Astros-Rangers, Terrion Arnold Works Out for Texans, Texans Offensive Rankings

Friday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler previewed this weekend's series between the Astros and Rangers, shared his thoughts on the Texans working out CB Terrion Arnold, weighed in on where the Texans' offense ranks heading into the season, and much more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eighteen, but we are still flying without ac another day
of vacation today, actually one more still coming on Monday,
and then we'll be whole again and right in time
for the Major League Baseball season to take a break.
Three more games for their teams, including the Astros and
the first place Texas Rangers. Rangers slid into first place

(00:22):
last night as the Mariners were completing getting swept by
the Marlins, and the Rangers avoided losing their series to
the Angels. Gave away a huge lead but then got
a walk off single and got a victory and slid
past The Mariners, slid for a game and or a
half game further ahead of Houston and now eight tonight's

(00:45):
game as the first place team in this division. They've
been in first place a couple of different times over
the course of this season. Mariners clearly going through a
bit of a downturn, even losing a game that Bryce
Miller started last night, and the Astros, of course so
much needed day off after they have now lost two
of their last three series, including two of three games
to the Washington Nationals, where they're starting pitching was very,

(01:09):
very bad, and the question marks about each of those
three starting pitchers Burrows, Imai and Araghetty persist. The answer
with Mike Burrows was given and that he will next
pitch for the Triple A Space Cowboys, but what lies
ahead for both Spence, Araghedty and tatsu Imai is unknown. Obviously,
they're not getting bumped from the rotation, at least not

(01:30):
until they get back from the All Star break, and
that means they've got this weekend's games and they start
again with Friday Saturday Sunday games at Houston at Dykin
Park against the Orioles a week from tonight, and hopefully
the front side of the rotation that has these two
games tonight will have those two games when they get
back from the break, and we'll see where the Astros stand.
They're forty six and forty nine as they begin play tonight.

(01:53):
A series victory would draw them to within two games
of five hundred. A series sweep would put them at
five hundred. Getting a sweep for the Astros, though, has
been rather difficult. They're about to play games ninety six,
ninety seven, and ninety eight, and they have only swept
their opponent in a series two times all season, and

(02:15):
yet they're only two games out of first place. Opening
home stand of the season, they got a sweep of
the Red Sox, and mid to late May they had
a sweep on the road against the Cubs, and that's it.
The whole season pretty difficult, even in a year where
nobody is producing a spectacular record in two of the
three American League divisions. No one's getting it done in

(02:37):
the Central more than a couple games over five hundred,
and same thing obviously in the Astros Division. A season
that is almost without sweeps, very hard to be the
best team in your division. If you don't do that
this year, maybe the math says it's different, but I
would suggest if they don't have at least that many
sweeps the rest of the season, at least two sweeps,

(02:58):
which is a minuscule number, I think it would make
it very difficult to win the other teams the way
that they are built, with much much better starting pitching.
It certainly could be the difference maker between these teams.
The Mariners have one of the best five eras in
baseball and continue to not need to dip very far
outside of their usual six starters. It's really all they've

(03:22):
had to use throughout this season. Sets them apart. Almost
no other teams in baseball have been able to do
that over the last couple of seasons. And they've managed
an injury here or there, but none of them to
the catastrophic level, and it keeps them in it even
when they don't score any runs. They're not one of
the better scoring teams in the league. And that's definitely
the story of tonight's opponent, the Texas Rangers, one of
the eight lowest scoring teams in baseball. But they got

(03:45):
why At Langford back last night. They got Josh Young
back last night. Young had only missed a couple of
games with nis soreness, and he's been out there for
the majority of the season.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
But Langford hasn't.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
He's missed about half the season and just came off
the IL with a different injury. This one was a
hamstring at a shoulder issue earlier, and he delivered the
game winning hit walk off variety. So a little bit
more potent lineup that the Astros are likely to see tonight,
but still not a very good one and still without
Corey Seeger and still because of maybe their schedule, uncertain

(04:16):
about what their plans are. I don't think we know
the plans for any of the teams in the American League,
the ones that have a lot of prospects and are
also hovering around five hundred and competing and in contention,
stands to reason they might consider, well, why don't we
just go for it? Even the Tigers in Red Sox,
who've been flailing away most of the season only to
get hot as we approach the All Star break. The

(04:38):
Trek schoogl situation is an interesting one because if they
reach the postseason and he's on their roster, it makes
a totally different story because it's gonna be the best
pitcher that anybody carries into any series that the Tigers
are a part of. And in the case of the
Red Sox, they have a bunch of players that could
help them get out of what didn't look like a
very good roster. Guys like Sonny Gray who just signed

(05:01):
this pass offseason. Clearly someone like a rold As Chapman
who can close at an elite level still on his
way to carving out a Hall of Fame career. He
will be a Hall of Famer, I think, and definitely
could net them some prospects in return, as he has
done it a couple times before traded at the deadline.
I think everybody here remembers in twenty twenty three from

(05:24):
the Royals to the Rangers. Then he won a World Series,
and he has done that before, so it wouldn't be
too surprising. But again, the Red Sox the Tigers, They're
headed in the right direction and now are just a
couple wins behind Houston. Houston's only one win behind the
wild card leader, which now is the Seattle Mariners. Everybody's

(05:45):
in it, and the Astros are certainly among them. The
long term future of the Astros doesn't look any different though,
unless they make real talent acquisitions for this team, adding
some players that helped the twenty twenty six team and
in the next couple of weeks via the trade dea
line or via trades before the deadline. I don't know
that that does much for the twenty twenty seven Astros.

(06:05):
If there's a season or twenty eight or twenty nine
and beyond, you know, three players are under long term,
lucrative contracts for the next several years in Josh Hater
and Jose Altuve and yord On Alvarez. What's the team
going to look like around Alvarez. Jose Altuve will be here,
but Jose al Tuve is not a needle mover anymore,

(06:26):
and you're wondering who else is that is definitely gonna
be yord On Alvarez's teammate when you get there. Christian
Walker's under contract for only one more season. Isak Peretis
is under contract for only one more season. Jeremy Paana
is under club control for only one more season. There's
no long term agreement with Hunter Brown and how far
Away are the only, in my opinion, two legitimate prospects

(06:49):
that the Astros have in the entire system. Neither of
them have played above Single A. They are currently there,
although I would be surprised if they stayed there for
the entire season. They won't be playing all their games
this weekend because Sunday they'll be part of the future's
game talking about Kevin Alvarez and Xavier Nine's. The Major
League Baseball Draft is tomorrow and Sunday, and the Astros,

(07:11):
for the first time in a long time, have real
draft capital, probably the most asset capital they've had five
or six years at a minimum, because the seventeenth overall
pick is theirs. The twenty eighth overall pick is theirs
because of Hunter Brown's season a year ago. Promoting him
when they did, having him land in the top three
for Cy Young voting allowed for them to earn that

(07:33):
additional first round selection.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
They need it. They need talent.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
They need players who are not just filling up a
very not impressive prospect list. They need players that are
going to be major league difference makers. And you can
do that at seventeen. You can do that at twenty eight,
and do it at one hundred. You can do it
one hundred and thirty. You can do it in the
eleventh round of the twelfth round when you get to
a point where you start to manipulate your money and
how you're gonna spend it. And you also can miss

(07:59):
with the top overall in the draft with the Chicago
White Sox holding that. It's been a while since the
Astros have had the number one pick, but they did
have it in back to back seasons. You go back
to thirteen fourteen years ago, and neither of those players
made any difference as major leaguers. Only one of the
even made it to the major leagues, Mark Appell and

(08:20):
Brady Aiken. First overall picks, not major league players. Appel
did play in the major leagues, but of no consequence
from a big picture standpoint, and obviously Aiken had all
sorts of issues before they drafted him, after they drafted
him and never made it to the major league. This
is the number one player in the entire draft. It
happens in baseball. It's not even that infrequent for a

(08:43):
player to have virtually no major league impact at all,
even though they were chosen with the number one overall pick.
It is not like that in the other two drafts.
NBA Summer League is the first featured playing surface for
the draft picks of this year's class. You saw number
one and number two clash last night. I say you saw.
If you so cared to watch Summer League, you gotta

(09:06):
temper what you're seeing, as I always say. Rockets will
get their summer league schedule underway this evening a five
point thirty tip for their first game. They'll play again tomorrow,
and we'll have a couple of afternoon games next week,
and that will be their summer league activities. It definitely
slows down in the NBA. Finally, once you get to
that point, I would assume all but the Kawhi Leonard

(09:27):
trade and signings will be finalized by their respective teams.
The Rockets still have not officially announced the acquisition via
free agency of Marcus Smart, but that should be coming
anytime now. I don't believe there are any other trades
deals needs for this team and any others that they
might be involved with for them to have some sort
of weight that they still need, but they haven't made

(09:49):
that announcement.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Obviously.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
We talked about the Rappers Clipper Raptors Clippers trade yesterday
and why that has been put on hold because this
investigation led by the NBA, we'll push into its eleventh month,
and all parties are saying, yeah, we look forward to
a swift resolution. You can't have that anymore in month one.

(10:12):
It would have been a swift resolution in month three. Same,
we're eleven months in. This is not a swift revolution
from today. Sure, maybe by their next Board of Governors meeting.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Maybe not.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
No real thought on exactly when that will go down,
and that definitely can slow down a couple of the
other things that may or may not happen in the NBA.
And yesterday we talked very very very little NFL football,
and that's hard to do here on this program, so
we'll rectify that. A couple of things of interest cranked
out on the national side about the Houston Texans definitely

(10:47):
worth our conversation today, specific to their offense and very
very specific to their defense, which is where we will
go next here on the Friday edition of the A Team.
A recent a recent release embroiled in criminal activity maybe

(11:07):
and soon to be a Houston Texan. We will talk
about that next here on the A Team. Pass along
an update since I just said it two seconds ago.
The Rockets have not yet announced the signing of Marcus Smart.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, now they have.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
The Rockets have announced the signing of free agent guard
Marcus Smart, so now their three reported moves have all
been announced. First announcement was the trade of Dorian Finney
Smith along with three second round picks to Charlotte for cash.
The second announcement a couple days ago, both down Bogdanovitch
signed as a free agent shooting guard, and now Marcus Smart.

(11:49):
The announcement has been made by the Rockets, so that
move is official and not tied to any other moves
that might often get attached. But nothing in this case,
as expected, the former Defensive Player of the Year and
the former player four eme Udoka back in Boston five
seasons ago, the twenty one twenty two season. Three times

(12:10):
he's been a First team All Defensive Team selection. Played
very well against the Rockets quite obviously last year in
the postseason, and unfortunately it's one of the reasons why
the Rockets didn't advance. I don't think they I would
not have played it much differently, but they undoubtedly with
their defense and sitting there calling the games and now

(12:32):
revisiting those games than the months that have passed, they
basically said, we'd prefer not to have really open for threes,
and Luke Canard opened for threes, and we're obviously going
to concentrate a little bit on one of the best
players ever in Lebron James, and sure Alpie can hang
with Jackson Hayes and the DeAndre Ayton in the middle,

(12:53):
and we will compensate by leaving Marcus Smart absolutely unguarded
provided he is eighteen feet out and further, and it
buried them in the first couple of games of the series.
He also took advantage of the fact they used Reed
Shepherd defending him much of this series, and he could
take him inside and did a few times. Nonetheless, he
will now be working for them. One thing that this

(13:14):
deal to me says and I think I mentioned that
when they first made it and I returned from vacation.
They're acknowledging something that I think was pretty obvious with
how the way the team played last season versus how
the way the team played the seasons prior, and without
Dylan Brooks on the roster, not just on the court,

(13:36):
but on the roster. They need somebody like that, and
I'm sure they knew it when they pulled the trigger
on the Kevin Durant deal. It's probably not wise to
hold on to Dylan Brooks at the expense of acquiring
Kevin Durant, so the Rockets didn't. I don't think they
wanted to include him in the deal. I think they
worked on a bunch of different combinations. It might have

(13:57):
allowed them to still pull the trigger on the deal
but keep Dylan Brooks. They chose other avenues. They obviously
added Kevin Durant, but lost some of the intangibles from leadership,
from grit, intensity, defense, and care for how you play basketball.
And I'm not trying to take anything away from how
hard the current Rockets played last year without him, or

(14:18):
how they might play moving forward had they not added
a player like this, And Marcus Smart can't do everything,
but I do think having a player that brings that
attitude to this team, to an ema Udoka team, there
is a way he likes to play basketball, and when
they can't play basketball that way, the things that they
don't do as well are magnified. The Rockets aren't going

(14:40):
to have a great offense this year. The Rockets didn't
have a great offense last year. They're but probably not
going to have a great offense at any time when
ema Udoka is the head coach unless the personnel changes dramatically. Now,
two seasons ago, the first year they made that huge
increase up to forty one wins from twenty two, they
did play smarter, sound offensive basketball, and I know where

(15:01):
their offensive rating stood, which was very good. I don't
want to say they had a bad offense, but they
don't have the type of offense that is capable of
exploding unless they're playing one of the weak sisters, and
everybody has an offense that can do that on playoff time.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
There are things you need to be able to do.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Clearly, Fred's ball handling ability and setting up in the
half court should help things. A third season for Reed
Shepherd should help things. And hopefully there's a little bit
better consistency from the two older young core players Jabari
Smith Junior and Alprin Shngou to go along with another
jump forward offensively by men Thompson. All those things can

(15:40):
be at play, but I think they're acknowledging something was
missing from this team from an attitude standpoint, and from it,
you can't push us around standpoint. The Rockets in twenty
four to twenty five they were bullies. They bullied teams,
and everybody knew playing the Rockets meant you were going
to get beat up. And if the Reveries called the
game a certain way, it might impact how the game
was played. But the Rockets were bullies. Steven Adams being

(16:02):
a part of that team clearly would have mattered more.
Steven Adams being part of last year's team could have
mattered more on that front, and Steven Adams coming back
to this year's team, presuming he is healthy throughout this season,
it will matter more. It's not just about having a
big body at some position. Marcus Smart is nothing like that,
but he will make this defense better. There will be

(16:23):
pockets of games where you will want him on the court,
and it will be interesting to see where those are.
This is a player that probably comes off the bench.
He started last year for the Lakers in the postseason,
largely due to who they did not have Reeves for
part of the series and don Chics for the entire series,
and then started again in their series against the Oklahoma
City Thunder even with the return of Austin Reeves. I

(16:44):
don't expect him to start here in Houston, and I
don't necessarily expect him to finish either, but there are
going to be situations where he will do that, and
I still think he's a pretty sizable rotation player minutes
wise for the Rockets moving forward. So that has been
announced in the Rockets can now go about the rest
of their offseason and focus in on what they have
in Summer League and who's on the court, and if

(17:06):
any of the players beyond the two players they drafted
or Tristan Newton, who's under contract on a two way deal,
make much of a difference to either this year's team
or the long term future, it would be remarkable if
they landed a player outside the top thirty. That makes
a big difference on an NBA roster. Very hard to
do that. There's plenty of stories about players from the

(17:26):
second round that make it make it big, earn big contracts,
even undrafted players. Not saying there aren't any, but there
are thirty selections in the second round of the NBA
draft every year, and the amount of players that we
could talk about that are big stories that do make
an impact, that become impact players for any NBA team.
It's like five a year, maybe maybe less, and if

(17:49):
you maybe landed one of them, great, But you see
how teams are sending around second round draft pick capital.
Second round picks are useful because they help you facilitate trades.
They're not necessarily useful because, oh my gosh, look at
who we drafted, and we'll see what Copeland, we'll see
what Thornton have in store for us. Beginning with their game.
A little bit later this evening, I mentioned the Texans

(18:11):
and what might be in store for them. Their defense
is going to be one of the best in football
again this year. It already was, and it should be
stronger this year from the one move they made, and
that was adding red blanket. Ship really only had one
question mark on defense a year ago, and it was
that safety position that he was now signed to take over.
They had the same question mark last offseason, and they

(18:32):
hoped they fixed it with a different safety acquisition, and
that was CJ.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Gardner.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Johnson acquired him from the Eagles in the Kenyan Green deal. Obviously,
you didn't give up anything of consequence, and Green didn't
even make the Eagles. Is bounced for a a couple
of teams sins then, so it wasn't even about what
you gave up, but you hoped you got something in return,
and it turned out you didn't. He lasted just a
couple of regular season weeks. He's talked a lot about
the reasons why he was let go. We've heard a

(18:58):
lot of the reasons why it was left going. There
are all the right reasons. He wasn't helping the team
on the field, first and foremost, and there were some
reports about how much he wasn't helping the team off
the field either, and so out he went. In other words,
essentially informally labeled as a malcontent, a disruptive player inside

(19:20):
the Houston Texans locker room, not for any reason, reasons
other than he's a football player here and things didn't
go the way he wanted and he was part of
the reason why. And the on field, Okay, that's one
way to be. We don't need this player in our
locker room and on our football field anymore. It's not
like he's a legally a bad apple. It's not like

(19:40):
he has baggage on that front. And he is now
found a home elsewhere and plans to make a difference.
He will be visiting Reliant Stadium very early this season,
provided he makes the bills, which he obviously will unless
he has problems there. But he did start the year
with the Texan so Reid blanket ship, the one true
addition to their defense from outside that is expected to

(20:03):
be among the eleven starters and could only help make
them better. Could they get better by picking somebody up
that was released this offseason very very abruptly, And before
the off season started, you would have said there's no
way that the Lions would consider doing that with Terry
and Arnold, But by now I think everybody knows legal

(20:24):
trouble with Arnold is a part of his story. He's
only potentially headed into his third year in the NFL.
If you haven't read the in depth report including police
reports and interviews and activities surrounding two different robbery and
robbery attempts that Arnold is attached to. One he was

(20:46):
robbed and the other was he involved in attempting to
get his stuff back through the use of force, kidnapping,
and guns, and that's where things stand. There was a
courtroom activity today on that front, and with it came
the news that he has already gotten activity from four

(21:07):
different teams who've reached out to his agent. His agent
was actually testifying Nicole Lynn and shared that information. Because
the court activity today for Arnold was about whether or
not the prosecution can have him wearing a GPS device
on his ankle. They wanted them him to wear that initially,
but it was declined because his attorneys argued it would

(21:29):
prevent him from practicing, which he did and this time
with the Detroit Lions. And now that he's not on
the Lions as they let him go when this arrest
became a public record, well now in order to go
on tryouts and workouts and take physicals, prosecution is still
arguing for the same thing, while the or the prosecution

(21:52):
is saying, well, he's not on a team. Can we
get that GPS device? It was declined again today. But
if you haven't heard that whole story, I want to
get into that. Want to note that the Texans reportedly
not only have met with him, but had him in
for a workout this week as one of those four teams.
I'll tell you both sides of why I can see
it from the Texans standpoint and why I cannot possibly

(22:14):
see it from the Texans standpoint.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
We'll do that.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
After we hit the halfway point of our number one,
because we are there and that means Best of X
is next. You never know what's gonna pop up on
people's minds based on things they see and react to
on social media.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
But that's why we're here.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Best of X here on this Friday edition of the
A Team, WEX and Josh here with you this afternoon.
The New York Knicks NBA champions get to hoist the trophy,
get to hold a parade the trophy that they are given.
Not like every other sport, it's very simple, very clean,

(22:55):
and remains the same year after year after year, same month,
this twenty twenty sixth June, the NHL champion Carolina Hurricanes,
they won their trophy, Stanley Cup. Very very very different
and that it really isn't the same every year. It's

(23:15):
very unique every year because the champs have the opportunity
to have their names engraved on the championship trophy. Up
to fifty five names can go on there if you
so have fifty five names worthy. There's some stipulations on
who can be there, and the NHL actually has to

(23:35):
approve those names.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
The Hockey Hall of Fame used to do that.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Now the NHL office is involved in approving those names,
and it's not uncommon and actually makes perfect sense for
the players and staff and the owner to be among
those names. Yet, when Carolina posted that their trophy was
ready and engraved and everybody can have a look at it,

(23:58):
when everybody had a look at it, firestorm controversy.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
What is the controversy?

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Well, the controversy is right there at the very top
of the trophy, a championship Cup now in their hands
and now with their names all over it and reading
from the top. The owner is the very very very
first name on it. A little presumptuous I don't think

(24:25):
it's the end of the world. I don't think it's
something that would cause too much angst on social media
or in the Carolina community, or in the NHL community.
An owner not uncommon the last handful of years, especially
to have their name as a part of it. Hey,
it's their team, A pretty simple answer to it's my team.
I can do whatever I want. The next one, two, three, four, five,

(24:50):
six names on the list all share the same last
name of the owner, his wife and five kids. Of course,
this is Tom Dundan if you're unaware. He is the
new owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, and he's been
discussed quite a bit on this show and everywhere else
around the NBA for his lack of desire to spend
any money on his franchise. Part of the reason why

(25:12):
their head coaching search the way it did, and part
of why they had questions internally about what are we
doing here? And partly because of the number of people
that no longer work for him as they're spending less
money as an organization. I don't know how much it
impacted their offseason. They obviously were involved in one mega deal.
John Morant is now a Blazer. But back to the

(25:33):
Carolina Hurricanes twenty twenty five, twenty six Stanley Cup Championship
trophy with Tom and Rushka and Caden and Dax and
Drew and Blake and Hagan's name all atop everybody else
that was a part of their championship. The players and
staff alike all below them. I mean, I'm not telling

(25:55):
you they're below them and they met less, but the
trophy is telling you that much. Again, not uncommon here
in recent years for members of the owner's family to
have their names on the trophy, but definitely a big
separator between what has happened in the past and what
did happen in this case. Family members from the Red

(26:18):
Wings have had their names on the trophies. Family members
of the Panthers very recently had their names on the trophy.
The Viola family, the wife and three sons. So it's
basically the same thing, right. Here's the difference in each
of the two cases I mentioned, non hurricane situations. All

(26:38):
of the people that have their name on the trophy
that are related to the owner, the wife, and the kids,
they're all part of the organization. Additionally, whether they're alternate governors,
or they hold some sort of position, same thing with
the Red Wings, some sort of position, whether it's nominal
or otherwise.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
I'm not getting into.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
That, but they're adult volts who are in some form
or fact fashion associated with being a part of the organization,
working for the organization, being an alternate governor something like that.
I don't know the ages of Dundon's kids because they
have not been released, but I do know that none
of them work for the team. They're all college aged

(27:20):
or younger. That's why people aren't very happy about this,
and that's why we got some of the reaction on
social media, especially because of where they were put on
the list. Very very very very top of this, but
it's his trophy and with it he can do whatever
he pleases. Several people that cover hockey put it out
there and mentioned this, so some of the comments read

(27:43):
like this, anyone's surprised that a billionaire takes credit for
things others accomplished. Did he hired some of these people?
He okayed some of these deals. It went on to say,
I said to all my fellow Carolina Hurricanes loyalists, let's
petition in the NHL to change the name of the team.
The Carolina Dundon's you know it's about all about him
and his family. Someone from another team fan wise reached

(28:06):
in and said prior owners have done this, but typically,
just like I mentioned here on the show, is usually
a minor owner or somebody else associated with it. Young children,
no way they should be on there, especially over staff.
And I can't really disagree with both parts of that.
I know this is like playground stuff, kid stuff, school

(28:27):
age kids stuff. So their names are at the top
of the list, so they must mean more, right, I mean,
if you want to see it that way, that's certainly
how it reads. And we'll leave it with Fitzie's comment,
the hockey gods won't like this. He cursed the franchise.
You guys can take that to your wagering outfits if
you want. If you believe in it, the odds for

(28:49):
them to repeat aren't gonna be too bad when the
closer to season odds roll around. But apparently it'd be
a foolish wager because they are now cursed because the
owner put his name, his wife's name, their five kids'
names at the very top of the fifty three names.
They didn't take all fifty five spots, just fifty three

(29:10):
spots that are now engraved on their Stanley Cup for
winning the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six Championship.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Do you care?

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Is this nothing? Is this worth any kind of outrage?
Social media says yes. As we conclude the best of.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
X the A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Back into the Terry and Arnold scenario. I want to
do that at the top of the hour, flesh it out.
At that point in time, we'll head into our simulcast
on SEHN as we do and get a little bit
closer to Astros and Rangers should have mentioned this earlier,
but five o'clock will be joined by MLB dot Com
beat writer for the Rangers, Kennedy Landry. So a little
insight into what the Rangers are thinking and what they

(29:52):
look like because we head into the final couple of
weeks before the deadline, and of course, as they have
once again put themselves in first place. But rather than
get into the of those things, here an interesting thing
taking place because of a golf tournament this weekend. Not
the golf tournament where Scotti Scheffler is missing the cut
at the Scottish Open for the first time in years,

(30:13):
but rather what's going on in Tahoe the very popular
American Century Championship Celebrity celebrity tournament, so you'll know all
the names ex athletes, current athletes, celebrities alike.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
It's a fun tournament.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
It's great for me and everybody else in the media
because it's nothing but an interview fest for three or
four days.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Satellite interviews.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Have had a chance to talk to quite a few
people in the tournament over the years from that standpoint,
including Charles Barkley, who is playing again this year and
isn't last as the first round is underway. He's actually
not even close to last. He's having a phenomenal showing.
He and Kevin from the Office are tied in fifty
fourth right now. They're both two under same for Gary Sheffield,
Jerry Rice, Dexter, Fowler, Chris Harrison. I bring this up

(31:01):
because there's a Texans angle to what I'm talking about.
Like I said, everybody's given interviews, sitting down with people
on site. Dan Patrick's there, he's talking to Nate Bargatzi,
He's talking to coach McDonald, the Super Bowl winning quarterback.
You've probably seen some of the comments from one of
the leaders he plays for the Golden State Warriors, Steph

(31:21):
Curry about what his recruiting pitch is might be. I
don't know if he's sending any voice notes in for
Lebron James. We never got into that yesterday. We will
today sending voice notes to Lebron's agent to see if
you can get him to come play for your team.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Awesome, But like I.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Said, we've had a bunch of these celebrities and athletes
on the show over the year, so some friends of
the program.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
But how does this relate to the Texans? I will
tell you.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Mike Florio, in my opinion, he writes for Pro Football
Talk and covers the NFL. He's a noted Texas hater.
It seems like if there's anything going on, he can
find a way to make it negative about Houston. Whether
it was his disgust for JJ Watt and his appearance

(32:10):
of wanting the spotlight. He's one of the best players
in the league and look at what it has done,
how he played and what he did with his platform.
And he owns a soccer team now. But whatever, he
wrote an article about our little snippet, commented on his
own podcast about the Texans this year and c J.
Stroud he's all indications are as we're less than three

(32:33):
weeks away from the Texans beginning training camp. July twenty
ninth is practice number one. They obviously report the day
before that he went through his entire offseason workout, and
it's likely that he will begin this season and to
play this season without a contract extension. He'll play into
the fourth year of his rookie deal. He's already had
the fifth year option picked up, but this offseason, what's
the first opportunity for him to.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Sign an extension.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
It looks like that bridge has now been crossed by
the Texans and there will not be one and he
will play this year without it. So that seems like
the question everybody wants to ask. How will he perform
this year? Will he play his way into more questions
about his future? Here more likelihood that they won't want
to extend him and create some odd feelings and that
he would be playing into the final year of his contract.

(33:17):
He could be playing into three more years of being
on one year deals if they aren't sure what they
want to do and they don't want to get rid
of him and they want to use the franchise tag,
which almost never gets used on quarterbacks, or will he
play his way into an obvious this because guy's he's
killing it. Our defense is great, the offense looks a
whole lot better. He's having the best season of his

(33:37):
career or close to his rookie season caliber season, and
all of a sudden, the Texans are a twelve win team.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
They're winning another division.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
They're winning multiple postseason games for the first time in
team history. Yeah, that could happen. But I do think
Mike brings up an interesting additional question, although I don't
know that he has the right answers to it. The
defense is going to play great. The defense is going
to play super Bowl caliber defense. They're going to play
playoff bound defense. If the quarterback play is poor enough,

(34:07):
could it get CJ. Stroud benched? Could it get him
off the field in season? Which also likely makes their
decision for the future, but much more importantly to the
point that they don't want to dismiss this season because
they think they have.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
A better chance to win with their backup.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
They were forced to start their backup and two of
his three seasons because of concussions from for CJ. Stroud
last year being one of them three games of Davis Mills.
They lost the game he replaced him in against the
Denver Broncos at then NRG Stadium, and then they won
the next three games with him in six more in
a row once CJ.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Stroud returned. Could they win more games with David Smills? Obviously?

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Obviously they could. It's exactly why they won the games
last year. He gave them lackluster quarterback play but didn't
turn the ball over and they won games. Sure he
could do that again. Are they going to bench CJ.
Stroud so Davis Mills can play over him? And CJ's
going to go to games with a baseball cap on,
and he's gonna sit next to their new quarterback coach

(35:11):
and help Davis diagram plays that they're looking at on
the surface tablet. I don't really see that happening. Is
there somebody else that they could bring in to replace
him with? I don't think there is, But I would
give you this one interesting name because he's golfing this
weekend in Tahoe right now.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
He's in the top ten.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
He's through sixteen holes, he's got eleven points. With their
fancy scoring system. He's not a current NFL player, but
there are still people that go to Texans games with
his last name on the back of their jerseys. His
name is Derek Carr, and he has not played in
the NFL, retired at an earlier age than most had

(35:55):
some later in his career injuries that led him to that,
But he didn't sound like someone who doesn't want to
play in the NFL ever again. And the right situation,
as he put it, a special situation. Maybe it would
be under consideration if the Texans were forced to play
with somebody other than CJ. Stroud, either because of how

(36:15):
he played or because of injury. Could I see the
Texans turning to Derek Carr? I actually could. I don't
think it's gonna happen because I'm not forecasting who or play,
and I would never forecast an injury, so I don't
think that's a real scenario. But if either of those
things does happen, I don't see the Textans saying, oh,
we can't have CG out there, this isn't working out.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
We got to get Davis Mills on the field.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
But somebody else, somebody outside the organization, somebody that has
shown he can play at a higher level even though
he's on my I can't believe teams want Derek Carr
on their team list for years. But in this scenario, yeah,
I could see it. Not forecasting, but I could see it.
Where do pro Football focus, fancy folks feel? That's j

(37:00):
stroud is as you head into this season, the Tarran
Arnold situation both at the forefront when we start the
three o'clock hour Friday, continuing appreciate your interest in the
program as always, whether it's just hanging out and listening
in wherever you might be, and you can do that
just about anywhere via the iHeartRadio app. We're joining us
here in the discussion, via social media at Adam J.

(37:23):
Wexler or via the phone lines at seven one three,
two one two five seven ninety. Talked briefly about the
Tarryan Arnold situation and linking him to the Texans. We'll
do more of that here in just a few minutes.
In this segment, talked a little bit about the three
games remaining for the Astros before the All Star break
there tonight, tomorrow and Sunday against the Texas Rangers. Rangers

(37:45):
slid into first place last night Astros two games back
of them for the division race, and a couple of
teams between the Astros in the top of the bottom
of the wild card picture, with six teams in the
playoff picture of the last three of which the wild
card teams and the Astros were a little bit close
earlier in the week, but losing two out of three
to Washington left them a little bit further away. Seattle

(38:08):
and Minnesota, the two teams they would need to pass
in order to claim currently that sixth spot. A little
bit about the Rockets, as they're two and a half
hours away from tipping off for the first time in
Vegas with their summer league outfit, a lot of players
who you probably are familiar with their names, so not
likely to have much of an NBA impact either this
year or on into the future unless they were. The

(38:30):
two players the Rockets signed this offseason, and those are
their draftees kad Here Copeland and Bruce Thornton. They are
definitely worth watching to see what kind of role they
might play. You will definitely see quite a bit of
them during the Rockets yet to be announced preseason schedule.
It'll be curious to see how much we see of
them during these four games today, tomorrow, and then Tuesday
and Thursday of next week for those preseason activities for

(38:54):
the Rockets. Still awaiting some of the other free agent
news and trade news around the NBA, but the Rockets
also made it AI with the last of their three
significant moves this offseason, announcing the signing of Marcus Smart.
Terms undisclosed. We know it's a two year deal, very
very friendly, very The ability to continue to build this

(39:16):
team lies in front of the Rockets because of how
affordable this contract was, the Bogdanovan contract even more affordable,
and moving on from moving away from the Dorian Finney
Smith contract helping a great deal also, so all those
things on the table today. Talked a little bit about CJ.
Stroud's place with this team and wanted to continue that

(39:39):
discussion to open up this hour just because I'm not
always leaning on it, but I do think it's interesting
what is written about it when lists get produced, especially
depending on who makes them and why PFF. It's not
a take it or leave it, how do you feel
about PFF. It's more of a you got to take
from it what you and you got to really look

(40:01):
into what exactly they're providing to you and every outfit,
and there's plenty of them out there that are trying
to be data driven first analysts. It's tough to take
it all and dismiss everything else. I still have eyes,
I still watch football. I still understand what people are
talking about when they watch film, and they understand the
decision making process specific to quarterbacks and how that's at

(40:23):
least as impactful in your analysis of the player as
just the cold hard facts that maybe you see from
say PFF. But I'm not sure where everybody else would
have CJ. Stroud our listeners alike, where you think he
fits if you ranked the thirty two starting quarterbacks ahead
of this upcoming season. He has been on a team
that's been to the playoffs three consecutive years. Last year's

(40:44):
regular season was the team that won the most games.
They got twelve wins. He missed three of those wins,
but nine wins in the starts that he made over
his fourteen games, and then they, for the third consecutive year,
also played well enough to win a playoff game, their
first ever playoff victory as a frame on the road,
and advance to the same spot they've been for three
consecutive years. Those are team accomplishments. This is a and

(41:08):
individual ranking. And I don't think anybody out there could
have watched last year the year before and thought that CJ.
Stroud should land somewhere in the top ten after his
rookie season. I don't think there was anybody that thought
he should have land outside the top ten. And I
was definitely one of them. But I also have eyes
and I'm watching him play, and I'm watching the team's offense,
and I'm watching the throws that are being made and

(41:29):
the decisions that are getting being made, and the amount
of times they're kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns,
the amount of times they're in long down and distant situations,
the amount of times he's under pressure and does not
overcome that, which is unfair, but better quarterbacks do. So
having him in the top ten, if you think that's
where he is, I'm not gonna surprise you by saying

(41:51):
he's not. The AFC again is what makes where the
Texans have been both good and bad. It's good that
they've been competitive, it's good that they've been in the
final four to three consecutive years, but last year, especially
it's bad what happened. Top four quarterbacks heading into the
year according to PFF Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson,

(42:15):
Pat Mahomes all AFC quarterbacks, one of them made the
playoffs last year, one of them. That's what's unfortunate about
what the Texans did last year. Last year with their
defense was I'm not gonna say it was the year,
but it was definitely a year where the window to
win bigger was wider. It was open wider, the door

(42:39):
was there to be kicked wide open for a old
time Houston Football Reference Joe Burrow's the second best quarterback
heading into the year this year. Health last year kept
him off the field, wins and losses kept his team
out of the playoffs. Lamar Jackson, he wasn't terrible, and
he was actually pretty good, but he was nowhere near
the MVP level Lamar Jackson that he had been in

(43:00):
many almost every year prior MVP stolen from him in
one of those seasons two years ago by Josh Allen
if Pat Mahomes didn't even finish the season healthy, nor
did he play well, nor did their team play well
during the season. So three of the four best quarterbacks
heading into this year, all trying to bounce back, and

(43:21):
I think they are rightfully graded well ahead of CJ.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Stroud.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
And again these are grades not necessarily well who do
you think, you know, my personal list based on what
I see and how I grade them out and maybe
what their schedules look like and the defenses they might
be facing, but simply the PFF grades for them. The
MVP of the league is fifth Jordan Love very similar
things in his career.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Comparing him to c. J.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Stroud, making the playoffs as they did the season they
did the first time. Both of them were enjoying some
spectacular runs during their first season as starter. He clearly
has been in the league a little bit longer, but
as a starter, they've kind of shared the same amount
of starting time.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
He comes in at six.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Everybody's favorite quarterback who's never done anything of consequence in
the league comes in at seven. That, of course, is
Madison Beer's boyfriend. I'll steer clear of the Madison Beer
tickets are extremely inexpensive story, but you guys have probably
all seen it. The other quarterback in Dallas or in
Texas is Dallas's quarterback Dak Prescott. He's in at eight,

(44:20):
So we're one quarter of the way through NFL quarterbacks,
and obviously we have not gotten to c J. Stroud,
the quarterback of the team that beat the Texans.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
He's next.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
The quarterback of the team that has Kyle Shanahan calling
plays for him is after that. The quarterback that won
the division last year this division, who is certainly should
not be better than c J. Stroud, but I don't
even disagree with how they played last year to getting
to this spot on the list. Trevor Lawrence is eleventh.

(44:50):
The Jacksonville Jaguars won thirteen times last year. He comes
in at eleven. They also won won a playoff game
or it lost their playoff game.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I should say last year to.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
The Bills Jayden Daniels who basically didn't do anything last year,
largely due to injuries, and their team fell off a
great deal.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
He's in at twelve.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
So now we're halfway through the second tier and still
knows STJ. Strout and I still don't disagree. As you
head into this season, wildly successful highlight machine Caleb Williams,
you know, the iceman. He comes in at thirteen. He
made the playoffs for the first time last year, his

(45:27):
second season as an NFL quarterback, his first season with
Ben Johnson. Kind of feel like things are going to
continue heading in the right direction with that duo. His
completion percentage is embarrassing, but his playmaking ability is elite.
Somewhere in between they will meet, and I think the
rest of the NFC probably will not like that very much.

(45:49):
The Super Bowl winning quarterback is next. That's Sam Donald,
which quite frankly, I think is silly. I don't really
care what Sam Darnold did with the Jets or the
Pan or anybody else he's played for the Niners. I
really just care about what the quarterback is today, and
what he showed to be in Minnesota is what he
turned out to be in Seattle. He's much better than that,

(46:11):
and I guess the grades tell you otherwise. But since
that's the list, I'll leave it there. Eagles quarterback Jalen
Hurts fifteen, Jared Goff is sixteen. So now we're halfway
and CJ. Stroud still is not on the list, and
I still don't disagree. You can't watch him, and then

(46:32):
the numbers are there to back it up. That's just
not the kind of quarterback play the Texans got from him.
So it's not a forecast of what they're about to do.
It's not a composite of what they've done over the
course of their career. It's a rating based on how
they have played and then they as they head into
this upcoming season where they rank CJ. Stroud's next.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
CJ.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Stroud is seventeen the best quarterback in the NFL according
to PFF in the second half of the seventeenth out
of thirty two, just to out a Baker Mayfield. But
they did provide us with something that I think is
very valuable in the analysis of what CJ. Stroud's nineteen
game season. He played in sixteen of those games last
year for the Texans, and the sixteen games that he

(47:15):
played in fourteen in the regular season and two in
the postseason all combined twenty three turnover worthy plays for
his whole season. It's a little bit too high of
a number, but it only got that high because of
the postseason. Fourteen regular season games for CJ. Stroud, he
had thirteen turnover worthy plays, plays that maybe should have

(47:37):
been picked off, balls that were tipped at the line
and then landed on the ground at the feet of
somebody who should have caught it, fumbles that could have
all sorts of things can be categorized as turnover worthy plays.
And he only had thirteen of them during their fourteen
games that he played in during the regular season, during
which they went nine to five, part of their twelve
and five regular season. That's a great number. It's not

(47:58):
the lowest in the league, but it's close. That's awesome.
That is a mark of his career. In the regular season,
he has always been on the low end of turnover
worthy plays. And then the two games of the postseason
came along and he had ten more ten in two games.
Obviously many of them turned into literal turnovers, but ten

(48:19):
in two games is obscene, unheard of, untenable, and unplayable.
And provided that's not the player that returns next year,
and it won't be, the Texans will be just fine.
This list will be remembered. And I can't wait till
the season ends so I can tell you how much
higher than seventeenth. PFF will have him rated if things

(48:40):
go well, and I think that they will so. Since
I paused on the Tarryan Arnold situation, that is what
we will get into next worked out for the Texans.
Could Tarran Arnold become a Texan? We touch on that next.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
The AED on Sports Talk seven ninety season.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
We'll continue here tonight on four Talk seven to ninety
with the seven to ten first pitch between the Astros
and the Rangers. That means we get into the seven
oh five first pitch, I should say for Astros Rangers tonight,
So we'll get into the Astros on Deck Show at
six o'clock.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
I'll have that for you.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
After the A team we'll hear from Brian McTaggart as
he makes his weekly Friday visit to the on Deck Show.
Hour before that, so a little over under two hours
from now, we'll visit with MLB dot Com beat writer
for the Texas Rangers, Kennedy Landry. She will join us
at five o'clock. But a host of things to get
to between now and Hunter Brown's next start against the Rangers,

(49:34):
team that, at forty seven and forty six is two
games better than Houston and has a half game lead
over the Mariners for first place in this American League West.
Astros head into this game at forty six and forty
nine hopes of a five hundred pre All Star Break
portion of their schedule. We'll rests on three consecutive victories
that they can get them against. Cal Quantrill expected to

(49:55):
start tonight for the Rangers, Kamar Rocker on Saturday, and
both teams probably today will announce who.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Their starters are for Sunday.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Anticipation for the Astros that Christian Javier will make that
start after appearing last Saturday for a couple of innings
and then this past Wednesday their last game for the
final inning of that eight to two loss through thirty pitches,
but expected to be in preparation for him making an
appearance in a starting role for the Astros for the
first time since May. There are other options that the

(50:26):
Astros could go to, hopefully not a bullpen game, even
though the bullpen has been very very good, but rather
maybe making a move to add Lance mccullor's junior back
to the active roster. He is probably ready after his
rehab appearances. Or Renel Blanco similarly is likely ready to
join the Astros, even though his last rehab appearance was
cut short due to weather. He's thrown the ball very

(50:48):
well the last couple of times, probably feel pretty good
about where he is if those moves aren't made by
this time in time for the game on Sunday, I
would still expect the Astros to see both of those
pitchers as part of their major league outfit very soon
after the All Star break. In one other note, rather
obvious and hopeful for Tonight's game, Astros lineup not yet out,

(51:09):
but I would expect it will have Jeremy Payna in it,
and in order for them to do that, they will
have to make a roster move. He is currently on
the ten day il with that calf injury, had two
games of rehab work Tuesday and Wednesday with the Space Cowboys,
did not play yesterday, and is expected to be activated
and in the lineup and likely batting lead off for
the Astros to start Tonight's game. Would imagine Paynia, Alvarez, Peretis, Walker,

(51:33):
and Altuve are likely your five in the lineup right
handed pitching Quantrell on the other side. But when it
comes down, we will deliver that to you, okay, onto
the Texans. I talk to you quite a bit in
the opening hour about the Texans defense and the fact
that it is sound one through eleven. The starters that
you have, some of the depth maybe is a question
mark at probably every position with EJ. Speed's absence due

(51:56):
to injury, at least at the onset of the season,
if not for a very long time. In fact, they
have no established backups in the secondary. I'm very hopeful
that Jalen Smith will be a positive performer for the
Texans this year.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
At corner. We'll see what Jayden Reid.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Jaylen Reid is for them as a safety and he
got a lot of time last year because of the
absence of the other safety.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
First it was CJ. Gardner Johnson, then you had the
injury to m. J. Stewart.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Reid was hurt on a couple of occasions last year,
and both of those two Jalens I mentioned, they're both
headed into their second season after getting dropped on the
defensive line. See what kind of role newcomer Logan Hall
plays for This team probably needs some depth at the
edge positions behind Daneil Hunter and Will Anderson Junior, the
best duo at edge in the NFL as teammates, but

(52:43):
they're not on the field one hundred percent of the time.
They're not even on the field eighty percent of the time.
They do like to rotate their players at edge, and
I think you can agree with the results. You probably
have two of the five best edge rushers in the
entire league. And we do have lists to look over.
Save that for another day, but that's where they fit
and that's where they will be again this year. So

(53:05):
the defense as a hole is fine well, Terry and
Arnold is available. He was released almost immediately after the
June twenty fourth arrest, and that's a story that actually
began in February, and arrests had trickled in over the
amount of time that had passed, but he had not
been arrested as part of it, and so pretty much

(53:25):
nobody around the NFL, certainly not here in Houston, knew
anything of the situation. Having a chance to kind of
read through some of the things that happened, I don't
know how much it was discussed while I was out,
because now this is two weeks plus since his arrest.
But he's worked out for several teams, and I was
told today in testimony that his agent gave and the

(53:45):
Texans were one of the teams that brought him in
to work him out and meet with him. You probably
don't do that unless you have some interest in adding
the player, but you also take advantage of the opportunity.
This is a twenty fourth overall pick from two drafts ago.
He's available when players become available with talent, and you

(54:07):
can get to know them a little bit better, find
out a little bit more about this situation when there
is one, and in his case, there clearly is one. Yeah,
there's no harm in doing that. There's actually a real
benefit to doing that. Should anything come up down the
road or in the very near future, you now know
about it, but you're also going to have the questions
about it.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
Now.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
We don't know how this situation is going to turn out.
And just for some background on it, he had a
place in Florida this offseason back in February. Had a
lot of people close to him, friends, very close acquaintances
hanging out at this airbnb, but also had many other
people coming in and out of there, just basically what
you might expect for an NFL player early in the

(54:47):
off season. He's from Florida, this is not where he's
from in Florida, but have a good time, a lot
of people around, maybe the right people, maybe not the
right people, but nothing much more beyond that until they
noticed that some things were missing and presumed at some
point that well, we were robbed, felt like it was
an inside job. And as the days played out, and

(55:10):
this is again back in early February, there's some confusion
about the timeline of everything. But as they Arrian Arnold
and others were filing a police report and speaking with
officers about this, they were actually in a vehicle on
their way to presumably take care of it themselves. Now,

(55:32):
Arnold's involvement in all of these activities is a bit cloudy,
and a lot of the chain of information about this
is based on texts back and forth from people. This
is what Terrian said, but he actually wasn't in that.
He was definitely not in the apartment complex or the
building where the kidnapping and robbery attempt to reclaim their

(55:55):
property took place. Because they basically it appears and based
on the report police report, their belief, his belief, he
and some of his close friends belief, were two other
people that they had brought in and were hanging out
with them, a barber he'd brought in and somebody else
to drive his car.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
They were they were the culprits.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
They were the ones who had stolen their stuff money, guns, bags, jewelry,
et cetera, and in an attempt to reclaim it, they
orchestrated what turned into a kidnapping and robbery situation where
they had friends of theirs, a girlfriend or someone he's
been seeing recently, and another girl their apartment. Tried to

(56:33):
lure these two other people there where apparently acquaintances friends
of Arnold's, those who had also been robbed were already
going to be there and waiting in the closet for them, armed,
and as all those things played out, there's some details
about what took place in the in the apartment, about

(56:54):
pistol whipping and guns being placed in the presumed a
robber's mouths and everything about it. But he wasn't involved
in the arrests that came almost immediately after this, and
the pleas that were made by some involved. It was
months later, and that's why I said we didn't really
know a whole lot about the situation. But in the
days after that, pretty much everybody involved from the arrest

(57:17):
and kidnapped or from the robbery and kidnapping aspect of it,
they just kind of got arrested one after the other
after the other after the other, including the girl he
was seeing and her roommate who allegedly, at Arnold's request,
that's alleged from some of the text that said stuff
about him. And again he wasn't in the chain told
them to do and what he told them to say,

(57:38):
and then when he was arrested in June, that's when
the lines released him. So we don't have a full
story of what's going to go down. It's unsurprising and
a typical play from attorneys for the player. It's nice
if they're true, but their initial thoughts and what we've
heard from them is nobody cared at all about this,
and nobody even knew about this until oh, there's an

(57:58):
NFL player that we can go after, even though there's
no evidence to suggest it. So we're going to do that,
and we're going to popularize and make this case more
well known and see what we can do. But their
claim is the only reason he's even involved in this
is because he's obviously he knows these people and he's
an NFL player. They were in court today because the

(58:21):
prosecution wants him to wear a GPS device. Was already
declined denied once because his team said well, he's got
to play football, which he did during the last several
months during Lions off field play, and then now that
he is no longer a Lion, they put the request
back into the judge and it was once again denied
as he is now going on visits and four teams,
according to his agent, had reached out, the one that

(58:43):
you guys care about at the Texans reached out, had
him in for a workout, had him in for a visit.
It talked with him obviously, and now what and that's
where I will begin next segment. Is this real? Should
the Texans do this? What's the downside, what's the positive side?
What do I think is gonna turn out with this case?
And why both sides could make sense. Nick Saban already

(59:05):
weighed in on the character of Terry and Arnold. That
will be a part of the conversation next. I you,
Wex and Josh here with you. I've kind of set
the table on this discussion a couple of times already,
and now getting down to it, does it make any
sense for the Texans to continue their minimal pursuit of
Terry and Arnold? It's cornerback spent two years with the

(59:27):
Lions before they released him this off season, clearly because
of the legal trouble that he is in. Drafted twenty
fourth overall, spent a lot of time on the field
as a rookie and wasn't honestly particularly successful passer rating
alout of about ninety nine. It's not a real good
rookie season, especially for someone thought of as highly as
he was coming out of Alabama, and then last year

(59:49):
injuries kept him off the field for roughly half the season.
Wasn't anything much more significantly successful he was on the field.
Concussion was one of the things he suffered from, but
a show injury was what kept him off the field
for much more of that time, and it ultimately ended
his season. He ended the season on ir expected to
be fully healthy for the upcoming season, and that's certainly

(01:00:09):
evidenced by the work he put in during the line's
off season program essentially, which was all complete before his
arrest and subsequent release. They were already done practicing for
the offseason OTAs in mini camp. So he's healthy, but well,
he's definitely not better than your two starters. That kind
of goes without saying there's maybe I don't know five

(01:00:31):
cornerbacks in the NFL that could start for the Texans.
Maybe maybe it's three, maybe it's two. Now Kamari Lassiter
doesn't have an extension yet. He heads in year three
and will be in line for a massive extension to
remain with the Texans, and I hope that he does.
You probably can't extend all of the players on your

(01:00:52):
defense that deserve it, but so far they have so
that's something to consider. And the deal with Arnold, I
would imagine, is not going to be lucrative and not
going to be long term. And I don't think even
though several teams have reached out to his agent and
reached out to him, I don't think there's much of
a bidding war situation because at some point you do
take chances on players that are former first round picks,

(01:01:14):
players you might have loved in the draft process and
really thought they could play, and now they've been in
the league and they've been maybe they've played out their
rookie deal and it didn't work out. Maybe they've played
out their rookie deal and option if they were a
first round pick but weren't worthy of an extension, or
the team and the player just couldn't, you know, find
their way to It wasn't a full time starter, and
you might take a chance on a player like that,

(01:01:35):
and it probably costs you next to nothing. You sign
him to a reasonable one year deal and you see
what the player has. If it works out for you, great,
If it doesn't, you move on to the next Let's
see what this player has. But those situations are players
without any kind of baggage. And I don't know what
this will turn out to be because the league has
clearly not said anything yet. They almost always let the
legal situation play out, and I'm sure that they will.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
I don't know where this case will go.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
I don't know the timing on how things will play
out from that standpoint. But the conversation about the Texans
for twenty five years has almost always been a common
one is that they don't usually have a lot of
players that deal with things like this, whether they are
guilty or otherwise, and whether their history says it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
I don't really care.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
I care about the group that they have now, and
I don't care what a Bob McNair team look like.
Bob McNair's not running this team, Honestly, callan Hanna aren't
really running this team. Demiko rans is from a football standpoint,
and I think he holds a high enough position and
is held in high enough regard that if he's for it,
then Nick Cassario and Cal and Hannah and anybody else
involved in decision would be for it. And this is

(01:02:41):
I think fair to be called a little bit more
than a football decision because there are other aspects to it,
and there's a little bit more to Oh, this player
is available on the market, what do you think we
should bring him in? There's clearly more than that. I
mentioned Nick Saban a little bit ago, a character letter
on his behalf was sent in for Arnold, and honestly,
I didn't really even get to the arrest and potential chargers.

(01:03:05):
Four counts of kidnapping, four counts of armed robbery. That's
multiple felony charges, and if convicted, he could face life
in prison. That's the current situation. A player that was
reportedly at the Texans facility, being interviewed and being put
through a workout in advance of training camp, which is

(01:03:26):
now three weeks away, doesn't mean he's going to be convicted,
doesn't mean he's going to spend the rest of his
life in jail, probably far from it. But is this
a worthwhile endeavor for them to pursue? You know? Nick
Saban acknowledged I don't know the specifics of the situation,
but committed to supporting him, He said, I've spent decades

(01:03:49):
as a football coach, working with the young men from
diverse and often difficult backgrounds. Have had the privilege watching
hundreds of athletes grow, not just as players, but as men.
I write this letter because of the exceptional character I
witnessed Terry and Arnold over more than six years that
I've known him. He joined the program in twenty twenty one.
Clearly Nick knew him prior to that. Through the recruiting process.

(01:04:11):
He stood out not only because of his athletic ability,
but because of who he was off the field. Based
on my experience with Terran, I've always believed he leads
with genuine care for the people around him. And there
are a few more paragraphs on this remains committed to
supporting him. I would respectfully ask the court to take
into account my experience with Terran, his character, history, and

(01:04:33):
the positive impact he had on our program. Not every
coach is going to do that I'm sure it's all
truthful and that this is how he feels about him
and went out of his way to offer this up
to the court. I'm sure pun request. Obviously, there's some
Alabama inside the Texans building, most notably with Demiko Ryans,
a few other players, but most notably with Dimiko Rans

(01:04:56):
in the respect that he holds for their program, and
clearly Nick Saban, and I'm sure conversations will be had
if that reaches that point.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
My thought is, if you really truly believe he is a.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Front line, starting level player, does he make the football
team better? Yeah, he probably does. Is he more capable
of playing at a slightly higher level than any of
the reserves should there be an injury, Yeah, he probably does.
He's been on the field more than anybody else here
that's on the current team, especially more recently, there are
some injury concerns. And again, his first full season wasn't

(01:05:30):
particularly good. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't anything special.
And I don't know what the future might have held
if none of this had happened. I'm not sure exactly
what the Lions thought of him for year three and
year four and how much they were looking to see
if they could find somebody to compete with him, or
were committed to seeing, Well, we like what we've seen
so far, let's see how much better we get. Yes,

(01:05:53):
he would probably make the Texans better if he had
to be on the field, but at the cost of
what might be in the future, what it might look
like for you to sign him. It definitely does not
seem like a move they would normally make. I can
respect the fact that their locker room is full of
excellence when it comes to people, character, leadership, unity, because

(01:06:15):
I do think this team is very much together when
part of the team feels like they're down. I don't
feel like there are any issues of consequence in their
locker room. And not everybody's going to get along every
single day for every part of the year. And obviously
the CJ. Gardner Johnson situation plays into this a little bit.
But could they handle it? Could it easily be rectified
if it turned into more of an issue. And again,

(01:06:36):
who's saying he's a bad locker room guy. I don't
know that he is to be that. I think somebody who,
if convicted, is found to be involved in these criminal
activities that resulted in these eight counts, several of which
are felony counts. Yeah, that seems like a bad person,
So that's not necessarily what you want in your locker room.
I'll give you my odds on this, they're very low.

(01:06:56):
I think the Texans are doing the right thing by
getting more information both physically football wise, and from the
player himself and his agents about what exactly has taken
place and what is likely on into the future. I
think that's a smart way to do business. I don't
anticipate him being a Texan, although I will acknowledge they're

(01:07:19):
the team that leads the race. He hasn't gone through
the process that he's gone through thus far with other teams. Reportedly,
they are the only team that's taken it to that level,
and from his agent, they said they expected it to
be signed within the next thirty to forty five days,
which basically coincides with the start of or the first
week or two of training camp. Stick around, stay tuned,

(01:07:40):
But my initial thought on this is Terry and Arnold
not about to be a Texan.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
A fortune.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
The top of the hour and hour number two is
still two more hours of us together here on Sports
Talk seven ninety before I will bring you the Astros
on deck show and has expected. When I give you
the starting lineup for the Astros, it will include Jeremy
Paine batting lead off and playing shortstop. The Astros made
the move official to get him back on the active
roster as expected, and unfortunately, these are the moves that

(01:08:09):
I do expect them to make to open up the
roster spot. And it's the same thing they had to
do a couple weeks ago, or maybe a month or
so ago, with guys like Dustin Harris and Daniel Johnson.
They just don't have any spots on the forty man
left and when players don't have options anymore, you have
to let them go. Brandon Shoemaker designated for assignment in
order to open up the roster spot on the twenty

(01:08:30):
six man active roster for the Astros. Reasonable chance that
there's no better place for him and he ends up
back here just with the Triple A outfit on a
off the forty man roster, much in the same manner
that Ryan Weiss, who started last night for the Space Cowboys,
ended up back with the Astros just earlier in the
week when Shoemaker came off of the IL they had

(01:08:53):
to option Rainel Delgado back to Triple A because del
Gato has options, shoe Make does not. Shoemake got the
most activity as a Major leaguer he's ever seen. Former
top pick of the Atlanta Braves, only got four at
bats with the Braves back in twenty three, only got
sixty four more at bats with the White Sox two
seasons ago. Was part of the Yankees farm system recently

(01:09:15):
and had not played in the majors until he joined
the Astros since twenty twenty four, but more than twice
as many at bats here with Houston that he had
previously in his career, and he was pretty useful with them. Obviously,
he shows some positional flexibility, playing some second base, shortstop,
and third base, so I wouldn't be surprised that there
are some interest from the Astros to have him come back,

(01:09:38):
and considering how many changes this team has made, it
might be beneficial for Shoemak to choose to come back,
also providing a left handed bats same as Delgado, but
one has options and one doesn't, and that's why that
move was made. If you recall Brayden, Schoemak hit the
ball over the fence three times with the Astros, probably

(01:09:58):
most notably home run off of Sho Hao Tani Sho
Heo Tani. News of the day is that his knee
is still sore, something that's been bothering him for quite
some time, especially when he is pitching, So he won't
be doing any of that and he won't be appearing
in the Midsummer Classic. Can the Dodgers win without him pitching? Probably,

(01:10:20):
I'm not sure that they can win without him hitting.
Even with their star studded unbelievable nobody can touch this roster.
Baseball is a different animal. But because of that knee issue,
the Dodgers announced he's not gonna make his scheduled start
and his scheduled start against Arizona tonight. The left knee
will allow him to continue playing, but he won't be pitching,

(01:10:41):
and he obviously will not be going to participate in
the All Star Game. So much like the player they
initially acquired, he is a hitter, not a pitcher, and
it is rather unfortunate for those of you that don't
want to throw any shade at the player, but rather
want to revel in his excellence. And I think that's
probably not done enough. He's been awesome as a pitcher,

(01:11:04):
absolutely awesome as a pitcher this year, and quite honestly
for all of his time with the Dodgers, even maybe
more so than his time with the Angels. He was
really good with the Angels. He was a good pitcher.
I don't know that I ever considered him. Maybe in
twenty twenty two he was one of the best pitchers
in baseball. He had his most use that year, and

(01:11:27):
I think, yeah, probably that year he was considered one
of the best pitchers in baseball, because if you only
pitch a handful of times each year, I don't know
that I would give you that kind of accolade. But
his time with the Dodgers has been even better, and
definitely this year, he'd made fourteen starts. It's one more
than Emi if you want to kind of recognize how
many times he's not been able to go out there
and pitch, but he's given him eighty five innings and

(01:11:49):
he sports a one seventy nine ERA. It's pretty easy
I think to call him the second best pitcher in
the National League this year among starters, with Miserroskie being
number one. He's been awesome that's a pretty significant loss
if there are no more starts for him this year.
And I'm not saying this knee irritation definitely lands him there,

(01:12:09):
But it's wild that a guy goes out there has
an airander two, gets hurt and can't pitch, and they
don't have to put him on the il because they
don't even have to stop playing him because he just
goes out there in DHS and he's been an awesome hitter.
I don't know if again I would say he's been
an even better hitter than before. I don't think this
is a marquee season for him. This is a down

(01:12:33):
year offensively for sho Heyo Tani. He's got twenty homers,
fifty six ribs, he's got a one to fifty eight
ops plus, and his OPS is nine thirty nine, and
it is absolutely positively a down year offensively for him.
He's won the MVP four times, he's won it three
times straight. He's won it every year as a Dodger.
He's probably not going to win it this year. We'll

(01:12:55):
see what the next part of the season presents. By
the way the rest of the Astros lineup today is
they face the right hander cal Quantrill of the Rangers.
Paynealvarez pretis Walker Altuve just like I suggested it would be,
and of course Alvarez is your designated hitter. Those other
four players make up the usual astros infield, Lamont Waye Junior.
They'll get that left handed bat into the lineup. He

(01:13:17):
and jord On Alvarez the only lefties in the lineup today.
Cam Smith bat's seventh hundred. Diaz as usual does the
catching for Hunter Brown and the road Warrior Bryce Matthews
in the lineup.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
He does his best work away from Dik and Park.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
I'm curious what the second part of the season post
All Star Break will bring for Bryce Matthews. With Jake
Myers currently probably again tonight playing center field for the
Space Cowboys, Matthews just has been miserable at home. He
was bad last year at home briefly, he's been miserable
this year at home offensively. There's no real reason for it.

(01:13:52):
I don't think it's because he hates the batters in
in Houston and loves it everywhere else.

Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
Just has not been there.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
But while they have this current roster make he should
be playing a ton It is interesting that he is
getting the start in center as a right handed batter,
while Taylor Tremmel is not getting the start in center
as a left handed batter. Just interesting and curious if
that we'll be asked of Joe later this afternoon. Not
anything great, and again comparing them as road hitters. Quite honestly,

(01:14:20):
Bryce Matthews, that really mattered who's been out there, right
of or left. He's been very good against both of them.
Hopefully that continues. He bats at bottom of the lineup
and they'll flip it over and maybe that's also essentially
a second leadoff hitter for them. I mentioned Whyt Langford
and Josh Young had returned to the lineup last night
for the Rangers in their victory off the aisle for
Langford and overcoming a couple days of knee soreness for Young,

(01:14:42):
They're both back in the lineup tonight to face Hunter Brown,
Jock Peterson, White, Langford, Young, Nimo Berger, Duran who's probably
been one of their best and most consistent and most
available offensive players.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
Evan Carter who's been the opposite. He bats seventh.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
He's been awful this year, Niggi Lopez and pitcher Kyle
Hagashioka will do the catching tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
I say that in jest. He's already pitched.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Earlier this week when the Angels put thirteen runs on
the board against the Rangers. Again, the Rangers are a
first place outfit. If you can believe it, it is
actually true. And the rest of the Major League slate
as it relates to the Astros and their quest to
rise up in the standings, I don't mind watching the standings.
I told you I'm going to do it the rest
of the year. So the Mariners are at the Rays

(01:15:29):
this stretch of games. So the Mariners has started as
a disaster, losing all three games to the Marlins this
week and now playing the best team in the American
League away from Mariner's home ballpark. So that could be
good news for the Astros. The Twins, who are just
ahead of the Astros by a half game, they're hosting
the Angels, and the Twins are on a bit of

(01:15:49):
a roll. So that's what you're looking at with the
team's closest to the Astros, and they're chase for the
division and their chase for the wild card.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
As play begins this evening.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Four o'clock hour, WEEKDS, we shift back into a conversation
about the Texans. There have been some wild predictions about
their season. There's some thoughts about their offensive roster, defensive roster,
and specifically something I've told you about consistently since his
arrival in Houston three years ago, how does the national
side feel about the Texans tight end position. We get

(01:16:19):
into that next here on the eight team. It's Friday afternoon.
Go ahead and take off from work. If you haven't already,
you have my okay to do so, but feel free
to listen in as you do. Seven one three two
one two five seven ninety To join us on the
program via socials, hit me up at Adam j. Wexler
always active there both outside and inside of show hours.
Wex and Josh here with you this afternoon, wrapping up

(01:16:41):
a week without Adam Clanton. We'll have one day if
next week with the same and he will rejoin us
so we can get started on all of our very
very very necessary Major League Baseball All Star Game analysis
next Tuesday before they play the game, Monday will be
the home run derby seven of the eight participants now confirmed,
with two more editions today from the Philadelphia Phillies where

(01:17:04):
the game will be played Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. Sunday,
two days from now, the Futures Game will be held
Astros with two players both from Fayetteville, The Woodpeckers single
A will be playing in that game, Xavier Nine's and
Kevin Alvarez. Nine's is having an exceptional offensive season this

(01:17:26):
year with an OPS that's been in the nine hundreds
throughout the season, and Alvarez is having a very good season.
He's approaching eight hundred with his OPS. Both of those
players hopefully, in my opinion, will remain with the Astros
through this trade deadline and the next five or six
trade deadlines, because I think they are both players that

(01:17:47):
they look like the type of talents and have thus
played like the type of talents that we're used to
During the Golden era of Astros baseball, George Springer, drafted
out of college, spent way too long the minors, but
he looked like a can't miss, played his minor league
career like that, and then he did not miss. And
the list goes on and on, and most of those

(01:18:08):
players were very high draft picks. Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker,
Carlos Korea, two other players from the system non drafted,
and Osel twoa before all of them, obviously, Jordan Alvarez
in the midst of all that, acquiring him from Shoe
Otani's Dodgers many years ago. He wasn't there yet. They've
had talent. They've brought Jeremy Paanya up. Looked like a

(01:18:31):
very promising, high level, should be rated high, would be
rated high in anybody's system, and can't miss type player.
And even though the first three years were pretty pedestrian
at best offensively, he had played exceptional postseason baseball winning
MVPs in two of their series and has upticked in
his career significantly last year and again this year. By

(01:18:54):
the way, he's back in the lineup tonight batting first,
and brought this number up, and we'll do what every
opportunity sense to. The Astros have had him start forty
five of their ninety five games. They're twenty five and
twenty when he starts. Thus they're twenty one and twenty
nine when he doesn't. Forty two percent of the time
they win their games when he doesn't start. That's the

(01:19:17):
kind of number that says you would be sellers if
that was your season long numbers worth of games twenty
five and twenty quite the opposite. You're not only in
the mix, you're leading the division. You're leading the division
by several games. You have the second best record among
division leaders in the American League at twenty five and

(01:19:38):
twenty at that winning percentage. So let's see if the
Astros and Jeremy Panya can find a way as they
play the final sixty seven games of the season. Let's
get him out there sixty plus times.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
Let's see if he.

Speaker 1 (01:19:51):
Could just take his days off when warranted rather than
need multiple games off, weeks off at a time because
of the three different injuries. He say, they're a totally
different team when he leads off, when he is with them,
and when he gets to set things up for those
that are behind him. And quite honestly, this might be
the best the three hitters behind him have hit as
a trio at any point this year. Because Hesak Petis

(01:20:15):
is now a threatening hitter once again. He's got his
ops up to seven sixty five. Christian Walker has stabilized
things enough to still have his ops just to shade
under eight hundred. It's not only buoyed by his great start,
but he has at least stabilized things to keep it
at that level. And the best hitter in baseball is
yard On Alvarez. Interestingly enough, before I get into that

(01:20:35):
Texans tight end scenario that I wanted to get to
this segment. We're a little past the halfway point, but
at the All Star break, and one of the more
fun writers out there, because I think he still loves
baseball writes for the Athletic is Jason Stark. He's got
his mid season awards, not technically at the midpoint of
the season, but it's.

Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
Both sides of it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
MVP caliber players, Least valuable Players, best pitcher, worst pitchers,
all those things. Well, the al MVP was an easy, easy,
easy decision.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
Of course, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:21:06):
Yard On Alvarez, but it's kind of the reasons why,
and it's definitely worth a read. I'm gonna leave you
with this one piece of the article. The Astros are
forty six and forty nine. They're obviously in the race,
two games out of the wildcard or the division lead,
and right there in the wildcard race. Any kind of
reasonably long winning streak, especially if it comes against teams
ahead of them, like the games tonight, Tomorrow and Sunday.

(01:21:28):
Then they'll be inside the playoff picture and hopefully with
better things to come. Hopefully the rest of the season
is with Jeremy pany and is with Hunter Brown, is
with Josh Hater, each of whom has missed significant time
during the first ninety five. You'red On Alvarez MVP. His
personal numbers, we give them to you all the time.
As they head into play today, he is the leader
in two of the three Triple Crown categories. Leads in

(01:21:49):
home runs, he's got one more than Ben Rice. He's
got two more than Junior Cameron Aro. He leads in RBI.
He's got one more than Nick Kurtz. He's got two
more than Ben Rice. He's actually fallen back quite a
bit in the race for the batting title. He's hitting
three to ten coming into play today and Yadi Diez
hitting three twenty six or three twenty eight, so a
pretty decent distance between him, but that changes rapidly. As

(01:22:13):
the Astros went out on the road, jord On was first.
It's got a ten thirty ops that's number one, six
fourteen slug that's number one for sixteen on base percentage
so far this season. Now compare him to the rest
of his team, and that's what stood out among this
rite up from Jason about jord On Alvarez ten thirty
ops six fourteen slug for sixteen on base percentage. He

(01:22:36):
gots on base forty two percent of the time. His teammates,
the rest of the Astros thirty percent. Their obps thirty
point two percent.

Speaker 2 (01:22:45):
That's awful.

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
He slug six fourteen, they slug three eighty six. Awful
OPS is ten thirty, theirs is six eighty eight a
six eighty eight OPS. For some advantage point a perspective
on what that is, Cam Smith's OPS is six'. SEVENTY
i just gave you the entire team is at six't eighty.

(01:23:07):
Eight jose al twoves at seven oh. Two so, basically
What i'm telling you is the rest of the team
is essentially eight al Two v's Or Cam smith's as a.
Whole as a unit that includes all the work done By,
Paynya Parretis walker and everybody. Else on the other side of,
things you're sending somebody up to the plate every other

(01:23:29):
bat other Than, yourn's who's a below average player as
a whole on, average and when it comes to on base.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
Percentage way below.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
Average but clearly that's not every single, player but that's
the type of production they're getting from everybody. Else he's
so far and away THE mvp of this. Team that's
why it makes such a strong case FOR mvp in the.
League and, lastly how does he not WIN. Mvp, obviously
some you gotta vote for somebody. Else you gotta have
somebody else who has that type of, Season and that's

(01:23:59):
WHY i also think he in a tremendous spot to WIN.
Mvp Ben rice to The yankees soon, enough they'll Have
Aaron judge. Back it could still be another four or five,
weeks maybe. Longer if that never, happens and they have
the pitching injuries they have and they catch the rays
or at least play as well as they did yesterday
against The, race Maybe Ben rice is a reasonable. THOUGHT

(01:24:21):
i don't know that he's gonna outperform in AN mvp.
Sense Yord On alvarez with the team he plays, for
even with all their pitching. Injuries Junior Cameron aro's teammates
With Theyandy, Diaz SO i Think Cameron aro is in
a tough. Spot he's definitely their best offensive, player but
he sits in a group of three to four outstanding offensive.
Players they give him. Protection they're very good on their.

(01:24:42):
Own they're also a very good team because of their,
pitching maybe more than.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
Him nothing against, them but winning AN mvp.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
Award Over Yordon, alvarez Where jordon has got better numbers
across the.

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
BOARD i don't.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
Really think in either of their, cases they're the fact
that they wear gloves to the game. MATTERS i don't
think it matters at, All Nick, Kurtz if he is THE,
mvp it will be because of where he. Plays AND
i don't mean the team he plays. FOR i mean
the ballpark he gets to play in half the, year
plus the games they get to play In. Vegas it's
minor league, baseball and the ball travels like, crazy and

(01:25:16):
the offense is benefit from, it and so has. He
he's an awesome. Hitter he's gonna hit wherever he. Is
if he ever doesn't play for The, athletics he's gonna be.
Awesome it's nothing like, that but it's absolutely a benefit to.
Him he has a better on base percentage Than. Jordan
he's probably gonna walk one hundred and twenty times this,
year and all of his other numbers are. Awesome but,
again winning AN, mvp their team's on a six game losing.

(01:25:39):
Streak they're probably gonna finish well under five. Hundred, again
probably not gonna beat him And Bobby Witt. Junior the
award doesn't say who's the best player in The American.
League he probably is the best player in The American.
League he's the best defensive shortstop in, baseball certainly in
The American.

Speaker 2 (01:25:57):
League he's the best offensive.

Speaker 1 (01:25:59):
Shortstop he's, Awesome he's, Unbelievable but that's not what the
award is. For Take bobby Wit junior off of The.
Royals what place would you put The royals in if
he wasn't out there crushing? It and he's not even
having an unbelievable. Season he's having a typically Good bobby
Wit junior. Season his numbers are decent distance back Of
jordan and most of these other candidates that we. Mentioned

(01:26:22):
but where would The royals be Without bobby Wit. Junior
maybe you think that's. UNFAIR i don't. Know where do
you think they might? Be what place in the fifteen
Team American league do you think they'd be in without,
him probably, fifteenth, right probably worse than, baseball. RIGHT i
would agree they're fourteenth with, him they're thirty eight and
fifty six with him going out there and crushing it every.

(01:26:44):
Day little unfair little bit of maybe Why Mike trout
doesn't have eight. MVPs, maybe BUT i don't know how
in a season where other worthy, candidates who might even
be better, candidates also play for a team that is
winning games because they're on, IT i think that would
weigh pretty. Heavily if it was a year where there

(01:27:05):
weren't a lot of good candidates on good, teams that'd
be one. Thing punishing him for being on a bad
team may sound harsh and may not go right into
how you feel about THE mvp.

Speaker 2 (01:27:15):
AWARD i can't tell you how to. VOTE i don't
have a.

Speaker 1 (01:27:17):
Vote you don't have a vote unless one of our
media members here In, houston who does have a, vote
and there are two of, them is listening to me right.

Speaker 2 (01:27:23):
NOW i don't.

Speaker 1 (01:27:24):
Know i'm not talking to, anybody BUT i wouldn't vote
for him over probably any of those candidates playing for better,
teams meaning more in wins coming up in more meaningful
at bats and clearly coming through one of the most
several of the astros most impressive and most needed victories
and the most recent huge come from behind victory with

(01:27:44):
him homering On july. Fourth it's a big difference certainly
would win him the award in my. Opinion the tabled
tight end, conversation we'll get to that next here on the,
EIGHTEEN i let it up talking quite a bit of football,
today kind of making up for the rest of the.

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
Week didn't seem like we got much of it in.

Speaker 1 (01:28:03):
There and we're a little under three weeks from The
Houston texans opening up their training. CAMP a pair of
joint practices this season during the preseason for The texans
in advance of their home game against The. Raiders they
will do so here on their own practice fields coming
up on the eighteenth Of, august and they will do
so the following week when they're At carolina to take
On Bryce young and The. Panthers for those that are,

(01:28:27):
unaware they get a lot more work done at joint
practices than they do in the game that comes several days.
Later so you will expect to see all the number
ones for each team going against the number ones for
the other team on those practice. FIELDS a little bit
of it obviously scripted, out and you still can't hit the,
quarterback but everything else takes place, there and so there's

(01:28:47):
a lot of value in. THESE i am extremely unsurprised
That tamiko O ryans likes having joint. Practices they haven't
had as, many probably as they would have liked over
the last couple of. Years they ended up canceling a
day's worth of them in his first three. Years one
of the seasons this, year they're playing three preseason. Games
they've got two joint practices with two of those three.
Opponents they have had coaches in the past THAT i

(01:29:10):
guess you could say didn't believe in.

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
Them not a.

Speaker 1 (01:29:14):
Very good thought if you're AN nfl, coach in my,
opinion keeps your players, HEALTHIER i, suppose because you're not
subjecting your best players to a more competitive, atmosphere but
in a controlled, setting and the way that you practice
probably a little bit less likely you're going to suffer
that in a joint practice than say you would in a.

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
Game but then you get to the game and those.

Speaker 1 (01:29:35):
Players arent gonna get hurt because they're not playing at.
All so are they prepared for the, Season do you
have a good idea of who you? Need do you
have a good idea of who to keep and who to?
Cut joint practice big huge thumbs up for, me and
The texans will have two of them eight open, practices
THOUGH i believe all of the tickets were sent out.
ALREADY i say sent out because they weren't. Sold you
could claim them for, free but they've already been. Claimed

(01:29:57):
most of them come during the first seven eight days
of practic so a few of those will be without
even having the pads, on and a few, others including The.
Raiders joint practice also, open so definitely worth. Seeing and
if you get a, chance if you haven't been out
there over the, years to take part in, that THEN
i definitely encourage you to do. So they got a
few more years at their current practice facility right there

(01:30:18):
At Reliance. STADIUM a couple of years from, now they'll
be in The Toro district for all of their work
other than their game day. Activities so a few other
things on The texans have come, up and over the
last couple of weeks there have been a bunch of
rankings for power RANKINGS afc. RANKINGS i just ran through
PFF's quarterback rankings among the thirty two starters we've seen roster.

(01:30:40):
Rankings i'm not sure if that was discussed WHILE i was,
out but wanted to discuss it more when the full
boat of your hosts and producer back here with you next.
Week so we, will but one by, One i'm kind
of pointing out WHAT i have said for the entire
offseason and for most of last. Season we talked about
the quarterbacks earlier, today and just one, RANKINGS i don't

(01:31:00):
really disagree with.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
It it PUTS.

Speaker 1 (01:31:02):
Cj stroud in the back half OF nfl, quarterbacks the
best of the back, half but not among the top
to sixteen heading into the upcoming season that coming FOR.
Pff so that's one aspect of your. Offense you've got
an offensive coordinator slash play. Caller you've got a, quarterback
you've got a running, game you got your offensive, line
you got your pass pro you got your tight end,
group you got your wide, receivers you got your pass. Catchers,

(01:31:22):
however you want to separate them, all so put them
in their different groups and grade them, out and you'll
see why this will still be a surprise if The
texans have a strong offensive. Season they don't need the
strongest offensive season to win The Super, bowl far from.
It but they need a strong offensive, SEASON i think

(01:31:44):
to be considered a real, threat because The patriots game
is a pretty good. Example The texans defense is legit
best defense in THE, afc and in order to beat
The patriots that particular, day they would have needed to
generate more than four touchdowns worth of. Points their defense
was on the field for three touchdown passes From Drake.

(01:32:06):
May they allowed three touchdown. Passes it was not their
best day and pass pro quite. Honestly it took spectacular
place from either the quarterback or the wide out or
both for those three touchdowns to. Occur but they, did
and that is going to, happen especially when you get
to the. PLAYOFFS i don't categorize this defense as The

(01:32:26):
Super Bowl shuffle eighty Five bears defense or maybe the
best defense of this, generation The ravens defense With Ray
lewis And Ed, reid. ETC i think they're very very,
good very very, good and the best in comparison to
the rest of the. League and we're right there on
parse with The. Seahawks BUT i don't think they're going
out there this year either shutting teams, out giving up

(01:32:49):
a touchdown ten points are less. Consistently they ended up
finishing second in points. Allowed that was largely because of
What Riley leonard did to their defense in the first
half and then did to their reserve defense in the second.
Half otherwise they would have finished. First but it's seventeen
points a, game it's fifteen points a. Game it's not
eight points per, game it's not eleven points per. Game

(01:33:09):
they're really really, good AND i would still use the word,
dominant but there are gonna be days where their offense
is going to need to do, something and it probably
comes to the, playoffs and their offense. Didn't the offense
didn't even really get it done Against pittsburgh. Either that
was a ten to six game in the fourth, quarter
so one score game with fourteen and a half minutes to.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
Go, well then they scored thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:33:30):
Points their defense was largely responsible for, that and it
turned into a final score that looked like they blew
The steelers. Out they Dominated Aaron, rodgers but they only
got that gap on the scoreboard late in the game
and largely because of their. Defense SO i gave you
the quarterback being in the back half of THE nfl
top part of the back. Half, okay let's move along

(01:33:52):
to tight. Ends since a group of executives and other
personnel people around THE nfl spoken to By Jeremy fowler
were able to come together with a top ten tight
ends in THE, NFL i don't need to run through
that list because you, Know Dalton schultz isn't on. It
he's not doesn't deserve to be on, it shouldn't be on.
It he's been paid like a top ten tight end

(01:34:13):
from the moment he became A, texan got a three,
year thirty six million dollar deal two seasons, ago and
got an extension at roughly the same rate twelve point
SIX i believe for another season as an, extension which
there's two ways to look at. That by the, way
twelve point six average annual value on his deal puts

(01:34:33):
him in the top ten among paid tight.

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
Ends he's.

Speaker 1 (01:34:36):
SEVENTH a couple of the rookies or younger players clearly
on the outside of that, group even though they're, awesome
Like Brock, bowers who's the best tight end in THE,
nfl both on this list and in, reality and he
doesn't make anywhere near that type of, money even though
he was a top draft. Pick point, being there's two

(01:34:57):
ways to look at the contract For Dalton. Schultz did
they need to do it because it allowed them a
little extra space on this year's, cap which is probably,
true so that's Why nick does. It is he going
to care much at? All is it going to impact
them negatively much at all that they're going to be
eating void years and eating that space on their cap
in the, future because they absolutely will. Be, maybe but

(01:35:19):
that's how you do business in THE. Nfl to, me
this was the year to say he's in the final
year of his. Deal that's that he plays out the.
Year you hope you found something in the other players
that are on the, roster as you've Extended Brevin jordan one,
year you go into year three Of Cade. Stover obviously
you impacted the team by bringing In Foster. Moreau there's
a lot of ways you could try to make that

(01:35:41):
tight end position a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
Useful they've struggled to do.

Speaker 1 (01:35:44):
That Dalton, schultz quite, honestly is probably the second best
tight end ever suit up for The, texans right there
Alongside Owen. Daniels he set the record last year for
most receptions in team history by a tight, end but
they could be better top. Ten he's not a part
of that out ranked in the top. Ten did he receive? Votes,
yes and probably among the fewest receiving. VOTES i don't

(01:36:10):
know if the group after the top, fifteen because they
do DO i did to submit an honorable, mention so
it puts him outside the top. FIFTEEN a handful of
people put him in the top, ten so he's in
the also receiving votes, category which likely means they have
a back half of THE nfl starting tight, end and quite,
honestly that means they have a back half of THE

(01:36:31):
nfl tight end group clearly follow along back half of
THE nfl, quarterback back half of THE nfl tight. END
i don't need the rankings or any executive to tell
me they have going into the year a back half
of the league offensive, line back half of the league

(01:36:52):
pass blocking offensive, line back half of the league run
blocking offensive. Line they can prove me, wrong which is
what they have to do if they're going to succeed this.
Year but that's where they are as we sit here.
Today they're running back, room clearly back half of the.
League David montgomery is not a top fifteen running. Back
what he marks is not a top fifteen reserve running.

(01:37:14):
Back probably as.

Speaker 2 (01:37:15):
A, unit could they run the ball well enough to win?
Games for?

Speaker 1 (01:37:17):
Sure can they play a little bit better on the
offensive line Than i'm suggesting here today On july? Tenth
absolutely did they make positive additions to the offensive. Line
probably three of, them depending on If Keelan rutledge is
a part of this year's offensive line or. Not maybe
he's your starting, Center Wyatt tellers are starting. Guard opposite At,
ingram you probably Have Braden smith starting a tackle With

(01:37:38):
Tay ursery on the other. Side paper definitely better than
the group they had last. Year the group they had
at the end of last year was also pretty. Successful
not top half of the league successful, Though and we're
still probably not the worst offensive line and improve the offensive.
Line maybe they're the twenty second best offensive.

Speaker 2 (01:37:56):
Line can you win with?

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
That?

Speaker 2 (01:37:57):
Yeah should they be trying to win with?

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
That? Oh they're so unbelievably, imbalanced and the wide receiver,
group quite, honestly is probably not even very highly regarded.

Speaker 2 (01:38:07):
Either so how are they going to be good?

Speaker 1 (01:38:09):
Offensively how are they gonna be good offensively when nobody
on the offense and they're running out a second year
offensive coordinator play.

Speaker 2 (01:38:17):
Caller you see the. Point it's not. Impossible it sounds.

Speaker 1 (01:38:22):
Awful it sounds LIKE i brought out The friday wet
blanket on The texans, offense but that's reality of who
they are on, paper and having not played any games
in twenty twenty, six the opportunity to come out better
than that at the end of twenty twenty six certainly
is on the table for The, texans but it's absolutely
a wait and see. PROPOSITION i can make you feel

(01:38:43):
better by telling you how The texans look from an
edge standpoint or cornerback, standpoint BUT i think you already
know that maybe it's time for the daily.

Speaker 2 (01:38:50):
Soresby maybe we can hit that next.

Speaker 1 (01:38:54):
THE a team when we have a full cast of,
characters and before we get to games being played in
the football. Season we'll usually have Our friday team draft
on hiatus again this off, Season so an opportunity for
me to dive into THE. Tds it's been away from
the airwaves for a few too many, days even though
news was actually.

Speaker 2 (01:39:14):
Made what's THE.

Speaker 1 (01:39:15):
Tds it's The, Daily, sowersby it's gonna go away pretty
soon because.

Speaker 2 (01:39:19):
He's not in the Supplemental.

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
Draft he's not playing For Texas tech Or cincinnati Or
indiana or ANY nfl team or ANY cfl.

Speaker 2 (01:39:27):
Team he's not playing any.

Speaker 1 (01:39:28):
Football but With Big twelve media days taking place this,
Week sowersby was attempting to play For Big twelve team number.
Two he played For cincinnati and he had hoped to
play For Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
Tech his college football career has come to a.

Speaker 1 (01:39:44):
Conclusion but in That Big twelve players and coaches all
met with the media this, week and the commissioner pretty,
MUCH i don't, know blew it all week with everything he.
Did as we get into The sowersby, conversation let me
start right there With Brett. YORMARK i mean making money
for the. Conference it's. Good you should be at the

(01:40:06):
forefront of. That you're the leader of the. Conference you're
being paid to help them. Monetize it's definitely a huge
aspect of trying to keep up with everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
Else getting a.

Speaker 1 (01:40:16):
Sponsor for all of the football programs and basketball programs sounds.

Speaker 2 (01:40:21):
Great for twenty million bucks sounds less.

Speaker 1 (01:40:24):
GREAT i, know twenty million seems like a lot of,
money the amount going to every school and for What
Monster energy AND i don't mind saying who they are
will get from this. Deal it sure seems like it's
money well spent by the. Sponsor and you already see
it at play During big twelve media. Days how much
run they're getting with signage and microphones and everything. Else

(01:40:46):
as the season unfolds this year on the gridiron and
then unfolds on the, hardwood they're going to get a
tremendous amount of bang for their. Buck meaning most people
see this deal as you only got twenty million. Bucks
not job well, done and then his thoughts on how
to handle the swersby situation publicly considering everything that it

(01:41:09):
played out on campus At Texas tech what is likely
to continue to play out On cincinnati's. Campus basically didn't say.
Anything i'm not. Talking this isn't the time for.

Speaker 2 (01:41:19):
It when is?

Speaker 1 (01:41:20):
It, like it's not crisis, management but it's, Close and
how can you be so bad at? It everybody's paying,
attention everybody wants to know about, it and you're months
away from the. Season sure you're not going to be
talking to anybody for the next couple of. Months this
is the perfect place to address it and take questions

(01:41:41):
for about, it just answer them and then move. On
Texas tech is going to play football games Without Brennan,
sorosby and soon enough by week, Two week, three week.
Four as long as their quarterback play is not, horrendous
and it shouldn't, be.

Speaker 2 (01:41:56):
It will move. On we'll be on to something.

Speaker 1 (01:41:59):
Else cincinnati won't be talking about this during their football
season unless and that's the other part of the Daily
Sowersby cincinnati alleged to have known about.

Speaker 2 (01:42:12):
This we heard from the.

Speaker 1 (01:42:13):
Agent college football players have agents That cincinnati knew about
this and didn't do anything about, it know about what you,
say knew about his gambling, problem knew about his sense
diagnosed addiction to, gambling and didn't do anything about. It
so this is really on them for the agents For Brennan,
sowersby which is pretty rich and a bit, Much but

(01:42:37):
there has been reason to believe That cincinnati should be looked.
Into Now cincinnati on a totally different note from their
own potential investigation that could be.

Speaker 2 (01:42:48):
Upcoming their.

Speaker 1 (01:42:49):
Coach he's been there for three, years, obviously there for
The Brendan sowersby. Era he said that he was already
being talked to before the season even ended By Texas
tech about transferring, out about taking their BIG nil offering
and moving on From cincinnati in season while they were
still playing, games while they were still trying to win,
games While Brendan sorsby was still playing games and also

(01:43:12):
presumably betting agent steps in again on this commentary from
Coach sadderfield Of.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
Cincinnati he says it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:43:19):
True he says In Coach sadderfield says it's not Only Texas,
tech BUT i clearly he wants to single them. Out
he said multiple schools spoke with him before the season. Ended,
clearly if you're, unaware that's a violation of the tampering
rules rules in THE. NCAAA i wouldn't say they're made
to be, broken but there's pretty much nobody enforcing them

(01:43:39):
the way that they need to. Be and that's why
it's a renegade. Outfit college football is a renegade. Outfit
it was a renegade outfit before nil in, transfer but
for different, reasons and it has continued to be and
probably at a more extreme, level which is why it
is definitely headed to a.

Speaker 2 (01:43:55):
PLACE i don't think we want it to.

Speaker 1 (01:43:57):
Go it's going to provide us all the entertainment At
alls has this year and probably for the next five
to six seventy eight years at a bare. Minimum but
they're going to have to change things dramatically or the
sport itself and the interest in it is going to change,
dramatically absolutely and, positively AND i hope it. Doesn't but
an investigation Into cincinnati's knowledge of what took place and

(01:44:20):
what they did know and what they could have done
but maybe did not. Do, yeah that's out there now
and we will find out if in fact they might
also face some punishment for. This it's just a lot
of things that involved, here and it's all just about
this guy's good. Play he's good at throwing the, football
and he had a gambling, problem and this is the
kind of impact that it's. Had one other thing that

(01:44:42):
probably gets talked about almost not at all from What
coach maguire Of Texas tech talked about this. Week he
was not during his media, interviews but with one of
his sit down interviews with many of the people that
travel basically radio road type stuff during media days for
The Big, twelve he said he regrets how they handled
the situation in terms of their conversations and suggestions advice For,

(01:45:06):
soresby he, said, basically IF i had to do it
all over, AGAIN i would have just suggested just go get,
drafted go into the, draft going to this supplemental, draft
don't go through all these we need to do. This
we're gonna try to get you eligible for that and
then hire an. Attorney and again we're not paying for,
it as the university said many times. Over and then
he went and sued to try to get have it

(01:45:31):
lifted so he could be a part of The Texas
tech football. Team all those things took, place and he
said he regrets that he regrets having to go that.
Direction clearly with the, result it's easy to say that,
now and during it he was trying to get him
on the football.

Speaker 2 (01:45:44):
Field they obviously wanted him.

Speaker 1 (01:45:45):
There, lastly about this whole, Saga Cody, campbell who is
now extremely widely known across the country for the money
he's helped funnel Into Texas tech, athletics, softball, field, football,
field you name. It he has been at the forefront
of the money they've now been able to spend on
players via nil. Deals not the only one there At Texas,
tech but certainly at the top of the, list and

(01:46:07):
he's face. Forward there's very few people around the country
that are both contributing the type of money that he
is and talking about it as much as he. Is
you want to bring him, on bring him. On you
want to talk to, ME i will talk to. You
you got an interview for, me let's sit. Down always
talking about everything going on. There but the lightest thing he,
said and this came during media, days is that this

(01:46:28):
is how everybody should.

Speaker 2 (01:46:30):
Be everybody should want to be like.

Speaker 1 (01:46:31):
Us everybody has people that could be doing what we're,
doing and it's good for the conference if we all do.
That he's probably right on the second. Part it would
be good if everybody was doing. That does everybody have
somebody Like campbell and enough other people to support? It
BECAUSE i don't want to paint it as it's just one.
Guy it seems like it because of how phase forward

(01:46:53):
he is and how loud much louder he is than
any other people involved WITH nil pretty much around the.
Country but it's not necessarily the. Case but does every
school really have the ability to do? That that's where
it's missing the, point and that's why this school spending
twenty five or thirty five million and another school in
the same conference is spending. Ten it's not a level
playing field even within these major. Conferences but this is

(01:47:15):
what they. Wanted there are no, controls there's no. Cap
whatever you can get to, spend get after it and spend,
it and see what your football team can do to
generate the money so you have both returns on it
and good vibes about your football. Program because that's all it's, about,
Right just have good, Vibes spend all the money you,
want enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:47:34):
IT i don't mind that at. All the persation coming.

Speaker 1 (01:47:40):
Up at the top of the hour or rather than
football at five With Kennedy, landry the beat writer for
The rangers FROM mlb Dot, com set to join us
in advance Of Astros rangers first of three tonight and
then it's The All star. BREAK i wasn't expecting to
talk about The heat and The, bucks interestingly playing A
Summer league game that just. Concluded heat won Nineteen bucks

(01:48:03):
eighty five during that, game which all these games are
broadcast somewhere in game interview With Tyler, herro formerly of The,
heat currently of The. Bucks after the trade became official
just after the. Moratorium he was part of the group
sent to The Milwaukee bucks from The Miami heat as
part of The Ana dakupo. DEAL i had something saved

(01:48:27):
to talk about on the show probably for five or six,
days and never got around to.

Speaker 2 (01:48:32):
It you probably saw.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
It it Was Tyler hero putting up on His instagram
story some rather unflattering comments as part of a text
chain with some people about now former Teammate Bam, autebayo
talking about some of the things that were not enough

(01:48:53):
of a part of his game and just the quality
of the player he was. Now teams would attack certain
things about The heat that weren't involving trying to slow him,
down but rather other. Things and if you missed, it
there was a little report just came out From vegas
from our good Front. SHAMS i will read it to,
you and it involves those two, gentlemen maybe, others but

(01:49:17):
specific to the report. Itself bam out Of bio And
Tyler hero got into a physical altercation In Las vegas
On Friday Today's, friday in which out Of bio Struck.
Hero the altercation occur occurred at a practice court and
A Vegas hotel this, morning starting When out Of bio

(01:49:39):
Approached hero about comments The guard made critiquing the center
on social media after their seven year run In miami.
Ended chris Haines is reported The heat are aware of the,
altercation though they have no comment on. It The heat
still Employees bam out Of. Bio The bucks now Employ Tyler.
Hero people are talking about How Jalen brown And Jason

(01:50:03):
tatum maybe didn't have a great relationship as teammates off the,
court but they were spectacular on the, court which is
the only thing that. Matters, Interestingly i'm not sure if
there was much friction on the court over the past
many years That hero And out Of bio were, teammates
but there's friction. NOW i know the league office is

(01:50:26):
pretty smart and they're not saying they want this to,
Happen but it would have been on the table. Already
Bucks heat absolutely gonna be scheduled for NATIONAL tv coverage,
now but it was gonna be. Already these are the
two teams involved in the. Deal jnic goes back To
milwaukee for the first. Time that would be it would
have been there. Anyway but altercation with a punch not

(01:50:51):
on THE nba. Court i'm interested to see whatever else
comes out about the description of this. Scenario you, know
players fight that used to be. TEAMMATES i can't imagine
that these guys Were let's, say these guys were really,
close really, tight arm, in arm, tight saw other things
the same way put went in a battle together all

(01:51:12):
these years as the leaders of this, team and you,
know feel good about the run that they've, had and
then bam sees this, backhandied, backstabbing two faced kind of
commentary From Tyler hero on social.

Speaker 2 (01:51:26):
Media that would tick me.

Speaker 1 (01:51:27):
Off it would probably tick me off more if that
is the scenario that played. Out what if they were
already a somewhat, adversarial somewhat foes rather than friends. Teammates
sure put it all aside when you hit the court
and you're going out there trying to win as much
as you, can but not really, tight not. REALLY i,
Mean i'm not telling you if they hang out or,

(01:51:48):
not but just not really somebody you don't really get along.

Speaker 2 (01:51:50):
With let's, say and then this.

Speaker 1 (01:51:52):
Happens that's probably not as bad as Viewing, hero let's,
say as much more of a fake two, face no
longer teammate but this is a pretty wild. Story this
is part of What vegas is. About everybody's. There there's
a handful of players, playing more players that aren't playing

(01:52:15):
In Summer league are, there it seems, like than the
guys who are actually on the, court especially when you're
really talking ABOUT nba. Players rockets probably have THREE nba
players on their summer league. Team some teams may as many.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
As four or.

Speaker 1 (01:52:26):
Five they fill out the roster WITH G league talent
and guys that are gonna never play in THE, nba
and then nine or ten guys from the roster are.
There you know, why because they practice, there they play basketball.
There it's very common for veterans on the team to
be In, vegas not just to be In, vegas not
just to go to, games not just to hang out and,
party they do that, too but to practice with the

(01:52:50):
team with the new, players especially ones that have impactful new.
Players so it's not surprising that these players were. There
but who else was? There this is on a practice.
Court were they? Playing was this a pickup game with
randoms from THE nba just out there trying to get
ready for the upcoming season that is months, away or

(01:53:12):
was THIS i know where he's gonna, be So i'm
going to confront him. HERE i Doubt bam was there.
ALONE i Doubt hero was there. ALONE i don't need
the eyewitness, accounts BUT i want to know who else
was there Is why wasn't this a full on? Rumble
Is Tyler herroll not tight enough with his new teammates
to get The bucks to back? Him he had some

(01:53:33):
of his own. Teammates did they have to pick? Sides
Did kilo wear And Haimi hawkes were they in the?
Building were they on the practice? Court did they have
to pick? Sides are they the one that broke it?
Up and was this really a? Fight was this an?
Altercation was this a? Fight was this a? Scrap was
this a shoving?

Speaker 2 (01:53:50):
Match was this just?

Speaker 1 (01:53:51):
Words the report indicates he punched him physical. Altercation we're
out of By Rock. Hero now we bring it here.
Locally you guys can speak up all at once or
one at a. Time who's Surprised Tyler herro was involved in?

(01:54:11):
This who's surprised That Tyler hero made ANOTHER nba player
very very angry to the point that he had a
physical altercation and struck. Him anybody who's surprised come, on
you can speak.

Speaker 2 (01:54:25):
Up i'm sure it's.

Speaker 1 (01:54:26):
Nobody we saw What Amen thompson did with, him and
we've seen what others have done with.

Speaker 2 (01:54:32):
Him it's how he. Is he's an EXCELLENT nba.

Speaker 1 (01:54:35):
Talent not enjoyed a lot of postseason success With adebayo
or anybody. Else Jimmy butler and the rest of the.
Group obviously they advanced as a. TEAM i was talking
about him. PERSONALLY i don't know if it weighs on,
him if it's part of his bravado of who he
thinks he is as AN nba, player and there are
knights where he he's. Unstoppable he's an offensive. Talent it's

(01:54:56):
a high volume. Shooter the numbers last year are very.
Good season averaging twenty points per, game shot forty five
percent from the, floor shot thirty eight percent for three point.
Distance all of those numbers are way better.

Speaker 2 (01:55:10):
Than his postseason.

Speaker 1 (01:55:11):
Numbers his best postseason was the first, postseason the year
they went to the. Finals he's been a bad postseason
player ever. Since so this guy is mouthing off About Bam.
AUTEBAYO i can understand. IT i can understand Why bam
decided to Go bam.

Speaker 2 (01:55:30):
Arguably on his.

Speaker 1 (01:55:30):
FACE i don't. Know he said he struck. Him does
that mean he hit him in the, shoulder kicked?

Speaker 2 (01:55:33):
HIM i don't.

Speaker 1 (01:55:34):
KNOW nba player fight In vegas At Summer. League great
transition into baseball. Conversation we'll have that at the top
of the. Hour we'll take a trip To. Arlington Kennedy,
landry the beat writer for The Texas rangers FOR mlb Dot.
Com she joins THE a team Next, wexler here with

(01:55:55):
you and happy to talk a little baseball as The
astros And rangers get together this evening for the last
three games Pre All Star, Break games, eight, nine and
ten of their season. Series and to do that our,
conversation we shifted To arlington and welcome In Kennedy, landry
who covers The rangers FOR mlb dot, com their beat
writer and has been in that spot since twenty Twenty

(01:56:16):
so through the inevitable first, question, timing did you enjoy
covering The rangers in twenty twenty three and don't make
our listeners to, Upset.

Speaker 4 (01:56:27):
No it was a good, time you, know only being
on the beat for two years at that, point it
was really good to experience a TEAM i didn't grow
up rooting, for but the organization's first Ever World series.
Championship it was a lot of fun to just be
around and to cover and to experience what the fans
have been.

Speaker 3 (01:56:43):
Waiting for for so.

Speaker 4 (01:56:44):
Long SO i don't want to go too deep into
that for you guys, here but it was a lot
of fun for.

Speaker 2 (01:56:49):
Sure, Well i'll only ask you one more question about.

Speaker 1 (01:56:51):
It, then when you traveled back After game five To,
houston did you think there were two More rangers wins?

Speaker 2 (01:56:59):
Coming?

Speaker 3 (01:57:00):
No absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:57:01):
Not you, know you guys know how THAT alcs went
in those three games here In, arlington the basis clearing
the l two ve go ahead knocks Against Hose jose
Le clerk In game. FIVE i, mean it felt pretty,
demoralizing BUT i think really the real key for That
Bruce bochie squad was their resilience and how they were

(01:57:22):
able to really bounce back once we once the team
got back To, houston and it, was LIKE i, said
it was a lot of fun to.

Speaker 3 (01:57:27):
Watch and you, know.

Speaker 4 (01:57:28):
You see these guys watched cover a lot of these
guys growing up through the organization and to see them
kind of show it on a big stage was it
was a blessing to be able to.

Speaker 1 (01:57:39):
Witness we brought Up Bruce, bochie WHICH i was going to,
do AND i don't think it's any faults of new
Manager Skip shoemaker at, all but in my, opinion very
very difficult shoes to fill and very difficult to BE
i guess. Better clearly he's going to be, different but
to be better and more. Successful and then someone who's
done What Bruce bochie has done would be virtually impops

(01:58:00):
well certainly over you, know ninety, games which is all
he's had. There But i'm curious how you see things
differently from how the team was Under, bruce how the
team AND i always Under, skip and just kind of
the job you think he's done so.

Speaker 4 (01:58:10):
Far, YEAH i think it goes without saying that it's
a different managerial. Style it's a different it's a different.
Guys it's very different to go from a guy Like Bruce,
bochie who's a legend obviously in his own right for four,
championships so only one here In, arlington but he's on
the older, side and you get kind of a burst
of energy with a guy Like. Skip he's forty, five forty,

(01:58:33):
six he's not too far removed from his playing days
and what these guys go through over the course of
a full one sixty two and, YEAH i think he
goes without saying there's big shoes to fill, There BUT
i think it was a transitional time kind of in
this organization and a.

Speaker 3 (01:58:47):
Kind of a new voice may have been.

Speaker 4 (01:58:48):
Needed AND i know the record doesn't quite probably reflect
how The rangers wish they would be playing right, now
BUT i Think skipp has done a good job stepping
into this role with the especially with the he was
giving in some of the injuries that have taken place
over the course of these ninety. Games he's managed it
really about as well as he possibly. COULD i think
we saw this offseason that he was one of the

(01:59:10):
more coveted managerial hires IN mlb with a lot of
vacancies across the, league and a lot of people have
a lot of good things to say about, him both
on and off the, field AND i think it doesn't
always show on the, field BUT i think the players
really respect, him and you see that being around the
clubhouse talking to the players in that, clubhouse and you

(01:59:30):
know they really obviously hope that translates to a few more.

Speaker 3 (01:59:33):
Wins in the second.

Speaker 1 (01:59:34):
Half talking With kennedy landrybeat writer for The Texas RANGERS
fromlb dot, com AND i hear you say some of those,
things and it can't help but strike me as it's
wild to hear what you, said while totally accurate about
the first place. Team they slide into first place with
the walkoff victory last, night AND i don't think anything
you said is off base for one of the at

(01:59:56):
least three, teams if not four teams in this division
that are not playing the way they want to or expect.
To what do The rangers expect to do over the
next couple of. Weeks the schedule to me looks pretty
daunting as they rise to first place but then have
to make decisions about the roster as it leads to the.

Speaker 4 (02:00:13):
Deadline, YEAH i think The American league obviously is a
pretty week league across the.

Speaker 3 (02:00:21):
Board this, year and especially in the.

Speaker 4 (02:00:22):
Aos like you, said The, rangers The, astros and The,
mariners The. A's really these four teams have been hovering
around five hundred for much of the. Year The, rangers
they need to do a, lot and like you, said
it's weird saying that about a first place, team but
they number. One you need to get a Healthy Corey.
SEEGER i think they have done an admirable, job and

(02:00:42):
the guys that have stepped up in his place have
done an admirable job of keeping this thing kind of.

Speaker 3 (02:00:46):
Afloat but you.

Speaker 4 (02:00:49):
Win to win baseball, games you need to have your
superstars to be, superstars and The rangers haven't had that this.

Speaker 3 (02:00:53):
Year With Corey.

Speaker 4 (02:00:54):
Seeger why At langford who walked it off last, night
has been hurt for much of the year as, Well
and those.

Speaker 3 (02:00:58):
Two guys who are supposed to be your two.

Speaker 4 (02:01:00):
Best hitters have only played twenty five twenty six games
together this. Year that's not a recipe for winning. Baseball
AND i think you look at kind of, dishrotation which
was the best in baseball this, year has you, know
regressed to the mean means a, bit AND i think
that was kind of. Expected but sometimes you need big
dogs to step, up and you Need jacob De, grom

(02:01:21):
who just got scratched For, sunday to pitch Like jacob
de gram, can And Nathan valdi to be on his
best like he has been for so many. Starts here
with The rangers and the high leverage, arms The rangers
need definitely one of those at the. Deadline jacob laps
is the Only All. Star he's risen to the occasion
and been one of the, best you, know closers in

(02:01:42):
The American league this. Year but they need to have
more guys to set up towards.

Speaker 3 (02:01:47):
Him and you, Know.

Speaker 4 (02:01:50):
I'm sure we could say that for a lot of,
teams you, know get healthy and have your superstars be.
SUPERSTARS i think The rangers aren't the only team in
baseball who.

Speaker 3 (02:01:58):
Who would like, that but that is going to be
the recipe for the second.

Speaker 1 (02:02:01):
Half was Watching shoemaker's press conference after the win last.
Night forty one pitches to get five outs last night
to help them get to the ninth inning in a
tie game and win it on the walk. OFF i
couldn't tell for sure Is lat's available for the next
three days or.

Speaker 4 (02:02:17):
No he won't be available, today that's pretty much a.
Definite BUT i Think saturday And sunday they will check on.
Him AND i Think sunday almost, definitely and tomorrow in
a save situation they would like him to be available
and they'll check on. Him he he obviously is A
he's not your traditional, Closer, obviously he came into spring

(02:02:38):
training lengthening out as a. Starter he's shortened up since
losing the fifth starter spot in spring training To Kamara,
rocker and he's Been he's you, know gone two plus.

Speaker 3 (02:02:49):
Multiple times this season for.

Speaker 4 (02:02:50):
Saves so it's not too far out of the realm
of possibility that he did go as far as he
did last, night even though it was a season high
number of pitches for a relief. Outing but they know
how to handle a guy Like lats because he's just
not been a traditional closer all year. Long SO i
think it could go either way for, tomorrow BUT i

(02:03:13):
think it Was it's a definite noe for tonight and
a probably yes For.

Speaker 1 (02:03:17):
Sunday And, kennedy you brought up the rotation or the
pitching staff in, general which has clearly been very good
and times this year was exceptional lighters injury, situation they've
only NEEDED i think eight starts from the non traditional
five person, group which will change a little bit with
that injury, situation potentially more with De Gram's but what
do you think about the group moving? Forward If ald

(02:03:38):
kind of sits on his own THAT i think we
can count on Him yesterday's a parent's a great example of.

Speaker 2 (02:03:43):
That moving.

Speaker 1 (02:03:44):
Forward how do you feel about the rest of the
rotation moving forward and the fact that Cal quantrille is
making his fourth start of the year.

Speaker 4 (02:03:50):
Tonight, YEAH i Think kal actually has done a good
job filling in For jack this last month or. So
obviously he's been a starter for much of his career
or it hasn't been out of the ordinary for him
to step back into that, role even as he's had
to kind of LinkedIn out mid. Season that was you,
know that's a difficult thing to. Do BUT i think
when you look at this, rotation it kind of comes

(02:04:11):
down to what the young guys can, do and That's
rocker And. Gore you, know the rangeistrated five top thirty
prospects for McKenzie gore this, offseason expecting him to really
be an anchor of this rotation kind of between the
two veterans of De graminivaldi at the top and then
the two kind of sophomore pictures Of rocker And lighter
at the.

Speaker 3 (02:04:29):
Bottom you, know.

Speaker 4 (02:04:30):
AND i think he's also he will tell you, himself
he said the other, night he's just not, been you,
know good enough this. YEAR i think there's been. Times
there's a stretch In may WHERE i think across six
starts he had a three FIVE. Era he has looked
good for, stretches but there are some times where he
has a day like the other, night where he gets
hit around for, five, six seven runs in five, innings

(02:04:51):
and that's not a good recipe for winning. Baseball SO
i think looking at those those two younger, guys THAT'S
i think what is going to carry this, rotation and
then looking towards some, Injuries Jordan montgomery is coming back
within the next two, months shortly after The All star.

Speaker 3 (02:05:07):
Break he's going to make a rehab assignment again On.

Speaker 4 (02:05:09):
Sunday Cody bradford also making a rehab assignment On. Sunday
he will be shortly Behind montgomery in terms of returning
to the big league. Mound so they do have reinforcements,
coming you, know around deadline. Time if you can rely
on two guys coming Off tommy john surgery, coming you,
know in a.

Speaker 3 (02:05:28):
Playoff, PUSH i guess that's to be.

Speaker 4 (02:05:30):
Seen but there are a lot of positives to look
at for this rotation going into the second, half AND
i think that will also depend on De gram's availability
coming out of the second halves as.

Speaker 1 (02:05:40):
Well, offensively clearly they're not one of the better. Teams
they've been one of the lower scoring teams throughout the,
year probably you, know at, best a bottom ten. Offense
clearly some of that Is seeger's performance when he was out,
there but more importantly his, absence the fact Of langford
missing all those. Games like you, mentioned he along With
young And, seer those are probably the three guys they

(02:06:00):
should count on the. Most what do they need to,
do what can they what do they believe they can
get to add to their lineup at the deadline to?

Speaker 4 (02:06:09):
HELP i, MEAN i think a right handed bat is
one of the bigger needs The rangers. HAVE i think you,
Know Skip schumacher was asked about his wish lists for
the trade deadline the other, day and he just said
he wants all his guys. Healthy AND i, think, sure
you can look at. That you Want Corey seeker, healthy
you Want wyatt length for. Healthy you want all of
these guys. Healthy and you know that may or may not,

(02:06:31):
happen but you, know you just kind of hope that
you get the most out of your three big. Guys
like you, said why why like You josh And Corey,
seger and then you know the peripheral.

Speaker 3 (02:06:43):
Guys The rangers have struggled against left handed pitching a
lot in the last.

Speaker 4 (02:06:46):
Year they've got been better, lately probably over the last
month to six, weeks but that has been a real,
struggle AND i think a right handed bat that could,
potentially you, know played, outfield would be a real. Addition
and at the CATCHER'S i think it's been better lately
With Elious diaz coming up With Danny jansen on the injured,

(02:07:06):
list but that has been a real struggle to get
offense offensive production out of the catcher position over the
last year as, well THAT i think The rangers could
really use down the stretch here.

Speaker 1 (02:07:17):
Well, interestingly as we head into this series from An astros,
perspective it's the first set of games to start the
second set for all their division. Teams they've played two
series against all four teams in the. Division they have
a winning record against only The Texas. RANGERS i won
the three game series here In, houston won the four
game series there In. Arlington ARE i think these games

(02:07:39):
are of extremely high. Magnitude do you get any sense
that The rangers feel that.

Speaker 4 (02:07:43):
Way, YEAH i think anybody will say the division games are.
IMPORTANT i don't know if there's any access importance on
The asters right, now, Though Skip schumacher will tell YOU
i am focused on today and trying to beat The astros.
Today he's a very day by kind of, manager and
that's probably what.

Speaker 3 (02:08:03):
This kind of team. Needs just take it day by.

Speaker 4 (02:08:06):
Day BUT i don't think it goes without saying that
these division games are. Important in any series against The
astros is, important especially in what the division looks like this,
year and everybody being so bunched, together you, know separated
by a game and a half every.

Speaker 3 (02:08:21):
Direction so The rangers are treating that's exactly how they
think it needs to be.

Speaker 1 (02:08:25):
Treated, well let me leave you with one Last astros related,
question BUT i got to take you back a bit
and ask you if you were in attendance late twenty twenty,
four Late december When Jock peterson was introduced as A
ranger and heard what he said about our little team
here In houston putting together a nice little, run but
time for, us The rangers to take over The. West

(02:08:46):
neither team won The west last year was The. Mariners
but he's been that type of person with every team
he's been, with and he's done a ton of winning
in his. Career how has he been as A? Ranger
off to a poor first year and a terrible start this,
year but he's been awfully good or the last two
months in.

Speaker 4 (02:09:04):
Change, yeah, ABSOLUTELY i think you. KNOW i was there
When josh said, that and we all knew it would
rough a little bit of, Feathers but that's the kind
of guy and player he. IS i think it was
really hard for him to come in last year and
perform how he, did get injured and still not perform
up to his. Standard this year has been much more
you or towards his, standard AND i think especially Since

(02:09:27):
skip moved him into the leadoff spot against right handed,
pitching he's been phenomenal at the top top of the,
lineup setting the stage perfectly for guys Like young And
langford when they're.

Speaker 3 (02:09:36):
Healthy and, yeah neither team won the division last.

Speaker 4 (02:09:41):
Year The mariners had that also, themselves AND i Think
jock is the kind of player that anybody wants on
their team and they kind of hate him if he's.
Not so The rangers are happy to have him here,
now especially now that he's performing to his.

Speaker 1 (02:09:56):
Standard it will be game number thirty seven for him
too start in the leadoff spot tonight for The. Rangers
he's got a nine to thirty FIVE. Ops that is
elite and that is a difference, maker and that is
unfortunate for people here who do not like. Him as you, Said,
KENNEDY i really appreciate the insight and the time here
with our listeners and enjoy the game and the.

Speaker 2 (02:10:16):
Weekend.

Speaker 3 (02:10:17):
Awesome thank y'all so much for having.

Speaker 1 (02:10:19):
Me you got, It Kennedy landry covering The Texas rangers
FOR mlb Dot, com their beat, writer and we've Got
Astros rangers coming up the On Deck show now forty
five minutes, out a little bit more time here with
us on THE a.

Speaker 2 (02:10:30):
Team let's do it.

Speaker 1 (02:10:33):
Once you get you caught up on as we continue
into this final hour of the program and gets you
ready for The astros On Deck.

Speaker 2 (02:10:40):
Show and don't Forget brian.

Speaker 1 (02:10:41):
McTaggart we'll make a visit to his Usual friday visit
to the On Deck show between six and six, thirty
probably around six point, fifteen we will be speaking with
the astrosbeat writer FOR mlb Dot. Com just finishing up
our conversation With Kennedy, landry who does the same for The,
rangers he mentioned something THAT i probably didn't give an
up time. Too there are no starters yet announced for

(02:11:03):
A sunday's game between The rangers And astros Because Jacob
deGrom will not make that start with some sort of
glute issue and will not make that start again like
every other. Team they've got several days off before they play,
again and the time off between everybody else's last start
probably would have him not being expected to Pitch friday
Or saturday of next.

Speaker 2 (02:11:23):
Week but we'll see what they decide to.

Speaker 1 (02:11:25):
Do games, eight, nine and ten in the season series
between The astros And rangers take play this. Weekend astros
have beaten them five of the first. Seven if they
get two more this, weekend they will already clinch the season,
series which probably possibly plays into things as the season.
Continues rangers at forty seven and forty, Six astros at
forty six and forty, nine so two games separate these two.

(02:11:47):
Teams mariners are at The ranger at The rays tonight
and they're at forty seven and forty seven after they
lost three straight games to The, marlin so very tightly
packed at the, top and obviously none of those teams
are particularly happy with where they. Are a couple games
under five hundred For, houston at five hundred for The
mariners even with their incredible, pitching and The rangers with
all sorts of things not necessarily going as they. EXPECTED

(02:12:10):
i honestly did not expect them to even be this,
good especially with their offensive, issues but they lead this
division at forty seven and forty. SIX a couple of
updates on the story we left you with before our
conversation With kennedy From Summer, LEAGUE i mentioned That Tyler
herro not only was there At Summer, league but he's

(02:12:31):
actually at The Bucks heat, game which was just completed
earlier this. Afternoon granted a an in game interview to
the national broadcast that was doing the, game And i've seen.
IT i couldn't. TELL i didn't see a black, EYE
i didn't see a bloody, lip there was no nothing
done by his. Cutman So i'm not sure exactly the
extent of the now reported altercation between he And bam

(02:12:53):
out of by WHICH i imagine must have taken place before,
that because while he was at the game And bam
is clearly In Las. Vegas he was not in attendance
at the, game but being that he is In, vegas
and then there's a team hotel and it has a
lobby and he was seen in it and he was
asked about. It the beat writer for The Miami, Heat Ira,

(02:13:16):
winderman who's covered The heat for almost four, decades he,
said asked about his reported altercation with Former heat Teammate
bam out Of buyo with the hotel, today said. Nothing
the interview was With Tyler. Hero he was able to
catch up With Tyler hero and his comment was my
only comment is no.

Speaker 2 (02:13:38):
Comment The heat said the. Same we're aware we're not.

Speaker 1 (02:13:43):
Commenting so that's a little bit from The bucks Player
tyler and a little.

Speaker 2 (02:13:47):
Bit from his former, team The.

Speaker 1 (02:13:49):
Heat and AS i asked here on the, show obviously
without needing any responses BECAUSE i know, THEM i asked
the same thing on social. Media one of the responses
about can you Leave Tyler hero got into an altercation
with AN nba. Player one of the Responses david, saying
if you had to make me guess WHAT nba player

(02:14:10):
got in a fight with ANOTHER nba, player my first,
guest without, hesitation would Be Tyler. Hero that's kind of the.
Point we'll see what comes of. It i'm sure not
much of. ANYTHING i don't think the league necessarily has
to get, involved and we didn't even really know the
particulars of. It but adding this from A lakers, reporter
he's really AN nba, Reporter But dave McManamon covers The

(02:14:32):
lakers pretty extensively FOR, espn and he is obviously there
At Summer. League he posted this quote Posting sham's altercation
tweet tech post excuse, me he, Said dave did a
player seeing the news on his phone as he walked
out of THE NBA pa meeting that had just ended In.
Vegas another reason why the players are In. Vegas that

(02:14:54):
doesn't seem like a fair. Fight definitely doesn't seem like
a fair. Fight though you never know it's happened before
a smaller boxer has speedn a taller. Boxer you don't
want to go too far up in weight, class but
it can. Happen i'm sure anybody who has been enthralled
by your algorithm on your reels that has sent you

(02:15:18):
through ultimate, fights fights on, Streets World, star or wherever
else you get your online, fights the biggest person in
the fight doesn't always.

Speaker 2 (02:15:29):
Win the angriest person in the fight usually.

Speaker 1 (02:15:31):
DOES i can't tell you who was in this, altercation
BUT i would imagine it WAS bam who confronted a,
hero AND bam who was more, angry AND bam who is.
Bigger based on the look Of Tyler herro during his,
Interview if in fact it took place before the, interview
doesn't look like there was a winner because it doesn't

(02:15:51):
probably look like there was much of a. Fight, NONETHELESS
nba off season In. Vegas ten to eleven days there In.
Vegas for a bunch of, people things. Happen, rockets by the,
way are just a few minutes out from opening up
their summer league. Play probably pushback a little bit with
the other games that have been, ongoing but one game
today For Bruce, Thornton copeland And newton And Dash knicks

(02:16:15):
and the rest of the players will. Done if you were,
unaware among The rockets assistant, coaches he will be the
man in charge of coaching this particular season Of Summer league.
Basketball they play, tonight they Play tomorrow, night and then
they have a pair of afternoon tip offs next Week
tuesday And, thursday and then everybody will take a break
for a, while And i'm, sure like last, year they'll

(02:16:37):
get Together fred And katie and a man And alpern
and the rest of the team will get together and
work out together and get some run together before the season.
Started last, year that, happened and that's unfortunately When fred
Van vliek got hurt and ultimately missed the entire. Season
and we'll see how he. Returns he wouldn't even say
return to. Form i'd actually like him out, play out.

(02:17:00):
Perform his last full season with The. Rockets he was
pretty good at the end of the postseason series Against Golden.

Speaker 2 (02:17:05):
State pretty good is putting it.

Speaker 1 (02:17:07):
Mildly he was, awesome but he wasn't very good at
the beginning of the, series and he wasn't particularly good
shooting the basketball during his entire time in twenty twenty
four to twenty. FIVE i don't think they need the
return of the thirty four percent three point shooter and
a guy shoots well under forty percent from the.

Speaker 2 (02:17:22):
Floor it'd be nice if.

Speaker 1 (02:17:24):
He can run the offense keep him from having, turnovers
but you probably need to put the ball in the
basket at a touch higher clip than.

Speaker 2 (02:17:31):
That somebody will have.

Speaker 1 (02:17:32):
To reid can't be the only one out there making,
shots and with bog Down bogdanovic coming, IN i don't
know what his minutes will look. Like he should be another,
one But Marcus smart probably not So fred, yes and
of Course, kadi who's even at this extended. Age he's
the best guy on the team shooting. Threes likely will
lead the team in percentage, Again but if he, doesn't

(02:17:54):
that won't be the worst news because he's going to
shoot the Same he's going to hover around forty. Percent
if he's not the best shooter on the, team that
would actually be good because that Means Reed shepherd Or
bogdanovitch or somebody else shot it at better than forty.
Percent they were missing that this past. Year Jabari tari.
Somebody i'm all for, it not forecasting, it but hopefully

(02:18:15):
that will. Happen we have tickets to give, away.

Speaker 2 (02:18:16):
As we did.

Speaker 1 (02:18:17):
Yesterday we can help send you out to go see
The Black crows And Whiskey myers performing together later this
Year august, eighth over The Woodlands. Pavilion we also have
in case you missed it and that comes your way
next the final segment of the show coming up in fifteen,
minutes we will have tickets to See The Black crows
And Whiskey Myers Southern Hospitality Tour august. Eighth Woodland's pavilion

(02:18:40):
got a couple pairs of tickets to give away, Today
so if you've been listening to the show, today most
specifically the five o'clock, hour well you'll know the answer
to the very simple QUESTION i will ask at that
point in, time and you can call in and win those.
Tickets as we open up the, Doors, josh what do
we have for in case you missed? It, yeah let's
jump in, here swing over to THE. Nfl and we

(02:19:01):
had a list on The Big lead of the best
and most creative play callers in THE, nfl and we
could go through the.

Speaker 2 (02:19:08):
List it's pretty.

Speaker 1 (02:19:09):
Quick.

Speaker 5 (02:19:09):
Here we've Got Liam cohen's coming in at number, six number,
five you Have josh, McDaniels Ben johnson at number, Four
Andy reid at number, Three shanahan at number, two and
of Course sean McVeagh at number.

Speaker 2 (02:19:20):
ONE i bring this.

Speaker 5 (02:19:21):
To your attention because throughout the show you've kind of
gone through The texans offense and pointed out there's not
really an area where they're better than average in the
league outside of Maybe Nico collins as a receiver. Specifically
so what do you expect From Nick, cayley as he
has learned closely from two of the coaches on this,
list what should we expect from him with an average

(02:19:43):
talent group in his second?

Speaker 1 (02:19:45):
Year so just for people's, information you, know the list
included the top six only, Correct so it's they leave
it to smart people like me and you and our
listeners to figure out seven through thirty.

Speaker 2 (02:20:03):
Two, Bingo Nick kyley is where.

Speaker 5 (02:20:07):
We gotta assume bottom half if according to everything else.

Speaker 1 (02:20:10):
RIGHT i mean bottom half based on WHAT i was talking.
About but truthfully, speaking if you took a little bit
of time and walked your way through the SIXTEEN afc
play callers and same thing on THE nfc side and
their respective experience level success, rate where they've, been many
of them been OC's and play callers in multiple. Spots
In Nick cayley's, case he's been an offensive coordinator in

(02:20:31):
one spot for nineteen games here with The Houston. Texans
pretty difficult to play them particularly high on the list
after last year's performance and questions about their play calling
they are a poor running football team and they are
a heavy run on first down football. TEAM i don't

(02:20:52):
think those two things should go together quite as often
as they did a year, ago AND i don't know
that they will this, year but all indications are they.
Will they're going to run the ball a lot on first.
Down most of the moves they've made this offseason are
to run the ball. Better their offensive linemen there or
acquired are better run blockers than pass. Blockers they did
address the running back. Position they also had more time

(02:21:13):
to do it than they did a year ago by
adding a veteran who probably can play versus adding a
veteran Like Nick. Chubb awesome, dude But i'm not sure
what he has left in the. TANK i don't even
know if he'll have a carry for anybody this, year
and he was THE rb one when the year started
a year. Ago they've clearly And Foster moreau being ADDED
i think is an additional attempt at the tight end

(02:21:35):
spot to help them with their run. Game i'm not
sure Where Marlon klein fits in all, this but top
twenty is probably not even. Accurate he's probably in the bottom.

Speaker 2 (02:21:44):
TEN i tend to agree with.

Speaker 5 (02:21:48):
YOU, i in my, OPINION i think we're gonna see
a lot of three tight end, sets Something sean McVay
had a lot of success with last.

Speaker 2 (02:21:54):
Year and their actions.

Speaker 5 (02:21:56):
Tell us three. Yes their actions tell us that With
Foster moreau coming in The marlin line draft pick in the.

Speaker 1 (02:22:02):
Middle of the field on first and ten from the
forty three tight, ends who are?

Speaker 5 (02:22:07):
They i'm Just Voster. Moreau you're gonna Have Dalton schultz out.
THERE i Think Marlin klein eventually. Too so here's the
deal with mc vah making it so un. FUN i
think it is gonna be fun because here's how it's gonna.
Work they can't get teams to get at a nickel
when they're using two tight ends anymore in THE. Nfl
so that's the new in vogue trend is to put

(02:22:27):
three tight ends on the field so they have to
go to base. Defense and it's actually not really so
you can. Run it's more so they can take advantage
to throw the ball against base, defense where you get
tight ends against safeties and. LINEBACKERS i think The texans
are gonna put this into play this.

Speaker 1 (02:22:42):
Year, yeah if They if they can find tight ends
that really can take advantage of those, matchups And i'm
not sure That schultz is that. Type probably pretty sure
That moreau isn't that. Type doesn't mean he can't catch
the football and get you six, yards BUT i don't
think that's the kind of advantage we're talking about trying
to take on. THEM i Think Brevin jordan probably, is
especially if he's fully, healthy AND i bet You Marlon

(02:23:02):
klein is at some point in his. Career i'll give
you this that makes me. HAPPY i think the days
of The texans going into games with only two active
tight ends are over BECAUSE i hated that it ELIMINATED
i don't know how much of their playbook when inevitably
one of them would go. Down sometimes they didn't even

(02:23:22):
have the ability to do with what that specific game's
game plan was for that particular defense because they were
poorly outfitted on the roster for that game. Day AND
i just never understood that they run these plays that
call for this personnel group and then they would go
into games without the ability to do.

Speaker 5 (02:23:39):
IT i agree In stover they've kind of moved to,
fullback but we know he can play some tight, End
SO i think this is what they're gonna. Do and
if teams stay And, nickel that's WHEN i think they
hand the ball To David.

Speaker 1 (02:23:50):
Montgomery all, Right so best play caller in the division
Is Liam. Cohen, Yep i'd probably be on board with. That,
UNFORTUNATELY i, mean look what he did With Trevor lawrence and.

Speaker 5 (02:24:00):
Look How Baker mayfield kind of regressed after he. Departed
that is.

Speaker 2 (02:24:04):
True what?

Speaker 5 (02:24:04):
Else, yeah let's get in over here To Tommy. Brady
so what we're hearing here is it's all. Rumor we
don't really. Know but The, patriot The seahawks head, coach excuse,
Me mike McDonald said he had somebody help him in
preparation for The Super, bowl and basically he, said outside

(02:24:25):
Of harball was one of the ones that helped, him
there was somebody that he doesn't want to name because
it could be a conflict of. Interest people are speculating
that because Of brady's tied To kobiak wanting to hire,
him that he gave them some help in defeating The
patriots in The Super.

Speaker 1 (02:24:41):
Bowl are you buying the? Speculation, well you said conflict of?
Interest do you mean it's a conflict of interest Because
mike McDonald of The seahawks got help From raiders Owner Tom.

Speaker 5 (02:24:53):
Brady, well And brady has a statue of himself in
front of The patriots.

Speaker 1 (02:24:57):
Stadium now obviously they're talking ABOUT i would Assume brady's
knowledge Of josh, McDaniels josh McDaniels, offense certainly The patriots in,
general and Coach frabile a little, bit but specifically to you,
know some things.

Speaker 2 (02:25:09):
That might be.

Speaker 1 (02:25:10):
Helpful probably If BRAD i, Mean brady's got to. KNOW
i mean he's Probably he And Bill belichick probably have
done a lot of things in THEIR nfl lives that
they felt like would never get found out and probably.
Haven't but if he's helping The seahawks and Helping mike,
McDonald Then i'm not sure one hundred percent sure why he,

(02:25:32):
Would but that means he's hurting the team that has
a statue of him, intentionally unless he was giving bad
advice like to want to Hire Clint. Kubiaks you're gonna
hire him no matter, what aren't? You does it make
it better in front of the eyes Of raider fans
And raider nation that he won The Super. Bowl he's
already in The Super.

Speaker 2 (02:25:50):
Bowl isn't that?

Speaker 5 (02:25:51):
Enough is part of, it, EGO i don't want to
See Drake may already win in a Super, bowl.

Speaker 1 (02:25:55):
All, Right so now you're going. Conspiracy there is the
title In New, England Are? Mine and nobody gets to
have one other than? Me NOW i know there was
one tie THAT i wasn't sure was big enough to even.
Mention But Tom brady obviously went To michigan and he
valued his time. There he was on a podcast this
week with one FORMER nfl center and one CURRENT nfl

(02:26:17):
tight end who just got, married and he talked about
his time At michigan and how he didn't get to
play and if he was in this era he probably
would have, transferred but he learned a lot and made
him the player he.

Speaker 2 (02:26:26):
Was all that kind of.

Speaker 1 (02:26:27):
Nonsense mike McDonald's was a coach with The Michigan wolverines
briefly one. Season is that why he helped?

Speaker 2 (02:26:39):
Him if in fact that's who we're thinking.

Speaker 1 (02:26:42):
About who, Knows But Tom brady and conspiracy, theories AND
i don't know if you want to call it, cheating
what's new anything?

Speaker 5 (02:26:52):
Else it's fun to talk about for, us right wex
just recapping from Earlier jeremy payneyet back in The astros
lineup in leading off Your stros tonight against The rangers
In game one With Hunter brown on the.

Speaker 1 (02:27:03):
Mound Hunter, brown back on the, mound definitely would like
to shake free from his last couple of starts And Jeremy.
Pania this team, clearly at least based on, record is
significantly better when he is involved in the starting. Lineup
he will, start he will play shorts up and as you,
noted he will beat lead. Off giveaway those tickets when
we come, back close up shop on THE a team

(02:27:24):
for the. Week any ITEMS i certainly have a flag
that haven't gotten TO i certainly will and we'll get
you into The astros on deck show kidball has begun
In Summer. League get into that here. Momentarily but time
to give away. Tickets Black crows And Whiskey myers are
playing Their Southern Hospitality tour at The Woodlands pavilion On august.

Speaker 2 (02:27:44):
Eighth would love to send you.

Speaker 1 (02:27:45):
There we got a pair of, tickets a couple pairs
of tickets to give away to that. Show tickets are
also on sale now via ticketmaster dot. Com win them
by listening to the show and those of you that
were listening to that last, segment will know the answer
to this very very simple question of you others you
can make edge guesses seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven.

(02:28:06):
Ninety josh AND i had a conversation last segment about
the best play callers in THE nfl on the offensive.
Side not seeing any list that ran it out to thirty,
two we made our best guesses at Where Nick cayley might.

Speaker 2 (02:28:17):
Fit came up with probably back.

Speaker 1 (02:28:19):
Ten he's only been a go see in a play
caller for one, season not a particularly good offense for
The texans last. Year probably back ten is about where
he would begin this. Year we'd love to see an.
Improvement time will, tell but we did tell you what
this particular posted list did have at the, top and
who was number one is the. Question who was regarded

(02:28:40):
by the list we were talking about last segment as
the number one offensive play caller in THE nfl seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety is a very successful,
coach runs very good, offenses and obviously is not hard
to figure. Out but if you heard us talking about,
it you don't have to figure it. Out you heard
us mentioned who it was number one offensive play caller

(02:29:02):
in THE, nfl and we talked about it last segment
based on a big lead list that was. Posted so
call in seven one three two one two five seven
ninety if you want to go see The Black Crows
Whiskey myers and the only answer to that question seven
one three two one two five seven.

Speaker 2 (02:29:18):
Ninety for Your rockets this afternoon In Summer.

Speaker 1 (02:29:21):
League their starters were each of their two rookie, Hopefuls
Kidder copeland And Bruce. Thornton, thornton of, course the top
pick in the second round From Ohio. State he's put
in five points. Already they're just a few minutes into the.
Game Isaiah, crawford who was on a two way deal
with The rockets this past, season has made HIS nba
debut with.

Speaker 2 (02:29:40):
Them.

Speaker 1 (02:29:40):
Obviously Michael Foster junior also a member of the starting
group along With Tristan. Newton another two way player that
spent a little bit of time with The rockets actually
saw in practice more than he actually played for the,
team was a later in the season edition on a
two way. Deal we've seen work early on from Das
nicks among others there probably worth noting they're wearing their new.

(02:30:03):
Uniforms obviously this is a new season and they look.
Awesome ALTHOUGH i would Suggest Dash knicks tuck his jersey
in because WHEN i first glanced at the, SCREEN i
thought The rockets had Signed Kenneth Lofton junior to their
summer league. ROSTER i in looking more, CLOSELY i think
it was more the baggy untucked. Jersey but if you're

(02:30:26):
not familiar with Who Kenneth Lofton junior, Is he's. Enormous
he's super talented and. Skilled he's had a tough time
hanging on in THE. Nba much much bigger than point
guard Das nicks should look. Like and, again upon further,
REVIEW i think a tucked in shirt would. Help he
wouldn't look quite as, large but he hadn't had a
chance to catch on with anybody after spending the early

(02:30:49):
portion of HIS nba roster career with The, rockets few other,
stops and now back in summer league camp With Houston.
Rockets rockets are playing The nuggets summer league, team and of,
note maybe keep an eye on De Jean, Gureau, Deekey
ladiki from you OF h MANY u OF h players
littering the summer league. Rosters Malik wilson's with the, sixers

(02:31:12):
you have seen two from the or three PLAYERS i
should say from the draft of this past year, Plus
Milos Susan sacramento been running Out Manual sharp and both
summer leagues That sacramento has taken a part, in and,
he as he should, be is looked very. GOOD i
stress this when we talk about summer. League if you're

(02:31:32):
a good, player if you had a good college, career
certainly if you were a high draft, pick you can
only look bad in summer leagues because you're better than
everybody else out. There of course you should look. Good
the bansill look. Great flembings has looked, Fine Darren peterson
has looked, great as they. Should they're playing against comparable

(02:31:53):
competition as they played against last. Year they're just a
couple of years. Older they're NOT nba. Talents you, are
you're better than. Them And Emmanuel, sharp to his, credit
while he wasn't drafted nearly as high as, them have
a very very experienced college, player and there aren't that
many of them.

Speaker 2 (02:32:07):
Anymore and he's a good. Shooter who plays good.

Speaker 1 (02:32:10):
Defense would have loved to see him be one of
The rockets second round. Picks ends up In, sacramento a
really good spot for, him AND i would imagine he
spends not very much time in THE G league this,
year but rather much more time With Sacramento, kings and
good luck to. Him Kingston fleming is getting his, start of,
course with The Atlanta. HAWKS a couple things we'll get

(02:32:32):
into With brian mctagger coming up shortly when we get
into the On deck, show Because Joe spotta Addressed sunday's
start but did not answer the question of who it will.
BE a couple of a rehab thoughts For Hayden, Wiznsky
lance mcculler's. Junior it will not be either of the
two of them coming up On, sunday but no definitive
answer on who it will. Be the options essentially are

(02:32:54):
a bullpen, day probably with Aj bluebos seeing a bunch of.
Work Christian javier making his first start returning from THE
al is an, option and they don't have a definitive
word on exactly what is next For Renel, blanco so
we'll get into that With, brian who will join us
During The On Deck show spent a lot of time
talking about The Astros rangers. Series it would be nice
for The astros to continue playing well against that particular,

(02:33:16):
team since it's the only team in the division that
they have fared well. Against five wins in the seven games,
series wins in both of the two matchups they've, seen
and that includes their four gamer In arlington earlier this.
Year these are the final three games against The rangers In.
Arlington these two teams actually finish up their season series pretty,
early and The rangers finish up their season series against

(02:33:39):
all of their division competition a little bit earlier than
you would, expect just the way the scheduling worked this.
Year so their series with The astros later in the
year their second to last series against anybody in their.
Division they got one Against, seattle but their final five
series of the season not inside the. Division so if

(02:33:59):
they are in first place at that time And seattle
And houston or, neither or IF i should, say or
both of them are chasing, them they'll have to get
help because neither of them will get to see them
as the season. Continues but, again this is the only
team The astros has had success against in the. Division
and if that falls by the wayside in this. Series

(02:34:20):
i'm not saying the season's over and they're sunk or
anything like.

Speaker 2 (02:34:23):
That there's sixty four games left after the three this.

Speaker 1 (02:34:25):
Weekend but you haven't played well against The, a's losing
three of seven or four of seven or excuse, me start.
Over they're split the six games with The. A's they've
lost four out of seven against The angels and they've
lost six out of let's, see seven out of eight
against The. Mariners that's kind of. Disastrous you'd flip flop

(02:34:45):
in the. Standings it's just a two more wins in
those eight games against The mariners so far this, season
but obviously it did not come to. Pass hard to,
Believe but the biggest story of the day Was bam
out Of bayo And Tyler herro getting into an altercation
In Vegas Summer.

Speaker 2 (02:35:02):
LEAGUE i Mentioned.

Speaker 1 (02:35:03):
Hero did an in game interview between during the game
Between milwaukee And, miami ironically in their Summer, league he
was asked about the relationship and how things are between
he And miami and coach bow et, cetera which he
answered and he said was all, love of, course but
no comment is the comment he gave when asked specifically

(02:35:24):
in the hotel lobby about the altercation with Bam. Oudabaija,
yeah it really. Happened it's been acknowledged by The heat
that it did. Happen wild, wild and it was all
basically you would think it was all based from some
social media comments That Tyler herroll, posted apparently some texts
that he posted on his ig, story and they were
very unflattering to his teammate that he'd been with the entire,

(02:35:49):
time the whole Time Tyler hero was a member of
The Miami, Heat bam out of bay who was his,
teammate and now some seven years, later he posted some
things on social media that made it sound like he
didn't Think bam out Of baio was quite the player
that he could, be should, be or needed to be
for them to win more. Games great, stuff looking forward to. That,
otherwise somewhat not very important meeting between those two teams next.

Speaker 2 (02:36:12):
Season it's time.

Speaker 1 (02:36:13):
For The astros on deck. Show i've got it for,
you and it's next

Speaker 3 (02:36:18):
THE a team