Clunker in Oakland, Who Goes?! and Wex's Texans Notes

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adamtalking your Team series. Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team.Am, what's up Houston, Texas?
Straight up three o'clock here on SportsTalk seven ninety It is the eight team.

(00:23):
He is Adam Wexler. My nameis Adam Clanton, the show Killer.
Dan Matthews is our producers. Wetake you up once again until six
o'clock. Following the Astros, Idon't know, man, some of those
at bats might have been some ofthe most uninspiring yet predictable of the entire
year. You said it last night. You actually warned all of us.

(00:46):
Some people just choose not to hearit when you're doing it. Wex The
Oakland A's aren't bad right now.They're very hot. They're actually playing well.
They have like a comparable record tothe Astros in the month of July.
It's better now. Hey, thatwas not necessary and frankly it was
uncalled for it. All right,I'll back off with the facts. But

(01:07):
other than Spencer are gay, that'slike a whole separate conversation. I mean,
seriously, we were back to theleaving the runners on base quantity.
You're trying to eliminate them by hittinginto double plays. You only batted nine
times last night, you hitt intothree double plays. So it was such
a frustration. Why does this alwayshappen during West Coast games? Why can't
I enjoy this misery in the Centraltime zone? Wex Yeah, both teams

(01:30):
had eight hits. The Astros actuallyhad an additional walk. Ten base runners
couldn't put any of them around thebases and all the way home, and
a large part of that was hittinginto double plays right out of the gate.
You had a two hit first inning, but in between the hits there
was a double play ball. Youhad bases loaded for Jake Myers. He
grounded into a double play, oneof two that he had hit into in

(01:52):
last night's game. And the A'shad one really good stretch. Four straight
batters crushed baseballs against Spencer air Gayput three runs across. They added another
and didn't matter. The Astros didn'tscore any once they had their first run
of the game. That would bethat you're at the back end of the
Astros rotation. You're probably going toneed offense to win games. I don't

(02:12):
mean in the literal sense. Youdidn't score any of course you lost.
You need additional offense. You needfour or five, six, seven,
eight, nine runs, which iswhat they've gotten a handful of times with
the Arraghetti. They've gotten wins inboth of Jake Bloss's short starts so far
this season, and they could hopefor the same tonight, largely because they've
scored a lot of runs. That'ssomething they haven't been doing a whole lot
of lates. Certainly can understand whyit didn't happen out of the break against

(02:37):
the Mariners. They have a verygood starting pitching staff. The Rangers did
hold the Astros down at the endof the series that the Astros lost two
games in heading into the break.That's the only issue I really have,
And that's exactly the point we're makinghere. It's okay to give up four
runs to the ace. This isactually a game where they scored fewer runs

(02:58):
than they've been scoring, like they'reaveraging seven in June and July, and
you held them before the offense.Obviously, any given night, it's not
talking saying the offense is bad,just saying the offense was bad for the
game last night, you faced anot a very good pitcher I'll just make
it as simple as possible. Estnight, he just they hit intwo outs.
They didn't have trouble hitting his stuff. They had trouble hitting into non

(03:22):
outs when it counted most again,you had base runners all over the place.
He gave you a few, yougot all those hits. Were struggling
to hit the ball over the fence, which is something this team overall,
I think is lacked of late.Even though they've scored a bunch of runs,
and some people are patting them onthe back, saying, oh,
they're playing small ball now, they'rejust scoring without the benefit of a homer.

(03:42):
I don't know that they're the samethings. I certainly see them differently,
but they're going to have a hardtime if it's another two months of
scoring without a lot of two threefour run home runs. By the way,
they have no four run homers thisyear. Obviously, when Jake bats
with the bases loaded, just forinstance last night, those are the things
that have happened way too often thisyear. It's really the only difference in

(04:04):
power last year for the Astros andthis year for the Astros. Their home
run rates aren't that different. Thenumber of solo shots two run shots.
Three run shots are very comparable tolast year, roughly the same pace.
But they had ten Grand Slams lastyear in a one hundred and sixty two
game season. They just played gamenumber one hundred last night. Now there

(04:24):
are sixty two games in the seasonand they've hit none. He did pitch
well last night, though, HoganHarritt. Yes, the results were good.
Yeah, but he had seven strikeouts. It wasn't all just oh,
we're just grounding in a double andthere were Believe me, I hated them
all, but I don't I don'twant to take credit away from him.
At least done one night, forone night he pitched. He pitched,
had traffic all game long, andthey weren't just They weren't swinging and missing

(04:46):
all night long, even with thestrikeouts. They this is what happened at
the beginning of the season. Itdidn't matter who pitched against them. They
looked good at that game. Somaybe we're both right, we are as
usual as usual, We're both Imean, you left eight runners on.
They left four runners on. Thedifference there is four. You lost four
nothing. What a stupid game.By the way, can I just say
that one more time? And bythe way, I don't mind well,

(05:09):
because the stupid Mariners were even dumber. Well, they found a way to
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Thanks the Angels. Well, yeah,
when you only have one run onthe board every single time your pitchers
go out there, it's trouble.And their leadoff hitter scored last night.
That was it. Kay didn't reallydo anything offensively after that, and then
they lost their leadoff hitter, that'sJP Crawford, who ended up scoring their

(05:32):
lone run of the game. We'llget to his injury situation here in a
minute. But they did give upa run to the Angels in the eighth
and then two more in the ninth, and that was all she wrote.
And so the Astros loss took themout of first place about thirty minutes forty
five minutes, and then they slidback into a proverbial tie. They're both
the same number of games over atfive hundred four, but the Astros have

(05:55):
a slightly, very slightly better recordpercentage wise, and that will stay as
long is they at least match whatthe Mariners do on an everyday basis.
They've got Logan Gilbert going tonight andagain they are at home where they're significantly
better even without some of their bats. Astros throat Jake Boss tonight for his
third major league start, and howdoes that make you feel? It makes

(06:15):
me feel like the offense even thoughif it were this easy to just mentally
be ready to go score runs,then you would do it on all those
days. I have a reasonably goodfeeling the Astros are going to see probably
four or five A's pitchers tonight withwho they're starting. If you get any
kind of pitch count on their startertonight, then you're probably gonna make them
get into their bullpen. It's nota terrible bullpen, but the odds of

(06:39):
you sending four or five six relieversout there, all of whom have it
on any given night, that's whereit becomes difficult. So I think the
Astros will probably be able to putsome runs on the board. I think
there's a one hundred percent chance they'llhave a better lineup than last night because
a Leedmistyaz won't be in it,so hopefully that will help them a little
bit. I think Jake will bewhat he has been maybe tonight he gets
you through four, He gets youthrough five. I doubt it will be

(07:01):
in spectacular fashion, but it'd benice to not need more than three or
four innings out of the pen.Now, I really want ty Frantz after
seeing DS play it first base,I don't know why. Again, it's
shocks when we saw it, andit was late in the show so we
didn't really have a whole lot oftime to comment on it. But those
are the kind of moves that makeno sense at all. You have Great
Kessinger up here, why aren't youplaying him? Because he's not your best

(07:24):
option? Perfect? Okay, flipthem. Aleedmis Dz is here, Well,
why aren't you playing him? Well, not only is he not your
best option, like Kessinger, he'sactually your worst option. So I'm not
sure why you would go and puthim in the lone. Great Kessinger started
zero games this year for a reason, a leedmis Dz. You can't act
like he's better than Great Kessinger.There's no reason to. He's the worst

(07:46):
player on the roster right now,and again that's I'm not trying to kill
him, but he only carries somany guys. He's the last day and
WEX is just assassinating him. Well, somebody has to be like, he's
the worst player in uniform as aposition player. Every day they go play
moving forward until roster changes. SoI don't know why it would it would
make sense to you to say,well, let's get him a start.

(08:07):
If you never did it with Gray, why would you do it with him.
He had a terrible year this year, he was terrible last year.
He's been on a steady decline forsix years. Dana said, it's okay
because he's a veteran. You'd ratherget Greg at bats at the minor league
level. I didn't think, hesaid. We think a ledmis can be
a spark. We think, allof a sudden, despite being bad at

(08:28):
baseball for the last several years andgetting older each of those years, we
thought maybe starting and would get himgoing. And I know that's what Joe's
thinking. It's not like I don'tunderstand it. I understand the baseball part
of it and what a manager hasto do. It's just not something that
makes much sense with the situation they'rein. Every game has mattered since they
decided to start seven to nineteen andtwelve and twenty four. I would like

(08:50):
to think they I think he's playedlike every game matters. He's managed his
bullpen that way. They're playing withdesperation pretty much for two and a half
months. I'm not that's really notwhat last night said. And on top
of that, you got Chaz Batonright there behind him. He stinks too.
Yeah. Oh but a left he'sstarting, so I got to set
all our lefties. It was veryDusty Baker. If him wasn't it,

(09:15):
I don't know. I don't knowabout that. Well, it just felt
like this pattern above all else attimes, and it was a very right
handed It was a very right handlineup. Yeah, this is I mean,
everybody has different splits, and thisyear they're begging. They're absolutely what's
happening with Chas McCormick. The onlydifference is he's young and a lifer as

(09:35):
an astro. Between him and joseAh Brave, the numbers clearly at a
different suckiness level. But Chas McCormickis having a miserable year. He's been
from the players who've been here,although he was hurt a little bit all
year long, so not a Brave. He's been their least successful hitter all
season long. He used to haveunbelievable splits crushing lefties. And I don't
mean a good hitter against lefties.I mean among the ten best right handed

(09:58):
hitters in baseball against left I don'tknow what happened. I do know he
changed some of his philosophy and alittle bit of what he hate. Yeah
last year, No, I thinkthis, No, I don't think so
at all. I think this isjust something that he probably should not have
tinkered with and is trying to rEFIndwhat he was doing so well. And
we're four months into the season andhe quite obviously hasn't found it. Too

(10:18):
many at bats where he swings andmisses, he's shaking his head. He
knows he's just not doing the rightthings up there. So to me,
it's just you made it very,very difficult to keep things going. In
any inning, you might have hadsomething going. The bottom of your lineup
was likely to be a zero,and even McCormick did reach base once.
But one game of baseball can havethis coming out of anybody. They need

(10:39):
to make sure it doesn't turn intotwo games and turn into a road trip
where you're only five hundred or potentiallyeven worse, they're still sitting at just
two wins in the four games.You mentioned it too, though, with
his swing that misses, it's bad. It's like Jeremy Paneia facing a slider
bad in twenty twenty eight three.Except his pitches he's missing are strikes,
right, He's swinging that he shouldbe swinging at and he's missing that.

(11:03):
Yeah, well those are also I'mcombining the two because he he does absolutely
swing out of the zone, expandthe zone, whatever you want to call
it. But yeah, he's justit kind of looks like a bray You's
batspeed at times, you just can'tcatch up to something. And it's in
why you wouldn't have ever just thrownhim nothing but exclusively strikes. Talking about

(11:24):
a bray you and now this guyunfortunately, all right, a lot of
astros, a lot of Texans toget to here on a Tuesday edition of
the A Team here on Sports Talkseven to ninety, I want to tell
you guys about Berkeley Eye Center.I want to tell you guys about the
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dot com or call seven one threefive two six eys b E C lasik
dot com. We now return toAdam Clinton and Adam Wexler on Sports Talk
seven ninety sure wex and ac hereon a Tuesday edition of the eighteen Sports

(12:58):
Talk seven ninety wex mentioned it therecould be help on the way for the
Astros. Now, I have topreface this. The Mariners offense still sucks,
as was evidence last night in theirloss to the Angels. But JP
Crawford is not only a guy thatat times can have a big swing and

(13:20):
has against the Astros, I mightadd, but he's a guy that plays
fantastic defense for them. And anytimeJulio is going to be fine long term,
he's just bumped up or bruised orwhatever it was from the other day.
His bats obviously more important. Hisdefense technically, I guess could be
considered more important, although JP playsmuch more of a trafficked position. But

(13:46):
you know, especially when you putup against the fact that these guys are
playing not a great team right now, Astros will take all the help they
can get. And I know itmight seem small, and I know they
didn't get any ground last night becausethey couldn't mess around and actually be the
Oakland A's. But if JP Crawfordis on the shelf for any amount of
time, which he has a fracturehe's dealing with, by the way,

(14:07):
that's probably a good thing for theAstros more than a is a bad thing.
Yeah, help on the way forthe Astros ought to come in the
form of their own players returning tothe field. JP Crawford gonna hit the
e I'm gonna miss an undetermined periodof time as he recovers from that.
Got hit with a pitch last night. Does have a hairline fracture, and
I'm sure we'll have to see howthe Seattle Mariners try to accommodate for that.

(14:28):
But all things considered, and JulioRodriguez is no different. Well,
I'm not gonna lie, and I'msure the Astros are the same as I
am. When Julio Rodriguez steps upthere this year, I'm really not all
that less frightened, so to speak. Maybe that's not the right word.
He's still intimidating in the batter's box, even though he has an OPS under
seven hundred, and he strikes outall the time and he's done. He

(14:50):
had the two run homer against theAstros in one of the games that they
came back to win, but hehadn't done a whole lot against them this
year, even though they caught himhot list the year this year like they
caught him crazy hot last year,and they absolutely could not get him out.
I don't really care if he comeswith with two hundred ops. He's
the hitter in their lineup. I'dbe most worried about facing pretty much any

(15:11):
time of day, even more sothan the three I mentioned yesterday who stink
except against Houston, Rojas, Roblessand Dylan Moore. But they're still gonna
be out there. The saddest partabout it, and I'm sure Mariners fans
are kind of lamenting it in thisway, what are they losing. They're
losing hitters who have had awful offensiveseasons. Tucker was having an MVP caliber

(15:31):
season and he's gonna miss two months, and the Astros will do nothing but
ascend in the standings. I doubtSeattle's gonna be able to do the same
if it is more of an extendedabsence for Julio. He's not on aisl
he is listed as day to day, though I don't expect him to be
in their lineup tonight, and again, Crawford's gonna be lost for a period

(15:52):
of time. They're still so muchdifferent than Houston because the concerns that nearly
every other major league team has onthe pitching side, they don't, and
they really haven't all year. Eventhough Brian Wu hasn't made all of his
starts, everybody else essentially has,and they have, in my opinion,
one through five the best starters inMajor League Baseball. There may be other

(16:14):
teams with a better one through three, or you could argue a better one
through four, and maybe in theplayoffs that helps to equalize things. But
nobody matches what they have. Andeven last night they gave up their starter
was awesome, their bullpen gave upthree runs, and they lost because they
can't score. So it's up tothe Astros. Again. They don't really
need to see what Seattle is doinguntil they are the team against them,

(16:36):
and that's way down at the endof the season, when at some point
they'll get off their backside and realize, we didn't have to wait till the
deadline. We could have forced atrade. They have such an immense list
of prospects. I can't believe it'sJuly twenty third and they haven't made a
deal for any offensive play. Youdon't have to wait till the deadline,
you don't have to sit on AndI know it's harder to force the other

(17:00):
GM to pull the trigger because theyknow the price is almost assuredly going to
go up in you know, earlyJuly or late June or heck May,
when I guess they figured out theiroffense was awful. They could have made
a phone call to any GM theywant, But making that deal, I
get it much more difficult then whenthat GM might not even be inclined to
move anybody, or you're not bindingagainst anybody else starting today, in the

(17:22):
next eight days, you are,and that's where the opposing GM is gonna
sit. There, we may havea couple more teams added to the we're
sellers list. The Cubs are there. There might only be eight or nine
teams that are there today, probablybe ten to twelve that are there by
July thirtieth, when we get tothe trade deadline, and with an offense
that's you know, pushing closer toa week of struggling, a couple of

(17:44):
games against the Rangers, the wholeseries against the Mariners, the first game
against the A's. That idea thatwell, as soon as Tucker gets back
will be okay, I believe italso, But do you really have the
option of just kind of sitting thereand waiting. And our first segment,
I hope was loud and clear.There wasn't just one weak spot in the
lineup. When guys throw left handedpitchers and Joe feels inclined to sit his

(18:10):
lefties, none of whom are tearingit up. It's not like Cabbage or
low Berfito or going Berserque this year. But Mauricio Dubon is playing like a
top reserve and the two players behindhim are awful offensively so far this season.
So last night's lineup was a littlebit tough. Hopefully tonight's will be
different. What happened to him?Well, we keep asking that question.

(18:30):
This time it's about Mauricio Dubon.I mean, should this is it's nice
when he plays over his head andfor the last I guess almost year and
a half, still going back toAl two Veay's injury last year, he
has played over his head. That'snot who he is. He's a high
contact hitter, but it also meanshe never walks ever. Yeah, so
if he hits two ninety six,well it's on base percentage is probably two

(18:55):
ninety eight, which is awful,and that stuff matters. That he doesn't
hit for a lot of He's barelyhitting for any extra base power the last
couple of months. And the onething that was so far and away helpful
to this team at the beginning ofthe year was what he was doing with
runners and scoring position, and thatis flipped in the other direction. You
know, he kind of flipped withaltuval two of was off to a miserable

(19:15):
start and Dubond was tremendous. Andin the last three months they've pretty much
flipped a team as a whole.It's not a one guy thing. It's
not the bottom of the order thatcouldn't do it. So they didn't win.
Well, how about one through six. I mentioned all those double plays,
Well, Dubon didn't hit any intoany of them. Neither did the
Legemus, and neither did Chaz.It was your two hole hitter and your
six hole hitter that did it asthree times and nine attempts at the plate.

(19:40):
But yeah, there's nothing, nothingout there that says Seattle's going to
do anything to push far away fromyou. They had their run and the
teams have kind of equalized. TheAstros started out where they couldn't win.
Seattle's in the middle of that rightnow. But they're in the middle of
it in the middle of a seasonnow with two players out after they've gotten
tremendous starting pitching for one hundred percentof the season, that's the difference.

(20:02):
It's not just the timing of whentheir slumps weren't when they got hot.
The Astros weren't healthy or good atthe beginning of the season. Now they're
not healthy, but they are good. You sit around and I know you
do well. I do, andI know a lot of people listening to
they are baseball fans. You eversit around and think not only not only
the fact that you can never actually, in my opinion, point to a

(20:22):
team unless it's wired to wire,which is very rare in baseball because there's
so many games. The Phillies aretrying to do this, Oh they will
succeed. Yeah, Like that's thebest team in baseball. I feel like
almost every year with the exception ofsome years, and I honestly think the
Astros in twenty nineteen were this teamthat it's the team that gets hottest at

(20:44):
the right time, which is atthe end of the season to vault you
into a playoff, where again,the team that gets hot during that run
or stays hot, I guess,is the team that ends up winning.
The Rangers absolutely one of those teams, and with each passing day they're proving
and I don't care about their stupidwalk off over the White Sox last night.
Why were you an extra innings againstthe White Sox? And I realize

(21:06):
I'm saying this in a city wherethe Astros got shut out by that team,
But I just you're talking about theMariners and they're pitching, and yeah,
that has been consistently good all seasonlong, but like they're you talk
about them going through their downturn rightnow and the Astros on their upturn.
It's happening at the exact same time. But I just it's hard for me
to say what these teams are,both of them, because we've seen such

(21:32):
contrasting not even styles, it's justthis is what the team was these months
right here now they're this What arethey actually though? I mean, is
it really your record is what youknow? I mean says what it is.
I feel like I've kind of beenanswering that ever since they you know,
had that start, ever since theywent to Mexico City. It's why
I keep trotting that record out there, and we're getting close to the eighty

(21:52):
one game mark since they went toMexico City. That's insane. So that's
half a season, right if you'refifteen, sixteen games over five hundred for
half of a season. That's probablywho you are. You know. The
Mariners did have a huge lead,but it wasn't because they were awesome,
man, because the Astros suck ata ten game lean lead. When the
Astros over Houston, when the Astroswere thirty three and forty, they weren't

(22:15):
twenty games over five hundred. Theywere running We kept saying all year,
nobody's running away. Well, ofcourse, not because nobody in this division
is awesome. I mean, theOrioles and Yankees record suggests, along with
the Guardians, that they're awesome.The Phillies records suggest they are awesome.
By the way, the Phillies werenot in first place until May. They
spent the first month of the seasonchasing first place, and they've run away

(22:37):
with things ever since. Sounds likethe twenty nineteen Astros. They put it
all together, for sure, andthey've had their fair share of injuries.
But I think the Mariners are exactlywhat they've been. I don't think they've
had a huge change. They've losta few more games here recently, quite
clearly, but they just have tohave to realize if they want to actually,
I mean I would fire their GMif he doesn't make two significant moves

(23:00):
this offseason for what he hasn't beenable to do the last couple of years.
Because what he said was the purposeof his job the last couple of
years, he's been reamed for itpublicly. It's probably time for the team
too, and I'm a little preemptiveon that, but they have way too
much pitching to waste these seasons.Not only do they have pitching to win

(23:21):
a division, to make the playoffs. Put him in a postseason series where
Castillo's getting the ball and Kirby's gettingthe ball and Gilbert's getting the ball.
Those are winnable series no matter whatyour roster looks like. Go make a
deal. Don't listen to any ofthat segment. Seattle. By the way,
you were talking about him being firedafter the season, not making a
deal after the season. I justwanted to clarify. If he doesn't make

(23:44):
a deal, if they don't win, I would fire him, all right.
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(24:56):
Bone, that's right. Jess asksjust my device to play Sports Talk seven
ninety on our hard Radio eighteen.Rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Tuesday edition of the program. AsTexans Training Camp continues to roll on with

(25:21):
the weather, they don't care.By the way, weather was fine.
Wow, it's getting it looks menacingeven if it isn't. It actually looked
very very menacing in between eight twentyand eight forty twenty minutes before practice was
supposed to start, it was comingdown pretty hard buckets, if you will,
but fans were still making their wayin. I mentioned yesterday where the
fans are located, the vast majorityof them. Their seats are covered,

(25:47):
a nice, nice wait to spendyour morning. But then the rain stopped.
It only drizzled throughout the majority ofthe maybe first half hour of their
their work, which includes stretching anddrills. By the time they got into
their eleven on eleven were the reinhad already stopped. Was pretty surprised that
actually worked out quite nicely. Itwas a fifth practice on their sixth day
and we still haven't even had asingle Oh my god, I can't believe

(26:08):
they're out here for two hours inthis heat practice yet those I'm sure will
be coming. Honestly, quite afew of those days will probably coincide quite
fortunately with their trip out of town. They'll pack their bags to get to
Campton, Ohio for their football game, which they will stay for several days
for so they can be there forthe induction. The game is on the

(26:29):
first. The induction is on thethird. They'll stay in Ohio with the
remainder of the week before going toPennsylvania for their game against the Steelers.
They're gonna spend ten days away ofaway from what likely will be if it's
not crazy hot and cloudless, itwill be super thick and uncomfortable. We're
close to that this morning, butnot too bad. Not a whole lot

(26:49):
of changes with the roster, andthe one that people have been paying the
most attention to remain unchanged. We'renow on the wrong side of practices participated
in. For Joe Mixon, I'vehad five. He's missed three, three
consecutive over the last four days,and still nothing definitive from the team in
order I expect there to be aboutthe reasons for it. I can tell

(27:10):
you that a lot of players havealso missed some practices here and there,
but they also normally are visible atpractice in some form or fashion. Now.
Dalton Schultz missed his day of practicethe last of their three consecutive days
last Saturday, missed the first practicethis week on Monday, which likely I'm
sure will fully confirm that, buthe was fine. It was a VET

(27:32):
off day because he practiced fully today. Today's VET off days given to John
Metchi and Nico Collins until I've learnedotherwise, but all indications based on their
participation. They were both out theretoday but not in uniform and not practicing,
and Dimiko Ryans talked about VET daysand what they're doing to try to
get guys that essentially everybody other thanJoe Mixon is at least seen now.

(27:56):
Christian Harris hasn't practiced at all.While I didn't see him the first three
days, him both of the daysthis week. He's hanging out with his
position group, and hopefully it's nottoo far off when he can get on
the field and actually practice. LaramieTunzel has been working on the side throughout
camp for each of the five practices. Today a little bit different than usual
because of those working on the side. I believe the side today was inside

(28:18):
rather than visible because the fans wereout there, so that field was being
used for some rehab players farthest away, and a lot of the guys were
over there. CJ. Henderson,I don't think I mentioned him yesterday.
He's missed each of the last twopractices, but again seen at practice.
Andrew Beck still on the pup list, but seen at practice. So it's

(28:38):
really just a matter of what's thedeal with Mixon. The group is the
same. I think that we've heardgood things from some of the players.
I'm probably not going to go toa Texans practice and say, oh my
god, I think Damian Paris looksawesome, but if a player says it,
I'll be happy to share it.If a player says it more than
one of them has said it,then it's probably more likely to be true.

(28:59):
Even though they're a teammate, andmaybe they're they're spinning it a little
bit more and feel like it.But he's definitely slimmering. I can't tell
you he hasn't looked good because hehas. But I can also tell you
in the twenty three training camps,I've seen many many players look good in
camp, especially pre pads, andthen not be able to play on Sunday
at all, or just flat outget cut. So I'm not gonna put
a whole lot of stock into whatmight be happening today. Old business.

(29:22):
Yeah, I mean it's I wantI'm there every day, but I'm not
gonna tell you what's happening there everyday is the end all be all of
what you're gonna see during the season. Titus Howard got a chance to talk
to him today and he's been oneof the linemen that's been out there every
day. Essentially, they're starting fivecurrently, they've taken all the reps.
They haven't really mixed anybody else inwith the ones. The two tackles have

(29:44):
been Fisher who's in for Laramie Tunsel, and Titus Howard at his familiar right
tackle spot. See if I canput a word in with the Texans and
then maybe help their offensive line coachesout with this and my sanity with this.
When Titus Howard spoke with us.For those of you that sometimes catch
there a video feed of these interviews, it's got a position and then the
player's name, like QB CJ.Stroud or W R. Stefan Dix.

(30:10):
Well, today it said T slashG Titus Howard. We've got to get
rid of that G. He's notan OG. I'm sorry, even though
he's been here six years, Titusis not an OG. That has to
stop They have to be able tooutfit a team, have to be able
to sign personnel, have to beable to keep bodies healthy. So Titus

(30:30):
Howard can no longer ever play OG. He can pretend to be one on
the side. He can hang outwith his peeps, he can you know,
cook him up food, have peopleover for a barbecue, OGG there,
but he cannot be an OG onSundays, Monday nights, Wednesday nights,
Thursday nights, Friday nights, Saturdaynights, or whenever the Texans are

(30:52):
on the schedule. But it wasstill good to hear from him, at
least his perspective on a few thingswith their offensive line. I asked him
about the one content stint I thinkwe're going to see this year because the
guy playing next to him has beenan absolute constant his whole career. Shack
Mason is the guard next to himon the right side, and he's a
big believer in what their tandem cando for this team. Shaq is the

(31:14):
best player I've ever played beside He'sbeen you know, he's one of the
best guards in the NFL, mostconsistent guards in the NFL. I think
he played more snaps than anybody inthe lead since like twenty fifteen, So
you know, just being besides somebodywho's that consistent is gonna help me with
my consistency to be better every day. And you know, he makes me

(31:34):
better every day and he helps mea lot, you know, you know,
being he's been playing this game fora long time. So I mean,
I feel like we're gonna, youknow, be a deadly combo.
So I'm looking forward to the seasontwenty sixteen through twenty twenty three, eight
seasons worth of football. Just acouple of games, a couple of games
that there are none in the lasttwo years for Shaq Mason. We'll get

(31:59):
the titus, his thoughts, hisown missed games in a second. But
he played every single snap last year. So what he's saying is true.
Now, the consistency part, thebeing their part, I'm not sure that
he's one of the best guards inthe league. If your availability was the
number one concern, Yes, ShaqMason is like elite among all elites.
He's there, he answers. Thebell probably needs overall a little bit better

(32:22):
work from that side. But again, ten of those seventeen games last year,
Shack Mason was not lining up nextto Titus Hour because Titus was not
on the field, he gave alittle update on the rest of the offensive
line, both how they're playing andthe health situation of his tackling partner in
crime on the other side, theleft tackle, Jeremy Tunsel. Pretty good,
Man. Oot's doing really good.I think it's just taking him his

(32:45):
stuff a little different. Butt's doinggreat. It's in great shape, feeling
good. As far as last year, Man and this year, I just
see, like the depths of guysthat we got on this team is it's
very high. We got a lotof guys that can play some football.
And uh you know, we gotthe r Fisher coming in. Uh Man,
We've been pouring into him. He'sgetting better every day. Uh So

(33:06):
he's learning a lot from me andLT and you know he's gonna be a
great player himself too. So Ifeel like we got a great roster now.
They built the basic old line theycan bill and I think, you
know, we just got to continueto work, like I said, work
every day, get better, youknow, every day, and we're probably
gonna be using down. We juststeadily keep climbing and when week one come,
we're gonna put it all together.Look out, Indy, here we

(33:27):
go. You can't call him LT. I'm sorry. It was cringey when
Ladanian was called LT. It's evencringier when it's a left tackle. LT
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Addam Clinton, Adam Wexler Fine SportsTalk seven ninety home for your ome

(34:59):
team. And now it's time toread aloud and see how wex reacts to
this. The Astros and every otherteam that fancies itself a contender pre deadline

(35:21):
are going to uh be looking tomake moves, whether or not they can.
That's that's a whole different story.But the Astros adding but not all
in. Unlike past season, theAstros aren't necessarily in the middle of high
level trade conversations. Barely a monthago, they were ten games back of
Seattle and the standings, but gothot at just the right time. Despite

(35:45):
an excellent rotation's worth of pictures onthe injured list, Justin Verlander, Christian
Javier, Lance mcculler's junior Luis Garciaand Jose Orchati. That's a depressing sentence
to read because only one of thoseguys is coming back. Maybe Luise An
eighth consecutive trip to the Alcs isno longer a pipe dream, and they
are happy to deal from their farmsystem in pursuit of winning, while the

(36:07):
first base options to fill in forthe disaster that was the Jose of braw
contractor far from plentiful. If theAstros can make some small moves while getting
Verlander and Kyle Tucker back from theIL, they are in the right division
to make it to October with amediocre looking record and do what they do
best, which is to say,win in the postseason. That's our good

(36:29):
buddy. Jeff Passon's assessment of wherethings stand here in Houston. It's probably
pretty fair, I mean what Iread there. Other than I mean,
I don't you're just assuming that JustinVerlander is gonna come back and be what
But I's he's a big, hugequestion mark. But other than that,

(36:49):
like everything that he wrote is prettymuch how I feel. They'll be trying
to do something, but it's notgoing to be sexy on paper. Pretty
unlikely. The longer they wait,the harder going to be. And I
don't mean their wait. I guessthe longer it takes to facilitate a deal
maybe the harder it's going to be. Because you're it's no different than what
I said about Jerry Depoto and theMariners. When you get close to the

(37:10):
deadline. More teams have a concreteeye of what the idea of what they're
going to do, and they thewinning teams. The teams looking to make
a move to get better are desperateand may be more willing to part with
somebody because they know it takes partingwith that somebody to outbid another team.
I mean, the Orioles are buyers, and it pretty much means if they

(37:30):
so choose, they can get anyplayer out there, literally any player out
there. They might be able toget the two or three best players out
there if that's what they want todo, because I think they have more
tradable commodities, young tradeable recent majorleaguers or products in the pipeline. Still,
if they really want to, theycould go do that. I mean,
they could trade Jackson Holiday, theycould trade Hesson, Kirstat, There's

(37:52):
so many They could trade Colton Kowser, and these are players' names, you
know. I mean they just broughtup Chase McDermott. There are so many
guy there. I actually think Seattlehas some pretty good names. They're just
not necessarily as close or as wellknown. And the teams that are in
that position. If Dana Brown callsTeam X with player Y, and then

(38:13):
Seattle or Baltimore calls that same teamabout that same player, I don't envision
any scenario where the Astros, evenif they literally said, here's our organization,
pick the names you want. Ireally don't even think they'd be able
to match some of the deals thatif these gms are going to be aggressive,
I don't think they can match that. If you took the three best

(38:34):
players off the Astros prospect list,and every GM might not see it that
way, I still just don't thinkthose players are better than you know,
three of the top eight players insome other people. And the Astros are
I hope, are not willing topart with their top three prospects. They
they've managed to do this as muchas we I guess make it a spectaclic
really just sensationalize the deals they've made. When you look at the names that

(39:00):
they've brought in, they've traded forJustin Verlander, and then they've traded for
Justin Verlander and Garrit Cole and ZachGrank, et cetera. It sounds like,
oh my, this is unreal.But you just can't envision that that
is going to be the case everytime, and they don't have the players
to do that. Part of whatyou miss when you focus on that is
why else have they won? Becauselook at who's behind them in the field.

(39:23):
Those are all pitchers who's fielding forthem and scoring the runs for them.
Drafted by the Astros, drafted bythe Astros, traded for when he
was a kid from the Dodgers,drafted by the As. They're all their
own guys, and guess what theyused to make nothing low salary players who
they either kept or moved on tothe next low salary player. Jeremy,

(39:45):
pay them? Are you going topay when the time comes to actually give
them a competitive deal? None ofthem? None of them? So these
are all or done, even gotan extension. And it's an absolute embarrassment
for a guy of his caliber tobeing paid what he is right now.
I mean, he would get hewould get that three hundred million dollar deal

(40:07):
or what was talking about with KyleTucker if he went on the open market,
if gms and owners are still inthat mode of spending the couple of
off seasons where we saw the Seegerdeal and a few others, the absolutely
youthed and production fit into that.I'm curious if anything that's happened, like
if Kyle Tucker went to free agencybefore this injury, they would have looked

(40:30):
at his medicals for five seconds.This guy's been healthy his whole career.
This is the first significant injury he'sever had, and it would make me
look at his medicals very very closely, because hitting a ball off your leg
and having a bone bruise and missingtwo months, I know math, that
doesn't make sense. So that wouldbe something that I'm curious what will look

(40:52):
like for him in the offseason.But you know, the Astros just advanced
Zach Decenzo from Double A to TripleA. He'll start playing there moving forward.
Bryce Matthews is at double A,their number one pick from last year
from Taska Seeda from Nebraska. Theseare two guys from the same side of
the infield, presumably Bryce at shortZach at third are they future Astros or

(41:13):
are they actually willing to move onfrom them in a deal. I kind
of hope they're not, you know, Bias and Melton or the other two
guys in their top five. Ofconsequence, none of these guys are really
close. They probably none of themwill make their major league debut this year,
but it's very possible several of themmake their major league debut the following
year, and depending on what moveit is the Astros make will determine whether

(41:36):
or not that's here or elsewhere.Depending on what they do with Bregman will
depend on here or elsewhere. Ican't guess what again, these other gms
think of Blue baw and you knowall the names I mentioned, there's a
few others a further a little bitfurther down the list, or anybody they've
recently added to the team. Itjust doesn't strike me that another team's system

(41:57):
doesn't have better players closer to thestart. And if they're ready to try
to start winning, then then they'llbe able to pull off the deal in
the Astros wall. That's the onlything that strikes me is the splash they're
gonna make is probably they could probablyknock all the water out of a maybe
a toddler pool. Maybe the poolyou get at the at the store that
you have to blow up and fillup with the hose. Probably not the

(42:19):
one that will qui racticdgid know,the kiddie pool, the one that is
in one piece, it's just thatlittle piece of plastic, not the one
you have to actually construct the backyardabove ground. That's an above ground pool.
The plastic. They cannot splash allthe water out of that pool with
the type of deal they make.They could but get all they could get
all the water out of a kiddiepool that you don't fill up all the
way. That's my expectation for thesplash that they'll make doesn't mean it won't

(42:44):
help them. You get an armfor the bullpen so you don't have to
throw certain guys who don't get outsanymore. You get someone who can platoon
at first base or maybe take overat first base without getting Vladimir Guerrero Junior.
Those are things that can help thisteam. And you know they are
still pretty inexperienced on their bench.And look at the last night's bench.
When a Ledmis is in the startinglineup, it's a bunch of kids.
Basically, I lad's done after thisyear, right, No, he has

(43:07):
one more year of Tea control.Okay, because I was about to say,
you make a deal for him,and you're looking to maybe try and
hang on to one of your freeagents. Now you've all of a sudden
got two holes if you don't havethat. But if he's got one more
year left on his deal, thenthat's that's a little different. You're just
pushing the problem back. Yeah.You know, if we're not signing Bregman
at the end of twenty four,well then you're also not signing Guerrero at

(43:28):
the end of twenty five. Somebody'sgonna stay like you have the money,
Yeah, you're gonna have to.It's gonna be fascinating. And yet what
does your gut tell you wouldn't youmake a deal right now? If you're
the Astros as opposed to Ah,let's just stay put and see what happens.
I think a deal will get bemade, just won't be tremendous in
nature like those other ones I keepmentioning. I think they'll do their best.

(43:50):
I think they're absolutely in it.I don't think pass and indicated that
they were but I do believe thatthey are. It's why Josh Hater is
an astro. It's the same reasonwhy they're always in it for a deal
like that one hour en two togo. Here on the eighteen, I
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(45:04):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adamtalking Your Team series. Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A Team.A Our number two is underway here on
Sports Talk seven ninety. It isa Tuesday edition of the A Team.

(45:25):
Wex and AC with you alongside theshow killer Dan Matthews, as we take
you up until six o'clock tonight,another date with the soon to be something
Else A's. I think they're gonnakeep that name. I don't know,
hopefully the Astros Sacramentes. That's good. Well, okay, do Utah?
Now the Utah is if you justput the A before the ah. Who's

(45:46):
Utah? I'm yeah, I'm lost. What is the Utah? Well,
they're gonna be in Salt Lake City, aren't they? That was the rumor.
Who is the A's. They'll playa few of their games after Sacramento,
They'll put they'll go to the Utahfor yesterday. I'm paid no attention
to the Rando games. I don'tcall the San Antonio Spurs Austin Spurs just
because they played a couple of gamesat the Moody Center. Yeah, but

(46:07):
the Utah I mean, what whatelse would you call them? Well,
they play in Sacramento, so maybethey're gonna call them something from Sacramento.
Read when they were gonna go playin Utah for a while, potentially,
is it a done deal? Idon't know. I thought they were it
is a done deal to play gamesin Sacramento until their Tropic canas. I
thought that was just for next seasonand that was all that was like solidified,

(46:30):
and that the next logical places theymigrated towards Las Vegas was gonna be
Utah. I don't know. Ijust I guess my Utah, Sacramento,
Oakland history and future location knowledge islacking. I guess I'm missing listen on
where they're playing. I don't care. If Jazz basketball fans get this less
amount of sports options as possible,that's better for me and Vernon Maxwell.

(46:52):
Well, the Jazz option is,hey, guess what, we're tanking?
You know? But they never That'sthat's the scary thing. You think you
have a good team and they makethe playoffs, but they're never going to
actually win anything. So what doyou do. They're smart now, they're
Finally, they have one player mightcare about, and they're trying to move

(47:13):
him so they can make sure tonot win very many games this year.
They won too many games last year. Yah. But if Danny Ainge gets
high draft picks, all he doesis hoard them. He never uses them.
I mean, they somehow managed todraft the two most important players to
their championship team, didn't they?How long did that take? Eight?
Didn't take too long, dude,Jason win the title? Well, you

(47:37):
don't win a title overnight with yourdraft picks. Yeah, but you can
go to the playoffs a lot andnot win and then say, all right,
we need to maybe blow this thingup, which is what they kind
of did twice without doing it tothe players. Their coach went upstairs and
Danny Ainge went away. They didn'tblow the parts that don't matter as much.
The players matter the most. Theykept them in place because they knew
they could win with them, justlike the Warriors did when they had Mark

(47:58):
Chaffy Krouse. We got rid ofthe coach, not the players. Organizations
win championships. We you know that. Everybody knows. That said it once.
I said exactly. And so allof this is to say there is
an NFL head coach that is absolutelyhigh as a kite, and you know
who it is, and I knowwho it is, and everyone else is
about to know who it is becauseI realized what he was trying to do,

(48:22):
and I realized that this is thesame organization that kept CJ. Stroud
from having an even better rookie sensationalcampaign. But and again, it's Jamison
Hensley writing this. So it's kindof like, I don't know, fill
in the blank, some reporter that'sassociated with any It'd be like Dan for

(48:45):
Baltimore, for Dan Shaughnessy writing aRed Sox article or a Patriots article.
There's a slant. I mean,I guess I don't really care. You
can ignore it if you want.It's there. He's he's not as belligerent
about it as some guys. JamesonHensley has been puffing the Ravens, you
know what, forever ever and soand again he didn't even do this.

(49:07):
This isn't even him. But whenI saw that John Harbaugh set he said
a few things about Lamar Jackson thatyou know, all coaches would say.
It's coach speak, if you will. All his life, Lamar Jackson's been
a guy who's been answering these samequestions, and he's talking about knocks on
him from media members, whoever elseout there. I'm talking about since he

(49:28):
was a kid, junior, high, high school, college, the draft,
the success he's had in the NFL. Again, it still comes up.
Okay, now, he's still growing. He's got a growth mindset.
He's going to get better and better, no doubt. But what does he
have to do to prove himself tosome people right now? Again? I
get that, especially because he wishhe wanted an answer to that rhetorical question,
because we all have it. That'sexactly what I'm about to say.

(49:52):
And the thing is, he goeson and totally just obliterates any goodwill he
had made with it, because andI get what he's saying. He's not
saying he's going to be. He'ssaying, this is the vision, all
right. So let me preface thisbecause that's the actual quote. The vision.
This is John Harbaugh again, headcoach of the Ravens. The vision

(50:13):
that we have together is that LamarJackson is going to become and be known
and be recognized as the greatest quarterbackever to play in the history of the
National Football League. He's not eventhe best quarterback in the conference, and
some would say he might not evenbe the best quarterback in his division.

(50:35):
And he's already trailing Pat Mahomes bya handful of rings. And oh,
there's this Brady guy. I getwhat he's trying to say, and maybe
even he's trying to pump up LamarJackson. But sitting here in Houston,
Texas, where CJ. Stroud justcompleted his rookie year and didn't even play
all the games in that rookie yearand put up the numbers that he did,

(50:57):
I'm willing to say right now goon the record that all things given
and he stays healthy and that's abig if in the NFL, he's going
to lap Lamar Jackson and it won'ttake that long. So how hard do
you think the people fans organization inBaltimore would laugh at you after you said
that. I don't care because theyplayed each other. Granted, he played
the Baltimore defense and obviously Lamar gotto play the Texans. You'd be the

(51:21):
first to point that out. Theydidn't play what matters. It's definitely part
of the conversation, but you haveto we're talking about a player's performance.
C J. Stroud probably had fiveor six games that would be qualified as
underwhelming or bad or awful. Bothof the Baltimore games would fall into that.
In yeah, currently one of thembeing his first ever game, clearly

(51:43):
worse than Lamar Jackson. The onlyyear he has, He's clearly worse than
the quarterback we're talking about the tech. Should I write a Texans vision for
CJ. Stroud so we can equalizethis channel your enter Demico Ryans if he
were to go on for CJ.Is for him to be the greatest quarterback
in the history of the National FootballLeague. Now, granted, I know

(52:06):
he's won one playoff game, neverbeen to a conference title game, it's
never been voted MVP. But thisis our vision. Like, I know
what you're saying, and I think, to me, when you say that
about a guy who just finished hisrookie year, it sounds less crazy than
when he says it about Lamar Jackson, who just now won an MVP and

(52:30):
still had a second time. Hestill hasn't won squat though he won the
MVP in a second season. Hejust won it again in his sixth season.
He only yet they were trying todecide if they wanted to extend this
guy before that second MVP campaign,or they were trying to decide if they
could get it more on their termsversus his terms. The idea that he
wasn't gonna play there even though hewas technically available for other teams to go

(52:52):
after. I said it then,so I know I can say it again
out never believe he was playing afootball game anywhere else anytime soon. Eventually,
maybe he's not a lifer, butI felt it at the time.
Five seasons of football, and thefifth season ended so badly because he was
heard because they were good enough toreally win big and could he play?
Is he healthy? That whole thingcame up, and the team's defending him

(53:15):
now, probably even more than theydefended him then, because I think there
was a little bit of uncertainty aboutit from an injury standpoint. This is
also their guy, and this iswho they're taught. They can't not super
support him, right. But hedid essentially present a very easily answerable question
because he said, what does heneed to do basically to get people off

(53:36):
of his back? Have to dois win in the playoffs. It's hard.
But that's the answer to the question, what if Mike McCarthy said this
about Dak Prescott. But Dak Prescott'spostseason is full of disaster. Lamar Jackson's
postseason, to me, has somepoor play, but mostly just they didn't
outscore the other team. So you'resaying, I think Dak's play especially so

(53:58):
the reason and they've lost these gamesis what you're saying. And in Lamar's
case, it's not. Their defensewas so bad to start that game.
He might have been able to keepthem in the game if he didn't throw
those two disastrous first half interceptions.I agree. I think their defense was
god awful against Jordan Love at homein Arlington, and that's why Jordan loves

(54:20):
about to get massive. But eacheach I mean each year we go back
and watch the Cowboys or we watchit live, they're finding ways to look
awful, to get walked over,to get embarrassed, to do something foolish
in the postseas. And you know, Dak is also not sitting with two
MVP trophies in his locker and Lamaris, so the expectations should be greater.

(54:43):
Nobody thinks Dak's better than Lamar.Nobody would want I don't think would
want Dak over Lamar, even withwhatever warts you think they might have.
I would be all in on Lamarfor all the reasons he's saying, Like,
just right now, twenty twenty four, somebody's gonna win the Super Bowl
and it's not the Chiefs. It'snot Pat Mahomes, and they're not even

(55:06):
getting to the super Bowl. Thesenames we've just talked about have got to
be the first two on the listof who we think is gonna get there.
If it's not the Chiefs. Outof the AFC, the first draft
pick is probably Lamar Jackson's Ravens.The next draft pick is probably C.
J. Stroud's Texans or Eminem's Bengals. Seriously, that is the first thing

(55:27):
I thought of. Well, theBengals made it kind of easy for you
with their caption. I didn't evensee that. I saw the picture.
I look who's back. I waslike, Hi, my name is It
was crazy, I said, theysaid, they set it up that way.
They sent out a picture of JoeBurrow. If you haven't seen it,
he is cook almost cleanly sharmed.He's got enough blonde bright blonde hair
on top of his head for theminem reference. So that's what they use.

(55:51):
They said, look who's back asthey welcomed their team to camp.
I said, they did this notfor the fun today, but for the
fun they can have and November orOctober, after Joe's missed six or seven
games, then they can say backagain later this year. In a subsequent
tweet, he is injury prone.He just I know he went to a

(56:13):
super Bowl, but he's also injuryprone. And he's this is what year
four, five, five? Ohman, I'm getting old. I had
no idea. All right, whenwe come back here on the A Team
Sports Talk seven ninet. You justmentioned another quarterback that we will get to
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(57:19):
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five. Back to Adam Clinton andAdam Wexler the eighteen It is the eighteam

(57:44):
here on Sports Talk seven ninety Tuesdayedition of the program. Adam Clinton right
here, he's Adam Wexler over there. Uh mentioned this a little bit earlier
when we were talking about you knowhow it comes down to quarterback playing the
NFL lamar jack. Since at thetop of the heap along with the you
know, Pat Mahomes, And Iguess it's weird every time I say that

(58:07):
Joe Burrow, I hesitate because ofthe injuries. But I know what he
is when he's fully healthy, orat least we've seen what he is,
and he's already gone to a superBowl, and you can't ignore that.
So if that's at the top ofthe heap, and you have this young
influx of talent already playing and playingat a high level, well at least
some of the guys that were draftedJordan Love few years back famously Packers,

(58:30):
you could actually say that that wasthe beginning of the end of the Aaron
Rodgers era because he was not happyabout that pick. Yeah, I guess
feelings hurt exactly just like his predecessordid. It's actually crazy the carbon copy
situations. There's obviously some differences,but the Packers once again are looking like
they made the right choice. Butare they gonna make the right choices?

(58:52):
They give this guy fifty million ayear, Yeah, you have no hesitation
about that, no hesitation? Howmany years has he played effectively in the
NFL once? So I know thisis the same thing you're doing with C.
J. Stroud, Bingo but it'sdifferent. Why because he's been there
a long time and if he werethis good, why he would have started

(59:15):
over Aaron Rodgers. Right, No, never, Well, CJ. Stroud
would have at least pushed Aaron Rodgersbased on what we saw his rookie year,
would he not? Aaron Rodgers didn'teven push Brett Farvre and Jordan Loves.
No, Aaron Rodgers because Brett Farvwouldn't let him. They didn't draft
him to push him. They draftedhim to start when he was no longer
here. There's no competition in theseinstances. Aaron Rodgers was not competing with

(59:38):
Brett, and Jordan Love wasn't competingwith Aaron. Both of them so upset
if there was no competition, becausethese guys have egos, and in both
cases, for very different reasons,they both have major issues, major issues.
What's Aaron Rodgers' biggest issue? Itis Maine, he says, I
Pat No, no, no,no, no no. It's more about

(59:59):
how it's amazing how good he isat playing football and the things he does
that actually make it harder to playgood football. No, I agree with
you, and it is nothing todo with his comments about shots or some
of the things he said on macvie. It's literally just about some of the
actions that took place while he wasin Great Bay football wise, and same

(01:00:20):
thing is happening in New York.And obviously he thinks the whole situation of
him missing field time during non mandatoryportions of their offseason has been blown out
of proportion, especially the way hisown coach handled it. Why Robert saw
it put it out there like that, I still don't know, because all
it does is whether it's only externalwith us the media or the media there

(01:00:43):
in New York Jersey. If it'snot a problem inside their locker room,
then all this is a bunch ofnonsense. But I sometimes I tend to
believe it is a little bit ofa problem. But the point of this
whole commentary was what's your concern levelif you're the Packers. He happens to
be going into year four, justlike a lot of other quarters at this
time in their respective careers, whereit's time to extend them. And he

(01:01:04):
has told then that I'm not comingto camp without an extension. Their GM
basically talked about that today. Sothey've been talking to them about putting one
together big deals take a long time, but they're confident they can figure something
out. I think it's a boldmove by Love as the quarterback to stay
away. That doesn't help the othereighty nine guys that are there currently,

(01:01:27):
But I understand it's all about whichhurts you, by the way, which
does hurt you. But it's kindof it's almost unfair to say, you
know, like it's okay for somebodyelse at another position to hold out,
but your your position too important.You can't fight for your own money.
He's different than anybody else trying toget his guaranteed money where he thinks he's
earned it. He put in histime watching and then he put in his

(01:01:47):
field time and what did he do? He was phenomenal last year. As
the year wine wound down and theywanted to make the playoffs, he led
them there as great as CJ.Stroud was to his whole rookie year,
and certainly at the end. Therewere five quarterbacks last year from November on
that had a Passer rating of oneoh six or better and CJ was at

(01:02:09):
the bottom of that awesome list.He was one of the five. He
was fifth. Brock Purdy was atthe top. At one twenty one.
Dak As was at one eleven.Jordan Love was right above C. J.
Stroud at one o eight. Wasthat five names that I gave?
I think so? I hope so, because that was actually four, But
I don't want to say the fifthwhy Derek Carr also at one oh eight.

(01:02:30):
Oh my gosh. But Jordan Love'slast ten games twenty one touchdowns,
three picks, and then he wentto the playoffs in his very first playoff
game and crushed it and helped themliterally crush the Cowboys. When he had
done that and then played another goodgame, right, would he have done
that in any other game? Though? And here's what I mean by okay,

(01:02:51):
I mean I'm not I'm not takingI'm not putting words in my mouth.
I'm not taking anything away from hisperformance. But and I'm not even
saying that, Oh it's the Cowboysautomatically, They're gonna just absolutely fall for
that on their faces. They will. It's just a matter of which round.
It's not always the first round,right, I don't win a game

(01:03:13):
or two every now and again,But then they'll get you embarrassed in some
way, shape or form. Butlike the setting was ripe for it.
All the pressure was on the Cowboysin that game, believe it or not.
That's how I feel anyways, goinginto that thing, and I know
how they hyped it, and itwas Fox, and they love the Cowboys,
right, and they love the Cowboysversus the Packers, and the playoffs

(01:03:35):
just change out the players, thosejerseys on the field together in the postseason.
That's good stuff. But I feltlike what happened to Dallas was not
even that surprising, given not onlywhat they're usually gonna do this time of
year, but given the pressure goinginto that game, because it was all
on the table. So Jordan Lovewas like, all right, I'm gonna
do what I've done all season.I'm gonna let it rip. What do

(01:03:58):
I have to lose. Nobody thinkswe're gonna win. We're up against the
big bad Cowboys, which is justfunny to say out loud. And what
we saw was not a shock tome. I mean, I'm not gonna
go that far personally. I mean, they were up twenty seven to nothing
in twenty eight minutes. That wasa big shock to me. Well,
it was a big shock because ofwho it was happening against. It's just

(01:04:19):
playing that it's in the playoffs andyou're on the road. That's pretty rare.
Yeah, But what I'm getting atis much like CJ. And it's
getting to my next point about thesetwo. He is a guy that plays
like he's got nothing to lose,house, money, whatever cliche you want
to apply to. That's what helooked like on that day. And that's

(01:04:39):
not to take away anything from him. He just didn't look like he was
under pressure, is what I'm gettingat. But here's the deal. These
two, even though they're very,very different in their timelines as NFL quarterbacks,
it feels like they're gonna be,you know, more so than Bryce
Young over here. They're gonna bethe two that are joined at the hip
because they're the two that splashed ontothe in the same season, even though

(01:05:00):
Jordan Love's been sitting there for afew years. Yeah, the difference in
contractual timing is one thing that'll separatethem. The way they burst on the
scene is very similar, and theirend of seasons were extremely similar. That's
why I pointed out those numbers.We were looking at the AFC side and
going CJ just keeps piling up thesestrong performances clearly the injury was also in
that group, but around that hewas playing so well. These games were

(01:05:21):
so important. The same thing washappening with Love. They needed to win
all these games in order to makesure that they could get to the playoffs.
Then they both got there. Whatdid they do in their first games?
Jordan Love went on the road andembarrassed the Dallas Cowboys and three of
their first four drives were touchdowns.And what did CJ do in his opening
postseason game? Granted it was athome and he had got to play Joe

(01:05:42):
Flacco on the other side. Theywere great. Their offense was really good,
Their defense was insanely good and mademuch of what they did very easy.
But you know, pick out theseplays is that Bobby called and CJ
and the offense executed the touchdown passto Dalton Schultz where you missdirection it and
he's just absolutely wide open. Theseare the things that you're like, and
my guy gets it. The guyhere in Houston is gonna be the real

(01:06:05):
deal. Yeah, I have noqualms at all. If I'm Green Bay,
lock him up, pay him.It's just the way it is,
and the timing of it is he'llbe If not the highest paid quarterback because
of the timing, He'll be veryvery close, and in two years,
CJ will be one of several quarterbacksmaking more money than Jordan Love purely out
of timing. Yeah, it's alwaysabout timing with all of these positions,

(01:06:27):
but specifically at the quarterback position.I guess I don't know why. To
me though, it just feels differentbecause he's had those years sitting there.
Like, I guess I should bemore confident that Jordan Love can have a
repeat you know, two point zeroif you will, of his basically his
rookie season, even though it's not. I mean, his first chance to

(01:06:49):
show that he could play was thisyear. M hm, he was great,
same with CJ exactly, But Ijust I feel like more like CJ
is going to be the guy thatdoes that. I don't know, maybe
you know the first play schedule andall that stuff does come into play.
Well, just think about it thisway. It's just one way to keep
these guys. If you want toconnected, who's sophomore season as a starter

(01:07:13):
do you expect to be more successful? I think Jordan Love, his offense
and his Packers are set to havea more successful season due to him kind
of separating the team record in thedefense than CJ in his situation. I
mean, I think it's basically acoin flip and not to I'm not trying
to dog either one of them.I think they're both tremendous and that's why
they But Detroit won the division.Yep, they were second. That's kind

(01:07:40):
of be I mean, it canbe at least at times a significant change
in the strength of schedule. Imean it's two games, but yeah,
the difference between those two teams couldbe dramatic. I mean, if we're
all foreboding, we if people areforeboding, hey, get ready. Could
be a little bit of a letdownif you're a Texans fan this year.
I mean, one guy I thinksthey're not even winning the division again because

(01:08:01):
culture gonna be so good. SoI just I don't know, I'm very
interested to see And again talking aboutthe pressure, CJ's gonna be under pressure
this year. You have to havean encore for that. That's not gonna
be very much fun. So anyways, just a few things to look at
as we're days literally into training campin the Texans case, and CJ.

(01:08:24):
Stroud and company are looking to obviouslytake that next step. Speaking of taking
the next step, our next stepwill be our signature segment coming up next
here on the eighteen Cannonball weekends arebetter all the way with Astros Baseball.
Just tell your smart device lex upplay sports Stock seven ninety on iHeartRadio.
Have you been following the soap operathat is the Brandon AYUK San Francisco forty

(01:08:49):
nine ers. I don't even knowif it's gonna be a soap opera,
right, Sure, sure, hewants money. They want him to play
football for less money. Yeah,but he also demanded a trade, did
he not? Somewhere along the wayin there reportedly? Yes, there has
to be The timeline has to belaid out, even if you don't have
specifics. He's in the fifth yearof a first round draft pick deal,

(01:09:09):
so it's the option year that theypicked up. He would like to be
paid handsomely, as many other widereceivers did get done this offseason in other
places. His teammates with Deebo Samuelat that position, who has been granted
that massive long term extension. Hehad a spectacular season last year. He
has been an improved player every year. Wants his money, mean he wants

(01:09:32):
trade if he's not going to getit, and then there's option C,
which was today. We fully intendon Brandon being a Niner moving forward.
We're always open to listen to things. But like I said, we expect
Brandon to be an integral part ofour team like he has been and excited
about that. That is from GMJohn Lynch, and like this happens I

(01:09:59):
don't know a million million times overthe course of the history of the NFL.
I mean, this is not outof the ordinary, but from the
way things were being written and spokenabout this particular situation, I thought he
was all but gone. And forJohn Lynch to say that, I get
he's supposed to say that, especiallyyou know, when he's out in front
of the media for the first timeor one of the first times for training

(01:10:21):
camp. But this guy I thoughtwas going to actually be out of town
because of the trade request. Well, he's also now officially reported for the
start of training camp. All indicationsare what John Lynch said is accurate and
he will play this season with theNiners, who haven't really continued talking about

(01:10:43):
a contract extension. They did spenda bunch of time on that during the
off season and essentially didn't get farenough along where they felt like they were
close enough to come to an agreement. So they really haven't done a whole
lot and because of that, becauseof the stalled negotiation, because really the
lack of negotiations, I think thiswas his next logical step. I think
he and his agent said, well, then we need to demand a trade,
which should facilitate something. Presumably ifwe get traded, it's because that

(01:11:09):
team is going to give us theextent we're seeking or they don't want to
trade us. And one of theways that can prevent it is them finally
getting closer to what we want andmaybe we can come to an agreement.
And there is still that third option. He's under contract for the upcoming season
pretty good rate, it's not quiteat the level of so many others,
and there's nothing after this year,which is really all that we're talking about

(01:11:31):
here, not even what he's makingthis year, but what he's not set
to make. He's set to makezero guaranteed dollars in twenty twenty five and
beyond, and that is why noNFL players at this level of skill want
to do that. But that thatthird option is he plays football for the
Niners on a one year deal,which is the last year of his five
year deal. I mean, isthe hold in versus the hold out where

(01:11:53):
he could show up like he's donebut just not take take part in anything
physical so as I got to gethurt. I suppose he could do that.
But either way, I still thinkthis lends to the Niners have such
a good opportunity to win it allthis year, even without maybe committing to
Ayuk for the long term, whichultimately probably forces them to not be partners

(01:12:14):
with Deebo Samuel long term even thoughhe's under contract, might facilitate a different
deal, but for one more yearwhen you're clear, Like we talk so
much about who's next in line,if Mahomes doesn't win it in the AFC,
well then is it Jackson or Burrowor Stroud or somebody else TUA that's
going to be next in line.I mean, I think Detroit's really good
with Jared Goff, and I thinkthe Eagles and Jalen Hurts are pretty good.

(01:12:39):
But it's the same. Even thoughthe Niners and Purty aren't the same
as Mahomes and the Chiefs, theyare the same in terms of they're the
overwhelming favorite. It's the only SamPresty and James Harden. Why would you
keep yourself from winning this year?Figure it out later. Don't mess up
what you have right now in placeto win if you can, at all,

(01:13:01):
at every cost, not do it. And I don't know if you're
going to say, well, hegave Bosa his money ultimately, and they've
given Dido his money, so thatmeans you've given Durant his money and Westbrook
his money. I'm not really surewhere giving Surge his money before you gave
James his money fits into the equationaire. I'm not sure which player that is.
You paid Serge Ibaka over James Harden. Well, it's just the timeline.

(01:13:24):
They weren't. It's not like theywere paying him so much more,
just they did it first, soit made it harder to then offer James
what he would have said yes to. So it's just I think that they
can't go forward in twenty twenty fourwithout Ayuk on the roster and feel good
about themselves. And it's at theplayer's monetary expense. But most of the

(01:13:44):
time the team will find a wayto win even if he somehow ends up
getting moved. There's probably way whereeither whatever it is they get in return
will help them turn into something great. All that being said, how are
the Niners on offense possibly gonna winwithout Brandon Ayuk? What are they gonna
do? Throw the ball to DeeboSamuel or George Kittle or hand it off

(01:14:05):
to Christian McCaffrey. I guess ifyou want to win that way, they're
so freaking good. Did McCaffery alsojust get a deal to Yes? Yeah,
that's and he got married. Hedid. TikTok. Has us all
for you if you want it?Yeah? Uh, you know why they're
not constantly thrownut? I mean theyare, but they aren't. Purdy is

(01:14:26):
still you know, we just gotdone talking about Lamar Jackson proving it.
Purdy has got to do more beforepeople aren't gonna look at him as whatever
they look at him as. Iknow happen to be one of those guys.
I think they can win with thisguy, especially with the talent you
just mentioned around him. But forwhatever reason, I don't feel like he's
given the same respect as some ofthese elite level quarterbacks, namely because of

(01:14:49):
the way he came to be thestarter. It's definitely the first reason why.
But if you didn't know who hewas, and he never took his
helmet off so you couldn't see that, he looks twelve and you just watch
the football and they keep going downthe field and scoring, and he keeps
putting the ball where his receivers aregoing to catch it, and he keeps
executing the plays properly, setting upa screen, properly, drawing and whatever

(01:15:10):
it is he has to do onthe play to make it work. He
keeps doing his job. He's notflipping over people, he's not out running
people, he's not throwing for fourhundred and fifty yards. But they sure
do a lot of winning when heplays quarterback, and he sure does wear
a lot of khakis, so he'sHis timeline is also the thing that separates
him. He's not in line forthe big paycheck, but when he is,

(01:15:31):
in my opinion, he'll get it. This is year three for him
as opposed to year four for Love. It's funny because that might be the
one team that I would say,okay, if they take the next logical
step, they could be Otherwise,it's the forty nine ers conference to win
again. Yeah, that's what Iget got, just got done. Say.

(01:15:54):
I think the level of favorite statusis very comparable in both cofferences.
The Niners are overwhelming favorites and theChiefs are overwhelming favorites, and those chasing
them golf love Prescott versus Stroud,Burrow, Jackson. I mean there's still
a step behind. But you know, when you say those teams' names in

(01:16:16):
both conferences, it's just like theCowboys shouldn't with what they've done, just
from a winning standpoint, And yeah, I could have said hurts, but
I did the initial time. I'llgive you this last little say what nugget
on the Cowboys as they are setto be in training camp. Tomorrow is
reporting day. Where do the Cowboyshave training camp? Uh? Someplace in

(01:16:40):
California with an X init Southern California. So how do you get there?
Got to get on the plane.So from David Moore covers the Cowboys for
the Morning News. Cowboys charter onthe runway a couple hours ago in Dallas
about to depart for Southern California.Seee Lamb is not on the flight.
A person with knowledge of his datussaid he'll be deemed a holdout tomorrow for

(01:17:03):
their official reporting date. Say what, cowboys, you don't want to give
any money to anybody, Mike daccd, Come on, Jerry, I'll
always remember my friend Adam and myother friend Adam and maybe another Atom if
they get another guy on the show. That's why they call this splitting the
atom. Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler, and I don't give us about either

(01:17:28):
the eighteen. It is the Ateam Sports Talk seven ninety We are winding
down the four o'clock hours, stillone more to go. Astros and A's

(01:17:49):
Game two tonight. Jake Bloss andthe Astros looking to get their first win
in that series. I want togive away a pair of tickets to Third
Eye Blind and a little bit here. We've been doing that all weeks.
You'll need to You'll need to havebeen listening. Don't even bother. If
you weren't going to uh, ifyou were trying to get these tickets,

(01:18:12):
if you weren't listening earlier on theshow, you just tuned in. I
don't know if you're gonna be ableto do it, because you'll need to
know the answer is seven one threetwo one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. I was talking to you about this
earlier a little bit, and Iactually wasn't clear on it yet. And
look it it's the NBA off seasonand the Team USA Shenanigans are still ongoing.

(01:18:36):
Kevin Durantz the latest member of thatsoap opera. Although a free throw
shooting contest involving Lebron James was aboutwhat you would have expected for him and
his ego. But I this package, this TV package and the end as
we know it of TNT Sports.I didn't even know this was an option

(01:18:59):
with the negotiiations. They have informedTNT the NBA that they plan to use
their matching rights to continue broadcasting theleague games. The network is targeting the
eleven year package that was signed byAmazon Prime. While TNT has the contractual
right to match an offer per itscurrent contract, the NBA is expected to

(01:19:25):
decline the networks right to take theagreed upon Amazon package. This is according
to sources. The league's preference isto honor the one point eight billion per
year contract signed with Amazon. Soagain, before reading any more details into
this, it looks like, allright, we're exercising our right to match

(01:19:45):
with this competitor is coming in andtrying to do and the NBA saying now
we're good, and in so doingsaying this is the end of inside the
NBA. If you're the NBA andthe money's the same, why would you
choose anything over a proven commodity inthe thirty plus year range of continuity here.
If this statement is accurate, thismight be a reason why Amazon's Prime

(01:20:09):
Video has about twice as many globalsubscribers as the Max platform, which is
where TNT would be found. Ifyou're comparing them obviously as an over the
air there's a little bit different elementto it all. So it's not apples
to apples necessarily, but they're alsotrying to follow the pretty well established trend
of where broadcasting is going digitally speaking, subscribers speaking, it is streaming,

(01:20:34):
et cetera, depending on the platform. I mean, isn't Apple TV losing
its ass right now? On MajorLeague Baseball? I'm not talking about profitability
because if we want to talk aboutthat, when we probably might mention that
the Four Letter Network, where they'rethe biggest home hemorrhaging, I mean,
they've been losing money forever. That'snot really I can't. They're not even

(01:20:55):
good at it, especially the NBA. It's terrible. It's a terrible problem.
If you if I went and polled, I don't know. Let's just
take two thousand NBA fans, justa nice round number what you've got.
You're stuck with one coverage for life, and tell the people that do the
coverage croak and they're gonna all it'sone hundred percent of them would take T

(01:21:15):
and T over ESPN's crap. WeESPN could have the second best team you
could love, It wouldn't matter.They'd still be second. You might hate
them, but I mean, they'renot gonna They're never gonna outshine this group
whether active right now, which they'renot gonna be that. I go back.
This is like the first day wetalked about the TNT crew, which
everybody is crying about losing. AndI'm not saying it to be mean.

(01:21:38):
It's that's how people are acting.It's fine, it's not going to be
here forever, no matter what.It was going to go away, probably
relatively soon. Maybe their texture,Okay, what's the difference. Either it's
on the air or it's not right. It's not on their terms. It's
not on the air. That's thedifference. Well, I don't care who's
what I'm saying is Charles is notdoing this for another five years? Three

(01:22:01):
years? I mean, how longwere they really going to be doing this
because everyone seems broken up that whateveryou do, if it's not exactly the
same year's minimum, I think,seriously, Okay, so we lose out
on the last five years of theshow, but it hasn't dropped off in
quality at all. If anything,it's gotten better. His most viral moment
just happened, Dirty ass Water.That was just like a few months ago.

(01:22:23):
Poor Galveston never saw it coming.I still should. If Charles wants
to be on TV and wants tobe how he's been, it's going to
happen. And if he's the guyand he is just driving everybody to go
watch that program. No offense toShaq, Kenny, Candae, Left,
Goo, Ernie or anybody else that'sbeen on it is Charles, He'll it'll

(01:22:46):
get done. So they're gonna stickCharles with a new cast, is what
you're predicting here, A new castthat might include multiple people who's worked with
before, multiple people that he's helpedhands. Hey, I don't want to.
I don't want to see Charles Barkleyand Steven A. Smith because that
guy is going to ruin it foreveryone. Yeah, and I don't think

(01:23:08):
Charles wants that either. I cansee a network throwing a bunch of money,
and I'm trying to make that happenthough heed Land on another of their
partners, not ESPN, Amazon,some other, yes, some other partner
besides that one. To avoid exactlywhat you're talking about. That's not covering
the game, that's not talking aboutthe game, that's saying, man,

(01:23:30):
I'm used to the format that theyhired me to do, so no matter
where they put me on, inwhat role I'm going to be, I
believe this is the successful path,says Steven A. Smith. I'm going
to yell louder than everybody, andthat is how I will be a studio
analyst. And it's just not Itdoesn't really work for any of the other
panelists. It doesn't really even worknecessarily for too much of the audience now
on their own respective YELLI shows.It definitely doesn't work when you're trying to

(01:23:55):
talk about the game that's about tohappen, the game that's halfway through happening
or the game that's just finished with. And you know what helps it work
even less when you show up tothe game and act like you're playing in
it, with your entrance comical atbest. It's just now, that's the
only time I would like to seeCharles out there, because they did have
people like Chris Russo and Molly mockingsteven A for it. But I think
Charles would do a much better jobon his own show. Yeah. You

(01:24:19):
and I though, have have actuallyset foot in those areas where those types
of shots take place. I've donewhat steven A has done, except without
a man bag, without a handler, or without sunglasses or strutting. I've
actually just walked into the arena,like you're wearing this medium suit too.
I've worn a suit to a basketballagain. It wasn't pink. I don't

(01:24:40):
think it's I think his suit fit. Yeah, well you know it fit
a little too well. So hegoes to games to be on TV and
talk about them, right, Idid that, you know, for ten
to fifteen games last year. Samething. Me and Stephen a same person.
It seemed like it was more althoughthe other person with me was doing
a little more analyzing and his suitwas a little bit better fitting, and
it made more sense for him tobe himself and not yelling either. Well

(01:25:03):
he was yelling because it's loud inthe arena. Well he didn't have to
yell though, because his suit yellsfor him. Calvin, we love you
Louis for doing this. Yeah,absolutely, we are all right. It
is the A team here on SportsTalk seven ninety. We will get to
giving away those tickets very shortly.Don't worry. I'm I'm realizing that we
ran out of time to do iteffectively. In this segment right here,

(01:25:28):
there is another NFL item that it'sit's not really a surprise. Everybody's seen
this coming. I think the onlydifference is that unlike the last time the
NFL did this, it's it's happeningagain much much more quickly. And while
it'll it's gonna make a lot ofmoney and eventually everything's gonna be everybody's gonna

(01:25:48):
be happy, the fans will behappy. Put it that way. I
actually do think that the players aregoing to really be loud and in your
face about it, whoever you are, whether they're going on with media or
anything like that. I think they'regoing to do that, probably more than
you're anticipating when and if this goesdown. And the thing is, I

(01:26:11):
think it's going to go down alot sooner than anybody thinks. Because the
NFL is all about making money.They will be making money again when this
happens. And like I said,the players are the ones that are going
to suffers kind of a strong word, I guess, but they're they're gonna
be the ones affected the most negatively. We'll tell you about that in the
five o'clock hour. Next two lifelongHouston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team

(01:26:40):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are theA team A. Hey, you're right
if puss football Football Professionals Wolves inAmerica is a special game. Football at

(01:27:05):
five is under away here on aTuesday edition of the A Team to get
the third hour kicked off, andI know that it's it's gonna be an
interesting article on this topic when itsays the league and the players Association have
had discussions at a quote very highlevel over potentially adding an eighteenth regular season

(01:27:30):
game to the schedule in the NFL. We have talked at a very very
very three fairies high level, superficiallywith a recognition about, yeah, this
is something we should be talking aboutand we should really kick the tires and
understand what goes into that decision makingprocess. Where does the eighteenth game come
from? I think the foregone conclusionas well. You just grab it,

(01:27:50):
like in what would otherwise be preseasongames in August, you play, you
play it forward. But these aredetails that really need to be fleshed out.
But again, and there are othereconomic, health and safety matters that
also need to be clear to ourmembers before there's ever an agreement on an
eighteenth game. That is from theNFLPA executive director Lloyd Howe. He told

(01:28:12):
that to the Washington Post, andthat's what I wanted to get to here.
Did you feel like there was evenremotely a lot of blowback from the
players about the health aspect when theseventeenth game was added? Because I don't
remember virtually hearing anything, and Icould be wrong, but I don't remember
hearing a ton about it. Imean, adding one is probably something,
especially when you take away one preseasongame. Although they weren't likely to be

(01:28:35):
seeing too many reps in it.From an economic standpoint, it kind of
stunts any argument if we're going toultimately end up making more money, and
that's always questionable. You know,if you're talking about the group as a
whole, from a percentage of therevenues that's going into players salaries, then
yeah, you could argue you're makinga little bit more money because of it.

(01:28:56):
Clearly you're generating more revenues because ofit. And this should all be
applicable to any new TV deals orany contingencies and current TV deals. If
you're buying a sixteen game package andnear now's the seventeenth game, you're buying
a seventeen game package, and here'snow an eighteenth game, that is a
tremendous addition to your intake. Samething as it was a tremendous addition when
you've added playoff teams and thus addedplayoff games unless open the door for Amazon

(01:29:21):
to bid on games and all theseother outlets that are just lining your pockets
with billions of dollars. I don'tthink the blowback was enormous because I think
everybody, even the players know it, even though they know what it's going
to ultimately do to them health wiseand potentially because of that, what's ultimately
going to do to the quality ofthe game. If these injuries are too

(01:29:44):
specific players that throw the football often, then yes, it's going to be
have a massive impact on what we'reactually seeing. But of course they're playing
eighteen games and the very near future. Everybody knows it, and everybody knew
it when they went to seventeen soonthough, well, this is only year
four with seventeen games. You know, I'll always remember the first year of
seventeen games. That's the coach Kullyera. Nobody could forget that. Stop

(01:30:08):
it. This will be the firsttime the Texans will attack a seventeen game
season with the same coach they hadthe year before. Pretty Tamiko Rians will
be coaching an eighteen game schedule,and probably before c. J. Stroud
has earned any money on his secondcontract. So you're saying within five years,
I'm saying within four years, Well, this is year two and then

(01:30:29):
three more years before technically he's stillon his rookie contract. I think I
think that's the answer. And youknow, Joe Burrow talked about it briefly
and though some people said, Ithe NFLPA is not happy that he put
it out there, like they're gonnabe so accepting of it. They're gonna
fight all they can and they're gonnalose, and ultimately they're gonna get a
little bit more money and the leaguewill get a lot more money. But

(01:30:50):
what's gonna end up happening. Idon't I don't think it's really going to
take away from their ratings pile,thus their money making pile. It's going
to take away from the actual gamesitself. It's thirty two teams in the
NFL. How many teams do youthink had their starting quarterbacks start all seventeen
games last year? Because this isultimately what we're talking about. It it's
a shame if Nico Collins misses threegames. It's a shame if you know,

(01:31:12):
Joe Mixon can't play every game.But it's different if CJ misses three
games. So that's my question.How many of the thirty two teams do
you think started their quarterback all seventeentimes? The answer is not zero?
Is it? That's not zero?No? Three, It's nine, which
is not a very high percentage ona seventeen game schedule. We're going to
eighteen, and I'll give you thefact that it's probably closer to ten or

(01:31:33):
eleven or twelve when some of thoseone game missed starters were missing because well,
why should we play them in weekseven game seventeen when it doesn't matter.
But I'm not giving it to youbecause it's almost a guarantee that three
or four teams are gonna have aneighteenth game that doesn't matter. They might
have a seventeenth and eighteenth game thatthey might not feel compelled to play their

(01:31:57):
starter in, depending on if thisalso impacts what the players look like in
the future. But it's not evenso much that not everybody played their quarterback
all these games. It's about howmany teams had their quarterback miss multiple games,
whether it was two like CJ andMatt Stafford, whether it was four
like Justin Herbert, whether it wasseven like Joe Burrow, whether it was
eleven like Deshaun whether it was thirteenlike Anthony Richardson, where it was sixteen

(01:32:21):
if it's Aaron Rodgers. Their qualityof football is diminishing with how much football
you're asking these players to actually play. You're not taking a preseason game away
and putting it in regular season,calling it equal preseason games four preseason games,
three preseason games, whatever number youwant to go with for whichever team
you're talking about. Give me thetwenty two starters snap count for their full

(01:32:45):
preseason's worth of in game activity.It's next to nothing. Give me an
additional game instead of an additional preseasongame. All five linemen are taking seventy
five snaps in that game. Thequarterback's taking seventy five snaps, The defensive
linemen are taking sixty more snaps.Now you're doing it in an eighteenth game
because you've taken away two preseason games. This is where it actually matters.

(01:33:09):
You're not still playing twenty It's atotal farce. If people think that's what
they actually did. The preseason gamesare not the same. They're not even
close to the same. Now you'reasking your linemen, your linebacker's, your
skill guys, your quarterback to stayhealthy for eighteen games worth of snaps seventy
to eighty snaps eighteen times just toget to the playoffs right right, and

(01:33:32):
by the way, the last timethey change the schedule. As you mentioned,
the call of year twenty twenty one, it's okay to call it an
era. It almost lasted twelve months. Hey, when you do that,
sixteen to seventeen games in twenty twentyone. Do you remember how it passed?
How it pat like when they votedon this to do this? No,

(01:33:53):
what do you think how many voterswere there? Which percentage sixty three
and a half fourteen point two.I don't have any idea fifty one point
five. This was not like anoverwhelmingly Oh let's do it. Who are
you saying is voting on this theNFLPA, Yeah, okay, I think
it'll pass just because propably the samemargin. I don't know, man,

(01:34:15):
If it was that close to go, where's money involved? That will be
the argument. If this is away for us to make our group more
money, significantly more money, it'llit'll happen. And if it doesn't happen,
I bet you there's another way forthe NFL to force it through.
What do you mean by force itthat? That always feels like they okay,
well they voted against it. Welllet's go. Let's go about this

(01:34:35):
a new way. If we're gonnado this, we're gonna do this.
The concession is you got to giveus an eighteenth game. Give them something
else, give them this, givethem something else. Here. Essentially,
if they vote that down, well, then they probably are trying to force
the lead to give them a biggerpiece of a pie, which is getting
bigger. The pie they're eating fromgot bigger and it's only getting bigger,

(01:34:57):
and they want their slice to becommensurate with that. Many of our players
have said they're going to ask formore games. So one of the things
you learn in this business is thisapplies back to the obvious. I know
you're going to ask for more gamesbecause that generates more money, and to
be fair, don't we all wantto grow the pie. I just wanted
you to know that you're glad thoughtthat was used in there. But I

(01:35:17):
will add this to the discussion.And you know, college football is definitely
going to say we talked a lotabout this while you were out. I
mean, if you you know SEC, for instance, Texas and Alabama,
or Texas and Georgia play in theSEC title game. Let's just hypothetically say
Texas wins the game, which forcesGeorgia to be the sixth seed. Let's
say Georgia went eleven to one duringthe regular season and then lost that game.

(01:35:40):
Now they're eleven and two and they'renot a top four seed, So
they have to play the opening roundof the playoffs, which they then win
and get to twelve and two.Then they win the next round to get
to thirteen and two. Then theyqualify for the title game because they want
to again. Now they're fourteen andtwo, so they're playing for the title
in a seventeenth game. Granted overa little bit longer period of time,
because the time between the conference titlegame in the beginning of the postseason,

(01:36:00):
it's a little longer, not quiteas long as the games have been previously
from the end of season to bowlgames. But that's a ton of football,
and these are bodies not quite atthe same developmental stage as men,
going about it a different way nutritionwise and all those things. Now we're
gonna ask these players to go outthere for eighteen games plus playoffs, and

(01:36:21):
everybody that goes to the playoffs,except for just the number one seeds,
has to play the opening round,the next round, the conference title round,
and the Super Bowl. That's fourmore games if you're gonna win a
title. I'm super bowlish on eighteengames happening. I'm the exact opposite of
nineteen games ever happening. Unless theseason is extended by a month to give

(01:36:45):
them. If you're going to eighteen, we're getting a second bye week.
I think if you go to nineteen, you're getting a third bye week,
because you're put to me, eighteenis the absolute limit. We cannot ask
these guys to go play that manygames in that short period of time and
expect the product to suffer dramatically.Specifically, when we're watching Taylor Heineke play
against Zach Wilson and then the doubleheaderis Sam Howell and Marcus Mariota because Aaron

(01:37:10):
Rodgers and Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbertsee what's gonna happen though, are carrying
a clipboard and looking at servention,and this is way less important to basically
all parties involved. Although I thinkit shouldn't be. You're gonna start talking
about numbers, not meaning as muchlike that's secondary, but yes, it's
absolutely a part of it. Imean, a thousand yard rusher, I'm

(01:37:30):
already finished with that. You won'thear me say, hey, but Joe
Mixon ran for a thousand yards lastyear. I'm over. That's done.
What's the number? What should be? Because the more about yards per carry
and yards per game and all ithas been for me for several years.
All Right, we will I mean, I mean I it's again a lot
of these types of numbers, receptions, all that kinds of passing yards.

(01:37:53):
It's all gonna be and we're gonnahave to readjust again, all right when
we come back staying or going asa pertains to your Houston Astros, I'll
explain the A team continues one SportsTalk seven ninety. It is the A

(01:38:18):
team Sports Talk seven ninety. AllRight, So the Astros make a deal,
they're going to have to part withwhat pedro Leone's leaving if they make
a significant deal, yes or no. Uh yeah, he's significant as relative.
But I think I get your point. Yeah, I think he's somebody

(01:38:38):
they probably are more willing to partwith than most others. You just have
to again, it's the other sideof it. Who's wanting pedro Leone.
He's not the key to any dealin my opinion. But is there a
scenario where you're the Astros and you'rejust like, I'm not kind of like,
remember when Kyle Tucker was going toget traded all those times and Jeff
Luno kept saying no, and hehe continues to look like a genius for

(01:38:59):
doing that. Yep, Kyle Tuckerthe best prospect in their system versus pedro
Leone, who currently is barely betterthan just a guy among their prospects.
And again, I know how wellhe's hit us for several years. I
wouldn't even say he's blocked, consideringTrek Cabote joined the organization and immediately was
called up and has been here formore than half the season, and Joey

(01:39:20):
Lo Perfedo was nothing a year ortwo ago and here he is. Also.
If they wanted him at the majorleague level at any point the last
two years, he definitely would havebeen here. They tried him at multiple
positions because they wanted to see ifthat made sense for if there's a hole
here, could he really help usthere? And that really never panned out.
He's not a bad player, he'sjust an older player and at this

(01:39:41):
point in his career calling them aprospect seems disingenuous. But yeah, if
he was traded to a team thatstinks, that has players that could help
you win, he could immediately jointhat. He should play no minor league
games after he leaves the Astros.I'm amazed how many Triple A games he's
already played. I just I mean, I know, and I understand what

(01:40:02):
you're saying about him just being aguy in the grand scheme of things,
But isn't that part of the problemhere? Is that your farm system,
which, by the way, whetherthis is true or not, what was
attached to Dana Brown's name when youhired him as general manager, his number
one priority or what he was Iguess best known for. That's probably a

(01:40:23):
better way to put it. Isrebuilding, restocking, replenishing, decimated for
whatever reason, farm systems enter theHouston Astros farm system where they've been winning
at the highest level for years andyears and years, and doing so in
part because they've traded off all ofthose pieces in said farm system, including
last year for Justin Verlander. Again, so if you're him, and again

(01:40:49):
I guarantee you he did not wantto make that Verlander deal last year.
No way, no way he was. Now looking back, it might not
hurt as much, I guess,but I just don't. I think if
you injected truth serum in him andsaid on the day, did you want
to make this deal? Or wasthis Jim Crane saying make it anyway.
I don't think you would. Ididn't think you wanted to go for it.

(01:41:10):
That's why you have a lot ofpeople in charge. I mean,
I understand it too, and Ithink it's I think they gave up a
ton. It doesn't necessarily look thatbad right now. Again, Drew Gilbert
barely played as a pro. Hebarely played with the Astros and the Miners
for the short time he was here. He's barely played for the Mets because
he's been injured. Ryan Clifford hashad a nice typical rise for a high

(01:41:31):
schooler and has played very well atDouble A, and he might not be
that far away, and it'll it'llhurt a little bit to see him playing
first base for the Mets or dhingfor the Mets, which I think is
still pretty likely. But they're tryingto win. The Astros are in position
to win. Deals like that aregonna get made. The Astros are willing
to part with their top prospects,in my opinion, I just don't know

(01:41:54):
that they'll be offering them to thepoint where another GM is gonna say,
yes, I like your deal better. I think too many other teams have
better players. They're willing to partwith, and just so you know,
pedro Leone, I think the mainreason why I just don't lump him in
with these other guys whose name wementioned earlier. I could have mentioned Zach
Cole's name, AJ Bluebaugh's name,many others. He's old, he's twenty

(01:42:18):
six. He's so he's not ahe can be a productive major leaguer,
but I wouldn't drop that word nextto his name. He's not. He's
just he's too old. He's atwenty he's a multi season triple A ballplayer.
Those are rarely the guys that othergms are saying, we got to
get this guy in here. Thisis a coup for us, this is

(01:42:38):
a great get. So it's justit's just not who he's thought. I
don't think he's thought of that wayaround major League Baseball. Luis Baiez might
be, Bryce Matthews might be.And I do believe, just like the
Verlander deal, if they feel likethey can get something of great value,
and you were trading for what youthought was at least one full season of

(01:43:01):
JV plus what you got last year, potentially two full seasons of JV plus
what you got last year. Ifthey're that type of contractually obligated player,
under contract, under control player they'dbe willing to move on from. I
think just about anybody. I mean, I know they think Jacob Melton's starting
in their outfield for sure by nolater than twenty twenty six, and he's

(01:43:21):
gonna debut I'm sure next year.I mean, you got to start to
think about who's he playing with.If he's if you know he's not playing
with Kyle Tucker, well then youprobably can't move him. If you know
the opportunity to play with Kyle Tucker'sthere, well, then one of your
spots already taken. Can Low Praffitohave another? Can Jake Myers have the
other? And Jordan fills out yourbrownfielder and d h Roll then you are.

(01:43:45):
Then you can move him and hopesomebody you just drafted. And this
stuff about Dana creating or rebuilding it, well, you gotta give him a
chance to do it. He said, two drafts. Is he not sitting
around saying when's this gonna start?Man? Well, he's it's all.
There's only so much you can dowhen you're never buyers. I mean,
when you're always buyers, you're nevernever sellers, and then this offseason they

(01:44:08):
made it even harder to rebuild thesystem. With the second draft pick of
the twenty twenty four draft that theAstros hold, they select left handed reliever
Josh Hater. Yeah, signing himcost you ninety five million and your draft
pick, ye ye, Low Praffito. Is that even a scenario that could

(01:44:31):
unfold again? It has to dowith the control of the player you're getting.
I would be okay with it ifI felt like there were years in
the future where I wasn't saying,oh my god, who do I play?
I don't have anybody left. Tuckersigned elsewhere. The player you traded
for can't play for you anymore becausehe's not with you. Anyone you know
who would not be okay with thatdeal. My eighteen year old soon to
be college freshman's stepdaughter, huge lowBraffito fan stops everything whenever he's a back.

(01:44:56):
A lot of this hinges on whatdo they know about to me?
What do they know about Kyle Tuckerand his agents and their thoughts on what
it would take to prevent him fromhitting free agency? Because your outfield without
Tucker is you're needing. You needthese players, you don't just need them
to fill the one sixty two.You need them to be awesome. And
you'd rather roll the dice with multipleoptions, like you can't just bank on

(01:45:19):
we lose Tucker, great, weplug it, plug in low Perfito,
we're good like you do with Korea. How do you know what? What
about Joey lo Perfedo's professional career,says he's going to be Kyle Tucker.
I mean, I know he wasgreat for two months in Triple A this
year, oh chanlo Rome said he'snot. He also struck out a billion

(01:45:40):
times in Triple A, and he'sstriking out at a miserably high rate at
this level, which may start togo down as he plays more. But
these aren't things that marked top prospectfrom the moment you drafted him out of
high school Kyle Tucker. That they'renot the same caliber, talents, dictations

(01:46:00):
aren't the same. An outfield withyord On Dhing and Tucker hitting baseballs for
the Cubs is a question mark atall three spots. And if you didn't
spend on Tucker, why would yougo spend on some other free agent.
I don't anticipate that happening. That'sthe worst way to build your team.

(01:46:24):
You get a player to come inand then you extend him. You've seen
what he can do, you knowthat he fits. He's not necessarily in
the Springer Korea Tucker Garrett JV rangeof money. Then you have somebody here
for a while. I still thinkthe Astros are making a move, and
I still think the Astros are willingto part with pretty much anybody for the
right players, because Jim Crane hasbeen extremely clear in his operation about one

(01:46:48):
thing. We're playing baseball this year. Oh there's a season, Well,
then I'm trying to win a WorldSeries. It couldn't be any more clear
with everything that he's done from thebeginning of the whatever team has had their
awful celebration or good ones like Houston, and they're in the offseason, it's
time to make sure next year isa World Series caliber year. And they

(01:47:10):
don't stop working on that until usuallyafter the trade deadline, when they've done
most of what they can do.Even last year, adding Bennett's SUSA help
them at the end of the seasonand he couldn't even be on the playoff
roster. Is that not going tocome into question yet again, though,
if you let Bragman walk, whatthat thinking that that's the way Jim Crane

(01:47:31):
works. You're not just plugging somebodyin there. Well, there's two two
ways to look at it. You'resaying, if you let them walk,
then how can you say you're tryingto win a title? But I do
put that up against Or you canjust spend money on all your players all
the time and you're trying to winlike the Yankees do. I will just
keep them and spend and spend.It's not necessarily a better way. It's
just a more expensive way. Butthere's certain players that I think that's okay

(01:47:53):
to do that with, and Idon't know that he's one of them.
If three hundred million is still whathe thinks is going to be on the
table, forty million is on thetable, if two hundred million, like,
be real about who he's been forthe last four years, Scott,
Alex and Jim and if all threeof them are, then maybe there's a
deal to be had. And againyou're betting. If you're Boris, you

(01:48:15):
don't want to have that happen unlessyou feel like you've played the market guest
at the market better and maybe whathappened to he and all of his clients
last year could lead to that heput all his guys on the market this
year. He said, let's gohit free agency. Let's not get any
of these guys locked up. Bigpaydays are waiting? Wrong? Wrong,
wrong, and wrong? Is twohundred too much? Eight years? Two

(01:48:35):
hundred no? Five? Yes,forty million dollars for Felex Bregman annually.
He's making thirty now, and that'sprobably too much for how he's played.
Yeah, but he's gonna want thatraise. So I'm saying he's still getting
a raise from somebody else. Youdon't have to give him a ten million
dollars a year raise. I justtrying to figure out a number of three.

(01:48:57):
What's forty million a year? Thenyou're probably giving fewer years, but
then you just know he's gonna begone after the next go round. Like
again, be real about how he'splayed and work off that. Sometimes I
wish these players would do the Lebronway, which is really I shouldn't even
say that because that's two years.Also, I think Lebron James has never
questioned where there will be teams thatwant to play him huge difference in case

(01:49:23):
you missed it. Next Hey,it's listen to every game anywhere on the
iHeart Radio Sports Talk seven ninety It'sHome of Your Rockets. Time of the
show where we hits you with acouple of items we've not yet discussed or

(01:49:43):
something maybe that came up earlier onthe show worth you of revisiting. Here.
We earlier this week said well,the only good way to get updates
on Joe Mixon is to follow himon Instagram, which of course I do
and thus can provide you the lateston Joe Mixon. Today at practice nothing
changed his third consecutive practice where hewas not a participant nor an attendee.

(01:50:05):
Practiced the first two times last weekThursday and Friday, but Saturday, Monday,
and now Tuesday has not been outthere. The latest on the Instagram
story for Joe Mixon is a hattip to the organization that pays him.
Texans made the announcement earlier today andboth Calan Hannah spoke with us about it.

(01:50:25):
Sell out. They have sold outseason tickets for the twenty twenty four
season. There will be a handfulof gamers single gamers available over the course
of the season as Hannah pointed outtoday, he retweeted that or posted on
his ig story a pick of theirlittle image that says they've sold out season
tickets and added his little line,it's about to go up with the h

(01:50:51):
indicating to me, if I canread between the lines on social media,
it's not cryptic. It sounds likehe's very positive about the upcoming Houston Texan
season, the first that he'll bea part of. What took him so
long to sell out the fans tobuy them? What do you mean?

(01:51:11):
What are they you're talking about thefans? What are they waiting on?
I don't know. I mean,you literally just suffered through some of the
worst crap at quarterback, at headcoach, and just you had a youth
pastor running your organization. Also,there could be some you know, the
team and timing of an announcement alsocould play into it. You know,

(01:51:33):
maybe this is a good time forit. Let's say they sold out of
their season ticket allotment on June nineteenth. You know, Okay, Well,
we're gonna tell all the people tocall and ask. You gotta go on
the wait list. You gotta goon the weight list. We gotta go
on the priority list, but we'renot gonna make the announcement publicly, and
people will keep calling. We'll keepgiving them the reasons why we can't sell

(01:51:53):
them to them, and then we'llmake the announcement during training camp as more
of the excitement continues to grow.Who knows. Okay, But that's the
update on what's going on with JoeMixon. A handful of other players of
consequence not practicing today, but Idon't believe there's any real consequence to any
of them other than Christian Harris,just because we don't really have a concrete
answer on what's keeping him off thefield other than what Aaron Wilson has reported.

(01:52:16):
That's a soft tissue injury and it'snot expected to be serious. And
I can tell you he has beenat practice the last two days, just
not participating in practice. CJ.Henderson began as a practice player and now
is working on the side, soobviously something took place there. But among
everybody else that they are definitely countingon, there have not been any plays
of significance. I will say today, and I twitted this out at practice.

(01:52:40):
They were running red zone drills todayand a throat to Ben's Squarronic on
the left side, left his feetfor it and tried to haul it in.
He took a hit from des King, nothing significant and not even what
I would call a hard hit.It was probably more about where he caught
him and I couldn't even tell youspecifically, but somewhere either in the hip
or in the midsection or in theribs. And Scronics stayed down for a

(01:53:04):
few minutes, got attended to,was able to get back up on his
feet, and he continued to practice. So that's all good news on that
front. What else do we havetoday? All right? So you mentioned
stuff you guys talked about earlier,maybe to revisit, and then also to
something you guys just did right there. I'm not gonna harp on what you
guys just talked about with pedro Leone. It's more of what you talked about
earlier. Chas McCormick needs to beat triple A right now, Like I

(01:53:27):
mean, it's one of those thingsthat as you guys were talking, and
I brought this up on Twitter lastnight, pedro Leone is batting three forty
five six homers eleven runs batted inthis month alone right now, Like if
you're not going to give him ashot right now? When are you going
to give him a shot? Ismy first question, And the second one
is what is there to lose?Like, I know what I'm getting right
now out of Chas McCormick. I'mnot getting anything out of him. He

(01:53:50):
came up in the second inning lastnight. I knew what was going to
happen in that spot. Well,he's not game being given a chance,
and I don't mean a chance toshow he can play. I mean,
he's not an everyday player, Sowhy would Leon become one. I'm not
saying to become an everyday player.I'm saying to get an opportunity to at
least get those at bats. Thoseat bats right now are being wasted.
Yeah, I would agree with thatif he were to come up now those

(01:54:11):
at bats probably, I mean you'reguessing Pedro Leon's never been a major league
or maybe he's a total flop.Maybe he's not a two zero five hitter
though, which is what you've gotin Chas McCormick. I would definitely endorse
that. He also brings the abilityto be a little bit more likely late
inning replacement on the bass paths asa little bit speedier player other than Chaz.
Chas as slow, but he's notas fast as Leon. I think

(01:54:33):
Leon as a defensive replacement probably isfine, but he might not be as
good a defender as Chaz at thislevel, even though Leon is a very
good outfielder defensively speaking. So yeah, I wouldn't necessarily argue against it.
You're probably running out of time onthat because even fewer at bats are about
to be available, I guess wheneverKyle Tucker returns. I mean, just

(01:54:55):
to take this like one more stepfurther, is I mean you were talking
about earlier in terms of at batsand everything, but not only that.
I mean, I can't remember ifit was you guys, or if it
was Ross yesterday that brought up thathe would possibly be a trade ship for
people out there. So isn't itkind of a best of both worlds right
here? You show what he cando at the major league level, and

(01:55:16):
maybe it just kind of proves whateverybody already knew. Hey, he can't
hit it this level, all right? Fine, what if he gets lightning
in a bottle? Then you're like, we can't trade this guy. We
have to keep this guy our lineup. Has linkedined because of this guy.
There's always that chance for a playerwho's never been there before. I think
the team feels like the odds areextremely low for the third year. Tonight,

(01:55:40):
if Leone is in the Space Cowboyslineup, he'll be playing his three
hundred and fiftieth game at Triple Ain this organization. I don't know what
bigger indicator of how they feel abouthim there could be. That is an
insane number of games at Triple Afor one organization. All right, let's
move along, but let's keep itin baseball Sodavid Wells was on with Wfan

(01:56:01):
up in New York and he wastalking about going back in time and remembering
when he got traded from the teamduring spring training in nineteen ninety nine.
He was part of the Clemens dealto go to Toronto. He had this
to say about his manager, interms of believing he was the reason why
he got dealt. I think itwas Joe Tory because he didn't like me
at all. You know, backthen he might like me. Now,

(01:56:25):
I don't know. I don't haveany I don't have any resentment now.
I mean, I like Joe,but as a manager, I didn't think
he was a great manager, andhe didn't treat everybody the same way.
All right, So maybe I couldhave cut off that last part, But
just that quote alone, without thecontext, was not a great manager.

(01:56:45):
Do you kind of look at JoeTory the same as some of these guys
that had really really awesome rosters andprobably got a little too much credit because
of it. I know, baseball'sdifferent, and you actually have a direct
impact in some ways that is incomparableto other sports. I mean, the
lineup, this, you know,the the just the moves that you make

(01:57:10):
throughout the course of a long game. But what are you doing, Joe?
You're giving the ball to Mariano Riveraagain? Right? Your great Jeets
is batting first. Holy mackerel.What you have Pasada in the five hole
and Bernie batting in front of him? Man, Joe, I don't know
about this. We're gonna we're gonnatalk about that. We're gonna take this

(01:57:30):
upstairs. Serious questions now, youreally have to I think the if you're
really trying to be negative about Joe'swork, you'd probably recognize that when he
got the Yankees job, the managerialjob, that was the fourth different organization
he'd been a manager. For hissuccess at those other spots included zero postseason

(01:57:54):
victories, series victories, terrible teamwith the Mets, that's pretty unfair to
blame him. Braves pretty much goodevery year, not great, but good
enough to be above five hundred allbut one of his years when was he
a Braves manager early eighties and thenright before he was also with the Cardinals,
before he got to the Yanks.Okay, and they were good but

(01:58:15):
not great everywhere he'd been and clearlythe talent level wasn't even close. I
think we can quite simply as thehome for Yankees baseball talk in the South
Sports Talk seven nineties eighteen, Ithink we can say pretty clearly David Wells
didn't like him, and vice versa. Thus the comment not a good manager.

(01:58:36):
I put the zero stock in thatjust analyzed his career away from that,
but I don't that means nothing tome. No resentfulness now though no
bitterness now clearly. Final segment comingup next back to Adam Clinton had Adam
Wexler two A's Hey the eighteen onSports Talk seven ninety home for your home

(01:59:00):
teams and these two apps note toa complete last conversation last segment and what's
going on this evening here on SportsTalk seven ninety. Pedro Leon will in
fact be playing in his three hundredand fifty fifth game with sugar Land.
We'll back clean up tonight for theSpace Cowboys. Aj Blue Ball will make

(01:59:20):
the start. Probably worth watching howmuch he throws in this game. The
Astros may be trying to limit hiswork in the event they might need him
later this year or sooner this year, but he will get the ball first
for the Space Cowboys. I believeJoe a Spot is putting out with his
current roster the best possible lineup onthe field tonight against the Oakland A's same

(01:59:45):
guys at the top two ve Bregman, Jordan and Jordan will be using his
glove tonight. He'll be playing leftfield, which means then Diaz will not
be using his glove tonight, butonly his bat. He is still the
DH and batting cleanup. John Singletonback base Payna. It's short Myers and
center first activity for Victor Kertini sincehe was brought back to the team after

(02:00:08):
his left hip flexer strain. He'lldo the catching for Jake bloss and bat
eighth and Joey lo Berfido back onthe field tonight. It's had a pretty
slow start to his post All StarBreak portion of his season. He bats
ninth and he plays right field.All things considered, with a led Miss
on the bench and Dubon on thebench and Cabbage on the bench, I

(02:00:30):
think this is the best that Joecan be chas on the bench. I
think this is the best that hecan put out there. He made sure.
I just want to I was countingthe roster spots as I went and
making sure I not omitted anybody.Obviously, I did not say a led
Miss Diaz because I thought it kindof went without saying. Have we uh?
And I know you have with thenumbers Jan Diaz, d aging versus

(02:00:53):
catching, is it still a thing? No? His numbers eight? The
play it? I mean, Iusually don't. I mean to me,
we've seen players have that, butusually not over their career, just as
kind of a seasonal thing. Ithas happened, but I would not call
it a thing. No. Imean, it happened with Michael Brantley,
it happened with Jordan Alvarez, butit didn't always happen during their respective career.

(02:01:13):
So what's more of a wives talethat or participants in the home run
derby having their swing eviscerated the secondhalf of the year. Well, I
mean, we look at Bobby WitJunior. As long as he stays healthy
when former Astros hit him with pitches, everything should be fine, which happened
last night for number's sake. Asthe DH the ops for Yiner is seven
point fifty two as a catcher atseven sixteen, he's hitting two eighty three

(02:01:39):
and two eighty five, respectively.All right, a good deal for tonight.
So, like I said, it'sbasically a job. Nothing. I
mentioned Bobby Wood Junior because he's beenon an absolute tear after he hit all
the way into the final round ofthe home run Derby. And oh,
by the way, I'm pretty surehe'd be my MVP right now. Highest

(02:01:59):
War probably will win it. They'renot necessarily going to the playoffs, though
they might be. In the Astrosway. If the Astros don't win the
division, he's not gonna win it. You know why. Uh well,
they might have a better record,and he have so much less to work
with there the Yankees have spent allthis money. Then nobody can judge.

(02:02:19):
Yeah, and the big duf isgoing to lead it. Yeah, well,
just to ask Luis Savarino. Uh, he's right. I know.
That's why it's funny. Uh,it's just outside noise. No, it's
actually facts. I mean he's gonnalead the lead the majors and home runs,
and they're gonna have a better basicallyhaving the exact same season he had

(02:02:40):
in twenty twenty two. He ledthe league in pretty much everything, and
they're basically won the MVP. You'reright, it'll probably be an upset for
Junior to win the MVP. II spoke for myself. I would probably
give it to him. No,I think I would. I mean,
the guy is an absolute superstar toHe's not just a star. He's not
just a nice story in Kansas Citylike he's a stud, absolute like top

(02:03:04):
you know he's Is he a topten player? One hundred percent yes,
no question about it. Sure Iam one hundred percent positive, no question
about it. How are you gonnagive me ten players that are better than
Bobby wit Junior? I can tryhave at it, Arson, Judge number
one, because clearly you love him. I mean, Soto's better. If

(02:03:26):
we're starting talking about the Yank's twoBryce Harper, Maybe hang on a second,
maybe why And we're only at threeand I'm already giving you a maybe
he's I mean, he has toplay d h your first base because he's
so broken down already. Jordan's betterShow. Hayes better show. Hay is
a better hitter. He doesn't playthe field. Bobby Wit Junior is goal

(02:03:48):
glove caliber player. I didn't knowthere were caveats. Oh, he's a
baseball player. You said, who'sthe better player? What if you what
if Shoy was pitching? You canhave him, Yeah, but you can't
have him pitch, and you canhave Bobby Witter. Show here right now,
you're taking show Hey, come onstop. Great you're you're nowhere near
ten. You're in the top five. Still, I know that you're almost

(02:04:09):
arguing with me about show Hey andBobby Witch Junior. You're saying, like,
Show he has had a great yearoffensively because he hits a lot of
bombs and he has a pretty goodaverage. Well, you're discounting all the
other things that Witt does. AndI know he has great speed, so
I'm not really arguing. I'm justsaying, well, he's not even playing.
I'm saying, when healthy, no, I would not take a Kunya
over Bobby Wood Junior. And he'swon an MVP, He's played at an

(02:04:30):
MVP level. That's crazy to me. That's back to back. Guys.
You're saying Bobby Wit Junior is betterthan I'm and you're not even particularly thinking
it's close. The way you're aresponse, I'm not. I should.
I hope it doesn't sound. Ihave to give one of them the nod.
So that's why I'm giving the nodto just so people know, because
nobody pays attention to Kansas City andwe always like to give you Kansas City
Royals baseball updates. On the finalsegment Tuesday shows he's number one in the

(02:04:57):
league and hits and runs. He'shitting three, he's got a nine to
seventy nine oh ps. He's alsostolen a couple of bags, twenty two
of them. Like I don't,I don't know what more you want when
he's also like all the intangibles,Oh, you can give you now.
I actually would argue about him overevery player in the league. He's the
unquestioned leader of a team that's gonnabe a threat. Aaron Judge is really

(02:05:21):
really good and the captain less ofa leader, really really good. Less
of a leader. Bryce Harper reallyreally good and an awesome leader, almost
as good as Bobby Wood Junior.To me as a leader, I'll give
you a really really saucy one,just because of all the things surrounding this.
What about Mookie Betts. I mean, they're very comparable, but he's

(02:05:45):
also hurt. Yeah, I knowthis is just you have to you have
to follow me on. I justsaid, yeah, when healthy, they're
very comparable. He's just done itfor a lot. I will not say
Stephen Kwan, how about that?Even though the modern day each euro he
will hit you to death, hewill base run you to death. He's
a very good fielder. But Ialso thought each e row was overrated as

(02:06:09):
a player. When you're doing adebate like this, don't you just automatically
go over to the war section andjust go, oh gosh, those war
numbers. How can that's what this? People? You know, Fangrafts and
Reference have war numbers that aren't evenremotely close to each other. Yeah,
that is odd. You know what'sinteresting is that Judge and Gunner Henderson,
who's another player, that I wouldat least submit for this conversation have the

(02:06:31):
exact same war to top the themajors right now, but Bobby Wood Junior's
number three behind him six point two. I mentioned Soto, mentioned Otani,
wow one, but you can't giveme ten players better. What the point
I was trying to make, honestlywas that if he was top ten,

(02:06:55):
he's like probably number ten. Maybethat I don't agree with that. Well,
we'll return at some point tomorrow,maybe to argue this, but definitely
definitely not to argue this. WhyI'm going to bring it back up again
just because you said that definitely notcome up during Astro's tenth inning coverage following
their series victory against the A's.Yeah, because they're getting two wins before.

(02:07:16):
Yeah, we are Boston Hunter Brownbringing on home in that order.
All right, we will leave itat that, but yes, as mentioned,
we will be back at it againfollowing tomorrow's day game and of course
the finale of that series for WEX. For Dan, I may see it
is the A team here on SportsTalk seven to ninety. Back at it

(02:07:36):
again tomorrow afternoon

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