Astros Lose to Orioles, Rockets-Lakers Game 5, AJ Hinch on Firings

Wednesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to Astros' loss to the Orioles, preview Rockets-Lakers Game 5, discuss the latest firing in MLB, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into a Wednesday edition of the A Team Sports

(00:02):
Talk seven to ninety case she hadn't heard, we were
going to have another preempted show today because of the
Astros being in Baltimore to take on the Orioles. But
mother Nature says, nah, that just ain't gonna happen. So
what they have done is postpone the Astros game that
was going to be scheduled to play tonight, and they
will do a double header tomorrow. But the Rockets, as

(00:24):
far as I know, are playing in the building that
has a roof on it, so they don't have to
worry about anything being postponed tonight in LA for Game five.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, same start time for tomorrow, but it'll be a
double header. Same everything else in store for everybody, and
same thing we had planned but we're not yet able
to announce it. We're going to start today's show the
visit from Spencer Arighetty Houston Astros starting pitcher three starts,
three wins, and Spencer, do you have us?

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah? Get them here?

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Good?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right, Well, good to have you with us. There's
two things I want to set this up for you.
Got Adam and Adam here with you. This afternoon after
your first start of the year with the Astros. The
very next day, we had Christian Walker on with us,
and so I asked him, being a new dad himself,
did he already know that you'd come out and crush
being the zoove just become a dad twice over?

Speaker 5 (01:12):
He said, yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
And secondly, how awesome was it this past Sunday before
the team left town that you were running the bases
with your wife and kids.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
That was fantastic. I mean, those memories can't you can't
put a price tag on them. It's just becoming a
new dad has been the biggest blessing I've ever had.
And I have a rock star wife at home who's
taken great care of him while we're on the road,
So I sleep well at night on the road knowing that.
And yeah, it's just been it's been such a journey.
I mean, they've only been here for going on six

(01:45):
weeks now, but been the best six weeks of my life.
And I wouldn't I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
We've heard about Dad's strength, but is it double dad strength?

Speaker 5 (01:53):
Is that thing? Is that real? Is that a real thing?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
I don't know, man, Maybe, maybe not for me, but
for sub Baby.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well you didn't let Yeah, you looked like you were
well rested on Sunday, as wex mentioned, just mowing down
the Yankees. Now, I will say we got a kick
out of it because I was actually there with a
buddy and we were sitting fairly close to the Astros
on deck circle, and when Aaron Judge hit that home run,
you looked like you were down by ten runs. The
way you reacted, I just know that that killed you,

(02:22):
because that was like the only blemish on an sensational outing.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
For you, your latest this season.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, I definitely I tend to beat myself up, probably
a little more than I should. I knew that the
scoreboard still said seven to one, but selfishly I wanted
it to say seven to zero. So it is what
it is. I mean, he's one of the best hitters
on Earth for a reason, and I honestly I've gone
back and watched it a few times. I think he
hit a pretty good pitch over the fence. I mean
I didn't, I didn't let go of it, and immediately

(02:49):
no I wasn't getting the ball back. I felt pretty
good about it. So I mean, that's it's just a
testament to him. It's a hitter. He's tough to keep
in the yard. I mean I already got him over two,
so you know, you look at his averages, you look
at the numbers, it's like, all right, third time, he
might get me here. But at the same time, I'm
always proud of my best to just put as many
over threes in the books as I can.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
What do you think about your first three starts? We've
obviously heard from you in between each one and since
each one, and that maybe you didn't have the same
stuff each day. Your execution certainly has helped. What do
you think about what you've brought to the table those
three starts?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, I mean my first two, I kind of feel
like I sprayed it a little bit more than I
wanted to. Obviously, I got a lot of chases in
the in the rocky start, which always helps the game.
In Cleveland, I somehow was the only one that had
to pitch in sub forty degree tempts, and I've probably
only done that a handful of time in my life
at this point, with growing up in the South, so
it was a little bit of a grinder for me.

(03:43):
And then the one against the Yankees the other day.
I mean I put that up there in top top three,
top five outings in my entire career. I really feel
like when you can put together a good one against
that franchise, it always feels a little bit better. I've
my dad that is probably the biggest Yankee hater on
planet Earth and always has been, so I got a

(04:04):
little bit of that seat in me from him, and
every time I take the ball against them, I really
just I want to keep it. I want to keep
it as close to nothing as possible, and I feel
like I've been throwing the ball well. I mean, kurent
ball's been really good, My stuff's been really good. Fastball
command the other day was a lot better than it
wasn't my first two outing, So I was really proud
of that, and obviously just trying to continue to build
on that.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
I think our listeners would really enjoy if you'd share
with them why your dad hates the Yankees as much
as they do.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, honestly, so, he's a Braves fan, and I don't
really think he had that much of a reason too.
I think he just has never been a fan of
the franchise as a whole because of I don't know.
I mean, you get saved. The whole free agency thing.
They kind of get whoever they want, whenever they want.
I know the Dodgers are like that, not too but
I think that he's just I think he's always just

(04:52):
been a hater at heart. I don't think there's really
too much of a reason why.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
It sounds like a fine American to me.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
We like it, ye, exactly exactly in Houston, that's for sure.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
Oh, absolutely, that's baked in the cake. These days.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Speaking of baked in the cake, you guys are dealing
with just an inordinate amount of injuries. Yet again, you
were part of that this time last year, just kind
of and we've asked several guests this, I think Christian
Walker we asked this, you know, what's what's it like
in the clubhouse, especially with Joe Aspota having to juggle
now an eleventh different starter as of yesterday, and especially

(05:29):
on the pitching side, since you're more familiar with that,
what's the mood of the teams you try to navigate
through just a lot of uncertainty because of guys being unavailable.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
That's a tough question to answer, to be honest with you, man,
I mean that we all know injuries are part of
the game. Obviously, we we do what we do every
day knowing that we're putting a lot on the line
and that a lot can go wrong in baseball. So
that says a picture. I mean, you're always one bullet
away from being on the shelf. And as much as
it sucks, I mean, you guys really resilient as a group.

(06:01):
I firmly believe that, and I firmly believe that regardless
of of who goes up who's down, I think it's
always the next man of mentality. And I know that
we all know the expectation. I mean we talk about
it in spring training when there's fifty guys in the
locker room and not twenty six. We all know that
we're we're in the picture and going to be part
of the team at some point and going to play
some kind of role. So I know, like I was,

(06:22):
I got option out of spring training this year, I
knew I was going to be part of the team,
and I kept working like I was on the team already.
You know, I think that we have a lot of
guys in Triple are that are ready to go at
any given time. I know that the guys that are
in the clubhouse right now on the big league side
that are rehabing, those guys are grinding, trying to get right,
trying to get healthy, and it's it's tough, you know.
You see guys, you see guys go down, and it's

(06:44):
definitely discouraging. But I feel like for the most part,
we just don't really have any we don't have any
quit in us. You know, We're going to keep it, going,
to keep showing up, going to keep working. Like like
it's the first game of the year. I think that
every every day we have the same goals to get
better and to win the game that day, and I
think that things are going to turn in our favor
eventually because of that.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Spencer Araghetti joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
on the A team in advance of No Baseball this
afternoon the hu A doubleheader tomorrow. Today's game has been postponed,
like you were saying, three of the five guys you
started the year in the rotation with with the Space
Cowboys have made starts now for the Astros. Today's starter
will now be tomorrow's game one starter. Peter Lambert. Once

(07:22):
you tell us a little bit about what you found
out about Peter over the course of spring training, the
time you spent together there and now here with the Astros.
Not only is Arsenal but the man himself who we
spoke to a week ago.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
He's a dog man. He's nasty, he's got great stuff.
He's got a really good fastball, he's got really good
secondary offering. Pete and I we play golf together a
little bit. We like to hang out, like you get
food together. I mean, he's a little bit quiet when
you first meet him, but once you get him out
of the shell, he's a really funny cat. He's had
a lot of stories about his time in the big

(07:54):
leagues elsewhere and about his time in Japan, and it's
really just a pleasure to be around. Great dude, really
really hard worker. And like I said, I mean, he's nasty,
he's got big league stuff, he's got big league mentality.
When he's out there on the mound, he's a he's
definitely in the when he's in the game and in
the dugout, he's one of the most anty people I've

(08:15):
ever seen. He's the biggest pacer back and forth in
the dugout I've ever seen while he's out there fishing.
But uh, he's such a great guy. I really do
love him. Really great teammate, really great guy to hang
out with. Love playing golf with him. The dude hits
the ball a mile and he's usually got it on
a string. I mean, he's a nasty golfer, so he's
just awesome.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Pizza.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
Great dude.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
I didn't take you for a golfer.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Have you been into it for a while or did
you just start or what's your what's your status on
one of the most frustrating games out there?

Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know, I think it's funny. I play the two
most frustrating games in all of human existence, and I
am in love with both of them. And I don't
know if that speaks to me. I don't know. If
I'm a little bit of a masso kiss, I don't know,
but I just I really do enjoy it. I started
playing golf in twenty twenty one when I got drafted,
mainly because I just had more time on my hands.

(09:06):
You know, I got adult money for the first time.
So the first purchase I made was set of golf clubs,
and I kind of just got into it from there.
My dad tried to get me into it when I
was a kid. He's always been a really good golfer,
and I play with him and my brothers a lot
in the off season. So it's a good way to
hang out with family, a good way to hang out
with friends. I mean, I'm certainly not a good golfer,
but I can hold it together. I shot eighty four

(09:27):
the other day on the off day, so I mean,
I'm not I'm not terrible, but I'm not good. But
I do really love it. I like watching golf more
than I like watching baseball some days too, So.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
So today became an off day for you? Not really.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
I know you've got work to do to prepare for
your next start. What does most What do the guys
do now that the you know, you're about three and
a half hours before what would have been first pitch,
maybe got the news within the last hour.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
What does today turn into?

Speaker 3 (09:52):
I'll probably I'll FaceTime the wife and kids for a
little bit, and then once I get off the phone
with them, I'll probably play Fortnite and MLB the show
to my So.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Do you bring a console with you on the road? Oh?

Speaker 5 (10:04):
Yeah, that's awesome. Are you more?

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Are you ps five, are you Xbox? What kind of
console game with spots? Okay, you're an adult.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
In yeah, exactly. Yeah, I have good taste.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
I love it so Fortnite and what else? MLB the show?
Oh yeah, do you play as yourself? That's the obvious question.

Speaker 6 (10:23):
I do.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
I have a real ninety nine card and I terrorize
people online with this.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
I love to hear that. So wait, when you're playing online,
do you do you have chat? Do you do the
headset thing?

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Oh? Yeah. When I'm playing with my buddies, I play
with my little brother all the time, and then a
couple of my good buddies from high school will play
like the duo and the trio mode, and it's a
lot of fun. Man. I mean those ones, you're just
talking to your teammates, so we just end up giving
each other a lot of crap. But I mean, if
I could talk online to the other team, I would.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
So here's where we find out how much of a
degenerate you are? Are you a GTA guy? And are
you going to get the new version?

Speaker 5 (11:00):
If so?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
I mean there was a point in time where I was,
but that was probably ten years ago at this point,
and I think that the weight between games has just
gotten ridiculous. So I'm probably out on it this time.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
Ce Wex, he's one of me.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, We've had a lot of discussions about that on
the airs. The postponements have gone on and on and on.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
I'm taking a vacation day November nineteenth. You should too,
I can't. That's true.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, one thing on the gaming, do you choose to
play as the Astros and be nasty so that can happen?
Or so you also aren't pitching against Jordan Alvarez?

Speaker 3 (11:39):
You know, if I am going to play with the team,
I will use the Astros, And it's for the exact
same reason you just said, because I don't want to
pitch to yor down. Man. I don't think anybody in
baseball ever wants to pitch to that guy, do you do?

Speaker 1 (11:53):
You ever just go through the clubhouse and look at
him and shake your head like what a freak in
a complimentary way.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Every single time I ever see him, I tell him
that I thank God every day when I pray that
he is on our team and not anywhere else.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
That's outstanding. Well, Spencer, a good conversation. We knew it
would be appreciated, especially on an off day, and good
luck gaming as soon as you're done getting that work in.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Thank you, guys, I appreciate it. Good time as always.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
All right.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Spencer Arighetty, Astro's pitcher here on the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety, will react to that and get into
a Wednesday edition of the show next.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Back out of here.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
On a Wednesday edition of The A Team, It's Sports
Talks seven ninety, wex and ac with you along with
Josh Jordan, our producer. Good stuff there from Spencer Arighetty.
We will replay a portion of that coming up later
on today and get the entirety of that conversation posted
asap on social. But he's about I've never really had
a chance to talk to.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
Him at length.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
He's one of fan fast I know. Well, I'm gonna
take care of that next year. That's the last year
that I just don't take part in side something like that.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
People can git busy. We got it covered, ye, I
was busy that day.

Speaker 5 (13:05):
He is five days a week here, if not more.
I mean it's a lot. It is really a lot,
I think any rays.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Actually, no, I did not see the video game curveball coming,
no pun intended, But I'm very not surprised because he's
just he's I don't know, man, he's one of my
favorite dudes on the team, and I don't even know.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
That much about it.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I'll tell you what. If people don't know why that
is already, they should listen to your words more carefully.
It's because he is that he's a dude. He's just
a guy. Well, he's a dude on the diamond.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Well that too well, not to be confused with a dog,
as he described other players, both.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Are applicable to. Yeah, this guy's really good at the
game of baseball. But you know what, Like when.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
He came back last year and it just didn't go well,
I was like, man, I do not want this to
be quite frankly, another and some colors situation, and it's
not the same injury. But when I'm saying, is these
guys Christian Navia is going through it right now. Before
he got hurt, he wasn't the same guy.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
And he only made five starts after he came back.
Three of those five he gave up two runs or fewer.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Right, No, he listened. Spencer Araghedy is the least of
the Astros worries right now. Now, they didn't win any
of those games. I don't know that was his fault.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
Yeah, well, all of his offense was also hurt.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
I mean the offense gave him one and none and
two and one and those four of those.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Al Pacino said in Devil's Advocate, I rest my case.

Speaker 5 (14:29):
No, like, he is a dude.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
He is a great pitcher, and it's going very well
so far. And that was I mean, there's no better
evidence than this past weekend. Astros get thumped first two
games of this series with not a Spencer Arraghetty type.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
Guy on the mound. Yeah, Pete didn't pitch either, That's true.
These guys are dogs right now. Well, Lambert will go tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
If he did not hear today's game, which was scheduled
for five point thirty five from Baltimore, it has been postponed.
They will try to take care of their lone trip
to Baltimore tomorrow, expected to have weather that will cooperate.
Eleven thirty five was the previous scheduled first pitch for
Thursday's getaway day. It will remain that way. The problem
is they will not be getting away after that. Game ends,

(15:11):
then they will have game two of the day in
game three of the series, same starters for the Astros.
Peter Lambert was expected to go today. He will make
the first start of the day tomorrow at eleven thirty five.
Of course, we'll have that for you right here on
Sports Talk seven ninety. Game two will start approximately thirty
minutes after Game one concludes, with Lance mccullor's junior getting
the baseball, and obviously we will have that game for

(15:34):
you as well right here on your home for Astros Baseball.
So great conversation with Spencer and hopefully he continues his work,
just as we hope Peter does that tomorrow, and hopefully
Lance mccullors can help get this team into the win column.
I said before these six games began on this road trip,
you're gonna have to at some point start turning these
series not only into series victories, but series sweeps. That's

(15:54):
out the window with this series, and now a series
victory goes out the window if you don't win the
two games of the doubleheader coming up tomorrow. Last night's
five to three loss two runs on the board right
out of the gate against Kaiwai Tang. He was able
to very quickly move through the final two innings of
his afternoon, which is about what the Astros would have
expected and hoped for. If he could have gotten out
of the first inning a little bit more cleanly, would

(16:16):
have gone very very well. Steven Oker got into trouble
in the fourth inning. Ryan Weiss came in and threw
seven pitches with runners and second and third with one
and then two outs, and he struck out both guys
he faced, throwing seven consecutive strikes and got the Astros
out of that trouble. But what has been his biggest
issue this season usually doubles up and provides double trouble
for the Astros. He's walking too many hitters and he's

(16:37):
giving up the long ball. Both of the only two
walks that he issued and is extended outing yesterday both
came around to score, and one of them scored off
a Pete Alonzo home run, the only home run that
they allowed yesterday, and that's where the Astros didn't have
enough to come back, end up losing five to three.
Bryce Matthews had three hits and drove in two runs,
including hitting a ball over the fence. Dustin Harris had

(17:00):
his first hit as an Astro, and it was a triple.
He came around to score on Matthew's excuse me single.
A rare afternoon evening of baseball for the Astros, where
they top in four guys in the order were terrible
and the bottom five guys in the order did all
the work.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
The Astros struck.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Out nine times I'm looking at it right here, principal,
nine times with runners in scoring position, doing it three
times in an inning twice yesterday. Three strikeouts with runners
in scoring position in an inning, and they did it
twice in yesterday's game. So there are plenty of opportunities

(17:39):
to score more than the three, but not enough of them.
Come home and they lose the opener of the series
five to three. They will see the Red Sox starting
on Friday, and then come back home and see where
things stand. Thirty games into the one sixty two, the
Astros are eleven and nineteen. They probably won't be the
first team to twenty losses, and that several of the
teams with nineteen will now play today and they will not,

(18:02):
including the Angels currently going right now, Game five. We
can shift much of our focus there. With no baseball today,
for the Rockets and the Lakers. Late yesterday, the Rockets
made it official with the injury report being submitted to
the league, and it included three players on it. The
same two that have been on it and out throughout
the series were there, Stephen Adams and Fred Van Vliet,

(18:24):
and the third who has been on it this entire
series under different notifications each time, Kevin Durant was there.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
This time they.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Didn't even bother with the chess game is out. He
was listed as out as soon as he hit the
injury report. Nothing has changed on the Lakers injury report
for each of the last three games now as they
led into the game. And we'll see about later this
afternoon if it changes or if you have to wait
until later in the evening for it to change. With
tonight's late tip off, Austin Reeves is listed as questionable.

(18:54):
May get the news over the course of the day.
I don't know if the Lakers will make it official,
but could see a little bit different Lakers team tonight
as they try to murder the Rockets, and we'll hear
from their head coach about that very subject a little
bit later on the show.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
He used a different term it's the same thing, though
it's a means to an end.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, I am oddly.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
I was texting with somebody on the way home from
the Game four victory, and this person said that they
were wildly optimistic about the next games in this series,
and that's how they had woken up there.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Jabari Smith Junior's numbers you were texting with. Jabari was
a member of the Rockets organization, which I will reveal
to you off air if you didn't hear yesterday. And
I think everybody on the interwebs either heard about it
or read a tiny, tiny, tiny pulled quote from Jabari
Smith Junior with absolutely positively zero.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
Context to it. That's today's society, all like.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
I posted the clip with all of the context right,
and I got a ton of views and a ton
of activity, and a ton of people going back and forth.
Rockets fans, Lakers fans, NBA fans, good bad, Otherwise other
entities grabbed. I think we're obviously the better team, and
that's all they posted in a in a caption or
in a graphic.

Speaker 5 (20:09):
They've even grabbed the audio, steal the audio.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
And while I indicated I got a lot of traction,
not that that's why he's doing it. I want people
to hear what the player had to say. But it
was like one ninetieth of the traction that the intentionally
posted for views and likes controls did get. I mean,
I mean I should play the game a lot better
than I do. That's not a very good player. No,
you're just not a jerk. Here's the deal.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
When a player like in this case Jabari, and as
you will hear actually next segment, comes out and says
something like this, it's a lose lose situation for them
because a lot of times of the question that they
have been asked. And that's what happened with Jabaris. He
supposed to say, my team's not the best team. He

(20:57):
actually wasn't asked a question about that at all.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
He brought it up himself, but wasn't there a follow
up that elicited that response? Follow up was why do
you think you're the better team? Since he offered that
to us, I got you. Well, the question was was
what is Kevin Durant told you since game three or
Game four when he's on the bench, which his message
been to the team. He didn't say Kevin Durant told
us were the better team. No, it didn't sound like that.

Speaker 5 (21:19):
It didn't. It certainly sounded like he gave the answer.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
He said, just be us, you know, do what we do,
you know, play free, and they kind of paused into
his own comments. And then when he answered the question
the follow up you said, he goes, yeah, I think
we're the better team. Maybe biased, maybe an opinion, but
that's what I think. We're the better team.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Okay, Cause and effect here, Kevin Durant says, just be
yourselves themselves was what we saw in Game four. They
didn't play like themselves the first three games of the series,
where they were allowing the Lakers to be the greatest
shooting three point team in playoff history and not making
their own I mean, they were the worst version of
themselves on both ends of the floor. Wonder of all wonders.

(21:59):
When they turn it around on both ends, they blew
out the Lakers. That's what I thought was going to
happen from the jump of this series, especially given the
injuries the Lakers have been dealing with, and aside from
the fact that Kevin Durant was hurt, because.

Speaker 5 (22:12):
They did this without Kevin Durant. Yeah, keep this in mind.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
So much focus on the three point shooting, which obviously
dipped dramatically for the Lakers to twenty three percent and
rows from the rocket standpoint to forty percent. They had
shot twenty nine percent in the series through the first
three games. They shot forty percent in Game four, the victory.
What also changed is the Rockets had their first game
of the series where they made more than half of
their two point shots. They were fifty three percent from

(22:36):
inside the three point line. They opened the series shooting
forty percent on twos in Game one. That obviously also
had to change, and now it needs to stay that
way if they want to have this series come back
to Houston. And they pointed it out briefly outprinted during
one of his conversations with us earlier in the series.
And it is still a fact they were looking similar

(22:58):
to this and that they had not brought their best
to the table, no matter who was on or off
the court, and what combinations they were using last season
in many of their first postseason trips, and they found
themselves down three game to one. They won Game five
in Houston, and then they won kind of the equivalent
to tonight's Game five, because it's in La. LA does not

(23:19):
want to come back to Houston. LA does not want
to play more basketball games. LA wants to finish the
series in exactly the same fashion the Rockets went to
San Francisco last year to play Golden State. Down three
to two, Golden State wanted no part of an extended series.
They're old and they're only getting older, and they had
a three games to one lead. They don't want to
put themselves into a must win situation by losing game

(23:42):
six at home. Losing a series, a game in a
series where you have three wins and you're at home
is something that most teams would very very much like
to avoid. So there are some similarities to maybe the
mindset that they had earlier in this series and then
later in this series against Golden State. You hope they
managed to maintain for the game tonight, and again obviously
we'll have that for you right here on Sports Talk

(24:04):
seven ninety. Lots of things to get to, quite obviously,
the Texans making news today as well doing what everybody
knew what happened, and certainly everybody who's been listening to
the A team this offseason knew what happened. Very good
news on that front, but halfway through our number one
next we hit you with the best.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
Of X the A team on stime.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Well, there's no shortage of material for this first round
matchup between your Rockets and the Lakers, And as first
round matchups and really any playoff series kind of become like.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
A living, breathing organism over time.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Usually if it's a competitive series, you have both teams
drawing blood earlier in the matchup, as opposed to what
the Rockets have decided to do, which has put themselves
in an three hole before they finally win their first game,
hoping to win their second tonight and then win a
third in Game five Friday back here in Houston, and
then try to finish off the only three come back

(25:00):
in NBA history in a Game seven back in LA.
All of that is to say mentioned Jabari Smith Junior
and how his I don't know if it was taken
out of context since he's the one that, as you mentioned,
submitted that the part about the Rockets being the better team.
But I don't doubt that everybody in the Rockets organization

(25:20):
thought that before, They've thought it during, and they still
think it as the two teams going to Game five
the Rockets are the better team, especially with the injuries
that have been dealt to the La Lakers. They just
haven't played as such. So when this kind of thing happens,
when you've got a game five tonight in which the
Lakers can still close out the series on their home floor,

(25:42):
people are going to volley their opinions back and forth.
One of them might be Alpera and Shing Gooon, for example,
I still think everybody is or I think everybody is
still hungry, and we are going over there to get
another one and come back home and make them a
little nervous. That's a quote from alperh and shing Goon.
Of course, the responses to that on social media from

(26:05):
Lakers fans have been predictable, but there are people that
also like me. Talking about Jabbari said some semblance of
the following, y'all talking crazy, Like you wouldn't say the
same thing in his position. Is he supposed to say, yeah,
it's raps, that's.

Speaker 5 (26:20):
Why kick this in mind?

Speaker 2 (26:21):
They well, I'm sure they had tons of confidence and
said things about expecting to play well, win games, win
the series, et cetera. You know, when you don't have
any wins you probably don't say much like this now
albern Shinhun. I was there when he said to quote
you mentioned it was just yesterday, but earlier in the series,
when they got home and had not yet played Game
three and we're down two games to none, he was

(26:42):
talking about and we're gonna go out and we're you know,
protect home and go back to LA for game five.
Like that shouldn't be bulletin boardie. I don't think too
many people took it as such. But he also didn't
say we're gonna make him nervous, and he, like Jabari said,
didn't say I think we're the better team after you've
won game and after you've given away a second game.

(27:03):
Otherwise this series would be tied at.

Speaker 5 (27:05):
Two games apiece.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
I don't really have any issue with anything that they said.
I was there for all of it yesterday when they
said what they had to say or answered the questions
that were presented to them. It's what you would I
would expect players to think, unless you're I mean even Portland.

Speaker 5 (27:21):
I could almost buy it.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
During their series with San Antonio, I texted somebody that
was very much in tune with that game. They were
at the game last night between the Spurs and Blazers.
At tip off, I texted them this series should already
be over. Tonight is going to be a bloodbath. But
even after winning a game and taking it back to
Portland the way it was, if Denny Avdia or Holiday

(27:44):
or Jeremy Grant or Scoot Henderson said we think we're
the better team, that probably would have been met with
a lot of craziness. But they will have won a game,
they will be in position and injuries at that point
in the series. Certainly we're a factor because Wemby's status
for the rest of the series was on known. So players,
after you've won a game in a playoff series, they're

(28:05):
usually going to carry some confidence in it. If they've
won their first game in the series, let's say after
losing one or two or in the Rockets case, three,
they already know that they can win, and in the
Rockets case, they know that they should have won both
games here at home. And I don't think it's fair
to say that after every game you lose. But in
a game where the only way to lose is to
compile egregious mistakes, horrendous mistakes all on top of each other,

(28:31):
that really especially the first one or first two mistakes.
Three mistakes, we're all unforced. Jay shon Take grabs the rebound,
just pass it to him in that's mistake number one.
He passed it to Jabari Jabari Smith Junior doesn't need
to make any pass, no one's defending him. That's mistake
number two. And then Jay schon Take doesn't need to
foul Marcus Smart on a three. That's mistake number three. Unforced.

(28:54):
All of them just bad, bad, bad decisions not made
happen by the Lakers. So yeah, I don't mind saying
they should have won Game three, because they should have
won Game three. There's thirty seconds left, you have the
basketball and you're up six. I know what the win
probabilities are there. What did the what did the peeps
on the old Twitter platform X platform have to say
about Alburn thinking that the Lakers are going to be

(29:16):
made nervous by these Houston Rockets.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Some jackass name Kyle Gilchris said one one playoff game
and don't know how to act. I mean, again, we're
dealing with the lowest of the low life form of
sports fan, Lakers fans.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
And again, mind you, we didn't play the audio for you,
and the audio was at no part a part of
the article. This was taken from or the caption that
was posted. Not just you need to hear him say it,
but you could take it anyway you want when all
you do is read it.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
This team, this team needs to make a lot of adjustments,
especially with ar fifteen in the lineup tonight for the Lakers.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
Stop calling him that? Why that's Anthony Richardson's nickname.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Well, if it were Anthony Richardson's nickname, it would be
more appropriate.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
It was when he came out of Florida and said,
can we go ahead and not keep using this?

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Why didn't Andre Kerlinko ever say can we go ahead
and not keep calling me Ak forty seven?

Speaker 5 (30:11):
It was such a good fit, I guess.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
I mean, not because he played like a shooter or anything,
I guess if you want that reference, but I mean
there will probably never be another NBA player first name
starting with a last name starting with K and wearing
number forty.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Seven, especially not one that openly talks about the fact
that he and his wife have an open relationship.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Once a year, if it's open one up the open, well,
just once a year he gets one Hall pass per year.
I wonder if they line that up on the calendary
New Year.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
Who's on your list for this year? Shingoon?

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Talking big without Katie available is either elite confidence or
a man who hasn't checked the injury report.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Oh for one, with Kevin Durant playing one for three
with him not playing.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
One of three, no team in history has ever recovered
from a three to zero deficit in the playoffs. Winning
one game at home just delays the inevitable Los Angeles
will close this series out easily at Crypto to.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
That end, even though it really had nothing to do
with this series. I've got some audio for you from
the last several years that was compiled that you'll probably
either fall out of your chair laugh about it, or
get mad that I played it about the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
What's today? Today's Wednesday?

Speaker 2 (31:28):
So our signature segment, which we now get to have
since there's no Astros Baseball at four point thirty for
Wednesday's BS, you're gonna hear from your favorite former Ravens
Hall of Famer Ooh interesting, Okay, well, I'm looking forward
to that. We will leave it at that for the

(31:49):
best of X. But We're not done with Rockets v.

Speaker 5 (31:51):
Lakers.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
We alluded to earlier in the hour, the aforementioned murder
quote from JJ Reddick about your Houston Rockets. You're gonna
hear exactly what he had to say about what his
team has to do to the Rockets in Game five tonight.

Speaker 5 (32:09):
That's straight ahead.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Why does JJ Reddick keep talking about killing people?

Speaker 5 (32:13):
Who are you talking about? JJ Reddick?

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (32:15):
Jonathan Clay Reddick, head coach of the Lakers. Now I'm
with you.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Why does he go by JJ? If it's Jonathan Clay,
it's j C.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Or it's Jonathan, or it's John Those are the appropriate
and acceptable options, not JJ Jonathan Clay.

Speaker 5 (32:33):
What is justin James?

Speaker 2 (32:34):
You know why? Because there are two names to start
with a letter J. I don't know what Jonathan's dad's
name is. But if it's also Jonathan, is that now acceptable?

Speaker 6 (32:44):
No?

Speaker 5 (32:45):
Jonathan Jr?

Speaker 2 (32:46):
JJ is that his name? Is it Jonathan Jr? Or
is it just Jonathan? Call him Jonathan Jr. And thus
now they call him j J. I don't know this if.

Speaker 5 (32:54):
It's true or not.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Jonathan Clay, Yeah, WM period Clay, Bill Clay. It's better
than getting caught with your pants down?

Speaker 5 (33:03):
Why do they have to take him early? Who? Al? No? John? No, Bruce?
Oh you said al it's Alan, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Al Rickman, it's not his name, Professor Snape, whatever you
want to call him, the guy who.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Almost cheated on his wife and love.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Actually, think about the fact that the two main cast
members in that movie that weren't Carl Winslow had been
stricken with really awful diseases, one of which took them
from us.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
You know, the want to consider miss Gennaro as one
of the key figures. No, that's the whole movie.

Speaker 5 (33:37):
How many lines did she have compared to the two
that I just mentioned?

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Is Bruce at Knakatomy Plaza if she's not in the movie?

Speaker 1 (33:44):
No, But that doesn't make her a main character. It
makes her a secondary character.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
When he almost gets shot by Carl's brother, is he
not hugging.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Her he's keeping her warm with a blanket or was
it a fireman's coat?

Speaker 5 (33:57):
I can't remember. I mean, I'm I'm a astounded. Not
a main character.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
She runs the place after Takagi is no longer going
to be joining us for the rest of his life.
So that's a Takagi. Yeah, well, she wouldn't even use
his name.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
You are a married woman. Very mature, John.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
I think when her associate walks in ORR assistant, he
goes hi.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Because I would accept that the news reporter is not
a main character, that theo is not a main character,
that the security guard is not a main character, Holly,
main character. The security guard that makes it through the
first five minutes of the movie until one of the
stun hockey pucks sets him off and the other guy
just gets shot with a silencer before the guy busts

(34:45):
out his Texas accent even though he's from Europe and
he's a terrorist, also not a major character. The terrorist
that the other terrorists was worried about because it was
still on the roof when Owl wanted to blow it.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Because up there, that was the second time that the
roof was featured. The first time was when he was
not ordering a pizza, and we move on.

Speaker 5 (35:05):
Jesus is an emergency? What an idiot.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
The sad thing is that's so accurate as to most
of the people that do that for a living.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
JJ Reddick is the media avail yesterday talking about the
upcoming game five back in la instead of being out
of the series in a sweep there in a series
up three to one.

Speaker 5 (35:23):
Was asked about the difficulty of close.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Out games, which they will be attempting to fulfill a
close out for the second time in tonight's game five.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
We have to kill that.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
You know, you have to kill It's difficult to kill someone.

Speaker 7 (35:37):
You know it's you gotta again, survival instinct says, I
want to stay a lot, and so you've got to
be able to kill that.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
That's that's that's what I call me. I've never heard
so creepy.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
I've never heard somebody use that very often used analogy
in such literal human, non sports team terms.

Speaker 5 (35:59):
It'sficult to kill someone.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
It's difficult to kill someone. Nhuh, not in your city.
Just ask Orenthal. We killed two people at once.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
Why is it difficult to kill someone?

Speaker 7 (36:09):
Got again, survival instincts says, I want to stay a lot.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, so instincts says, now that almost sounds sportsy. The
Rockets wanted to extend the series, not make sure that
EKG wasn't flatlining.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
If regular traditional newspapers were still a thing, and I
know they still make them.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Oh my god, I was at the bookstore the other day.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
And they had a fish wrap on the counter and
mobile and I looked at it and I said to
my son, I'm like, oh my god, I haven't seen
one of these in forever.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
So the nineties when the Rockets were winning championships, and
I have the two championship. Next day after is framed
along with the Astros. If I were in charge of
the Chronicles headline tomorrow after the Rockets came back and
one tonight to force a game six, in light of
JJ Reddick's comment, the headline would read defensive wounds.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Still breathing, still alive, Clutch City, something like that. Three
o'clock hour begins next here on the A team. How
are these teams dealing with going into tonight's game and
the injury status for those that aren't yet known, that's
next three o'clock hour has arrived on a Wednesday edition
of the show. An hour and a half from now,

(37:24):
the Astros will not be taking onto the Baltimore Orioles. Well,
an hour and a half from now, we would have
otherwise gotten you ready for Astros Orioles baseball. But that
first pitch is now an eleven thirty five am first
pitch tomorrow for Game two of this three game series.
They got a double header and unscheduled and now scheduled
doubleheader a game one and two of that double header

(37:46):
right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety again beginning
at eleven thirty five, so ten thirty tomorrow morning, we
will have the Astros on deck show. I'll be with
you for a few minutes in between games one and two.
Started first by Peter Lambert, second by Lance McCullers Junior,
and then on their way to Boston for a three
game series over the weekend against one of the probably

(38:06):
several teams in the first few weeks of the season
that will be under new leadership. The Red Sox fired
Alex Cora, and then as the Phillies were contemplating moving
on from manager Rob Thompson, they reached out to alex Cora,
which they confirmed that they did yesterday before they had
fired their manager, but alex Coras said no, thank you,

(38:31):
and so they then still went ahead and fired their manager.
They had Don Mattingley on the bench already and elevated
him to the interim manager.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
We will see if there are any other teams that
follow suits.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Certainly they're a handful that have gotten off to beyond
your usual disappointing starts for various reasons, and the Astros
and Mets would probably be the next two teams in line.
Two of the teams I mentioned earlier that headed into
play today with nineteen losses. The race for twenty on
and hopefully today's rainout will help prevent the Astros from

(39:04):
getting their first. The Angels are trying to avoid getting
there first. They're in extras right now with the Chicago
White Sox, who have handled them easily in this series.
The terrible awful going Nowhere Chicago White Sox are thirteen
and seventeen. The terrible awful going Nowhere Rockies are also

(39:26):
thirteen and seventeen, both two games better than your Houston Astros,
but no game.

Speaker 5 (39:31):
For them today.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
We did visit with Spencer Aarraghetti to open up our
show at two o'clock, and for those that missed it,
you can catch it via the podcast subscribing to the
iHeartRadio app, or we will play you a portion of
that coming up at five o'clock in place of Football
at five. But a few other things for us to
get to quite obviously, Rockets Lakers Game five is tonight.
The NBA's postseason slowly eliminating their first round teams. You

(39:55):
have the Suns getting swept. You have the Blazers losing
in five. That came last night, the Suns the night before.
The Wolves and Nuggets have had their serieses extended a
little bit further, and injuries playing a huge role in
that series. Three of the ten starters have been hurt
during the series, with Aaron Gordon, Dante DiVincenzo, and Anthony Edwards.

(40:18):
They move into their Game six, and obviously the injury
situation for both the Rockets and the Lakers has been
a major storyline in that the Rockets went into the
series as heavy favorites when it was anticipated that after
playing eighty two regular season games and not playing in
the final regular season game in an effort to say
if you don't play, you can't get hurt. Well, then
they practiced and Kevin Durant was hurt and has only

(40:41):
played in one game of this series. He is already
off listed on the injury report, as was the case
last night when it first came out.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
He's out. He's not playing tonight.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
And we'll get word over the course of the day
if This will be the first game of the series
that Austin Reeves plays. Before Game three and Game four,
he was listed as questionable cited as a game time
decision and was time to make that decision. They elected
to hold him out again for both of those two games.
Not sure yet if they will do that tonight, the
last of the games to be played in this series
with more than one day off in between games. Obviously,

(41:11):
as the series continues, there will be travel for any
remaining game and just the one day off in order
to do so.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
Game five tonight in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
If the Rockets win and it goes to a Game six,
that'll be back here in Houston on Friday night. And
if they win again and extended to the full seven games,
they will play Sunday in Los Angeles and what undoubtedly
will be the final game of the opening round of
the first opening first round series. I'm sure to conclude
Rockets did a handful of things better, and they did

(41:40):
one thing continually well throughout the series, and that has
forced turnovers from the Lakers, and if that continues, that
modes very very well for them. It gives them a
lot more opportunities, not only to score but to keep
the Lakers from scoring. And the Lakers shooting did actually
still remain very good. They shot fifty percent in the game.
They've shot well over fifty percent as a whole of
this series. They just no longer made all those ridiculous

(42:02):
three pointers opener. Otherwise, Rockets did a little bit better
job of closing out, a little bit better job of
staying with the players they needed to stay with.

Speaker 5 (42:11):
I've essentially had.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Three guys running it on them, with three s Luke Canard,
Ruy Hachimura, who are two of the league's best, and
then Marcus Smart from out of nowhere, a terrible three
point shooter, all of a sudden crushing against them. Lebron's
you'll probably accept, although the one at the end of
Game four, excuse me, game three you would have liked
to avoid in that it's helped send the game to overtime.

(42:34):
So some of those things, obviously a repeat of that
would be necessary. And if you're curious what some of
the expectations are about how this game might be played tonight,
Alprin Shingoon was talking about that a little bit, the
nature of how these games. But just go because you're
in the postseason, or maybe more notably because.

Speaker 5 (42:51):
Of who these two teams.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Are, what has taken place, maybe what literally took place
in Game four, the first ejection of the series, of
the three, because there were three ejections in this one game.
The late ejection was more about, look, there's no time
left in this game.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
This is silly. It's the game's over.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Stop getting in each other's face as you can go,
and you can go the one technical ejection. Aaron Holliday
one of those that got it in the earlier ejection,
which came for DeAndre Ayton on an elbow to the
face of Alprin Shangun called a common foul, reviewed and
upgraded to a flagrant two, which comes with the automatic ejection. Aighton, Shngoon, Reddick,

(43:30):
and Ema Udoka. All four of them had the exact
same opinion. They thought it was not a flagrant two,
thought it probably was worth upgrading to a flagrant one.
You take your free throws and you continue playing basketball.
I don't think there's much carryover from it, and I
actually thought Ayton's explanation was exactly what I saw and
everybody saw. It looked really bad on camera, and it

(43:50):
also looked like just what I thought happened, and he
described happened. He put his shoulder up to or his
elbow up to brace for contact up against the sweaty,
slimy shoulder of Alprin Shingoon. It slipped up, backing in
on him and he hit him in the face. And
the thing is, I totally I'm with you. I agreed
on his explanation.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
I saw the replay fifty different angles, and every single
time I was like, he didn't mean to do that.
And I had a much bigger problem with Lebron concussing
a men Thompson with his elbow, which the ref then
called a men's face for the foul. I had a
way bigger problem with that because, of course then Lebron
acts like he's dying on the floor because he elbowed

(44:29):
another guy in the face.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
I can't stand that guy. No concussion for a men Thompson.
I know I'm making it up. Just make sure everybody understands.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
But everybody knows what I'm talking about too, because they
all saw it in a men for the umpteenth time
this series.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Was like, how is that a foul on me? When
you're not giving me any whistle? On the other end. Ever,
for any reason whatsoever, I would have liked them to
review that.

Speaker 5 (44:48):
So I think it was James Williams. The other night.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
They could have said a men Thompson elected to foul
with his face. The call stands. I would have liked
to hear that.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
In one month, James James Williams has become one of
the guys that you know his name for all the
wrong reasons.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah, I think he's a very good official. But I
actually did too before this month. I know that doesn't
define him, but that's two games. Well, the Rockets game
was nothing. They didn't do anything wrong in the Rockets game.
He missed a call on Lebron that happens all the time.
He threw out DeAndre Eighten, not his choice. That's a
reviewed play, that's a that's a collaborative effort.

Speaker 5 (45:25):
He's the crew chief. The buck stops with him. Secaucus
was involved.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Alpern Hingun on the physical nature of the series and
the expectations for this evening's Game five and how it
could help Houston.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
Well, I'm ready, you know, I'm ready. I'm ready for
those I know they're gonna hit. Well, we're hitting them too,
So you know, we're hunger, we heal, we heal faster
than them, probably, so you know, and we're just gonna
hit each other and let's stand those today. What's going on?

Speaker 5 (45:55):
Can I translate that? Suck it, Lebron, you're old.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
This was actually the last fast answer that he gave
during his availability, and as he was walking off, he
said something under his breath was you could hear he
was kind of already laughing, so he said something as
he walked away, and a bunch of people couldn't quite
understan him. Only the people that were standing next to
me even hurt him. And I heard what he said.
It was pretty funny, obviously off the record, but I

(46:19):
don't really think anybody would look at it that way,
and I don't think that's even really true. And nobody's
going out there trying to, you know, hit each other
in an effort to hurt them. What he was funnier
about was in his post game about Game four and
about that elbow, when he was talking about everyone says
you fall down all the time, and I was thinking,
I'm not falling down tonight.

Speaker 5 (46:38):
He took that elbow and did not.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Go flailing to the cord or looking for a foul
or throwing his arms up. Where's the He was hurt
like it hurt him, and I think that's why he
reacted to it that way.

Speaker 5 (46:48):
But there's theatrics in the NBA postseason.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
They're just part of it, and hopefully they're not part
of determining a victor. And you let the basketball handle it,
and then the Rockets know what's good for them. The
things that they did well, and a lot of that
is really mental staying in the game and not allowing
runs to take place because you're mentally still in the game,
you're continuing to defend even after a possession goes not
has you how you wanted?

Speaker 5 (47:12):
Oh, I guarded everybody.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
We were right in their face and Ribeya Chimura made
a seventeen foot turnaround jumper with a hand in his face.

Speaker 5 (47:18):
We know we defended that well.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Marcus Smart throws up a one half second left on
the shot clock, fading away three with a hand in
his face, and that goes in reacting well when things
aren't going well is something that it'll well. There are
fewer things didn't go well in Game four, but they
reacted a lot better to it, and both games three
in Game four, and they'll need to do that again
because things are not going to go well at some
point during this home game. Closeout game for the Lakers,

(47:43):
no question, it almost always does, It's just the nature
of the game.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
I I'm not even going to be shocked if the
Rockets force a Game seven, provided they play like they
did in Game four, because I think not only do
the Rockets have enough talent to do this with or
without Kevin Durant. I know Austin Reeves is probably gonna
play a night and that plays a role into everything.
But I mean, the league might actually want to see

(48:08):
Lebron advance, but the league also knows a Game seven
featuring Lebron is better than Lebron just closing things out
in the game five.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Wanting that and acting on it are to me completely
different things. The league should want all those things you said.
The league should always want as many games as possible
with all the stars playing in them. But I don't
think there's anything that they're intentionally going to do in
order to assist that happening. The league has enough things
to worry about, like the new lottery system that Mike
Gosh might get approved. We obviously want to address that.

(48:37):
Also want to address what Nick Cassero has been up to. Yeah,
the draft is over with undrafted free agents are in
the house. I had some players in the house I
needed to take care of. Well, they took care of
one of them, again, as we told you they would.
We'll discuss that next. I thought about something when you
were playing that audio of JJ Reddick talking about you

(48:58):
have to kill them with the rockets, and it made
me think, team, Yeah, you didn't even necessarily say them. Well,
I've had murder, as you put it earlier, and he
said killing. I've had that on the brain lately, but
not the way you're thinking. I reached out to somebody
we both know the other day about this because I'm like, okay.

Speaker 5 (49:18):
I'm not crazy.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
I know that the amount of love bugs, you know,
those little black two bugs that are connected at the
same time, bugs that are flying around looking like biblical
scores of locusts.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Right now, I could barely see Bob kat Kenny and
bad Boy Adam over at UVC Power Sports with all
those out there.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
You guys were racing each other.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
We see them around this time every year, but they've
never been this bad.

Speaker 5 (49:45):
Like I've managed, but I have noticed No, no.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
No, you haven't managed here because until this morning my
windshield I couldn't even see out of it. I had
to drive around like Ace Finura after the guy bashes
his windshield in with a bat when he's taking the
dog back and giving it to the Buxom Brunette at
the beginning of the film. I had to drive like
that until I could go to a place that had
you know the bug tar removal spray, you know the one.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
It's like awful, that's what's inside of them tar.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
I mean, that's what it looks like. They explode on
your windshield. Well, you don't even have to be going
that fast. They might be coming at You're.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
The most worthless animals God ever created.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
What do you think the last thing is that goes
through their minds when they hit their wins?

Speaker 5 (50:30):
Nothing.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
It's actually a joke, but I'm not gonna tell it here.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Well, I know what the joke is, but that would
have to assume that they have a brain. There's no
way they do. They just fly around aimlessly. And I
was told it's because we had a mild winter that's
why there's so many of them.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
I hope you're happy with the explanation and we can
move on.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Well, you know I'm not. And here's why. Here was
the explanation as to when they're going to go away.
Do you know what brings on the elimination of these jerks?

Speaker 5 (50:55):
Hot weather?

Speaker 1 (50:57):
There you go, So as soon as you get the
blowtors turned on, that's the trade off. Ah, you got
rid of the love bugs, but now you're dying and
need a shower after you stepped outside for the next
ten months.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
May is almost here.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
I mean, come on, we're ready four months into twenty
twenty six and we haven't had the heat.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Consider us lucky.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Every time the summer starts, I remember how much I
hate living here during the months of May through like November.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Summer outside Houston, that just means time to hit training,
time to hit OTA's, time to get golden, the biggest
time to get a fan on the planet, whether or otherwise.
The biggest Houston Hank ever hates.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
The weather here.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
If they're honest themselves, they hate it. They hate the summer.
It's miserable. You're choosing your location, your residential location. I'm
setting up shop here. This is home, So that means
you're there all the year, all twelve months of all
the years you live there. Right, Well, there's only a
few places where all twelve months are to your liking.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Do you know what my next door neighbors do. They're old,
They go to with the heat. They go to Wisconsin
every year during the summer.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Well, if you're if you're have you done well enough
for yourself and you can make out on a second home.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
And you're balling out of control. But they go to
the second.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Home in Wisconsin. If you thought that, I guess Florida
was full. Is actually pretty popular winter down here.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
It's not that uncommon. It must be nice. Well, you
can strive for that.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
They need to move out so my in laws can
buy that house next door. I like laws, Love Bugs
and Weather.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
All right, I know it wasn't didn't want you know,
it wasn't what we had planned to speak about. Here
we're going to talk about a guy that most.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
I'm going to make a change to the rundown. I'm
gonna write Love Bugs and Weather. Here comes an executive
decision from Love Bugs and Weather. Well, and then we'll
get to whatever else we have. If if we have time,
you wanted to make a comparison to that topic you
were talking about when love Bugs hit the windshield. Mm hmm,
it's kind of what it looked like when a Z's

(52:58):
took out. Yeah, I'm sure it's. To me, it's still unfortunate.
It's never going to change no matter what he does.
Wins a Super Bowl, wins an MVP, is actually the
winner of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
Everybody else is only going to remember at number one
on aziz Al Shires and NFL players is as a
vicious hit that had the other player sideline and sent

(53:18):
him into a three game suspension, and he is a
multi time offender of the violating rules of play and
being considered by some what he is not, but considered
by some to be a dirty player. All that being said,
he's a good football player and he made the Texans
better a couple of years ago when he signed his
three year deal, and he's going to keep helping to
make the Texans better through the three year extension that

(53:39):
he and the team have agreed to. Nick Cassario is
extremely good at a handful of things. And if your
hand has ten fingers on it and you want to
fill it up, with ten good things. He's at nine
and a half as a general manager. He does way
more things exceptionally well than nearly every other general manager
in the NFL. And if what they have done this
time for the first time in the offseason regarding the

(54:01):
offensive line, then maybe the all ten fingers will be
full of great things done by Nick Casserio as the
general manager in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (54:08):
And again, this is the first time he's ever been one.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
I would imagine if something ever went wrong here to
the point they wanted to move on from him, he
could land another gig who's is probably reregarded as a
very successful one. Aziz al Shire a three year contract extension.
The common refrain for me these last couple months since
the season ended against New England has been Aziz al
Shire is not playing another down for the Texans under

(54:31):
the contract he's currently on. And I never said it
to mean he's headed elsewhere. I said it to mean
this is a cornerstone player. They know it, He knows it,
Demiico knows it, and they're going to make something happen
for him. So he's not playing into the final year
of his contract. He and his agent wouldn't want that
he's played well enough to avoid it. He was a
first time Pro Bowler this year. Had he not missed

(54:51):
as much time in twenty twenty four, both injury related
and mainly suspension related, he very easily could have made
the Pro Bowl at that point in time. Year one
with the Texans, two years here, he's what CJ is
to the offense. He's the quarterback of the defense. He
can be their play caller in certain situations. He obviously
wears the green dot, and he has been sought after

(55:12):
by Demiko Ryans to be a part of his defense
from the moment Dimiko became the head coach. And remember
it didn't work the first time first time when Demiko
was here.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
In twenty twenty three, his first season as Ease.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Was available in free agency, he elected to sign with
the absolutely totally and positively dysfunctional Tennessee Titans. Side note
their personnel structure also changing again after the draft. Chad
Brinker quit yesterday in Tennessee helping to run their draft,

(55:45):
running their draft, and he's had enough.

Speaker 5 (55:47):
He quit.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
He resigned. We'll get into that a little bit later too.
So he worked for her if we need to. But
this is five general managers later five head coaches later,
as the Texans have not had to do that but
once on the head coaching side in the same time,
when they hired two unlikely to win with head coaches
first when they weren't trying to win, and obviously moving

(56:09):
on with Tamiko Rans. But there are a lot of
numbers behind al Shire's contributions to this defense in terms
of how much better they are when he's on the field.
Last year, there really weren't many because he wasn't ever
off the field, he stayed healthy. He was out there
throughout the season. The year prior, as I mentioned, with
some of those games missed, they were a noticeably different defense,
and I don't need to rank them in terms of

(56:30):
their importance, but it is worth noting they're heading into
this year and we talked about this with Will Anderson
after he signed his extension with essentially the entire defense
from last year, whether it were the number one or
number two ranked defense in most categories, along with Seattle.
They're bringing them all back, but it goes beyond that,
and Shire's deal helps to do that. They're also still

(56:50):
under contract the next season, and many of them are
under contract for the season after that. Sting is now
Anderson is now al Shire is now Pete. Like, the
list is pretty long of players that are super productive
Pro Bowl caliber players and under contract in Houston beyond
twenty six and twenty seven, and now he's another one.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
Yeah, I mean again, we talk about this and we
have all season long. We talked about it during last season.
The insane amount of good health fortune or good fortune
as far as health goes, was the single biggest reason
why they were able to do what they do and
that has to be obviously the case this year if
they're going to have or even surpass what they did

(57:35):
last year. But on paper, they're actually better defensively, don't
you think, I mean, I.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Mean blank and ship was the week I think I guess.
I mean, that's the only way he'll say it's returning. Yeah,
that's literally the only thing that's different the team that
was on the field when they finished the season essentially,
or who would have been starting if healthy, Well, the
ten other spots are already filled. He's the only change.
So if you think he's going to outperform the fifth
defensive back among the starters, and it was a bunch
of different players last year, and you should expect them

(58:04):
to outperform them just in the fact, just in who
they had out there, let alone, you're taking him off
a very good defense. You spent eight plus million per
season on them, almost twenty five million over three years.
Those are absolutely the expectations, So definitively for sure on paper,
I would absolutely say that Now they got to stay

(58:24):
out there and go out and prove it. And I
guess a little bit different competition this year. Hopefully again
all those players can do that again. Last season, seventeen
games started by five of those defensive players, seventeen games
played by six, sixteen played by another two. At least
fourteen games played by eleven of the starters, like or

(58:48):
would be starters, they were crazy good in terms of
staying healthy last year.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
It's defensive and again, and you're talking about the NFL game,
it's just not likely to be the case two years
in a row because it's a violent game and they're
doing violent things.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Yeah, and again that one caveat on that is basically
you had Settle and or Mario Edwards Junior starting along
the defensive line most of the year, but when the
year ended, it was Tommy TOGII, and he was a
player who was healthy throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
Let's tackle the latest way Adam Silver has tried to
ruin the NBA.

Speaker 5 (59:20):
Do that when we come back.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety I.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Guess I should ask before we get into it, if
you truly understand not what the concept of the anti
tanking plan to put in place potentially is for the league,
but whether or not you even think it's gonna work.

Speaker 6 (59:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
The league has come up with several different proposals, and
they had their teams kind of look them over and
try to tweak them and maybe push forward a few
of them. Ultimately, they decided that one proposal and with
some likely changes still made to it, is what they're
putting in front of everybody. And it's because they've gotten
feedback from all the people that are again now going
to see it and vote on, all the team owners,

(01:00:06):
everybody that's involved. This is what they have decided to
do moving forward in an effort to prevent what they
clearly saw this.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
Year more so than in any other years.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
And I hope they're also factoring in the other parts
of what a lottery is all about. It doesn't seem
like they are. There's a secondary reason why all these
teams this year specifically attempted to not play their best
basketball and not have their best players available, and within
games start sitting the best players who were earlier in

(01:00:36):
the game available, and has nothing to do with what's
going on.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
In the NBA. It has to do with what's going
on on their way to the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
This draft class is insanely talented, and almost everybody is
on board with that. We're probably eight players deep at
a bare minimum, that are this is who are building
our team around. Some drafts, there's zero. Some drafts there's
one or two maybe. I mean, look at these last
handful of drafts. We talk about them all the time.
Because all of the players in the last four or
five drafts are in Texas Cooper Flags in one place,

(01:01:06):
and three players are in San Antonio with Dylan Harper,
Stefon Castle, and Victor wembin Yama. And three to four
players are here in Houston with Reed Shepard and Men
Thompson and Jabari Smith Junior and before that Jalen Green.
All of those players I mentioned were drafted inside the
top five. And there's some parts of this new lottery
anti tanking lottery that they want to put in place

(01:01:27):
that doesn't allow a team to draft in the top
five three consecutive years. So the Rockets and Spurs would
be teams that, had this been in place before, you
could have quote unquote won the lottery to land in
one of those spots, but you would have then been
booted out of it like has happened in the past
for other reasons. They would never have been able to
put a team together like this. For that matter, neither
would Sam Presty with Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook.

(01:01:50):
So I understand those parts of it. The other parts
of it, which is everybody on the other side of it,
is the ability for teams that aren't even that bad,
that just barely missed the playoffs, or in fact make
the playoffs, but are in the lottery. Under this new system,
they might be the team that banks and does well

(01:02:11):
and gets their lottery ball pulled, and that I will
say this, this new system, it will mean we don't
have to pay attention to the lottery combinations. If I'm
reading it correctly, there are thirty seven balls put in
a hopper. Essentially, you get thirty seven opportunities, and they
just pull one out and that's who gets that particular pick,
and then they just keep moving on from there. They've

(01:02:33):
segmented how many balls are given to each team, and
of the sixteen teams, sixteen teams.

Speaker 5 (01:02:41):
To sixteen, so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
Teams that qualify for the top eight are playoff teams
and will be in the lottery moving forward. So a
team that is good enough to make the playoffs and
played well enough not to tank their season just so
they could get in the lottery, they could play well
enough to make the playoffs but still remain in the lottery,
And additionally, they are flattening out the odds a tremendous amount.

(01:03:05):
Charlotte goes into the lottery this year with a point
five percent chance, less than a one percent chance of
winning the number one overall pick. Is the best basketball
team from this past season that's in the lottery, Miami,
the Clippers ostensibly the thunder who have their pick, and
Golden State. Those are the next three best teams in
the lottery, and they all have less than a tent

(01:03:27):
or two percent chance or less to land the number
one pick. That all changes every single team in the
lottery under this proposal of it's not tweaked anymore, will
have at least a two point seven percent chance of
winning the lottery. There's thirty teams in the NBA. The
team one of the teams in the top half of

(01:03:47):
the league will have a two point seven percent chance
after participating in the playoffs, of landing the number one
pick in the draft.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
And the day that happens, you are going to hear
wailing and nash of teeth because it shouldn't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Well, if they can't get the teams to stop losing
games on purpose by following the rules, then they're going
to have to change the rules and it will possibly.
I can't guarantee anything, but it does seem like there's
a reasonable chance it would curtail tanking, because the benefit
from tanking is really really being lessened. But the other

(01:04:26):
parts of this is what you're always worried about every
time you change rules, even with ABS and baseball, whatever
the rules are that you change, you might reach your
intended goal, but there's always an unintended result. And this
is it. Do we really who's who's the eighth Orlando?
Orlando's about to advance, right in the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:04:45):
That's a good case.

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
So Paalo Bancaro, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane and
aj Dispansa are going to be teammates next year. The
number one pick in this year's draft, Darren Peterson, when
they land the number two pick with a two point
seven percent chance of getting it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Which, by the way, that's a round.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
I can't remember what the exact percentage was when the
rocket's one yal, but it was like minuscule like that.
It might have been It might have been like closer
to eight percent. I think it was a little bit higher.
Just keep the difference in mind though. Like the teams,
it's thirty seven balls in the hopper. Each ball is
worth two point seven percent. Now, teams that are in
worse situations seven teams will get three balls apiece. These

(01:05:22):
are the teams that didn't qualify for the playoffs or
playing tournament. There's ten of those teams.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Or ten of those teams are in that group, but
without to avoid finishing one of the three worst records.
Is how you determine how many balls that particular team got.
Teams that were in the bottom three have less of
a chance to win the lottery. I don't get that
because they're trying to tell you to quit losing. At

(01:05:48):
a certain point, you need to stop trying to lose.

Speaker 5 (01:05:50):
You're bad. We get it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
You can play all your players, Marketing can play every night, Caante,
George can play every night, and you're gonna lose.

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
We get it. You stink, you're terrible at putting a
roster together.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
But if you're sitting all those players, so now instead
of stinking and going twenty seven and fifty four, you're
trying to stink and go thirteen and sixty nine.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
We don't want that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
But isn't that where no team being able to win
the top five pick in consecutive years, or be able
to win three consecutive top five picks would come in.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
They're telling you you gotta be better and ownership you
need to They're basically saying you gotta five fire these
guys sooner.

Speaker 5 (01:06:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Yeah, well try, yes, I mean try to like listen
to what you're saying. They're asking the teams to try.
Does this sound like such a bad thing? Now? They
are definitely bad parts of this, But again, this is
not Adam Silver sitting in a room by himself coming
up with this and putting in front of them this
is what they want.

Speaker 5 (01:06:38):
It's just obviously as the commissioner's name on it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
How much is how much of the Well, first of all,
how many people are on the competition committee in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Oh, I think everybody has to say, yeah, I don't
think there's an NFL like competition committee.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
And then because again there's been several proposals, but this
is the first one that's been elevated, as this article
says above the others to where the owners are considering this.

Speaker 5 (01:07:02):
But how many.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
I guess how much did the competition committee have to
do with coming up with this or any of these?

Speaker 8 (01:07:10):
All of it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Okay, this is a combined effort from all the owners
of all the teams, all the governors that are involved. Again,
this year, the worst three teams in the NBA, they
got a fourteen percent chance each of landing the number
one pick.

Speaker 5 (01:07:22):
In the future.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
If this is the proposal that does pass without any tweaks,
and there probably will be those same teams, their percent
chance of winning the number one pick dips to five
point four percent.

Speaker 5 (01:07:32):
Yeah, it's that's a huge dip drop off.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
I mean again, I'm not sitting here acting like A,
this is an easy problem to fix, or B I
have a better solution. So I'm not here to just
criticize the one that's come out. I just to me,
in my mind, the eighth seed getting a realistic shot
at winning the lottery just.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
Blows my mind.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
And you know, adding more, uh, the pile fourteen to
sixteen in the lottery. I already think there's too many
playoff teams. Now there's gonna be too many teams in
the lottery. It's just fundamentally not what I'm I'm down with.
But we'll move on. By the way, what if I
told you Jordan Hudson found a way to insert herself
into the Vrabel Russini drama.

Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
Well she did. We'll tell you about that next.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
The eight It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety
WEX and AC with you along with Josh Jordan on
a Wednesday edition full show. Today, Astro's game postponed. They'll
do a double header tomorrow, Rockets later on tonight in
Los Angeles.

Speaker 5 (01:08:40):
And then there's this.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
We've been talking about this pretty much every day, at
least one segment for the better part of two weeks now,
definitely a week.

Speaker 5 (01:08:50):
Diana Rossini, Mike Vrabel.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
PR disaster, which, by the way, did you see where
a bunch of christ PR teams were basically like, we
don't want to touch this situation. Our best advice to
you is to lay low for the next year and
don't talk to anybody.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
I did see that. I actually saw it a couple
days ago.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Apparently she very early on in the uh oh portion
of this story people know about us, She apparently had
reached out to crisis PR teams and had to reach
out to multiple crisis PR teams because several gave her
that response to how to handle this crisis.

Speaker 5 (01:09:28):
Yeah, you're too toxic, beat it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
I would imagine they probably thought, there's a bunch of
stuff that if we're involved in this, we're gonna look
bad because we're not gonna have all the information we
need to properly handle this crisis. As we've watched this
story unfold, and we thought we knew this, but there's
actually this and this and this, and we thought we
knew that, but there's also this, this and this and
this is they have you absolutely told us everything?

Speaker 5 (01:09:52):
Is this? It are we? Is this? Everything?

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
I like when the defense attorney gets the murderer in
there or whatever. Have you told me everything yet, because
I don't need to find this out on the six
o'clock news, getting my teeth kicked in that kind of thing.
So anyway, that brings us to Jordan. You know Bill
Belichick's many many many many, many many many years.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Younger girlfriend who runs his life at North Carolina and
sticks her nose into things all the time that it
doesn't belong in. Is that a fair assessment of her characterization?
It's the one we usually get from you, so yes.

Speaker 5 (01:10:28):
So you remember last week we were talking.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
About Chris Simms and Mike Florio discussing this on their
podcast together, and then, of course Chris Simms has since
been removed from Sunday Night Football.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
That those things aren't really just like her naming her
kid Mike. Everyone wants to tell you the way, we
don't know. I'm not saying it is or it isn't,
but people are putting it together like it's not a coincidence.
It didn't just this is the reason they were doing
their podcast, And it sounded like he was about to
head down a path of saying I've heard this or
I know about that or worst kept secret kind of stuff,

(01:11:05):
and Mike kind of butted in with a Star Wars reference, like,
stay on course, you know, don't get into this. I'm
trying to protect you from saying something here, although he
wouldn't acknowledge that that's what he was doing.

Speaker 5 (01:11:17):
That's what he was doing.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Yeah, like this person like writes the following Chris Simms
fired by NBC from their Sunday night football coverage. He
wasn't fired by NBC. He's just not on the Sunday
night football coverage. Not long after, when he almost reveled
what coaches and their wives had been telling him about
Mike Vrabel and Diana Russini, Well, Jordan Hudson quote tweeted

(01:11:42):
that and said, we're not talking about this question mark
why not at Pro Football Talk, which is Mike Florio's
account handle. And I mean to me, I know you're
what you're saying is probably true. Like it's just a
coincidence that she.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Was also quote tweeting one of the very very popular
awful awful awful aggregator I want clicks account that's out there,
but nonetheless wish one. I don't cite them by name. Specifically,
it was it was fine. Like every once in a
while people have sent me stuff from him. That's my
response every time, like, I don't. I'm not paying any
attention to this. It's just every day something.

Speaker 5 (01:12:25):
Well take it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
Let's stick right there for a second. What's her angle
on this, because she's pretty closely related to the Patriots
because obviously she's dating Bill Belichick, and Bill Belichick was
there when other scandals took place, both football related scandals
with the amount of air that was in footballs, with
the amount of video cameras that were being used to
win football games, and then off the field with how

(01:12:45):
many video cameras weren't there inside but only outside orchards
of Asia where the man who was paying him and
writing his checks was visiting. So he was there for
all this. So he's aware of all this is. Has
he given her some insight about how the building works?
Is there some Belichick rabel beef underlying unhappiness that maybe
we're not aware of, because otherwise what would be her

(01:13:08):
angle to want to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:10):
I don't know that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
I don't know the particular answer or the answer to
that particular question for sure, but I do think there
is something, and I don't know if this is what
she was getting at, because again I read you what
she wrote, she only wrote so much. I do think
there is something to be said for the fact that
people like Pro Football to you know, Mike Florio, Chris Sims,
and especially on the ESPN side of things, have gone

(01:13:37):
out of their way seemingly to not talk about this
nearly as much as they have some other topics scandals
that weren't just strictly sports.

Speaker 2 (01:13:45):
Sure, I totally get that that's what you've done, but
you don't have an angle. You're just doing what's necessary,
what's natural. This is a huge story, You're a huge entity.
Why aren't you talking about this? She's not in the
same position we are. And on top of that, over
the years, she's years now, I think is peral. She's
been with Bill and been there at North Carolina and otherwise,

(01:14:07):
like the heat on her, the eyes on her, the
paying attention to her right now in the middle of April,
out of season is like zero. Nobody's paying any attention
to her completely. There's nothing negative, there's no nothing. I'm
worried about this or remember when she there's nothing going on?
What's the point, are you missing the attention? Well, to me,

(01:14:28):
it's nothing. You know what this says that? And in
my opinion, again this is just my theory. It's not
even a conspiracy. It's just who is she dating Bill
Wlicha and who effectively replaced him?

Speaker 5 (01:14:41):
Because I know they had er. I mean, does she.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
Is there some reason that what I on his behalf
needs to be mad about that?

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
I think that Bill Belichick is loving this right now
in a sick way, even though he coached Rabel, even
though Rabel helped him win those Super Bowls.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
Yeah, And and what you're saying, it's I think that's probably
the answer. Not an NFL coach. Are they ready? I mean, now,
they didn't go to him immediately. They obviously hired Girodmeo first,
So maybe we're reaching here, But this is the guy
they want, is their long term replacement for Bill Belichick
to get them back to the glory days, to get
them winning Super Bowls.

Speaker 5 (01:15:15):
And he takes them to the Big Game in his
first season.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
Did his existence as a coaching option help force Bill
Belichick out?

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:15:23):
I don't think so. Does she know?

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
And what I'm saying is my theory has nothing to
do with that so much as just pettiness. If he's successful,
then that makes Bill Belichick be further in the rearview mirror.
It's as simple as that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
But he's further in the rearview mirror no matter what.
Correct he's a seventy year old college football coach, yes,
but you are saying that as a fifty year old
man that has lived life more than this twenty something
who thinks this way.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
I'm not even kidding.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
That's as simple as it gets for me. I know,
I just don't think. I don't know how she could
even he or anybody could. Why would she weigh in though?
That's why, I mean, because everybody else is or No.
I think she's saying why people have come at us
pretty hard over the time we've been together, so all's fair.

Speaker 5 (01:16:06):
Why not now?

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
Because she sees it similarly to how you and others
do see it, and it's accurate, there's no question, and
the people who've done it aren't hiding from it. We're
not covering this story like all the other stories we
would have covered that don't have to do with people
we know or the business we work within.

Speaker 5 (01:16:20):
They clearly have done that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
They flat out have said it out loud on programs saying,
I wish we weren't talking about this after not talking
about it for days on end. What everybody else that
doesn't have as much of a link to it was,
So there's definitely something there. It is interesting of all
the people to say, hey, why are you letting this slide?
Was Bill Belichick's girlfriend Jordan Jordaan.

Speaker 1 (01:16:41):
You gotta pronounce it correctly. I did, all right. When
we come back, four o'clock hour gets underway. If the
Rockets lose tonight's Game five and their season is over,
there's another big name potentially on the way to Houston.
And why it may or may not make sense to
go get this guy, we'll discuss.

Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
It is the a team.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
Sports Talk seven ninety four o'clock hour is underway. By
the way, shout out to our former co worker Alan Reid.

Speaker 3 (01:17:13):
He was.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
He was in an establishment that rhymes with schmappelmes, and
he said, this is the last thing I need to
see when I'm trying to eat at that place in Corpus.
He's checking us out on the television behind the bar. There,
so of reach if you're watching on SCHN love to
hear that. Had somebody text the other day at they
were watching us from Georgetown, and I've gotten a text

(01:17:37):
as far as Arkansas before.

Speaker 5 (01:17:38):
So I do love the reach.

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
You can listen to us anywhere on the radio app.

Speaker 5 (01:17:42):
It's free. We have enormous unlimited.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Reach, untapped potential as well on that reach. Okay, there
is a potential that the Rockets lose this game tonight.
I know nobody wants to talk about that. It's to
be honest with you, if for Noah the reason, because
I don't want to deal with Okac. I don't want
to deal with everything that comes with that.

Speaker 5 (01:18:06):
I know you do. Yeah, that makes one of us.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
I just everybody that's listening and watches the NBA even
a little bit knows what I'm talking about. It's gonna
be awful. But in the meantime, it would be nice
to extend this series and delay what will inevitably happen
prior to the Okac nausea, which is everybody piling on

(01:18:29):
the Rockets if they lose this series and saying that
Kevin Durant's the reason, and on and on on all
the stupid stuff you've been hearing, uh since the start
of this series when they fell into an O three hole.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
Yeah, if they lose this series without Kevin Durant, it
will quite obviously be the players on the court's fault.
And so if you want to say they don't have
the right players, that would be fine. I mean you're
not gonna hear that, right, So very good point. Keep
that in mind.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
Oh and oh, by the way, if you're going to
say that, like we said yesterday, Kendrick Perkins, don't then
list like two thirds of the NBA that would be
lining up to trade for him if he's such a
bad guy in a locker room cancer. I don't know,
just pick one of your stupid narratives that doesn't make
sense and go with that instead of trying to talk
out of both sides of your mouth. Anyway, we've like

(01:19:14):
talked about Giannis. I think you don't. I think you
really don't like that potential trade.

Speaker 2 (01:19:21):
I really don't like that potential trade. I think his
career is much closer to an end from a I
can win a championship than people are willing to admit
what He's been playing healthy for how many years since
their title while accomplishing absolutely positively nothing and now he's
unhealthy and older and a big man. Well, I don't

(01:19:46):
really care about what size he is.

Speaker 1 (01:19:47):
Well, I think that matters in the NBA, because the
bigger you are, the greater potential for the game to
drop off a cliff earlier in your later stages of
your career versus a guard or a smaller player. I
just think that's always kind of been the case, good
rule of thumb, not always.

Speaker 5 (01:20:05):
Kareem's an outlier, I mean forever.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
I mean you're calling him a big guy and then
comparing him to Kareem like he's a wing. He runs
the court and he doesn't post up.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
Okay, a seven foot I'm literally talking about the stature
of the player.

Speaker 5 (01:20:19):
I know. I just I don't agree with that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
I think, I mean, maybe there's examples that prove your
point and I'm missing it, but I don't see it
that way. I just think older players are what they are.
If you're overweight, that might be something. If you're relying
only on athleticism, that might be something, and in this
particular case, that absolutely would be something. That is what
Giannis is relying on. I'm out running people up and
down the court. I'm blowing by you in the half court.

(01:20:43):
I'm taking two steps from forty feet out and reaching
the rim, and really probably took four, but it wasn't called.

Speaker 5 (01:20:50):
That's a very good point.

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
That is almost as nauseating as the SGA free throws.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
So I'll say no to him, even though that will
be discussed at length this offseason, no matter what happens
the next five days.

Speaker 5 (01:21:01):
But that won't be the only name. I'm sure we'll.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
Hear, right and before I give you the parameters of
the deal, just on its face, just this one player's name.

Speaker 5 (01:21:10):
What do you think when you hear Kawhi Leonard? I
think he's not going to be there for you in
what way? He's not going to be available? Correct?

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
So you think that all this talk is is a
non starter.

Speaker 5 (01:21:23):
Now he's not going to be available because he's hurt.

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
Oh that's different when you put it that way. He's
not going to be there for you when you need him.
Missed all of the twenty one to twenty two season.
Has played more than sixty games in a season since
he was twenty five. He's now thirty five, one time
ten years more than sixty five games, and again, the
sixty five game minimum he would have reached it this

(01:21:48):
year and very possibly could be a third team All
NBA guy. I guess, and probably we'll get run from
a Defensive Player of the Year or All Defensive Team status.
He had an awesome statistically speaking, this year was not
a drop off really in any way better than fifty
percent overall, thirty nine percent from deep, which is right

(01:22:10):
on his career average. It's a little bit down from
his last three years, but not noticeably so. His two
point percentage was up, his effective field goal percentage, true
shooting percentage all right there. He shot nearly ninety percent
free throws, which was a new career high for him,
and at twenty seven point nine points per game, he
set a new career high the most points per game

(01:22:31):
he's averaged in a season in his career. At age
thirty four, playing in sixty five games is what he
just did. He'll turn thirty five right after this. This
year's NBA hight.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
And when you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
Couple that with again, this is the Rockets going and
getting him. In a hypothetical, you're coupling him with another
guy who you just got insane luck or fortune, i'll say,
injury wise, in that you didn't have any sort of
injury issues with Kevin Durant for the most part, until,
of course, the postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
Like you're gonna look back at your one and ask
that question, did you get good or bad injury luck
with Kevin Durant.

Speaker 5 (01:23:07):
You gotta have standing luck. You got the exact opposite.
What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
They got miserable injury luck with Kevin Durant, the worst
injury luck with Kevin Durant.

Speaker 5 (01:23:16):
We're talking about the regular season here.

Speaker 2 (01:23:17):
That doesn't matter. It does matter not to me. He's
not playing basketball in the playoffs. That's awful injury luck.
That's the worst kind.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
But we're talking about being there for the regular season
only we're not talking about the postseason right now.

Speaker 2 (01:23:29):
I'm just saying I can't separate those.

Speaker 5 (01:23:32):
Well, you just.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
Got done saying that he hadn't played more than sixty
five games since, which helped his team miss the playoffs,
which potentially could do the same. I can't separate them.
I'm happy to talk about both, but I can't. I mean,
Kevin Durant's not playing. This is the worst injury luck
they could ever have, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:46):
But for the purposes of this conversation we were talking
about the regular season.

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
You have to separate them. I'll try. You have to
do it now. I don't really care if Kawhi sets
a new career high in seventy five regular season games
played and they win three more games than they did
last year and are the two seed because of it.

Speaker 5 (01:24:05):
All Right, it's exhausting.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
So you're obviously not going to like the deal no
matter what. Then if I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:24:13):
Want him, but I don't think I'm it's a huge risk.

Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
Well, shing Gun's gonna go out the door. If you're
trading for a big name, that's a given. I don't
think anyone else is. It seems likely now you're including
Reach Shepherd. Okay, I don't think anybody other than rafel
Stone and the Fertidas is going to care if you
trade Read Shepherd this offseason. I really believe that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
There are a lot of people who love, love, love
Read Shepherd outside the organization.

Speaker 5 (01:24:43):
What do they love the most?

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
The lack of three point shots made consistently or the
complete lack of defense?

Speaker 5 (01:24:50):
Which is it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:51):
I'm not going to tell you what they love most,
because I can't believe there are people out there that
love him blindly like they do, but they're out there.
I'm not saying I don't even love aspects of his game,
but it ain't good enough to hang on to him.
So Alprin Shingun and Reached Shepherd are going to the Clippers.

Speaker 5 (01:25:03):
What oh?

Speaker 1 (01:25:03):
But also Steven Adams is going. Okay, that's where I
draw the line. I'm sorry, like, okay, what are you
getting back?

Speaker 5 (01:25:10):
Just Kawhi?

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
You're getting Kawhi and brook Lopez. Perfect, You're all set
stop it. Two bigs out, one big in.

Speaker 1 (01:25:17):
Well, you immediately get your three point shooting astronomically better
with not one, but both of those players.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
By the way, yeah, I guess that means brook Lopez
can go hang out at the three point line on
offense like he does with the Clippers and.

Speaker 5 (01:25:30):
Like a million other big men doing today's NBA. Yeah,
the bad ones.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
I don't want Steven Adams going out the door, though, I.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Mean I think that highly of him, like to the
point where and by the way, in this theoretical trade,
they're moving Jabbari to the five. Why don't you just
trade Jabari and keep Steven Adams.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
Yeah, when you're playing a playoff games, if you're at
the end of the game or you're in the final,
you know you need to win. Your Your lineup's gonna
include Kawhi, Jabbari, Amen KD and presumably Fred.

Speaker 5 (01:26:04):
Yeah, you've got a man and Fred in the backcourt,
which is nasty.

Speaker 2 (01:26:09):
Perfectly fine with me. Who was out a game like that?
What are you worried about? Nikola jokicch you can't stop him.
Rudy Gobert probably is off the floor. Also, if you're
playing Minnesota, you can't handle wing player seven foot three
Chet Holmgren. I mean, Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet would be
an issue, and they are a very good rebounding team.

Speaker 5 (01:26:27):
But I'm totally down with that group.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
The Rockets would retain their depth of young three and
D talent, and Lopez gives them size shooting and shop
blocking off the bench, and Leonard would combine with Durant
to give the Rockets arguably the most potent one to
two scoring punch in the league.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
Do you agree with that last sentence? They're there, their
attendance is there. I mean, if the numbers say that's true.
Twenty seven point nine points per game for Kawhi was
a little bit better than what Durant had both of
them among.

Speaker 5 (01:26:58):
The league's elite per games scores.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
That's a fact, and I do think as teammates that
would be able to continue.

Speaker 1 (01:27:04):
I'll put it like this, of the two, I think
you could convince me to make a deal for Kawhi
easier than you could convince me from making a deal
for Giannis because of what you said. I know injuries
are a factor either way. I just think that Kawhi
is a better player right now at this stage. Yeah,

(01:27:25):
as was older.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
I think the you could ask ten people and you
might get five answers from one and five answers from
the other. On the on behalf of those two, who
do you think is a better fit or a better bet?
Because you're betting. This is a gamble, and boy, did
you get old fast. Two years ago, you're leaving the
playoffs off your home floor in a Game seven against
the Golden State Warriors with Jalen Green, Alprin, Shanguna Men Thompson,

(01:27:47):
Jabari Smith Junior, hardly played Reed Shepherd, Tarry Easton, and
the second offseason after that, this offseason, you're going into
the season with ancient Fred, ancient Kawhi, ancient KD and
A men and ancient. He's only thirty one, he's not
thirty five. Well, first of all, Brook Lopez. This month,

(01:28:10):
Happy birthday, Brook, he turned thirty eight. I'm sure you're
gonna get a tremendous age thirty eight season out of
Brook Lopez. Tons of minutes and key huge buckets for you.
All season long. He went for averaging thirty one point
eight minutes as a thirty six year old with Giannis
in Milwaukee to twenty one point eight minutes this year
in LA.

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
He's he's about done.

Speaker 1 (01:28:33):
That gives itself to the theory I just said, I
think big men age quicker in the NBA, no matter what.

Speaker 2 (01:28:38):
Position's not aging at all, he's just aging at thirty
three is one thing. He's thirty eight. It's amazing he's playing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:45):
I'm saying the drop off to meaningful minutes and all
that that comes with it is most pronounced with big men.

Speaker 5 (01:28:52):
Sure, there's like five guys in the league that are
thirty eight. Jeff Green's one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:28:57):
Fred turned thirty two in February, so we'll play next
year at half thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:29:00):
Two half thirty three. Roughly, he's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:29:04):
I think you I personally and very meanly and unfairly
probably add years to players lives NBA lives following catastrophic injuries.
He's a thirty two to thirty three year old player
returning from a major surgery and in.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
True, but he's also has that much more tread that
he didn't take off the tires.

Speaker 2 (01:29:25):
This season right all, it's just amazing, like it would
be fun to watch, just like this year was. I
can't lie and try to make up a story about
what I said last offseason, just to repeat the truth.

Speaker 5 (01:29:36):
I thought the Rockets were in a win win situation.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
I can't even say for certain they definitely move on
from the core they had if Kevin Durant wasn't available,
keep the team intact, see what other moves might be
in front of you, and see if the players you
have can advance their games.

Speaker 5 (01:29:54):
I thought that was a winning situation.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
I think the situation that he chose, which was involving
a seventeen deal that sent Kevin Durant essentially to Houston
and sent two of your starting five to Phoenix, I
thought that was also a winning deal. I don't really
feel that way at all about anything I see for
this offseason or nothing. I think they might win next
year with Fred back, with Steven back, and a healthy team.

(01:30:19):
I'm okay with that. I don't think it's the end
of the world if they do that. I don't think
they want to do nothing else, though they do need
to fix some other parts of this team personnel wise
and situation.

Speaker 5 (01:30:29):
Yeah, that's one huge part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:31):
So it's just a very I'm one year later, they're
in a remarkably different situation and losing in last year's
postseason was they had a chance here, they were in
a great seed situation, they got a banged up in
the series, Golden State team. They should have won and
given their players even more of the playoff experience to
understand what it's all about, and they didn't. And this

(01:30:52):
year just feels very, very different. The disappointment from how
this series has gone, the disappointment that instead of being
the healthy team in a series, neither of the teams
is healthy and they're clearly suffering from it with Kevin
Durant out.

Speaker 5 (01:31:05):
It's just very very different.

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
And all these options on how to make your team
better are finding the oldest available players in the NBA
and see if you can get them.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
And that last part right there, if that was your
only argument, you being anyone, not just Rex, would I
wouldn't be able to really make one against it.

Speaker 5 (01:31:22):
He's too old, That's what it sounds like.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
Yeah, the beginning of the Durant and injury luck situation,
I just would have been one hundred percent down with
Kevin Durant having a three week ankle injury and a
four week knee injury at any point during the regular season,
getting to the postseason at forty seven and thirty five
with one hundred percent healthy Kevin Durant for every single
game you play.

Speaker 5 (01:31:45):
That would have been good injury luck to me.

Speaker 1 (01:31:47):
And you'd probably be in the play in tournament and
with a chance at a lottery pick if the new
rules were implement.

Speaker 2 (01:31:53):
Maybe so we will talk more about this quite obviously
leading you up until game time. We got the game
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety Rocks and Lakers
Game five, trying to bring the series back to Houston.
But next, your quarterback, the most important player on your
football team.

Speaker 5 (01:32:09):
Guess who thinks he's awesome?

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
That's next. Get is the eight team Sports Talk seven
to ninety where we talked sports only Astros off today
was not intentional. Rain got the best or inclement weather
got the best of them and the Orioles. So they'll
play two tomorrow and then make their way to Boston,
first game at eleven thirty five. Our coverage will begin

(01:32:31):
tomorrow at ten thirty. When it begins, they will open
the day in a virtual tie for fourth place in
their division. The Angels did, in fact, find it very
difficult to beat the White Sox at all this week,
losing again. They've now lost six in a row, so they,
like the Astros, are eight games under five hundred. The

(01:32:51):
Rangers just closed out a shutout of the Big Bad Yankees,
so the Rangers are one game under five hundred, creating
a tier in the American League West.

Speaker 5 (01:33:02):
Only one game.

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
Separates the top two top three teams now, and they
all have at least a three and a half game
gap over the Astros and Angels. Rangers one today already
beating the Yankees. Mariners one today already, and they are
now at five hundred and the Athletics play this evening.

Speaker 5 (01:33:21):
They're one game over five hundred, as we all predicted,
leading the division.

Speaker 2 (01:33:25):
Well, the Mariners have the most wins in the division
right now cares well. They're the best team in the
division and that will likely continue the rest of the
year now that they've gotten there.

Speaker 5 (01:33:34):
I really I care.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
I mean, I'd like the Astros to get into that
top tier.

Speaker 5 (01:33:38):
They're not in it. They're in the bottom tier of
baseball right now. Couldn't even beat the Orls.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
We'll see if they can change that tomorrow. But yeah,
at eleven and nineteen, it's possible that they will, unfortunately
have to follow the same path that the two teams
that were in the same boat already did. The Philadelphia
Phillies are a nineteen loss team. They are operating with
manager number two here in twenty twenty six. The Boston
Red Sox they are an eighteen loss team. They are

(01:34:04):
operating with manager number two. And the Astros are record
wise in the very same boat, and I think their
expectations were all very similar. The fourth team in that
group is the Mets, and their unbelievably long losing streak
has them with nineteen losses and Carlos Mendoza on what

(01:34:24):
seems like an awfully warm seat.

Speaker 5 (01:34:28):
Just call what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:34:29):
It's piping hot, and I can't believe he hasn't been
fired like five hours ago.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
Some owners don't see it like that, Like he was
a good manager five months ago, why isn't he now?
I mean, I'm not even citing Carlos Mendoza like there's
probably I mean, you may not like Cora personally, and
you may not like Thompson personally.

Speaker 5 (01:34:48):
I guess they weren't the problem.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
Nobody thinks these guys are bad at managing a baseball team.
Are they bad at managing this baseball team this year?
The answer is probably still no, they weren't.

Speaker 5 (01:34:58):
But this is the roster they were. This is all
And what does ownership have it there to dispose? What
can they do?

Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
I can fire the manager, or I can file the
general manager. Well, the general manager is closer to him
and can tell him no, no, no, no. This isn't why
we're losing. We're not losing because I gave him the
all these terrible players and these terrible decisions. I mean,
they're not losing because Alex Bregman doesn't play her anymore.
That's not the reason. Come on, man, it's not my fault.
Let's fire this guy. Serious question, And remember the person

(01:35:24):
who helped to fire Coorra didn't hire Korra.

Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
Yeah, and serious question about specifically baseball general managers. Do
you think a lot of them jobs get saved because
and I'm talking about in a situation like this where
they're fired before the trade deadline or more importantly, the draft,
you think a lot of their jobs get saved because
the owner thinks, well, if I fire the GM, who's

(01:35:51):
gonna run my draft that's in the middle of my season.

Speaker 2 (01:35:54):
Probably it's probably not because the general managers making trips
and looking at players. There's mainly players that he's gotten
good reports on that he wants to see firsthand. You know,
he makes the final call, just like general managers do
across all sports, but especially in baseball. Since you're canvassing
the world right now, he doesn't have the first line

(01:36:15):
on information about these players. I think in this case,
like we're obviously talking about the Astros and Dana Brown,
his eye on talent before it's reached the professional level
is probably pretty well respected, and it should be. And
I'm looking at some of their very very very very
young recently added to the organization prospects, they look out standing.

(01:36:36):
They don't have any prospects that are close to being
major leaguers, though, And that is an issue whether that's
a little bit on Dana because he's been here long
enough to maybe have changed that, or whether you believe
he shouldn't have been able to change that in short
order with what their draft assets were when he arrived.
From a punishment standpoint, I think he probably has a
good eye for talent. I think both Alvarez, Kevin and

(01:36:57):
Nien's and maybe Ethan Fry as well, are all going
to be plus plus level major leaguers, usually as a
workout where each of your top prospects all pan out.
But they've spent the last three or four years basically
not even having any top prospects. And we're on the
phone with Chandler Rome's Chandler Rome this week. You know,
Bryce Matthews hitting one thirty. Do you think it's about

(01:37:18):
time they make a move for who? Who are they
going to bring up? They don't have anybody? Was his answer,
And he's totally right now. Zach Cole has actually begun
his rehab assignment. He's playing with the Peckers down in Fayetteville.
He's healthy, but he's not hitting. He wasn't hitting with
the space Cowboys. He's not hitting with them either. Do
you just say, well, he's a higher we want him

(01:37:39):
up here because he's a lefty. We want Bryce Matthews
to play every day. Well, Zach Cole's not gonna play
every day if you bring him up. But do you
want Daniel Johnson on the roster every day instead of
Zach Cole? Do you want Dustin Harris on the roster
every day instead of Bryce Matthews. I mean, this is
what we're looking at, and none of these guys are.
You know, we're seeing news thirty days into the season
with Pittsburgh, with San Francisco with they're bringing up top prospect,

(01:38:04):
so and so there's no such The Astros at no
point this year will ever have that headline written out them.
They don't have one at that level. We're into the
uncomfortable territory. Not about this season, because I think this
season is I know what you just got done saying
last segment you'd like to see them claw their way back.

Speaker 5 (01:38:22):
Out and compete and all that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
But like the longer it goes and the more you
talk about what you just talked about as it pertains
to their farm system, you know you're rapidly approaching a
point where you've got to ask yourself and maybe make
some difficult decisions after asking difficult questions and get how
how are you going to most rapidly take care of

(01:38:44):
that problem you just mentioned, I e.

Speaker 5 (01:38:46):
Your farm system is barren from.

Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Guys that are actually like you're super excited about the future.
And keep in mind it's it's off and overlooked, and
I'll try not to do it by mentioning it here. Well,
the best processpect that they have in their system that
was acquired by Dana Brown is their everyday right field
he plays already and that is a huge deal. That
should be a huge get. That was a great move.

(01:39:11):
That was a positive improve your farm system type of
move because if the team was in any other situation
when he made that move, then Cam Smith would be
their minor League Player of the Year in twenty twenty
five and he might have made his debut in twenty
twenty five and his path to helping this team win
would be drastically different.

Speaker 5 (01:39:32):
And he acquired it and that should matter.

Speaker 6 (01:39:34):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:39:34):
If you want me to mention that Walker Yannick is
hitting one thirty two at double A right now, I
will well, you don't need makes.

Speaker 5 (01:39:40):
One, but it stinks ross.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
He's he's ready to play major League baseball from a
calling a game, handling a pitching staff, and defensively, he's
going to be elite, but he has not shown the
ability to hit at a high enough professional level that
he's even a consideration. Sounds like they're every day catcher
right now. He's been a little bit better. His numbers
are probably not gonna be awesome, but he's not quite
as bad. He just seems to keep coming not coming

(01:40:05):
through in situations where you'd like to see him do that.

Speaker 5 (01:40:09):
Yeah, that's the unfortunate part.

Speaker 1 (01:40:10):
All Right, we're gonna get to our signature segment, as
we always do this time.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
Of day, when we get to find out. I've got
a couple of hints for you here. You're gonna hear
from someone talking about this series between the Rockets and
the Lakers, and he's an extremely famous voice, and he
is a Hall of Fame voice, and you don't have
any idea who it is, but you're gonna find out
next the eight the e worst intro ever doesn't even

(01:40:41):
make sense anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
It was the last time we actually spit stole.

Speaker 2 (01:40:45):
When's the last time anybody actually did a bit on
their show. Part of the reason we don't do it anymore.
But we've kept this ridiculously inaccurate intro because it's still
is BS, and that's what Wednesday is here on our
show signature segment time, it is Wednesday's BS. So we
take it literally and that is exactly what we talk
about here. If you wondered how much weight is consumed

(01:41:06):
on dollar dog nights at baseball games a lot, that's
a big pile of BS. But we'll get to that Secondarily,
I don't know if I just want to play it
or ask you questions about it first? What do you
what should I do?

Speaker 5 (01:41:21):
Ask me questions about it first?

Speaker 2 (01:41:22):
So do you remember when games, at least one game
in LA had to be halted momentarily because front row
court side fans were involving themselves both with each other
and with the team itself, like getting up and pointing
and yelling and near fights breaking out.

Speaker 5 (01:41:44):
I don't think.

Speaker 6 (01:41:44):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:41:45):
There was a really several really cool, very comfortable looking
sweaters being worn by this particular gentleman. He is noted
LA fan, as you'll hear in the upcoming audio but
over the course of time, this very famous sports media
voice just kind of had a little, I guess a
gag and it's certainly apropos for this evening. It is
Game five tonight between the Lakers and the Rockets. The

(01:42:08):
Lakers have a chance to close the series out. And
this very very famous sports media voice once was on
a several talk shows, the Yellie Ones, the Debate Shows,
so over the years he was able to utter this
phrase countless times with in his own special style, and
someone was able to compile it, and I thought, at

(01:42:30):
some point during this series it would make sense to
play it to either have you fall out of your chair,
laugh uproariously, or tell me to please.

Speaker 5 (01:42:39):
Stop playing that.

Speaker 2 (01:42:40):
I'm not sure what will happen, but this is one
person's thoughts on every series that the Lakers have in
the postseason.

Speaker 6 (01:42:48):
It don't matter to Boris johns Port loudort, the bunda
a booth, mobile, bundle, WWE ro rumble, okav KFC UFC
leggas in five Houston Rocket, I don't care nothing about
the light socket, or court docket or my empty pocket.

Speaker 5 (01:43:10):
You could say s G A P g A U
s A le.

Speaker 6 (01:43:15):
T P three C three p O, It doesn't matter
Star Wars and Luke Skywalker Leggas in five It doesn't matter,
Chris Poung Cliff Pong j Leggas and five you can
have Harden, you can have a Pard, you can get
a Garden Leagas and five Serge Obaka q Baca Walker
Flocker Lagas and five White Side Backside, Sunny Side Legas

(01:43:40):
in five Tyler Hero Superhero Guitar Hero Leggas in six
It don't matter. Dvoris Court child support, lou Dart.

Speaker 2 (01:43:48):
Lega just let me give you one twice. That's of course.
NFL Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon.

Speaker 5 (01:43:54):
Sharks Ski Seriously, why does he talk with marbles in
his mouth? Twenty?

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
I mean, everybody doesn't have the same cadence and manner
in which they speak. I have no issue with how
he does. Really is I'm gonna call him a think
about it this before you say what you're gonna say.
He's been on two very heavily talked about shows and
very yelly shows, and in my opinion, in both instances

(01:44:21):
he's the more watchable of the two. Obviously, because the
alternative is Scoop Or who was the other guy who
was on with Steven.

Speaker 5 (01:44:30):
Oh yeah, screaming a smith. Yeah yeah, that's I just
thought that was fun.

Speaker 2 (01:44:35):
Still a jackass, I mean, you agree or disagree with
his opinions or anything else that's gone on, And it
would it would have been probably very interesting had he
been on the air throughout this whole saga that we
talk about every single day on our show. I don't
mean basketball, I don't mean football, and I don't mean baseball,

(01:44:56):
Oh boy, I mean Mike and Diana.

Speaker 5 (01:45:00):
Well, he has his own problems for why I mean
him specifically.

Speaker 1 (01:45:08):
Now you've heard have you heard the term, the phrase
bronze sexual.

Speaker 2 (01:45:15):
These are the people that know it goes beyond.

Speaker 1 (01:45:18):
He can do no wrong, and they think he's the
goat it goes, it goes to like them more than
they should.

Speaker 2 (01:45:25):
They worship at the altar of lebron James fandom.

Speaker 5 (01:45:28):
He is one of those guys.

Speaker 2 (01:45:30):
He's always there. He was at that Foxy network. He
wasn't even first in line.

Speaker 5 (01:45:38):
No, he wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:45:39):
I mean, we know who the other guy is, that
moron that used to pollute our local airwaves. Loser, Why
don't you answer my voicemail?

Speaker 5 (01:45:47):
Coward?

Speaker 2 (01:45:48):
Uh, can you want to move on to the hot dogs? Yes,
it's bs right, Uh, yeah it is. Dollar dogs are
very very popular baseball promotion, minor league and professional. They
have them here at Dyke and Tuesday nights over at
the yard. If you find yourself at the ballpark on
Tuesday night, or specifically make sure you're at the ballpark
on Tuesday nights, so Dollar Dog Nights are at your disposal.

Speaker 1 (01:46:11):
How many hot dogs did North Carolina baseball fans.

Speaker 5 (01:46:17):
Eat on Dollar Dog Night? Are you aware of the number?

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
Is this the target? Is this Bill Belichick's team? Well,
it's not his team, but it's his school. Okay, yeah,
the baseball team at North Carolina University UNC University of
North Carolina.

Speaker 5 (01:46:32):
You had a dollar Dog Night? What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:46:34):
What's how do you say? Their stadium name Boschamer.

Speaker 5 (01:46:37):
Yeah, where they play baseball. So they had a dollar
Dog Night.

Speaker 6 (01:46:41):
It was a.

Speaker 1 (01:46:42):
Sellout, not surprisingly, just over forty four hundred people.

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
Forty four it's a it's a nice sized ballyard yep. Okay,
and it was Dollar Dog Nights, so I'm guessing the poundage.

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
Well, they set a record a venue, right, Can I
ask a question first? Yeap?

Speaker 2 (01:46:57):
In your mind recognizing the size of what Lee as
a dollar dog, what do you think it weighs? So
I'm gonna do the math, of course a couple ounces,
so four to five hot dogs per pound, six seven
to three somewhere there.

Speaker 5 (01:47:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:14):
This is a season I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say
forty four hundred fans. I'm gonna say two hundred and
fifty pounds of dogs, two hundred and fifty pounds of
frankfurters consumed.

Speaker 5 (01:47:24):
Thirty two hundred were purchased and eaten. That's a new
stadium mark.

Speaker 2 (01:47:29):
So as of the forty four hundred plus thirty two
hundred were purchased. The average hot dog weighs between one
point six and one point nine ounces based on the
Google machine. Okay, that's right around one tenth of a pound,
so ten dogs per pound.

Speaker 1 (01:47:49):
HM quick math puts the total somewhere between three hundred
and twenty and three hundred and eighty pounds of And
I like how they put this way processed meat.

Speaker 2 (01:48:00):
And keep in mind for those that care, a sellout
was definitely due to the promotion in part they.

Speaker 5 (01:48:07):
Are a top ten team. They had a top ten
team in town.

Speaker 1 (01:48:10):
And they got blown out by ten runs. Apparently, so
on dollar Dog Night, everybody got their money's worth from
a standpoint of food, but not as necessarily on field products.

Speaker 2 (01:48:21):
Now, I am curious if you know Dollar Dog Night
at a professional major league ballpark, they're prepared to have
forty some one thousand people at least use the facilities
if necessary of the course of the game, and on
Dollar Dog Night. I don't know everything about your insides,
but there might be more people going on that night
than any other night, and maybe they're not there on

(01:48:43):
an empty stomach. At am College baseball Park, forty five
hundred or so seat park, usually outdoors, there's really no
deck out in the outfield, or if there is, it's minimal.
The amount of available facilities at this facility probably aren't
really ready for three hundred and fifty pounds of dogs

(01:49:05):
to be consumed well in the two and a half
hours that forty four hundred people are there.

Speaker 1 (01:49:09):
Not to get too into the TMI situation, but in
my experience consuming this very.

Speaker 2 (01:49:18):
Ballpark food item staple, it is a staple. It's very Americana.
They tend to sit for a while, so that little
scenario you're talking about doesn't necessarily come into play. SIT
post purchase or SIT pre purchase, sit post consumption after

(01:49:38):
you've bought it, well you've consumed it. Oh, they send
a SIT in your system. Correct, I gotcha. They're not
fast moving. It's not like now.

Speaker 1 (01:49:48):
Again, it does depend on how you come prepared. Did
you already eat a big.

Speaker 5 (01:49:54):
Lunch that day?

Speaker 1 (01:49:55):
You know, I don't want to get too much into
the muck of this. It's a pretty popular promotion.

Speaker 2 (01:49:59):
It's I'm sure it was not an issue, and I'm
sure they're happy with themselves, fans and UH University.

Speaker 1 (01:50:05):
But I'm gonna tell you something right now, just because
you know, it's we're still months away from this and
bringing up every year the hot dog eating competition every
year on our nation's birthday.

Speaker 2 (01:50:17):
Two years and a few days or two months in
a few days from now.

Speaker 1 (01:50:20):
It's just the most nauseating thing to watch ever, the
actual act of dipping a hot dog in the bun
in water so that you can get it more easily
down your gullet. And the guy Joey whatever his name is, and.

Speaker 2 (01:50:35):
Kobe his name is Joey Chestnut, and you know that
Kobeyashi no longer competes like he looks like he's dying
every time he does it. He looks like somebody. Yeah,
he does look awful as new most competitors. It's not
during you, of course it's not. I mean what is
Does he want a lot of money doing this?

Speaker 4 (01:50:56):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:50:57):
This is his livelihood, as it is for most of
the professional circuit.

Speaker 5 (01:51:02):
Yeah circuit.

Speaker 1 (01:51:04):
What is your How much longer is your livelihood going
to exist? If you keep doing this once a year?
He's world famous, no kidding, but doesn't mean he's going
to be famous for much longer. If he keeps doing this,
and then he'll be.

Speaker 2 (01:51:17):
He'll be fine. The IFOCEE is happy to have him.
What is it called International Federating of Competitive Eating?

Speaker 5 (01:51:28):
Is my guess?

Speaker 2 (01:51:30):
Jees, he's probably part of the m l E. What's
the most Major League eating? He's a rank number one?

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
What's the most you've consumed on a dollar hot dog night?
Have you ever like actually thought about it or even remember?

Speaker 5 (01:51:41):
At four?

Speaker 2 (01:51:42):
Probably because I was not really you are trying to
set a record. I was just eating, not even in
your younger days. Oh it's dollar dog night. Let's see
if me and the buddies who can eat the most.
My younger days, the deals we were seeking out were
more like big ass beer night, two dollars, beers, two dollars, pictures,
dollar beer, whatever the case may be. Necessarily going to

(01:52:02):
the ballpark for that somewhere to go on Tuesday. You
had somewhere to go on Wednesday, you get somewhere to
go on Thursday. Most of those places are not with
us anymore. People talk about the nine to nine to
nine thing. Yeah, at the ballpark, doing that is it's
for if, it's if you got a bunch of people
and it's a you create it.

Speaker 5 (01:52:19):
Ah, this is fun. They're doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:52:21):
Woh my god, we'll document it well social media. This
now it's not really that enjoyable.

Speaker 5 (01:52:26):
No, it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:52:27):
But to me, everybody talks about the hot dogs when
they talk about this, the beer is way more filling,
I would think. I mean, I don't know what size
the beers are, but standard what standard? Sixteen ounce? Twenty ounce?
A cup of beer ounce. I'll take a cup of
beer from the concessionaire. I think I could do that

(01:52:47):
today at my age. What would the nine liquid products
be for you?

Speaker 5 (01:52:53):
Because the beer.

Speaker 1 (01:52:54):
Something that's got to be comparable to beer. Beer is
flat soda. I was about to say beer is not
car beltzer necessary.

Speaker 2 (01:53:02):
Not a hard seltzer, just seltzer topoth some sort. All.

Speaker 5 (01:53:06):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:53:07):
That's the BS for today. You learned a little bit
about the IFOCE. I wouldn't have known that major league eating.

Speaker 1 (01:53:12):
Hey, there have been some actual, like some big time
we talked about this a little bit, some big time
managerial firings in.

Speaker 5 (01:53:19):
Major League Baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:53:20):
What does a former Astros manager, who, by the way,
could end up being on the hot seat this year,
believe it or not, and then would maybe make his
way back to Houston, Yes, as long.

Speaker 2 (01:53:32):
As he's not managing a first place team like he
is currently, What does.

Speaker 5 (01:53:35):
He have to say about these managerial firings? We will
hear from him next the a team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (01:53:44):
Yep, elected there by those like us, and uh cool
of the cool of that to happen, and I voted
for him. Also meant he got I did as well,
meant he got to spend a few minutes in both booths,
both with the the Astros television booth and the Astros
radio booth. Upon that announcement and reminded people of just
how long his voice and or face were seen and

(01:54:06):
or heard on our local broadcasts over the last decade
after decade after decade after decade.

Speaker 5 (01:54:14):
Do you remember his last year of doing Astros games.

Speaker 2 (01:54:17):
I don't remember the year, but I remember it. It
wasn't it was before aj Hinch came along correct during
doing Astros. It was, yes, he had gone correct. He
was with the on the Rockets television side for a
very very long period of time after he was no
longer on the hs HS.

Speaker 5 (01:54:36):
Crew Home Sports Entertainment.

Speaker 2 (01:54:38):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:54:38):
Once upon a time I would say it was this
channel that we were on earlier, But it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:54:44):
It's Nuts thirty seven, yep, it's it's different Homesports Entertainment.
Bill Warrel, Greg Lucas among those that would have been
seen there, Brownie, Brownie, for sure. I love these I
love them all.

Speaker 1 (01:54:59):
So aj Hinch got here or whenever he got here,
I can't remember the exact year for that.

Speaker 5 (01:55:03):
Either. Wasn't great times at first, Nope.

Speaker 2 (01:55:06):
They were a bad outfit and intending to rebuild through losing,
and he managed to get through it. Man, he got
through it all right. He was on the other side
of it, the winning side of it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:18):
But he has seen big names come and go many
many times in Major League Baseball, and well.

Speaker 2 (01:55:24):
Remember this was not managerial stop number one for him.

Speaker 5 (01:55:28):
Here in Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:55:29):
Was he Arizona before this? Yes? Okay, and he will
reference that here in this upcoming sound bite. What was
he talking about, Well, he's obviously aware since he's one
of the twenty eight managers that haven't been fired during
the season. I don't know how much lower that number
will go, but probably not going to stay at twenty eight.

Speaker 5 (01:55:46):
There's always firings late late in the season.

Speaker 2 (01:55:48):
But we've already seen two so far this season, two
outfits that thought they were going to win this year.
The Phillies fired Thompson, the Red Sox fired Cora. The
Detroit Tigers entered play today having won and lost the
same number of games. That's good enough for first place
in the American League Central at fifteen and fifteen. The
Guardians are also sixteen and sixteen, so a virtual tie there.

(01:56:09):
But aj Hint spent a little time on the National
Baseball Radio broadcast and was talking about just the situation,
how it comes to this and what people's feelings are
about this, and he has plenty of experience dealing with this.

Speaker 9 (01:56:22):
The reality is is the front office ownership. I mean
there's bosses. They make decisions whenever they seem, you know,
deem it to be what's best for the organization in
their eyes. I mean I've been I've been their replacement
manager in season that when I first got my first opportunity,
it was in May, and that seemed really early at
the time.

Speaker 3 (01:56:41):
And then there's so many things that go into this.

Speaker 5 (01:56:44):
But I think the thing.

Speaker 9 (01:56:45):
That I've noticed the most in my in my time
in the game is that nobody really wants this to happen.
I mean, maybe there's a subset of fans that always want.

Speaker 3 (01:56:54):
That that drastic.

Speaker 9 (01:56:55):
Accountability and somebody, you know, to be removed from that position.
And it's probably a little unfair to think that that's
the one thing that's that's holding a team back. It
is not an easy position to transition to in an offseason,
let alone in the middle of the season with clearly

(01:57:15):
things not going well.

Speaker 3 (01:57:16):
In the field.

Speaker 2 (01:57:17):
AJ's situation is pretty unique and some managers have it
now most managers don't. He had zero full seasons as
manager in his first stop he just mentioned. He got
hired in May of the two thousand and nine season
in Arizona. Managed the rest of that season one hundred
and thirty three games worth. He was fired the following
season in season after seventy nine games and they were

(01:57:41):
seventeen games under five hundred. Five years later, after moving
around in different parts of a couple of Major League
organizations front office and otherwise scouting department, he became manager
of the Astros. He will retire at some point and
he'll have the best winning percentage as a manager with
the Astros.

Speaker 5 (01:57:57):
He'll never get there. With the Tigers.

Speaker 2 (01:57:59):
He's six years and with the Tigers he's still twenty
two games under five hundred. There. Five years with the Astros,
he finished one hundred and forty one hundred and fifty
two games above five hundred, almost sixty percent of his
managed games here in Houston, all five seasons were full seasons.

Speaker 5 (01:58:17):
They won almost sixty percent of those games.

Speaker 2 (01:58:19):
He hadn't even sniffed that in the other eight seasons
he's been on the bench. He's had good seasons in
Detroit quite obviously. They have flirted with winning the division
last year, made the playoffs, they eliminated the Astros from
the playoffs the year before. Those are the two seasons
of the five completed seasons. This is year six he's
reached the playoffs. He reached the playoffs with the Astros

(01:58:40):
in all of his seasons, but that twenty sixteen season
where they went eighty four and seventy eight. He finished
things up with the Astros. Because obviously every manager has
fired after one hundred and seven win season, which was
preceded by one hundred and three wins, which was preceded
by one hundred and one wins. I would imagine he's
the first manager in history to win three hundred and
eleven games in the season three seasons prior to his firing.

Speaker 1 (01:59:02):
Jim Crane is injected with truth serum and he has asked,
do you think he jumped the gun firing Luno and
aj Hensch after the scandal?

Speaker 2 (01:59:09):
He says what he might do the Wexler style of answering,
a little bit of hemming and hawing and wondering if
he should ask do you think that was my only option?
Do you think I even had an option?

Speaker 1 (01:59:22):
Well, if you're telling me that Major League Baseball told
him to do that, mm hm and keep it on
the DL. Then they're the ones that forced him to
do that. Oh, it's absolutely believable.

Speaker 2 (01:59:31):
That's why I wonder, you know, major League Baseball saying well,
this is the punishment we want to hand out. You
can do this, We can accept that, and maybe there
was a little bit of involvement there. Aj Hinch Obviously,
like Alex Korra, has gotten another managerial job. I mentioned
the other day Alex core getting fired by the Red

(01:59:52):
Sox was the second time they'd fired him. The Red
Sox have fired Alex Cora more than once now, and
I think he's managing in baseball as soon as he
wants to. Apparently he didn't want to manage the Phillies
or he wanted to be with his family, But it
very much seems like that was the timing of it.
If the Phillies asking him again after the season, or
if somebody else asking him to again some point down
the road before the twenty twenty seven twenty twenty eight season,

(02:00:14):
I should say, because factor this indocorus situation, he's being
paid for two more years of managing the Red Sox, right, yes,
is anybody managing any games in the second of those
two years when there aren't any games.

Speaker 1 (02:00:31):
It's a good point. I mean, everybody's forgetting about that.
It's kind of comical. We finally got abs system in place.
We finally have, you know, a situation where I think
it's you're happy about the calls at least from a
balls and strike standpoint, and you.

Speaker 5 (02:00:48):
Get to enjoy it for one whole year before nothing. Yeah,
we'll see where it goes.

Speaker 2 (02:00:52):
One question I would have loved to ask Spencer Araghedtty,
and we'll do so in the future because he has
some very good thoughts on it.

Speaker 5 (02:00:58):
But the questions we did ask Spencer.

Speaker 2 (02:00:59):
Agedy or earlier today, well you're gonna hear his answers
to them when he joins the show. Next to Astros
no game tonight. If you hadn't already figured it out,
they will play a doubleheader tomorrow. Today's game inclement whether
has postponed it to our football at five special today
is an interview with Spencer Araghetty.

Speaker 5 (02:01:15):
That's next, an.

Speaker 2 (02:01:18):
Ala of the program, which we otherwise would not have
had if not for the postponement. On the Major League
Baseball side, where the Astros and Orioles no game today postponed.
They'll play two tomorrow, beginning on eleven thirty five right
here on Sports Talk seven to ninety for first pitch,
ten thirty for our coverage to begin. Lance mccullor's junior
will get the ball in the second game. Peter Lambert
gets the ball in the first game. We've not yet

(02:01:39):
given you the amount of money that reportedly the Texans
are committed to giving Aziz al Schier on a three
year contract extension, but they've come to an agreement with
him on that, though they have not yet announced it themselves.
Their social media team posting a gift of Aziz as
a pretty good indicator that the ports are accurate that

(02:01:59):
he will be remaining here in Houston. Was under contract
for this upcoming season on his original three year deal,
but now has more years added to it, which was
always going to be the case. I wouldn't say easy
to get done, but both sides very determined to remain
partners in having one of the best defenses in the NFL,
so obviously that's.

Speaker 5 (02:02:18):
Very very good news.

Speaker 2 (02:02:19):
We visited with Spencer Arraghetti earlier today right out of
the shoot here on the A team in advance of
him doing his work in between starts. We'll get the
ball in Boston later on during this road trip a Friday,
Saturday Sunday set of three games. There after they play
there too tomorrow. It's nice that everybody who needed a
little extra rest from a pitching standpoint gets it today,

(02:02:41):
because nobody is needed. But now you head into a
situation where you're playing five games in four days to
close out this road trip. Not necessarily ideal, probably helps
the team a little bit that they also had days
off last Friday and this Monday leading into this series
in Baltimore. But portion of our conversation that we had
with Spencer wanted to share that with you here. You
can catch it in its entirety right there on our

(02:03:02):
blog It's Sports Talk seventy nine, Sign seven ninety dot
comvy our podcast, or of course, subscribing to our podcast
via the Heart Radio app. It begins with his answer
to my question about how awesome it was after helping
to crush the Yankees, he was able to run the
bases Sunday afternoon at Dyke and Park with his wife
and two new kids.

Speaker 3 (02:03:23):
That was fantastic. I mean, those memories you can't put
a price tag on him. It's just becoming a new
dad has been the biggest blessing I've ever had. And
I have a rock star wife at home. It's taken
great care of him while we're on the road, so
I sleep well at night on the road knowing that.
And yeah, it's just been it's been such a journey.
I mean they've only been here for going on six

(02:03:45):
weeks now, but it's been the best six weeks of
my life. And I wouldn't I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Speaker 1 (02:03:49):
We've heard about Dad's strength, but is it double dad strength?

Speaker 5 (02:03:53):
Is that thing? Is that real? Is that a real thing?

Speaker 3 (02:03:56):
I don't know, man, maybe maybe not for me.

Speaker 1 (02:03:58):
But well, you didn't let Yeah, you looked like you
were well rested on Sunday, as wex mentioned, just mowing
down the Yankees. Now, I will say we got a
kick out of it because I was actually there with
a buddy and we were sitting fairly close to the
Astros on deck circle and when Aaron Judge hit that
home run, you looked like you were down by ten runs.

(02:04:19):
The way you reacted, I just know that that killed you,
because that was like the only blemish on an sensational
outing for you your latest this season.

Speaker 3 (02:04:28):
Yeah, I definitely I tend to beat myself up, probably
a little more than I should. I knew that the
scoreboards still said seven to one, but selfishly I wanted
it to say seven to zero. So it is what
it is. I mean, he's one of the best hitters
on earth for a reason, and I honestly, I've gone
back and watched it a few times. I think he
hit a pretty good pitch over the fence. I mean
I didn't, I didn't let go of it and immediately no,

(02:04:49):
I wasn't getting the ball back. I felt pretty good
about it. So I mean, that's just it's just a
testament to him as a hitter. He's tough to keep
in the yard. I mean I already got him over two,
so you know, he looked at averages, you look at
the numbers. It's like, all right, third time when he
might get me here. But at the same time, I'm
always proud of my best to just put as many
oh for threes in the books as I can.

Speaker 2 (02:05:09):
What do you think about your first three starts? We've
obviously heard from in between each one and since each one,
and that maybe you didn't have the same stuff each day.
Your execution certainly has helped. What do you think about
what you've brought to the table those three starts.

Speaker 3 (02:05:23):
Yeah, I mean my first two, I kind of feel
like I sprayed it a little bit more than I
wanted to. Obviously, I got a lot of chases in
the in the rocky start, which always helps the game.
In Cleveland, I somehow was the only one that had
to pitsh in sub forty degree tempts, and I've probably
only done that a handful of time in my life
at this point, with grown up in the South, so
it was a little bit of a grinder for me.

(02:05:43):
And then the one against the Yankees the other day,
I mean I put that up there in top top three,
top five outings in my entire career. I really feel
like when you can put together a good one against
that franchise, it always feels a little bit better. I've
my dad is probably the biggest Yankee hater on planet
Earth and always has been, so I got a little

(02:06:04):
bit of that seat in me from him, and every
time I take the ball against them, I really just
I want to keep it. I want to keep it
as close enoughing as possible, and I feel like I've
been throwing the ball well. I mean, Kurent ball's been
really good. Myself's been really good. Fast off command the
other day was a lot better than it wasn't my
first two outing, So I was really proud of that
and obviously just trying to continue to build on that.

Speaker 2 (02:06:23):
I think our listeners would really enjoy if you'd share
with them why your dad hates the Yankees as much
as they do.

Speaker 3 (02:06:30):
Well, honestly, so, he's a Braves fan, and I don't
really think he had that much of a reason too.
I think he just has never been a fan of
the franchise as a whole because of I don't know.
I mean, you could save the whole free agency thing.
They kind of get whoever they want, whenever they want.
I know the Dodgers are like that now too. But
I think that he's just I think he's always just

(02:06:52):
been a hater at heart. I don't think there's really
too much of a reason why.

Speaker 5 (02:06:56):
It sounds like a fine American to me.

Speaker 3 (02:06:58):
We like it, Yeah, exactly exactly in Houston, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:07:03):
Absolutely that's baked in the cake these days. Speaking of
baked in the cake, you guys are dealing with just
an inordinate amount of injuries. Yet again, you were part
of that this time last year, just kind of and
we've asked several guests this, I think Christian Walker we
asked this.

Speaker 5 (02:07:19):
You know, what's what's.

Speaker 2 (02:07:20):
It like in the clubhouse, especially with Joe Aspota having
to juggle now an eleventh different starter as of yesterday,
and especially on the pitching side, since you're more familiar
with that, what's the mood of the teams you try
to navigate through just a lot of uncertainty because of
guys being unavailable.

Speaker 3 (02:07:40):
That's a tough question to answer, to be honest with you, man,
I mean that we all know injuries are part of
the game. Obviously. We we do what we do every
day knowing that we're putting a lot on the line
and that a lot can go wrong in baseball. So
I say, is a picture. I mean, you're always one
bullet away from being on the shelf. And as much
as it sucks, I mean, the guys were really resilient

(02:08:00):
as a group. I firmly believe that, and I firmly
believe that regardless of who goes up, who's down, I
think it's always the next man of mentality, and I
know that we all know the expectation. I mean, we
talk about it in spring training when there's fifty guys
in the locker room and not twenty six. We all
know that we're we're in the picture and going to
be part of the team at some point and going
to play some kind of role. So I know, like

(02:08:21):
I was I got option out of spring training this year,
I knew I was going to be part of the team,
and I kept working like I was on the team already.
You know, I think that we have a lot of
guys in Triple are that are ready to go at
any given time. I know that the guys that are
in the clubhouse right now on the big league side
that are rehabbing, those guys are grinding, trying to get right,
trying to get healthy. And it's it's tough, you know.
You see guys, you see guys go down, and it's

(02:08:43):
definitely discouraging. But I feel like for the most part,
we just don't really have any We don't have any
quit in us. You know, We're going to keep it,
going to keep showing up, going to keep working like
it's the first game of the year. I think that
every every day. We have the same goals to get
better and to win the game that day. And I
think that things are going to turn in our favorite
eventually because of that.

Speaker 2 (02:09:01):
Spencer Araghetti joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
on the A team in advance of no Baseball this afternoon.
They have a doubleheader tomorrow. Today's game has been postponed.
Like you were saying, three of the five guys you
started the year in the rotation with with the Space
Cowboys have made starts now for the Astros. Today's starter
will now be tomorrow's game one starter, Peter Lambert. Once

(02:09:22):
you tell us a little bit about what you found
out about Peter over the course of spring training, the
time you spent together there and now here with the Astros.
Not only is Arsenal but the man himself who we
spoke to a week ago.

Speaker 3 (02:09:32):
He's a dog man. He's nasty, he's got great stuff.
He's got a really good fastball, he's got really good
secondary offering. Pete and I we play golf together a
little bit. We like to hang out, you get get
food together. I mean, he's a little bit quiet when
you first meet him, but once you get him out
of his shell. He's a really funny cat. He's had
a lot of stories about his time in the big

(02:09:53):
leagues elsewhere and about his time in Japan, and it's
really just a pleasure to be around. He's a great dude,
really hard worker, and like I said, I mean he's nasty.
He's got big leak stuff, he's got big league mentality.
When he's out there on the mound, he.

Speaker 2 (02:10:07):
Will hope to give the Astros a chance to take
a game from the Oriols again. He gets the ball tomorrow,
eleven thirty five, first pitch for now, the second of
the three games of the series. No game today with
the postpone went great visit with Spencer Araghetti. If you
missed that earlier or missed some of that there, like
I said, you can catch the entire interview Vie the
iHeartRadio app a couple of things that he was mentioning.
I'll get to before we hit the brake and get

(02:10:29):
back into a little bit more both football and situations
revolving around Game five tonight between the Rockets and the Lakers.
Rehabbing pitcher Nate Pearson made a second rehab appearance earlier
today yesterday. It was Corpus Christy Hook's rehab assignment for
Tatsuya Emi, and today it was Nate Pearson's turn again.

(02:10:51):
Whether it's working on stuff or not always hard to tell,
but I can't tell you. Results for both of them
were probably very undesirable. Was able to throw fifty three pitches,
but that only got him six outs, two innings worth
of work, four hits, four runs, three walks, and his
afternoon was done by the way. Zac Decenzo also rehabbing there,

(02:11:14):
and he started to play a little bit better and
better and played first, third and outfield already. He's hitting
four hundred, had another multi hit game yesterday's game.

Speaker 5 (02:11:23):
I brought that up on social media.

Speaker 2 (02:11:25):
Yesterday he gave the ball to tatsu Emi, the first
of his rehab appearances. Undoubtedly there will be more, and
this one was not very good. He pitched into the
third inning but only faced one batter because after the
seventh pitch at bat, the seventh pitch went over the fence,
one of the many extra base hits he allowed. He
threw fifty three pitches, so fifty two pitches, or excuse me,

(02:11:47):
you got forty six pitches to get through two innings
of work. Give up two runs of the first, gave
up two more in the second, six hits, four walks,
and throw a wild pitch and had a pitch timer violation,
so he was healthy enough to give them fifty three.
I don't have a report from Joe or Dana on
exactly what it looked like and velocity and things like that,

(02:12:10):
but obviously more to come.

Speaker 1 (02:12:12):
I just want things to improve, that's all I want
here in Houston.

Speaker 2 (02:12:17):
Well, they improve when you throw better pitchers in your games,
and today or tomorrow now will be one of them.
And now you have to hope that Burrows, McCullers, who
throws tomorrow, and anybody else they give the ball to
besides Spencer and Peter can get it going a little
bit again. The stuff from both Lance and Mike Burrows,
it just doesn't seem like it's bad. It just seems

(02:12:39):
like they're much more capable of getting in and out
of innings without having him blow up on them. Twenty
five and thirty pitch innings, three and four run explosions
for the opponents. Definitely in Burrow's case, and clearly mcculler's
is throwing the ball a lot better than he did
last year. The results just aren't that much better than
last year. He is one of tomorrow's two starting pitchers.

(02:12:59):
Got tickets to give away this hour, We'll do that
if you want to go see Dave Matthews orsting. We
have tickets to both of those shows mentioned, both the
Texans and the Rockets coming up. On the NFL side,
There is one piece of pretty significant news here in
the state of Texas on the NFL side that we
have not yet mentioned.

Speaker 5 (02:13:16):
We will do that next.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
A little bit closer to tip off tonight. No new
information just as of yet about Austin Reeves availability for
tonight's Game five between the Lakers and the Rockets. Rockets
obviously have extended this series with their Game four victory
back at Toyta Center lopsided one fifteen to ninety six.
Been outscored by the Lakers by one point through the
first four games of the series, but by more than

(02:13:40):
one point in each of the first three games, which
is why they're down three games to one. It could
be one of two series that ends tonight. The number
one seeded Detroit Pistons are back at home but facing
elimination at the hands of the Orlando Magic and James
Harden's team is looking to go back in front in
the series. They won their first two games at home,

(02:14:02):
lost their two games in Toronto and Cleveland, hosting Game
five tonight Calves and Raptors, obviously the nightcap the Rockets
and the Lakers. Austin Reeves and the oblique that's had
him out almost a full month. He last played on
April second, missed the final regular five regular season games,
each of the four games of this series that have

(02:14:22):
been played, but optimism that he will emerge healthy enough
to play tonight.

Speaker 5 (02:14:28):
So that is.

Speaker 1 (02:14:32):
Going to clearly help the Lakers cause from a scoring standpoint.
But I said something to Matt about this during the broadcast. No,
I don't think that not having Austin Reeves is going
to make them better. But when they've had as many
guys as they've had step up in his in Luka

(02:14:53):
Doncic's absence, and there's a rhythm to everything and all that,
do you think there's somewhere in the back of the
Laker's mind where, of course they would never admit this,
did maybe they worry about that throwing things off as
opposed to maybe just getting him in for Game one.

Speaker 2 (02:15:10):
If they advance against the thunder start fresh. I would
never think like that. I can't tell you if the
Lakers are or aren't. I can't imagine a reason for
them to think like this. And I look back at
what's happened in this series for at least one reason why.
There are nine Lakers that have played every game of
this series. Four guys off the bench have played in
every game. All of them have played at least thirty minutes.

(02:15:31):
An average of eight minutes per game is being gifted
to Bronnie James. There's no way in hell he's playing
in this game unless it's a blowoup if Austin Reeves
has returned, So those minutes are now Austin's at the
very very least, the very very very least. Jake Laravia
better than fifteen minutes a game. Sixteen minutes a game
he's out, He's giving them a bunch of fouls and

(02:15:54):
a couple of rebounds.

Speaker 5 (02:15:55):
Those minutes can be his.

Speaker 2 (02:15:56):
He's Jayshaon Tate.

Speaker 5 (02:15:57):
Most notably, you now have a three guard rotation. That
is good.

Speaker 2 (02:16:02):
They're playing Bronnie James because they don't have any other
ball handlers available, which is embarrassing.

Speaker 5 (02:16:06):
I can't even believe it.

Speaker 2 (02:16:07):
But they have two huge ball handlers not available, so
that's why you're at number five. Well, now Brownie pushes
back to number four that's available. He won't play, So
you now don't have Luke Canard out there for anywhere
near the forty minutes he's averaging. You don't have l
Marcus Smart out there for nearly the thirty five minutes
that he's averaging. You get Austin Reeves out there, probably
as a starter if you want. I would. I don't

(02:16:29):
think there's much wrong with maybe bringing him off the
bench if that's what you desire, just because he brings
a different element. But between those three guys, now you
have three other ball handlers instead of Lebron James, which
is what they obviously want. This is, I think is
a huge, huge factor in this series. You're just gonna
get less volume production from Marcus Smart and Luke Canard,
but between you're getting thirty five points from those two

(02:16:51):
right now per game. If Austin Reeves plays twenty five minutes,
you're gonna get more than thirty five points from those three.
I would think pretty likely, I would not all if
he's healthy he's playing. That's all there is to it.
You don't play with this, you don't mess around, you
don't play with your food. The series isn't over yet,
end it. Yeah, you think each other thing. He oblaks

(02:17:11):
are like, I can't believe he's trying to play.

Speaker 5 (02:17:14):
It's a four to six week injuries. Basically four weeks. See,
I thought it was less than that. Well, April second
is when he was hurt. Four weeks from then would
be April thirtieth. Today's the twenty.

Speaker 1 (02:17:24):
Nine, and he's not violently swinging a bat like you know,
we've seen obleak injuries for jord On Alvarez. Keep him up,
keep him out much longer than four weeks, as I recall.

Speaker 2 (02:17:33):
And all of his treatment I believe came from the States,
but I didn't even fly to Spain.

Speaker 1 (02:17:38):
Well, that's different. That's a different guy on their team.
That's a hamstring situation.

Speaker 2 (02:17:41):
And the further away from Game one we've gotten, the
further away from the reports about Luca being anywhere near
ready to come back have become Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:17:51):
He's not. He's definitely not playing in this series.

Speaker 2 (02:17:54):
But I think it's gotten closer to saying he's not
going to be back for another three to four weeks
at the minute. It's a tear in his hamstring, right,
I mean, I dare you to play him. That's gonna
be good for the rest of the Western Conference next
year when he like rips it off the bone. But
I'm telling you what if Austin Reeves does play. I
know it's not baseball, I know he's not violently swinging

(02:18:15):
a bat, but there are hrky jerky movements all the
time in NBA games, and reaggravating that is not out
of the question.

Speaker 5 (02:18:22):
And then where are you because again, you're right where
you were.

Speaker 2 (02:18:25):
When the series began. I mean for this series, it's
I would not put him out there unless it's Game seven.
You don't need to.

Speaker 5 (02:18:32):
You've got a three to one league.

Speaker 2 (02:18:34):
Definitely not think like that.

Speaker 1 (02:18:35):
Well, you're okay if you advance. You want a one
healthy Austin Reeves going against the Thunder. You absolutely have
a chance of that not happening if you bring him
back before that series.

Speaker 2 (02:18:48):
I mean, yes, you do for sure, like a good
chance you play him tonight he helps you end the series.
You got another three days off, four days off. Maybe
you start the series on the second, the third, the fourth.

Speaker 1 (02:18:59):
Which you tonight, he reaggravates the injury, you're not winning
a game against here.

Speaker 2 (02:19:04):
To me, if he reaggraates the injury on April twenty ninth,
he's almost as likely to reaggravated on May second, or fourth,
or six, third, eighth found if he's been rusting it.
I mean, I know what you're saying, healing. They don't
clear players to play in the playoffs unless they in
anywhere other than Golden State. When dealing with Kevin Durant,
unless they're ready to play, you blame them for his achilles,

(02:19:29):
don't you. Yes, that's what I thought, and I still
can't believe the Rockets lost that series.

Speaker 6 (02:19:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:19:36):
I mentioned a couple of things.

Speaker 2 (02:19:37):
On the NFL side, the Cowboys and George Pickens at
least can agree on one thing. He's going to play
for them next year, to the tune of twenty seven
plus million dollars. The Cowboys actually announced it he has
signed his franchise tag twenty seven point three million dollars
for the coming season, and again in the rite up
of their own on their own website. This means that

(02:19:58):
Pickens understands and is willing to be present for mandatory
mini camp in June or risk being fined by for
his absences. I brought that up yesterday and we saw
a little bit of that here in Houston when they
were dealing with the Jdevian clowning and the franchise tag.
You get the franchise tag, you are tagged with it,
but you haven't signed it. When that happens during that

(02:20:18):
franchise tag window, and then there's no long term contract.
If you don't sign the franchise tag, you're not going anywhere,
you're not about to be moved, you're not talking to
other teams about playing for them. But you're also not
under contract. So when they have mandatory attendance camps, mandatory
mini camp, well you're not on the team, so they
can't find you for missing it because you're not under contract.

(02:20:41):
You haven't signed your deal. I thought that was a
card he might play. Apparently has decided that he won't
play it and will appear at their mandatory mini camps
everywhere around the NFL. They put the dates out over
the last few days and today kind of locking that
up with when teams will hold their rookie mini camps.
They're voluntary otis and obviously they're a mandatory camp and

(02:21:03):
Texans are no different.

Speaker 5 (02:21:04):
They're in that group of workout program dates.

Speaker 2 (02:21:07):
Their program overall got started, as many teams did, just
before the draft. April twentieth was their first day back
at the facility as a team, a team without a
new head coach. Most of them began that day. Their
OTAs are a little less than a month away. They'll
love two weeks end of May, first week of June,
they'll have those two sessions. Mandatory mini camp is that

(02:21:28):
next week, so over a three week period end of
May beginning of June, that's essentially where they'll take care
of their off season program prior to getting together for
their actual training camp and rookie Minicamp for some teams
is this weekend. For the Texans, it's the following weekend,
May seventh through ninth, So some rando quarterback that won't
be with the Texans will be out there with them.

(02:21:50):
Maybe Graham Mertz will be out there with him and
a handful of tryout players along with their hopefully all
eight of their draftees and they're I believe it was
eleven undrafted free agents that have been reportedly signed by
the Texans.

Speaker 1 (02:22:03):
We have not so far, and we still have time
to if we want. Played the SoundBite of Nick Caseario
completely gassing up CJ. Stroud's offseason.

Speaker 2 (02:22:11):
Oh, his quarterback, I'm talking positively about him. Sounded like
Jabari Smith talking about the Rockets getting victories and Alprin
Shingoon's thinking they're going to make the Lakers nervous. It
is the biggest offseason for CJ. Stroud and his brief
tenure as Texans quarterback, and we will do that as
we continue here on the A Team. An way through
the final hour of the day's program, wex josh Ac

(02:22:34):
here with you. We get you caught up with a
few items we need to revisit or get to in
the first place here on In case you missed it,
you mentioned something from Nick Caseo. He's made a couple
of the rounds, a little bit of the in house
media has spoken with him, the out house media. We
also got a chance to speak with him and he
paid a visit to his good friend Pat McAfee on
his program and was talking about c J. Stroud and

(02:22:56):
how things are going this off season with all the
other moves they've made still time for him to talk
about his quarterback and all the good things about him.

Speaker 8 (02:23:04):
To approach it this year with the right attitude and
just go out there and play good, consistent football. I mean,
CJ is one of the better quarterbacks here in the league.
He's shown that in the first three years. You know,
right now we're in the offseason program here, he's been,
he's been here, he's been involved, he had a good attitude,
he's worked really hard. So again, it's focus on the
things that you can improve, you know, correct some of
the things or where the areas of growth. I mean,

(02:23:25):
that's what this program and that's what the focus is
for him and our program, and Demiko talks to the
players about that all the time. So it's just kind
of focusing on yourself and continually improving and getting better
and then growing any areas that you know, we've identified
that we feel you can growth. And you know, we're
glad that he's here. We're glad he's under center, and
glad that he's our quarterback.

Speaker 2 (02:23:44):
Pretty simple, he said many of those lines many many
times over. Glad he's in our program, Glad he's our quarterback.
He's one of the best quarterbacks in this league, which
again I don't know where you're tearing all this stuff off.
He's that's a pretty it's probably accurate at this point
to call him one of the best quarterbacks in this league,

(02:24:04):
not based on performance. Even if you couple together three
years like he did there there's just more guys. There's
more guys that have outplayed him. Like whether they're better
than him or not, I can change that. All we
have to go buy is how their performances have been
in his more recent performances, and that's two of the
years out of his three have not put him at
the standard of one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

(02:24:24):
He's not played like one of the better quarterbacks in
this league in either twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five.
Good enough to win twenty two times as a team
and start all those games in either of those seasons
the last two years, and good enough to win a
pair of games in the playoffs with CJ stradded quarterback,
including the team's first ever win outside of n R

(02:24:45):
G Lynt Stadium.

Speaker 1 (02:24:47):
It's gonna be so easy for that to just start
rolling off the tongue again.

Speaker 2 (02:24:51):
A bunch of other things for us to get to
and a reminder. In the final segment of the show,
we will both give our final predictions on what will
take place in Game five tonight, but give you your
opportunity to go see Dave Matthews at the Woodlands Pavilion
or Sting at the Woodlands Pavilion. Both of them on
different nights, will be performing in May. What else do
we have this afternoon on in case you missed it, Josh.

Speaker 10 (02:25:12):
Yeah, I'm just gonna pivot quickly here and stay with
the Texans. Since you guys started the segment with that,
we have the number in Texans linebacker as he's al Shire.
We heard earlier he had the extension. It looks like
it's the three year, fifty four million dollar extension. And
one of the complaints I had about the draft was
they had that opportunity to draft Anthony Hill Junior, and

(02:25:32):
I thought that was a good spot to get a
linebacker because we know that al Shire and Tote we're
going to be free agents.

Speaker 5 (02:25:38):
Well now that's not the case. Al Shire extended.

Speaker 10 (02:25:41):
The Texans of course knew this ahead of time, and
you got your linebacker locked up here for a few
more years.

Speaker 2 (02:25:46):
Yeah, fifty four millions separated over the three years. It
does several things. Obviously, gets a player who's played well paid.
It alleviates a little bit of money off of the
cap in twenty twenty five or twenty twenty six, excuse me,
because of the contract that he was already working under.
And it's one of the reasons why you have these extensions.
Gives you a break now, it will probably have the

(02:26:07):
ability to give them a break later, probably even in
twenty twenty eight or excuse me, twenty twenty seven. There's
probably the way it is structured that it helps them out.
They've got a concrete number, but that money, like every
piece of money that's involved in manipulating the cap, Oh,
we can push it further down. An extension will help
us do this. A restructured will help us do that,
and void years. It's just down the road, down the road,

(02:26:29):
down the road. The cap keeps going up. The percentage
of the cap that's being eaten by this player's contract
or the dead money, you know, is staring you in
the face down the road.

Speaker 5 (02:26:37):
It just becomes easier to overcome it.

Speaker 8 (02:26:39):
Every year.

Speaker 2 (02:26:40):
When you keep pushing it all down the road, it
will be interesting though, what does happen next off season.
We're forecasting no extension for CJ. Stroud this offseason, so
next off season would need to come. We're forecasting both
of the players in the secondary that will complete season
number three next year, Kamari Last and Kayln Bullock will

(02:27:02):
be in line for an extension, and Henry Toto will
complete his fourth season later round draft picked and probably
not going to get extended this year and would otherwise
be a free agent. And I'm curious for how strong
their defense is, for how much money is invested in
their defense, for the manner in which they acquired the
player to perform as he did, which is a later

(02:27:23):
round pick. Is there a desire to keep him here?
Is their money to keep him here?

Speaker 5 (02:27:30):
Well?

Speaker 1 (02:27:30):
Isn't he part of I don't want to say the
group that's expendable, because that's.

Speaker 5 (02:27:36):
Just somebody that's kind of I just laid it all
out to use that word day exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:27:41):
So as he's clearly isn't expendable, as they is just
evidenced by this quarterback of the defense, he is definitely,
in my avillion not expendable.

Speaker 1 (02:27:50):
Right, But like you say that, and we say that
all the time we talked about Dimiko is that as
that guy when he was a player here, But it's
true and I think it was, and it was also
Brian Cushing, and I think that was what made Demko's
departure a little bit more easier to stomach, I guess
at the time. But also you know, he was just

(02:28:11):
I think he had some beef with the team at
that point.

Speaker 2 (02:28:14):
Well, his health was also, obviously for that very reason, right,
a factor. But Toto has been a two year starter,
uber productive both years. There's things he does well, there's
things you'd like to see.

Speaker 5 (02:28:23):
Him do better. Is he replaceable?

Speaker 2 (02:28:25):
Yeah, it's what it comes down to. And I pointed
out where he's acquired. One hundred and sixty six players
are off the board before they draft him in the
fifth round in twenty twenty three. You know, GMS, this
is where they expect to churn over. It's a lot
like the running back position. Who was their running back
last year was Woody Marx and who was his backup
when Nick Chubb wasn't available, and even later round pick

(02:28:47):
in Juwar Jordan. They didn't even draft a running back
yet this year. Obviously at all, I think that's a position.
And in their defense, there's only two linebackers, but one
of the two of them, and in many defense is
one of the three of them. They're the one who is, oh,
we're just gonna find somebody to do what he did
and for less money or the same money that player
was making, because to a toe is money.

Speaker 5 (02:29:08):
He got a lot of.

Speaker 2 (02:29:09):
Money in incentive based pay. Performance based pay, I think
is actually the proper term. Because of how well he's played.
He actually he more than doubled the amount of money
he was going to make during the time he's been
on the field.

Speaker 1 (02:29:21):
So for him, he is not I'm not trying to
be downgrade him as it were, But when I start
thinking about that group those guys that we're talking about here,
that though, okay, who are the expendables if you will.
When I start thinking about like the Kamari Lassiters of
the world, or I guess anybody behind that linebacking corps,

(02:29:44):
I think I'm gonna it's gonna it's gonna hurt more
if they part ways with them versus him. It's again
not to take anything away from what he's done. I
just think you can find guys that have done what
he has done easily more easily in the draft, or
what you know elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (02:30:02):
Then is your tenth or eleventh best player on defense.
It's not a shot at him, it's more actually speak
if seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, whatever you want to think
about your tackles, read blanket ship and your other.

Speaker 1 (02:30:13):
Linebacker, rank the defensive players that start in you know,
one through eleven, and just go.

Speaker 2 (02:30:20):
Like that that's what I'm doing. It's not I don't
think that's a horrible approach to this. And he will
have a home a very lucrative two seconds elsewhere in
the NFL.

Speaker 5 (02:30:29):
What else EJ. Speed.

Speaker 10 (02:30:30):
Let's keep in mind too signed a two year extension
this offseason and that was two years thirteen mil.

Speaker 5 (02:30:36):
Then only seven and a half guaranteed. So that's your
other linebacker on the roster. That sounds a lot like
a one year deal, sure does. When do you put
it that way?

Speaker 2 (02:30:45):
I just think that that's how you structure that deal.
It gets a little lecture guaranteed money. The expectation is
you'll eat the dead cap hit in twenty twenty seven,
when likely you move on from one another, which would
be my guess.

Speaker 5 (02:31:00):
Yep, get a flip over here to baseball quickly.

Speaker 10 (02:31:02):
You guys mentioned it earlier, tetsu Emi struggle in a
little bit there. Here's my biggest concern with that, the
twenty nine pitches he had to throw in the first inning.
You don't want to see a guy coming off arm
fatigue having to throw almost thirty pitches in the first
inning more batters walked. That's kind of my biggest concern
there is you got to find a way to get
it in the zone because those things go together. When

(02:31:24):
you're throwing that many pitches and you have arm problems,
that's not a good thing.

Speaker 2 (02:31:29):
Yeah, from Afar. I mentioned this on my social yesterday.
Walk walk, single ground out, single caught stealing, walk, line out.
That's how he got to twenty nine pitches in the
first inning, three walks in the opening inning of his
first rehab.

Speaker 1 (02:31:47):
Aparents he's not coming off a catastrophic arm injury like
Lance mccolors.

Speaker 5 (02:31:52):
But doesn't this remind you of Lance mc colors.

Speaker 1 (02:31:53):
Oh, look, he's trying to come back from an injury
to his arm and now he's walking a bunch of backs.

Speaker 5 (02:31:57):
It doesn't to me because it's what he was doing
before he got hurt, that's true, and Lance wasn't doing
that much.

Speaker 2 (02:32:02):
What does remind me of Lance is his pitches have
so much movement on it. Guys are like, well, why
should I swing at It's not gonna end up in
the strike zone. It's a pit it's not a hitter's pitch,
all right, it's not a pitcher's pitch. If he's trying
to fool me, that's a fair point. And he's not
the thrown strike. He's not fully anybody, No, he's not.
So not a very good appearance for him. But again,
if he's healthy, comes out of it healthy and is

(02:32:22):
capable of going back out there again and maybe getting
more like sixty five to seventy five pitches, very wealthy
appearance after that, could be once again back in the
Astros rotation. All Right, finally get that.

Speaker 1 (02:32:35):
That's true, Spencer are Getty's not giving up his spot
our guest from earlier. All right, final segment of the show.
We'll give away some tickets. We'll get you often running
with our predictions about tonight's Game five and call it
a Wednesday when we come back.

Speaker 2 (02:32:51):
So we're gonna get into our thoughts on what's gonna
play out tonight. The NBA's postseason hopefully continues for both
teams in the Lakers Rockets series, and I don't care
if it continues for both teams in the Pistons Magic Series.
I think the Pistons are doomed regardless whether it's this
series or the next one. And obviously James Harden's team,
I'd love to see them advance. It's usually a good
storyline and they could take a three games to two

(02:33:13):
lead in their series if they are.

Speaker 5 (02:33:16):
Victoria's real quick on that on that team.

Speaker 1 (02:33:18):
Yeah, Well, we've talked about how Giannis's name is linked
with the Rockets and Kawhi's name is linked with Why
are people linking Donovan Mitchell to anybody, let alone the Rockets?

Speaker 5 (02:33:28):
Is he not happy there? And I'm not aware of this.

Speaker 2 (02:33:30):
I'm not really sure if they think they can be.
I mean, they're they're kind of stuck again. Donovan Mitchell
led team. They're clearly not one of the best teams
in the East unless they show us otherwise in the playoffs,
and what they're showing so far is the opposite. They're
struggling to get past Toronto.

Speaker 1 (02:33:46):
Like Donovan Mitchell with James Harden in a weaker conference
can't get it done. But Donovan Mitchell with an older
Kevin Durant in a better Western conference.

Speaker 5 (02:33:54):
We're not done. Now you're bringing him to Houston. That's
what I'm saying. Oh wow, that's what I said.

Speaker 2 (02:33:58):
He's been connected to them, he has to the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (02:34:02):
Yes, I know he's been connected to not being a calve.

Speaker 1 (02:34:05):
Well, it's about the Rockets going after another big fish
because it didn't work out with this exact mix of players.

Speaker 2 (02:34:11):
Yeah, that's I'm gonna I'm gonna call it bike. Why
would you Wednesday that?

Speaker 5 (02:34:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:34:16):
Why would Cleveland answer the phone and not go click?
Well that that would mean what they're actually saying in
Cleveland is we wasted our time this year. We knew
we weren't gonna win with Garland, we know we're not
gonna win with anybody here. It's time to blow it up.
Like it's fine. If they think that, I just doubt that.

Speaker 1 (02:34:31):
Well, you're you're banking on another team basically doing what
you're doing in that case.

Speaker 2 (02:34:36):
Well, I don't know how they're getting better by doing that.
And and also if we're just watch what's happened in
the playoffs, Aaron Gordon, Evencenzo, Kevin Durant, like how many
how do you know that Cleveland's not gonna get by Toronto?
And then their next opponent also because who they get
to play can't beat them because of an injury?

Speaker 5 (02:34:57):
Or are the is this not the four or five matchup?
It's gonna happen. You know what they're.

Speaker 2 (02:35:01):
Getting after this, the freaking Magic. Yeah, James harg and
Donovan Mitchell aren't going to the conference finals this year
because they couldn't beat.

Speaker 1 (02:35:08):
The Magic, by the way or Raptors. You know what's
gonna happen. The Lakers will advance in seven games, and uh,
they're gonna get there, and freaking Sga is gonna like
rip his achilles in the first game, and the Lakers
are gonna be gifted a trip to the Western Conference Finals,
where they'll lose to the Spurs and all of our

(02:35:32):
worst nightmares come true.

Speaker 2 (02:35:33):
The Spurs and the Thunder are the two teams that
have already advanced. The other six spots for nothing Blazers
still to be claimed.

Speaker 5 (02:35:41):
Any it's you get you got a gift and you
just squandered it.

Speaker 2 (02:35:45):
They're just they're not good and the Spurs are excellent.

Speaker 5 (02:35:49):
This spurt sided series.

Speaker 2 (02:35:50):
The Spurs had to score like they had to outscore
the Blazers, like thirty three to eighteen and like thirty
five to seventeen in quarters three and four of that
game that Wimby didn't play, Yeah, just so they could
come back from like an ginormous deficit. Yes, they did
it every game of this. They embarrassed them in the
second half throughout the series. No matter what the score, does.

Speaker 1 (02:36:09):
Portland just going the halftime locker room and be like, well,
we're done, we won.

Speaker 5 (02:36:14):
We played twenty four minutes, it's over. We get the win.
That's what it looked like this, I like, I said
to you, And what was Denny.

Speaker 2 (02:36:20):
Avvia Who's like got twenty free throw attempts in fifty
points against the Rockets every time he plays them.

Speaker 5 (02:36:26):
Oh, that's right.

Speaker 1 (02:36:26):
The Rockets aren't a good defensive team, no matter what
anybody tries to tell.

Speaker 2 (02:36:29):
You, they're not. Portland didn't have a lot of weapons
in this series. That a few players played down. Obviously,
Scoot played way up, and they just were overmatched with
or without Wemby. And Wemby was very good when he
was out there, very very good. Darren Fox showed up
in last night's game and it was blowouts. When he
wasn't five, it was amazing that it wasn't even a
bigger blowout. They did get into single digits in the
fourth quarter. But before we get to the Rockets predictions,

(02:36:52):
we do have tickets to give away. Pair tosee Sting
May thirteenth of Woodland's Pavilion or pair of see Dave
Matthews Band there May eighth at Lynz Pavilion, and tickets
for both of those shows are available for you at
ticketmaster dot com should you not win them here, So
give him a quick question, give him the number seven
one three two seven ninety to call in with the
answer to the easy question, and then we can get

(02:37:12):
to our Rockets Game five prediction.

Speaker 5 (02:37:14):
This is easy.

Speaker 1 (02:37:15):
So Spencer Arageti came on with us right at the
start of the show at two o'clock, and then we
replayed a portion of it at the beginning of this hour,
and we got into the conversation having nothing really to
do with baseball other than the type of game he
was playing, that he's a gamer, he's a big gamer,
brings a console on the road, and plays Fortnite MLB
the show. We didn't really get him to fess up

(02:37:37):
to playing Grand Theft Auto anymore. But I asked him
a simple question, and I even said that the answer
he gave me was because quote, he's an adult. What
console does he play on? That's the question?

Speaker 9 (02:37:50):
What?

Speaker 2 (02:37:51):
There's really only two options? Right, yeah, this is not
a PC option. Okay, there's two leaders in the clubhouse.
Which one does he prefer? He said that playing his
day on the interview seven one three, two two five
seven ninety, when traveling on the road with the Astros
and being totally locked in on shutting other teams down.
What console does he bring with him so he can
continue his gaming? And, as he said, play until his

(02:38:12):
eyes bleed.

Speaker 1 (02:38:13):
That's what he's gonna do today since he doesn't have
a game, so after his bullpen session, he's going to,
as you said, make his eyes bleed.

Speaker 5 (02:38:21):
I only repeating his words, right, his words, not ours.

Speaker 2 (02:38:24):
Kevin Durant is out tonight. Lakers and Rockets have had
plenty of advanced notice on this. Can't imagine there's any
reason why the Rockets would change their starting five, likely
back to that very very young group. I also don't
think there's much of a reason to believe they will
change their rotation unless the play in tonight's game from
those players dictates that. That means Clint Capello is probably

(02:38:44):
riding the bench for the entire day of the game
again tonight. It means Dorian Finney Smith will get another
opportunity to put the ball in the basket, something that
has been very hard for him to do in this series,
though he's played better, better minutes from him and Aaron Holliday.

Speaker 5 (02:38:57):
I thought it was.

Speaker 2 (02:38:58):
Extremely important that he got his shot to fall in
Game four finally, because they've needed it so badly to
give Reed Shepherd a few minutes not defending badly and
not missing his own shots, rather than having him as
the only reliable, marginally reliable ball handler that they have.

Speaker 5 (02:39:18):
So I think those teams things have to continue.

Speaker 2 (02:39:20):
You've got to get something from your bench, and you'd
like to see a repeat of not only the turnover count,
but the types of turnovers, the ones that lead to
immediate baskets, runouts for tari, runouts for a men, and
attacking the basket all the way to the rim. That's
what they've done in the last two games. These are layups.
These are you know, I'm going all the way to
the basket. I'm gonna make four spin moves to get there,

(02:39:42):
and I'm laying it in off the window. Not I've
gotten here and DeAndre Ayton's kind of in front of me,
so I'll just fade away or I'll lean into him
and fall off to the side.

Speaker 5 (02:39:50):
You've got to finish.

Speaker 2 (02:39:50):
This is a men This is obviously Jabbari and clearly alprint.
If that happens, if just those things happen, a little
bit of production off the bench, taking it all the
to the basket, I expect they'll shoot somewhere between thirty
three percent and forty percent from behind the three point line.
I'm hopeful, but I'm saying I expect it that the
Rockets will push this to a game six. Remember I

(02:40:12):
told you before Game four, I thought it was going
to be a blowout.

Speaker 5 (02:40:16):
Now I didn't say for who. Well, Matt said the
same thing. I guess.

Speaker 1 (02:40:20):
I think it's a blowed either way, and it was
for the Rockets. I think this is a low scoring affair.
I think the Rockets and Lakers each make less than
ten three point shots. I think take as me as
they want. I just think I think the Lakers are
gonna play tight early on because they're at home and
everybody thinks they're going to close out the series, and
they're not gonna shoot. Well, they got a cushion low scoring, right,

(02:40:43):
but it's pressures on them to win the series. Rockets
are free flowing.

Speaker 3 (02:40:46):
Man.

Speaker 1 (02:40:46):
Nobody thinks they're gonna win now, Yeah, exactly. They put
themselves in that spot, right. I think they win a
close one ninety six ninety two Rockets, Hey, y, not
the first time. It's all I'll take the dove and
then they come back here to Houston and we'll see
what happens. But I do think they force a Game six, barely.

Speaker 2 (02:41:02):
Well, I think if they force a game six and
this series is definitely finishing in La in game seven,
they're not gonna win two games in a row and
then lose here at home in game six?

Speaker 5 (02:41:09):
Are they? What's wrong with Lebron?

Speaker 1 (02:41:11):
That's gonna be tomorrow morning on all the talking head shows.

Speaker 2 (02:41:14):
Well, old, much more of that to come, as we
take you into the night at nightcap and then we've
got Rockets basketball coming for you eight o'clock. We will
give the rockets launch pad into countdown into the game tonight,
MT and myself will have that for you very very
very much, looking forward to that, and uh, we'll catch
you for just a few minutes tomorrow Astro's first pitch

(02:41:35):
eleven thirty five, so on Deck begins at ten thirty.
We'll have a few minutes in between game one and
Game two to visit, and then the tenth inning show
and a trip to Boston, a trip to La culminates
with Game five tonight, and we're looking forward to it
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety