Cole Train To The Show! Astros Down and just OUT?

Wex and AC react to another, the arrival of a new otufielder and more! Plus Stone Cold Locks and Chandler Rome in Hour 3 of the show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My earl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
That is Houston sports.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Is talking your teams?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh boy, here we go.

Speaker 5 (00:47):
It's a Friday edition of the A Team Sports Talk
seven ninety as we lead you up to the latest
Astros loss.

Speaker 6 (00:57):
Okay, maybe not, but I'll tell you what doesn't look great?
Wex It's a bull day game.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Is an absolutely huge day for Coal. Cole. Yeah, he's
gonna make his major league debut tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:08):
Oh, I think you're talking about our producer, Cole Thompson.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
No, is that Coal? Is that Cole called up by
the Astros? Why would you call him up if you're
not gonna have him in the lineup. I can't wait
for this. Our guy friend of the show, Jaden Murray. Yeah,
making his first career major league start tonight. But he's
gonna be starting. He's absolutely starting. He's the first pitcher
to throw the pitch. That's the starter. End of story.

Speaker 6 (01:28):
How did did did a spot come out and say
it's a bullpen game.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
No, but it is. Yes. So Jaden Murray's not capable
because of how they've used him this year. He's like
when Steven Ocherd started, he wasn't he couldn't get three
innings for and he can give him thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Pitches maybe twelve innings later. After our fantastic we're.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Here on Astro's tenth inning duties yesterday. So if you
would like to talk about yesterday's game, find somebody to
talk to about yesterday's.

Speaker 5 (01:56):
Game and let Matt Thomas know that we were on
the Astros tenth inning show.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
While you're at it.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
He knows he's listens to the station. He seems to
think we never do those twelve innings later.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
And I knew it.

Speaker 6 (02:09):
I was watching on my phone.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I was watching on the television right because it was available.

Speaker 6 (02:14):
I got it. I don't want to tell you about
my first one problem.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
If you want to talk about the game itself, he's
talking about the Mariners, who won their second consecutive extra
inning game against two different teams, the first of a
four game series against the Angels last night. So when
we left you, we did not know it would be
returning to the airwaves today with the Astros in a
first place tie, same record, everybody's now played the same
number of games. Astros and Mariners are seventy nine and

(02:37):
sixty eight, the Rangers are seventy seven and seventy. Friday,
Saturday Sunday three game series for all three teams. It's
the remainder of the four game series for the Angels
and the rest of the way fifteen games for everybody,
you know, three home game or three home series, two
road series or vice versus. How it all lines up
with the Mariners the only one with additional home games
as opposed to road games. But if you really want

(02:59):
to know what was taking place in last night's Mariner's
Angels game, I hate saying this and I don't normally
think it, but I really don't think the Angels were
trying well. I mean, if you're not watching what they
were doing and how they were playing the game automatically
bunning to open up extra innings pretty much no matter

(03:20):
who was up there, so giving out away and out
the very first play of the extra innings not necessarily
when you're the road team, and they were, and it
worked both times they got the runner to third Mike Trout,
my gosh, give less effort on grinding into a double
play the Mariners, I believe in just the extra innings

(03:41):
portion of their day, and they played another three extra innings, apparently,
first time in since they changed the rules to the
ones that you love so much. It's the first time
any team has ever played back to back days of
games of twelve innings or more since they Gift runnered
everybody to death. So the Mariners managed to do that,
But my gosh, they just an extra innings. They stole

(04:03):
I think four bases, and that's part of the They're
not even trying. There wasn't a throw mate on any
of them. The Angels were beyond going through the motions
on It nice that one Astro tried to help out
the Astros last night. If you missed it last week,
when the Astros were in the midst of another series
of roster moves and forty manter clearance moves, they had
to dfa Logan Davidson, who had been playing first base

(04:25):
and assorted other positions for the Space Cowboys. Well, the
Angels claimed him and started him and have been playing him.
He plays first base for them. He had his first
major league home run last night, as the Mariners blew
a four to nothing lead and ended up in extra innings.
But ultimately, like I said, it was a pretty easy
sledding for the Mariners, who wasted a billion opportunities in

(04:46):
the game. Again, they had the bases loaded with one
out and could not score in extra innings, which would
have won them the game. You can hear it in
their announcers voices like they're going to the next extra inning.
He doesn't even want to say it, and he's like,
I'm not even gonna say it this time. I've been saying,
is well, he'll win it for him. Well, they just
need one run to win it. And much like Houston
the two for fifteens with runners in scoring position, they've

(05:09):
been pretty normal for them. Astros and Braves, Rangers and Mets,
Angels and Mariners. Those are the three games inside this
division that will be locked in on this evening. Obviously,
we will get you into the Astros on deck show.
That means a visit from Brian McTaggart coming your way
right around five fifteen. A little over an hour before that,
our regular Friday guest in the five o'clock hour will

(05:30):
have him at four, that is Chandler Rome, so a
couple of spots to talk about the roster move. I
presume the other side of the roster move to get
Zach Cole, who has fifteen games of Triple A experience.
He was just promoted from Double A for about the
last seventeen days, got in fifteen games of work there
and has been absolutely raking. We've even talked about it
here on the show. I would assume the days of

(05:53):
carrying a third catcher might be over for the short
term time being for the Astros, and that they obviously
have to spot for Coal in order to put him
on the roster for tonight. Like I said, I would
assume with everybody slumping, while you can call it desperate
because it is, it's the type of move I would
want them to make. We send out the same lineup
every day and nobody's hitting.

Speaker 6 (06:15):
Not even mad, you're actually oppressed.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Let's try something else. They are trying something else, mind you.
They tried Jacob Melton for much of this year. He's
the astros number two overall prospect. Zach Cole is their
number nineteen overall prospect. We shall see what difference it
makes it's obviously Football Friday for us for about four
and a half hours from kickoff over at TDECU, a

(06:37):
stadium that will house Colorado and Houston Tonight should be
an awesome atmosphere. There should be pushing close to a
sellout with better than thirty thirty five thousand seats already sold.
So an opportunity for the Cougars to get to three
and oh get to one and oh in conference play
set the table for the rest of the weekend, which
will include a couple of games here on the family

(06:58):
of networks here at Sports Talk seven, the LSU game
as well, and the Astros, all of which you can
hear here on Saturday, so we'll get you ready for
all of those games. Texas A and M and Notre
Dame is our college football game of the week. We
will give you our stone cold locks at four thirty,
so our thoughts on the Aggies and the Golden Domers,
and of course, an opportunity for the Texans to not

(07:21):
start zero to two comes Monday, so we clearly have
a full show on Monday to still discuss before they
get to the Monday night kickoff. But a second day
on the practice field and the resulting injury update on
one player in particular. So I don't think we're going
to see an update of note on Braxton Burios, Christian
Kirk or Jake Andrews. The update is they're going to

(07:41):
be out this week and they're not going to practice
this week. I'm telling you that I don't know that
for a fact, but it's extremely high likelihood that that
will be the case. The only thing left to decide
is the availability of ed Ingram, and if I were
to guess, I would guess that ed Ingram will be
listed as limited today and tomorrow he will be listed
as limited a third time and probably listed as probable,

(08:05):
and then we'll be active and start for his Texans
debut Monday night against the Tampa Bay Bucks, and they
hopefully will be able to unveil almost all of their
intended offensive line, uh sans Jake Andrews. Because slime, Jared
Patterson will get the start at center. Slime. That's what CJ.

(08:25):
Stroud let out of the bag. I'd actually heard that
name last year. It's Patterson's third year here, but he
was asked a question about you know, you've had so
many opportunities to work with Patterson during all the time
here together, both being here now for three years, and
he said, yeah, you know, working with slime that, Oh
I probably shouldn't have said that, Probably gonna get fined
for that. Working with jpat we we got a lot

(08:47):
of time together. He also noted, I wish I didn't
have as much time with our reserve, our backup centers,
but he does and he has getting to know you.
That's the nature of what the Texans offensive line has
looked like. Right before we left you yesterday, we talked
about the Thursday night football game. Two teams, one just

(09:07):
gonna get to two and zero, the other was gonna
fall to where the Texans will be after Monday night
to one and one. One text from a longtime listener
of the show and an even longer time listening to
me all fifty three of my years, and around eight
forty one pm last night, I got this text Tunsil
with the drive killing, point killing false start. I love

(09:28):
that he's not on our team anymore. Well, I mean
and if you if you ever check some of the
stats out, the NFL's official stats will list it the penalties,
what it was, the yards, whether it was declined or accepted,
and the column at the very end is drive stalled.

(09:50):
That is a literal category, and that is exactly what happened.
A five yard penalty turned into we didn't get any
points on that drive immediately on that series downs been
called for a penalty twice this year. One was accepted.
That was last night. The holding call last week was not.
They were trying to keep Micah Parsons off of Jaden Daniels,
and Parsons had a lot more success when he was

(10:12):
lined up over right tackle. Because all of this being
said about Tunsel here and in Miami and now in Washington,
he's very good at keeping your quarterback upright. He's not
really very good at most everything else. But that's such
an enormous part of what you want on your team.
That's why he's always gonna have a job, and he's
always gonna be playing a lot of snaps for likely

(10:33):
a very good team. Last night, the Packers were a
little bit better than the Commanders. And the Packers and
Jordan Love and Micah Parsons are two and zero. They
look good, they look their defense looks really good. So
when their offense really starts clicking, and I don't think
it has through the first two weeks, despite scoring twenty
seven points in each of them. I do think they're

(10:54):
they're looking more and more like a real threat to
and I would assume the Eagles. I think there'll be
a few other teams clearly in the mix, but as
of one week and one game, they look like they're
next in line. The unofficial NFC power rankings partially through
week two, i'd probably have him listed second.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
It's like I when whenever we talk about Jordan Love
and the hierarchy of quarterbacks, he's usually.

Speaker 6 (11:23):
Just outside of the top ten. Does that sound about right?

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Sounds about right?

Speaker 5 (11:27):
Like that's not quite middle of the pack, but it's
just a few spaces from it. So I don't know
where you would sloped. I don't know how you would
describe where he falls in all.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
That's where he was at the beginning of the season.
It's probably not much different. Again, we're too early in
the season to make too much of a statement about it.
But the wins and losses so far this season both wins.
They're not pinned on how he has played. They haven't
needed him to go out there and put the team
on his back. They have been able to run the
football well enough. They've also moved the football well enough.
I know. It's a lot of different pieces in their

(11:55):
receiving cores, and they just lost one to a collarbone
injury last night. Jayden Reid gonna be going on for
six to eight weeks. But between Dobbs and Wicks and
now Golden is there, clearly Tucker Craft and their backfield,
they have a lot more weapons than anybody gives them
credit for because they just don't simply have the obvious
wide receiver one. They've had like three guys who have

(12:16):
the talent of a wide receiver one or wide receiver
one and a half. And they just re upped to
Christian Watson. So the eye popping numbers last night were
produced by their tight end, and deservedly so. He turned
a lot of short catches into bigger catches, very tough
to bring down. And some teams utilize their tight end
the way that makes them a weapon, and the Packers
are one of them. Very good start for the season

(12:37):
for the Packers, not only that they're two and oh,
but whom they've beaten to get to two and oh.
They've beaten the Lions, and they've beaten the Commanders. The
Lions were in the conference title game two years ago,
the Commanders were in the conference title game last season,
and the Packers just beat both of them.

Speaker 5 (12:53):
Well, I want to talk about who they beat last
night specifically, and a little bit more about that game
when we come back, because yes, Thursday night football kicking
off a a strange Week two schedule.

Speaker 6 (13:01):
A little bit.

Speaker 5 (13:02):
I don't know strange as the word, but I'll explain.
I'll explain all of it when we come back. And yeah,
we've got a lot to get to. On a Friday
edition of the show, Chandler Rome is gonna be joining us.
We'll have our stone cold locks, and we will step
aside early to start Astros on deck, because yeah, they
are in Atlanta tonight to take on an old National
League rival back when they both were.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
In the National League.

Speaker 5 (13:24):
Those days seem so long ago now, Anyway, all that
coming up next on a Friday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
All right, let's talk a little Packers Commanders, as you
all knew we would in the second segment of a
Friday edition of The A Team. Look, I don't want
to talk about the Astros right now. And I just
it's not that I don't want to talk about the Texans,
but I feel like, because it's a Monday night game,
let's fit in some stuff between now and then we'll
get to the Texans. Don't worry, but we have a

(14:03):
week two game to talk about already. And it was
actually a good one. And when Thursday Night football both
schedules and then delivers good football games. Not saying it's
a rarity, but it's certainly not.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
It's not regularity. I would say one thing about it.
I do agree it was an entertaining game. It was
a good game. It was two good quarterbacks, two good teams,
and teams I expect to see in the playoffs. I
don't think the result really ever seemed in doubt from
almost the jump.

Speaker 5 (14:30):
No, And I will give Jaden Daniels a little bit
of credit before I start crapping on him, and I'm
not even really crapping on him. I'm crapping on people
who crapped on CJ all last year, is what it
really comes down to. I think that he had very
much a bounce back after halftime, clearly just from a
statistical standpoint, if nothing else, But he was actually, you know,

(14:51):
throwing touchdown passes.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
He was, he was putting in the garbage time stats continue.

Speaker 6 (14:56):
Not guarish time stats.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
I have fifteen points in the fourth quarter to lose
by nine.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
Yeah, I have nothing against him. I just think it's
amusing how he's treated. And I'm not talking about last year,
because CJ got the same treatment his rookie season, and
Jade and Daniels had a better rookie season than CJ.

Speaker 6 (15:15):
Stroud. All of that is facts. All of that I
agree with.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
All of that.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
I am not disputing.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
And I meant to bring this up on Monday of
this week, but inevitably, as he's usually the case, when
you've got a Texans game to talk about, this kind
of minutia, as Matt Thomas always likes to bring up,
kind of gets lost in the shuffle. But this is
a good opportunity to bring it up. Every pregame show
I saw, and I watched a lot of them, I
was flipping around. They all were just slobbering all over

(15:45):
Jade and Daniels' sophomore season before it began. In other words,
do you think he's going to have the dreaded sophomore
slump or do you think he's going And I mean
with conviction. It was, oh, this guy's gonna kill it
this year, no doubt about it, blah blah. And look,
some of them were giving it least logistic or logical
I should say, reasoning. You know, he got his offensive line,

(16:05):
you would argue could got better. He got a you know,
Pro Bowl left tackle to replace what they had in
front of him last year. It's still a good line
before that, and now it's gotten better. He's a year older,
on and on and on. But it was just like
a no doubt about it that he was gonna be
this rocket into ship into space. I don't remember CJ
getting that. I remember CJ getting a ton of praise.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
What do you think about these two aspects of why not?
A he played three playoff games last year, was spectacular
in two, and played his team in the stronger. Yeah,
I played it, so you already said the obvious. His
season was stronger. Well, this postseason was also stronger, and
that he was quarterbacking the team in the title game.
And secondarily, I don't know if I said A first,
so maybe I should say nd B he plays in Washington,

(16:50):
d C. He plays in a market that they will
cater to the moment. They know that they can when
the when the Commanders and previously the Redskins. A number
of years, and we're talking a pretty good length of
years for the most part, decades, they just haven't been
who's the guy we've got to talk about on this
really good football team. Both of those things were absent.

Speaker 7 (17:11):
There.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
There wasn't a well, it's his team, or they're doing this,
and he's this you talked about Dann right, and that
is that's probably a seed like well, I mean, I
know they're winning, but we don't even want to I
don't want to even talk about them because if we
talk about them and don't mention this, then we look
like fools. So I think all of those things roll
into it and give him a little more times than

(17:32):
two weeks. One of the things you saw in yesterday's
game that you hardly saw at all last year, which
isn't really related to you know, this talent or that talent.
What did they do last year? For the most part,
it wasn't a series of unbelievable Jaden Daniels led comebacks,
and they had plenty of close games, but they were
down two touchdowns twenty five minutes into the game. Last night,
they were playing catch up the whole night. They never

(17:53):
caught up. He threw forty two passes. Guess what his
career high in pass attempts is in a regular season game. Yes,
And his last loss before yesterday was the playoff game
last year where he had to throw forty eight passes
because they were also playing from behind. He hasn't been
in that position quite as often, which is to a

(18:14):
certain degree kind of how things were for CJ last year.
And I don't think they were trailing big points, big
totals a lot early in his season, but they weren't
playing from the comfort spot they were in his rookie season,
just like so far two games in. I mean, Jane
Daniels didn't put up great numbers against the Giants in

(18:34):
Week one? What what did he need to engineer a
few drives? People? They scored their first touchdown. Although they
lead seven to nothing, guess what, they didn't give up
seven points the game was already over.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:46):
But although when you mentioned the comebacks with CJ's rookie season,
he had a lot of inclusion.

Speaker 6 (18:52):
They're gonna play on Monday.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, I'm just mostly pointing to Yeah, they just didn't
He didn't have to have them, Jayden. Last year, they
were in position to just go play the game they
wanted to. They weren't forced to do this. They weren't
forced to do that based on the scoreboard, like passing
the ball forty times or you know all that plays
into it. Now they might have some issues behind him. Additionally,
if the Eckler injury is significant, and it appears that

(19:14):
it very well could be, and remember what they did
in the offseason. They traded Brian Robinson Junior to the
forty nine ers to help them in their backfield behind
Christian McCaffrey. I'm on the Bill Crosskey Merritt fan page train,
the hype train that was once reserved for Cam Smith.
On the baseball side, I think he's going to be awesome,

(19:35):
and it looks like we're about to find out whether
or not that will be true with how much work
he got the first two weeks and what maybe lining
up for him moving forward. It's something to continue to
watch the coverage and more importantly, the performance of Daniels
You coming as a rookie for a franchise where they
were it's pretty much all gravy. They could have gone
seven to ten and they would have loved it. They

(19:57):
went much better than that, so they'd love it even more. Okay,
now everyone's they've got a little bit of a book
on you. They know how good the team is. They're
geared up to play your team every week, and they
know what you're capable of. We sit here in Houston
having gone through exactly that last season.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah, and I guess again, I'm pretty defensive of CJ.
And I think I get irritated because I still think
that even though he's not perfect, nobody is, and no
quarterback is.

Speaker 6 (20:26):
I still think he.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Does not get the amount of the benefit of the
doubt that the line that has not been provided for
him in either season now since his rookie year, that
factors into it. I think now some people point that out,
Dan Rolofski. There's people that actually watch the games that
you know they know what they're talking about because they
watch the games. And then there's the people that are

(20:48):
just like, oh, here's a narrative. I'm a national guy,
let me vomit it out like I'm supposed to. It
just drives me insane. But I mean that's not anything
out of the norm for any NFL franch eyes that
isn't watched snap by snap. But I just conversely, and
all that is to say, like he put up numbers

(21:08):
last night, if you had him on your fantasy team,
it was good for you, as I found out the
hard way because I'm playing him, Gordy gosh Man, Like
I'm already down forty five nothing.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Oh, don't worry about the Thursday night issues. You got
a whole team left.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
At least at least part of that big score is
his quarterback.

Speaker 6 (21:26):
And I have yet to play to Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
He got running out there. Well, oh no, I know. Oh,
you're you're sunk. You are sunk. We'll see, we'll see
if it all evens out. But trying to get a
twenty five to thirty point game in fantasy from Laura
Lamar Jackson, good luck.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
We of course talked all over what we wanted or
I wanted to have done here, so we'll save it
till after Best of X.

Speaker 6 (21:51):
But and Cole brought this up during the break.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
There's some numbers, and I'm talking about freaky numbers, historical
numbers as it pertains to the back on the other
sideline last night again two to oh week two, nobody's
crowning the Packers.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Team in football based on record they are right now,
I'm dead serious and it will be until Sunday, But yeah,
I think there's it's interesting at least, if nothing else
to point towards when it comes to Jordan Love and
Micah Parsons, which speaking of, he'll be a h he'll
be a part of Best of X who a featured
player on the upcoming segment Best of X. Halfway through

(22:30):
our number one it comes your way next.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (22:41):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 8 (22:42):
Putting out between five and fifteen posts a day, four.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Hundred people were arrested for things that they said on
social media. History repeats itself type bangill succeed. Never doubt
that you're the one.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
Who bustle No. One league.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
You're the best. Nothing's gonna ever top. You know you're
the best post an every single day, you're the best
of breaking the entire enget.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
All right, Best of X. We do this every single
day around this time, less Jaden Murray joins us, Well
that's true or someone else. There's been other times but yeah,
I uh, we've talked an inordinate amount about last night's game.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I feel pretty confident that sometime during Michael Parson's
run as a Green Bay Packer, there will be a
game that he both plays and does not sack the quarterback.
There will be one sometime in the future, but there
hasn't been one so far. Well, but he but did
he hit the quarterback? I'm saying he had a sack
in the opener, and he had a sack again last night.

(23:55):
There will be a game in Michael Parsons Packers future
where he both plays but does not sack the quarterback.
We haven't seen one of those games yet.

Speaker 6 (24:02):
I don't see it on the horizon.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
We'll see. I don't know that he's gonna have a
seventeen sax season or sixteen and a half if he
gets one the rest of the way, but definitely, as
a team, the Packers defense has looked very good and
very helped by having number one Micah Parsons a part
of it.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
What did you think when initially you saw his his
statement thanking the Cowboys organization and its fans on his
way out the door.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Awesome, respectful, and probably very truthful and heartfelt because you know, player,
we talked about it Tuesday of this week when rafel
Stone was in because Jalen Green was in a position
to author something very similar, although in his case exceptionally
lengthy and even more awesome because he really wrote a
whole article about it. But in both of their cases,

(24:50):
first round picks expected to be cornerstones of getting their
franchises to places they had not been in quite some time,
or at all in some cases, during their lifetimes, and
then really without it being directly as a result of
their own play, they were sent elsewhere. I mean, Jalen
Green helped get you, Kevin Durant. I think most people

(25:12):
understand why, among whatever your reasons might be, Yeah, we
get it. Durant's going to be a rocket, and it
costs you Jalen Green to do so. In Michael Parsons case,
it wasn't for his play. It wasn't for his performance.
The guy had done nothing but become almost immediately one
of the most disruptive players on defense in the NFL
four years running. So it's not a performance based move.

Speaker 5 (25:35):
Well, he thanked everybody in the Dallas organization, and you
just said all the right things like you said, and
then we all know how it.

Speaker 6 (25:44):
Feels about Jerry Jones.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
And if you didn't know how he felt about Jerry Jones,
or you doubted however you thought he felt about Jerry Jones,
I think at least there was some semblance of clarification
last night when Packers fans started chanting thank you Jerry
as he was being interviewed in the post game by

(26:07):
the Thursday Night football types.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah, if you've not seen the prime games over the years,
when Carissa and the entire crew they put their whole
set out on the field like they do before the game,
but they're set they're facing the stands where at whatever
stadium they're broadcasting from, and the fans stay, hundreds of them,
will say right in front of them, that's what they're
catering when they're there, when they're when you're well, they're

(26:29):
in the stands, when they're inside the NBA. These guys
are on the field and the fans are clearly right
there in the stands. You know they're they're loving every
minute of it. So when they're chanting, what were they
chanting again, thank you Jerry, Thank you Jerry. Like everybody
on set everybody on television, and clearly the player who
is on set being interviewed after they just got a
win at home in front of these fans. Everybody's aware

(26:51):
of it. It's awesome.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
Yeah, and aware of it is one thing, but taking
note of it or catering to it is responding yes,
that's quite the other. This is what it sounded like.
In case you were wondering, that's not a few. No,

(27:17):
it's not a lot. But thankfully most.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Of them appeared to be saying thank you, Jerry.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
Now Michah Parsons is sitting there getting interviewed, it's not
gonna be the first or the last time that fans
are making noise or even chanting something while he's being
asked questions. Lots of guys deal with that and actually
deal with it pretty well. I'm always impressed when they
don't get distracted, because I have add and I'd be like,
what what are we doing here?

Speaker 6 (27:40):
What are you chanting?

Speaker 7 (27:41):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (27:42):
But a lot of times they'll ignore it, especially something
like that that if you do react to it, it
could be I don't know, taking one way or the other.
Not Micah. He was nodding along to them, and this
is all on X by the way, and then kind
of waving his arms like yeah, up, keep it going,
and I'm sorry that's I don't think there's any other

(28:05):
way that you could take that.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well, the only way you could take one of the
ways you can take it. It's super simple. I played
for the Dallas Cowboys and now I play for the Packers.
I was ready to head into the season twenty twenty
five season as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. Now
I am a member of the twenty twenty five Packers.
I also have a brand new contract, which is the
reason why this is where we are. But more importantly,

(28:28):
and right after a football game that you just played
in won against a competitor for best in the NFC,
I play for a better team. I have a better
chance to win. I play for a better organization that
likely keeps me in the same position for the life
of the contract I just signed. Where I am in
my football life is absolutely freaking awesome. So thank you.

(28:51):
It's not even you're an idiot, what a fool. I
can't believe you did this to me. It's the opposite.
And sometimes we have clear he traded them. This player
got traded into a good situation. It was a really
nice gesture. They didn't have to do this. It's it's
gonna work out for the player. But you know, for
all that he'd meant to them, they did him a solid.

(29:12):
That's not how Jerry saw it. That's not the purpose
of this, but that's the reality of it. Micah Parsons
in every possible way, every possible way. More money, more
guaranteed money, more security, more stability, better team, better organization.

Speaker 5 (29:27):
Wayne Jack Wayne, When now the responses to this are
pretty awesome, Like the first one I see, which is
the Packers are going to the Super Bowl, aren't they?

Speaker 2 (29:35):
That's I mean, it's sweet too. Let's temper our exactly,
Jerry Jones Burner account. That's not that.

Speaker 6 (29:40):
Uh, it's just some guy named Zay.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
Okay, there's somebody that made a logo that has a
green background with the yellow Packers color that says thank.

Speaker 7 (29:51):
You, Jerry.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Nice.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
There is Becky and these are Dallas fans. I bet
he oh to be specific, it's not Becky g goodness,
So glad he's where he's being appreciated. We will miss
him at Dallas. But now have a reason to watch
Green Bay. I have an issue with people that say
stuff like this, Oh, we're gonna miss filling the blank player,
but man, I'm gonna I can't wait to watch him
and root for him in this other You never root

(30:13):
for those players.

Speaker 6 (30:14):
No one does that.

Speaker 5 (30:16):
And unless it's like a quarterback again, fans were they
like rooting for him as he was beating the Oilers
as a member of the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Well maybe it seems less believable as an adult, but
you know it's the case. I mean, you're a ten
year old kid. You've known Michah Parsons crushing for six
years or for four years since you were six. I'm
your favorite player for the last four years. Well, now
he's not a cowboy, he's your favorite player. He still
plays in the NFL. You're going to continue to root
for him.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
You think Patriots fans loved it for Tom that he
won a Super Bowl again in another uniform.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
It's a very good point. It's a and I know
it's why not every situation is the same. And but
why did Michaeh leave? Well because they trait, They told
him to get out of here, they showed him the door.
Why did Tom Brady leave because bild showed him the
door because the person you didn't want to have say
over him, the person you kept over him, is making

(31:08):
you even more mad about it. The likelihood that the
Cowboys will welcome the three and oh Packers to town
in two weeks is extremely high. The Packers are going
for their first road game next week, they play the Browns.
If they win that game, then they're a week away
from going to Dallas as a three and oh team,
as a team that's gotten off to a fantastic start
that could be the class of the NFC, all while

(31:29):
Dallas will be I don't know what record at that time,
but they don't have any wins as of today. That
is best of x.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
The on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
All right, let's talk about something very very interesting, almost
critic here, Cal was mentioning about the Packers quarterback I'll
call it their legacy. You can talk about the fact that,
like the Colts had like just the one season between
Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck, you know two.

Speaker 6 (32:17):
I don't want to call them generational talents.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
That's just thrown around too much these days. Well about
not calling one of them a generational talent when they
didn't do anything while he played in the NFL. Okay,
how about that we put up big numbers sometimes. Yeah, Look,
I'm not going the field.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
I'm not gonna sit here and act like Andrew Luck
is one of the all time greats.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I mean good, but shouldn't he was at.

Speaker 5 (32:41):
The time when he was playing for them, definitely top fifteen.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
When he was at his best. It was the day
after the draft, and I'm saying Lawrence overly harsh on him,
and I know this is not the point of the conversation.
He had two really good scene seasons, probably three, and
he only played six so half of the seasons were
really good. His third season was awesome, his fifth season

(33:07):
was very good, his final season was very good. And
the other seasons and part of those seasons I even mentioned, Man,
nobody loved turning the ball over like Andrew Luck.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
Yeah, he did throw soul crushing picks, which again, at
least one of the quarterbacks we'll mention in the Packer's
history like doing that.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
So the Colt's legacy was more like the Mavericks legacy. Man,
you got lucky on Draft night that these idiots traded
you Dirknovitzky and as soon as it was clear his
career was gonna end. Some other idiots allowed you to
have Luka Dancic on draft night, and there's no lag time.
You're going from one all time great to the next,
just like the Colts did when Peyton Manning's neck hurt

(33:48):
so badly they had to intentionally lose football games to
have Manning and Luck together on the roster before they
obviously decided how they would proceed with Luck and without Manning. Well,
then they did win anything with Luck, which you could
easily argue exactly neither did the Mavericks when they went
from Dirk to Luca. So nothing like the Packers legacy,

(34:10):
where they have a superstar quarterback, they draft his replacement
and he gets to watch the legacy quarterback continue to
play football, and then Aaron Rodgers gets his turn. They
won with Farv, then they won with Aaron Rodgers, and
then they drafted Aaron Rodgers' replacement and his replacement had
to watch Aaron Rodgers continue to play football before they
turned things over to him. No lag time in between

(34:32):
several years where both quarterbacks were on the roster together
and in a very good spot, potentially as good a
spot as they were with the previous two, they won
Super Bowls with the previous two, and we're talking very
positively about the Packers' future.

Speaker 5 (34:47):
Cole two questions for you. The first one is how
how old is Jordan Love.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
He's twenty he will be twenty seven at the end
of this year.

Speaker 6 (34:54):
And number two, why is that significant?

Speaker 8 (34:56):
Because of if you look at the last three quarterbacks
to win a Super Bowl for the Green Bay Packers,
including Bart Starr, not only were they all in their
sixth season with the organization, they were also the same
age at twenty seven when they won their first Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (35:11):
So when Brett Favre won the Super Bowl with the Packers,
he was twenty seven. He was twenty seven years old. Gosh,
it just seems like he was older. He had already
been in Atlanta for one year. Yeah, I guess it
was just the one year.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
There's one year. Would you like to hear another fun
stat has he this?

Speaker 7 (35:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Well?

Speaker 7 (35:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (35:29):
But first, hasn't he always looked older than he was.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
I always thought he was like in his thirties when
he was like twenty four.

Speaker 6 (35:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 8 (35:35):
So the other fun statu is the last two quarterbacks
in the year that they won the Super Bowl. The
team went out, they brought in a special potential generational
defensive player. So Reggie is you white? And Charles Woodson?
Oh okay, at Micah Parsons.

Speaker 5 (35:54):
That is really that. I mean, you got admit, that's
bizarre that all of these things. Now it's convenient because
it's a nice little story, but they've got to hold
up their endo the bargain man.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
And interestingly, just maybe to me that you look at
who was guiding the ship through that time period, they
well they have some good They were really really good
through that entire period. This is year four, or excuse me,
year five for Mike Holmgren and their fourth trip to
the playoffs when they won with Farv Obviously it was
Mike McCarthy's team with Aaron Rodgers, it was his fifth

(36:25):
season as head coach. They've been to the playoffs twice
and with Rogers in his third year they won the
Super Bowl. This is year seven with coach Lafleur, and
they've actually been even better with him than they were
with either of those to his first three seasons as
head coach, obviously all with Rogers, they won thirteen games
each of those three times they've won the division three

(36:48):
times in the first six years. They're clearly in first
place currently. And the other thing that may join it
all together if they don't. Neither of those two super
Bowl winning Packer teams with Rogers or Farv were or
I take it back, they were. They were the division
leader with far than a thirteen win. See, there's a
lot of these are kind of fun, and I know
Kaylee Hartung brought up that twenty seven year old part

(37:10):
of it, and we've needed a little more. I definitely
think the bart Star angle is pointless. It's fun. It
doesn't mean anything in that and that's really the gist
of all this stuff too. It's purely fun. I'm not
looking at any of this as a well then you know,
but yeah, it's fun.

Speaker 6 (37:27):
Well, here's the deal. It is fun.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
You you have to before you start talking about the
super Bowl. Yeah, yeah, the conference which you share with
the Eagles. Look you here, Week nine, you host the
Eagles at Lambeau. The problem is that they lose to
San Francisco. They don't lose to Philadelphia in the playoffs.
And I don't know that Mac Jones is quite as
big of a threat now anybody's losing the San Francisco
have you heard?

Speaker 2 (37:49):
We will see a change at quarterback for at least
one team in Week two. Rock Perty is unavailable to
the Pack, to the forty nine ers, probably for at
least the next four weeks. Mac Jones got the work
this week. Mac Jones will get the start this week.
They tried to sign a legitimate backup quarterback, as most
really good football team should do. I grad Mac Jones

(38:10):
on that scale. I think he's a perfectly capable part
of the season. He's to me, he's like exactly like
David Mills, actually Davis Mills, except he was drafted very
very highly to perform at a much higher level. But
as NFL players, what's that sixty seventh Yeah, totally different
purview for them on opening night of their NFL career.

(38:32):
Opening night for mac Jones at the at the very least,
was literally the first night, the first night of the draft.
He got picked, well, the first night of the draft,
when Davis Mills was selected by Nick Cassia's first ever
draft pick wasn't even the first night of the draft.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Well, it's not a cupcake schedule, but they do have
the Browns next week, then the Cowboys both on the road,
then the their home for the Bengals at Cardinals, at
Steelers home for the Panthers before that Eagles game. Just
so you're trying to kind of seeing what their record
may or may not be heading into a colossal matchup
like that, we will begin the simulcast coming up next,
reach everything and get you ready for the three o'clock

(39:06):
hour here on the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your
team there is.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team eight.

Speaker 5 (39:30):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network simulcast for a whole hour today. But
you know what, we'll take it. We are loving that
you're looking at our smiling faces. Well, one of us
are smiling. Wex is very very serious right now, concentrating
over there.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (39:48):
He's Wex.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
I'm ac Cole Thompson is our producer. We've got you
until Astro's on deck at five o'clock and then we'll
continue talking, but it'll be an Astros on Deck show.
We'll have Brian McTaggart join us or that obviously, as
he does each and every Friday when it's on deck
time for the Astros. They will be opening a series
in Atlanta which will include an opener and a bullpen

(40:13):
game tonight. For all intents and purposes, I'm not even
gonna say that it is what. It's a bullpen game.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, I would expect if he's asked directly about it.
This is probably the day we see the twenty twenty
five debut of JP Franz. JP France is on the
Astros roster. He has not yet appeared in any game,
been there for a little less than a week. Jaden
Murray's going to make the start as an opener in
this game, something they did once before earlier this year.
In that game it was our first week of August.
Stephen Okert started, was able to give him twenty six pitches,

(40:40):
got him five outs. They finished off the second inning
that day with a true reliever, and then they turned
things over to aj Blueball, who gave them five innings
worth of very good relief work. He was their bulk pitcher.
I guess it's not out of the question he could
be in the mix again in today's game, and that
he did that already once this week, but a couple

(41:01):
of days have passed since he did that. I would
suspect that's not the person there leaning on because they
still have to be a little bit concerned about how
they're using him through forty pitches in relief of Luis Garcia,
but his bullpen work has been awesome. When we have
channeler Rome on here with us in about an hour,
we're gonna ask him about not only blue Ball, but
specifically to the article he just wrote about blue Ball

(41:21):
and about how things went for him in the really awkward,
odd situation of coming into a game because of injury
and getting ready for that game as thirty five forty
thousand people are watching you go through your normal routine,
which can take who knows how long because you're trying
to pitch effectively, you're trying to pitch healthy, and you've

(41:44):
got to take your time on that. So there was
a lot that went into that. But I would think
that JP Prantz probably factors in Alance mcculler's junior, the
only other guy other than those two that could be
looked at to pitch additional innings at any outing. But
he pitched yesterday and I'm sure he is not available
for today's game. So far, so good in openers for
the Astros this year, they're one to zero. We'll see

(42:06):
how things go tonight. The Braves have obviously not played
very good baseball. One thing that happens for teams that
aren't playing very good baseball, they will turn things over
to some of their younger players, maybe at different points
in the season. The guy they're facing tonight is one
such player. I doubt many of you have ever heard
of Hirston Waldrip, unless you think maybe he is on

(42:28):
some sort of yacht and he's a Hurston Waldrip the
fourth or something. He's a right handed pitcher. He's twenty
three years old. He was the twenty fourth overall pick,
their first rounder in twenty twenty three. He made a
couple of appearances with the Braves last year. He was
on the mound for just a couple of games. How
did things go for him as a highly touted prospect,

(42:49):
Very very badly? Through seven innings he gave up thirteen runs.
He was awful in those two appearances. And then he
got an opportunity earlier this year and he's taken the
ball seven times and he's given up two runs or
excuse me, one run or fewer in all of them,
but his most recent start where he gave up two.
He's got a one to thirty three ERA. They're four
to zero in his six starts. He's got extremely good stuff.

(43:14):
And this is a terrible baseball team. You're probably facing
the best they have to offer currently when you get
out to the field tonight.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
That is so sad for so many different reasons. But
that's where they are right now, and I don't have
any reason other than the fact that the Braves suck.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Braves have played their other four series against the Aos
so far this year. That's twelve games. They've won three
of them, three and nine against the Aos. The Astros
need to make sure things like that continue.

Speaker 6 (43:45):
They can't if they don't score.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
It been to be pretty difficult. If they do what
they did yesterday, they will definitely lose. They did not
score in yesterday's game. Their last fifty four games, something
I brought up yesterday, are just a yuck yuck fest
of offense. More than half off of those games over
what is one third of a baseball season, fifty four games,
twenty nine times in fifty four games they've scored three

(44:07):
runs or fewer. Jordan Alvarez has played in fifteen of
those games. Jeremy Panna and Jose al Tuvey have played
in the majority of those almost all of those games.
Carlos Coore has played in a majority of those games.
And it just really hasn't mattered. They have not been
consistently scoring runs. If you consistently score runs for the
way that they more often than not have gotten their

(44:29):
pitching and two of the three starts in this series
again after today's opener, you're turning things over to your
most trusted arms from ber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Hunter
Brown has a two to twenty five ERA on the season.
He had a short stretch basically a five star stretch
where he just wasn't sharp and you still had a
chance to win those games. But almost every one of
his other starts, especially recently, you should win one hundred

(44:52):
percent of his starts when he's giving up one run
and no runs and one run, and it's hard to
get to this point in the season with an EAR
that low unless you're consistently pitching these should be wins
type of games. And that's all he's done. For the
last five starts, and I don't have any reason to
think that will continue Saturday. There's hope it will continue
with fromber on Sunday. And that's why. I mean, I

(45:16):
know what they're doing, I know how they've played. I
know they're in a first place tie. I know the
other team that's tied with them has won six games
in a row and continues playing home games through the weekend.
I expect the Astros when they start their home series
against the Rangers next Monday, when we are here next
Monday at two o'clock, I expect to be talking about

(45:36):
the first place Astros. Ploy you're confident if they win once,
it's very unlikely obviously if they get swept. I'm pretty
sure Seattle's not going to get swept, but I think
they need to and will win at least two of
these games over the weekend. Thus, provided Seattle doesn't ride
a nine game winning streak into next week, who the
Astros will still be in first place?

Speaker 5 (45:58):
Okay, forget the Seattle series, how about the one that
comes before that on Monday night. Who would have thought
that the Rangers would even matter in this conversation?

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Like two weeks ago, they keep even though if all
he's been gone, de Gram's getting the start today. Lighters
pitched a whole heck of a lot better. Corbyn, no
hit the Astros for five innings, has pitched better, not great,
but better. He's been their least effective starter and pretty
much everybody they've given the ball to all season long.
If again, we're one hundred and forty plus games in

(46:28):
the season, I'm gonna believe that you guys are aware
of this. Their pitching staff is awesome. Their starting fat also.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
Have any wins at all. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
But yeah, they're scoring enough runs with three of their
regulars not participating seeger Garcia and Simeon are all on
the injured list. They may or may not come back
before the regular season ends, and the Rangers with guys
they've just The Astros lost an extra inning game to
the Rangers on a game winning hit from a player
who was playing his first game back from being called up.

(47:00):
Their lineup is full of players like that, but can
win up?

Speaker 5 (47:05):
Can we stop pretending like Adulas Garcia has been anything
since that aberration season. I mean, I know what you're saying,
like their two best players have been out. If you
want to add a third.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I think I called the mainstays to avoid calling them awesome.

Speaker 6 (47:18):
Like, and this guy's not been out.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
Josh Young I think contributes way more to the Rangers'
offense than Adulas Garcia.

Speaker 6 (47:26):
I could be wrong. I don't have numbers in front
of me.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Which I think he just hasn't played as much, right,
but I would tend to agree this season a doulas Garcia.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
I mean the highlights he's had against the Astros for
the most part this season. I mean, I know he
hit a home run, but there have been more like
defensive place in right field, and you.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Do use something with that. But it's being real. You're
being real about Garcia. You've constantly been negative about Garcia,
but now it's totally real. Back to back years with
a six eighty four OPS, back to back seasons with
an OPS plus of under one hundred when one hundred
is average, twenty twenty four, the first year and only

(48:03):
year of their title defense. All the way through this year,
he's a below average player.

Speaker 6 (48:08):
Yeah, and that's why I think he did something.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
I mean then, but why would he stop then?

Speaker 6 (48:14):
Because he's gonna get caught.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
So he knew he wouldn't get caught for the entire year.
It was totally worth it. We won our title. Now
I'm gonna stop listen.

Speaker 5 (48:20):
If you're doing anything like that in Major League Baseball,
you're playing with fire. You are Fernando Tattoos. These guys,
who is the guy that nobody cares?

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Though? What do you mean, Fernando Tattoos suspended for half
a season?

Speaker 6 (48:35):
Nobody cares because you guys have spend before the season started.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
I mean you care when he's missing games, but it's
not held against him. We hardly ever talk about it.

Speaker 5 (48:42):
Oh, I know, because you can do drugs, you just
can't do trash cans. If you do trash cans, now
you should be strung up on charges federal, federal. I mean,
that's it's so stupid. Baseball and its fan bases are
just ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Rangers are at the Mets tonight with those players still absent,
and Seattle cantinues their four game series with these super
focused on winning Los Angeles Angels.

Speaker 5 (49:05):
Well they better be that defocused when they play the Astros.
Then same with the A's. I'm messing around and not
helping people out. Actually they did actually help the Astros
out the other night with the Rangers walk off, I believe,
but I think that's who they were playing. I can't
remember us slept since then. But yeah, I'm not as
I'm not as convinced as you that when that juncture

(49:29):
comes to pass that we're talking about the first place.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Yeah, and all for all my blather is what it
sounds like. Now, Well, the Astros don't need to scoreboard watch.
They just need to take care of their own business. Well,
when you sit in this position now, and I know,
technically you could say today the Mariners actually hold the tiebreaker,
if that's what it came down to, which it can't
under any circumstances because you play them head to head
and you play an odd number of games, so.

Speaker 6 (49:53):
It's literally impossible. It is impossible.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
But yeah, if the season ended today, but yeah, they
played each other, they still don't technically have to scoreboard
watch unless the Mariners out win them in the other
games by more than the games the Astros beat them.
If you lose to the Mariners three times, you're not
gonna win three more games, four more games than them
in your other eleven. And obviously the flip that if

(50:17):
the Astros sweep the Mariners, that's what you're talking about.
In order for the Mariners to then pass the Astros,
they'd have to win four more games of the remaining
eleven on the schedule. I don't know that it's going
to be a sweep either way, but this is the
math behind it all. And as Joe Aspada and the
Astros get ready for their game tonight, the move that
I suspected the Astros would be making when Brian McTaggert,

(50:40):
Chandler Om and Matt Carharr mentioned this morning that Zach
Cole was being selected from their Triple A roster. Say
Sar Salazar would be the player option to Triple A
and because Cole was not yet on the forty man roster,
he needs a forty man spot and that comes his
way via transferring Luis Garcia from the fifteen day IL
to the sixty day IL, where he will finish the
season for the third consecutive season on the Astros sixty

(51:04):
day IL. Get us some more of what ails the
Astros and why it might get fixed when we come
back here on the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
The age on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Ninety handful of updates for you years. We get into
the meat of the three o'clock hour, the lone hour
of today's program that you can catch via simulcast on
Space City Home Network. Both there and here you catch
Astros Baseball. They've got a six fifteen first pitch against

(51:36):
the Atlanta Braves tonight. The Braves they got sixteen games
left to try to finish five hundred. All they have
to do is win them all. There's sixty five and
eighty one heading into play tonight. Astros at seventy nine
and sixty eight, the same record shared by the Seattle Mariners,
who got a second consecutive extra innings win, and obviously
that means since they were at home, it was another

(51:57):
walk off victory. They had the bases loaded, got a
sack Lie to get that final run needed to win
that game. A night after they got a two run
homer on the first pitch of the thirteenth inning to
win that game. A couple of roster notes I gave
you last segment in the in the roster note section
of this show. Today, I will slide over to the

(52:18):
Texans as they have issued what I expected their injury
report to be for today. Five players have been on
it since the week began and their week isn't over yet.
So while every team in the NFL but the four
playing on Monday night will be issuing their injury report
that also includes their status as an out, doubtful, etc.

(52:39):
The sections only two days under their work week, a
third straight or a second straight day. With Jake Andrews,
Christian Kirk and Braxon Barrios not week practicing, they will
undoubtedly have that same designation tomorrow, and then what will
come with it is an out for each of those
three offensive players. Blake Fisher, he was available last week

(53:00):
and he got four plays of work in last week
and one penalty for pulling the helmet of Jared Verse
in a very bad way. It's a fifteen yarder. And
he practiced in full this week and will likely do
so tomorrow, and he'll be listed as available for the Texans.
It looks like the same is going to be true
for Ed Ingram, and I surmised earlier on today's show

(53:22):
it would be I didn't see a whole lot of
Ed yesterday and there was only a limited amount for
the people that aren't on the radio at the time
the Texans practiced, although today it was a little earlier.
That's on me. I could have gotten out there, thanks Gary,
if life didn't exist, but it did. He practiced in
full today, The likelihood that he starts gets higher, and
the likelihood that they will go back to the original

(53:42):
formation of their offensive line that they put together three
weeks before the season started, only to shuffle the whole
deck when Ingram could not play last week likely gets
back in play. That means Ersery gets his first work
or his first start at left tackle, because in his
first game in the NFL he played both. He started

(54:03):
at right tackle and shifted over to left tackle when
Cam Robinson missed his handful of snaps with what appeared
to just be maybe a little dehydration cramping, he returned
to the game, so Ersery returned to the right side.
I think the re insertion of Eddie Ingram into the
starting lineup where he practiced for weeks leading up to

(54:23):
the season, it means Cam Robinson slides back to the
reserve role. The one of two swing tackles they have.
I don't know if they're both active though, Fisher being
the other. So the alignment of Ursrie and Howard at tackle,
Tomlinson and Ingram at guard should be back in place
for this game on Monday Night against the Bucks, and

(54:44):
obviously Jared Patterson will be the starting center because Jake
Andrews hurt his ankle, probably out for more than just
this week, but at present time they have decided not
to put him uninjured reserve, so hopefully it is only
one or two weeks. If it's closer to three. I
know you don't want to waste your injured reserve but
designated to return slots too early in the season, but

(55:07):
I hate to think there is a couple of opportunities
for players to miss three to four games just sitting
there on the active roster when there is that option
for you. But nonetheless, we'll see Patterson out there. So
two games in two different starting lineups for the Texans
offensive line, it's all about performance. I don't think there's
a huge difference in talent for all of their offensive

(55:29):
linemen except for one, and that's Fisher. I think the
rest of the eight that are on the active roster,
I don't know, there's a whole heck of a lot
of difference. I think there will be at some point
between Ursery and Cam Robinson. But in week two of
Ursery's NFL career, There probably isn't There would be a
huge drop off if Blake Fisher is playing for anybody.
You saw that again last week, rather than that they

(55:49):
should be fine or they should be comparable to whatever
other lineup they could be throwing out there.

Speaker 5 (55:54):
The other aspect of this is we all know and
we thought this going in. But again it's going going
to my larger point in saying this. I think we
knew the Rams would have a good pass rush, but
that's that's based on a track record prior to this season.
The Bucks, you know, how would you describe their pass
rush last year?

Speaker 6 (56:13):
Middling?

Speaker 5 (56:15):
It wasn't what it was when Tom Brady was there
and they won the Super Bowl, Let's put it that way.
So they've had a little bit of a drop off,
but it you know, factoring in how much is this
going to present a problem to a line that's going
through all these shifts and injuries and just trying to
have cohesion regardless of who's healthy, how much of the

(56:35):
how much of this is we don't know exactly what
Tampa Bay is defensively because it has only been one
week of the season.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Well, the unfortunate part is at some point we'll look
back at last year and say, then what we're saying now,
what we did then it doesn't even matter who the
other team is. Yeah, they all have film, and when
you have miscommunication errors, they know how to make those
happen again until you fix it. When they know they
can run this stunt and they know they can just
run down, you know, put the interior line and have
them crashed down at the tackle or guard who's ever

(57:02):
lined up over him, and then the edge just flies
around him. They run a little game and there's a
wide open lane to CJ. Stroud, who Again, some of
those plays take a little bit of time, and hopefully
the offense and the offensive coordinator and the quarterback understands that,
and so you might still be able to get away
with that when they're running games to create unblocked players

(57:23):
rather than just beating their guys one on one cleanly,
which also happened last year. I mean the Texans played
about an is six or seven week stretch of teams
from like week seven to week fifteen, and it really
didn't matter what what does this team's defense look like?
Have they been getting after the quarterback? Do they have
a good edge rushers. Are they really able to create
pressure without the use of blitzes or exotic blitz It

(57:45):
doesn't matter because they just look at the film and say, well,
we might not do this every week, but we're doing
it this week.

Speaker 5 (57:50):
You know, it's crazy you say that week, what was
the use you said seven through fifteen.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Somewhere after the first two weeks and before the very
very end of the season, there's the pressure numbers on
CJ took a massive spike and remain there.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
You say that, you say that phrase of those dates
to anybody that watched every game of last season, and
they know what you're talking about, and they know what
life was like before that stretch began. The Texans were
while not you know, maybe CJ wasn't putting up as
impressive a numbers, and the thrilling comeback wins maybe not

(58:22):
weren't there, but like you know, like the Chicago game,
it was ugly, but they grinded it out. You know,
Nico Collins getting hurt, all that kind of stuff, Joe
Mixon factoring into that stretch you're talking about, and then
it just felt like every week they were finding ways
to make life more difficult, even when it wasn't health related.

Speaker 6 (58:41):
That certainly didn't help this season.

Speaker 5 (58:45):
Again, it's only even one game, it was against a
good defense, but you still just felt like they played
as as poorly maybe as you could on offense, and
like CJ said earlier this week, they still had a
chance to win.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Yeah, the Bucks might not possess and a double digit
sack player. I would think they'll have a second year
in a row where they don't have a double digit
sack player. They didn't even have a player with eight sacks.
But that's again, that sack number is awesome to fool people.
This still was one of the teams that put a
lot of pressure on quarterbacks. They actually did have a
good sack number as a team. Going on and on
about how awesome the Texans were set a team record

(59:20):
with forty nine sacks, Well, the Bucks had forty six
sacks a year ago. Because they're smart. They are They
run a very strong system that creates opportunities for more
than just the oh, well, this guy's our thirteen sack
a year edge rusher. He's a huge disruptor. No, they
create opportunities for the players that they have, and I
think they do a really nice job of giving that

(59:41):
to whomever they have at their disposal any given week.
So that's what the Texans I think are kind of
up against for what I would call a very well
run defense. And again I think as opposed to the Rams,
I think what they have on the back end is better.
I think Antoine Winfield is a tough nut to crack.
I think McCollum, who earned big paycheck, is another plus player.

(01:00:02):
I think they're actually pretty good on that side. Not
that the Texans shouldn't be able to overcome it, not
that this can't be a week that Nico Collins really produces,
gets his nine to ten targets, has his seven to
eight catches, and gets into the end zone and on
and on down the line. One thing the Texans had
better do this week that they did not do last week.
They just basically said, well, we're not gonna We're not
gonna have a true slot receiver, not that body type.

(01:00:25):
They just didn't give it. I didn't think they had
Jalen Nole on the field enough, and they just kind
of all the things they worked on all season. They
spent an entire training camp in preseason with three slot receivers,
so to speak. I mean, their receivers will play all
over the field, but for all intents and purposes, that's
what Kirk is, That's what Barrios is, and that's what
Noel is. And then they get to Week one and
they just basically didn't use any of them. Two of

(01:00:47):
them were out, which is why it hurts so much,
and the third one, just in my opinion, was not
on the field enough. And I hope that changes when
it looks like they'll have the exact same five wide
outs at their disposal this week. I mean, Justin Watson's
a nice enough dude, but I'd prefer running an offense
that features Jalen Noel more than him. But it's just

(01:01:10):
that's just me. He's a pretty nice dude. He's a
swell guy. I mean, according to Trent Green, Pat Mahomes
was leaning on him the last several years when they
were together in Kansas City. I'll give everybody the remaining
thirty two seconds of this segment to think back on
all the great Kansas City Chiefs offensive moments featuring Pat
Mahomes and Justin Watson during their five straight trips to

(01:01:31):
the league's or Conferences title game and subsequent Super Bowls,
because I'm sure the list is definitely going to take
more than thirty two seconds.

Speaker 6 (01:01:38):
Watson's mom is gonna call, I know who.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Is this guy? He's got a microphone. He can just
do whatever he wants. That's just so unnecessary.

Speaker 7 (01:01:46):
You know what.

Speaker 6 (01:01:47):
One of us is a mean, bad person.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
And both of us have the same first name, So
you got to pick which one it is. Give it
the Astros a lineup, which, of course, as I already
told you, would feature Cole. When we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
About a half hour from now, we'll talk with Chandler
Rome on your Houston Astros says, the seventy nine and
sixty eight bunch takes on the sixty five win Atlanta Braves.
They will do so tonight, with Jaden Murray going out
there as an opener, making his third major league appearance
yet to be scored upon in the first two just
two and a third innings of his major league pitching

(01:02:29):
career under his belt. He's going to throw to Victor Keratini,
who's his catcher. Tonight. The lineup for the Astros looks
like this. Someone new at the top of the order.
His name is Carlos Korea bat and lead off for
the Astros, playing third base. Jordan Alvarez doing the designated hitting,
bats second. Jose Altuve will take his glove out to
second base and bat third. Jesus Sanchez against a right

(01:02:53):
handed pitcher. He is in the lineup in right field
and batting in the cleanup spot, one spot ahead of Karatini.
Christian Walker out there is your six hole hitter. Jake
Myers is in center field. He bats seventh. Mauriceo Dubon
in at shortstop for Jeremy Pania. He's the last batter
in the order and the guy who bats eight will
be making his Major League debut tonight for the Houston Astros.

(01:03:14):
His name is Zach Cole entered a play as the
astros nineteenth rated prospect from a couple of weeks ago.
In the most recently updated MLB pipeline list, had fifteen
games worth of action with the Space Cowboys after a
recent promotion from the hooks. He's been tearing the cover
off the ball there reached base in all fifteen games

(01:03:35):
he's played there hit five balls over the fence. One
of those was a walk off grand slam. It's been
an extra base machine, bats from the left side, plays
corner outfield. Absolutely positively, there's an element of why not
nobody else is contributing in a way that says we
shouldn't do this. The team is clearly struggling offensively. I'm

(01:03:58):
sure every single person he's talked to in the organization
has been telling him how little pressure is on him.
You're clearly getting called up because we stink offensively right now. Yes,
we would love you to somehow be this pop provided
to our offense, but don't feel like it's on you.
You're going out there in a lineup with Jordan and

(01:04:20):
al Tuvey and Korea and other players that clearly the
pressure's actually on them, and at some point they're the
ones who've got to get out there and start producing.

Speaker 5 (01:04:30):
So, with all that said, and knowing that there is
a bullpen game ahead of them tonight, what is a
bigger concern going into Game one against the crappy Braves
The offense or the pitching.

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
It's the offense for me, only in that they're facing
what has been at least for the last three or
about about five weeks, Arson Waldrop has been awesome. Five
innings or more and all seven of his appearances two
earned runs or less, and all of those appearances heck,
all of them but one, he only gave up one
run or no runs. His last start was his worst start.
He went five innings, he gave up two hits two runs,

(01:05:07):
the only time he's been scored on more than one
time in his seven major league games so far this year.
And like I said, in all of them, he's gotten
them at least five innings of work. All were starts,
but the first one, so he gave him five innings
out of the bullpen that day. He has been very,
very good. I would like to think the Astros have
something to offer, and at some point, these major league
caliber hitters, who aren't two hundred hitters, who aren't ops

(01:05:31):
six to fifty players for the season or for their careers,
we'll show it. And it just it almost feels like
it has to happen. At some point. They don't have
another fifteen games of an aptitude on offense in front
of them. It just seems so hard to believe. I know,
the last five, six, the last fifty four, you could say,
when you even gave those numbers on today's show, WEX

(01:05:52):
twenty nine games, the three runs are fewer. Well, if
some of those games were paired up properly, some of
those games would have been wins. But you got a
zero and another zero, and you have that stretch where
they got shut out three consecutive days. You got shut
out just yesterday, and you only had a hit in
one of the nine innings. Now, they blew an opportunity
to score in that inning. You got a single of

(01:06:14):
the lead off the inning, and you got a one
out single to put runners at first and third. For
who You're four and five hitters who did not move
the runners at all, and you did not score that inning.
They didn't have any other hits. The rest of the
game were perfect gamed by Kevin Guisman through the first
three and then he retired fifteen consecutive batters, getting all
the way to the ninth inning before he actually walked
a guy, but finished off that game shut out. One

(01:06:37):
hundred pitches is all it took. He was talking after
the game, and multiple teammates of his also saying, man,
you know he had a lot of first pitch strikes.
We mentioned that during yesterday's tenth inning show he was
pitching from ahead constantly he said, I know I had
a lot of first pitch strikes today. It was probably, like,
I don't know, ninety percent full of himself, it was

(01:06:57):
eighty seven percent. It was twenty six of thirty twenty
six batters started there at bat with a first pitch strike.
Obviously some of the more bat at balls, but otherwise
they were facing an OH to one count, and many
of them went then went to an OH to two count.
Really good pitchers usually take advantage of getting into pitchers
counts when you do it all day long. Well, and

(01:07:17):
that's what at least.

Speaker 5 (01:07:18):
Three or four times tonight, because Carlos Korea is looking
at the first pitch every time he has the anti
alto ve.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
If Walder wants to throw his thirtieth best heater of
the night on the opening pitch and go middle middle
with it, he'll probably be one. Just it's or maybe
Harlos will ambush him because he's the lead off hitter.

Speaker 6 (01:07:39):
Well, you know, al Twove is going to say, hey,
this is what you should do.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
This is what I do. You got any advice? What
do you think you should is?

Speaker 5 (01:07:45):
Yehwing, that's what he would say. You want some really
nauseating news as it pertains to baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
Well, let me give you one other item we will
hopefully have an answer to shortly. The Astros not only
I gave you their lineup, but when you post the
lineup card outside the clubhouse, it's visible for not just
the nine guys in the lineup, but in this case,
the other nineteen that are on the roster and thus
available for the day's game, all your reserve everyday players

(01:08:11):
and all your pitchers out of the bullpen. So technically
not every pitcher. The starters aren't listed there, but listed
on the Astros' lineup card, as posted by Matt Krhar
of the Houston Chronicle. Beat writer Colton Gordon's name appears
there among the available pitchers for the Astros. Well, that
means he's on the roster. That means he is available
to be used on a day where they're starting an opener.

(01:08:35):
But it also means somebody else needs to be taken
off the roster besides says Ar Salasar. Salazar was taken
off the roster sent back down, so there was a
spot for coal Alma Colors. But you also have a
forty man spot, and that's why Luis Garcia was sent
to the sixty dail it opens up a forty man spot. Well,
the same lineup card tells you the answer which you

(01:08:57):
just indicated we Lance mccullors is a bullpen pitcher. Thus he,
along with the other nine names, would all normally appear
there as an available bullpen pitcher. His name does not
appear there with the other six right handed pitchers that
would otherwise normally be available. It's I like to assume

(01:09:17):
that that means it is what it is, and I
feel pretty confident saying so. But yeah, he's not listed
on the lineup card. Something to keep an eye on.
I mean, we talked about it in the obvious ways
for two weeks now, and he pitched again yesterday and
you got similar results. He had a good at first
inning and then he had a very Lance mccullor's twenty
twenty five caliber second inning of work. They're trying to

(01:09:40):
win every game they can. It's by no means all
on Lance. But if they have a player on the
rostra they don't want to give the ball to as
a pitcher. If they have a player on the roster
they don't want playing defense or being in the batting lineup,
then they can't have that player on the roster anymore,
and you have limited options on how to make that
a possibility, and one of those options is the injured list,
one of those options that I would that they've now

(01:10:02):
I'm not saying they've taken it without needing it, but
Lance mcullor's has already gone on the injured list in
season after his return twice before. And if you want
to go to the last fifteen games without giving him
the baseball because you're just not confident he can get
you out, that's one way to do it. Then the
injured list is one place to put him.

Speaker 5 (01:10:19):
This season's been awful, there's no any way around it,
and I just who it has been a test of
your patience if you're an Astros fan. All Right, we'll
talk more Astros obviously at the top of the hour,
when Chandler Rome joins us. As we mentioned, I got
a very interesting story to share about how Dolphins fans

(01:10:41):
are super going through it after that Week one lost
to the Colts and desperately need to win.

Speaker 6 (01:10:46):
Coming up this weekend, we'll discuss next.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Those guys have been going through it lately too, for broadcasters.

Speaker 5 (01:11:02):
Yeah, well, you know, like you know how I like
to like rage turn the game off sometimes when I'm
mad that it's not going well.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Like yesterday, Like you throw the remote and I hope
that the power button gets crushed.

Speaker 6 (01:11:13):
No, it's not quite that way, but I'll just be like.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore tonight. Do you
storm out or something? Depends on what room, Like, how
is the rage clear? I'll punch a couch cushion that's
a stump. Your foot really go bad. And I'm by myself,
and I know I throw something soft at the wall.
Sometimes not the wall, you know, I'm a big Put

(01:11:36):
your hand into the hot butter of the popcorn maker? No,
why would I do that? I don't know. I'm trying
to How ragey are you? It's just do you immediately
play a game of NBA jam?

Speaker 5 (01:11:47):
No, okay, that doesn't do That would make me more mad.
It's rigged. Oh wait, all of a sudden.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
When they're hitting every shot and the other guy is
on fire.

Speaker 6 (01:11:57):
Well, if you can put some codes in, get a head.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Okay, So you're going to rage turn off the game
when things aren't going well. The broadcasters are going through it.
They can't do it. They can't.

Speaker 6 (01:12:07):
They're working there there, they're living it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Right, they're giving you the here's what you know, Blummer
obviously telling you a little bit about what it's like
when this happens, because it happens to teams all the time, good,
bad and otherwise. Sparks on the radio side when they're
struggling to you know, Javier pitching through. Well, I probably
should have fared better in this inning, but my three
players around that baseball nobody decided to catch it. You know,

(01:12:32):
look at how that first inning went, for instance, and
you're Steve Sparks on the doing the analysis alongside Robert Ford.
First bat of the game, two zero pitch to George
Springer and he just he never should have swung at
it and he realized it too late. Would have been
ball three ties him up check swing, bouncer to Christian
Xavier's right. He jumps off the mound, grabs it off balance,

(01:12:54):
throw to first in time, but it bounced and Christian
Walker couldn't quite corral. Well that's the single. Now there's
a guy on first. He gives up a pretty good
shot to Lucas, but it's too left field and it's
off the wall and you think, okay, well maybe it'll
be second and third. But George Springer caught it really
well off. The bat was already at second when it
got off the wall, and he gunned it all the

(01:13:15):
way around. It just beat the throw home. Oh great.
Two batters into the game, it's one nothing and there's
a runner at second base, and then you get the
next guy to pop up, but the infield was in
and so that created a I don't know if it's mine,
I don't know that I can get there. Hey, sus Sanchez,
who's one hundred feet away plus is supposed to come
in and get it. And that was the word from
both he and Joe Aspota after the game. That's the

(01:13:37):
outfielders ball. Nobody catches it. Another run scores, You get
the next two guys out, and you're like, I absolutely
should have been out of that inning with one run,
if not no runs, if we just catch a break.
Then you laid off the second end and give up
a home run ball, and now it's three nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:13:52):
And again I'm not I'm not privy to this. I
have not had a conversation with either one of them
about this. But we've all done it as broadcasters. Things
aren't going well, there's a time out, there's a commercial,
you go to break, and somebody takes their headset off
or keeps it on and just looks at their partner
and says, oh, my goodness, this is terrible blummer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
One other thing from the UH was watching one of
the Mariners games two nights ago, the thirteen inning game,
and just going through the eleventh inning, twelfth inning, whatever,
and in the middle of just a play, you hear
the color analysts go and the play by play guy goes,
you know, there's a button for that. It actually says,

(01:14:34):
coughin right, I've got one right in front of me, exactly. Yeah,
during times during the game, like obviously, we have been
on the Rockets broadcast team during their fifty two win
seasons season of last year. Also been on the broadcast
team for a twenty two win season and the two
that preceded it that were equally unsettling as players, organization

(01:14:55):
and broadcasters. There were games where it was fairly early
in the forty eight minutes set to be played, and
it was pretty obvious who might come out on top.

Speaker 5 (01:15:04):
Yeah, just like there were in the sixty five win
season where it was like, oh, look they have ninety
at halftime. Those were dude, those were good time.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
I don't know about you. I think Mike d'antoni's offense
is pretty good.

Speaker 6 (01:15:17):
I still can't believe they didn't win a championship.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Yeah, they put together a championship winning roster. And in basketball,
if health is with you, you're probably going to play
for the championship. When it isn't. Somebody else wins because
of injuries and it wasn't you because of any.

Speaker 6 (01:15:34):
Why does the Warriors always win because of injuries?

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
Always?

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
All of their titles, all of their titles, look it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
Up, Okay, I know some of their titles. Definitely couldn't.

Speaker 6 (01:15:45):
And it's not just the championship round. Yeah, in order
to get there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
It helps when you face a team that well, all
of a sudden, they got to play. They got to
beat you four more times. The rest of the series
are three more times, but they got to do it
without their best player, their second best player. Yeah, and
now you're onto the next round, as again happened every series. Yeah,
So it's it's the NBA. Unfortunately, Like I don't think
Oklahoma City won the title because of this last year.

(01:16:10):
But they definitely benefited from an injury that didn't happen
to them, that did happen to their upon in the.

Speaker 5 (01:16:14):
Finals, because it's Game seven and he was pulling rabbits
out of a hat all place postseason long, Tyrese Haliburton,
And by the way, it was having an amazing start
to that game. So who's to say the free throw
merchant can't get some calls and it's Indiana as the
twenty twenty five NBA champs.

Speaker 7 (01:16:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
The genesis of this conversation with a championship roster, which
clearly the Rockets put together then and when they won
a championship they did the same. The Astros have had
a championship roster every year from twenty seventeen to twenty
twenty four, or at least twenty twenty three. They won
two titles, not six, not even five, not even four,
not even three. It is played for more. It is
totally different in baseball, even when you have a roster

(01:16:54):
so clearly capable and even healthy of blowing through teams.
I didn't ex a team in twenty twenty two to
start beating everybody in the playoffs. Every series not sweeting
any game sweet sweet yeah. On their way into the
World Series. That is unheard of. And who were they
beating championship caliber rosters Yep, yep, baseball. It's just a

(01:17:18):
totally different analyts. It's why it is what it is.
It's why we scratched our head so much about it.

Speaker 6 (01:17:23):
Game until Game one of the World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
That's crazy. It was also through a no hitter. It's
unbelievable what a team this group had.

Speaker 6 (01:17:32):
By the way, you want to hear something really depressing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
Oh my gosh, and I'm not even the one saying it.
Bring it.

Speaker 8 (01:17:38):
So.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
MLB insiders they did like a poll of you know,
people like Jeff Passon and other very savory characters, and
they were talking about some of the free agents coming
up this offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
They had time for this when they weren't writing articles
about Aaron Judges kindergarten teacher and when she knew or
he knew that he was going to be a star.
I hate them.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
Okay, what So Kyle Tucker was obviously at the top
of that list, and I'll go I'll spare you the
details of Oh, here's all the different types of deals
that he could get twenty different people giving you eight
different scenarios of me. Who are the closest comps don't
care about any of that either. Let's just get to
the good stuff. Who are Tucker's potential suitors? And all

(01:18:22):
it says is there's little confidence from those surveyed, none
of whom work for the Cubs, because that's the type
of survey. This is about the Cubs winning a bidding
war for Tucker. The Dodgers longtime fans of Tucker were
mentioned by a number of industry insiders. We didn't ask
about a projected team, so the Dodgers coming up often
seems to be indicative of a feeling in the industry

(01:18:46):
that they're the team to beat.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Can you go back, go back to what you said,
read us the three words, but I can't remember the
third of those three words, the part of it where
you said longtime.

Speaker 6 (01:18:56):
What longtime fans of Tucker?

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
I mean, come on, man, did you have a word
count you had to reach? This is a major League
Baseball outfit. They're run by major league talent, scouts and
professional people to cover the game. Longtime admirers, longtime fans
of Kyle No kidding, really, they really liked Kyle Tucker
over the years. The worst team in baseball really likes

(01:19:20):
Kyle Tucker because they're not blind and stupid.

Speaker 5 (01:19:23):
Imagine if they had to count Otani's money the right
way on.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
Their cap player. He said, Ah, you don't want to
pay me all up front, no problem, Let's put it
on layaway and I will come be a Dodger. We're
gonna talk to Chandler Rome of the Athletic about the
Astros in Major League Baseball when we come back here
on The A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him Talking
your Team, Adam.

Speaker 4 (01:19:57):
Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 5 (01:20:00):
The four o'clock were underway. It is a Friday edition
of The A Team. He's wex I may see and
as promised, joined by Chandler Rome of the Athletic. Fresh
off a six nothing shut out in Canada, he is
now in Atlanta, Georgia, where the Astros also find themselves

(01:20:20):
to take on the Braves in the start of a
three game series tonight. This offense is absolutely putrid right now,
but don't worry. It's also a bullpen game tonight, and
the Mariners have tied them. Is there anything you can
give us that is considered good news?

Speaker 9 (01:20:35):
Chandler, I mean, they outscored the Texans on Saturday, They
scored They scored eleven runs on Saturday, and Professor Demiko
only put up nine on Sunday.

Speaker 6 (01:20:46):
So I knew he wouldn't disappoint. She's right there with it.

Speaker 5 (01:20:49):
Okay, So you know, the Mariners have chased them down,
the Rangers are in hot pursuit, neither of which is
something that I necessarily thought we'd be saying, even like
a couple of weeks ago. Is it just as simple
as this offense is just in a complete and utter
funk from top to bottom, and anybody that Joe spot
of puts in that lineup, you really just cannot expect
anything from them right now.

Speaker 9 (01:21:12):
I mean, Yourdon's still good, but yeah, other than other
than Alvarez and really Korea to Correy has been pretty
consistent since he's gotten them back over here. The slug
hasn't been there, but he's been consistent. He's hating over
three hundred since he got back. But yeah, it's just
you know, their lack of run production is putting so
much pressure on every other part of their team, and

(01:21:35):
it's magnifying, like little small managerial decisions like bringing the
infield in yesterday in the first inning that blooper falls
where al two they probably would have been standing on
a standard infield depth and a run scores. You know,
it's putting a lot of pressure on a pitching staff
that is so ravaged by injuries you can't really recognize it.
They just got to take some pressure off parts of

(01:21:56):
this team by scoring some runs. You know it. It's
tough to put it all on one guy, but you know,
when Jose al Tuove is struggling the way he is,
it's just hard for this thing to get going because
he's gonna hit in the top half of the order.
No matter what people want to hear, He's gonna stay
up in that top half of the order. Other guys
have to perform better. Christian Walker has the most strikeouts

(01:22:17):
with runners on base of any hitter in Major League Baseball.
Hey Sus Sanchez has eleven extra base hits since the
Astros acquired him a month and a half ago. Other
guys have to perform better. But like this is a
holistic problem. Outside of Alvarez in Korea, they really don't
have anyone right now that you look to as a
guy that can really carry this offense. And as we've seen,
teams know that they're pitching around Alvarez. He's getting nothing

(01:22:39):
to hit, he's getting nothing to slug. They're fine if
he singles. And it's really made this whole thing just very,
very difficult for complimentary baseball to be played.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
Is it almost to a point where the move that
they made today with Zach Cole and having him in
the lineup obviously a while s would you bring him
up if you didn't intend on playing him left handed,
hitting corner outfield or being left field tonight? Is it
almost to the point where there's no doubt they can't
not do this, They have to do something. I wouldn't
even say he forced their hand. He had fifteen games

(01:23:11):
worth of action. There's there's only so much you can
do in that period of time after his promotion from
Double A. But with how things are going, I don't
even shake my head at the move. I'm like, yeah,
it makes perfect sense.

Speaker 9 (01:23:23):
Yeah, it kind of reminds me a little bit. I
don't know if it was it may have been a
little bit earlier than this time, but when they called
up Zach Dezenzo last year, same sort of situation was
tearing it up in Triple A.

Speaker 7 (01:23:34):
They needed a spark.

Speaker 9 (01:23:35):
You know, the Rangers did this with Evan Carter a
couple of years ago and worked for them. They went
to the World Series and won it. Yeah, they needed
something they needed, just something new. And this is the
best performing guy that they have. He still strikes out
way too much. He's at about a thirty five thirty
six percent strikeout rate. Like you said, he's played fifteen

(01:23:55):
games in Triple A. He's probably not ready to be
in the big leagues. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
They needed, They needed a spark. They're trying to catch
lightning in a bottle here and just hope that this
kid can come up and go on a heater for
two weeks and help propel them where they need to be.
But it's a dangerous gamble because I've never met Zach Cole.

(01:24:17):
I've never spoken to him. He wasn't in big league camp.
I've never seen him play, so I don't know what
his makeup is like. I don't know what he's like
between the years. But it's got to be really daunting
to walk in to that clubhouse at this point in
the year, where with where they're at, with.

Speaker 7 (01:24:32):
What they've been through.

Speaker 9 (01:24:33):
To be the new guy in there and to not
feel like you have the weight of the world on
your shoulders, and to not feel like you need to
kind of help out and do too much.

Speaker 7 (01:24:43):
That's gotta be a tough thing for him.

Speaker 9 (01:24:45):
Maybe he's maybe they did the background research and he
can he can stand up to that, and he's got
the makeup to absorb that.

Speaker 7 (01:24:52):
But it's a tough assignment.

Speaker 2 (01:24:54):
It certainly is something on the lines of these young
players being in kind of thrown into the mix of
Murray gets the start today, will be the fifth different
rookie pitcher to go for the Astros this year. Obviously,
he just became a major leaguer and aj blue Ball
in that same boat made his major league debut this
season for the Astros. Has been aces out of the
bullpen for them. You wrote a nice piece about his

(01:25:17):
last appearance, the oddity of it, and that he was
the pitcher selected to replace Luis Garcia when unfortunately his
season came to an end with the elbow injury, about
how veterans on this team too specifically made him realize
the moment that he was in and try to relax
a little bit.

Speaker 9 (01:25:36):
Yeah, I mean AJ basically said, like I don't I
think he knew the rule that you had you could
take however long you wanted to warm up. But that's
I mean, he's got forty thousand people, four thousand Canadians
like just staring at him, just like hoping the game restarts,
and like you rush yourself, you get nervous and having
to do all that stuff like in the middle of
a Big league ballparks a lot. I mean, the way

(01:25:58):
Aj described is like Christian Walker like watched him sprint
out of the bullpen and like knew that he had
to calm him down, like just stop, take.

Speaker 7 (01:26:07):
All the time you need.

Speaker 9 (01:26:08):
And then Korea came after and basically said, you guarantee
me that you're ready. And so I mean, it's look,
nothing's going well right now. I get no one wants
to hear about the sunshine and rainbows in the clubhouse
and how they all like each other. But I mean, look,
the culture on this the culture in this place is
pretty good.

Speaker 7 (01:26:25):
They've got it. They've got a good culture.

Speaker 9 (01:26:27):
They've got guys that genuinely like each other. They've got
guys that veterans that are very helpful to the young guys,
and it's helped. It's helped this year with so much
turnover and so much so many different new faces coming in,
it has helped that they've had such a welcoming open environment.

Speaker 7 (01:26:45):
And I think Tuesday really kind of showed that.

Speaker 5 (01:26:47):
It so, with everything the way it is, with the
lack of amount of games going down the stretch, who
ends up winning this division realistically? I mean, these schedules
have to be factored in. Obviously, the Astros lack of offense,
and the pitching and the injuries, all that has to
be factored in. Who do you think is left standing
as the AL West winner at the end of the

(01:27:08):
next fifteen games.

Speaker 9 (01:27:10):
You guys asked me this on opening Day. I gave
my answer and everyone yelled at me. So answer my answer,
and opening day was the Rangers because I thought they
would hit. They still have not hit. I gotta go
with the Astros only because the ast for as bad
as it's looked and for as bad as the last

(01:27:32):
you know, two months, have felt they still control their
own destiny. Like they play the Rangers three times and
the Mariners three times next week at home. Like they've
got the most advantageous set up here of you're getting
these teams in your own ballpark. They'll have Fromer Veldez
in Hunter Brown online to start against the Mariners. It

(01:27:54):
the schedule, the immediate schedule favors them and I and
you know you often do say until someone else wins it,
it's hard to pick against the Astros. They've given you
no faith and they've given you no confidence that it
should be them. But you know, the Mariners haven't necessarily
been world beaters either. The Rangers, I can't even name
half their lineup at the moment. So I mean I'll

(01:28:16):
go with the Astros only because they do have the
fortunate draw of playing both of these teams in their
home ballpark, and they control their own destiny.

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
Astros and Mariners enter play today with the same record,
fifteen games to go for each of the three teams
we're talking about. They're at home with the Angels. The
Mets are hosting the Rangers. They be in their three
game series of this evening. And you brought up Hay
Sue Sanchez, and I know you wrote a lot about
it and had the chance to talk to the people
involved in that particular play, and also with the infield

(01:28:49):
being in are you little?

Speaker 7 (01:28:50):
I know?

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
Another thing you mentioned right when he got here is
hey sue Sanchez as an adequate at best outfielder. But
the moves that were made by Dana Brown at the
deadline all made perfect sense for why those players were
at it. Urreus has been exactly what was as advertised,
has helped him tremendously in the field, and has provided
a competent bat when asked. Carlos Korea has had a

(01:29:11):
noticeable uptick in his offensive production from his time in
Minnesota and in every other way, He's been tremendous for
this team. And Hayesu Sanchez has struggled enormously with this team.
He's hitting two twenty. He's hitting well under two hundred
if you eliminate the five hit game one afternoon of
baseball here. Why do you think he's had such a

(01:29:31):
hard time settling in offensively, let alone the defensive. It's
not comedy out there, but he sure makes it look
hard out there.

Speaker 7 (01:29:41):
Yeah, I didn't expect the defense to be this bad.

Speaker 9 (01:29:46):
I had not heard that he was like a great
outfielder by any means, but I thought he was at
least average, and it has not looked like that. You know,
We've asked him numerous times whether part of it is
being a part of the trade.

Speaker 7 (01:29:59):
And coming over to a new.

Speaker 9 (01:30:01):
Clubhouse and the pressure that can put on him. He
has been pretty steadfast and saying that's not the reason.
I mean, I'll have to take him at his word,
but that's really the only thing I can come up
with is that, you know, he's he's a guy that
you know, has never really played a bunch of very
meaningful games down the stretch. The Marlins went to the

(01:30:21):
playoffs one year he was with them, so he has
played playoff baseball. He's played meaningful baseball in September, but
he's probably never played it.

Speaker 7 (01:30:28):
For this length of time to this extent.

Speaker 9 (01:30:32):
It can be an adjustment when you go from a
team and a clubhouse that is has different priorities. The
Marlins this year did not have We're not prioritizing winning
the World Series.

Speaker 7 (01:30:42):
The Marlins were.

Speaker 9 (01:30:42):
Prioritizing development and young guys and things like that. This
is a different animal. The demands are different, the expectations
are different. The standard is different. If I'm playing amateur psychologists,
I have to think that. You know, it's been a
difficult just mental. Everybody likes him in the clubhouse. He
seems to get along well with a lot of guys,

(01:31:04):
with a lot of friends. Is always smiling and laughing.
But I just think from a performance standpoint, the only
thing I can really point to is that the pressure
he's putting on himself after the trade may may have
something to do with it. He's chasing too much, He's
swinging and missing too much. That's part of it too.
The lack of extra base hits is concerning, just because
they thought they would get some pop from him and

(01:31:26):
that hasn't happened. The fact that they can't even play
him against left handed pitching is also somewhat of a problem.
But they've got Cam Smith who's kind of like settled
into being the lefty side.

Speaker 7 (01:31:35):
Of that platoon.

Speaker 9 (01:31:36):
But yeah, I mean, maybe it gets better next year
with a full season. He's got a full off season
under his belt. Knows where he's going. But yeah, it's
been it's not been consistent. It's tough to say it's
been bad, but it just hasn't been consistent. There's been
flashes where he's been really.

Speaker 7 (01:31:51):
Really good.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
Clanton, ask you who you thought would win the Astros
Division the American League West. I'll ask you if you
had to pull up all the loony's you've pocketed over
the years from visits to Canada and wager on who
wins the American League, who would it be?

Speaker 7 (01:32:09):
Y'all aren't going to like this. I think the Yankees.
I think the Yankees win it.

Speaker 9 (01:32:13):
I think, you know, if Rodan and Freid are pitching
the way that they're pitching, and then that lineup, I mean,
they have a very deep lineup, and I think you
saw it when they were here. I mean their lineup
paling to the Astros is just it's not even the
same really in terms of just length, dynamics, power, slug
things like that. I think the Yankees ultimately win it.

(01:32:35):
But because they just need two of those relievers to
get hot in the playoffs in October and they're in,
they're home free, So I think the Yankees have the
best roster. I think the Yankees probably win it. I
wouldn't be surprised if it's the Blue Jays, but put
me on record as the Yankees are gonna win.

Speaker 5 (01:32:49):
It, looking forward to seeing them eliminated in the divisional
round and telling you about it.

Speaker 7 (01:32:55):
Oh, can't wait. You would never do that, would.

Speaker 6 (01:32:58):
No, No, not me, not at all.

Speaker 2 (01:32:59):
I'm very you watch what's happening to the Nikes.

Speaker 5 (01:33:02):
The text Chandler is like, oh, come on, all right, Chandler,
appreciate it as always. We'll talk again next week. By
the way, who you got Monday night? I know you care.

Speaker 9 (01:33:12):
I'm gonna go with everyone's favorite Mariners fans CJ.

Speaker 7 (01:33:16):
Stroud. He's gonna be so happy. Do you think we'll
cry after the game.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
You're the get out of here, Chandler.

Speaker 5 (01:33:21):
All right, Chandler Roman of the Athletic You're on Sports
Talk seven ninety. I love that guy. I absolutely love him.
All right, we'll discuss some of what he had to say,
and Dolphins fans are going through it and they're putting
their money where their mouth is. We'll explain next.

Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:33:46):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety. Wex and
Ac along with Cold Thompson with you. As we nearing
the Astros on deck start Stone. Cold Locks is gonna
be up next segment. I mentioned this story the other day,
or at least kind of alluded to it. The Dolphins
looked awful in Week one, probably looked worse than any

(01:34:07):
team in Week one that includes.

Speaker 2 (01:34:09):
The Titans considering expectations.

Speaker 5 (01:34:11):
Yes, so you know, like Mike McDaniel was kind of
his seat was already kind of warming, I think going
into this year, and then thirty three to eight happens
in Week one, and he's got a bunch of quotes
that probably don't help his cause, at least as it
pertains to the fans. Oh, I would say the good
news and the positive is I don't see it could
be worse. Nobody wants to hear a coach say that

(01:34:32):
after a Week one loss like that.

Speaker 6 (01:34:33):
But whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:34:36):
Then you start seeing the fans who are already ready
to get rid of him put their money where their
mouth is. On Monday, Dolphins fans were passing around a
go Fundme link to a fire Mike McDaniel banner they
wanted to fly over the stadium. In all of our

(01:34:56):
years of seeing lackluster bonehead did just coming up short
or just terrible football by the Texans, I don't think
anybody ever flew a banner with something derogatory about ownership
above the stadium at any point.

Speaker 6 (01:35:14):
I don't think, so search.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
My phone to say if I have it, because something
I'm trying to I know I once to a point
in time at it and I'm trying to remember what
it said. So I don't think it was a It
said fire McNair, but it was something along those lines,
sell the team. I don't think that was it either,
But yes, obviously all of them will be something along
those lines. I do believe a banner has been flown

(01:35:36):
over the stadium before here in Houston. Well, it's you
think about all this money these presumably these are fanatics.
They're going to games, They're spending their money on gear,
they're spending their money on tickets. They are all in.
This is their team. They're live and die when maybe
they probably should not be, but they are. And you're
gonna spend even more money to do this. Well, I
do believe there's a lot of people that are believing

(01:35:59):
that is such a bad look.

Speaker 6 (01:36:01):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:36:02):
It's rather embarrassing. It's something that you definitely know will
get the interest the eye of ownership of the team.
We talk about, well, fans are so disappointed and what's
going on here? Well, what are they supposed to do? Well,
don't go stop going to games, stop paying for tickets.
And I've said countless time that's not the answer. That

(01:36:22):
the fans are never gonna want to do that. They
want to root for these guys, But how do they
tell the owner that without pulling their money back, which
in turn is keeping them from enjoying what they want
to go do. Obviously the product does enough of keeping
them from enjoying it. I just don't think that is that's. Yeah,
it hits them in the pocketbook to a certain degree.
But in the NFL, they make a lot of money

(01:36:43):
from their gate, they make a lot of money from
their concessions. Sure, they make so much money from their
TV deal. You're the dent you're gonna make, And that
is so non important. I would think that embarrassing them
with a sign with a banner, with a plane with
a fan uprising, pleasant up rising is something that I
think fans believe in.

Speaker 5 (01:37:03):
Sometimes it only costs nine hundred dollars for an hour,
and it didn't take long for them to raise that money.
So yes, in case you're wondering, the plane has already
been chartered it will fly over Joe Robbie.

Speaker 2 (01:37:18):
You mean hard rock.

Speaker 6 (01:37:20):
I'm just reading the article here that is a modern reference.

Speaker 5 (01:37:23):
It will fly over Joe Robbie from eleven am to
twelve pm this Sunday, before the home opener, during peak
tailgating hours.

Speaker 2 (01:37:32):
So I said last week, after Mohen we got here
to begin the week, that I thought week six was
about all they could take. That I thought he would
be the first coach fired. I thought they would be
moving on from him. It's for a number of reasons.
I think they've underachieved, which means I must think their
GM's doing an okay job, and I don't. But you

(01:37:53):
look at what they've done since he got there. They
lost their opener and they were embarrassed. That brought him
to four games over five hundred, and he's coached a
lot of games with either a banged up toua or
no to a at all. And yet I'm telling you,
I think he's doing an awful job. And I still
believe that. And I think that the group they have
there in whatever injuries that they have suffered, and they

(01:38:15):
have suffered quite a few, whether it's Hill Wattle hn
now recently and obviously to a same thing defensively with
especially when we saw more of it because they were
featured on Hard Knocks. But I just feel like there's
too many games where it just doesn't look like they
know what they're doing. They don't look very convicted and
how they go about it. And at least I can

(01:38:36):
say this having been around him a little and I
don't mean from his time here in Houston. It was
around him a little then, but when the Dolphins came
to Houston and had their joint practice here and just
and we obviously I mean, you know me, I love
press conferences. I don't know how you're getting a group
of fifty to seventy NFL players fired up to go

(01:38:58):
play football for you, ownership and the team. They're playing
for each other. I don't doubt that. And maybe that's
all that you need. Playing hard for the guy next
to you and doing your job for the guys in
the locker room. That's the gist of NFL football for
the most part, And if you have that, you're fine.
But man, I think he's a really strong mind when
it comes to an offensive coach. But he might be

(01:39:21):
in my opinion, he is. He's a really good offensive
coach who I don't want my head coach to be.

Speaker 6 (01:39:26):
And we were talking about this the other day.

Speaker 5 (01:39:29):
Miami's had a string of those guys that should probably
just stick to coordinating.

Speaker 2 (01:39:34):
Knowing who the type of person he is, I might
have known that in advance. And I'm not sure what
Miami saw in him and the way he conducted his
interviews and anybody else they might have asked. They probably
just got seduced by he knows football gase. Maybe I
don't think it was as hard. I think it was
harder to find out by letting him be your head
coach and then saying, well, we don't really like this.

(01:39:56):
I thought it was easier to find out with McDaniel
just because he's he is unique. There are thirty two
NFL coaches and they're not anybody close to the personality
that he has.

Speaker 5 (01:40:05):
You know how, I know that the honeymoon isn't over
for Damiico Ryans right now.

Speaker 2 (01:40:10):
Possibly figure this out. Tell us how this two time
defending AFC. What division are there? South Champion is still
okay here not being kicked to the curb.

Speaker 6 (01:40:22):
Not needed to be a sporting goods store recently.

Speaker 2 (01:40:26):
And there was a fifty nine jersey in there.

Speaker 6 (01:40:28):
Yes, but I need to I need to clarify.

Speaker 5 (01:40:32):
This was not like a wall to wall only sports
jerseys majorly is their product type store. So it's like
a section is over there for you know, text and
stuff and rockets, you know whatever. So they have all
the players jerseys and then they have this it's it's
NFL throwbacks and if you look at it, it's got

(01:40:53):
the it's two thousand and six, which would have been
his rookie season, I believe because he was drafted and
that was his It's still the best draft class in
Texans history until twenty three.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
How old are those guys old enough to have recruited
sons right now currently in high school in Houston. Charles
Spencer's son a big time recree here in Houston.

Speaker 5 (01:41:15):
That it would have been even better, but until like
it's to be determined. Will Anderson Junior and CJ. Stroud
in back to back picks is pretty strong. But they're
gonna have to win Super Bowl to even compete with
that class. Oh, it's a better class the twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:41:32):
I'm bad at.

Speaker 6 (01:41:32):
Years twenty twenty or two thousand and six.

Speaker 2 (01:41:35):
The draft for CJ. And will twenty three. The twenty
twenty three draft is better than that one Texans draft class. Yes,
the Texans draft.

Speaker 6 (01:41:42):
Understand what we're saying here.

Speaker 2 (01:41:43):
The Texans twenty twenty three draft class, at least as
of all of the drafts they've made in franchise history,
is number one.

Speaker 6 (01:41:52):
But many, many, all of the key principles. I mean,
what was the worst draft pick that year? Spencer because
asking us to be mean, Well.

Speaker 5 (01:42:01):
I'm saying Spencer because he didn't play because everybody else
was in Owen Daniels was in that draft, in that draft.

Speaker 2 (01:42:06):
Well, he didn't play because somebody hurt him, Like he
didn't just hurt his knee and take he got landed
on and unfortunately ruined his career.

Speaker 5 (01:42:16):
But like that's that would be why you would be
able to point to any of the draft picks as
being quote bad only because the guy didn't play, not
because he was a bad player. He would have been
awesome too. Yeah, that's how good that draft class was.
I hope you guys understand what I'm saying. The quality
of players, the accomplishments of those players clearly trump's what
this class has been able to do in two seasons,

(01:42:39):
and you want to get franchise pass rusher and a
franchise quarterback with back to back picks in the top
three picks of one draft, it's pretty awesome, right, And.

Speaker 2 (01:42:48):
If you want to comp these two before we get
to stoone cold locks briefly, like you drafted will Anderson. Okay, well,
let's camp him to Mario Williams. He's got a better
Texans career. I think he's already a better player. But
you know, the career that the those two might have,
I think it will undoubtedly be better. Williams finished just
shy of one hundred sacks as an NFL player, not
all of them coming here. I really know comp for

(01:43:10):
CJ because he's a quarterback to sea, right, But we're
just specific to the draft. Oh yeah, yeah, the draft class.
I mean, Demiko o'rians was the best player they drafted.
If it's not Mario, it's Demiko. Eric Winstad has a
really good career. Owen Daniels probably had a little bit
better career, and then Spencer Lundy and David Anderson were
very good one contract players, so to speak.

Speaker 6 (01:43:33):
But David Anderson did a whole lot more.

Speaker 2 (01:43:35):
He actually was more than he was a seventh round pick.
What you got out of David Anderson as the seventh
round pick is phenomenon.

Speaker 6 (01:43:41):
Might be their best seventh round pick of all time.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
Uh, I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (01:43:47):
There's a seventh rounder that was more productive in any
way on or off the field.

Speaker 2 (01:43:52):
By the way, well off the field, I'm I'm not
going to consider dude. If that's okay.

Speaker 5 (01:43:57):
That guy showed up to training camp one time with
match shobs hairline. I almost, I almost. I was laughing
very hard. Let's just put it that way.

Speaker 2 (01:44:06):
I think it at now second glance, because I used
my brain first and I'm actually looking at it. I
think you're probably right.

Speaker 5 (01:44:13):
This is the seventh rounder. No offense to David, but
the bar's low. Yeah, no offense.

Speaker 2 (01:44:17):
I mean Luke Lache could could could get there last
year's seventh round pick. I don't think so. This past draft.
I'm going to give it to da Okay, all right.
J Simmons two thousand and four seventh round pick.

Speaker 5 (01:44:30):
I was just texting with him last night. That's my
eighth grade history class, buddy. We've known each other.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
One of several Houstonians they drafted in the seventh round.

Speaker 5 (01:44:40):
Over the years, it was surreal seeing him walk up
to me in the end zone at the stadium as
I was down on the field and say, what's up.

Speaker 2 (01:44:46):
Ac. It's like, dude, they actually took Houstonians in that
draft in two thousand and four in the seventh round.
Who's the other one? Kleine High School Sloan Thomas?

Speaker 6 (01:44:57):
Oh, I forgot about Sloane Thomas. That's a deep cut
right there.

Speaker 2 (01:45:01):
U t nice little player, all right?

Speaker 6 (01:45:04):
Speaking of nice little players, they they form teams, and
those teams have lines and such, and we tell you.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
Yeah, we'll get to the stone called Locks. It's coming
up the signature segment at four thirty on a Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:45:15):
That's next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:45:23):
Remember that magic.

Speaker 10 (01:45:24):
Eight ball, A nice little shaken Look at this I'm
getting late tonight. You can trust whatever it said, or
you could trust these two guys named Adam.

Speaker 4 (01:45:38):
It's a crap shoot either way. But these are your
stone cold Locks, stone cold.

Speaker 2 (01:45:50):
Thank you, Steven as always, mister A, mister Austin. The
eight team continues, wex Ac and Cole. This is the
time of the week, Friday is half way through our
three four thirty we easure with our stone cold locks
or four thirty nine like it is today. Recapping how
things have played out through the first two weeks of selections.

(01:46:11):
Week one of picking Texans Football this will be Week two,
opening week of the season, lopsided a fair You had
Coal out front winning four of his five selections, the
complete opposite. In week two parton back down to Earth,
AC and myself both had repeat performances. I only managed
two out of five each of the first two weeks,

(01:46:31):
so I bring up the rear with just four stone
cold locks that were correct, Cold with five, and of
course AC winning three of five each week. He's made
six correct selections out of the ten, two of us correct.
On the Texans. A week ago, AC played the Under
it went way under. I played the Rams at minus three.

(01:46:53):
They won by five. Cole went over that was incorrect.
This week's game of the week Texas A and M
and Notre Dame over under A fifty and a half.
Six and a half point favorites are the home standing
Irish Bucks at Texans. Two and a half point favorites
for the home team, that is, the zero to one
Texans taking on the one and zero Bucks the over

(01:47:13):
under is at forty two and a half. Hate that number.
You hate forty two and a half. Can't wait to
hear what you play. Cole though you have the honors
first hold on to that Texans selection, but give us
your other four. Starting with the college football game of
the week.

Speaker 8 (01:47:28):
Pound out of South Bend, Indiana, I think you're gonna
see the rushing attack come back for Notre Dame. You
have two of the best running backs in college football
on your backfield.

Speaker 2 (01:47:36):
You gotta utilize them.

Speaker 8 (01:47:37):
I think Marcel Reed makes a few plays, but I
really don't want to touch this game either way. I
think that's gonna be a low scoring I think it's
gonna be a matchup that ends up going down to
a field goal.

Speaker 2 (01:47:47):
So I'm gonna take the.

Speaker 8 (01:47:48):
Under at fifty and a half. I just feel like
this is gonna be some nasty, twenty three to twenty
kind of finished game. Not gonna be able to get
it done Ole, miss oxtor Mississippi. If and there's a
big Austin Simmons's health has got to be a factor
in this game. I think this is gonna be a shootout.
There's always something weird in this matchup between these two.
They're not a rival, but they're closed to arrival. We

(01:48:10):
have some of the highlight moments last season. They were
up twenty eight to three after the first quarter. He
had the big Alex Collins Hunter Henry play.

Speaker 2 (01:48:17):
I think that you're gonna see a.

Speaker 8 (01:48:18):
Little bit more fireworks out there, which is why I
am taking the over at sixty two.

Speaker 2 (01:48:22):
And a half. Head on over to Columbus, Ohio.

Speaker 8 (01:48:25):
Listen until proven otherwise, this is the best team in
college football. This looks like the best team in college football.
They have an offense that is non pedal to the metal, NonStop.
I'm taking the buck guys at minus thirty. It's a
big bet, but I'm totially okay with it and closing
things out.

Speaker 2 (01:48:39):
Head on out of the boue of New Orleans.

Speaker 6 (01:48:41):
Listen.

Speaker 8 (01:48:42):
Spencer Ratler versus Mac Jones in a do it all
die battle for an opportunity to get a win. Yeah,
I'm easily taking the under at forty and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:48:54):
I'm guessing this happened, but I can't say for certain
that it happened. Did Spencer rat ever face Mac Jones
as college quarterbacks?

Speaker 8 (01:49:04):
And not the year that he went to South Carolina
was the year that Mac Johns.

Speaker 2 (01:49:08):
Was drafted, So you're certain that they didn't have a
random date with Bama when he was elsewhere before getting
to South Carolina. I am he didn't play he played
against he played in the Oklahoma game. Danney, No, I
don't think that he did. That's why I was asking. Okay,
all right, one thing about Texas A and m A
Notre Dame. After this week's game three games in the

(01:49:29):
books for the Aggies, do you think you'll feel confident
knowing what they are over the final nine games? Do
you think you have a really good idea after they
play this Saturday night? Who the twenty twenty five Aggies are. No?

Speaker 8 (01:49:42):
And the main reason why is because of it all
comes down to that rushing attack. I know it's better
than what we've seen the last two weeks. If it
doesn't show up on Saturday, maybe you just feel like
that Notre Dame's defensive line is so elite that it's
not gonna take a step back. I'll know more after
you face off against Auburn Florida Missis three games.

Speaker 2 (01:50:01):
You know they see your four plex selections. I already
know you and cole Field. Similarly, we'll just play the
under Saturday night in South Bend. YEP, gonna do that.

Speaker 5 (01:50:10):
I'm gonna do the same with the Bears at the Lions.
I didn't like what I saw from the Lions, and
I never like what I see from the Bears.

Speaker 2 (01:50:16):
So who is it a revenge game for the Lions
who lost their coaching staff, or the Lions coaching staff,
or the Bears coaching staff who's now coaching against the Lions,
or neither.

Speaker 5 (01:50:26):
It's gonna be a revenge game for Bleach because that's
what we're all gonna want to put in lay under
under forty six and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
Patriots at Dolphins. I can't wait to not watch that game.

Speaker 5 (01:50:37):
I can't either, But I just don't see how even
the Dolphins don't just trip and score more than well
eight points. They will do that, and I'm like, neither
team is partue. Well, the Dolphins definitely, I just I
think more points are gonna be scored than forty three
and a half. I'll play the over U and Eagles

(01:50:59):
at Chiefs forty six and a half.

Speaker 6 (01:51:02):
I'm taking the over.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
I think that's probably if you're playing that game, that's
the way I would play it. Even though the Chief
Chiefs may Or may not get much from Xavier Worthy,
I don't think he's yet been ruled out. After Travis
Kelce took it on himself when he did his podcast
this we can said, you know, I've been in the
league for thirteen years. I gotta be able to do
that a little bit better. I gotta be able to
avoid that that's on me for running over a teammate.

(01:51:26):
I'll take the Aggies to cover the number plus six
and a half. I'll play home teams on college football
grid Irons to cover the number. I'll play TWU Lane
at home minus one and a half over Duke. I'll
play Texas Tech to continue dominating at home. They welcome
Oregon State to town. It's twenty three and a half
point favorites, and I'll go to the NFL for this one.

(01:51:48):
An underwhelming performance by the Bengals against the Browns a
week ago, They'll wake up a little bit and they
will beat Jacksonville by at least four points. Cover the
three and a half. Will hit you with our Textans
selection the Bucks at Texans. Texans are two and a
half point favorites. The over Unders forty two and a half.
That selection on our stone. Cold Locks comes.

Speaker 4 (01:52:08):
Next the eight on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
Ninety Texans and Bucks this weekend over at and RG Stadium,
as long as your weekend drips into six o'clock on Monday.

Speaker 6 (01:52:28):
When the Animal team the people, that's how you described
this movie yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:52:31):
How memorable it was. I probably didn't say animal, No
you did.

Speaker 6 (01:52:36):
Didn't he say animal eating the people?

Speaker 2 (01:52:38):
Animal eating the people? Yeah? Maybe I did.

Speaker 6 (01:52:40):
It's the most wax description ever.

Speaker 5 (01:52:42):
Let's see if like a list of movies I could
give you where you could just bludge in the titles.

Speaker 2 (01:52:46):
Just keep in mind, very good movie, probably ahead of
its time, spawned three absolutely phenomenal sequels, led by Jaws
Three d Uh, Jaws for the Revenge, absolute classics, some
of the greatest movie making ever. But it's all based
on the premise, provided you stay out of the water,

(01:53:09):
you're good. Just you're good. You're not. There's no death,
you can't be scared, there's no horror, you're not. This
is akin to the commercial that's made making fun of
horror movies, like why don't we just get into the
running car? Nah, let's hide in the shed with all
the death equipment. Okay, so Jaws is the same thing.

Speaker 5 (01:53:33):
We were gonna go Jaws, but we decided that animal
that's eating the people rings a little bit more true.

Speaker 2 (01:53:41):
You can think about what other movie you want me
to butcher. While Cole tells us his play for Bucks
Texans this weekend for Austone cold locks. All right, Lis,
I still stand on this.

Speaker 8 (01:53:51):
I think that Baker Mayfield's gonna be a bigger challenge
for the Texans than Matthew Safford is, which is why
I'm not gonna touch the game in terms of taking
who's gonna win or who's gonna lose. I'm just gonna
say the enders gonna hit. I like both these defenses.
I think both of them can get after the quarterbacks.
I think both of them could get a couple of takeaways.
Make this a very low scoring affair, It's not gonna be.

(01:54:11):
It's basically gonna be a inverse of what we saw
last time that Baker Mayfield came to town.

Speaker 2 (01:54:15):
Yeah, the Texans and Bucks offenses combined for thirty two
points and their respective openers twenty three was enough to
beat the Falcons by three to nine. Was clearly not
enough to beat the Rams in LA. For the Texans,
no touchdowns scored. The first game connectivity between a Mecca
and Buka and Baker Mayfield already looks phenomenal. Mike Evans

(01:54:39):
did not practice today for the Bucks. They were arresting him.
He'll be fine for the game. Yeah, make sure he's
Freshure your play on Bucks, Texas.

Speaker 6 (01:54:47):
It's just like he said. Cole just said.

Speaker 2 (01:54:51):
I do.

Speaker 5 (01:54:52):
I too think that Baker Mayfield is going to be
a bit of a problem. And that's why I have
made a late change. I had previously decided to take
the under forty two and a half.

Speaker 6 (01:55:03):
I am now taking the over. I'm fading Coal.

Speaker 2 (01:55:08):
Do we break? Do the Texans break the seal and
find the end zone at least once? Yeah, I mean
hit the over. I would assume that Eric Stingle, j
me ib Jaylor Peache with a pith.

Speaker 5 (01:55:22):
I mean, the opportunities will be there because Baker will
absolutely be flaying it.

Speaker 6 (01:55:27):
But CJ needs too as well.

Speaker 2 (01:55:28):
Yeah, he's had a couple of games here in town
where obviously he played very well in the game they
played here. Most recently, I think he had a really
strong game when he was here with the Browns. They
just took advantage of a couple of mistakes that he
made that day. He ended up putting up really really
good numbers. But mostly it came in the second half
of a game that just wasn't going their way.

Speaker 5 (01:55:49):
By the way, I originally had over on the Texans
at RAMS last week, and I changed that at the
last second, and you got it right. I know, good job.
I'm I don't. It's kind of the same. Similar gut feeling,
if you will, about this. It was the Texans last week,
and I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:56:07):
This is odd.

Speaker 2 (01:56:08):
I do not like that number. My gut feeling is
the Texans are not starting the season zero and two.
I don't think they played very well last week, and
yet last drive of the game for them, they were
driving to win the game. I think it might be
similar this week. I think it might be the Bucks
that are driving to win the game, and the Texas
defense will have the answer, which will allow the Texans

(01:56:28):
to not only win the game but cover the just
under three thankfully number minus two and a half. I
will play the Texans to get to one and zero
to cover the number. We'll clearly talk a lot more
about it on Monday afternoon, take a visit or two
to NRG Stadium. Get the line on what people feel
and are seeing early in the game, right around the

(01:56:49):
time we should see the Texans take the field, you know,
ninety minutes or so before kickoff with what I expect
to be a new look offensive line with the likely
return of Ed Ingram, and we'll see what CJ and
the rest of the guys have in store for the
home fans for the first time this season. Two of
us will be looking forward to that same with Cole,
but we are headed into Astros baseball coverage an additional

(01:57:13):
roster move to discuss. When we join you here for
the Astros on Deck Show, we'll be joined by Brian McTaggart.
Also Astros head into play tonight tied for first place
in the American League West. The on Deck Show is
next

Speaker 4 (01:57:28):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety