awesome to watch. I don't think there was
any thought of taking him out during that sixth inning,
and I think he knew it. I think they knew it.
If he basically had gotten that last batter, had not
gotten that last batter, obviously they were then in position

(53:23):
to do that, and they knew he wouldn't go back
out for the seventh. But six innings, one run, just
the solo home run all the day aloud. He did
fantastic work. He's done that all season. It isn't even
worthy of discussion. It's just a fact he's been their
best starting pitcher here in the pre All Star Break
portion of the season. So that takes care of itself.
That's who goes number one, That's who goes number second
in the rotation. See how I avoided saying that, which

(53:46):
you could have just pulled and played on Matt Thomas's
show and made fun of me. I didn't say it.
Let me hear from Dana Brown first before I continue.
He was on of course yesterday with Robert Ford, as
he always is, and this was coming during the draft,
so the ball of their conversation was about the six
players the Astros had picked on Saturday and maybe some
of their plans on moving forward into Sunday's final fifteen

(54:09):
rounds of the draft or continuing rounds of the draft.
But he did also shed some light on where things
do stand with Hayden wiz Nesky and Bennett Susa.

Speaker 5 (54:19):
Yes, maybe one, possibly two, but yeah, for certain he's
thrown the ball very well. The seven strikeouts were great
to see, no walks, he was up to ninety six.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
He's set on ninety four.

Speaker 5 (54:31):
He had swinging miss stuff and look good, you know
from our perspective, and so really good outing. Sousa is
coming along nicely. You know, he got his itting in
and we're trying to get him built back up. You know,
we really did use that left hander out of the pen.
We had him as one of our four leftist last year.
Those guys were really really effective. So looking forward to

(54:54):
getting both guys back. Can't come soon enough. And both
guys are on the good track throwing the ball very well.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
So the first comment was obviously about was an Eski
and the need for more rehab work. Here is more
rehab work for him. Won maybe two starts. That was
his third appearance and doing what he did, just like Blanco,
very successful. The one run he allowed was actually on
a solo home run to the last batter that he faced.
Threw a ton of strikes, got seven strikeouts, got him
into the fifth inning. It's kind of what they want

(55:22):
to see from a progress level of trying to get
past the extended time away and the surgery that he's
recovering from. So maybe one or two starts from now
he will be out there. Joe Spot has said Lance
mccullors Junior will pitch again on Friday as he continues
to rehab corpus or excuse me, the Space Cowboys will
be in El Paso, and that's where he should be
making what is probably his last rehab appearance. A little

(55:46):
less success from a number standpoint than both Blanco and
was Nesky. But I don't know how again relatable that
is to what they'll do at the major league level.
What's relatable as to how he had pitched this year.
He's obviously pitched this year, is the main point in
a comparison with himself and those two, and just done
very unsuccessfully with the Astros. I do not think there's
a spot in this rotation barring injuries moving forward for

(56:08):
Lance mccullors Junior. So we will see if that is
in fact the case when he makes his return, probably
seven to ten to fourteen days after the All Star break,
I think he will be back on the Astros active
roster and they will have to figure out what they
want to do. Everything I say, remember, can always be
shifted by one thing a trade. They did make a

(56:29):
trade over the weekend. If you missed it, Braden Shoemake
had been DFAD on Friday before the game in order
to get that forty man roster spot cleared, or actually
technically to get the who's A player out of options,
just to get the twenty six man roster cleared for
Jeremy Pana to return to the lineup, and then they
subsequently traded Shoemake for cash to the Milwaukee Brewers. The

(56:53):
Astros are going to have to make a forty man
move for wez Nesky and a forty man move for Blanco,
and a forty man move for Susa. Susa, by the way,
that was his third rehab appearance and one of the
reasons why I mentioned earlier that they reclassified his rehab
assignment from Space Cowboys over the weekend to the FCL

(57:17):
today is so he could make his fourth rehab appearance.
He did that earlier today, so he is in line,
probably before the deadline, to be back with the Astros
if everything continues.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
To go well.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
If you remember with Josh Hater, he had about a
month's worth of rehab appearances before he got up to speed,
he'd needed a little bit more time maybe than Susa
because he had not pitched at all since August of
last year, because when he got to Astro spring training
he wasn't ready to throw. Susa's pitched several different times
around a couple of different setbacks, and did obviously pitch

(57:51):
briefly for the Astros this year before this latest injury,
but he hasn't pitched at the major league level since
the injury, which was early May. So probably close to
about seven eighty nine rehab appearances would be reasonable. He's
made four, So what does that mean for the actual rotation.
I'm curious and Josh, if you'll weigh in again here
for me. The other move they made was the cancelation

(58:13):
of the rehab or the option of Mike Burrows down
to triple a Instead they put him on the injured lists.
It's right elbow neritis. To assist our medically challenged listeners,
Do you want to know what there is to know
about right elbow neritis from AI or from an actual

(58:34):
medical site?

Speaker 3 (58:36):
Hey, I sounds more fun.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
It is more fun. I love it. Um, Let's go
through some of the symptoms. Constant pins and needles, sensation
in the little finger and half of the ring finger, aching,
pain on the inside of the elbow, difficulty with fine
motor skills. Now it doesn't say like pitching, but it
does say like playing an instrument or typing. Probably neither

(59:01):
of those things. It doesn't say typing on a cell phone.
Neither of those things were something that Mike Burrows would doing.
But the injury itself per AI, of course, it's when
your ulner nerve becomes inflamed or compressed at the elbow.
Do you know what your ulnar nerve is more commonly
referred to, is that the UCO It's your funny bone.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
That's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
So not necessarily that caliber of injury to the point
that he is out for here comes major surgery and
we're looking at eighteen months of rehab. But also not
a given that it isn't depending on when it was found,
depending on how often it was being used, like repetitive

(59:43):
activities like pitching. These are things that could make it
significantly worse and could make it as turn it into
something that the treatment isn't just you know, rest and rehab,
but rather some sort of surgical procedure. I don't know
the answer to that question yet. The the Astros probably
either have it or are very close to having it,
and I'm sure we'll know about it sometime Thursday or Friday.

(01:00:06):
They don't return to playing until Friday, but there's a
possibility we could learn something about it a little bit
sooner than that. I don't know if that's any kind
of explanation for how he has been so unsuccessful in
executing pitches when it's clear he has stuff, even if
he was pitching through this, and he never said a
word about it, you know, Kaiwai Tang never said a
word about anything on his case either, and he's been

(01:00:28):
on the fifteen day il with the right knee issue,
so it happens a lot. Jeremy Paanea was really no different.
He was trying to play through the calf strain, which
ultimately sent him back to the IL for ten days.
It's very common in baseball to do that, but the
extent to which the injury might have been exacerbated, we
don't know, and quite honestly, until the Astros or a

(01:00:50):
report comes out. Otherwise, that leaves us with three spots
in the rotation. I've given you Hunter Brown at number one.
I've given you Peter Lambert at number two, Spencer Getti,
tatsu Emi Christian Javier Renel Blanco, among others. They still
have a couple of other pitchers at Triple A that
are on the forty man roster, like Colton Gordon, raining

(01:01:11):
pitcher of the Week in the PCL, and Jason Alexander,
both of whom could be candidates to be dfaight at
some point this season in addition to being asked to
start a game as we continue this season, so continued
discussion about that on what the future holds for the
Astros really as it applies to the main topic of
today and every day until August third, Are you selling

(01:01:36):
or are you buying? Houston Astros? We dig on that next.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:01:47):
Sports Talk seven ninety Weather sponsored by Generator Supercenter, the
nation's number one generak dealer. Your News Radio seven forty
fore cast thunderstorms today with a high of eighty seven,
more storms tonight low seventy five. This report is sponsored
by Staples. All Right, it's officially the most wonderful time
of the year. At Staples. They've got back to school

(01:02:07):
supplies as low as twenty five cents, up to forty
percent off, select Tech, twenty percent off for teachers, and more.
Check out all the deals at Staples dot com slash
back to School Staples. That was easy at Shell Federal
Credit Union Banking, but better is available for you.

Speaker 7 (01:02:21):
With their expanded field of membership. More individuals and families
in our communities can now experience better rates, lower fees,
and service that puts people first. Whether you're looking for
a great auto loan, a better checking account, or a
financial partner for life's moments, it all stare and said
Shell FCU texts more mre to seven one, three, eight, four, four,
eleven hundred federally ensured by the NCUA. Membership loans and

(01:02:43):
services subject to eligibility requirements.

Speaker 8 (01:02:46):
You can escape a lot of things in life, but
you can escape pre diabetes. Pre diabetes captures two and
five adults. There are usually no signs of pre diabetes.
In fact, most people don't even know they have it.
But with early diagnosis you can change the outcome and
prevent or delay type two diabetes. Take action by taking
the one minute risk tests at do I have Prediabetes

(01:03:09):
dot org? That's do I have prediabetes dot org? Brought
to you by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Speaker 9 (01:03:19):
When you've thrown over four thousand innings like I have
a lot of those here in Houston, you know, joint
pain isn't a maybe, it's a guarantee for you. Was
it climbing ladders or too much heavy lifting? Hey, we're
all on the same boat. But surgery that was never
my answer. Baseball legend Roger Clemens knows there's a better way.
That's QC kinetics, regenerative treatments that help your body heal itself.

(01:03:40):
No scalpels, no fake fixes, just real relief. What I
love about QC Kinetics. These are the most respected medical
pros in the country that specialize in non surgical therapies
to get you moving again.

Speaker 4 (01:03:51):
Don't mask the pain, fix it, call QC Kinetics now
for a free consultation.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
I trusted QC Kinetics. You should too.

Speaker 4 (01:04:02):
Call QC Kinetics today and schedule your free consultation.

Speaker 10 (01:04:05):
Call QC Kinetics seven one three nine one three fifty
two eighty five. That's seven one three nine one three
fifty two eighty five. Seven one three nine one three
fifty two eighty five.

Speaker 11 (01:04:17):
Hello Houston, Marcus Cajawa here bringing you another incredible final
release land liquidation. On Saturday, July twenty fifth, two to
twenty acre high elevation ranches will be released. Come out
and buy five acres for only thirty five thousand. How
about eleven acres for only seventy five thousand with massive trees,

(01:04:39):
rolling terrain, and abundant wildlife and the lake is just
seconds away. This is the property you've been dreaming of.
Call us now. Eight hundred six eight four forty six eleven.
That's eight hundred six eight four forty six eleven final
release land liquidation with owner financing. It's your so, it's

(01:05:01):
your rules. If the line's busy, keep calling. Eight hundred
six eight four forty six to eleven. Eight hundred six
eight four forty six eleven. That's eight hundred six eight
four four six one one.

Speaker 12 (01:05:16):
This is the story of the one, the one who
keeps multiple buildings running smoothly day after day. Plumbing that flows,
HVAC that homes cleaning supplies that keeps surfaces sparkling.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
That's why she counts on Granger.

Speaker 12 (01:05:28):
With easy reordering online and twenty four to seven support,
Granger helps her keep the product she needs on hand,
so shells stay stocked and buildings stay ready. Call one
hundred Granger, Clickgrainger dot com, or just stop buy Granger
for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
A drill up and lay extreme. iHeartRadio and Fox Sports
are bringing you every remaining match o fee for World
Cup twenty twenty six, all the way up to the
final till light nineteen. The games are live and for free.
Just download the iHeartRadio WIP Now. We run on dingers,
dumps and drives, not cold four Top seven ninety guaranteed Human.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
It's just over halfway through our number two an hour
out from the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, our signature
segment each and every Monday, after we return from the
weekend's worth of activities. A little bit of rain over
the weekend, a lot of rain earlier today. Hopefully it
didn't slow your day down too much. And I'm sure
there was some flooding. There always is when that much

(01:06:41):
rain comes down that quickly. Summer League activity continuing for
the Rockets back on the court tomorrow for game activity.
Summer league continuing for people that aren't in the games,
veterans everywhere. I was kind of explaining what Summer League
looks like from an NBA player perspective to somebody over
the weekend. Clearly, the each franchise puts a team together

(01:07:02):
made up of majority of which players are never going
to see again associated with that organization. You got a
twelve to fifteen man summer league roster, A couple of
guys were just drafted, a couple of guys may have
been drafted the year before or part of two way deals,
and then most of the rest of the guys are
just looking for an opportunity to play fit within what
the Rockets like to do, or the Rockets have liked
them over several years past, and then they will move

(01:07:24):
along and again they'll never be a part of the organization.
The players that are actually part of the organization, most
of them are there because this is one of the
first opportunities that they usually take advantage of to play together.
They'll go and maybe practice with the team or certainly
practice amongst themselves. You've seen Fred van Vliet and Reed
Shepherd and Jabari Smith Junior and Clickapella, Kevin Durant a

(01:07:47):
Men Thompson among the many Rockets that are there in Vegas.
As they continue Summer League, Rockets will played Tomorrow afternoon
and Thursday afternoon. Every team is guaranteed five games, but
essentially it's four games of pool play and then they
start locking in where these teams could see based on
those four games, and you're guaranteed at least one additional game.

(01:08:09):
But if you keep winning, you play several more games,
and that's how you get through Summer League. And then
they're off for quite some time. Then they'll reconvene and
training camp will be here before you know it for
your Houston Rockets. But we'll keep a thought on what's
going on out there. Haven't spent any time on the
work from Copeland career Copeland or Bruce Thornton, their draftees,

(01:08:31):
or Tristan Newton or is Isaiah Crawford, a couple of
their players from last year's roster two way players. One
thought on Copeland, he fouls a lot, and one thought
on Thornton, he fits what the Rockets like to do
a lot, not giving you an assessment of either their
quality of play for those two players. And one reminder

(01:08:52):
on Copeland, you are allowed to foul the opposition nine
times before your tenth foul sends you to the sidelines,
and the games are only forty minutes. Copeland's played a lot,
but not all forty minutes in either game, and he's
committed sixteen fouls, didn't foul out of either game. He

(01:09:12):
stopped at nine in the opener and got seven more
in the second game. Interesting way to go about your
trying to impress your team. But his actual plays been
pretty good. So, like I said, we'll get to that,
I'm sure a little bit later on the program, but
wanted to kind of hone back in on what the
next three weeks for the Astros will entail. And I
know we're sitting here on the radio, gotta be all
hot takey, and I gotta tell you, without a shadow

(01:09:33):
of a doubt, the Astros should absolutely be sellers. They're
four games under, they stink. The future is not bright.
Wake up, sell or I could say, we're three weeks
from the deadline. There's a lot of baseball left between
now and then. And what is it that you want
them to sell in order to not be a bad

(01:09:54):
baseball team? Teams that are under five hundred bad baseball teams.
They're a bad baseball team. Who do you want to
move and for what? And with what lies ahead in
twenty twenty seven, which is total uncertainty, when are they
going to be good and good again? Because you have
quote unquote sold. Are you selling off pieces that don't
impact your future? Like are you trying to make a

(01:10:15):
deal that sends out we've got enough of this or
somebody is about ready to be that so we can
move on from this player, or is a real sell
job what you're actually asking this baseball team to do?
Are you really asking them to sell yourn Alvarez and
actually get a massive prospect Haull that may also be
not too far away from major League baseball? Are you

(01:10:36):
asking them to sell Jeremy Pino or Hunter Brown off
because their futures with the Astros are cloudy at best,
Because they're approaching the end of club control. There's not
ending this year but soon after with Paanya just one
another year? Is that what you're asking them to do?
Are you asking them to take players that matter off
the major league roster in trying to make a deal.

(01:10:57):
You have one more year at twenty million for Christian Waw.
You have one more year around twelve million four esach Peretis.
Remember the Astros avoided arbitration with him and actually signed
him to a two year deal with a player option
on that second year or team option on that second year.
I'm not sure what you think you're getting in return

(01:11:17):
for this year's team. Clearly, if you're getting nothing in
return for this year's team, then you've made yourself worse
and you are definitely that's what a team that's selling does.
You're no longer trying to compete, doesn't mean you won't.
It's happened a few times in Major League Baseball where
teams have told the rest of their roster we're selling,
look at what we've done, and then some magical thing happens,

(01:11:40):
and then all of a sudden, sudden start winning with
what's remaining there. That's not really what you should happen.
It's not really the goal, but it could happen. So
if either of those two players are involved in the deal,
are you talking about fringe players that may just help
you shore up a different area of your team, Because
I just told you that at sometime in the next
three weeks mac them, you're probably gonna have Susa Weznski

(01:12:03):
Blanco and Lance McCullers Junior rejoining the roster. Don't know
the timing on Mike Burrow's return because it's probably not
just based on injury. Clearly he needs to pitch several
times before they even consider bringing him back. But at
some point then you have something a surplus. You have
a surplus of pitching. Is it any good? Remains to

(01:12:25):
be seen. The return of Christian Xavier has not been good.
He's pinning okay out of the bullpen two appearances, one
of them seemed more electric than the other. The other
was his more recent appearance when it took him thirty
pitches to finish one inning. And then his start yesterday,
so sixty more pitches from him, ninety pitches in Wednesday

(01:12:47):
and Sunday's game for Christian Xavier, who's healthy and he
got twelve outs, gave up three runs, got twelve outs.
It's not what you really want from your starting pitcher,
and honestly, that's why you're in trouble with Emi an E.
My situation is it really has nothing to do with
the deadline, and it's unfortunate. I can't even imagine a

(01:13:10):
team saying yes to Emi if he was offered. I
don't even think that's something that any team is discussed
with the Astros or they've brought up to them. But
he's got an opportunity to opt into another eighteen million
next year and then opt into another eighteen million the
year after that, And based on the way he's pitching,
I can't imagine he wants to play the market all
while I'm not helping the Astros from a pitching standpoint. Granted,

(01:13:34):
they've miraculously won eight of his thirteen starts, but there
would still be a literal personnel numbers surplus of pitching.
Does that allow you to move on from aj Bluebaugh,
even though that's exactly the type of pitcher you'd like
to cultivate into a starter in the future, because that's
all he was for you the whole time getting here.
He's playing the role you have for him this year,

(01:13:55):
because that's what this season's roster dictated, and as we
discussed here on this show the other day, I don't
think they're considering moving into the rotation, but I guess
it's possible they could, and he could help solve some
of those starting pitching problems, but then somebody else has
to fix the we don't have a long reliever problem,
and who that would be I do not know. Others

(01:14:15):
will obviously be in that position to try to fill
it if that happens, but could you actually get something
that helps this team in a different place in this
year's final remaining games, And obviously in the future, you
wouldn't want to trade aj blue Ball for somebody that
is going to help you for two months and then
he's going to play somewhere else. That doesn't make very
much sense. I know it's what they did in the
Usay Kakuchi deal a couple of years ago, but you

(01:14:37):
got to consider who they were acquiring. They were acquiring
a starting pitcher they thought would be very successful for them,
and as it turned out, that was the best time
that you say has ever had as a pitcher. During
those last ten starts he made for the Astros that
your twelve starts he made during the regular season. Fortunately,
unfortunately he did not pitch in the postseason because it
was only two games long would have started Game three

(01:14:59):
against the Time had they extended the wild Card series
to three games. But you gave up three future talents.
One of them is an Astro again, Joey low Perfido.
One of them is barely pitched since being traded Jake
Bloss He's had some injury issues. And the other is
not even with the Blue Jays organization anymore. It's Will
Wagner's with the Padres organization and his bounced back from

(01:15:20):
TRIPA to the major leagues on a couple of different occasions.
It happens, but you got to look at the level
of player you're moving on from. I don't mind having
a discussion about being sellers. There's levels to it, and
you got to tell me what it is you think
you're getting in return to make it worthwhile to be
a seller, because you're not winning anytime soon unless you're
getting something in return that's at least as good as

(01:15:42):
these useful pieces that you're asking the Astros to move
on from. A little bit of some Texans questions. By
the way, in two days. Our Wednesday program will be
two weeks out from Texans training camp beginning, so the
ten shows that we will still have on our plate
before the first training camp practice on July twenty ninth,

(01:16:03):
we'll have a series of ten items to get through
on those ten shows. One a day of someone to
wash for at Texans training camp, a question that needs
to be answered, or some area of my eyes where
they'll be focused when I'm out of Texans training camp
as they prepare for what better be the best season
in franchise history. The Texans need to have and should

(01:16:26):
have the best season in franchise history. Good news is
if that happens, that'd be awesome. They'd be in the
AMSTI title game. The other good news is if they
don't do that well, then they probably have an answer
on their future at quarterback, as in it is in CJ. Stroud.
If they don't do more than that sitting here today,

(01:16:47):
it's probably on his shoulders, on Nick Kyley's shoulders, and
maybe some others, but squarely on a quarterbacks plays shoulders.
Another set of rankings came out from ESPN's polling and
canvassing inside NFL buildings, what they think of respective quarterbacks.
We will share that with you today, though there's one
element of that review of the best quarterbacks in the

(01:17:08):
AF and NFC that we definitely have to share tomorrow,
so we'll save that part of it. We'll let you
know what people think about him coming up as we
continue over the final two hours of program, and then
also a look at the tight end situation. Mentioned that
Major League Baseball is on their brief little hiatus four
days without play for your Houston Astros. I don't know

(01:17:29):
if you could say it couldn't come at a better time,
but it certainly has come, and that's all there is
to it. There actually are two teams that return to
play on Thursday. It's not the Astros, though, and it
isn't anybody in the American League. So everybody else in
the American League will pick things back up when play
begins on Friday. If you recall a couple of years ago,
the Astros had a weather issue in the first part

(01:17:53):
of the season, and the way to fix it on
the schedule was they had them open the post All
Star Break portion of the season with a double header
and five games. I believe over four days with the
Yankees to open up their post All Star Break portion
of the schedule, or actually I believe it was a
go play the Yankees and then go play the Mets

(01:18:14):
over that period of time. Whatever the case may be.
It felt like they kind of got host with the schedule.
When you're supposed to be catching a break, they actually
didn't catch the kind of break they thought they would have. Boston,
who's won nine games in a row, and we'll have
their entire pitching staff rested and ready to go for
the second part of the season. Will they open the
second part of the season with a double header against

(01:18:35):
the best team in baseball or best team in the
American League? A day night doubleheader to open up the
second part of the season for Boston hosting Tampa as
part of their weekend opening series. Just something to note
again I've mentioned a couple times the Astros are back
at tich And Park to open up the post All
Star Break portion of the season. Three games against Baltimore

(01:18:57):
and then they will have three games against the Marlins.
The Astras have played as many games as anybody in
the American League, and so it would stand to reason
that their post All Star break portion of the schedule
should be a little bit softer. They come back on Friday,
play for six days Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
and they get their Thursday off day. They will see

(01:19:19):
a ton of Thursday off days the remainder of the season,
and hopefully that bodes well into trying to play better.
Quite honestly, being four games under five hundred with this
little season left sixty four games worth of it, let's
say you just go thirty four and thirty All right, awesome,
you finished eighty one and eighty one. Thirty four and
thirty is significantly better than they've played, so that would

(01:19:41):
be progress. They actually will go into the second part
of the season having played as well as anybody in
the American League for almost half of the season. Remember
they started twenty and thirty one, so even to get
to forty seven and fifty one means they've gone twenty
seven and twenty. Nobody in the American League has won
more games than that during that time, nobody. So a
couple days into the second part of the season, we'll

(01:20:03):
have a fifty one game start and the fifty one
games that followed, and it will point out very clearly
how much better the Astros have played. Hopefully it's more
like twenty nine and twenty two or thirty and twenty one.
But that means they have to play well coming out
of the break, and that's almost a given. It's absolutely must.
If it's not, then what I just said last segment

(01:20:25):
will happen. They will finally recognize they need to be sellers,
and that means they also won't be trying to help
the twenty twenty six Houston Astros. That's something we have
not seen them be forced to do in a long
long time. They've made small adjustments during many of these seasons,
acquiring some smaller parts to what they thought could help

(01:20:47):
them in twenty six. You know, even the trades they
made last year were not of great magnitude. Adding Hayes's
Sanchez among them, you're hoping to get a little bit
of what you're missing this year and hope it pushes
you the top for this year, knowing full well he's
probably not going to be back next year, even though
in Sanchez this case, they actually hoped he would be
because he was under contract and had a history of

(01:21:10):
crushing right handed pitching. Well, he shelved that history while
he was an Astro, and then of course picked it
back up again before getting hurt. This year with the
Blue Jays, he has once again done very well against
right handed pitching. We'll close the book on our number two,
open the story of our number three, specific to the
weekend that just passed for the Astros with the Rangers,

(01:21:31):
and really more about what what I truly think they
should be doing moving forward, buying or selling, and for
whom and with whom when we come back here on
the eighteen eighty, take it till six o'clock. Don't go anywhere.
Then we will have a night cap coming your way
from six to seven o'clock tonight. Josh Jordan will be
with you then, and we'll do that throughout the week

(01:21:51):
until the Astros return on Friday. With the Orioles, they
lose two out of three over the weekend till the Rangers.
Each of those two losses were in final at bats
for the Rangers. The eighth inning of Friday's game, they
score four times. The ninth inning of Sunday's game, they
walked it off against the Astros after tying the game
up in the bottom of the eighth inning, and so
the Astros end up at the All Star break four

(01:22:13):
games under five hundred, three games back in the division,
one and a half games back in the wild card race,
and still likely. Again I don't know if contemplating who
they are is the right word, but contemplating on exactly
what to do as we sit here today. If they
were going to try to be buyers, then I again
would have suggested they go ahead and get started at
any point these last several months. The trade deadline is

(01:22:36):
only the deadline for when you can no longer make deals,
not for wait until you get here, because so you
can start making deals. Always takes two teams to or
three to make it happen. But the Astros have been
porous in one area all season, and that's outfield, offense,
and that's all three spots, and they have gotten worse
and worse from a pitching standpoint, with some of the

(01:22:58):
injuries that have sent people off Hunter Brown pitching only
a handful of times so far. This season clearly is
one of them having guys in and out of the
rotation a little bit, which almost happened right at the
beginning of the season, having a massive roller coaster to
Spencer Araghetti's season. Nobody in the American League pitch better
than he did in the month of May, so said
the award givers, and that he won the award for

(01:23:19):
Pitcher of the Month for May. And he's spent very,
very bad in the months that have followed. Other than
one start, it's made seven starts since winning that award.
Six of them were very bad. As the last start
he gave up eight runs at four innings. Clearly, Mike
Burrows did not pitch the way they hoped he would
after they acquired him in the trade this offseason from

(01:23:40):
the Pirates. Tatsu Emai has not pitched anything like you
thought he might when you spent eighteen million dollars definitively
to bring him over fifty four million. If he ops
in after next after this season and after next season,
if there is one, and that leaves you with a clear,
obvious other area of need, even though the Astro have
not yet said it publicly, and maybe that changes as

(01:24:05):
the deadline approaches. They don't have to say it. They
need starting pitching help if it comes from outside, that's
one thing. If they get lucky and those pitchers we've
been talking about today, Blanco was Nesky among others. Javier
with more opportunities turn into those quote unquote pitchers that
now are successfully starting games for the Asters. Great, they

(01:24:26):
don't have much time to figure out if that's the
answer or not, and they do have a lot of
work to do in the standings. As much as they
got close and got one day away from this and
they're that close to the division lead, and that they
still haven't reached five hundred since they were six and six,
They're not gonna have to go on a streak to
get there. We've won all these series, they've won six
out of seven series. Well, now they've lost three out

(01:24:47):
four series as part of that run that's headed into
the wrong direction. They have avoided the sweep, but they
have not had the sweep. And that's why they've been
playing roughly five hundred baseball for quite some time. From
six games under, two games under back to four games
under and on and on and on. The twenty twenty
six cycle just really hasn't ever changed. A couple things
big picture baseball that have nothing to do with the

(01:25:08):
Astros that come to a head over the next couple
of days with the Derby tonight and the All Star
Game tomorrow. The All Star Game will feature one astro.
My guess is Jordan Alvarez gets too at bats. I'll
bat in the first inning against Christopher Sanchez, and then
he'll probably bat against somebody else. He's next at bat,
and presumably that's it for him. Somebody else will get

(01:25:29):
an opportunity try to roll through the majority of the roster.
They still will not play extra innings. They'll have a
homer off if it's so needed to determine a winner,
which doesn't matter. It's an exhibition game, and then they'll
go back to their respective teams. Not all players that
could be in the All Star Game are quite a
few aren't because of the Sunday start rule. Paul Skeins

(01:25:50):
among them, although an All Star, and some other players
aren't due to injury due to wanting to take the
days off. Basically, Cam Schlittler of the Yankees is essentially
doing that. He pitched far enough away from the All
Star Game and is an All Star and is available
to pitch in the game, but he chose not to,
and he is his manager thought it made more sense

(01:26:11):
with the workload he has had this year's first full
season as a starter as a major leaguer. Then, rather
than use his day two pitch, Day two throw on
the side, which is Tuesday at the All Star Game,
where he might have some adrenaline going, they just have
him not participating at all. There's a pretty long list
of otherwise All Stars that are not going to be there.
We mentioned last week why show Hoo Tani is also

(01:26:32):
on that list that is injury related, and Jake Mizerowski
is kind of similar to Cam Schlittler. He was supposed
to pitch yesterday against the Pirates, but he was scratched
from that start and ultimately is not going to pitch
in the All Star Game either. Another young pitcher doesn't
even have a full season of major league pitching under
his belt, an opportunity to shave a tiny bit of

(01:26:54):
workload off of his work this year, and that's what
the Pirates are excuing the Brewers are deciding to do.
I think that's smart with all these couple of those
being nationally changes, Zach Wheeler, who's pitched like an All
Star even with a very good year. From starting pitchers
in the National League, it was a very tough group.
Remember last week when the Astros were in Washington taking

(01:27:15):
on Foster Griffin. I said he's pitched like an All
Star and he wasn't selected for the team either, but
Zach Wheeler probably should have been, and he said as much.
He was pretty clear about it last week when he pitched,
saying that he felt it was disrespectful the way that
it was handled, but subsequently was asked to participate as
other players asked not to participate, and he said no,

(01:27:38):
thanks for that very reason. I'm not going to be
their fifth choice. I think they've disrespected me, and so
I'm not going to do it. I'm respectful of any
individual players thoughts or any individual person's thoughts, and I
get why he's doing it, and he basically laid it out.
I think in hindsight or with more involvement from somebody
who could convinced him to change his mind. Otherwise he

(01:28:00):
would I don't know what other unless he's saying that,
and he really just doesn't want to go out to
his own ballpark and pitch in front of his own
fans for an inning and take the opportunity when he
speaks with the media, which happens today, to say whatever
it is is on his mind. He could just absolutely
rip apart the system. He could say, well, how ridiculous

(01:28:22):
it is that I'm only here because four other guys
said no, that's out rate. He could do anything he
wanted with his time in front of the microphone, so
really drive home the point. But he also could enhance
his resume if that matters to him. Sometimes it matters
several years down the road when we get into bigger conversations.
I don't know that Zach Wheeler's in a bigger conversation

(01:28:44):
from a Hall of Fame standpoint. Justin Verlanders just announced
his retirement. Everybody that covers baseball all across America, well,
he's been this, and he's done that, and these are
his accolades, and he's finishing the cy young here and
he's been a part of this many All Star team.
They just go to your numbers, They go to what
you've done in your career, and they try to look
that over and see what all it says. Well, on

(01:29:06):
Zach Wheeler, it would say four time All Star. Instead
it says three time All Star. Like I said, I
don't know that this is of great consequence. He's probably
gonna finish his career with I don't know, one hundred
and seventy wins, one hundred and sixty wins. He's thirty six,
he's got one hundred and twenty three victories. He doesn't
have any cy Young Awards though he's finished second twice,

(01:29:30):
and he's absolutely positively pitching well enough to draw similar
consideration this year. If any number of the All Stars,
ms Rowski being among them, don't continue like they have,
then yeah, he can absolutely win a cy Young this year.
Just something to consider when making I think they were
mean to me decision, so I'm going to say no,

(01:29:50):
I won't participate. He chose to do that. Home run
Derby also takes place tonight. No Astros are in it.
Got a question earlier today about Jordan Alvarez, was he's
not participating. Came with Matt and Ross and they gave
the good answer. It's a good thing that he's not participating.
He doesn't want to participate. It's a bad thing to participate,
more so more often than it's a good thing. Guys

(01:30:12):
don't go to the home run Derby and then have
a better swing the rest of the season and don't
get healthier by taking all those hacks. Now the derbies
change their format this year, and they've left the door
open for one part of it to be awful and unwatchable.

(01:30:32):
There's no time limit anymore, which doesn't necessarily mean we're
gonna be there all night. You get twenty swings in
the first round. It's not head to head. They just
take the four top performers and they move on to
the next round. You get twenty swings in the first round.
They get fifteen swings in the second round. Awesome. This
guy takes his twenty sings twenty swings and you move on.
You also get bonus swings. If you hit a homer

(01:30:54):
on your last swing, you get to continue swinging for
as long as you continue to hit home So somebody
could have thirty swings if they hit eleven home runs
in a row, and on and on. That's something that
could make it take a little bit longer. The real
thing that's gonna make it take a little bit longer
is because you can still take pitches. When there was
a clock and you got blank number of minutes to swing,

(01:31:17):
taking a pitch was something they didn't like to do
a whole lot. If it's a bad pitch, it's a
bad pitch, you're not gonna hit it out, Why swing
at it? But it didn't hurt you to swing at it.
It didn't mean anything. It just meant you got one
less opportunity your BP pitcher, and you choose who that is,
whether it's a relative, a father, or someone you've known
from another team, or somebody from your team that usually

(01:31:38):
throws BP to you. That's great. But now if you
take a pitch, it's because you know you can't hit
it out and it kind of counts against you if
you swing at it. Then if you swing at a
pitch you can't hit out, that's one of your swings.
Why would they waste it. I don't think any of
these pitchers are bad, but we've seen it happen before,
and one, two, three, four in a row. They don't

(01:32:00):
swing at any of them. That's what's going to drain
any kind of energy and juice out of a contest
like this. Probably not even worthing analyzing it, And I
don't know how much we're going to talk about it tomorrow,
and I wonder how many people in the next few
hours we'll say, well, how am I supposed to watch it? Anyway?
Where is it what's it on? How do I find it? Well,

(01:32:22):
I'm not paying for it. It's on a streaming service
this time around, so it'll be interesting to see how
many people are even into it for that reason, let
alone the changes that they've made to it. I don't
have any problem with the star power of it. Usually
some of these events struggle for that. Major League Baseball
usually doesn't. Usually the participants are either the best home
run hitters in baseball or most years they're considered that,

(01:32:44):
and maybe for some reason they haven't done that. You know,
you got the two guys that are closest to Jordan
Alvarez participating in the American League, and Ben Rice and
Junior Camon Arrow. By the way, Cam and Arrow not
the favorite, but he is my pick. You got two
on the Phillies participating. Kyle Schwarverer leads the National League
in Homer's Chicago White Sox rookie who probably would be

(01:33:07):
right there with Rice and Cameron Arow close to Alvarez
had he not been hurt. He just came back within
the last couple of weeks, so he is available and
will participate. One of the younger guys that they hope
is a star in the major leagues just from selling
the sport. Jack Caglioni of the Royals will be out there.
The Royals are a team that should be selling, by
the way, which we'll get into a little bit later on.

(01:33:29):
The show brought up the Texans a couple of times,
but really haven't kind of gone headfirst into the conversation
about their offensive personnel. That changes next, specifically, what's cooking
for the Texans on offense at tight end compared to
the rest of the league. That's next a little bit

(01:33:49):
after four o'clock good time in the afternoon. It's four
twenty here on the A Team Wex and Josh Jordan
here with you. A little football conversations were just to
shade over two weeks away from training camp, a little
bit longer before we get to preseason games, joint practices,
and not long after that the first two wins of
the season for the Texans, first over Josh Allen and
the Bills and then over Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.

(01:34:14):
If they can quarterbacks best in the NFL ranked by
NFL executives, personnel people, etc. ESPN has been running through
the positions around the league edge rushers, interior alignment, tackles, corners,
running backs, tight ends. Believe we got into this a

(01:34:35):
little bit last week, so before I dive straight into
the quarterbacks, I wanted to revisit that once again, kind
of walking through what the Texans offense has to work with,
what CJ. Stroud has to work with. You know, he's
got a second year OC and they made a change
with their quarterback coach, running the same offense they did
a year ago. And the conversation that Ross Tucker had
with Greg co Sell on his post podcast indicated one

(01:34:58):
significant change for CJ. Stroud the Texans offense was the
responsibility on the quarterback to make the line calls, the
offensive line adjustments and calls, and everything that goes with it.
Pre snap reads that many of the best quarterbacks and
most successful offenses like to do, certainly a Patriots style
of offense. They like to do that, and they are

(01:35:19):
running a Patriots style offense. Kayley with a Patriots background,
Popovich with a Patriots background, Nick Asaria with the Patriots background,
and on and on. As you know, the era where
they were winning at least with Tom Brady and Josh
McDaniels Josh McDaniels is still there, and Tom Brady is
not sharing information with Mike McDonald of the Seahawks to

(01:35:40):
help the Patriots lose the Super Bowl, despite what many people,
including those on this show, suggested he might have been
doing last week. Back to the tight end position, running
back positions outside of the top twenty twenty five running
back group. Probably for the Texans. You know their offensive
line is outside the top twenty probably outside the top
twenty five. You know, the offensive coordinator can't be particularly

(01:36:03):
highly regarded. Anybody who's had any success as a play
caller in the NFL would rate higher than him. Anybody
who's not in their first and second year and not
about to get fired would likely rate out of him.
Any offenses that have been successful likely to rate better
than him. And so you probably have an OC that's
regarded as somewhere in the back twelve of the NFL
to be nice. Tight end position is no different, even

(01:36:25):
with Dalton Schultz producing the most catches any Texas tight
end had ever gotten, even with them adding Marlon Klein
in the draft, getting Brevin Jordan back, signing Foster Moreau,
and having Cad Stover going to year three. As a group,
I can't imagine too many people would say the Texans
tight end group is one I would want over half

(01:36:45):
the league. They're somewhere in the middle to the back
half of the league. Just speaking specific to the tight
end position, especially the tight end position, where I think
it is the smallest number of players League one that
make a difference. The whole group, it is the smallest

(01:37:06):
number of players that actually make a difference. It's a
huge group of players that are you can have this guy,
or you can have that guy, or you could have
one of twenty five guys and it's not gonna make
any difference. You can utilize them in a way that
makes a difference, and that's the group that the Texans
fall into. They're not awful at tight end, but they're
not in the very small group of top tight ends,

(01:37:28):
even though they're paying for them like they are. The
group as a whole does make a tremendous amount of money.
And I don't know if they're carrying four tight ends,
three tight ends, five tight ends, but it's probably five
more likely than it's three with how often I expect
them to use them. But don't Schultz gets paid better
than twelve million dollars a year. That's among the top
ten highest paid average anneal value tight ends in football.
The list of tight ends that make a difference, it's

(01:37:51):
maybe seven, and maybe it goes up one or two
each year, and a couple guys fall out of it
each year. If you have brock Bowers, you obviously spent
draft capital to do and you correctly are utilizing the
fact that he's better than everybody else. He's a difference maker.
Trey McBride, George Kittle still, Sam Laporta a second round pick,
Tyler Warren a first round pick, Colston Lovelin a first

(01:38:13):
round pick. I'm not sure the list is any longer
than those six. Maybe you think Tuckerkraft is there, Maybe
you know Kyle Pitch should be there, but he never
has been the way the Falcons have used him in
the way that he just hasn't played up to his talent.
I think they're paying him to though they finally agreed
to a deal with him. They franchise tagged him this year,
and they probably with I don't know who at quarterback,

(01:38:37):
the throwing left handed Tua or Pennix Junior, will probably
use him more than they have. Could I sell you
on those eight, because I don't think I could sell
you on any others. That means one quarter of the
league employs a difference making tight end as we enter
this season, Mark Andrews, Travis Kelcey, Dalton Kinkaid, Pat Fryarmouth

(01:39:00):
all the same. If you throw it to them, they'll produce.
They're not such a matchup nightmare that other teams can
handle it. I think a guy like Ferguson's close because
of how they use him. So that's a good player
to have. We have a player we think we can
help us win games. We're gonna use that more well.

(01:39:20):
Their past happy offense is the main reason Dalton Kinkaid
his best work usually comes when everybody else is not
out there, and he's a trustworthy target for Josh Allen,
Harold Fan and Junior. I'm running through this list without
kind of listing them off. He received honor will mentioned
in this group that ESPN put out. They're talking to
GMS execs and other people around the league. I actually

(01:39:41):
think he's the only non top eight that actually should
be considered a difference maker. He's the second year tight
in Cleveland. They have a bad offense. They spent half
the year catching footballs from a terrible quarterback in Dylan Gabriel,
the other part of the year catching it from a
little bit more capable quarterback and Shoudhu Sanders, And maybe
they'll get a little bit prove move to that position
by either Sanders or Watson. But he's the type of

(01:40:04):
player that actually can be a difference maker, and they
also spent reasonable draft capital on him. And then the
list goes to Cole Comet and t j Akinson and
Dallas Goddard and Juwan Johnson and Brenton Strange who just
got a big fat raise from the Jacksonville Jaguars and
Hunter Henry All. I kind of always associated with the
Texans because he was another option that they had when

(01:40:25):
they originally signed Dalton Schultz when they considered giving Dalton
Schultz an extension, and maybe could have gone a different direction,
but he's just similar. Patriots use their tight ends interestingly
with Drake May now heading into year three, but there's
not much difference, So paying a lot of money for
a tight end to be the same as everybody else.

(01:40:46):
And I'm all this conversation not only to do with
one thing, one part of a tight ends game, that's
the pass catching angle of it. Clearly, the Texans tight
end blocking ratings, if there were such a thing, would
be near the bottom of the league. Whether a's how
they set them up to fail or the fact that
they simply can't succeed or haven't figured out the best
way to utilize who they have. They finally have a

(01:41:07):
full array of tight ends. Blocking tight end, bigger tight ends,
athletic tight ends, passing catching tight ends, and some combination
that some of their players have more than one skill,
but they better deploy them accordingly. Bottom line is as
we get to looking at CJ. Stroud as the Texans
as the quarterback of this Texans offense, which just keep
in mind as we get through the season, they have

(01:41:30):
below average talent everywhere on the field when he's on
the field and including the guy that's talking to him
in his headset. We're not asking for this offense to
be great, though, So think about those two things together
all while they put together maybe the best roster of
defensive players in the entire NFL. I mentioned the quarterback

(01:41:54):
list was also released today, so it's kind of a
precursor to that conversation. We'll hit that at five o'clock.
Next we will hit you with our signature segment Monday.
Always back from the weekend. It's the good, the bad,
the ugly. That's next. The a team on Sports Talk
shit you with the good, the bad, the ugly from
the last couple of days since we last spoke on Friday.

(01:42:16):
No Adam klant today. So I'll take the good and
the ugly. Josh will have the bad this afternoon. A
couple of different things to look at here, simple on
the good at least one ded case or for me,
it'll be tomorrow and Thursday for the Rockets to return
to the Summer League court. They had games on back
to back nights Friday and Saturday to open up Summer

(01:42:38):
League play. The good is Bruce Thornton. As expected. He's
exactly what he looked like he was at Ohio State
runs the team is in charge. Is also an adult.
And I don't mean that from a mental standpoint. I
mean he knows what he's doing as a basketball player.

(01:42:59):
He's not trying to figure anything out. He's not one
year out of college. He's not a teenager. I think
that matters for where his development is. There's clearly really
truly about any NBA players ceiling and how great can
they be? And I'm sure his is low also happens
to now be teammates with Fred van Vliet. A couple

(01:43:19):
of things about his play and a couple things about
what some guys have said. A lot of friends of
the program, the friends of the a team out there
working hard at Summer League, Sideline reporters, Prime has Cassidy
Hubberts out there. She's been on the program ESPN kind
of splitting the duties between Taylor McGregor, who's been on
with us before, and of course Vanessa Richardson, who has

(01:43:41):
been on with us many times and handles Rockets television coverage,
court side reporter and also hosting Rockets All Access. Big
friend of us here, and they've been able to catch
up with a host of the players, Rockets players both
participating in Summer League and just there in Vegas, and
obviously Bruce himself. A couple of interviews from Bruce after

(01:44:02):
his twenty seven point performance to open up Summer League play,
and his coach Will Dunn, who's coaching the Rockets Summer
League team, talking about how often he's been on the
court Bruce kind of joked about you better be ready
for this for how much it takes out of you
and how hard it is to play at this level,
even against competition that's nowhere near what he will see
even at a Rockets practice, let alone in an NBA game.

(01:44:25):
But true to Rockets development, I guess, or true to
form with the Rockets. The guys they believe in the most,
can count on the most, trust the most. They barely leave.
Coach Dunn said it was hard getting him off the
court after the opener. He's second in the Summer League
in minutes played per game. He's playing almost thirty four
of their forty minute games so far. For the first

(01:44:46):
two games, she's made six of his fourteen to three pointers.
He's been all over the court, He's probably bruised and
battered and raspberries all over the place. Four steals per game.
He's made ninety per of his free throws. Keep in
mind the free throw changes, which probably, since I don't
know how many people are watching that closely, aren't realizing

(01:45:08):
we mentioned that they made a change for Summer League,
something that's been implemented for a couple of years in
the G League. When you go to the free throw
line prior to the final two minutes of a game,
you shoot one free throw regardless if you got fouled
on a shot you make. You shoot one free throw
and you get one point. If you got fouled on
a shot you didn't make or the team is in
the bonus, you shoot one shot and if it goes in,

(01:45:30):
you get two points. If you had a three pointer
and you get fouled, you shoot one free throw for
one point, just like your typical plays. Now when you
get fouled on a three pointer and you shoot one shot,
if the shot didn't go in on your three, well,
now that one free throw is worth three points. If
you pick up a box score, you'll notice that they've

(01:45:50):
now added an additional column to it. But he's made
ninety percent of his free throw attempts. The number of
free throws would be much higher than nine if he
weren't playing under these new experimental rules. They are not
a part of the twenty twenty six twenty seven NBA season,
but sometime in the very near future they could be.

(01:46:12):
So all that to say, the good is what they've
gotten out of Bruce Thornton. Quite honestly, I think it's
exactly what they hope for, exactly what they expect. The
guys that could play some sort of role and be
a part of the Rockets fifteen to nineteen man roster
next year, those are the ones that have played a
tremendous amount, and even in a back to back they
got a couple of days off before tomorrow and then
Thursday's game. But even in those back to back games,

(01:46:33):
Copeland played over thirty one minutes, Isaiah Crawford played over
thirty two minutes. These are quote unquote players on the
Rockets roster, and that's where they're trying to get a
lean on more than maybe anybody else that might be
trying to impress them or any other team. I have
not given you the final scores of either of games
because they do not matter. They matter even less than
spring training games. Nice to see guys in crunch time

(01:46:55):
in a spring in a summer league game, but man,
they don't mean much of anything. I'll hit you with
the ugly, but what do you have for the bad
this week? Josh?

Speaker 4 (01:47:03):
Yeah, Unfortunately, I'm gonna go with Brian King, who has
been terrific this year two nine to three era, but
Friday night, Astros able to tie the game at three
in the seventh inning, and then King came in and
the eighth gave up four runs a couple homers, and
then in the finale on Sunday, gave up the game
tying home run. There so a little issue with the
long ball for Brian King. Overall, he has been fantastic

(01:47:24):
this year, but it was not his weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
Brian King. This weekend in Arlington, two games you mentioned,
they were both bad. He went into that game his
last seventeen appearances, he had allowed to run. One run
in his last seventeen appearances. First thirty eight games of
the season, he allowed a home run, one home run
the entire season, and none to right handed hitters. Then

(01:47:49):
he got nine outs for the Astros this weekend. Pitched
two innings in the game on Saturday, our Friday excuse me,
one inning in the game on Friday, and two innings
in the game on Sunday. He was able to pitch
one of those three innings without giving up any runs,
and even that inning he had the bases loaded and

(01:48:10):
had three runners on base. They obviously didn't see this
at any other point this season, and I was on
the Astros tenth Inning Show on Friday night, and the
why was King out there? Nonsense was brought to the table.
He's been awesome. You use the word terrific accurate. It happens.
No reliever's gonna appear in forty to fifty sixty games

(01:48:32):
in a season and not blow games. They're gonna give
up runs, clearly, but they're also going to blow games.
He did twice one home run in thirty eight games,
allowed none to right handed hitters. He gave up three
home runs to right handed hitters in this series. Two
of them came in a span of four at bats,
and in both instances it helped to prevent the Astros
from winning. That's pretty simple. Further analysis unnecessary. Might have

(01:48:56):
been nice to manipulate your staff a little bit differently
on Saturday to prevent needing two innings on Sunday from
Brian King, because the first of his two innings of work,
while troubling, he did not allow run and it was
right after the Astros that tied the game, and it
was right before the Astros took the lead. He gave
them their shutdown inning first. But then you asked him
to give him a second shutdown inning. He got two

(01:49:18):
outs and then he gave up a home run to
the light hitting catcher of the Rangers. I'll hit you
with the ugly here. I'm curious if you think I
should to hit you with sports or non sports. I'm
gonna start with sports kind of. I think it was
sixty nine seconds of sports this weekend. I think that's

(01:49:39):
how long the Connor McGregor match lasted. Controversy constantly associated
with Connor McGregor. Was he hurt before the fight? Is
he so destitute that he had to continue and promote
and be in the fight so he could get his paycheck?
Did he hurt himself right at the beginning of the

(01:50:00):
fight and they think his opponent could clearly see this.
He can't even stand up. He went for a flying
kick right out of the gates, right and he buckled.
He winced, reached for it and continued, but only briefly.
And he obviously wasn't much of a combatant after that,
So it was he's reached out on social media he
said he wasn't hurt. His team has said he wasn't

(01:50:21):
hurt before the fight, but there's still some people who
think that even though he was hurt, and they knew
he was hurt, they went ahead and went on with it,
which clearly is not very fan friendly. It's definitely not
very wager friendly, and that's becoming a bigger and bigger
aspect of everything. Just ask Bryce Harper. That could have
act absolutely been the ugly for today, but a huge

(01:50:43):
UFC event. They're all huge just as they are put together,
and when his name's on it, it is a little
bit different. Even though the fight card not unbelievable, there
weren't a bunch of others like this was nothing special.
You're a run of the mill event, but he was
in it. Not a good event when that happens, and
if it was merely a matter of a guy getting
hurt right out of the gate, it's unfortunate, but it's

(01:51:06):
probably still ugly as well. One other element that I
didn't get into the ugly I need to share with
everybody next. If you heard about it earlier on the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross, then you found out that
one of the two of them does not know what
a hippo is and what a bison is. So I'll
share that with you next. Just a little fun story
before he gets to the top of the five o'clock hour,

(01:51:27):
if you missed it. On the Matt Thomas Show with Ross,
Matt decided to ask his producer Jonathan and his co
host Ross and the listeners, oh, man, do you guys
see that hippo video from this weekend? You see what
that hippo did? And they both said bison. Oh yeah, yeah,

(01:51:47):
I guess that was right. This was his response. I've
never known anybody to confuse a hippopotamus with a bison before.
I'm sure there's a good explanation for it, but that
happened earlier today. But what's the same question. Although the
correct and accurate animal facts, I imagine everybody has seen
the bison attack video Yellowstone National Park, one of the

(01:52:10):
campgrounds surrounding it. A tourist was tossed into the air,
some estimated at the neighborhood of eight to ten feet
tossed up into the air. And got some follow up
on that and some details for it if you missed it,
and one sports related angle to it, which is the
main reason why it finds its way to the airwaves.
Here on the eighteen before we start the five o'clock

(01:52:30):
hour and talk about your quarterback CJ. Stroud. So if
you've seen the video, the bison appears already agitated as
two people turn out to be a grandfather, his grandson,
mister McDaniel Carl if you will, the grandfather. They were
pretty good distance away, and park regulations recommend basically require

(01:52:56):
you to be about seventy five feet away or more,
which they were, as was the case with most of
the visitors to that area of the park where clearly
bison rome free about twenty seventy five feet away or more.
Their camera phones were out, took a couple of pictures
and then started to notice the agitated state the bison.
Was right by some picnic tables which still had food

(01:53:20):
on them for the bison and any other animals that
are nearby to go ahead and enjoy, which is probably
frowned upon it the park, but nonetheless happens, I'm sure
all the time. The younger gentleman, the grandson, once they
saw the charging non hippo bison, was able to, i think,
utilize his youthful athleticism and avoid contact. There's a couple

(01:53:43):
of a bunch of group of trees. They were able
to kind of circle around until they thought the bison
would lose interest. Did not happen, and the muck McCleod
Karl was caught by the bison, like I said, flipped
up into the air. And if you haven't seen, it's
much like you see on the Countless of the Running
of the Bulls, where the people can't get out of

(01:54:03):
the way and the horns flip up under their legs
and throw them up into the air, spinning him around
several times to injury. Now, he was hurt, but he
was in good spirits. Ten minutes before the ambulance came by,
a bunch of people stayed there with him. They said
he was perfectly conscious, perfectly fine, was cracking jokes, but
he does have a couple of broken bones. And they
felt like they could kind of sense that the bison

(01:54:26):
was not calm. If you're unaware, A lot of tourists
like to visit in Yellowstone National Park this time of year.
July June, some of August the very popular time to visit.
It's also a time where the bison are basically in
mating season. Thus, as it reads in this article from
the post, which I think is just almost everything they

(01:54:49):
write is just totally brilliant the bisons encounter with McDaniel.
The animal likely hopped up on testos her own as
mating season begins, had already menaced several groups of visitors,
including a small group of teenage boys, who quickly scattered
when the bison charged. Now, the video you've seen was

(01:55:11):
captured by a professional photographer, and it cuts off like
just a couple of seconds after the gentleman was flipped
up in the air, because that's when he according to
the article and a couple of articles said, yeah, I
put the camera down at that point because I was
trying to do and so many others that were around
tried to divert the bison's attention, you know, look large,
scream and yell, make a ruckus, which they did, and

(01:55:33):
ultimately it did encourage the bison to roll on out.
There were cars around, there were people around. They weren't
the only ones, and for most accounts, they really didn't
do anything wrong. Now to the minutia of what can
be seen in the video, it's a gentleman and his grandson.
The gentleman. The grandfather jeans, great T shirt, suspenders, long

(01:55:57):
white Santa Claus beard. The grandson shorts, maroon shorts and
a football jersey which quite obviously is a Miami Dolphins
football jersey, And in enough of the video you can
actually make out the number on the jersey. Can't make
out the name on the jersey, but you can make

(01:56:18):
out the number on the jersey. And so thanks to
Joe Shadd, who covers the Dolphins Miami Sports, he put
out this question on the X platform, which obviously tailor
made for Best of X, but wanted to get to
it today. Right, The grandson of the Washington State man
thrown into the airby bison at Yellowstone was wearing a
number fourteen Dolphins jersey. Is it Jarvis Landry, is it FITZI,

(01:56:45):
Ryan Fitzpatrick or is it current number fourteen quin yours.
Another member of the media suggested props to the reporter
who tracks this info down. Yes, I'm glad to hear
he's doing better. One small question, a couple of guesses.
I say it's lame because it looks like the numbers
have that dark blue trim around them. I can respect
that response. That's an actual non comedy field, totally facts

(01:57:09):
related response, literally just trying to pinpoint the aspects of
a jersey that a player who was a Dolphin six seven,
eight years ago versus a dolphin who might be currently
on the team, and if it actually matches up, also
appreciate gopher. He's from Bushwood Country Club posts. It's gotta
be fitzier yours one hundred percent the eventual fate of

(01:57:31):
any quarterback playing behind a Dolphins on line the last
ten years, he actually avoided the trouble. Doc says, I
say it's yours. You think that kid knows who Jarvis
Landry is and he looks like a Texas kid. He does.
He's got long hair, and he's wearing a football jersey,
and he's in the deep recesses of a video where

(01:57:54):
a bison is chasing him. Not sure how he looks
like a Texas kid. He looks like a kid of
any kind. My guess it's probably Ryan Fitzpatrick. I don't
know how many people are buying Quinn yours jerseys definitely
looked a little worn as in. Maybe it's a hand
me down. Maybe it's I founded at the local TJ

(01:58:14):
Max in Miami. Very unlikely he bought the wide receiver
jersey or founded the wide receiver jersey that he liked
enough to wear from one Jarvis Landry. Maybe we'll find out,
maybe we won't. Commentary on CJ. Stroud in his place
samonga the thirty two starting quarterbacks in the NFL when
we come back to start football at five.

Speaker 9 (01:58:37):
Not more than an.

Speaker 1 (01:58:38):
Hour ago the NFL's official accounts on the X platform
and a little posts. Pretty simple, just a couple of words,
certainly Houston related, says h Towns QB. He's got the
Ah's up emoji at CJ. Stroud at Houston Texans with

(01:59:00):
his updated jersey with the twenty fifth anniversary patch, and
of course is updated photo shorter hair. It's got to
count a couple of responses there, save that for another conversation. Interestingly,
it's the same day the ESPN moved along with their
series ranking NFL players NFL positions by virtue of speaking

(01:59:25):
with executives around the league. Running backs last week a
week ago. Today cornerbacks of the day. After edges and
d tackles, tight ends, offensive tackles into your offensive linemen.
All leading up to today, Quarterbacks get to linebackers, off
ball linebackers and wideouts and safeties over the next three days,

(01:59:47):
which certainly will make its way into our conversations. We continue,
but I've talked about CJ's place in the ase, his
place in the NFL, and obviously his placed in importance
on the Textan's quite a bit we all have over
the three years since he arrived here, number two overall
pick out of Ohio State, exceptionally productive career at Ohio State,

(02:00:08):
throwing the football, a lot of wins, a lot of games,
especially later in his seasons that came up a little short,
tremendous absolutely tremendous best in college football caliber offensive talent
around him, offensive linemen that've played in the NFL and
been top draft picks, tight ends, running backs who have

(02:00:29):
and currently play in the NFL, and obviously wideouts that
play in the NFL at an exceptionally high level. He
really hasn't seen that here in Houston. He has a
number one caliber wide receiver, clearly a Nico Collins, and
he had a top flight pass blocking offensive lineman at tackle,

(02:00:51):
left tackle and Laramie Tunsail briefly for two seasons before
he was traded last offseason. That's pretty much it in
terms of top flight NFL talent. Tank Dell's rookie season
was pretty spectacular as the third round draft pick. Joe
Mixon's nice running back, but I wouldn't call it top

(02:01:12):
flight talent, not a top twelve running back probably in
the NFL during his one season in Houston where he played.
And nothing is different this year, and we've kind of
walked our way to get to that pretty obvious conclusion.
They have some talent. They have had some games where
they score They're not one of the five worst offenses
in the NFL. They score some points, but they kick

(02:01:33):
a lot of field goals, you know, score a lot
of touchdowns. They almost never blow a team out, despite
the fact that their defense was second in the NFL
in points allowed. So a lot of games have decided
late and they ended up winning. They won nine in
a row last year. He won six of those games
in a row last year. But the numbers are what
they are, and I think he is once again heading
into this season really honestly, just like he was last year,

(02:01:55):
even at a much higher spot. I thought he was
viewed accordingly after year one, when he did all those
spectacular things as a rookie. His yards per game were
through the roof, his interception rate was super low. Everything
about what he did was outstanding, and he was appropriately lauded,
and I thought looked at as he had it. Indw
year two with somebody who was about to become something special.

(02:02:18):
And his two postseason games that year weren't awesome, but
they were far from disastrous or not even really what
you would probably call bad. First game was fine, they
won handily, and the second game was they had a
chance to win at Baltimore. But he didn't do anything special,
nor did the offense, and they didn't score much and
they lost. After year two, clearly there wasn't a ton

(02:02:41):
of improvement. There wasn't a ton of additional production, and
most of the numbers were down. Team did exactly the
same thing. They won a division again, They reached the
postseason again, they won a home game, largely dominated that
home game because of their defense again, and then they
went on the road in the postseason and came up
short a game they had a chance to win, in
a game that was close enough for them to be

(02:03:01):
in it throughout, but this didn't do enough to win.
Our defense was good but not unbelievable, and their offense
was average to below average, similar to his performance last year,
They won nine games in a row to reach the postseason,
ended up as a wild card team because Jacksonville won thirteen.
They won their first game, which was their first ever
win on the road, very close game until the final

(02:03:24):
fourteen and a half minutes, and then they blew them out,
largely because of their defense. Second game, their offense was
embarrassingly bad. His performance was quite obviously the worst any
of any of his NFL games, probably any of his
games of any kind. Not gonna play worse than that,
probably ever again, and it was a bad stage to
have it. And I don't think it was predicated on

(02:03:45):
how the defense played him. I just think he played
that way and might have played that way on any
day against a reasonably good defense. Ten turnover worthy plays
for CJ. Stroud last year in the playoff games he
only had thirteen and the other fourteen games he played
in total, So you take all that into account. How

(02:04:05):
do NFC and AFC scouts, AFC and NFCC personnel people
view him as it relates to the rest of the
quarterbacks in the NFL in another year where the AFC
quarterbacks are phenomenal, And that's what hurts the most about
where things are for CJ and this Texans offense because
they're nowhere near the top. I don't think there's much

(02:04:27):
wrong with this list. Maybe there's a couple things you
can pick about once you get past the top six,
and usually that's the case any year because most of
the players seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, there's almost no difference, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, eighteen,
there's almost no difference. It's a list of the top
ten plus some honorable mention, plus others receiving votes. Very
unsurprising that CJ. Stroud is only in the others receiving

(02:04:51):
votes categories. It's basically barely hanging on to the top.
Twenty ten guys are listed. Another six quarterbacks, seven quarterback
excuse me, got honorable mention, And there he is at
number twenty, after Bonnicks and after two quarterbacks in this
division Trevor Lawrence honorable mention, Daniel Jones, others receiving votes,

(02:05:14):
and there's that's where you find CJ. I know you
would probably like to hear differently, but I think you
mostly like to hear reality and real opinions. And that's
why my opinion is this ain't wrong. That's where he belongs.
He has to prove otherwise based on where he is
as a quarterback three years, in his performance on the

(02:05:36):
field last year, even as they were winning six games
in a row, and his performance of the postseason last year,
as they split their two games, and he was bad
in both. If you can win a bunch of regular
season games, but then it creates a pattern in the
postseason of bad football from you, then that's what's gonna
matter most, because you're trying to win playoff games, you're

(02:05:56):
trying to win championships. This team absolutely is. I can't
speak for every other team. I don't know if Tampa
is trying to win championships. I don't know if the
Commanders are trying to win championships, not with their current
roster necessarily, but you get the point. Keep in mind,
Sam Darnold's not in the top ten either, and would
have not even been in the top twenty five or
thirty prior to his stint in Minnesota. So things can

(02:06:16):
clearly change in a hurry, and they have for him.
But this is an AFC problem for the Houston Texans.
I don't have any issue with this list at all
for the top quarterbacks, five quarterbacks or AFC quarterbacks as
they should be Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, then Stafford NFC
quarterback MVP currently along with Burrow and Lamar Jackson. It's

(02:06:41):
good that three of those teams missed the playoffs last year,
but it's bad that they are considerably better than the
quarterback you have. I said maybe around seven or eight.
There's not a whole lot of difference between the rest
of the quarterbacks, the other AFC quarterbacks that come in
ahead of c. J. Stroud. Of course, everybody's favorite, non successful,
hasn't done anything in the league quarterback. Justin Herbert, he's seventh.

(02:07:05):
I think they're betting on his future, I hope, because
he hasn't done anything in his past, but they're betting
on his future. Specifically because Mike McDaniel is there. The
AFC team that had the AFC quarterback that played for
the AFC champions. He's next. It's Drake May. We're already
at six. Only seven teams make the playoffs in the

(02:07:26):
AFC and NFC. We've already listed off six AFC quarterbacks.
The good news is there's only three more that you
really have to concern yourself with, other than CJ. Bonicks.
Daniel Jones and Trevor Lawrence Boonix made the playoffs last
year for the very same reason that CJ. Stroud did.

(02:07:46):
Their defense was awesome. He was very good when games
were on the line. They had several comebacks. He had
several great fourth quarters. He had one of those fourth
quarters right here in Houston when the Texans were kicking
field goals all afternoon and then the Broncos finally got
it together in the fourth quarter. He actually won the
game with his legs. A very very long scramble late

(02:08:08):
in the game put them in field goal range and
they kick the game winning field goal on the last
play of the game. But if that's part of who
you are, you might as well get credit for it.
If you can throw it or you can pass it,
go ahead, do both. He is a dual threat quarterback.
His legs matter. Patrick Mahomes legs matter. I don't think
CJ's do. I know, Trevor Lawrences don't. We'll see if

(02:08:29):
Daniel Jones do anymore after this latest injury. But the
ninth best quarterback in the AFC seven make the playoffs.
Eight is half. It's bad. It's just like everything else
on this offense. Kind of a miracle they succeed, isn't it.
Everything says quarterback is below average, their running backs are

(02:08:52):
below average, Their tight ends are below average, Their offensive
line is below average, their wide receivers are below average.
The OC is below average. That's the nicest way I
can line it all up for you. They're not giving
up seven points a game this year. They're not gonna
give up ten points a game this year. They could
lead the league in points allowed this year and will

(02:09:13):
still probably be seventeen sixteen at the absolute greatest. If
this is the best defense the Texans have ever fielded,
that's what it would take. Can this way below average
personnel group and play caller muster up enough points on
a weekly basis to do what they did last year? Yeah,
no question about it. We just watched it happen when

(02:09:35):
all those position groups were exactly the same as there
are this year. There's no change, not a significant change.
They didn't go from the twenty eighth best offensive line
to the twelfth. They can play that way, and they
can make this entire conversation moot if they go out
and play that way. But there's actual so much history
with the players they've added. There's so much history with
the players they've added at all other positions, Montgomery, Foster, Moureau, etc.

(02:09:59):
It's it's so incredibly unlikely. But none of that even
matters either. What matters is if they don't turn the
ball over in the playoffs. What matters is they keep
their defense fresh in the playoffs. They're probably not gonna
win a ten to six game in the playoffs with
this team, but you can win a seventeen to thirteen game.
You can win a twenty four to fourteen game. That's

(02:10:22):
what they're actually put together to do. Defense might get well.
One of those touchdowns might put you in position for
a seven yard touchdown drive. They're not capable even I'm
let alone, not built to but not capable even of
blowing a team out thanks to their offense. Two three.

(02:10:42):
All three of the Texans playoff victories under Damico Ryans,
all three of them. They're defensive driven. The points on
the board are from the defense. To begin with, let alone,
defensive driven. They've scored five touchdowns on defense in three
games under Demico Ryans, each of the divisional round or

(02:11:03):
wild card round games, two in two of the games,
and one in the other I hope it continues, because
as soon as it stopped in the next round each
year they lost, one of those things has to change,
and it's the offense. The defense can probably comparably perform.
Did they play well enough to beat the Patriots as

(02:11:25):
a defense probably a point worth discussing, and we have
many times, probably not letting Drake may throw three touchdown
passes in that game while you were sending their offense
to the sidelines repeatedly after your own team's turnovers. It
was a bit disappointing because they clearly stepped up time
after time after time when they were forced onto the
field in bad situations after the offense had turned it over.

(02:11:47):
But they still did allow them to convert on three
different plays to three different receivers against three different defensive
players in the secondary for three touchdowns that helped the
Texans find their way back home to Houston without advance
out of the divisional round for the every time in
franchise history and three consecutive years under Demico Ryans. Unfortunate,

(02:12:09):
but this is where it all is. If you're not
ready for it and you're already sick of it, I
am sorry. C J. Stroud needs to play better.

Speaker 8 (02:12:18):
C J.

Speaker 1 (02:12:18):
Stroud holds all the cards for the upcoming Texan season
is the constant overwhelming topic. I tease that we're going
to give you ten things to look at at training
camp starting on Wednesday and running through the following Tuesday,
before the first day of training camp two weeks later.
Ten on the Texans one every day. Yes, one of
those ten is the performance of c J. Stroud, so

(02:12:39):
we'll remember this conversation. Then today's out from the Astros
returning to the field. They'll do so against Baltimore. A
couple more summer league games for the Rockets Tomorrow night
and Thursday night than the undetermined fifth and other games
they may have in summer league, and then we'll be
looking at the start of the football season. Football season
training camps about two weeks out. Texans will start on Wednesday,

(02:13:02):
the twenty ninth. Its finished up in conversation about their
quarterback position three years ago on NFL Draft Nights, they
made their decision that their quarterback in the future was CJ. Stroud,
and we will enter year number four with that still
being the case, and we're getting pretty darn close to
definitively saying he will play year four under his original

(02:13:22):
contract only with no extension. A four year deal for
every first round pick that includes a fifth year option.
The fifth year option was picked up this offseason. First
time you have the opportunity to do that, and they did.
They also picked up Willy Anderson Junior's fifth year option
and immediately turned that into a three year, one hundred
and fifty million dollar extension. There does not appear to

(02:13:43):
be any extension coming for CJ. Stroud, and quite honestly,
I think that is the correct decision for the Texans.
It's not an easy one, and they still might have
an extension for him after next year, before he goes
into what would otherwise be the final year of his deal.
But Trevor Lawrence to a takobou loa Kyler Murray, and
the list's pretty long of teams that kind of felt like,

(02:14:04):
what choice do we have? We're not one hundred percent
sold on this, but what choice do we have? And
in many of those cases, Murray's and Tuas specifically just
met a whole lot of dead money later on when
you realize this isn't going to work and maybe this
is not the right guy Murray will probably start from
Minnesota this year after his Arizona career, and Tua might

(02:14:25):
start for Atlanta after his Miami career. Got some phone
line availability as usual each and every afternoon, You're always
welcome to join us on the show seven one, three,
two five, seven ninety talking Texas football currently, and I
believe Johnny wants in on that conversation, so we will
welcome him in to do so, Johnny, welcome into the show.
What's on your mind?

Speaker 13 (02:14:44):
Yeah, just at the time, I said it was a
big mistake, and I still say today, really not including
Baker Mayfield in that Watson trade was a huge mistake.
I mean, he was just really there for the taking
and we should have had him as part of that
trade or at him.

Speaker 14 (02:15:00):
It was just a big mistake that they didn't do that.
I think it was a huge managerial mistake not adding him.

Speaker 1 (02:15:06):
A player that you knew Cleveland didn't think could play.
I happened to agree that. I think they were wrong,
and I think they got rid of him too early,
and he's kind of shown that in Tampa. But do
you again, you think the wrong idea to play for
the twenty twenty three draft Mayfield was ultimately moved. Later
on in the summer, he got traded to Carolina. The
Texans had already executed that deal with Cleveland for DeShawn

(02:15:28):
Watson in March. Lovey Smith had just been hired as
head coach. They'd already had back to back embarrassing seasons.
They were playing for. Our quarterback of the future is
coming from the draft, and probably Bryce Young and CJ.
Strow were the most prominent names. They ended up having
three quarterbacks drafted in the top four. But I doubt,
very seriously the Texans had considered it. Well, Anthony Richardson's

(02:15:50):
going to be available in a year, But that's your thought,
is it would have been a better course for the
franchise that's a four or three win team to put
all their chips in to Our quarterback of the future
is Baker Mayfield, especially as he was coming to the
end of his contract, rather than attempt to lose for
a third straight year and play for the We'll find
our quarterback in the draft.

Speaker 13 (02:16:12):
Well, no, not as a starter option, but just as
a backup option to whoever they would have drafted. That
was kind of I think that's probably part of the problem.
Is you know, we don't have anyone to compete with
a quarterback that we have now see with CJ. So
he's what we got having, you know, someone that could

(02:16:34):
possibly be a backup.

Speaker 14 (02:16:36):
As he we would have thought of him as as
a backup. And then if.

Speaker 13 (02:16:41):
CJ wouldn't have panned out, that you would have had
someone that you didn't have anyone but who you have
currently now who you don't want to start either. So
I mean it would have just been an extra quarterback.

Speaker 14 (02:16:52):
We have actual quarterbacks. Baker Mayfield would have just been
an extra quarterback and then have them there waiting.

Speaker 1 (02:16:57):
Well, the way you entered this conversation, maybe think a
little bit different. I'm glad I gave you a chance
to explain a little bit better. I can't imagine it
playing out the way that you're saying. For this reason,
if you trade for Baker Mayfield in March of twenty
twenty two, he's your starting quarterback. He's going to play.

Speaker 14 (02:17:17):
I mean they pretty much gave him away to team
for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:17:22):
For sure.

Speaker 14 (02:17:22):
Yeah, I'm say he would have just been a throw in.

Speaker 1 (02:17:25):
Well that's true, but on the Texans he would have
started for them. There were no other quarterbacks available in
free agency, as evidenced by the fact that Tarad Taylor
was their starter when the year began, as evidence by
the fact they immediately went to their rookie quarterback, Davis
Mills because they didn't have anybody else or their second
year quarterback. That's all they were left with. So if
Baker had n't been included, even as a well we're

(02:17:47):
just trying to get rid of him, then he would
have played. And in my opinion, that doesn't fall in
line with what they were trying to do it unless
they were saying, my god, this guy is so bad,
we're definitely going to lose with him. But that's not reality.

Speaker 14 (02:18:00):
Baker Mayfields that a quarterback though.

Speaker 1 (02:18:03):
Where they wouldn't have had the number two pick, they
would have had the sixth pick, they would have had
the ninth pick, they would have had the twelfth pick.
And that's to me, way, w what's that?

Speaker 14 (02:18:15):
Why would they not have the number two.

Speaker 1 (02:18:17):
Because they probably in my mind, I think this would
be most people's thought, you're gonna win one more game
with Baker Mayfield, two more, three more, four more. You're
significantly worse because of who the quarterbacks were on that
team that year. It helped you lose because you did
not employ a quarterback, right.

Speaker 13 (02:18:38):
Right. I see where you're going with that. I just
I wouldn't have started them necessarily. You're saying they would
have won more games with Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 1 (02:18:44):
Yeah, I mean ultimately, and I appreciate the thought, Johnny.
I'm glad we we hashed that out a little bit.
I kind of I do see where you're coming from.
It would be nice if over this period of time
there was legit competition for CJ. Stroud. There definitely has
not been. Even though they have a perfectly capable backup quarterback,
he's not competing with him. He is a true deform textbook.

(02:19:04):
This is our number two quarterback when our number one
quarterback gets hurt, and he has gotten hurt twice in
Davis Mills three years. He's gone out there and started.
He plays admirably. He plays like a backup quarterback. They
did win the games he played in this year, all
three of the games. He started talking about Davis, but
they also didn't do anything at the end of that
Denver game when he came in. It's a little bit

(02:19:25):
hard to say that, but it's still true. There are factors.
Heading into the remainder of the Denver game, about a
little over a half's worth of play. Davis Mills prepared
for playing the Denver Broncos the best as a backup
quarterback can, and that's basically only notebooks. He can study film,
he can know the game plan, he can look over

(02:19:47):
everything he possibly has, but he doesn't play any football
to prepare for that. He hasn't been on the field
all year. He doesn't get any practice reps that matter,
and then he's thrust into the game. It's the same
for every backup quarterback. And I can't believe we go
through this every year and people act like, oh, they
didn't prepare the backup. That's how every backup quarterback prepares.
They don't get reps during the week because they're only

(02:20:09):
on the field for so much time during the week.
It does set up backup quarterbacks to fail in the
games they have to come into. But then the week
goes by and they've practiced this the number one and
everything's fine, which is exactly what Davis Mills showed. As
the backup. It's very tough to come into the game,
and the more you do it, the better you get.

Speaker 3 (02:20:28):
At it.

Speaker 1 (02:20:28):
Things could work out. It doesn't mean you're automatically going to lose,
are automatically going to look bad. But their offense was
awful with Davis Mills against the Broncos. They also played
a great defense. All this to be said, he is
a backup quarterback, but he's not a competitive backup quarterback.
He does not put any threat on the number one.
Very few teams have that. Though very few teams have that,
especially the first couple of years of a starting quarterback

(02:20:51):
like this. You know, what's happening in Minnesota is rare
but warranted. They brought in Kyler Murray to not push
JJ McCarthy a top pick, but beat him out, and
he's being given reps that suggest he's already beaten him out.
You don't usually do that with somebody you draft number

(02:21:13):
two overall. Maybe you have a veteran in the final
year of their contract that's gonna play out that year.
Kirk Cousins with Fernando Mendoza in Vegas is kind of
that situation. But you don't have a guy that you're
specifically bringing there to compete with him, not in year one,
not in year two. If things were bad in year one.
In year two, like what's happened in Minnesota, then you

(02:21:34):
consider bringing in a competitor in year three. That's not
what's happened here in Houston, and that's not what they
want to happen in year four. There also aren't very
many options of competitive backup quarterbacks unless it's a guy
that's maybe being given a second chance, or a guy
like Daniel Jones. Kind of feels like that's how his
career went in New York, although he was the starter there.

(02:21:55):
It's just not a whole lot of options. Interesting scenario
on what the Baker Mayfield to Houston. I remember that
name being brought up and some of the options they had.
Remember we thought he was headed somewhere else for such
a long period of time. I think a lot of
people thought, you know, aj Terrell, the cornerback from Atlanta,
was gonna end up here in Houston, and they were
gonna send him to the Falcons. Talking about Deshaun Watson

(02:22:16):
and then ultimately the do you want players or do
you want draft capital? You definitely want draft capital, but
quarterbacks are a little bit different. Bringing Baker Mayfield here
that would have been well, it would have been fun
I can definitely tell you that, but I do think
he would have had it. The would be virtually no
way to keep him off the field for who they had,
and that really didn't fit with the plan of we're

(02:22:39):
just gonna play guys that we can't win with. They
did it for three years and it landed him some
of the players, including CJ that they have today a reminder,
we got tickets to give away final segment of the show.
We'll do that with the Monster Trucks Live the Hot
Wheels Tour that comes back through Toyota Center at the
beginning of August, the Glow on Fire Tour. We got
tickets to that, and we also have tickets to the

(02:22:59):
Big Three, which is just over a week and a
half away, not this weekend, but the following weekend, the
first of their two stops here in Houston, also over
at Toyota Center. So we'll give those tickets away in
the final segment of the show. Those of you listening
to the program this afternoon, specifically this hour, well that'll
be the best way to know the answer to the
question I will ask at the end of the show

(02:23:19):
to give those tickets away here on the A team
in case you missed it is next.

Speaker 2 (02:23:25):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:23:28):
Time to hit you with. In case you missed it,
somebody as we've not yet gotten to, or others that
need additional commentary on it today, don't forget something you
might hear in this segment or the previous segment, usually
something during the five o'clock hour we'll ask you about
in the final segment of the show to get you
out those tickets I mentioned in the previous segment. All right, Josh,
what do we have today?

Speaker 4 (02:23:48):
And in case you missed it, hey, let's start with
something positive. The Big Lead drop their top ten hitters
in baseball, and no surprise, our man, your Don Alvarez
is at the top.

Speaker 3 (02:23:59):
He is number one.

Speaker 4 (02:24:00):
They call him the best hitter in baseball, which he
is this year is what four to eight to two expected,
WHOA by fifty seven points clear of the field barrel rate.

Speaker 3 (02:24:09):
Incredible.

Speaker 4 (02:24:10):
I say all this to say Astro still can't get
to five hundred with jord On having a career year
being the best hitter in baseball. I know they say
they want a left handed hitting outfielder, but in my opinion,
I think a starting pitcher is more important.

Speaker 1 (02:24:24):
Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt about it, And
we talked about that a little bit earlier. They have
played themselves into that pretty obvious scenario if you were
listening earlier, I was kind of running through what the
expected rotation should be coming out of the All Star Break.
They play Friday, Saturday Sunday against the Orioles, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday against the Marlins before they have an off day.

(02:24:44):
To me, it's a no brainer. What you do in
the first two games Friday and Saturday night, I can
park you throw a Hunter Browning and throw Peter Lambert
and then I don't know, probably give the ball to
Spencer Arighetti. Next. I don't know what the most comfortable
time for tatsu emit start between he and Aarraghetti. I
would imagine one of them gets the Sunday Star, one
of them gets the Monday start. And as Javier pitching

(02:25:09):
as a starter still, I'm sure he is, but can
he give you seventy five eighty eighty five pitches? And
could it be the fifth inning when he's done? I mean,
we're at the third or fourth or fifth spot in
the rotation. We don't even really know what they can do.
I mentioned this on X earlier, and I think I
mentioned it earlier on the show, Josh, I'll see if
you agree. I don't think there's any doubt about one thing.

(02:25:30):
Renel Blanco is in the Astros rotation when they come
out of the All Star break, one of the first
five starts out of the break should be his one
hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (02:25:40):
I don't know how you get around that.

Speaker 4 (02:25:42):
You got to see what he can do, because you're
right watching Christian Hyvier try and get through even three innings.

Speaker 3 (02:25:48):
Oh, it's painful to watch.

Speaker 1 (02:25:50):
And one other note on Jordan Alvarez, since you brought
up how well he is hitting this year and how
unwell the team is. So he's first Major League Baseball
with that ten to fifty nine OPS. There's not another
player that even has a thousand OPS. The guy that
was murdering Astros pitching last week, James Wood hit two

(02:26:11):
more leadoff home runs after he hit one against the Astros.
He's next at nine eighty five, and clearly the Nationals
are in the hunt for a wildcard spot. Ben Rice
is next. He's in the home run derby tonight. Yankees
have the second best record in the American League. Shoheo
Tani is fifth nine to fifty two APSs ops. They
have the best record in baseball. Junior Camonaro is next

(02:26:33):
at nine to twenty seven. They have the best record
the Rays do in the American League. I skipped over
one other spot in the top six because that belongs
to Juan Soto. He in his nine sixty seven ops
and while he's missed maybe fifteen games worth of activity,
he's played seventy eight games, which is less than everybody else.
Their team's even worse than Houston. They're one of the

(02:26:54):
worst teams in baseball. And if you missed it, I
mentioned earlier, the Red Sox have a nine game winning streak.
But do you guys know why? It's because of the Mets.
The Mets had a two nothing lead, runnerund first, one
out in the ninth inning, groundball to Francisco Lindor, pick it,

(02:27:17):
flip it, fire it, game over. He boots it, booted it.
They got nobody out. Red Sox going to win the
game three too, Thanks a lot, New York. What else
do we have?

Speaker 4 (02:27:29):
Yeah, just rounding out that top five. It's funny you
mentioned those guys. Wan Soto is at number five, Knick
Kurtz at number four, Mike Trout, another guy on a
bad team at number three, and then you just mentioned
James Wood number two behind you.

Speaker 1 (02:27:40):
Word on Nick Kurtz. Just so everybody here, here's it
clearly bad team, bad team. They fired their pitching coach today.
That's one of the things I brought up but never
really followed through on. And most people are pointing out
the obvious, But if you don't know what the obvious
is here, it is they play in the worst pitchers
park in baseball US. They're playing in Vegas, which they

(02:28:01):
did for six games, then that's the worst pitchers park
in baseball. Their ballpark stats from a stat cast, those
are the two worst ballparks for that statistic, which measures
all of the hitters and pitchers in that park versus
all of the other hitters and pitchers in the other ballpark.
So it's not strictly does Oakland play well here or Sacramento,

(02:28:23):
it's do either of the teams play well here? It's
a run scoring bonanza when the A's play home games,
and for that they fired their pitching coach.

Speaker 4 (02:28:32):
Yeah, I don't know how much that'll help that's not
going to change the environment. But I digress. We move
on to the NFL WEX. I think he's coming back
and that he is Aaron Donald. Devonte Adams posted on
his ig them kind of shaking hands on the field.
Aaron Donald reposted it. Pro Football Talk did a post
last week or earlier, yeah, just late last week about

(02:28:53):
him getting in pads and showing up to the facility
to see how he feels.

Speaker 3 (02:28:56):
I think this is going to happen.

Speaker 1 (02:28:59):
I'm torn because he absolutely is doing the things necessary
to find out if he really thinks he wants to
come back, really thinks he's capable of coming back. I
think the second thing is obvious. He's capable of coming back.
But we know how much effort and time goes into
making sure your body is actually capable of doing that.
And we know it a little bit better than some
cities because the clamoring for JJ Watt to do it

(02:29:22):
was constant. And was he big enough? Has he lost
too much weight? He's he actually doing the right things
to play football. He basically told us. All those answers
were yes, I've lost weight. No, I'm not doing the
right things to play football. I'm in great shape, and
I can throw the weights around, but I'm not in
football shape, and he's a little bit different body type
than Aaron Donald. I think he's trying to figure out

(02:29:43):
if he can. I think mentally he might be also
finding out that he doesn't want to go through training camp.
He doesn't want to go out there nineteen weeks during
the regular season. They're going to be in the playoffs
and longer than that. But I can't say I don't
think he's going to suit up this year at all.
I don't see him doing what I just suggested. No

(02:30:04):
camp for him, no start the season on the roster
for him. But at some point during the season, as
he say, I can give you the next ten weeks,
I can give you the next eight weeks, and by
the time the playoffs roll around, I can be what
I was for another three weeks that I could.

Speaker 3 (02:30:19):
See I could too.

Speaker 4 (02:30:21):
And if you're ever gonna have a shot, I mean,
this looks like the best shot at another Super Bowl
right now.

Speaker 3 (02:30:26):
That team is loaded.

Speaker 4 (02:30:27):
Finally, if you're gonna have a football camp and you're
a pro football player, helps if you show up tetor
Roa McMillan looks like this company, Flexwork Sports, kind of
I don't know, scammed everybody would be the right way to.

Speaker 1 (02:30:40):
Put, including him, basically leading him.

Speaker 4 (02:30:42):
He's like the reason why he wasn't there. He didn't
know it was happening. So a lot of these campers
show up, they're not there. The organization, Flexwork Sports, say
that they sent out information trying to change the camp,
but it was to Xavier Lagett's camp and when they
send out the email.

Speaker 1 (02:30:58):
It had already taken place.

Speaker 3 (02:31:00):
What a mess.

Speaker 4 (02:31:00):
And I can tell you is somebody that's been to
some of these camps as a kid with some of
these professional athletes. They come and talk to you for
about thirty minutes, so the rest of the time you're
kind of working with whoever they hire to organize the event.

Speaker 1 (02:31:12):
Yeah, their name is on it, and this is this
Flex Work Managements. Just because you've brought them up by
name and obviously that's who is handling this camp. Totally
normal business for them. They handle camps for tons of
NFL players and almost every single NFL city this one
is included, and they have had camps already this offseason.
Then will there are a couple more? I think before
the season starts. A lot of them end up either
being in the city they play in, or their hometown

(02:31:33):
city or where they play college football, and most of
them are usually handled very very well. Player does exactly
what you said. Sometimes they're more involved, sometimes they are
less involved. I've been to a ton of camps here
for Texans players over the years, and never anything like that.
First of all, never anything where there was so much
confusion that the player didn't even realize it was still

(02:31:54):
happening because he had long ago been told it wasn't happening,
and the fact that they they're communicating was, well, since
it's not happening, you can go to this camp instead,
one of his teammates. But it had already taken place,
and that's only the people that he even told that
it wasn't taking place. So yeah, it was pretty big fiasco.
Hopefully his name doesn't get sullied much, if at all,
by this, because he didn't. It doesn't appear that he

(02:32:15):
did anything wrong, and I would imagine he and the
Panthers will probably attempt to do something even though they
shouldn't have to on their end, as a little bit
of a make good well wish, And I think the company,
because I mentioned I think they've done so many camps
that there just was some serious oversight irregularities here that
they should probably do the same in trying to at
the very very least everybody deserves a full refund, maybe

(02:32:39):
even a Xavier leget T shirt or Advisor or something
like that. I we'll get to in case you missed it.
On the other side, those tickets to give away, and
one other fun item to get to is to get
you ready for the night cap coming your way later
this evening here at six o'clock on Sports Talk seven
ninety once brought you the program sans AC. Appreciate Josh

(02:33:04):
Jordan making it a very easy several days worth of shows,
and we'll do it all again tomorrow once he returns.
Appreciate you listening specifically this hour, specifically for your opportunity
to win tickets. You want a four pack of tickets
to the Hot Wheels Monster Truck Live Event Blowing Fire
happening August first and August second at Toyota Center. All

(02:33:26):
those stunts by the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks, thrilling tricks
from the FMX riders, all part of the show. You
can't get tickets to via ticketmaster dot com right now
they are on sale, but you can win a four
pack of tickets here and throughout the week we'll be
giving them away if you know the answer to this
simple question. We also have a pair of tickets to
the Big Three. Big Three actually comes through Houston twice

(02:33:46):
this season. The first is what we have tickets for.
That's July twenty six, Toyota Center. The Houston Righans, of course,
are one of those teams that they'll obviously be playing
that day. Are coached by Calvin Murphy. They've got a
game against the Dallas Power Miami three h five will
be in town. DMV Trilogy all the games, two games,

(02:34:07):
just one ticket, and you can get a pair of
tickets from us right now at if you call in
and win. You can also get information on how to
buy your tickets at Big three dot com. Steven one
three two one two five seven ninety to call in
with the answer to this very very simple question, which
you will know thanks to listening to the program this afternoon,
specifically this hour, I will specifically try to use that

(02:34:29):
word zero more times today. But if you were listening earlier,
we had a discussion about CJ. Stroud and his place
in the current NFL hierarchy and the manner in which
the Texans operated their franchise on their way to landing him.
It brought up a conversation with a caller. Caller Johnny
was on the line with us, and we discussed how
they went about moving on from their current quarterback and

(02:34:54):
opening the door for them to need a new quarterback.
He said, the Texans mayby very very big mistake in
the Deshaun Watson trade, very specific mistake, a very specific
player that did not become a Texan because of this
big mistake the Texans made. Who was the player he
thinks the Texans should have brought back to Houston in

(02:35:17):
the Deshaun Watson trade that they did not in the
off season of twenty twenty two seven one three, two
one two five seven ninety. If you're listening to that
portion of the show, you will absolutely positively know that
answer because it generated about three minutes of really good
conversation with Johnny about the reasonings behind why that did
not happen, why it could have happened, my thoughts on

(02:35:39):
specifically why they were right to not make it happen
that quarterback is that player I should say is still
playing in the NFL. And obviously that was an unintended
but very obvious hint uh seven one three two one
two five seven ninety. The All Star Break is ongoing.

(02:35:59):
The schedule of events is everybody plays their major league
games on Sunday, and then they hurriedly head on off
to Philadelphia for media availabilities the day before the All
Star Game, preparations for the home run derby for the
eight players, the two dads, and the six team personnel
that are pitching for them. Two players dads will be
there pitcher for tonight, and the other six batting practice

(02:36:22):
home run derby pitchers will all be men members of
the respective team's major league coaching staff, so presumably they
are all guys who regularly throw batting practice to these
eight particular players. My pick, by the way, is Junior
Camon Arrow to win. But I really wanted to get
into this for the idea that this is when the
players make themselves available to the media. They've got a

(02:36:45):
podium that's set up for them, every single one of them.
You want to come over to ask them questions by
all means, probably get a one on one with them.
For some players who have nobody standing around them, and
a bunch of other major baseball entities have their sets
set up and have be networked Fox, et cetera. So
they get him to come out and join them set
on the field and do some interviews there. The Fox

(02:37:06):
set is on site that includes the same guy's UFC
All year Kevin Burkhardt, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, and of
course Alex Rodriguez. Justin Verlander was nice enough to join
that group of people, and luckily for all of us,
we were able to get a question in from Alex
Rodriguez to Justin Verlander, a legend who is honorary member

(02:37:28):
and part of the All Star team because of his
legendary status. So this is what Alex Rodriguez teed up
for JV. Before I give that to you, let me
give you a quick background on JV. He was drafted
by the Tigers in two thousand and four in the
first round. He was the second overall pick. He was
traded by the Tigers to the Astros in twenty seventeen,

(02:37:49):
became a free agent twenty twenty one. Re signed with
the Astros in twenty twenty one. Became twenty twenty two,
became a free agent again and signed with the Mets.
Then he was traded to the Astros again, became a
free agent when that contract ran out, signed with the Giants,
became a free agent with that contract ran out, and
signed with the Tigers. So that's the history of JV's

(02:38:11):
transactions as a major league baseball player. Here's a Rod
and the question he had for him justin.

Speaker 15 (02:38:21):
First of all, I've been a huge fan of your
career from day one when you stepped in the old
Yankee Stadium and blue balls right by me.

Speaker 3 (02:38:27):
Good memories, you know, for.

Speaker 4 (02:38:29):
You you.

Speaker 11 (02:38:32):
Always have three thousand, So you know that's all.

Speaker 15 (02:38:36):
So I guess what, No, But 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. But this for the young
ones that are out there watching, how do you explain
being a late draft pick being designated for as Simon
a couple of times, but two different teams.

Speaker 3 (02:38:52):
Right me?

Speaker 15 (02:38:53):
Yeah, no, I'll get it.

Speaker 3 (02:38:56):
The question I have for.

Speaker 15 (02:38:57):
You is how have you been able? He's doing at
a high level, but This is for the young ones
that are out there watching. How do you explain being
a late draft pick being designated for as simon a
couple of times with two different teams?

Speaker 8 (02:39:09):
Right me?

Speaker 13 (02:39:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:39:10):
No it? Hey, Rod, what's wrong with you? I thought
he was setting up for a question of Hey, these
kids out there that really don't have much of a
major league future and they work hard and they make it.
What would you say to them? But instead he just
made stuff up that was completelyn like total one to
eighty from the accurate truth. That's why I gave you

(02:39:31):
his transactional history. He's asking a question to say, how
do you tell people about being a late round draft pick? Well,
he doesn't because he was the second overall pick. How
do you tell people about being designated for assignment twice?

Speaker 10 (02:39:45):
Me?

Speaker 1 (02:39:46):
I think you got the wrong notes? What a pro.
The other people on the set had the best looks
on their faces, like, why are we on set with
this guy? And they didn't mean Burkie? Then did he
mean JV? And they didn't mean each other. The mena
Rod always a fun time when they're on set because
he has made himself into the easy and obvious whipping boy.
And this is just another example why that'll set you

(02:40:08):
up for the night cap. Josh Jordan has you next
here on Sports Talk seven ninety