Brah, What Was THAT In Boston!?! Correa's Comeback

Wex and AC return from the weekend pissed off following a sweep against the Boston Red Sox. What went right? What went wrong? Seriously, what's the level of concern going into a three-game road trip to Miami. Also, the Texans are in West Virginia and the offense is struggling. Oh and Texas football leads the league in the Coaches Poll!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Raised by Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Nolan Hockey, volted by the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
That is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team is talking.
Your teams, Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A teams.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Am myself an extra minute of solace before we launch

(01:03):
into this tirade.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
And by we, I mean me, No, I'm not gonna
do that, Astros. It was all set out for them,
wex it was the table was set a weekend in
New England. Even Brian McTaggart was using that song by
Barry Manilow, one of Matt Thomas's favorites, on his social
media post. And then they started playing games and I'll
be I heard you earlier with Ross. They absolutely should

(01:27):
could and should have won on Friday night, but they
just can't get runners home. And it's not looking a
lot like it was. It's not looking much different than
it was before they made all these trades. I realized
they've got to get healthy. I realize help is on
the way from the pitching standpoint, at least I hope
it is. But man, pick a poison and it's not

(01:47):
like you had any excuses with Ah, they didn't throw
a Hunter Brown or Fromervet. No, they threw both of them.
So a sweep at the hands of the Red Sox.
And so normally you would say, ah, things will be fine.
They're gonna go play the Marlins and they're be great. No, no, no,
the Marlins are actually better than the Red Sox right now.
And then you're gonna play the Yankees, and then you're
gonna play the Red Sox a game. But I'm sure
it'll be fine by the end of August when they

(02:08):
get everybody back.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Doesn't matter who they play. This is all on them.
It's been on them all season long, the good and
the bad. When the Astros go out and beat good teams,
it was on them. Remember when we told you that, Oh,
they've got a thirteen or thirteen to three record against
the first place teams. They beat Detroit, they beat Philadelphia,
they beat the Cubs, they swept the Dodgers. That was
the Astros doing that. They're capable of doing that. But

(02:31):
then they're also capable of running through spells where they
get a lot of base runners and they don't come home.

Speaker 6 (02:36):
And that's what they did on Saturday. That's what they
did on Friday.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
The guys on Friday didn't come home because they weren't
on the base paths any longer. Three times in nine
innings they managed to run themselves into outs, which is
something they don't do often, and they put them all
in one game in front of a national audience. That's
a bit of a shame in a game where you
went to extra innings with both teams sitting on just
one run, so definitely let that one slip away. The
other two they just didn't do the things necessary to

(03:00):
put themselves in position to compete for a win. Down
by a bunch on Saturday because they got a bunch
of base runners and had a bunch of singles and
walks don't drive runs in. And then yesterday they just
simply did not have a whole lot going against Lucas Giolito.
Two of the three pitchers the Socks through this weekend
had their best starts of the year. It's not them again,
it's Houston. It's the guys that the Astros had in

(03:21):
the lineup that particular day. Tried to soften this up
a little bit heading into the weekend. I liked what
they did at the deadline, and I said as much,
and I think most people did. But you still have
to look at who these players are in twenty twenty five. Hey,
sus Sanchez is he's all right. His ops is over
seven hundred, and he really does hit well against left

(03:42):
handed pitching and he did or excuse me, right handed
pitching as a left handed hitter, and he did. And
Carlos Coorea he's a very good player. He's a very
good defensive player. He's going to play great at third
base and if he has to play shortstop, which he
did this weekend in two of the three games. But
he's not having a great offensive season. And it's not
just a bad April. I know his batting average is
three hundred since you know now over the last seventy

(04:06):
two games, but he's not driving the ball nearly as
much as you would think he would. And I know
he homered and he drove the ball way over the
Green Monster and absolute no doubter. You gotta have more
of that up and down the line up. And that's
essentially what was missing in this game, and it's what's
been missing the entire season. I hope Jose al Tuove
hits two home runs sometime in the near future, so

(04:27):
no longer have to say Esak Perettis is leading this
team at home runs despite missing the last several weeks,
but he is. This is kind of the story of
this season's offense for Houston. They're not unclutched, so to speak,
and runners in scoring position numbers aren't dreadful, but man,
they put a lot of guys on base. They get
a lot of singles, and they do draw their fair
share of walks, and they're not striking out a ton

(04:51):
That should equal a lot more runs than the five
they had this weekend, and a couple series before that
were lamenting how lopsided the A's series was when they
got swept in Houston, just not scoring and their pitching
was good enough to win here and there. This is
about month and a half now. At the last forty games,
Astros are under five hundred over the last forty games.

(05:12):
This is nothing new. You just have some new blood.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Is it safe to say they're playing their worst baseball
of the season immediately following their best stretch of the season,
because of course it is.

Speaker 6 (05:22):
Well, the beginning of the year wasn't great.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
And nineteen and seven, in June, twelve and sixteen, in
July and four days of August. You couldn't have nailed
it any more accurately.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
But I feel like they were doing this in the
first month ish of the season two, like their record
was similar.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
What was different about it? Though their record wasn't similar,
their record was better because their pitching was better. Okay,
they're pitching in the last forty days. It's just like
they're hitting now.

Speaker 7 (05:48):
It's awful.

Speaker 6 (05:48):
It's not in the top half of the league.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
They still strike out a lot of hitters, but they
give up a billion hits. And my gosh, I told
you it was risky. I told you it was risky
last Thursday, and it played out. Colton Gordon is gosh.
He gives up a lot of hits. He turns every
other team's lineup into a three zero seven hitter. That's
what other teams are hitting against him this year. And
the two run homer followed by another two run homer.

(06:13):
He throws a lot of strikes and guess who knows
it the other team. He gets a lot of strikeouts.
He throws a lot of strikes, and he gives up
a billion hits, and he is in line to start
every fifth day the.

Speaker 6 (06:24):
Rest of the season.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Considering what they did not trade for, it's maybe it
was a risk worth taking. We'll find out that Dana
was right. But they're not only banking on six starting
pitchers returning from injury, and they probably all will. JP
Frantz and the other rehabbing pitchers currently Luis Garcia, Spencer Araghetty,
and Christian Harve they're all going to return this year,

(06:46):
it looks like, and Araghetty's probably pitching Tuesday tomorrow in Miami,
and then Brandon Walter and Lance mccullors. That is six
currently I ELD starting caliber pitchers that are probably all
going to pitch here in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
But how well, well the last two names you mentioned
is like a perfect example of what we're talking about,
because I actually have insanely more confidence in Brandon Walter
and whatever he does post this il stent than anything
Lance mccullors is gonna do.

Speaker 6 (07:13):
Well, why who's who wouldn't No one's arguing for me,
I'm not asking. He's been unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
That's Brady Walter's nobody, Nobody talked about him before this
season because nobody knew he hadn't pitched for the Astros.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
He'd come across late last year. This was a smart move,
very very under the radarn't available recovering from injury pitcher
who was picked up in August of last year and
then didn't pitch the rest of the year, obviously, as
he wanted to be as healthy and as strong as possible.
And look at what he did that among all the
things that has happened this year. You know, respect to

(07:46):
Zach Short for a couple of walkoffs, Respect to Taylor
Tremmel and Cooper Hummel for what they provided the monster
days in Arizona. To Bryce Matthews and what he provided.
No single player kept the Astros in first place or
afloat or above the water than Brendan Walter did during
his time here so far this year. And if it's

(08:06):
just what they say, it is inflammation the elbow and
when it subsides, which it did, and he's able to
pick the baseball back up again and able to ramp
up a little bit. Yeah, I fully expect him to
pitch well again. And we have a track record for
Lance this year. I don't know that it means anything
for his future because he's still, so to speak, recovering
coming back, and this is the first time back. It's

(08:27):
very different than all these other guys. And then it's
obviously the same when you say, well, what's Tavier gonna pitch?
Like he's been out for over year, Garcia has been
out for over here, France has been out for over
the year. So Arraghetty and Walter, Yeah, I can understand
feeling differently about them, and we'll find out, I think
as early as Tuesday on Spencer. I wish Walter's injury

(08:48):
was like Araghetti is not related to throwing the baseball
so much and your arm and your shoulder, but it's
an elbow injury.

Speaker 6 (08:54):
So I couldn't tell.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
You when he's pitching again for the Astros well, and
you know you're talking about picking up a baseball, throwing
it and not having any sort of complications. You're holding
your breath the next few times he does that, so
that you know all things are good, then you can
get him on the track back to returning. But I
am low key pumped about Eric Getty, even though that's

(09:16):
a question mark. Not because I don't see I think
other people are are questioning whether or not he'll be
able to do what he did, you know, the last season,
for example. I don't question that because I think his
stuff's amazing. It's just the physical side of things. And
it's not even the physical like, oh I'm worried about
it's just the ramp up and all that kind of stuff.
But you know, he's That's what rehab starts are for,

(09:38):
and so there's no sense worrying about him because you've
plenty of other things to worry you on your plate right.

Speaker 6 (09:44):
Now, no question.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
Obviously, we'll get into the series that begins tonight, three
more games in Miami starting tonight, a day off, and
then the three games with the Yankees over the weekend,
so some earlier different start times affecting this program. For sure,
it gets you into the Astros on Deck Show at
four thirty today and tomorrow early into the on Deck
Show on Wednesday with the afternoon game. We'll take the

(10:06):
show out to Carbock Brewing on the Wednesday broadcast, so
bright and early for US. Two o'clock start time for
US over at car Back on Wednesday, and then the
Yankees game obviously on Friday night, six ten for that
first pitch, we'll be into the Astros on deck show
at five o'clock. Plenty of other things to get into
today will certainly start and remain there, most likely first

(10:29):
of four practices for the Texans in West Virginia weather.
It was much much different to go through a training
camp practice for Houston today. Practice there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,
then off to Minnesota for preseason game number one. They
will play three preseason games. They will have two joint practices,
one each against Carolina and Detroit, and then right after

(10:51):
those conclude, I'll get the roster into position. We'll figure
out who are the fifty three sometime after they make
the original fifty three and try to do something they
could not do either of the first two years with
Demiko CJ and Will Anderson Junior. So some thoughts about
what went on out there today and where things are
headed for that team obviously a part of the program

(11:12):
here as we get back from the weekend as well.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
YEP, a lot to.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Get to here on a Monday edition of the program
before we get you into the opener between the Astros
and the one of the hottest teams in baseball. So
that's what we have on deck for you today and
we'll start that process when we come.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Back the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety. Nope, don't
like that.

Speaker 6 (11:44):
You know what's funny.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
This song shuffled on on my.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
Way on my drive in today and I skipped it.
I think it was Yeah, it was more than a feeling. Typically,
I use these kinds of musical pieces when I'm putting
the videos together.

Speaker 6 (11:59):
Didn't get to do those this week.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Still waiting on my first Carlos Correa featured video. And
by the way, Wex don't think it wasn't very unfun
when you hit that home run four hundred and eleven
feet over the monster and then that was it for
the day. That was it for your Astros offense and
honestly Boston Red Sox offense because they did it all
in that same inning.

Speaker 6 (12:18):
And then it was over. We just had to get
through those innings.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
So after a weekend like this, and after, by the way,
like when I was leaving the studio during the break,
the MLB Network caption on the screen was something along
the lines of panic or doom or whatever you're supposed
to be feeling about the Yankees right now, because they
just got swept by the Marlins. The Marlins are playing

(12:43):
good baseball right now, even though they're just not up
to five hundred, and this is pertinent because that's where
the Astros will begin a series tonight, right here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety. But like, that's that's how
I think some people are looking at the Astros right now,
even though I do think to some extent.

Speaker 6 (13:01):
Everything will be okay and work itself out.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
It's just going to take some time, and it might
be dicey with the fact that Seattle's now just two
and a half back of you.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
Well, there's three teams in Major League Baseball with twenty
three wins in the last forty days. The Astros played
one of them this past weekend, the Red Sox, and
now they will play one of the other ones starting tonight.
The Marlins Brewers are the other one, and they're twenty
three to eight in their last forty days. They're absolutely
insane and starting to put some distance between themselves and
the Chicago Cubs and arguably the rest of the National League. Luckily,

(13:32):
the Brewers are not on the Astros schedule here currently
with how the Astros are playing, but it doesn't even
matter to me, as I said this segment earlier in
the week, and two weeks ago and three weeks ago,
both good and bad. It's not the other teams. It's
not the good teams. It's not the bad teams, not
the good pitchers, it's not the bad pitchers. The Astros

(13:55):
are playing to how they are every game all year long,
fallen in games. You can't believe they're losing to this team.
You can't believe they're losing this series. And conversely, they've
crushed against the better teams. They went to LA beat
them eighteen to one in a game that Lance.

Speaker 6 (14:11):
Mcullors Junior started.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
They've done some incredible things this year on both sides
of that. It really just doesn't have much to do
with how the other teams are playing when they get there.
And obviously they've lost to four games or have gotten
swept in four games by the A's in Houston, and
yet in between their first home stand and now their
most recent home woes, they won seventy five percent of

(14:34):
their home games. Over a two month stretch. They played
forty times at Dykin Park, they won thirty times. It's
not the other teams, it's not what they're running into
It's not who they're up against. It's not catching a
team at the wrong or right time. The other teams
are catching the Astros currently at the right time. This
could be anybody, any city in Major League Baseball. They
could be going to this weekend and the vibes wouldn't

(14:56):
be particularly good. You probably have to throw Hunter Brown
on Wednesday, give him full rest, and he makes the
start because you just don't have anybody else. He could
give him an extra day and he could start the
first game in New York on Friday night, and that
would be great. Back to back Friday night starts go ahead,
that would be wonderful. Okay, So Aragetty and who are

(15:16):
starting Tuesday and Wednesday? If you give Hunter Brown an
extra day, which essentially gives him two days because of
the off day, that's probably a good way to think
about making sure he can get through the season and
pitch at a very high level. His last start was
a good one, not a win for the team, but
back to only allowing a little bit against him enough
for them to not win, but it wasn't really on him.

(15:38):
But if you do that, okay, well, then we can
give Spencer Araghetty until Wednesday to make his next start. Well,
it's great, okay, then who pitches tomorrow? Jason Alexander is
pitching today. And I know they have answers to these questions.
It's just not an answer you would like. It's somebody
that shouldn't be pitching for a team in first place.
It's somebody that you would like to not have in

(15:59):
your rotation. Maybe this is the last time they're faced
with that. Maybe the next time through the rotation both
Arraghetty and Christian Javier are in it. Maybe the time
after that, Araghetty, Javier and somebody else are capable of
being in it, whether that's France or Garcia or what
do you know. But they only have two starters right now.
They have two starters, and they're going into the home

(16:20):
stretch of the season trying to hold off to division
chasers and everybody else that could certainly put them outside
of the playoff picture completely. In the wildcard race, probably
Cleveland and Kansas City are still in it. Texas, Seattle, Boston,
and New York are in the top four spots in
reverse order, with Boston passing New York this weekend, and
the Astros are still a Division leader and still within

(16:41):
reach of the Tigers, who have not played good baseball
for roughly the same amount of time as the Astros.
They keep going on and on about how the Astros
have played, and they've played at a sixteen and seventeen
clip over their last thirty games. They've gained a game
on the Tigers during that stretch, who have gone only
fifteen and eighteen. We'll see the Yankees on Friday. The

(17:02):
Yankees have also gone only fifteen and eighteen over their
last thirty three games. Blue Jays have been great right now,
that's why they in the Red Sox. Blue Jays lead
the overall race in the American League and the Red
Sox now lead the wild card race. Those have been
the two best teams in the AL for the past
forty days.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, Red Sox have won five in a row after
the sweep of the Astros, and they're, if you want
to talk about, technically the hottest team in the American League.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
But they gave up on the season when they traded
their best hitter.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
How about did you see that graphic the other day
on dev since he got to San Francisco, And how
they've gone into the absolute toilet very.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
Much, not on him. But he's exists. That's pretty much it.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
It's not, well, he doesn't exist in Boston and they've
played their best baseball since he left. It wasn't just
about the Giants this graphic, Yeah, it's about what the
Red Sox had done since he.

Speaker 6 (17:52):
Was It's easy, but it's not not.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
Rafael Dever's not being there did not ignite their clubhouse
because he was bringing them down, And Rafael Devers being
in San Francisco did not light their clubhouse on fire
because he's there. But it's easy to say that that's
what happened because the records are right there for you
to use.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Now, I don't think that's all this is. I think
he absolutely was becoming a problem in Boston and that's
why he got shipped out. Now, if you want to
talk about the Giants record since he got there, and
that's easy or whatever, that's one thing. But I don't
think it's just as simple as the numbers are different
since he got traded in Boston, and that's all their
Still it's a hard.

Speaker 5 (18:28):
Argument for me to win. But you traded the only
guy who was healthy and productive, the only one William
or Brady was having a good season, Alex Bregman was
having an awesome season, and then he got hurt and
he just kept Devers. Remember when he started the season
and he had like twelve strikeouts in four games. Then
he was one of the best three hitters in the
American League the whole time. Grantedy doesn't help them at

(18:49):
all defensively. Technically, he did help them this year defensively
because he stopped playing third base, where he was awful,
and Alex Bregman started playing third base. So you made
a huge upgrade by takeing him off the field. But
whatever he did inside their clubhouse, I'm sorry if you're
such a mentally weak person that because Rafael Devers comes
into the work every day and goes and sits at

(19:11):
his locker, that you can't hit the baseball and you
can't pitch because he's there.

Speaker 6 (19:16):
That's ridiculous. Yeah, Now guys that.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
Are playing well now are playing well now. Roman Anthony
is now part of the team. He's got an eight
twenty five ops and he had a game winning hit.
He wasn't there before. They have better players that are
performing better, and has nothing to do with some malaise
that one guy in a twenty six person clubhouse was
presumably doing to them. I just don't buy that even
for a second.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
No, but it does weigh heavily on a clubhouse when
someone of his stature that's been there. I'd be like
if jose Al Tuve decided to start acting sour right
while he was delivering every day?

Speaker 6 (19:48):
That's true, but how many times does that happen? Now?

Speaker 4 (19:52):
Your argument, or to give your argument, that was Barry
Bonds every.

Speaker 6 (19:57):
Day of his career.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
He was a douche every clubhouse he was in, and
was obviously delivering at the highest level, sometimes with illicit
substances coursing through his veins. But enough of devs, because
I really don't care about that. Let's let's analyze, for example,
Carlos Korea's first weekend in an Astro's uniform since returning.

(20:21):
I do wonder, say you find a way to not
have Last Diaz take the game away from you on
Friday night, which is what happened, by the way, I mean,
a lot of factors came into play.

Speaker 6 (20:30):
Did they score more than one run?

Speaker 4 (20:32):
No, but it was all it was probably going to
take until he got involved, and he was awful and
actually the crew all weekend was awful, but that's not
why the Astros got swept. Saturday, Bass is loaded for
Carlos Korea and he stares at two strikes, say you
win Friday night, and he and I'm not saying if
he hits a grand slam there that they win that game.

Speaker 6 (20:52):
I think it would have been tied.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
I'm not even seventh three, yeah, okay, son, seventh three.

Speaker 6 (20:57):
Tie would have been the Astrov three four.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
I thought that would have been the score because I've
forgot it would have been tied had he at seven.

Speaker 7 (21:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
So this there's there's no guarantee the Astros win that game,
but geez man, if you squeak out Friday night with
everything that went against you and then you tie that
game up right there, a minium's great. It just shows
you what a game of benches a lot of sports are,
but baseball in particular. That sucks because at the exact
moment he had that at bat, I was having a

(21:25):
pseudo argument with somebody we both know and worked with
in the past who just likes to be a contrarian,
and uh, I was like, it's it's not Korea's fault
that they've left these men on base, blah blah blah,
and then he does that and I'm like, okay, you
win this one.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
Yeah, three hits for him, a couple of singles. On
his first day with hits. That was Saturday, he was
part of the singles parade where they couldn't score any
runs despite having a billion guys on base all afternoon long.
And then obviously at the four hundred and eleven foot
bomb in yesterday's game that got the storing started, but
it also got the scoring stopped. They scored on that play,
that one run four, and they didn't score after and

(22:02):
an immediate aftermath of that half inning, that's when things
unraveled for the Astros and that was it. It was
one inning for both teams and that was all.

Speaker 6 (22:10):
She wrote.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
Astros gave up fifteen, only scored five. They've lost four
games or he's personally lost four games in a row
to the Red Sox because the last game he played
in with the Twins was also against them.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
He's sick of them.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
Now he gets to play somebody else. He looks great,
looks great, which is what everyone was so happy about
on Thursday. He's going to look great in orange in
his number one jersey in gray in his number one jersey,
and he absolutely demolished a baseball. He looks great over
at third base and shortstop, where he had to play

(22:45):
both Friday and Saturday. But the performance is all that
really matters. At some point, at some point, the fun
of him being here should wear off. It certainly won't
wear off until after they return home, and that doesn't
come until this series concludes, and the next series can
clude odds, And even in that instance, he'll be wearing
a jersey's never worn before they come back a week

(23:06):
from today. Well, home games at dyk And Park on Monday,
he'll be in the City Connect uniforms for the first
time ever.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
He's already been in them in photoshop version. He certainly has.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
We had a lot of other things to get to
best of X what we hit you with halfway through
our number one, So that is.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (23:30):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 8 (23:31):
Putting out?

Speaker 9 (23:32):
Between five and fifteen posts to day, four hundred people
were arrested for things that they said on social media.
History repeats itself type bang, you'll succeed, never doubt that
you're the one two bustle, no one building. You're the
best of X. Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're

(23:53):
the best of the posting every single day. You know
you're the best of the breaking the entire engine.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
All right, the best of X for a Monday, at
least in my world, is something that just came down.
And far be it from me to rain on the
parade of someone who gets a brand new contract that.

Speaker 6 (24:24):
Is feeling good about themselves.

Speaker 7 (24:26):
But oh my.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
Gosh, do you agree with me that the Spurs maxing
d'aron Fox is hilarious?

Speaker 5 (24:34):
I mean, I think it's something I would not do,
But I don't really think they They knew what they
were doing when they traded for him. They knew this
was likely the only way to, I guess, keep him
or keep him happy. But it's not a good basketball move.

Speaker 6 (24:50):
It's very unspiritual. Well, you can also do it when
your best player doesn't.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
Make any money's and that, in your opinion, is probably
the only reason they did do this. I but going
back to what you said, you don't make that deal
if you don't think you're going to do this, because
what's the point in trade?

Speaker 6 (25:06):
I mean, they didn't trade anything of value to get
him really.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
Because they can. I mean some of it is because
you can. Can they afford to do this? Absolutely they can.
Castle's not going to make a bunch of money for
quite some time. Wemby's not going to make a bunch
of money for quite some time. And those are their
three players that they think they're building around to build
something of consequence. Not to mention any new players they
might have just added this past draft.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
Could still add, or could still add because Giannis is not.
I don't think Giannis is set in stone as a
buck for the foreseeable future, nor do I. But yeah,
this is more about they can do it.

Speaker 5 (25:40):
So they did do it, and he felt like at
this point in his career, you know, his age twenty
eight season, which is what he will be for a
little over half of this upcoming season, I've played to
a certain level. I've gotten paid the way I deserve
to be paid by Sacramento, and I want to go
that route again. He's not the caliber player and I
don't think think he will become that again that he

(26:03):
once was. He was the guy given the ball all
the time in Sacramento to make it all happen for them.
This is never gonna happen in San Antonio. So they're
paying a absolute premium for the next best player on
their team and maybe the next to the next best
player on their team. Early in this massive contract extension,

(26:25):
if you were unaware to Aaron Fox and the San
Antonio Spurs have agreed to a long term extension, four
year maximum extension worth as much as two hundred and
twenty nine million. Sixty million a year is two forty
so he's eleven million shy of that over four years
on the neighborhood of fifty seven ish fifty eight million

(26:45):
per season. Now that is for a likely never visit
the All NBA team again caliber player.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
Right and in a max deal is a max deal,
So there are a lot of other players that are
getting that much. It's not a matter of, oh my gosh,
fifty seven million, that's the going rate, but it's the
going rate for the elite of the elite. The guys
you just mentioned that are making All NBA teams, not
some French guy who has, you know, a game here
and there every season where he'll score like forty, but

(27:11):
he's not he's not a threat to do that every night.

Speaker 6 (27:14):
I mean, I would. I don't want to really talk
that badly about him.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
I means, if he's playing for Sacramento for another four years,
he's probably still scoring twenty five points a game and
probably dished out seven or eight assists, maybe the lower
end on that, and they're probably winning thirty nine games,
which is for the most part overall during his eight
years there. That's about what they did. They don't even
know what the fit's going to be like because he
barely played with Wemby last year, and they're very much

(27:38):
counting on it to be good. They're counting on Mitch
Johnson to be good, their new full time head coach,
who took over for Pop last year. There's talent there now,
but we talked about it time and time again, and
for different reasons. Now, Darren Fox is very possibly still
playing on a team that's on the outside looking in
to making any difference at all in the West. Are

(28:00):
you going to sit here and say that they just
signed this guy to a max extension and he plays
for a playoff team, and he plays for one of
the top eight in the West. The Spurs should not
finish in the top eight in the West. They should
not make the playoffs this year. I don't know what's
going to happen with injuries or any trades that might
get made in season.

Speaker 6 (28:16):
That's not so much about them as much as it
is about the rest of the West, by the way,
but it matters, well, you're putting a team together today,
are they the best team that'll finish outside of the postseason?

Speaker 5 (28:25):
In other words, I mean, yeah, if you're striving to
be the eleventh best team in a fifteen team conference,
more power to you.

Speaker 4 (28:32):
No, I'm just saying, like, the part of the reason
that a lot of people would say they're not going
to make the postseason is because more so that the
West is so stacked, because they think that highly of
what the Spurs have done or at least will do,
relative to these moves that were made and the time
that wasn't able to be spent playing together.

Speaker 6 (28:51):
I'm not one of them. I get it.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
You're right, that is part of it. But the goal
is to be better than them. It doesn't matter how
good they are. You're trying to be better better than them.
And once you fail, once it fell into your lap
from seven feet four inches in the air, you were
left with no choy. You couldn't just kind of wing
it for the next couple of years to see what happened.
Once you landed Wemby, it is time to compete. It's
time to make the playoffs. It's time to build a

(29:14):
team around him. I don't mean overnight, but yeah, they
need to get there. That's that's kind of the whole point.
You have one of the faces of the league. Guess
when he gets to be the face of the league.
Not during All Star weekend, how about in late April
or May. I think this will be year number three
with Wemby, and year number three the NBA's postseason is
held without him. Doesn't mean they've failed, but you still

(29:37):
you're counting on players to get better. Darren Fox is
not in that group. Harper is a rookie. He needs
to obviously be good and get better. Castle goes into
year two, he's got to get better. And Wenby goes
into year three, he has to get better. Now they're
starting to look like the Rockets. What did I say
about Jalen and all the other young core the seven
player corps When they signed Fred and they signed Dylan

(30:00):
and they added veterans. The veterans were not what made
this team, They helped shape the culture. The only reason
the Rockets would ever win big is if those players
carried them to it, got better and made it happen.
And they weren't able to do that in their first
playoff season. But they clearly carried the team to fifty
two wins. They carried the team out of the doldrums

(30:21):
to forty one wins and then to fifty two wins.
And I think that's still the same thing that's gonna happen.
If I told you the biggest reason the Rockets won
fifty four games this year in advance to the Western
Conference Finals, you.

Speaker 6 (30:32):
Can at least give two, maybe three answers.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
Aman Thompson's the biggest reason, Albrin Shingoon's the biggest reason,
or obviously Kevin Durant's the biggest reason. I don't think
there's much of a choice yet in year three with Webby,
if Spurs do anything, it's He's the answer every single time.

Speaker 6 (30:49):
Again, I don't really like the move.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
I don't really not really surprised by it, but the
Spurs are putting a lot of monetary eggs in the
de Aaron Fox basket as he heads into his tenth
Envy a season this year.

Speaker 6 (31:01):
Cham's tweeting that just before our showman.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yes, so again I thought, I thought back when the
Spurs made the trade for him that, and I think
that was just before the trade deadline this last NBA season.

Speaker 6 (31:17):
The longer time went.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
On, the more I was glad the Rockets didn't do
that because they were tied to him, at least according
to some rumors.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yeah, different level of stars give you different thoughts about players.
He is a good, but not great offensive talent. He's
really good going to the basket, really good finisher, really
good medium ranging on in. Not a good three point shooter,
not nearly the playmaker that I think people believe he is.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
And part of that might have been who he was with.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
Maybe he's more capable of finding guys in their spots
with a big man like Wemby versus the big man
like Sabonis who was also a creator. So maybe that
took a little bit away from him and his numbers
in San Antonio. As brief as his time was there,
they shut him down a little early. He's only got
seventeen games of Spurs experiences, but I'm sure they prefer
he didn't shoot under forty five percent from the floor

(32:04):
and under twenty eight percent from behind the three point
line on six attempts per game.

Speaker 6 (32:08):
But it earned him two hundred and twenty nine million.
Didn't he just get the same deal as Luca Isn't
Lucas signed a three year extension, but he'll be and
that makes him eligible to get something that has a
fore in front of it afterwards. Yeah hundred.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
You know he got the max when he shows fewer
seasons for it, gotcha? So he can go to the
bigger extension sooner.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Okay, all right, we will wind down the two o'clock
hour coming up next as we continue here on a
Monday edition of the A Team, Our Our Texas Longhorns.

Speaker 6 (32:38):
Where they're ranked going into the season? Coming up next.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety fired all.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
How's it feel to be the number one ranked team
and country in the preseason.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
One versus two? Yeah, very unsurprising.

Speaker 5 (33:07):
The College Football Coaches Poll revealed and it features the
two teams that are playing one another the opening weekend
of the college football season. Now, granted, there are games
a week before the opening weekend in college football, we
have a slate of five games coming up on August
twenty third, actually not a whole horrible evening's worth and

(33:29):
day's worth of games, but the following weekend, the thirtieth,
the final weekend of this month. There are three absolute
monster games being played that day, the first of which
kicks off at eleven am, and it does feature the
Texas Longhorns traveling two face the Ohio State Buckeyes. And
the Coaches Poll released today five different teams to at

(33:51):
least one first place vote, but forty eight of those
votes were split between Texas and Ohio State, twenty eight
for Texas, twenty for Ohio State, nineteen went to Penn State, Georgia,
and Clemson. But the number one ranked Texas Longhorns and
the College Football Coaches Preseason Poll. First time in program
history in the Coaches Poll they've been preseason number one.

(34:13):
Ohio State won the national championship last season and beat
Texas in the postseason to get there. They beat Notre
Dame in the championship game. Notre Dame is a top
five preseason team, and all three of those teams sending
out a new starting quarterback this year, Riley Leonard moving
on from Notre Dame obviously Ohio State's Will Howard is

(34:35):
chummy with Aaron Rodgers now and Texas has Cooper Manning's
son as their signal caller to start the season, Arch Manning,
so by a decent margin they're number one versus number two.
I know it's preseason poll, so far be it from
me to think a little conspiracy theorist on this and

(34:56):
think about would it benefit college football in any way
if the voters and the coaches involved just said, what
the heck.

Speaker 6 (35:05):
You can have it.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
I don't really think there's any difference between Ohio State, Georgia,
or Clemson and Texas. But if I go ahead and
vote to Texas or Ohio State number one, the odds
are pretty good we're gonna feature number one versus number
two when the season begins. My personal opinion is they
actually are the best two teams in the country, and
at the end of the season, this is the matchup

(35:26):
we're going to see again, Texas and Ohio State for
the College Football National Championship after each of them win
their way there in the postseason, which can't beat this,
And for Texas this just adds more hype and I
expected it. I thought they would be preseason number one.

Speaker 6 (35:44):
Arch has hype. Now the team does too. Well. We
knew that there would be.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
I'm with you and Ross and some other people though
that I'm just like, why I get the hype about Arch,
But until we see him be the starter and I
realized he started some games last year, it's not the
same until we see him go through actually being the

(36:10):
guy and going up against competition that's not also rans.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
Following the Ohio State game, I'm not I'm.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
Not ready to just say oh yeah, like he's just
he's got his legs impressed me more than his arm.

Speaker 6 (36:24):
Is that s to say?

Speaker 7 (36:25):
Well.

Speaker 6 (36:25):
Top five teams in the country.

Speaker 5 (36:27):
New quarterback for Texas, new quarterback for Ohio State, very
highly thought of quarterback who returns as starter for Penn State.
New quarterback for Georgia although he obviously played at the
very very end of last year. And new quarterback for
Notre Dame. I mean, Clemson is returning k Klubnick and
two people voted them preseason number one, and they have
a huge game to open the season. Obviously they're number six.

(36:47):
Oregon starts a new quarterback this year. They're seven. Alabama
starts a new quarterback this year, they're eight. Who was
going to be number one if it wasn't Archis team,
They're all look at how similarly I just painted a
picture of them is a loser of this game fall
after that Week one A. It definitely doesn't matter, I know,
and it's just curious. It's probably more about how did

(37:07):
some of these other teams look. I mean, Clemson can
look really really good or not, and they Clemson could
be the number one team in the country after this
opening weekend if they went out there and crushed and
nobody was really excited about how Ohio State's quarterback played
or how Texas quarterback played. So maybe less about the
result of the game and more about, well, this is
what they're working with this year.

Speaker 6 (37:26):
Maybe we don't know.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
That's the part of the preseason poll. That's the good
thing about having a playoff. It renders what you thought
about these teams before the season started that much more
meaningless because some people hang onto these votes all year
trying to make themselves feel not so dumb. Well, I
thought this team was the third best team in the
country before I ever saw him play. I don't care

(37:49):
that I get to watch them now play like the
twentieth best team. I want to stick to what I thought.
I'm going to tell you how good they are all year.
Why we get to watch them every week? We're not
guessing anymore.

Speaker 6 (37:58):
Why do you hang on to? And that's what you know.

Speaker 5 (38:01):
Sometimes preseason polls allow teams to linger near the top
when they've played in a way that doesn't deserve them
to be are they don't deserve to be So the
games will, the wins and losses, will help determine who
the best team in the country is. That's the That's
the good thing about the playoff. The bad thing is
all the things that takes away from college football and
the fun of the rivalries and the fun of the

(38:21):
meaning behind all these games. I think some of it
will still always be there because of the student aspect,
but clearly some of it's not like it once was.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
It's gonna be a very interesting start to the college
football season. Although it feels like that's the case every year,
especially when you have like in this case, you have
number one and number two matched up.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
I don't think every year like Florida State Alabama is
the other game, LSU Clemson, all three of those games
are being playing the same week one or first week
with a full slate of games, that is pretty hard
to beat, even though Florida State's not clearly where they
once were. I think the magnitude of those three games,
it doesn't have any impact on the postseason because of

(39:02):
the playoffs and because of how these teams can still
get there, but it's gonna give you some very early
season information about what these teams could be. And conversely,
they're all playing kid quarterbacks. You think arch is gonna
have his best game of the season on August thirtieth,
or maybe a game in October or November when it's
his eighth start, his twelfth start, his fourteenth start.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
I think that's the most interesting slash appealing thing about
college football is in that they can do this, this
being put a bunch of these ranked games, juicy matchups
in the first week, and then they'll sprinkle some in
this as the calendar goes. But it's not gonna be

(39:46):
that way over the next course of I don't know,
four weeks or so, and then you get into some
juicier matchups again consistently throughout most big program schedules, and
yet there's no drop off. It's not like you have
any sort of lack of eNTRI Now, I realized football
in general is like this, but I think specifically when
it comes.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
To college football that's the case and this season is
no different.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
All Right, we will reset, we will get back into
some Astros conversation. We'll give you a little update about
where some of these injured list participants stand when we
come back here on the eighteen, the eighteen on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
See lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
Hour, number two of a Monday edition of the A
Team Sports Talks seven to ninety and catch us while
you can on Space City Home Network, televised this hour.
Before we move into Astro's Marlins preview Astros on Deck
show right around the corner. I hope we are previewing
a win, because it's been a minute since the Astros

(41:05):
have done that. Carlos Korea is nothing but defeated since
being traded to the Astros after the sweep at the
hands of the Red Sox over the weekend. Mentioned during
the first hour. The Red Sox are one of the
hottest teams in baseball. And the Astros are about to
play the other hottest team in baseball not named the
Brewers when they take on the Marlins in the start
of a three game set tonight. That's just the way

(41:27):
it's going lately for the Astros, who just need to
get healthy more than anything, especially from a pitching standpoint.
But again, like we talked about in the first hour,
wex to your two best pitchers. They pitched this weekend,
it didn't matter.

Speaker 6 (41:40):
Same as the last time they pitched.

Speaker 5 (41:42):
That's four consecutive starts from Fromber and Hunter that have
not resulted in an Astros victory, and most of the
season it's been very, very good. They have the vast
majority of the quality starts for this team. I believe
it's thirty of their forty four starts have been quality starts.
I only have twenty one and the rest of their
team's game games this year, and that shows you how
many other starts have been made one hundred and twelve games.

Speaker 6 (42:04):
That means sixty eight of them have been.

Speaker 5 (42:07):
Started by the quote unquote others, and only twenty one
of them have been quality start quote unquote others. Will
they pitch all three games of this series if you
ask me, it's not set in stone yet. Jason Alexander
gets the ball tonight. Aj Bluebaugh is on their taxi
squad and with the team in Miami, so he is
starting one of these two games. And over the weekend,

(42:28):
Joe Spot acknowledge that Spencer Araghetty will start. I think
what it means is they're going to give Spencer Araghetty
full five days off in between starts. He pitched on
Thursday to close out July in with the Space Cowboys,
so give him five days of rest instead of pitching
on that fifth day.

Speaker 6 (42:44):
He would start Wednesday.

Speaker 5 (42:45):
Blue Boss starts Tuesday, and as I suggested last hour,
it would give Hunter Brown an additional technically two days
of rest because of the off day, as they're trying
to get him to the finish line and into a
potential Game one or Game two start in the postseason.
He would then pitch Friday night last week against Boston
to open the series, and then Friday night this week

(43:07):
in the series to open up against the New York Yankees.
The Astros did, as they do now on a weekly basis,
offer up the updates from an injury perspective on a
host of players, because there are so many of them.
Start with Araghetty, He's on track to start this week
at Miami. You guys all knew that JP Frantz had
two innings worth of a rehab assignment with the Space Cowboys.

(43:29):
Did that on Saturday, no reports of anything health wise
being negative, and is expected to continue rehab work there.
Same for Luis Garcia two and two thirds innings worth
of work over the weekend on Friday, he's expected for
one more start, and it was on Wednesday of last
week that Javier got his three and a third's worth

(43:49):
of work. He's expected again a Sugarland Space Cowboys start
pitching on Wednesday of last week. It's very possible he
gets the first game of their next series beginning tomorrow
start and then maybe he is ready to rejoin the
Astros simulated game for Lance mccullors Junior for innings worth

(44:11):
of a simulated game, which means if everything came out
of that fine, and that was back on Wednesday of
last week, then he should be on schedule to probably
make a rehab start. I would guess the next time
he throws full go and if that's the case, I
would expect that also to be with them and then
maybe he could be making a return. A throwing program

(44:31):
has begun for Brandon Walter up to ninety feet. He'll
be headed to Florida continue his rehab. He's obviously not
close to a return. That's your pitching update. Still another
five guys to go from a hitting standpoint. I'll start
at the end of the list because I spoke to
him this weekend. Brendan Rodgers. He is currently still in

(44:52):
concussion protocol rehabbing in Houston. He's begun light jogging and
throwing and walking share.

Speaker 6 (44:57):
Get to the good stuff. Did he have to set
that jersey number?

Speaker 5 (45:02):
I don't know the answer to that, although I did
bring it up with somebody's inside the organization, and I
did not have a conversation with Brendan. When I spoke
with him, I said, Hey, Brennan, that was it. He
and I and you, at different times, were over the
All Stars Car Show events over at Dykin Park. We
talked about it with the A Levitt's on Friday. It

(45:22):
was phenomenal. If you did not already hear or see
some of our posts on social media, it was as
cool as I think it sounded to you. Guys, out there,
and when I was out there, here's how it kind
of went for me. I was walking around the dirt
area on the field. That's where they had some of
the hyper cars, the more exotic cars, the one of
one vehicles out there. My daughter, who was actually working

(45:45):
the event, was walking around with me, and she was,
you know, she was giddy about being on the field.

Speaker 6 (45:50):
I was less giddy. I've been there before. But she
was saying that.

Speaker 5 (45:55):
She was giving me this look like she just saw somebody, like,
isn't that so? And so I'm like, looking the other way,
I'm like, I do know who are you talking about?
She goes that guy pitches for the Astros, doesn't he?
And I look up over the top of everybody else's
head's there, and there's Renel Blanco's blonde hair, and I'm like, yeah,
that's Renel Blanco. He was about ten feet from us,
and not long after, we saw Brendan Rodgers his family.

Speaker 6 (46:18):
They were walking through.

Speaker 5 (46:19):
They're obviously doing some work here in Houston and in Sugarland,
trying to get back on the field. Blanco's far off
and Rogers unfortunately had to go back away from rehab
work because of the concussion.

Speaker 6 (46:30):
Then I ran into a fan.

Speaker 5 (46:32):
We were looking at a car and he said you
Adam like yeah, he goes man, I thought, so, I
don't know if I should say something. Watch you on
every day, long time listener, love you and clan. You
guys are hilarious. Get me through my days. Been listening
to you guys forever. And he keeps talking to us.
He says, man, you're like the most famous guy I've met.
I mean, I heard Josh Reddick's gonna be here, but
you're at the top. I go, you sure about that?

(46:53):
And I point right behind him. There's Josh literally right
there as he was being talked about.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
Once again, we message each other and still didn't interact
in person.

Speaker 6 (47:01):
You again get to interact with him in person.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
It shook hands with Josh, talked to him for a minute.
He and his wife and his boys were there. They
loved it. If you didn't know, that's right up Reddick's alley.
Considering his car was on the concourse, his person took
a picture with his car, just not him. Yep, his
Redick Spider Man car. There was so yeah, I saw
these guys. So Brendon Rodgers concussion protocol working his way back.

(47:24):
Jake Myers has progressed. He's running on flat ground and
he's in the h progressing through his rehab work. Pedro Leone,
I doubt is playing for the Astros this year, also
going through a hitting and running progression. Zach Descenzo also
hitting throwing progression, ad fielding to it. He's been out
for months with that left hand injury. And the last

(47:46):
one you obviously are waiting for much more is the
return of yord On Alvarez. He's in Florida as of
yesterday and he will continue his hitting progression. Joe a
Spot is having what seemed like, you know, pleasantly, but
difficulty explaining exactly what kind of progress is meant by
the terms they use in saying, you know, he's swinging more,

(48:06):
he's swinging more impact, with more impact, and he's seen
coaches BP is what Jospota explained over the weekend. So
he's not seeing live pitching. He obviously hasn't been in
a simulated game in that format, and clearly there's been
no gameplay rehab work. But they're also according to what
Joe has said, and according to what Dana said, and
according to what they've now delivered in this report. There

(48:29):
have not been any additional setbacks since probably almost a
month ago when they went through. Here's what we couldn't
find here, why we feel like there's more pain there.
Here's why he got more shots to alleviate the pain.
But we've worked through probably three to four weeks now
with no apparent.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
Backslides LinkedIn this lineup as soon as possible, and he'll
do that and others will do that.

Speaker 6 (48:52):
How about you.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
By the way, we got a whole hour and having
talked about the fact that Jeremy Pania was back for
a game.

Speaker 6 (48:59):
Yeah, I want to.

Speaker 5 (49:00):
It came up obviously during the first hour I was
with h Ross. People were freaking out when he's batting
in the ninth inning and not feeling his position in
the tenth inning. And I think the way they explained it,
especially since he played on Sunday, the timeline to get
from Fridays, he's out of the game already one game
back to playing without issue on Sunday, it was tough

(49:23):
for people described as a hamstring cramp. So his hamstring
is fine. That just happened to be where the cramp
was and two days later he's fine.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
I'm just happy they didn't say hamstring discomfort. Yes, he
had been on the shelf for a lot longer.

Speaker 6 (49:36):
And they don't.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
I don't want to give them credit for it, but
they've gotten so much negativity about it. They knew it
was a cramp, presumably, so they told us it was
a cramp, which is more directly detailed about what it is.
If they said he has hamstring discomfort, that is alarm bells.
If you say as a cramp in his hamstring and
we're gonna give him Saturday off, which is what Joe

(50:00):
then said the next day when he was out taking
grounders or doing some fielding work, then it should make
people realize it is very minor in the fact that
he obviously played on Sunday. It was now Carlos Correa
gets traded to Houston right as Jeremy Paynia returns, and
they start in the infield together. In the very first
game together as on field teammates. Correa does play shortstop

(50:22):
because Payne didn't finish the game. The next day, he
plays the whole game at shortstop because Payne is not
even in the game. It is kind of remarkable what
they've done, and I didn't mention Sean Duban. I'm sorry
during the update portion. He's made a couple of rehab
appearances and he'll continue that with sugar Land. But talked
about Hector Nis little over an hour ago with Ross.

(50:42):
That's just another name of a player who's going to
replace Hector Narris sometime soon on the Astros roster.

Speaker 6 (50:51):
Hector Naris had another interesting weekend. Yeah, he had trouble
getting guys out. Well, that wasn't the only thing that happened.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
Oh, he was yelling at somebody on the diamond after
a strikeout. He's done that before, hasn't he. This time
it was a third base coach. Last time it was
a player.

Speaker 6 (51:06):
For CEA. We thought it was a player initially and
then we had to clear things up.

Speaker 5 (51:10):
Yeah, there were some sign collecting going on by the
Boston Red Sox. I feel like if I say stealing,
that gives the impression that people think you're not supposed
to or allowed to do it, but you are.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
Major League Baseball is all about it.

Speaker 5 (51:22):
You can do it anyway you want, as long as
we haven't told you you can't do it this way
kind of quietly and until everybody starts doing it that way,
We're not going to do anything about it. You can
this is a normal way that you can go ahead
and do it this way, and if the teams catch you, well,
then they can react accordingly.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
You can also boo players on other teams that did
do it back in the day, even though that player
didn't do it, while you have a manager and a
player for your team that was the ringleader of said
structural you know, the whole the whole thing just amazing.

Speaker 6 (51:51):
Yeah, there's there's just amazing a lot of.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
People associated with sign stealing and teams and whatever. I mean,
there may be is somebody besides Cora that's attached to
more than one scandal, But he's the first name that
comes to mind. Punished in Houston and punished in Boston
for two totally different sign stealing illegal to baseball incidents.
But hey, he's our guy.

Speaker 6 (52:11):
Who he love him?

Speaker 2 (52:14):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
Eight team Rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Monday edition of the program, fresh off that sweep at
the hands of the Boston Red Sox Astros on deck
getting underway a little over an hour from now, is
we'll get you ready for game one of that three
game set in Miami. They're just now back to five hundred,
are the Marlins. And this is one of those quirks

(52:50):
of the schedule when you run into a team like
this that happens to just be playing their best baseball
of the season. I just hope regardless of what happens
over the next three games, I just hope it continues
with the next team they're playing, because the last thing
I want is for the Astros to go into New
York and help the Yankees get better somehow.

Speaker 6 (53:06):
But I don't think that's gonna happen because the Yankees
aren't very good.

Speaker 7 (53:09):
Well.

Speaker 5 (53:09):
The Yankees were one of the reasons why the Marlins
are playing so well. They dispatched them rather handily over
the weekend, and I guess dramatically considering how one of
those games went. When each it was the arrival of
all of the Yankee newcomers and the three bullpen arms
that they added in succession all blew up Bird Bednar

(53:30):
and then Deval to end the game, and Jose Cabalira,
another addition, also played a huge role when he missed
a ground ball in the outfield and let it go
get past him. A couple of runs scored all part
of that final inning, so an enormous meltdown and a
thirteen to twelve loss. But they lost all of the
games during that series. And one of the teams that's

(53:50):
played less successfully than Houston over the last forty days
is the Yankees. The Yankees are no longer first in
their division. That's been for about a month now. They're
no longer or second in their division, so they do
not lead the wildcard race.

Speaker 6 (54:03):
The Red Sox have moved ahead of them.

Speaker 5 (54:05):
The Mariners are right on the yankees heels for the
two spot there, and the Rangers, despite losing their series
over the weekend, the Mariners.

Speaker 6 (54:14):
Are also right there.

Speaker 5 (54:16):
That's what had me laughing on the show last week
with all of the articles written about the Yankees' deadline moves. Granted,
you always want to make your team better, but they're
writing these stories like this team, this twenty twenty five
Yankees team.

Speaker 6 (54:32):
They're the team de beat. They have no.

Speaker 5 (54:34):
Excuse not to win at all. Are your eyes closed?
Is this your first day on the job. They're not
even guaranteed by any means to reach the postseason, let
alone win a wildcard series or a division series, or
a league championship series or a World Series. How about

(54:54):
win enough games to qualify for the postseason and the
return of Aaron Judge stillknown, although he may be able
to come back and hit even if he can't field
his position. But they're not playing good baseball and it's
gone an extended I mean good winning baseball. The Yankees
never actually play good baseball. If you think the Astros
had a weekend of non fundamentally sound to baseball, the

(55:17):
last all of Aaron Boone's seasons have been unfundamentally sound baseball.
And this is one of the many reasons he can't
do everything. And it's not all on him, but man,
when it's been there the whole time, you've been there,
and no matter who the players are, because jass Chishom's
only been there a short time and he's just one player.
I could mention Anthony Volpi. I will definitely mention what

(55:37):
a brutal baseball player is. A really nice hitter, awful
at playing baseball, doesn't matter. That's just what the Yankees do.
They are a mistake making baseball machine. And I don't
think there's many baseball teams that are like that. I
say that about NFL teams, Teams that like to go
up and down the field and then turn the ball over.
Quarterbacks that like to churn up big yardage numbers, great

(56:00):
totals in certain areas, but not like to hang on
to the football. That's what the Yankees do on the
ball field on a daily basis. Take care of yourselves first.
Take two out of three from the Marlins. Take two
out of three from whoever's on the schedule right let alone.
I don't really care who the Marlins are. Kyle Stowers
is having an unbelievable All Star caliber season and that's
why he was there, and the rest of their team

(56:23):
seems okay. You are probably even with how you currently
are playing a better team, but that in baseball doesn't
really matter. Get to the Yankees when Friday. I I
don't have much more to say about the Yankees until
we get there.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
By the way, did Heyzus Sanchez graduate from the Jose
al Twova School of base Running over the weekend?

Speaker 5 (56:42):
I don't know if you ever picked up Tony Paris, Chica,
but I brought it up earlier. The situation of it
just made no sense. You're on first base there's one
out in the first inning and they throw the pickoff
throw away. Take your extra base and stay there. Hey,
every once in a while you might be able to
make it to third. Well, if you think you can
make it to third, don't stop at second and then
start again and get thrown out by a mile. You're

(57:04):
already in scoring position with only one out.

Speaker 6 (57:06):
That's fine. Just hang out. There's no big deal. You'll
get it's.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
The first inning, it's your first game there. Just hang
out there. He's batting second again. Tonight had not given
you the lineup. Payin Ya, Sanchez, Altuve, Correa. Three of
those four are in the infield, so all two Bay's
playing second. Sanchez is back in left field. Correa is
the cleanup hitter in front of Christian Walker over at
first another day, with both Kartini and Diaz in the lineup,

(57:30):
miracles can still exist if without a third catcher on
the roster.

Speaker 6 (57:34):
Kartini is the designated hitter.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
Janer Diez is the catcher for Jason Alexander Taylor Tremmell
your center fielder, and Cam Smith. Well, he can't get
out of his slump unless you play him, and they
will again. Hope he gets out of his slump.

Speaker 6 (57:49):
By playing him. He's the right fielder. He bats ninth.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
He had a lot to do with the Astros getting
a ton of base runners and having none of them score.
On Saturday, he came up in three consecutive at bats
to open the game with two runners on and two out.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
He did not succeed in any of those three instance.
That's the part why you should feel better about the situation.
But I'm not saying you should feel good about what
happened this weekend or that you know. I'm trying to
be glass half full, silverized other guy. But I mean,
if you're getting guys on base, that's better than the alternative.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
It is, but it's just a mark of their entire season.
They have not had an issue getting runners on base.
I put the numbers out via social media earlier, and
it's a very easy depiction of why they don't score
the last forty days.

Speaker 6 (58:36):
We know their record.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
They're twelve and sixteen batting average, their fifth fifth best
batting average, but they've scored the fifteenth most runs and
they're sixteenth in slugging. They are like a person looking
for their mate. They love singles, absolutely have passionate about

(58:59):
singing and how many singles they can acquire in one night.
It's like speed dating with the Astros, only at first base.
They only get to first base because they love singles
and they can't wait to get to the next single.
They're not hitting doubles, they're not hitting triples, which is fine,
nobody hits triples, but they certainly don't hit enough home runs.
They'd hit three of them this weekend. Christian Walker hit

(59:21):
a solo shot, Carlos Correa hit a solo shot, and
Christian Walker hit a two run shot, and they scored
one other run the whole weekend, not driven in by
a homer.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
It's I don't even know what to say at this point,
because again, if they weren't getting on base in a
weird way, I would feel not better, but it would
just it would make more sense to me. I mean,
fifth highest batting average in that spate of numbers. And
I saw you put it out there earlier today. I responded,
there was a pandit that was angry in an office

(59:53):
about it. But I just that is almost like the
biggest tease of all time. We're gonna get you runner.
They're just never coming home.

Speaker 5 (01:00:01):
Well, it's in Yesterday they had fewer runners and similarly
limited slug with a few hits that they don't They
don't hit the ball hard enough.

Speaker 6 (01:00:08):
They don't hit the ball over the fence enough. They
don't hit the ball to the fence enough.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Even if Korea hits a single in that situation though,
two runners come home right instead of just staring at
two of them right.

Speaker 6 (01:00:21):
They had a lot of singles. He just didn't get
one there.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
By the way, thanks to the crew this weekend for
making me completely solidify my stance on automated ball strikes.
It's just some of those were awful. And I'm not
just talking about last Diez is his own category. We
talked about him, but like, who is the guy on Saturday?
The pitches were just like a foot under the zone.

Speaker 5 (01:00:44):
They're not a good union of umpires behind home plate. Yeah,
a few guys that we don't talk about much because
they do a pretty good job. You have far too
many guys we talk about far too often because they
just keep working a rotation.

Speaker 6 (01:00:56):
They have grades. We have grades.

Speaker 5 (01:00:59):
You got guys who are very very bad at it.
You don't have to fire them, just quit putting them
behind home plate. That is to me, that's the beginning
of punishment. Enough you stink at this, you're not gonna
miscalls it first. You're gonna get fair, foul, correct, calls correct.
When you're down at third, you're gonna know that Jander
Diaz threw that grunner out at second when you get
to manned second base. But man, when we give you

(01:01:19):
that chess protector and that throat protector and the shin
protectors and make you squad all day and you stink
you're terrible at this, no more, you're out. You can coach,
you can, you can run your your business out of first, second,
and third, but you no longer get to work behind
the plate. Next year or maybe the off season or
in winter league, you can continue getting better behind the plate,

(01:01:40):
and we'll consider putting you back there again. Well, we
got ten guys. It's not relegation, but it can be
a form of relegation. We got ninety yumps. You ten
are the worst. Forget about going behind home plate. Oh wait,
your union's too strong. And eight of the ten we
just tried to punish our crew chiefs. I guess we're hosed.
And that's exactly what would happen. Have you noticed how

(01:02:01):
many of these lead umpires, these crew chiefs absolutely awful
at calling balls and strikes.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
And you're assuming that they would be all abs, which
it's not. It's gonna be the challenge system. We all
know that they're not going to do it the right
way because they're Major League Baseball. They never do anything
like this the right way. They never go they never
lean into anything one hundred percent unless it's a gift
runner on second base, which we all know that's more
often than not these days. That's hurting the Astros versus

(01:02:28):
helping them. But then it's gonna be then I feel
like it's gonna be another ego trip for these guys.
You're talking about, Oh, you challenged me too many times? Yeah,
because you kept getting calls wrong. That's why we're challenging you.

Speaker 5 (01:02:41):
Well, if you keep getting them wrong because you're feeling
this is you're being mean to me, Well you're gonna
keep getting challenged if they allow it, and it's unlimited,
and you're gonna keep being proven wrong. The Astros made
a lot of things happen at the trade dine deadline.
Did they improve Steve Sparks joins us here next to
answer that very question.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
Halfway through this first day of the second hour of
the program. Here on the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety
Wexac and Cole here with you Mondays bring Steve Sparks
to the station each and every Monday morning with the
Sean Salisbury Show. Steve Sparks usually at eight a m.
Makes a weekly visit with them. Always great stuff there.

(01:03:31):
I want to share some of that with you here.
If you miss that interview, you can catch it in
its entirety right there at Sports Talk seven ninety dot
com or via the iHeartRadio app. You should be subscribing
to our products there, the Sean Salisbury Show podcast, They
Met Thomas Show with Ross's podcast, and of course the
eighteen podcast. Anything you might miss on any given day, interviews,
special segments, meltdowns, what have you can all be found there,

(01:03:55):
so subscribe. We'll begin the portion of the conversation with
Sparks thoughts. Despite the fact they went down Friday, Saturday
and Sunday to the Boston Red Sox following their acquisitions
at the trade deadline, did the Astros improve at the deadline?

Speaker 7 (01:04:10):
STEVEO they did, they got better, and then that's all
you're hoping for.

Speaker 8 (01:04:13):
And it sounded like that the price on starting pitching
and even relievers.

Speaker 7 (01:04:18):
Just didn't make sense. You know, you are gonna, you know, mortgage.

Speaker 8 (01:04:22):
Your future just to just to get a guy for
a couple of months, and it just didn't make sense.
And the Astros are gonna almost.

Speaker 7 (01:04:28):
Have Christmas every four or five days in August, it.

Speaker 8 (01:04:30):
Seems like, with so many guys coming back, and so
why would you mortgage the future? With Arraghetti and Javier
and Garcia and JP France and Jordan. There's probably another
one or two in there too. They're gonna get Jake Myers.
You know, they're gonna get.

Speaker 7 (01:04:44):
Guys coming back, and that's the good news, you know.
And they're gonna be able to plug and play and
match up.

Speaker 8 (01:04:50):
And I think when you go into the postseason, you
know you're looking at all, right, what does our bullpen
look like?

Speaker 7 (01:04:56):
And what does our bench look like? And I think
the Astros are going to to.

Speaker 8 (01:05:00):
Be looking really good in both of those areas going
into the postseason.

Speaker 7 (01:05:03):
I think that's what Joe Spotted wants more than anything.

Speaker 10 (01:05:06):
You talked about both of those Steve, don't they both
of those with now post deadline and going into it
sans the Red Sox series, but both of those are
world series tied.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
They've got a world series bullpen here, do they not?

Speaker 7 (01:05:18):
They do? They do? They've got versatility and you go
in right deathly too. They got a lefty at all, ye.

Speaker 8 (01:05:26):
But yeah, they've got four or five lefties in their
bullpen now, and you got guys who can get righty's
and lefties out and feel pretty good about your matchups.
So I think that's the That's the biggest thing about
the Astros is I think as a unit right now,
they feel pretty well balanced and ready to go.

Speaker 7 (01:05:43):
And I thought that series against Boston Saturday night was
a good example.

Speaker 8 (01:05:47):
They left fourteen men on base and you're scratching your
head and you're shaking your head and feel disappointed.

Speaker 7 (01:05:53):
They at fourteen opportunities driving in some.

Speaker 8 (01:05:55):
More runs, and I think it's only a matter of
time before this Astros offense really to click.

Speaker 7 (01:06:01):
Seeing the guys hit the ball really hard.

Speaker 8 (01:06:02):
I bet if you looked at it, I bet the
Astros average exit velocity And I know a lot of
people that turns people off, but that's that's the objective.

Speaker 7 (01:06:09):
Hit the ball hard, and I think the Astros did
a good job of that. Sometimes you get a little
unlucky in the series.

Speaker 10 (01:06:14):
Hey, Steve, aside from the the guys left on base
and having an opportunity, and they did hit it and
we and I think Karre hit the ball. I thought
there was a great energy about him this weekend. Aside
from the good and the bad of those What was
your biggest disappointment, not SAMs, the runners in, you know,
on baser and scoring position. Coming out of that, what's

(01:06:35):
the one thing you said, Man, that's.

Speaker 8 (01:06:36):
Got to get better to the fundamentals, you know, protecting
the baseball. They didn't play good defense in that series,
which is uncharacteristic. They've been very good at.

Speaker 7 (01:06:44):
That all year long start. I said this on the
broadcast yesterday.

Speaker 8 (01:06:48):
The Astros are tied for first in giving up unearned
runs this season, which is a great indicator of how
good you played defense.

Speaker 7 (01:06:55):
Boston second to last.

Speaker 8 (01:06:57):
The Astros that only giving up twenty seven hundred runs
during the course of the entire season, which means that
the pitchers can rely on their defenders to make plays,
and they didn't do that in Boston.

Speaker 7 (01:07:10):
And I'm sure they'll probably address that. They work very hard. Shown.

Speaker 8 (01:07:14):
Man, if you get there an hour before batting practice,
which is pretty early, why would you. But they're working
on defense every day. Man, They're getting after it, and
it's probably very concentrated. They're not spending a ton of
time on it, but they do it right for a
short amount of time.

Speaker 7 (01:07:30):
You probably saw that a lot in football practices all
the time, esecially as the season got a little deeper.

Speaker 8 (01:07:34):
But you work on fundamentals every single day and do
it right every day.

Speaker 7 (01:07:38):
It shows up in the games.

Speaker 10 (01:07:40):
Steve Callers and you you you hear it just like
we do.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
And I don't know what the slope is.

Speaker 10 (01:07:44):
I know coming from football, it's different and people, you know,
whether it's a player and constructive criticism as opposed to,
you know, hurting the guy's feelings, all those things that
go with the emotional side of pro sport. But you
know that the talk And I think Joe A. Spot
has done a phenomenal job. He's so calm and even keeled.
Is there a time when things aren't going well that
you need to out loud let him know that hey

(01:08:04):
can't leave runners in the score if Joe's been so
consistent with just staying level headed, is there more accountability
when you call him out loud? Or do you like
the way he goes about his level headed business that
some of us just don't have.

Speaker 8 (01:08:16):
I think every manager in baseball, It's probably different in football,
but every manager in baseball has to be himself. And
I've played on I've played on teams where I've played
on veteran teams where we had We've had managers that
tried to do stuff that was out of character for himself,
and you can't fake it for one hundred and sixty
two games.

Speaker 7 (01:08:34):
You just, really, you have to be you. He can't
be everybody, can't be Billy Martin or Earl Weaver. You
have to be yourself.

Speaker 8 (01:08:42):
You know, you start to think about, Okay, do I
need to blow up because our bats aren't that good with.

Speaker 7 (01:08:46):
Runners in scoring position.

Speaker 8 (01:08:48):
I think fact that Dave Roberts was saying this when
we were in LA playing the Dodgers, and the reporters
asking right after Max Munsey had gotten hurt, and that's
when the Astros played him, they so, what does Max
Munsey mean for your He said, you know what we
are going to miss him because we don't have anybody
else liking I think right now the Astros are missing
Paradis is it bats? You know, he got to three

(01:09:09):
and two almost every time you get to the plate.
Saw thirty seven pitches one game at dyke And Park
this year, and I think that trickles down and it
allows the starting pitcher to get through the game a
lot easier. And we keep looking down at our score
books in the seventh or eighth inning, and we talked
about Lucas Giolito yesterday completing eight innings for the first
time in five years, over and over to see starting

(01:09:30):
pitchers get deeper into this games because they miss those
at bats by guys like Paradis.

Speaker 5 (01:09:36):
Gosh, that makes it sound even worse. I know it
was the best start of the year, and I'd heard
that stat best starting or longest start in five years.

Speaker 6 (01:09:43):
Boy, is this twenty twenty one Lucas Giolito mattering pretty remarkable.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
A little bit earlier start time today, just to get
to what's going on out in Miami with the Astros
and the Marlins, so the availabilities a little bit earlier.
Dana Brown, speaking with reporters, a PRP injection on the
right hand string for esoch Perettis as he goes on
while he will rehab in an attempt to return this season.

(01:10:08):
Surgery was on the table for Perettis, according to Dana,
but Perettis chose to rehab the injury instead, so he
has a long, long rest period ahead of him and
then if the shot allowed him to now test it
severe hamstring strain that he will be then testing. He's

(01:10:29):
hoping for a potential return before the Astros twenty twenty
five baseball season ends, not necessarily of the regular season,
just at any point before they pack up their gloves
and bats and balls.

Speaker 6 (01:10:41):
But that's what Dana said to Matt Chandler, Taggart, etc.

Speaker 4 (01:10:46):
Platelet rich plasma are treatments that use a patient's own
blood to accelerate healing and reduce pain, primarily in musculoskeletal conditions.

Speaker 5 (01:10:56):
Yeah, using your body's own healing properties to get you
back on your sounds like he went to QC Kinetics,
they do offer plate lit rich plasma plate lit trasm treatments.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
Yeah, plate lit reach plasma. That's why we call it PRPs.
That it wasn't a joint situation, but yeah, what do
you think of that? Just because it's it's avoiding surgery,
which is always the key.

Speaker 5 (01:11:20):
We tell you that surgery also is your recovery time
puts the season not in jeopardy. There are six months
left before they start spring training, so he would be
just over the recovery time when spring training begins.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
I mean, his.

Speaker 6 (01:11:35):
Season's done either way.

Speaker 4 (01:11:37):
So if this accelerates his ability to come back while
not jeopardizing next.

Speaker 5 (01:11:41):
Year, but then a season isn't over either way, well,
he's not coming back this year. That's the route he
has chosen in order to hope that he can. I
don't think so now with this, but I don't think
so either. But that's literally what he said why he
chose this path. We'll argue in the next.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Segment the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety All right,
I said we would argue about it, and maybe we will.
Here at the tail end of last segment, you heard

(01:12:19):
WEX talking about something that Chandler Rome had tweeted, which
was that Esach Perettis received a PRP injection on his
right handstring going to rehab in an attempt to return
this season. Surgery was on the table for Perettis, according
to Dana Brown, but Perettis chose to rehab the injury instead.

(01:12:41):
Surgery would carry a recovery time of six plus months,
something that Dana.

Speaker 6 (01:12:47):
Brown added to that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:48):
And in case you're wondering what PRP is, we talked
about that too, platelet rich plasma treatment that uses a
patient's own blood to accelerate healing and reduce pain, primarily
in musculoskeletal conditions. I just feel like it's rushing something

(01:13:09):
that is. And again I'm not a doctor, I'm barely
like I'm not. I don't know if this is legit.
I'm sure it's a legit, but I don't know if
this is like rushing it or not. But just to me,
I feel like if he does this route, goes this route,
which in my opinion, regardless of how you look at it,

(01:13:30):
is trying to speed up the process, and in that
case you could call it rushing back. I don't know
if this is true or not from a science standpoint,
I just feel like it makes him susceptible to reinjuring it.
That's where I'm coming from.

Speaker 6 (01:13:42):
Well, if it's an alternative, then he chose the alternative.

Speaker 5 (01:13:45):
It doesn't mean he's gonna get back in time, and
in this situation, it is such a tight time frame.
I think the likely scenario is he has avoided surgery,
he goes through this treatment, and he doesn't return, and
then he has another four months October, November, December, January
of trying to get himself as healthy as possible, whatever
additional treatments are needed, whatever continuing the rehab is needed,

(01:14:07):
And then maybe it also puts him in a better
position for spring training for March of next year, for
April of next year, as in everything with this alternative choice,
as in non surgical choice, is better for him if
they treat his immediate recovery properly and say, man, everything's
working out great.

Speaker 6 (01:14:26):
I think you are going to be healed much sooner.

Speaker 5 (01:14:28):
However, I don't think we need to put you on
the field for our wild card game, or I don't
think you really belong out here for our divisional series game,
or for the final series of the season, whatever the
case may be. I tend to believe, like you said,
I don't expect him to be back, but I can
understand he would choose this route, and I don't think
they gave him some false timeline. I mean, if there's

(01:14:48):
a possibility he could return in two months, and I'm
sure there is two months already. I mean, I'm just
throwing a random number out. Maybe they told him in
six weeks you could be going back to baseball activities.

Speaker 6 (01:14:59):
That that's the case.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
That would mean a season is not necessarily over All
we know is he has chosen not to have surgery
and is going with PRP treatments initially injections, in hopes
of recovering without the.

Speaker 6 (01:15:11):
Need for surgery.

Speaker 4 (01:15:12):
And let's just say, you know he can't come back
in time for this season because of you know whatever reason.
How much does this jeopardized next season? Like does that
affect it versus what a surgical procedure make his twenty
twenty six be more solid, ironclad not susceptible for the injury.

Speaker 5 (01:15:34):
Than an imagine he and the team would have agreed
to have him choose a path that puts twenties twenty
six in more jeopardy.

Speaker 6 (01:15:42):
You can't assume anything about this medical team said.

Speaker 5 (01:15:45):
Well, he's involved, the players involved, the agent's involved. You
want to put the you know what he makes in
twenty twenty six, you know he's contractually obligated to be
paid by the Astros quite a bit of money.

Speaker 6 (01:15:54):
Nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:15:55):
Oh, he's still on his he's in arbitration years. He's
going to make money. He just doesn't think of how
much that it is. And he's under control for the
following year. So it's uncertain. That to me means, my gosh,
if you do come back and you do get hurt
after you've come back in the five games ten games
that you play, and then you're heading into an arbitration year,

(01:16:16):
which he is, regardless, that's something that he everybody would consider.
I mean, maybe both treatment plans result in equal recoveries,
they're just a different time and one doesn't require to
go under the knife. We talk about that all the time.
I don't think he and his agent and the team
and whoever else is involved. And this clearly was involving
a second opinion because we had had other people reporting

(01:16:37):
about how long he was going to be out, how
long the recovery time is, and he's looking at seven months. Well,
he's chosen another clearly reasonable option. I don't think it's
going to mean anything to twenty twenty five, And honestly,
I don't think it's going to mean anything to twenty
twenty sixty. Either, I think he's gonna be incapable of
returning in twenty five, and I think he's gonna be
fully capable of having a normal, healthy season beginning with

(01:16:59):
Game one of one sixty two next year. And then
we can start discussing have he has he been in
spring training long enough to learn second base? Has the
Have the Astros found somebody that's not Minnesota that is
interested in investigating a Christian Walker trade? And maybe esac
Pretis is playing first base with whomever at second and

(01:17:20):
Penia and Korea on the other side of the infield.
It was reported by Bob Nightingale very poorly in the
way he worded it, which created confusion. He then went
back hours and hours later to try to correct. Don't
I do believe he's accurate when he reports the Astros
Twins discussions regarding a trade and Carlos Korea did include

(01:17:43):
Christian Walker's name, but in the ambiguous way that he
wrote it in his article. Initially it appeared that the
Astros had brought it up to the Twins when he
tried to then say after it was the opposite, but
nothing materialized from it, and also people were reading way
too much into an article he wrote about the Astros

(01:18:04):
involvement in Justin Verlander possibilities. The idea that he could
be moved was there, the idea that the Astros and
Giants had discussions and the Astros said no to that.
That's taking a lot of liberties with what Bob wrote.
Whether you believe he's reporting or not, people are taking
what he actually wrote and telling you something that he

(01:18:25):
did not report. It's being treated like he was offered
to the Astros and they passed. I don't believe that
is the case. I don't believe they attempted to acquire him.
I don't believe they had discussions about acquiring him. Well,
I believe he was made available by the Giants and
not specifically to this team.

Speaker 4 (01:18:44):
Coming from the guy who said that the Korea talks
were dead the day of this shouldn't surprise you.

Speaker 6 (01:18:50):
I'm not, like I said, I'm not really even on
him for the reporting.

Speaker 5 (01:18:53):
It's more about and in that case, it's hard not
to see report it when you know exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:18:59):
I know hempiling on because I can look at what.

Speaker 5 (01:19:01):
Carlos said the night before the deal happened. He was
accurate at the time. Yep, I don't think this is apping.
These talks aren't serious.

Speaker 4 (01:19:08):
One thing about this weekend, regardless of what happened, which
was not an astros w You can just tell he's
freaking ecstatic.

Speaker 6 (01:19:17):
Yeah, they made it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
Very easy, honestly. And I'm talking about the Twins. You know,
as he's leading up to the deadline and he's looking
at their team and Byron Buxton is his teammate, and
nine other guys are his teammates, and they put themselves
in a less than desirable position. They're at fourth place team,
they're under five hundred. There's a lot of teams to
jump over. But we still know, if healthy, we're probably
a little bit better than this. We had the makings

(01:19:38):
of a good pitching staff that hadn't quite worked out
that way. He personally wasn't having a great season.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:19:43):
Then the Twins, despite what their conversation had been, I
think it changed a little bit with ownership and the
sale and the debt, and they said, well maybe we
can go this route. We're gonna trade everybody we think
we can get anything for, even guys that have club
control for years on end. And then Carlos is going
to see this, and then we're going to talk to him,
and he's going to realize, you're never gonna win here
over the life of the remainder of your contract. If

(01:20:06):
you wave your no trade clause to Houston, we will
trade you to Houston.

Speaker 6 (01:20:09):
And you have to live in Minnesota. Well, he was
already ready to do that. Daniella didn't like it.

Speaker 5 (01:20:15):
They were both ready to do it for each of
the next three seasons. At off the Twins dime. Now
it's the Astros dime and the Twins dime, and it's Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
The a team. On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham talking your Team's.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckfler d A team.

Speaker 11 (01:21:02):
An abbreviated four o'clock hour underway here on Sports Talk
seven to ninety as we are counting you down to
Astros on deck.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
The Astros and Marlins getting together for the opener of
a three game set tonight in Miami, and the Astros
are obviously trying to right the ship, but they're gonna
have to do so against one of the hottest teams
in baseball.

Speaker 6 (01:21:29):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 4 (01:21:30):
Getting back to five hundred for a team like the
Marlins is an accomplishment considering what most of their season
has looked like. And so the Astros go from playing
one of the hottest teams in baseball in Boston to
yet another. As Wex mentioned earlier in the show, those
two teams, along with the Brewers, are the three hottest
teams in baseball. Red Sox now writing a five game

(01:21:51):
winning streak after three of those came against the Astros,
and the Marlins just got done dispatching of the New
York Yankees, who aren't playing for very good baseball right now.
So take that for what it's worth. Maybe the Astros
can use the Marlins to get well, maybe it's a facade.

Speaker 6 (01:22:07):
I have no idea. We'll find out.

Speaker 4 (01:22:10):
Mentioned a lot over the first couple of hours of
the show, how the Astros are getting on base, they're
just not getting those runners home, and that was in
full display this weekend against the Red Sox. And Carlos
Correa was just as much of a culprit as anybody
else you want to talk about. Yeah, he had the
home run yesterday, but he also left the bases juiced

(01:22:30):
in Saturday's contest, and it was a lot of that
over the weekend, a lot of frustrating baseball to watch
from a lot of different angles, as the Astros again
letting the Seattle Seattle Mariners get to within two and
a half going into that series. I guess the best
part about this weekend was that Seattle and the Rangers

(01:22:52):
were playing each other and they both drew blood in
that series, because otherwise I guess it would have been even.

Speaker 6 (01:22:58):
Worse if the Mariner were able to sweep that series
with the Rangers.

Speaker 4 (01:23:02):
But they didn't help out the Astros very much this weekend,
nor did the Astros help themselves.

Speaker 5 (01:23:07):
Yeah, the Mariners had just lost two games to the Angels,
they'd lost a series to the A's, and then they
won three out of four from the Rangers, including a
walk off thanks to JP Crawford earlier in the weekend,
and now they have the White Sox. I got a
day off today and then Seattle is back home for
the White Sox and Rays. Rays are a bigger roller
coaster this season, probably than even Houston. They're one of

(01:23:30):
the only teams in baseball that's been worse than Houston
since the Astros swept the Los Angeles Dodgers. They're seven
and fifteen. There's only one team in baseball since that
time that has fewer wins. It's Tampa, so White Sox
and Tampa in Seattle is what they have. Well, the
Astros will play the Marlins in Miami and the Yankees
in New York. Long after these two teams finally will

(01:23:53):
meet again to close out the Astros home portion of
the schedule. The last home stand of the season for Houston,
Texas and Seattle will be there. The last series is
against the Mariners on the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first
of September.

Speaker 6 (01:24:06):
Then they go on the road for the final six.

Speaker 5 (01:24:08):
They will matter. They will matter both in the division race.
They will matter in the wild card race. And I
do think both of these teams will be a part
of the postseason picture. But I certainly, while I've already
given the division of the Astros many months ago, actually
probably about six weeks ago, still think they're going to
win the division. I obviously can do math. A two
and a half game lead with fifty games or so

(01:24:28):
to play is far from a sure thing. Mariners probably
got better, maybe more than any team in the American League.
If the on paper portion plays out, help their bullpen,
if Caleb Ferguson pitches well and so far he has,
and help their offense a great deal. If the two
guys they added on the corners just have the seasons

(01:24:50):
they've been happening, they don't have.

Speaker 6 (01:24:51):
To do anything more than that.

Speaker 5 (01:24:52):
You know, you're among the league leaders and homers and RBIs.
If you're Suarez and you strike out a ton, he
struck out a ton over the weekend. Josh Naylor, you
got a guy over at first base, so I hope, yes,
well over eight hundred. That's a pretty good addition. Those
are the two guys that they hope solidifize things around
what can be a productive group of players. You know,
I did watch probably too much of the Mariners Ranger series,

(01:25:14):
and I still can't believe some of the things that
the Mariners center fielder has done this season. He'll have
one inning where he hits the ball and you just
cannot believe how far it goes, and the very next
inning he will have no clue where Corey Seeger's fly
ball is going. He'll take a ridiculously awful path to it,
and then he will jump five feet to the right
of where it lands in the seats, and he did

(01:25:36):
that with another homer.

Speaker 6 (01:25:37):
It's weird.

Speaker 5 (01:25:39):
They really talented player and it just hasn't quite been
the superstar that he was. Well now he's got a
bunch of other teammates who are really really good, several
of which at Raley obviously to it, are having remarkable seasons.
Pitching is as healthy as it's been all year. We
mentioned the rehab work for the Astros pitchers they faced
rehabbing Bryce or over the weekend he was pitching for Tacoma.

(01:26:02):
He was phenomenal. He is about to make his return
to the Mariners, presumably to their rotation. They have a
couple guys in there that he can take their spots of.
So as much as the Astros clearly got better, you
just heard Steve Sparks mention that from his visit this morning.
I don't think anybody thinks that's untrue. They definitely got better.
If you're gauging how much better these two teams got,

(01:26:23):
that's where the much bigger answer will lie over the
next fifty games, and on paper, I would say it's
definitely advantage Mariners. Astros also had the literal advantage. They
lead the division, so they need.

Speaker 4 (01:26:34):
To get healthy and acclimate those guys to the everyday
lineup or the rotation before the Mariners. Gel Is that
what this has come down to. Unless you think the
Rangers are still going to be a factor, which I
don't think they will.

Speaker 5 (01:26:50):
I mean they're going to be a factor because of
the number of games they have left against these two teams.
If the Astros take four out of six from the Rangers,
the rest of the way, Rangers aren't going to catch them.
If the Astros lose four out of six to the Rangers,
well now they're two and a half games behind you
with all those other games on their schedule, and they
will have won the season series. So that is definitely
still in play. The series with the Mariners will determine

(01:27:10):
who wins their season series two. So I think the
Rangers are definitely a factor. I don't think they helped
them themselves as much. They probably solidified their bullpen. Both
of the arms they added have been awesome this year.
And again it's a weekend, but so far, so good
for both the lefty and the righty that they added.
Merril Kelly made his Rangers debut, and he was great.
He did exactly what he's done for Arizona all year.

(01:27:31):
So I think they made smart deals. They're still counting
on their offense to carry them through, and they had
about three and a half months of bad offense. They've
had about a month and a half of much better offense.
Not sure what they'll get the rest of the way.
They don't have an injured player or two or ten
on their way back the Astros do. It's a matter
of how, you know. We could talk about how good

(01:27:54):
we feel about the pitchers, and that's definitely a guessing game.

Speaker 6 (01:27:57):
But it's honestly no different with jord On.

Speaker 5 (01:27:59):
Every time we talk about when and if he comes back,
there has to be the added part for the first
time ever. Never would have said this before in any
of his other seasons, and most of them have included
well when he comes back from injury.

Speaker 6 (01:28:11):
This one's different.

Speaker 5 (01:28:12):
I don't know that jord On Alvarez is going to
be awesome when he returns. Never said that before. I've
never worried about it before, never even considered it before.
Not only did I think he was going to be
awesome the moment he came back, That's exactly what I
thought the moment he came back. He's going to go
three for five in his first game, and then he's
going to go on a tear.

Speaker 6 (01:28:29):
I don't know that this year.

Speaker 4 (01:28:30):
If he hits a home run in his first game back,
will that give you like sixty percent more confidence?

Speaker 5 (01:28:35):
Yeah, sixty percent sounds about right. Okay, Well, he did
hit three home runs this year. Same with Cooper Hummel.

Speaker 6 (01:28:40):
He hit him with a broken hand. We don't know that,
but we don't not know that that's correct. We don't
not know that it would add to his lore. If
he did, I would say, what are you doing? People?

Speaker 5 (01:28:57):
Whoever you want to include, why are you playing right?
I don't believe he played with any knowledge that something
was dramatically wrong until he acknowledged he was playing with it.
I don't think he played with it for six weeks,
because you're talking about three or five weeks of spring
training and three to four weeks of the season before
he acknowledged I tried to play through it in late April.

Speaker 4 (01:29:19):
I wonder, because you know you've probably heard this before.
There are people it was what a medical is it
a meta tarsal metacarpal.

Speaker 6 (01:29:27):
It was metacarpal.

Speaker 7 (01:29:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:29:29):
See, I told you I was an ad doctor.

Speaker 4 (01:29:31):
There are people though that can that their pain threshold
is insane and you find out they're playing through whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:29:38):
But they still know it's there.

Speaker 4 (01:29:40):
Well, he knew something was there, he didn't know that
it was a broken boat. Like that's the whole thing.
I still I'm still not clear on the timeline, Like
did they did they find out it was broken way
back when? Or do they not even really know because
they didn't discover the break until much later in the process.

Speaker 5 (01:29:57):
Well, that's not on them, and that's accurate. Why are
they going to look at it? What I'm saying, he
didn't tell him anything was wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:30:03):
A guy that's as big as strong as he is
could presumably have had a very very small fracture in
his hand.

Speaker 6 (01:30:10):
And was hitting home runs with it because he's him.
He's one of one.

Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
He's one of those guys like shoey Otani could probably
do the same thing because not only is he that talented,
he's a big dude.

Speaker 6 (01:30:20):
I'm just saying it wouldn't It's not.

Speaker 4 (01:30:22):
How the realm of possibility that jord On Alvarez had
this breakway back when, and if that's the case point
of all this, then yeah, there's gonna be some rust.
But other than that, I think Dana Brown's even kind
of worded it this way in recent comments. Eighty percent
of yord On Alvarez is better than like nine to
nine percent of everybody else.

Speaker 6 (01:30:41):
No question about it. So I'll take that.

Speaker 4 (01:30:43):
I'll absolutely take that, and Astros will take anything right
now that linthens that lineup because with all these guys
you're talking about returning just the position players, it pushes
down or in some cases out of the lineup, guys
that are helping to contribute to this lackly.

Speaker 5 (01:31:02):
They only got pushes out of the lineup now is
Cam Smith. The lineup they have today is the lineup
they're gonna, you know, run out the rest of the season,
plus Jorda on The lineup they have today is their
best they can put out there. It no longer includes
a litany of players who are four A players includes one,
and that's Tremel and he's had a perfectly fine season offensively,
and he's a good defensive player. Camp Smith is not

(01:31:22):
having a good year at all. Those two guys are
batting eight and nine today because Diaz, Karattini, Walker, Correa, Altuove,
Sanchez and Paynard batting in front of them those last
seven I mentioned. That's an everyday major league lineup that
you don't have any concern about. It could be great,
might not be could guys could be in a slump,
all that being said, but it's not a lineup full
of players who just got to the team. These are

(01:31:43):
major league starters wherever they're playing, whatever team has them,
they're in their lineup.

Speaker 4 (01:31:48):
Since you brought it up, there is one thing I
wanted to ask as we go into next segment, final one,
before we get to the Astros on Deck show about
Cam Smith specifically because I think it's going to factor
in not only to any sort of postseason run, but
obviously the future of a very highly touted prospect for
your Houston Astros.

Speaker 2 (01:32:07):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:32:18):
All right, it's the a team Sports Talk seven nineties.
We get you ready right around the corner for Astros
and Marlins. Astros on Deck getting underway at the bottom
of the hour. I remember when it was determined that
Cam Smith was going to be making the opening day
roster and he was going to be your starting right
fielder and all that kind of stuff. I was talking

(01:32:40):
with somebody whose opinion I highly respect, and it was
basically conveyed to me that, by all accounts from a
baseball perspective, that decision was a little rushed. That decision
was maybe not the way some of the baseball ops

(01:33:01):
people would have liked to it for it to have
gone down, but there was no turning back. This was
going to be the way they were going to go
about it, on and on and on. And the thinking
was and the fear, I guess, the concern, whatever you
want to call it, was that you could have something
happen like what's happening right now, a prolonged slump that,
whether you want to attribute it to him not being

(01:33:21):
used to playing this many games. He was at Florida
State this time last year. It's not like he was
in the minors or gone the traditional route or any of.

Speaker 6 (01:33:29):
That kind of stuff. At this point in the year.
He was a cub.

Speaker 4 (01:33:32):
Yeah, okay, so, but you're you're talking about a guy
who's still playing more baseball in a calendar season than
he's used to, and whether it's fatigue, whether it's mental fatigue,
whether it's whatever that he that this could be. This
was a concern at the time when you made that decision.

(01:33:53):
It's easy to say that right now, it's easy to
point to that. But I don't know the answer here
because you're there's no turning back now, there's no you
can't you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Speaker 6 (01:34:04):
Well, you don't have to play him every day? Well,
I going to okay, So.

Speaker 5 (01:34:09):
I mean, like, is this the only issue is the
same issue at the beginning of the season. It's just
less of one for the team. The only reason he
made the team and was a starting right fielder because
they didn't have anybody who would have been out there.

Speaker 6 (01:34:20):
I who wasn't him? Nobody?

Speaker 5 (01:34:22):
And right now if he's not out there every day,
well who is Taylor Tremmell and hey sus.

Speaker 7 (01:34:31):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:34:31):
If al Tuvey is a regular left fielder, which was
the thought because yard On Alvarez is a regular designated hitter,
well that's one spot. Jake Myers is your everyday center fielder,
that's two spots. Now you only have one spot left
for everybody in the whole organization. That's capable playing major
league baseball, and all of them are bad options or
they're hurt, and obviously the three I just mentioned, two

(01:34:52):
of those three are hurt. Like Chas McCormick should be
starting every day for this team if he's the player
he once was, but he isn't, and he wasn't this spring.
There's no reason to start him over Cam Smith. And
to me, it's still there. You play Taylor Tremmelle every
day if you want right now, and he kind of
it is. He's very close to an everyday player at
this point. He's just not a particularly good hitter against lefties.

(01:35:13):
But now you have that problem twice over, because neither
is Hey Sue Sanchez. Six for sixty two is what
Cam Smith is over that period of time, and you
can go back a lot longer than that and it's
still not very good. But what you know, your alternatives
are the ones that they're gonna take, and hopefully they
have more options with other players that are healthy. They
obviously move this along much more quickly. And it was

(01:35:33):
part cam Smith blowing up in spring against not a
lot of major league pitching and part they had an opening.
They had a lot of openings they created one obviously
with Tucker, but not with the intention of him even
being a right fielder, let alone being the right fielder
to take over for Kyle Tucker. It just is played
out that way. I don't think this will ever be

(01:35:54):
looked at as a mistake, and I don't really care
personally for him if he's slump like this, as long
as I don't believe it's going to impact him at
any point the rest of his career. He had this
is like quarterbacks, would you play him? Does it totally
stunt their growth? Are they so baffled by what happened
in the rookie season as a quarterback that now they're
gun shy and now they're afraid of getting hit, or

(01:36:15):
now they have happy feet. I'm not concerned in any
way about cam Smith suffering from anything like that. I
recognize they're a first place team and they're trying to win,
and maybe it's their best bet that he doesn't play,
and that can be mentally taxing on a player who's
why are they in first place? Why did they go
eighteen games over five hundred because he was a part
of He was part of their five core players that

(01:36:37):
didn't get hurt, and he came off an awesome month
when they were awesome in June.

Speaker 6 (01:36:40):
Guess who else was awesome? Cam Smith?

Speaker 5 (01:36:43):
Camp Smith was very good in June, and he's been
very bad most of the time since then. And it
also corresponds with the team. But now he's in a
situation where they're trying to win. They have to win,
trying to get back to the playoffs, and unfortunately, mentally,
he may have to deal with sitting a lot if
they have better options while they continue to try to win,
because he currently is not helping them win.

Speaker 4 (01:37:04):
Yeah, and if the injuries weren't a factor, like who
would be the who'd be your best bet? Would be
the guy that would be out there more often than
not one of the guys they just obtained.

Speaker 6 (01:37:16):
You mean, if everybody was healthy.

Speaker 5 (01:37:19):
I mean, if everybody's healthy, then Jordan's the DH, Sanchez
is in a corner probably right, al Twove's and left,
and Mars is in center. I mean, if you wanted
to add somebody else to it, you could put Altuve
at second.

Speaker 6 (01:37:33):
I don't want to do that. I'd rather have a
scenario how two a second or al Twove in left field?

Speaker 5 (01:37:39):
Well, Tuove in left field at Minute Made Park, even
though I don't know if it's clear to everybody else,
it is to me. And I haven't asked the astros
about this, and I should they put him in some
very strange defensive positions at Minute Made Park. I don't
remember any other left fielders that they've employed playing in
certain situations five feet from the manual scoreboard. There's balls

(01:38:00):
to get hit out to left field, and I don't
sitting watching TV rather than being at the stadium. Sometimes
I don't know where he's standing when the ball's hit,
but I see the ball get hit and I'm like, oh,
there's an out, and al two Bay's nowhere near it
because he's so far back. He's playing so deep close.

Speaker 6 (01:38:16):
To the walk. Though in finway they were playing deep well,
but he wasn't. Yeah, that's true. He was his second.

Speaker 5 (01:38:22):
Yeah, I've been a little curious about that, but it's
all a part of he's not a very good outfielder.
They didn't expect him to be a very good outfielder,
but they correctly assessed how often it would matter versus
how often it would matter at second base. If he
was playing second base every day, they'd have a bad
infield defense and it would show and it would cost
them hits, runs, extra pitches on their pitchers if they

(01:38:42):
have a bad outfielder and left field. In Altuve, he
just doesn't get as many opportunities to hurt the team defensively.
That's why he's out there. He needs to be and
their lineup needs him offensively. And he's not having an
unbelievable year. He's having a year comparable the last year.

Speaker 6 (01:38:57):
He's having a better year than Christian Walker. He is.

Speaker 5 (01:39:00):
The Astros lineup today is awfully close to doing something
they I don't believe they've done all season, and that's
have nine guys in the lineup with an OPS of
better than seven hundred. Now I have two guys in
the six nineties. And it should the first place team,
it should result in more runs being scored, and maybe
they start going in that direction again with the Marlins

(01:39:21):
series and maybe can continue it in the Yankee Series.
But it just simply hasn't really been the case. Diaz
and Walker, there's two that are holding them back from
saying that it's a true statement. Walker's at six ninety six,
Diaz is at six ninety eight. But again we're semanticing this.
Smith is at seven oh one, so one more bad
game and he's under Correz only at seven oh eight.

(01:39:43):
He arrived in Houston at seven oh four. He's not
having a good offensive season. His homer in Boston made
him one more homer than Cam Smith. I told you
about how similar their seasons had been to date. They've
basically had the same number of at bats. It was
exact when he arrived. He's had more now and he
still has eight earth excuse me, thirteen fewer runs batted

(01:40:05):
in than Cam Smith. Thirty two runs batted in for
a guy who's played in all but ten, twelve fifteen games.

Speaker 6 (01:40:12):
This year, and it's not his first year. Is a
majorable number. Terrible number. Oh, that's great.

Speaker 5 (01:40:17):
But he's here, he's back, he's wearing number one. It's
gonna be awesome. We're gonna try to tell you that
CC one is the new moniker for Carlos. It's all
good vibes. It's not baseball still matters. It's fun to
see people wearing the jerseys. We're both out there at
Dykin Park this weekend. I know I saw a few.
I'm sure you did as well.

Speaker 4 (01:40:34):
Did you see the rack of Korea City Connect jerseys
behind the custom counter and the home plate team shop.

Speaker 6 (01:40:40):
Yep. I said, hey, look, and my wife said, and
I quote, huh, she's just not.

Speaker 5 (01:40:44):
There will be Monday City Connect Monday next week against
Boston and the Bregmans. There'll be tons of people wearing
Karrea Jersey's the best part about it, though, if it
works out, is Korea is wearing a Korea jersey and
for the next three seasons. I don't think he's moving
on from Houston, no during this contract. Nope, I don't
believe he's moving on from Houston at all. I think

(01:41:07):
he and Jim Crane will be able to work something
out when his career continues in three years.

Speaker 4 (01:41:12):
And I think that's exactly what's gonna happen. And that's
part of why Jim Crane made the deal. It wasn't
just about this season or even this contract, like you're saying.
I think it's about a lot more than that. And
it's not just about on the field with Carlos Korea.
Because even though we talked about this when the deal
was made last week, how many guys have coming gone
and left that clubhouse. Not many guys bring what he

(01:41:36):
brings to the table, especially when you consider that Alex
Bregman was out the door, and I think brings somewhat
the same thing. Alex Bregman became Carlos Korea from a
leaders standpoint, when Korea moved on after the twenty one
season and.

Speaker 5 (01:41:50):
When they both were not in the clubhouse of the
first whatever one hundred and some odd games. Okay, great,
we're a first place team again and we keep finding
ways to win again. There was nothing different about this
Astros from a result standpoint. We were saying it just
last year with Bregman and Tucker part of the team
in some former fashion around industries, injuries.

Speaker 7 (01:42:11):
How are they doing this?

Speaker 5 (01:42:13):
That's the twenty five season in a nutshell, How are
they doing this? They're twelve I know how they got here. Immediately,
they lost their last two three games. Not very fun.
They're twelve games over, they have a two and a
half game lead in the division. That are fifty games left.
How is that possible with who they've used this year,
both pitching and offensively.

Speaker 4 (01:42:34):
And I think that's why I just it's hard for
me to pile on because it's the same quote talent
that was running rough shot over the majors for the
entire month of June and into the month of July.

Speaker 5 (01:42:47):
Yeah, one month of really really awesome baseball. I just
said they're twelve games over, right, they're most injured by
the way, Well, they were twelve games over in that month.
They're a five hundred baseball team in March, April, May
and July. But twelve games over in one month puts
some twelve games over on the season. If you think
we've talked a lot of Astros baseball in the last
two hours, twenty eight minutes at thirty five seconds, boy

(01:43:08):
do I have another half hour for you, because the
Astros on Deck Show begins next

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety