June 26, 2025 • 42 mins
On this episode, Wex and AC discuss first-round voting results for the upcoming MLB All-Star game, the most intriguing TX basketball teams going into next year, and much more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five o'clock hour here at Carbok Brewery is underway. It's
the A Team slash Astros tenth Inning Show, although we'll
basically make this the A Team for the final hour
because there's a lot of things we have not gotten
to here on a Thursday edition of the program will
also be on location. Tomorrow's we go up to Top
Dog Fireworks, not too far from where we're at right now.
(00:21):
We'll go to the two ninety and Huffmeister location, so
if you want to swing on by there. I don't
know what the weather's going to be tomorrow. Wex it's
another day of the week, so we could have a tsunami.
We could have absolutely scalding surface of the sun temperatures.
We probably have both because that's a typical Friday in Houston.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's also a.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Typical day in Houston when the Astros are winning, winning
one run games and doing both of those things today
when they beat the Phillies by a final of two
to one to sweep them out of town. Astros are
absolutely fantastic right now, playing their best baseball of the
season and only two and a half back of the
Tigers for the best record in the American League. Obviously
(00:59):
a big lead or a big ear lead now in
the AO West six games, although the Mariners are underway
with the Minnesota no score after two innings in Minneapolis.
But what the Astros, what Hunter Brown did today, what
the offense did, which was again just enough. We've been
talking about that for the better part of the last
(01:20):
hour or so, and with good reason. But it's not
the only thing going good here in the city of Houston.
And you mentioned last night over at Toyota Center, the energy,
the vibe, the vibes are immaculate. I have never in
my life going to Rockets draft events seen a crowd
(01:41):
as excited about zero picks coming to Houston. They had
to be made last night by Houston because of dumb
NBA rules on the calendar, but they were being made
for the Phoenix Suns. Kevin Durant's gonna be on his
way to Houston before you know it, all likelihood is
going to be on the seventh, when he will be
intrued to to the Houston media and the fans and
(02:02):
everything else that's gonna go into what will be a
very exciting day. It just felt like people were anticipating
that last night as we were told several thousand people
were there to get in the building at four o'clock
in the afternoon on a Wednesday for a draft party
in which you basically had no picks.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
YEP. One night of it last night, one night of
it tonight, and we absolutely saw it, and it's it's
awesome part of it. Clearly, you won fifty two games,
You returned to the postseason for the first time in
quite some time. The moves that were made before the
reported deal from this past Sunday, bringing Steven Adams back
on a three year deal, two years fifty million for
(02:42):
Fred van Vliet, three years thirty nine for Adams, and
a lucrative extension for email Udoka, and then the obvious
hopes for progress from the players on your roster. News
of the deal added to that. I think most around
the league again talking to hearing from executives and hearing
reports about what executives saying when they're not busy laughing
at other NBA teams like the Nets and Pelicans. They
(03:05):
certainly view the Rockets as an off season of success.
And I have to play out on the court, and
you have to make sure what you gave up didn't
take away from that, I don't believe that it will.
Obviously there's a longer future in Jalen Green's career, but
the short term future for Kevin Durant here with the
group that they have is what they're banking on. I
don't think there's any reason to doubt the possibilities of
(03:26):
what could be coming their way. Do you have to
consider what it means to the rest of the West. Obviously,
Kevin Durant's not playing for Minnesota. That matters. Kevin Durant
on Minnesota, and that was definitely a real possibility. Believe me,
there was a very good opportunity for that to work out.
Durant's unwillingness to play. There a lot to say about
that not happening, but he's not going there. The number
(03:48):
one pick in the draft last night, as everybody knew
it would be, is now on the same team as
Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis, and he recently extended Daniel
Gafford and a maybe healthy Derek Lively. Washington and whatever
it is they're going to continue to get out of
Klay Thompson. They have a lot of other veterans they
could maneuver around, and Kyrie Irving I mentioned and should
(04:09):
add to it. He's obviously not gonna be healthy when
the season begins, but many believe there are several weeks,
if not months of NBA season in his immediate future,
sometime in the twenty twenty sixth portion of the season.
I do think that absolutely matters. I don't think Dallas
is about to challenge Oklahoma City at the top of
the West, but I do think they are can be
a threat to some teams if they manage their way
(04:30):
through the season until they get there. The next pick
was Dylan Harper going to the Spurs, and I know
it was a pretty popular question, so I guess fans
here are happy that the Rockets are involved, but still
pretty surprising that it's a question asked about the three
Texas teams. Well, one of the Texas teams just won
fifty two games and went seven games in their opening
round series with the Warriors and added Kevin Durant, and
(04:54):
one of the Texas teams traded away Kyrie Irving and
are traded away Luka donc and did not qualify for
the top eight in the Western Conference, which means they
didn't make the playoffs. And the other Texas team didn't
make the playoffs for the second consecutive season, and their
lone realistic addition so far this offseason is Dylan Harper.
Similar for the MAVs, it's Cooper Flag. So questions are
(05:17):
asked not so much who's the best team, because that
would be beyond silly, but many are asking who's the
most intriguing team, either for this upcoming season or for
their long term future, the MAVs, the Spurs, or the Rockets.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Well, the Rockets were already the best team in the state, right,
so I do think that question is unnecessary to need
to debate.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
It's it's pretty clear who the best team is. Well,
when you change it to who's the most intriguing for
twenty twenty five to twenty six, we'll start there.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I mean, you have a mix that just won fifty
two games and really is one of a few teams
that showed much fight against the defending NBA champion in
the regular season. I mean, the Rockets had just as
good as shot as anybody and actually did defeat them
more than once, which no one else can I don't
know a number of teams that can say that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I mean, they won sixty eight games. So mister Miyagi.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Over there, I don't know that anything happened.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
But uh but like, okay, so Victor winbin Yama now
has a full season of d'aron Fox and Dylan Harper.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
He has Ron Harper's kid on his team, okay.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Ud does everybody know that they do?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Like I don't know that everybody knew that was one
of Ron Harper's back like him, he does. And again
I don't know how much pair he was playing for
a team with another fellow top ten pick that only
won fifteen of their games last year at Rutgers somehow.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
The other thing that I'm convinced nobody knew everybody to
watched the draft last night. As we talked about the
other day with the people, who's who stalked Roman Anthony's
sister Leah when he went up with the Red Sox
and they were in the crowd there? Who is that
we have to follow on Instagram? They were doing the
same thing with Missus Harper, his mom. I don't think
anybody realized she has been coaching him and others in
(07:04):
the family and is the lead assistant coach on that
extremely noteworthy, talented New Jersey based basketball high school team
like not, oh man, she's hot. Wow, what a fan
this is. You can't get much bigger of a basketball family.
If he was then an NBA champion dad and a
(07:25):
head coach caliber and she was a head coach prior
to taking this assistant job. Who coached him? Ron didn't
coach him, she did not.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Just any champion. He was played with MJ. He played
with Scotts, so he was on Well.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No, hey, I will never forget this.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
This is super super minutia, super random, but it applies.
Do you remember when the Bulls were about to clench
against the Sonics for the first of the second three peat.
It was Father's Day nineteen ninety six. They were about
to clench against the Sonics team that had swept the
defending champs out of the playoffs two rounds earlier, unceremoniously,
(08:03):
which by the way, would trigger the Charles Barkley trade.
Because you're wanting to know how this all fits together,
Ron Harper was announced second to last in the starting
lineup that night by Ray Clay and there. I mean,
it's totally iconic now at this point, especially after the
last dance, the starting lineups that the United Center put
on for the Bulls, and he got a huge ovation
(08:25):
because he was either coming off an injury and played.
He was a big, big part of why that team
was so good, especially defensively. And you remember in the
last dance, he was like pissed off because he wasn't
gonna get the check MJ on the shot over Craig Elow.
Now I'm not saying MJ doesn't make it if Ron
(08:45):
Harper's on him, but he certainly felt like he would have.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Had a better chance. That kid was bred for this literally.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Should be interesting, and so that intriguing part of it
when you add that term to the commentary. I do
think the MAVs are very intriguing if they play. They
have a roster without Irving talented enough to give teams fits.
But I do think it's gonna be hard for them
to post a good record. The West is so strong,
and it's gonna be interesting how they run their offense
(09:14):
without Kyrie and how they handle the basketball, how they
try to you'll prevent turnovers, but as front courts go,
and I'm not a Cooper Flag enthusiast, but I do
believe he's was the best player in this draft and
will be a good NBA player, not changing the league
or anything, so there'll be tough. But if the Rockets
don't trade for Kevin Durant, I would actually agree they're
(09:35):
not the answer as the most intriguing team of those three.
But because they traded for Kevin Durant, and because they
were already the next best team record wise at fifty
two wins and ascending regardless, I think they're the unquestioned
Are you really intrigued by whether the Spurs improve a
little bit, go from thirty six to forty four wins,
maybe make the tenth seed or ninth seed or maybe better.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Are you intrigued by.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Nico It's only intriguing because Nico Harrison has a really
good team again somehow after trading Luka Doncics. Or are
you intrigued by a team that has a legitimate chance
to win the West?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah? I mean that's that's the answer.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And look I get it there there's a little bit
of a there's gonna be two teams that you're gonna
look at going into the season, well, really actually three,
if if we're gonna talk about all of the catastrophic
injuries that have affected the twenty twenty five twenty six
campaign before it's ever even in training camp, those being
Jason Tatum in Boston, Tyrese Haliburton in Indianapolis, and of
(10:30):
course Kyrie Irving's gonna miss a chunk of if not
the entire I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Know what's what's his I think the whole season.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The most optimistic prognosy he's suggests there's maybe maybe as
much as two months roughly around post All Star. But
that's probably pretty positive.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
That's very yeah, that's that would be a very best.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
He's again those players, and Dame Lillard added to that,
there's a time on and when they all get hurt.
Not all three of them the same injury, but not
all of them he did not have. So there's a
timeline with all.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I mean, the Rockets are the answer. And look, last
night was the draft teams. The two other Texas teams
were at the top of it. So they're gonna get
all the headlines. Wait, you wait a month or a
week from Monday, when Kevin Durant walks out at Toyota
Center and it all really sets in into reality. He's
(11:21):
holding the jersey up, he's got the hat, on or whatever.
I don't know if they do hats for those kinds
of press conference, he'll certainly have a jersey picture and
he speaks to the media, he speaks to the crowd,
and it's no longer just an idea or even a headline.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It's reality.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
And he goes to work with em and they start
plotting what this championship contender is going to look like
on offense, on defense, and all points in between, and.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Just the invalue.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Think about the fact that maybe the best part of
the Rockets not having the part ways with Jabari Smith Junior,
is that now he gets to learn from Kevin Durant,
two guys that are built similarly, two guys that I think,
you know, if anybody on that team could really clean
some knowledge from Kevin Durant, I think Jabari Smith's.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Right at the top of that list.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I mean, it's just I know that we're gonna have
Texans training camp and most of the Astros season in
the books before these guys hit the floor. I haven't
been this excited about a Rocket season in probably five
to six years.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Seem to be echoed by those thousands that were there
last night, Atti out of Center and the many that
have talked to us since and on into the next
month or so, a month away from camp beginning for
the Texans a little less obviously into the second to
or second half of the season. I can say that
today I will say we're in the second half of
the season after they play Game eighty two. But that's
where we are with the Astros. A lot of good
(12:42):
stuff for us to continue with. You guys are welcome
to join us both this afternoon and on throughout the
remaining days and shows, all of them here on Sports
Talk seven n I'd hit a quick break live here
from Carbach Brewing, Wex and Acre here on another award
winning edition of the A Team.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Can't wait for that first one.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
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Speaker 2 (14:09):
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Speaker 1 (14:11):
So do you want to do the ex Texas Kicker
or do you want to do the ex Tampa Bay
Ray that's in trouble with the law.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Unfortunately, only I don't know that either one of them
at any point in time matters to either league. Now
it matters to people who don't like people to do
bad things yes, both of them appear to have done that.
One is being told by those who are hearing his case,
you are guilty. The other is saying, well, since I
probably am guilty, I might as well just take this
(14:41):
negotiated suspension.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, ten week good summary, ten weeks suspendion. Okay, this
is what I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
He's gonna be on the.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Team we're talking about Justin Tucker. He does not have
a team. He was let go by the Ravens, and
according to Mark Washington Post, he accepted terms of a suspension.
In other words, negotiated a suspension which he is obviously
not appealing. It was agreed upon and will serve a
(15:11):
ten game suspension which can be served while not on
a roster, which I can't without a finality to whatever
these allegations turn into. If they reach the point where
there is a case and it is heard and it's
there's a determination of innocence or guilt or liability or
however it turned out to be. I don't know why
(15:34):
any team is going to sign a clearly not as
good kicker as he once was, which does give the
Ravens at least a little bit of Yeah, he wasn't
kicking very well, so we moved on. We all know
that that wasn't the only reason, but it is still true.
So to see the other part that's happened the well,
the other part of it is he's negotiating a settlement
while sending out statements months ago exclaiming and proclaiming his innocence.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Right, it's a very weird story.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And so essentially it's okay, he's not gonna be playing
for a team at all until week eleven of the season,
and then what's gonna end up happening is somebody's gonna
have an injury and they're gonna pick.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Him up because he still has some gas left in
the tank.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Provided like you said, there's no more lingering legal issues.
But like you just also got done saying, this guy
was telling everybody that would listen, I didn't do this.
Yet he's accepting a suspension for what and I know it's.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
The NFL conduct policy that he violated.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Right, So this is with many many cases, it's sometimes
very very difficult to prove it either way. Well, what
did they say happen? What did you say happen? And
in maybe in his mind not to give him any
benefit of the doubt here, certainly, but it can be
viewed as the fastest way or the cleanest way to
move on, even though it would certainly sully a reputation
(16:55):
to just acknowledge or accept, I should say a better word,
accept a suspension, which he has now but in ten
NFL games, and again, if he signs with the team,
he's he joins the team, he participates in camp, he
can participate in preseason games, and then the suspension would
be served, and then he'd be eligible to play once again.
You're you're possibly right. That definitely sounds like something an
(17:16):
NFL team would consider doing.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
And I'm not sure what will be learned.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
About any of these issues over the next five six
months before that ten game suspension would be served.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
It's just a weird story, but it's not nearly as
bad as the other one that I mentioned, although nobody's
really I don't think surprised about that. This is an
awful case, and you just got done talking about how
well the Tampa Bay Rays are playing. They're doing it
without Wander Franco, obviously, who was long gone and was
(17:49):
found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor in the
Dominican Republic and received a suspended two year prison sentence today.
I'm not trying to rank these in severity, but it
is definitely a very serious situation there, and I don't
anticipate seeing him in a major league baseball uniform for
(18:10):
the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Not very many players have gotten long term contracts from
the Tampa Rays. Fronco was in a unique category and
this happened not very long after. And yeah, he was crazy.
We will see here from him again at the professional
major league baseball.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Level for the rest of his life.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, those two things coming down, like, he didn't do
anything wrong. He's trying to protect his employees.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
He didn't give up the code. He can't even he
did that wrong for him.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
He could have given him the codes. What was it
even going to do.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Do you think if he gave him the code he
would have lived? No, they were going.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
To blow the roof.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But contant, Oh, yeah, I forgot what a great movie
Diehard is if you haven't seen it, just not living.
So yeah, those two things kind of happened in the
last hour or so. We just want to kind of
get the Astros' tenth inning show content in there.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Before we got to them.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
But we talked about the Rockets draft party last night,
Rockets draft experience as it were, even though they didn't
make any picks, they technically did.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It was kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
We're standing there and the Rockets pick comes up and
everybody kind of stops to watch, even though we all
know it's not gonna play here.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, it does strike me as even worse when you
see a player taking pictures with his family and he's
wearing the hat. That's that is that idea of Okay,
I can look past this, or they can get around
that and don't make us interview this player that's clearly
not coming here. Give him to the team he's going to,
like Phoenix can interview the player that the Rockets technically drafted.
They used to media doesn't need interviewing, and that didn't happen,
and they did that part right. But now for the
(19:47):
end of time, the big some of the biggest moments
to date in their and their families lives are I'm
not gonna say they're ruined, but they look rather silly
wearing the hat of a team that obviously they.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Never played for.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I knew that phase one in Major League Baseball All
Star voting came to a conclusion at eleven o'clock Central
time earlier today, and now the finalists are listed, with
Phase two vote opening on Monday, and unfortunately, as expected
based on where they stood, there are not any Astros
in the Phase two voting. No Astros will be voted
(20:19):
into the All Star Game. Jeremy Pania, because this is
for position players, is really the only one that has
a good case for The two shortstops that were ahead
of him remained ahead of him, Jacob Wilson and Bobby
wit Junior. They'll be in the quote unquote runoff, and
Jackson Holiday apparently stayed ahead of Jose Altuve at second
base statistically speaking, totally within reason. It's a fan vote
(20:42):
kind of thought. Al two Vey's known commodity and known
history of winning the vote at second base would carry
him through, but he also doesn't play very much second base.
He's a below average defender wherever he wears a glove
on the field. But offensively speaking, beyond glabor tours, there's
no second basement in the American League that has really
done anything All Star worthy. So the Astros All Star
(21:05):
Game participants largely we're going to be pitchers anyway. Hunter
Brown will be an All Star, Josh Hater will be
an All Star. I think it'd be difficult to leave
fromber Valdez off of the All Star team additionally, and
the same thing goes for Jeremy Panna thought it for
weeks and nothing so far changed. They're gonna have four
All Stars Payya Brown, Valdez and Josh Hater.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And they're gonna have a Billy Joel Bobblehead Night on
July eleventh, which makes me sick because.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Better than the Yankees version or worse?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Have you seen this? This is then? Oh?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, you and I talked about that.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
We did?
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, Oh, I thought we were talking about the Jeremy
Payne shirtless one.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Well that's shirtless. He just had it unbuttoned. We've talked
about a lot of promotional items, all.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Right, actual tally, since I did not have it before,
Jeremy Payana about three hundred thousand votes and change behind
Witch Junior for the second spot and Altuve. The gap
widened many many more votes came in Jackson Holiday at
one point three jose Al two of it at one point
eight million supporters.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
What's the Orioles record this year.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
They're in last place. Yeah no, but this I fan those.
I don't really care about that. It's an individual honor.
I just you don't have to be on a great
baseball team to play all Star caliber baseball. I mean,
but and now twove is certainly not at the forefront
of the Astros.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Thirty Three's the difference here because you're.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Also talking today though, Yeah, after striking out twice, you
did get a good hit or a big hit. But
you know what's funny is that you know one of
the other guys that beat out another Astro his team
also in dead place.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Right, Yeah, but in an awesome division, the Astros, Mariners, Rangers,
and the Angels.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, but they are more comparable because they're both contributing
to their teams at a much higher level than the
disparity between. You know what Jackson Holiday is doing for
a bad Oriels team, What al Tuo is doing this.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Year, little bit of love for the Tigers. Labor Torres
leaves the Yankees and wins. Technically there's nothing to win
yet everybody he has to win the next vote, but
he earned the most votes among all second basements, so
he and Holiday are the two that had to Phase two,
and two Tigers outfielders made the top three a third
(23:23):
Carrie Carpenter finishing seventh. So uh, they'll probably be well
represented at the All Star Game, as they should be,
just like the Astros overall, because when the players and coaches, managers,
when they get involved in outfitting the rest of the
All Star team, they pay a lot more attention to
the impact that they believe it has on winning. Because
I actually think winning is important fans. I don't mind
(23:45):
them doing it anyway they want. Did not. I mean,
we've watched al Toovey he can center her to the
All Star Game, and I could have engaged in a
debate about him being one of the better second basemen
even though he doesn't play there. But this he's not
played All Star base this year.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It's okay, No, I'm not upset, And like you said
about the Tigers, they deserve it. I mean, when the
Astros were the up and coming first place team in
twenty seventeen, that All Star Game was littered with Astros
and it continued to be. Look all these awards, postseason,
in season, All Star and otherwise, all of that stuff.
I'll take by the wayside for the Astros to be
(24:23):
where they are right now as far as their record
and their standings and the type of baseball they're playing,
not to mention, they're gonna add lots of acquisitions, so
to speak, as they get healthier.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Should be the case. I'll hit you with some of
the things last night in the NBA draft that make
you say, wow, that was dumb. Rocket's not participating, So
you know it wasn't them. Tell you who it was
at the top of the list. When we come back
here on a Thursday edition live from Carbach Brewing, lots
of people enjoying what there is to enjoy here. That's
food from the kitchen and beer from the taps and
(24:56):
other good things here. So come on out and join
us out here. Live edition of the Crawford Box has
to follow. As we continue here on the eighteen.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
We I want to tell you guys again that Fortida
Chevrolet is the only place you need to be going to.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Driving a Chevy truck up here during this weather, glad
I was in one.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, I gotta tell you driving a Chevy Traverse here
up in this weather, glad I was in one.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Well, you know, neither one of us were as close
to the ground as we could have. Nice.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
It was helpful, it was wanted, and I know many
of you out there want the same.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
No, you need to go to Fertita Chevrolet because it's
exactly what you would think it would be.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Oh, the Chevy brand, I like that.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Oh the Fertida family name, Well, that stands for a
fantastic hospitality.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I wonder if the dealership is just like staying in
one of their hotels or going one of their casinos.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yes, yes, it.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Is treated like family there, treated like family here at
Fertida Chevrolet near like fifty years in that location, building
some tradition, continuing that tradition, legendary Fertida name and family
experience that goes along with that new car. Fertida Chevrol,
a trusted name where every customer is family for Tina Chevrolet.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Together we drive. It is the A team Sports Talk
seven ninety.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
As we are winding down a Thursday edition of the
program Live, a Carbok Brewing Company had a fan.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Come up and say hello. Listener, come up and say hello.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And it's appropriate that we're listening to Rush as he'll
be going to Toronto because he tries to take in
all of the ballparks in Major League Baseball and that'll
be his latest to check off the list.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, thanks Robert.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, Rogers Center. We were trying to remember what it
was called, because it's changed names over the year. I'm
old enough to remember when it was skydomb in WrestleMania
six was held there.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I know you remember that. Two. You're a huge wrestling guy.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Please please tell us at least one incredible fact to
it about that event.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, it was the proverbial handing off of the torch
from the Ultimate Warrior to hul Cogan. Problem was Ultimate
Warrior was an absolute lunatic and a bad locker room guy,
so to speak, and so Hogan had to come back
and win that within a year.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
What's a bad locker room guy in wrestling?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I probably did more steroids than the others. I wish
I was kidding.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Well, is that bad? Well, I mean, I know realistically
why it's bad, but in.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
This hispanically it's not bad.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
But from a chemistry and just a person to person
interact with a human being normally type of thing, that's
probably not a good thing. Like if I were roided
up every day. Could you imagine how much worse I'd
be on the show.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Right, But it's that there's different performance enhancers for a
radio program.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, for it's illegal that would enhance our performances.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
And luckily I'm not under twenty one, so it's not illegal. Good.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Oh, by the way, that we mentioned, we're at Carbok
Brewing Company, so love street this place. It's awesome out here.
I'm a huge fan of the food myself.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Press good for you. One other thing, just quick, on
the All Star voting. I think people probably already knew this,
but it did since the vot' in its official Both
Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, in their respective leaves leagues
advance to the next phase. Both have had amazing seasons,
one much longer than the other so far. That's Kyle.
Kyle will be here with the Cubs tomorrow with Ryan
(28:14):
Presley and a first placed team. Alex, obviously still trying
to work his way back from yet another quad injury,
bolted out of the Gates the opening months. They're very
good in his partial second month, but obviously he's not
played since then, and unlike Houston without him, and unlike
the Cubs with Kyle Tucker. The Boston Red Sox face
a pretty difficult path only because there are so many
(28:35):
teams involved. If they plan on being a part of
the postseason this year. They're a five hundred team, which
isn't awful, but or two games under five hundred as
of today, that also only means they're better than five teams.
That's the nature of everybody that's kind of behind Houston,
Tampa and Toronto six are eleven and six games over, respectively,
(28:55):
and then there are seven teams within five games of
five hundred upper above or below, including Seattle, including the Angels,
and including the Rangers, which is why I don't think
this is as much as the lead has grown for
the Astros forty eight and thirty three, the next closest
pursuer still only has forty one wins, playing right now
against the Twins. Talking about the Mariners, I do think
(29:17):
they're going to win the division. I don't think it's
going to come down to the last day two or three.
But I also think these teams aren't going to just
go away. I think I don't know about the Mariners
because of their history of being uninterested at the deadline,
but I feel like the Rangers are going to make
a play for something that will help them, presumably either
back end of the bullpen or for the offense that's
(29:38):
come around a little bit but still lacking a great deal.
To the same end, I think the Astros might be
able to do something. We haven't talked much about this
on the Astro side of things, and I know we
will have an opportunity to do that, and got a
full show tomorrow, so there's one aspect of that I
want to get into tomorrow. We tease something about the
NBA Draft, though, and I don't know how many people
were playing close attention. Orleans Pelicans weren't going to the
(30:01):
postseason this upcoming season, and I don't know when they
could ever get there. But they traded away and unprotected
twenty twenty six first round pick and they stink to
the Atlanta Hawks, so they could go from twenty three
to thirteen. Obviously twenty three was also included, so on
the other end of it, the Hawks were able to
not only pick a player ten spots later, but land
an unprotected pick from a team that stinks in twenty
(30:25):
twenty six. It's really good because that's an East West move.
The Pelicans will continue to flounder. I'm amazed at some
of the people that still get employed. There one very
notable name. But that's how teams that don't know what
they're doing stay where they are. And you know, I
didn't think it was crazy how they put the team
together this year. I did not like the I like
(30:46):
dejent Deay Murray joining the team and the group they
put together, but hated the acquisition. I thought they gave
up way, way too much and it's still going to
come back and bite them. Well, a Western Conference team
that doesn't know what they're doing when almost everybody nobody
else does. Because consider the teams that aren't, we're not
in the playoffs. Portland's done things that I think helped them.
(31:08):
San Antonio has done things that help them, and neither
of them were even in the top ten this past year.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It goes back to what I was talking about yesterday.
The Rockets rebuild has essentially and again Kevin Durant and
you know, the stars aligning everything, you know, getting where
it needs to be to make a kind of move
(31:34):
like that at the end of a rebuild. By the way,
it's still is a testament to the fact that rafel
Stone deserves the credit and is running this Rockets organization effectively.
When you consider that the Rockets bottomed out, tanked, whatever
you want to call it post James Harden, and that
(31:55):
was essentially twenty twenty and here we are in twenty
twenty five and they have a second to oz to
win the NBA title next year. I mean, that's that's
a five year window where you're not doing stupid things
like what the Pelicans just did last night, and other
teams that do dumb things, and that's part of it.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
It sounds easy, but if you don't have confident.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
People running your franchise, it's actually easier to do dumb
things because you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, Utah not not quite the same as Houston, but
I do think there are some similarities. I don't think
the attitudes of the players they ended up moving on
from are at all similar. But when they decided we
got to move on from the Rudy Gobert Donovan Mitchell
group tandem build around them. They traded Rudy Gobert for
a bunch of first round picks. They moved Donovan Mitchell
Cleveland similarly, and they knew they were going to lose games.
(32:43):
They were in the playoffs four seasons ago. This is
their third consecutive year missing the postseason. But on their
roster as we sit here today, what do you like
about it? That's the difference. And I do actually like
what they did yesterday. They saw the best player available
and they took him. Whether or not things work out
with Ace Alien the Jazz, we don't know, but he
was the best player available. Instead of passing on him
(33:03):
for a number of different reasons, they said, well, no,
we want a good player, we want the best player.
If that turns out to be the case, they probably
should have moved more veterans in the past couple of years,
but they haven't, whether it's Collins or Clarkson or a
number of other options, maybe Sexton. I don't know what
they like. What's to like about their young group? And
that's what you were just talking about, Jalen Jabari cam
(33:25):
alprin Amen reed, Tari. You know, there were no unbelievable
this guy can't even play. We can't go anywhere with
this guy. Quite obviously.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
It was the opposite.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
You know, maybe there's a mobile instead of green. Maybe
there's another flip here or there. You also got to
credit them for later in the first round with Alpi
and Cam finding those players. That's the difference. Three years
from going to the bottom, Utah's going to remain at
the bottom. That is one of the five teams that
will not be in the Western Conference playoffs. Three years
after playing at the bottom, the Rockets won forty one games.
(33:58):
Four years after playing it about him, they won fifty
two games.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
At least, Ace Bailey had a great poker face by
not letting everybody know he did not want to play
for Danny Ainge's Utah Jazz last.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Night, unlike Chloe KITT's boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
All right, we got excuse me, I got Oliver Klempt.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
We've got one more segment to go out of here
at Carbuck Brewing Company before we give way to the
Crawford Box cast Dan Matthews and Kevin Eschenfelder in the
on deck circle. So we will get that done when
we come back after a short time out. It is
the eighteen Sports Talk is seven to ninety live from
Carbock Brewing Company WEXAC. Winding down a Thursday edition of
(34:42):
the program after Nashtro's two to one victory and a
sweep over the Philadelphia Phillies. You've got Kyle Tucker and
perhaps a Ryan Presley sighting hope not.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Didn't pitch today, So I would imagine he'll find his
way into at least one.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Of the games even after trailing.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Yeah, and he's not their closer, so yeah, there's opportunities
likely for him to pitch.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
I thought that was a very interesting part of last
year that he was clearly not happy about not being
the closer anymore after they spent all the money on
Hater and all the things he had done for the team,
and then he goes to Chicago where he's not the
closer anymore.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
They had enough young arms that I thought this was
likely to happen. He was the closer when the year began.
He did have five saves. He had one outrageous appearance.
We've talked about it a few times. He allowed nine
runs while facing eight batters. Is that bad in an
extra inning game in one appearance, So that's going to
inflate the numbers. But consider that he allowed nine runs
(35:40):
to score in one appearance and his ERA is still
only three ninety Because He's actually been very good, at
least in terms of getting the ball and not allowing runs.
That part of his game is not too dissimilar from
last year, but he's had too many base runners.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
His trend is pretty clear.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
He was almost flawless in twenty twenty two and that
carried on through the postseason. A little bit of a
slide back in twenty twenty three, but still a very
trustworthy American League closer. Major slide in twenty twenty four,
and one that you could probably say has continued here
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, I'm happy that the Astros have gotten the hater
that we thought we would see last year this year.
It's a big part of why they've been able to
squeak out some of these one run games.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
He's not without fault, but he is twenty for twenty now.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I mean, I don't There's a lot of different ways
to look at a bullpen, not counting two of the
arms in the bullpen that are not factors that they otherwise.
So far, we haven't even seen Wems. We're not likely
to see Nick Hernandez. They've been having such good pitching
starting wise, and nobody's gotten into trouble bullpen wise, they
haven't had to throw the ball to them or give
(36:48):
the ball to them. Everybody, every legitimate pitcher in the
Astros bullpen is better than Ryan Presley. And I'm not
saying that to be known. I'm just saying this is
what has happened. Bennett's Sussa awesome, Stephen Okert awesome, Brian
King fantastic, Brian Obrew arguably his best season statistically, even
with the walks and Josh Hater. He's given up a
(37:12):
couple of home runs here recently, and the count is
rising to almost where it was last year. It's got
five now halfway through the season. Finished last year with twelve,
but continues to do the thing that he is here
to do. When you out play the other team for
the first twenty four outs and you're winning, you can't
lose those games. Those, to me, are the biggest killers
getting blown out. It happens when you play the game
(37:34):
and you're winning the game, and you've essentially won the game.
You bring this guy on, you pay him nineteen million
a year to make sure that you get to put
that in the win column, and he has been able
to do that. Their bullpen has been spectacular and it's
still is amazing. We knew going into this series they
had lined up with the off Dagg. Well, we can
throw two of our races against the Phillies.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Well in between we need to throw Colt and Gordon.
That was probably the best game he's pitched so far,
and he's had some success, but five shot outnings from
him giving it up to the bullpen after that, who
were spectacular the last two days, six innings, three hits,
and that's how they've been able to do this. Next
in line, we'll see if Walter can do that. We'll
see if Gusto can do that when he gets the
ball next. Because that is still every few weeks. I
(38:17):
keep reminding everybody you're still not getting rig Getty back soon.
It's probably a month away at best. Might see Lance
mccullors sooner, clearly this weekend. But you're gonna still have
to keep counting on the same guys that have gotten
you to forty eight and thirty three. They've gotten you
to fifteen games over five hundred that have done that
in a relative hurry. Eleven of the fifteen games over
five hundred have happened this month when they've gone seventeen
(38:39):
and six.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Well, I you know, and that's that is there's not
as much pressure on those guys if it's not a
one nothing game. But it has been late lyas so,
I mean, if this offense can come around just a
little bit and just give you some breathing room. There's
been times where Hayter has given up a home run
or he's given up a run and he had that cushion.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That wouldn't have been the case these last three outings.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
But fortunately for the Astros, they got the clutch pitching
and as it were, the clutch hitting today that they
needed and last night too. I mean, you have to
get the padding from Caratini just to give you the
insurance even.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Though you didn't end up needing it.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
But yeah, I can't, Yeah, I really, I can't complain
about too much, even after the Astros didn't score that
many runs, because the Phillies scored one this whole series,
and now you got the Cubs come into town.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Five for the Astros, won for the Phillies and spread
out properly to win all three of those games. Tend
to play great at home, continue to be the best
team in Baseball in July and obviously setting the pace
now by a sizeable margin in their own division. They
are within striking distance of that top spot with half
of a season left at forty eight wins, with the
Detroit Tigers at fifty one. I could see their lead
(39:52):
grow that full game over the Seattle Mariners. If the
Mariners do not come back, they've had their five vats.
The Twins are batting in the bottom of the fifth
and have already scored twice in the inning, giving them
that two nothing lead.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You's get more updates on that over the course of
the evening.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Be the Sports Talk seven to ninety not done out
here at Carbock Brewing Live broadcast continues with a live
edition of the Crawford Box Cast not one but two
special guest hosts. Dan Matthews will handle things here alongside
Kevin Eschenfelder, straight from Dykin Park where he was on
the radio call right here on Sports Talk seven ninety
along with Robert Ford, of course of Space City Home Network.
(40:29):
He will join him for the next hour to talk
Astros baseball. And we did not do it, but we
could do it tomorrow and I'm putting it on the
schedule for us to do tomorrow the ASTROS Mid Season Awards,
as authored by the A team at our listeners that'll
come your way tomorrow on the program. But appreciate all
the great people out of Carbach, and I know everybody
(40:51):
out here enjoying what they have to offer would say
the same. You can come on out here as well,
not only tonight, but any night and enjoy Carbock Brewing.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Will do it again here soon.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Do not forget when you hear from us next two
o'clock tomorrow, we'll be live at Top Dog Fireworks, the
two ninety Huffmeister location, thirteen other locations to start getting
ready to enjoy the boom that they can offer you
for any event. But obviously July fourth rapidly approaching. We'll
talk to you again tomorrow at two o'clock.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, we told you about earlier.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
We're gonna tell you about it one more time before
we step aside. We're each gonna get into our Chevrolet
vehicles and we're gonna drive to our respective homes unless
WEX has plans he hasn't told me about, and he
goes somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
But I actually do have plans. Okay, have people meet
me out here at car back.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Oh well, eventually you're gonna get into your Chevy, all right. Well,
then you're gonna go home and eventually call it a night.
And what better way to get to and from wherever
you're going than in a Chevrolet. Oh but there is
a better way if you get it from Fertida Chevrolet.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Fantastic stuff.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
I'm talking to you about there for the last couple
of weeks, very excited that they are part of the
eighteen Part of our family, can be a part of
your family, and that means you're part of the Fertida family,
a trusted landmark name and now in a landmark spot
nearly fifty years there. Now at Ftida Chevrolet, every customer
is family with Furtiita Chevrolet. Visit them online Furtitachevrolet dot
(42:10):
com or head on over there and remember at Fertita
Chevrolet together we drive
Five o'clock hour here at Carbok Brewery is underway. It's
the A Team slash Astros tenth Inning Show, although we'll
basically make this the A Team for the final hour
because there's a lot of things we have not gotten
to here on a Thursday edition of the program will
also be on location. Tomorrow's we go up to Top
Dog Fireworks, not too far from where we're at right now.
(00:21):
We'll go to the two ninety and Huffmeister location, so
if you want to swing on by there. I don't
know what the weather's going to be tomorrow. Wex it's
another day of the week, so we could have a tsunami.
We could have absolutely scalding surface of the sun temperatures.
We probably have both because that's a typical Friday in Houston.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's also a.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Typical day in Houston when the Astros are winning, winning
one run games and doing both of those things today
when they beat the Phillies by a final of two
to one to sweep them out of town. Astros are
absolutely fantastic right now, playing their best baseball of the
season and only two and a half back of the
Tigers for the best record in the American League. Obviously
(00:59):
a big lead or a big ear lead now in
the AO West six games, although the Mariners are underway
with the Minnesota no score after two innings in Minneapolis.
But what the Astros, what Hunter Brown did today, what
the offense did, which was again just enough. We've been
talking about that for the better part of the last
(01:20):
hour or so, and with good reason. But it's not
the only thing going good here in the city of Houston.
And you mentioned last night over at Toyota Center, the energy,
the vibe, the vibes are immaculate. I have never in
my life going to Rockets draft events seen a crowd
(01:41):
as excited about zero picks coming to Houston. They had
to be made last night by Houston because of dumb
NBA rules on the calendar, but they were being made
for the Phoenix Suns. Kevin Durant's gonna be on his
way to Houston before you know it, all likelihood is
going to be on the seventh, when he will be
intrued to to the Houston media and the fans and
(02:02):
everything else that's gonna go into what will be a
very exciting day. It just felt like people were anticipating
that last night as we were told several thousand people
were there to get in the building at four o'clock
in the afternoon on a Wednesday for a draft party
in which you basically had no picks.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
YEP. One night of it last night, one night of
it tonight, and we absolutely saw it, and it's it's
awesome part of it. Clearly, you won fifty two games,
You returned to the postseason for the first time in
quite some time. The moves that were made before the
reported deal from this past Sunday, bringing Steven Adams back
on a three year deal, two years fifty million for
(02:42):
Fred van Vliet, three years thirty nine for Adams, and
a lucrative extension for email Udoka, and then the obvious
hopes for progress from the players on your roster. News
of the deal added to that. I think most around
the league again talking to hearing from executives and hearing
reports about what executives saying when they're not busy laughing
at other NBA teams like the Nets and Pelicans. They
(03:05):
certainly view the Rockets as an off season of success.
And I have to play out on the court, and
you have to make sure what you gave up didn't
take away from that, I don't believe that it will.
Obviously there's a longer future in Jalen Green's career, but
the short term future for Kevin Durant here with the
group that they have is what they're banking on. I
don't think there's any reason to doubt the possibilities of
(03:26):
what could be coming their way. Do you have to
consider what it means to the rest of the West. Obviously,
Kevin Durant's not playing for Minnesota. That matters. Kevin Durant
on Minnesota, and that was definitely a real possibility. Believe me,
there was a very good opportunity for that to work out.
Durant's unwillingness to play. There a lot to say about
that not happening, but he's not going there. The number
(03:48):
one pick in the draft last night, as everybody knew
it would be, is now on the same team as
Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis, and he recently extended Daniel
Gafford and a maybe healthy Derek Lively. Washington and whatever
it is they're going to continue to get out of
Klay Thompson. They have a lot of other veterans they
could maneuver around, and Kyrie Irving I mentioned and should
(04:09):
add to it. He's obviously not gonna be healthy when
the season begins, but many believe there are several weeks,
if not months of NBA season in his immediate future,
sometime in the twenty twenty sixth portion of the season.
I do think that absolutely matters. I don't think Dallas
is about to challenge Oklahoma City at the top of
the West, but I do think they are can be
a threat to some teams if they manage their way
(04:30):
through the season until they get there. The next pick
was Dylan Harper going to the Spurs, and I know
it was a pretty popular question, so I guess fans
here are happy that the Rockets are involved, but still
pretty surprising that it's a question asked about the three
Texas teams. Well, one of the Texas teams just won
fifty two games and went seven games in their opening
round series with the Warriors and added Kevin Durant, and
(04:54):
one of the Texas teams traded away Kyrie Irving and
are traded away Luka donc and did not qualify for
the top eight in the Western Conference, which means they
didn't make the playoffs. And the other Texas team didn't
make the playoffs for the second consecutive season, and their
lone realistic addition so far this offseason is Dylan Harper.
Similar for the MAVs, it's Cooper Flag. So questions are
(05:17):
asked not so much who's the best team, because that
would be beyond silly, but many are asking who's the
most intriguing team, either for this upcoming season or for
their long term future, the MAVs, the Spurs, or the Rockets.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Well, the Rockets were already the best team in the state, right,
so I do think that question is unnecessary to need
to debate.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
It's it's pretty clear who the best team is. Well,
when you change it to who's the most intriguing for
twenty twenty five to twenty six, we'll start there.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I mean, you have a mix that just won fifty
two games and really is one of a few teams
that showed much fight against the defending NBA champion in
the regular season. I mean, the Rockets had just as
good as shot as anybody and actually did defeat them
more than once, which no one else can I don't
know a number of teams that can say that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I mean, they won sixty eight games. So mister Miyagi.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Over there, I don't know that anything happened.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
But uh but like, okay, so Victor winbin Yama now
has a full season of d'aron Fox and Dylan Harper.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
He has Ron Harper's kid on his team, okay.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Ud does everybody know that they do?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Like I don't know that everybody knew that was one
of Ron Harper's back like him, he does. And again
I don't know how much pair he was playing for
a team with another fellow top ten pick that only
won fifteen of their games last year at Rutgers somehow.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
The other thing that I'm convinced nobody knew everybody to
watched the draft last night. As we talked about the
other day with the people, who's who stalked Roman Anthony's
sister Leah when he went up with the Red Sox
and they were in the crowd there? Who is that
we have to follow on Instagram? They were doing the
same thing with Missus Harper, his mom. I don't think
anybody realized she has been coaching him and others in
(07:04):
the family and is the lead assistant coach on that
extremely noteworthy, talented New Jersey based basketball high school team
like not, oh man, she's hot. Wow, what a fan
this is. You can't get much bigger of a basketball family.
If he was then an NBA champion dad and a
(07:25):
head coach caliber and she was a head coach prior
to taking this assistant job. Who coached him? Ron didn't
coach him, she did not.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Just any champion. He was played with MJ. He played
with Scotts, so he was on Well.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No, hey, I will never forget this.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
This is super super minutia, super random, but it applies.
Do you remember when the Bulls were about to clench
against the Sonics for the first of the second three peat.
It was Father's Day nineteen ninety six. They were about
to clench against the Sonics team that had swept the
defending champs out of the playoffs two rounds earlier, unceremoniously,
(08:03):
which by the way, would trigger the Charles Barkley trade.
Because you're wanting to know how this all fits together,
Ron Harper was announced second to last in the starting
lineup that night by Ray Clay and there. I mean,
it's totally iconic now at this point, especially after the
last dance, the starting lineups that the United Center put
on for the Bulls, and he got a huge ovation
(08:25):
because he was either coming off an injury and played.
He was a big, big part of why that team
was so good, especially defensively. And you remember in the
last dance, he was like pissed off because he wasn't
gonna get the check MJ on the shot over Craig Elow.
Now I'm not saying MJ doesn't make it if Ron
(08:45):
Harper's on him, but he certainly felt like he would have.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Had a better chance. That kid was bred for this literally.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Should be interesting, and so that intriguing part of it
when you add that term to the commentary. I do
think the MAVs are very intriguing if they play. They
have a roster without Irving talented enough to give teams fits.
But I do think it's gonna be hard for them
to post a good record. The West is so strong,
and it's gonna be interesting how they run their offense
(09:14):
without Kyrie and how they handle the basketball, how they
try to you'll prevent turnovers, but as front courts go,
and I'm not a Cooper Flag enthusiast, but I do
believe he's was the best player in this draft and
will be a good NBA player, not changing the league
or anything, so there'll be tough. But if the Rockets
don't trade for Kevin Durant, I would actually agree they're
(09:35):
not the answer as the most intriguing team of those three.
But because they traded for Kevin Durant, and because they
were already the next best team record wise at fifty
two wins and ascending regardless, I think they're the unquestioned
Are you really intrigued by whether the Spurs improve a
little bit, go from thirty six to forty four wins,
maybe make the tenth seed or ninth seed or maybe better.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Are you intrigued by.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Nico It's only intriguing because Nico Harrison has a really
good team again somehow after trading Luka Doncics. Or are
you intrigued by a team that has a legitimate chance
to win the West?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah? I mean that's that's the answer.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And look I get it there there's a little bit
of a there's gonna be two teams that you're gonna
look at going into the season, well, really actually three,
if if we're gonna talk about all of the catastrophic
injuries that have affected the twenty twenty five twenty six
campaign before it's ever even in training camp, those being
Jason Tatum in Boston, Tyrese Haliburton in Indianapolis, and of
(10:30):
course Kyrie Irving's gonna miss a chunk of if not
the entire I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Know what's what's his I think the whole season.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The most optimistic prognosy he's suggests there's maybe maybe as
much as two months roughly around post All Star. But
that's probably pretty positive.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
That's very yeah, that's that would be a very best.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
He's again those players, and Dame Lillard added to that,
there's a time on and when they all get hurt.
Not all three of them the same injury, but not
all of them he did not have. So there's a
timeline with all.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I mean, the Rockets are the answer. And look, last
night was the draft teams. The two other Texas teams
were at the top of it. So they're gonna get
all the headlines. Wait, you wait a month or a
week from Monday, when Kevin Durant walks out at Toyota
Center and it all really sets in into reality. He's
(11:21):
holding the jersey up, he's got the hat, on or whatever.
I don't know if they do hats for those kinds
of press conference, he'll certainly have a jersey picture and
he speaks to the media, he speaks to the crowd,
and it's no longer just an idea or even a headline.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It's reality.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
And he goes to work with em and they start
plotting what this championship contender is going to look like
on offense, on defense, and all points in between, and.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Just the invalue.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Think about the fact that maybe the best part of
the Rockets not having the part ways with Jabari Smith Junior,
is that now he gets to learn from Kevin Durant,
two guys that are built similarly, two guys that I think,
you know, if anybody on that team could really clean
some knowledge from Kevin Durant, I think Jabari Smith's.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Right at the top of that list.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I mean, it's just I know that we're gonna have
Texans training camp and most of the Astros season in
the books before these guys hit the floor. I haven't
been this excited about a Rocket season in probably five
to six years.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Seem to be echoed by those thousands that were there
last night, Atti out of Center and the many that
have talked to us since and on into the next
month or so, a month away from camp beginning for
the Texans a little less obviously into the second to
or second half of the season. I can say that
today I will say we're in the second half of
the season after they play Game eighty two. But that's
where we are with the Astros. A lot of good
(12:42):
stuff for us to continue with. You guys are welcome
to join us both this afternoon and on throughout the
remaining days and shows, all of them here on Sports
Talk seven n I'd hit a quick break live here
from Carbach Brewing, Wex and Acre here on another award
winning edition of the A Team.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Can't wait for that first one.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
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Speaker 2 (14:09):
Two two twenty two twenty two.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So do you want to do the ex Texas Kicker
or do you want to do the ex Tampa Bay
Ray that's in trouble with the law.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Unfortunately, only I don't know that either one of them
at any point in time matters to either league. Now
it matters to people who don't like people to do
bad things yes, both of them appear to have done that.
One is being told by those who are hearing his case,
you are guilty. The other is saying, well, since I
probably am guilty, I might as well just take this
(14:41):
negotiated suspension.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, ten week good summary, ten weeks suspendion. Okay, this
is what I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
He's gonna be on the.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Team we're talking about Justin Tucker. He does not have
a team. He was let go by the Ravens, and
according to Mark Washington Post, he accepted terms of a suspension.
In other words, negotiated a suspension which he is obviously
not appealing. It was agreed upon and will serve a
(15:11):
ten game suspension which can be served while not on
a roster, which I can't without a finality to whatever
these allegations turn into. If they reach the point where
there is a case and it is heard and it's
there's a determination of innocence or guilt or liability or
however it turned out to be. I don't know why
(15:34):
any team is going to sign a clearly not as
good kicker as he once was, which does give the
Ravens at least a little bit of Yeah, he wasn't
kicking very well, so we moved on. We all know
that that wasn't the only reason, but it is still true.
So to see the other part that's happened the well,
the other part of it is he's negotiating a settlement
while sending out statements months ago exclaiming and proclaiming his innocence.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Right, it's a very weird story.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And so essentially it's okay, he's not gonna be playing
for a team at all until week eleven of the season,
and then what's gonna end up happening is somebody's gonna
have an injury and they're gonna pick.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Him up because he still has some gas left in
the tank.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Provided like you said, there's no more lingering legal issues.
But like you just also got done saying, this guy
was telling everybody that would listen, I didn't do this.
Yet he's accepting a suspension for what and I know it's.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
The NFL conduct policy that he violated.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Right, So this is with many many cases, it's sometimes
very very difficult to prove it either way. Well, what
did they say happen? What did you say happen? And
in maybe in his mind not to give him any
benefit of the doubt here, certainly, but it can be
viewed as the fastest way or the cleanest way to
move on, even though it would certainly sully a reputation
(16:55):
to just acknowledge or accept, I should say a better word,
accept a suspension, which he has now but in ten
NFL games, and again, if he signs with the team,
he's he joins the team, he participates in camp, he
can participate in preseason games, and then the suspension would
be served, and then he'd be eligible to play once again.
You're you're possibly right. That definitely sounds like something an
(17:16):
NFL team would consider doing.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
And I'm not sure what will be learned.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
About any of these issues over the next five six
months before that ten game suspension would be served.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
It's just a weird story, but it's not nearly as
bad as the other one that I mentioned, although nobody's
really I don't think surprised about that. This is an
awful case, and you just got done talking about how
well the Tampa Bay Rays are playing. They're doing it
without Wander Franco, obviously, who was long gone and was
(17:49):
found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor in the
Dominican Republic and received a suspended two year prison sentence today.
I'm not trying to rank these in severity, but it
is definitely a very serious situation there, and I don't
anticipate seeing him in a major league baseball uniform for
(18:10):
the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Not very many players have gotten long term contracts from
the Tampa Rays. Fronco was in a unique category and
this happened not very long after. And yeah, he was crazy.
We will see here from him again at the professional
major league baseball.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Level for the rest of his life.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, those two things coming down, like, he didn't do
anything wrong. He's trying to protect his employees.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
He didn't give up the code. He can't even he
did that wrong for him.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
He could have given him the codes. What was it
even going to do.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Do you think if he gave him the code he
would have lived? No, they were going.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
To blow the roof.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But contant, Oh, yeah, I forgot what a great movie
Diehard is if you haven't seen it, just not living.
So yeah, those two things kind of happened in the
last hour or so. We just want to kind of
get the Astros' tenth inning show content in there.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Before we got to them.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
But we talked about the Rockets draft party last night,
Rockets draft experience as it were, even though they didn't
make any picks, they technically did.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It was kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
We're standing there and the Rockets pick comes up and
everybody kind of stops to watch, even though we all
know it's not gonna play here.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, it does strike me as even worse when you
see a player taking pictures with his family and he's
wearing the hat. That's that is that idea of Okay,
I can look past this, or they can get around
that and don't make us interview this player that's clearly
not coming here. Give him to the team he's going to,
like Phoenix can interview the player that the Rockets technically drafted.
They used to media doesn't need interviewing, and that didn't happen,
and they did that part right. But now for the
(19:47):
end of time, the big some of the biggest moments
to date in their and their families lives are I'm
not gonna say they're ruined, but they look rather silly
wearing the hat of a team that obviously they.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Never played for.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I knew that phase one in Major League Baseball All
Star voting came to a conclusion at eleven o'clock Central
time earlier today, and now the finalists are listed, with
Phase two vote opening on Monday, and unfortunately, as expected
based on where they stood, there are not any Astros
in the Phase two voting. No Astros will be voted
(20:19):
into the All Star Game. Jeremy Pania, because this is
for position players, is really the only one that has
a good case for The two shortstops that were ahead
of him remained ahead of him, Jacob Wilson and Bobby
wit Junior. They'll be in the quote unquote runoff, and
Jackson Holiday apparently stayed ahead of Jose Altuve at second
base statistically speaking, totally within reason. It's a fan vote
(20:42):
kind of thought. Al two Vey's known commodity and known
history of winning the vote at second base would carry
him through, but he also doesn't play very much second base.
He's a below average defender wherever he wears a glove
on the field. But offensively speaking, beyond glabor tours, there's
no second basement in the American League that has really
done anything All Star worthy. So the Astros All Star
(21:05):
Game participants largely we're going to be pitchers anyway. Hunter
Brown will be an All Star, Josh Hater will be
an All Star. I think it'd be difficult to leave
fromber Valdez off of the All Star team additionally, and
the same thing goes for Jeremy Panna thought it for
weeks and nothing so far changed. They're gonna have four
All Stars Payya Brown, Valdez and Josh Hater.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And they're gonna have a Billy Joel Bobblehead Night on
July eleventh, which makes me sick because.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Better than the Yankees version or worse?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Have you seen this? This is then? Oh?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, you and I talked about that.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
We did?
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, Oh, I thought we were talking about the Jeremy
Payne shirtless one.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Well that's shirtless. He just had it unbuttoned. We've talked
about a lot of promotional items, all.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Right, actual tally, since I did not have it before,
Jeremy Payana about three hundred thousand votes and change behind
Witch Junior for the second spot and Altuve. The gap
widened many many more votes came in Jackson Holiday at
one point three jose Al two of it at one point
eight million supporters.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
What's the Orioles record this year.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
They're in last place. Yeah no, but this I fan those.
I don't really care about that. It's an individual honor.
I just you don't have to be on a great
baseball team to play all Star caliber baseball. I mean,
but and now twove is certainly not at the forefront
of the Astros.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Thirty Three's the difference here because you're.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Also talking today though, Yeah, after striking out twice, you
did get a good hit or a big hit. But
you know what's funny is that you know one of
the other guys that beat out another Astro his team
also in dead place.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Right, Yeah, but in an awesome division, the Astros, Mariners, Rangers,
and the Angels.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, but they are more comparable because they're both contributing
to their teams at a much higher level than the
disparity between. You know what Jackson Holiday is doing for
a bad Oriels team, What al Tuo is doing this.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Year, little bit of love for the Tigers. Labor Torres
leaves the Yankees and wins. Technically there's nothing to win
yet everybody he has to win the next vote, but
he earned the most votes among all second basements, so
he and Holiday are the two that had to Phase two,
and two Tigers outfielders made the top three a third
(23:23):
Carrie Carpenter finishing seventh. So uh, they'll probably be well
represented at the All Star Game, as they should be,
just like the Astros overall, because when the players and coaches, managers,
when they get involved in outfitting the rest of the
All Star team, they pay a lot more attention to
the impact that they believe it has on winning. Because
I actually think winning is important fans. I don't mind
(23:45):
them doing it anyway they want. Did not. I mean,
we've watched al Toovey he can center her to the
All Star Game, and I could have engaged in a
debate about him being one of the better second basemen
even though he doesn't play there. But this he's not
played All Star base this year.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It's okay, No, I'm not upset, And like you said
about the Tigers, they deserve it. I mean, when the
Astros were the up and coming first place team in
twenty seventeen, that All Star Game was littered with Astros
and it continued to be. Look all these awards, postseason,
in season, All Star and otherwise, all of that stuff.
I'll take by the wayside for the Astros to be
(24:23):
where they are right now as far as their record
and their standings and the type of baseball they're playing,
not to mention, they're gonna add lots of acquisitions, so
to speak, as they get healthier.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Should be the case. I'll hit you with some of
the things last night in the NBA draft that make
you say, wow, that was dumb. Rocket's not participating, So
you know it wasn't them. Tell you who it was
at the top of the list. When we come back
here on a Thursday edition live from Carbach Brewing, lots
of people enjoying what there is to enjoy here. That's
food from the kitchen and beer from the taps and
(24:56):
other good things here. So come on out and join
us out here. Live edition of the Crawford Box has
to follow. As we continue here on the eighteen.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
We I want to tell you guys again that Fortida
Chevrolet is the only place you need to be going to.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Driving a Chevy truck up here during this weather, glad
I was in one.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, I gotta tell you driving a Chevy Traverse here
up in this weather, glad I was in one.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Well, you know, neither one of us were as close
to the ground as we could have. Nice.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
It was helpful, it was wanted, and I know many
of you out there want the same.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
No, you need to go to Fertita Chevrolet because it's
exactly what you would think it would be.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Oh, the Chevy brand, I like that.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Oh the Fertida family name, Well, that stands for a
fantastic hospitality.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I wonder if the dealership is just like staying in
one of their hotels or going one of their casinos.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yes, yes, it.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Is treated like family there, treated like family here at
Fertida Chevrolet near like fifty years in that location, building
some tradition, continuing that tradition, legendary Fertida name and family
experience that goes along with that new car. Fertida Chevrol,
a trusted name where every customer is family for Tina Chevrolet.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Together we drive. It is the A team Sports Talk
seven ninety.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
As we are winding down a Thursday edition of the
program Live, a Carbok Brewing Company had a fan.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Come up and say hello. Listener, come up and say hello.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And it's appropriate that we're listening to Rush as he'll
be going to Toronto because he tries to take in
all of the ballparks in Major League Baseball and that'll
be his latest to check off the list.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, thanks Robert.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, Rogers Center. We were trying to remember what it
was called, because it's changed names over the year. I'm
old enough to remember when it was skydomb in WrestleMania
six was held there.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I know you remember that. Two. You're a huge wrestling guy.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Please please tell us at least one incredible fact to
it about that event.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, it was the proverbial handing off of the torch
from the Ultimate Warrior to hul Cogan. Problem was Ultimate
Warrior was an absolute lunatic and a bad locker room guy,
so to speak, and so Hogan had to come back
and win that within a year.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
What's a bad locker room guy in wrestling?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I probably did more steroids than the others. I wish
I was kidding.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Well, is that bad? Well, I mean, I know realistically
why it's bad, but in.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
This hispanically it's not bad.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
But from a chemistry and just a person to person
interact with a human being normally type of thing, that's
probably not a good thing. Like if I were roided
up every day. Could you imagine how much worse I'd
be on the show.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Right, But it's that there's different performance enhancers for a
radio program.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, for it's illegal that would enhance our performances.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
And luckily I'm not under twenty one, so it's not illegal. Good.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Oh, by the way, that we mentioned, we're at Carbok
Brewing Company, so love street this place. It's awesome out here.
I'm a huge fan of the food myself.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Press good for you. One other thing, just quick, on
the All Star voting. I think people probably already knew this,
but it did since the vot' in its official Both
Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, in their respective leaves leagues
advance to the next phase. Both have had amazing seasons,
one much longer than the other so far. That's Kyle.
Kyle will be here with the Cubs tomorrow with Ryan
(28:14):
Presley and a first placed team. Alex, obviously still trying
to work his way back from yet another quad injury,
bolted out of the Gates the opening months. They're very
good in his partial second month, but obviously he's not
played since then, and unlike Houston without him, and unlike
the Cubs with Kyle Tucker. The Boston Red Sox face
a pretty difficult path only because there are so many
(28:35):
teams involved. If they plan on being a part of
the postseason this year. They're a five hundred team, which
isn't awful, but or two games under five hundred as
of today, that also only means they're better than five teams.
That's the nature of everybody that's kind of behind Houston,
Tampa and Toronto six are eleven and six games over, respectively,
(28:55):
and then there are seven teams within five games of
five hundred upper above or below, including Seattle, including the Angels,
and including the Rangers, which is why I don't think
this is as much as the lead has grown for
the Astros forty eight and thirty three, the next closest
pursuer still only has forty one wins, playing right now
against the Twins. Talking about the Mariners, I do think
(29:17):
they're going to win the division. I don't think it's
going to come down to the last day two or three.
But I also think these teams aren't going to just
go away. I think I don't know about the Mariners
because of their history of being uninterested at the deadline,
but I feel like the Rangers are going to make
a play for something that will help them, presumably either
back end of the bullpen or for the offense that's
(29:38):
come around a little bit but still lacking a great deal.
To the same end, I think the Astros might be
able to do something. We haven't talked much about this
on the Astro side of things, and I know we
will have an opportunity to do that, and got a
full show tomorrow, so there's one aspect of that I
want to get into tomorrow. We tease something about the
NBA Draft, though, and I don't know how many people
were playing close attention. Orleans Pelicans weren't going to the
(30:01):
postseason this upcoming season, and I don't know when they
could ever get there. But they traded away and unprotected
twenty twenty six first round pick and they stink to
the Atlanta Hawks, so they could go from twenty three
to thirteen. Obviously twenty three was also included, so on
the other end of it, the Hawks were able to
not only pick a player ten spots later, but land
an unprotected pick from a team that stinks in twenty
(30:25):
twenty six. It's really good because that's an East West move.
The Pelicans will continue to flounder. I'm amazed at some
of the people that still get employed. There one very
notable name. But that's how teams that don't know what
they're doing stay where they are. And you know, I
didn't think it was crazy how they put the team
together this year. I did not like the I like
(30:46):
dejent Deay Murray joining the team and the group they
put together, but hated the acquisition. I thought they gave
up way, way too much and it's still going to
come back and bite them. Well, a Western Conference team
that doesn't know what they're doing when almost everybody nobody
else does. Because consider the teams that aren't, we're not
in the playoffs. Portland's done things that I think helped them.
(31:08):
San Antonio has done things that help them, and neither
of them were even in the top ten this past year.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It goes back to what I was talking about yesterday.
The Rockets rebuild has essentially and again Kevin Durant and
you know, the stars aligning everything, you know, getting where
it needs to be to make a kind of move
(31:34):
like that at the end of a rebuild. By the way,
it's still is a testament to the fact that rafel
Stone deserves the credit and is running this Rockets organization effectively.
When you consider that the Rockets bottomed out, tanked, whatever
you want to call it post James Harden, and that
(31:55):
was essentially twenty twenty and here we are in twenty
twenty five and they have a second to oz to
win the NBA title next year. I mean, that's that's
a five year window where you're not doing stupid things
like what the Pelicans just did last night, and other
teams that do dumb things, and that's part of it.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
It sounds easy, but if you don't have confident.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
People running your franchise, it's actually easier to do dumb
things because you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, Utah not not quite the same as Houston, but
I do think there are some similarities. I don't think
the attitudes of the players they ended up moving on
from are at all similar. But when they decided we
got to move on from the Rudy Gobert Donovan Mitchell
group tandem build around them. They traded Rudy Gobert for
a bunch of first round picks. They moved Donovan Mitchell
Cleveland similarly, and they knew they were going to lose games.
(32:43):
They were in the playoffs four seasons ago. This is
their third consecutive year missing the postseason. But on their
roster as we sit here today, what do you like
about it? That's the difference. And I do actually like
what they did yesterday. They saw the best player available
and they took him. Whether or not things work out
with Ace Alien the Jazz, we don't know, but he
was the best player available. Instead of passing on him
(33:03):
for a number of different reasons, they said, well, no,
we want a good player, we want the best player.
If that turns out to be the case, they probably
should have moved more veterans in the past couple of years,
but they haven't, whether it's Collins or Clarkson or a
number of other options, maybe Sexton. I don't know what
they like. What's to like about their young group? And
that's what you were just talking about, Jalen Jabari cam
(33:25):
alprin Amen reed, Tari. You know, there were no unbelievable
this guy can't even play. We can't go anywhere with
this guy. Quite obviously.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
It was the opposite.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
You know, maybe there's a mobile instead of green. Maybe
there's another flip here or there. You also got to
credit them for later in the first round with Alpi
and Cam finding those players. That's the difference. Three years
from going to the bottom, Utah's going to remain at
the bottom. That is one of the five teams that
will not be in the Western Conference playoffs. Three years
after playing at the bottom, the Rockets won forty one games.
(33:58):
Four years after playing it about him, they won fifty
two games.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
At least, Ace Bailey had a great poker face by
not letting everybody know he did not want to play
for Danny Ainge's Utah Jazz last.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Night, unlike Chloe KITT's boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
All right, we got excuse me, I got Oliver Klempt.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
We've got one more segment to go out of here
at Carbuck Brewing Company before we give way to the
Crawford Box cast Dan Matthews and Kevin Eschenfelder in the
on deck circle. So we will get that done when
we come back after a short time out. It is
the eighteen Sports Talk is seven to ninety live from
Carbock Brewing Company WEXAC. Winding down a Thursday edition of
(34:42):
the program after Nashtro's two to one victory and a
sweep over the Philadelphia Phillies. You've got Kyle Tucker and
perhaps a Ryan Presley sighting hope not.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Didn't pitch today, So I would imagine he'll find his
way into at least one.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Of the games even after trailing.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Yeah, and he's not their closer, so yeah, there's opportunities
likely for him to pitch.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
I thought that was a very interesting part of last
year that he was clearly not happy about not being
the closer anymore after they spent all the money on
Hater and all the things he had done for the team,
and then he goes to Chicago where he's not the
closer anymore.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
They had enough young arms that I thought this was
likely to happen. He was the closer when the year began.
He did have five saves. He had one outrageous appearance.
We've talked about it a few times. He allowed nine
runs while facing eight batters. Is that bad in an
extra inning game in one appearance, So that's going to
inflate the numbers. But consider that he allowed nine runs
(35:40):
to score in one appearance and his ERA is still
only three ninety Because He's actually been very good, at
least in terms of getting the ball and not allowing runs.
That part of his game is not too dissimilar from
last year, but he's had too many base runners.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
His trend is pretty clear.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
He was almost flawless in twenty twenty two and that
carried on through the postseason. A little bit of a
slide back in twenty twenty three, but still a very
trustworthy American League closer. Major slide in twenty twenty four,
and one that you could probably say has continued here
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, I'm happy that the Astros have gotten the hater
that we thought we would see last year this year.
It's a big part of why they've been able to
squeak out some of these one run games.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
He's not without fault, but he is twenty for twenty now.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I mean, I don't There's a lot of different ways
to look at a bullpen, not counting two of the
arms in the bullpen that are not factors that they otherwise.
So far, we haven't even seen Wems. We're not likely
to see Nick Hernandez. They've been having such good pitching
starting wise, and nobody's gotten into trouble bullpen wise, they
haven't had to throw the ball to them or give
(36:48):
the ball to them. Everybody, every legitimate pitcher in the
Astros bullpen is better than Ryan Presley. And I'm not
saying that to be known. I'm just saying this is
what has happened. Bennett's Sussa awesome, Stephen Okert awesome, Brian
King fantastic, Brian Obrew arguably his best season statistically, even
with the walks and Josh Hater. He's given up a
(37:12):
couple of home runs here recently, and the count is
rising to almost where it was last year. It's got
five now halfway through the season. Finished last year with twelve,
but continues to do the thing that he is here
to do. When you out play the other team for
the first twenty four outs and you're winning, you can't
lose those games. Those, to me, are the biggest killers
getting blown out. It happens when you play the game
(37:34):
and you're winning the game, and you've essentially won the game.
You bring this guy on, you pay him nineteen million
a year to make sure that you get to put
that in the win column, and he has been able
to do that. Their bullpen has been spectacular and it's
still is amazing. We knew going into this series they
had lined up with the off Dagg. Well, we can
throw two of our races against the Phillies.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Well in between we need to throw Colt and Gordon.
That was probably the best game he's pitched so far,
and he's had some success, but five shot outnings from
him giving it up to the bullpen after that, who
were spectacular the last two days, six innings, three hits,
and that's how they've been able to do this. Next
in line, we'll see if Walter can do that. We'll
see if Gusto can do that when he gets the
ball next. Because that is still every few weeks. I
(38:17):
keep reminding everybody you're still not getting rig Getty back soon.
It's probably a month away at best. Might see Lance
mccullors sooner, clearly this weekend. But you're gonna still have
to keep counting on the same guys that have gotten
you to forty eight and thirty three. They've gotten you
to fifteen games over five hundred that have done that
in a relative hurry. Eleven of the fifteen games over
five hundred have happened this month when they've gone seventeen
(38:39):
and six.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Well, I you know, and that's that is there's not
as much pressure on those guys if it's not a
one nothing game. But it has been late lyas so,
I mean, if this offense can come around just a
little bit and just give you some breathing room. There's
been times where Hayter has given up a home run
or he's given up a run and he had that cushion.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That wouldn't have been the case these last three outings.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
But fortunately for the Astros, they got the clutch pitching
and as it were, the clutch hitting today that they
needed and last night too. I mean, you have to
get the padding from Caratini just to give you the
insurance even.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Though you didn't end up needing it.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
But yeah, I can't, Yeah, I really, I can't complain
about too much, even after the Astros didn't score that
many runs, because the Phillies scored one this whole series,
and now you got the Cubs come into town.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Five for the Astros, won for the Phillies and spread
out properly to win all three of those games. Tend
to play great at home, continue to be the best
team in Baseball in July and obviously setting the pace
now by a sizeable margin in their own division. They
are within striking distance of that top spot with half
of a season left at forty eight wins, with the
Detroit Tigers at fifty one. I could see their lead
(39:52):
grow that full game over the Seattle Mariners. If the
Mariners do not come back, they've had their five vats.
The Twins are batting in the bottom of the fifth
and have already scored twice in the inning, giving them
that two nothing lead.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You's get more updates on that over the course of
the evening.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Be the Sports Talk seven to ninety not done out
here at Carbock Brewing Live broadcast continues with a live
edition of the Crawford Box Cast not one but two
special guest hosts. Dan Matthews will handle things here alongside
Kevin Eschenfelder, straight from Dykin Park where he was on
the radio call right here on Sports Talk seven ninety
along with Robert Ford, of course of Space City Home Network.
(40:29):
He will join him for the next hour to talk
Astros baseball. And we did not do it, but we
could do it tomorrow and I'm putting it on the
schedule for us to do tomorrow the ASTROS Mid Season Awards,
as authored by the A team at our listeners that'll
come your way tomorrow on the program. But appreciate all
the great people out of Carbach, and I know everybody
(40:51):
out here enjoying what they have to offer would say
the same. You can come on out here as well,
not only tonight, but any night and enjoy Carbock Brewing.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Will do it again here soon.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Do not forget when you hear from us next two
o'clock tomorrow, we'll be live at Top Dog Fireworks, the
two ninety Huffmeister location, thirteen other locations to start getting
ready to enjoy the boom that they can offer you
for any event. But obviously July fourth rapidly approaching. We'll
talk to you again tomorrow at two o'clock.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, we told you about earlier.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
We're gonna tell you about it one more time before
we step aside. We're each gonna get into our Chevrolet
vehicles and we're gonna drive to our respective homes unless
WEX has plans he hasn't told me about, and he
goes somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
But I actually do have plans. Okay, have people meet
me out here at car back.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Oh well, eventually you're gonna get into your Chevy, all right. Well,
then you're gonna go home and eventually call it a night.
And what better way to get to and from wherever
you're going than in a Chevrolet. Oh but there is
a better way if you get it from Fertida Chevrolet.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Fantastic stuff.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
I'm talking to you about there for the last couple
of weeks, very excited that they are part of the
eighteen Part of our family, can be a part of
your family, and that means you're part of the Fertida family,
a trusted landmark name and now in a landmark spot
nearly fifty years there. Now at Ftida Chevrolet, every customer
is family with Furtiita Chevrolet. Visit them online Furtitachevrolet dot
(42:10):
com or head on over there and remember at Fertita
Chevrolet together we drive
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