Holy Chubb, Holy Stros, Holy Bad Finals....How Was Your Monday?

Wex and AC break down Nick Chubb's arrival in Houston, the Astros' succesful road trip, life in a crappy finals and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam raised.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
My earl.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Nolan got a.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Multipot with the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
That is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
He Chill Lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Is talking your teams?

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team?

Speaker 5 (00:38):
A Well?

Speaker 6 (00:52):
How the hell was your weekend? Houston?

Speaker 7 (00:54):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety. It
is a Monday edition of the program. By the way,
wex and need just put this out there before we
go any further. It's official. The countdown has begun. It
is officially Metallica Week.

Speaker 6 (01:09):
Are you ready? Are you pumped?

Speaker 8 (01:11):
When do they play Saturday? And that's here in Houston?
Uh huh this weekend in one of your favorite buildings.
It's over at the Football Stadium.

Speaker 6 (01:18):
Yeah for now until they move it or build a
new one.

Speaker 8 (01:21):
But they're not gonna do that before Saturday, I don't think. So, Okay,
it's a Metallica Week.

Speaker 6 (01:25):
I'm in.

Speaker 8 (01:26):
Let's do it. Let's have a good show. We have
four shows or are you Friday showing?

Speaker 6 (01:31):
Am I going? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:32):
I'm not currently planning on going. You're not planning on
going I don't have any plans for Saturday, so I
guess it's still I'm still open to it.

Speaker 6 (01:39):
See there's a chance, you're telling you there's a chance.

Speaker 8 (01:41):
Absolutely. I like Metallica.

Speaker 7 (01:43):
The Astros will be playing Carlos Korea and the Twins
during that show, So it's gonna be tough for you,
isn't it.

Speaker 6 (01:48):
I know you like both so much. I mean, I
already know it's gonna happen.

Speaker 8 (01:51):
It's just another series victory over the Twins, just like
the first one they had earlier this year. Rare for
us to be able to say, look at the Astros
winning on the road. Spent much of last week as
they went to Pittsburgh and went to Cleveland, and said
this is not sustainable. You gotta be better on the road.
The Astros have got to win more than forty percent
of their games on the road. And that's what they

(02:12):
had done up until these two series. They won sixty
seven percent of their games on the road. And these
two series claimed series victories in each of them, taking
two out of three in each of them, and doubled
their total or tripled technically twice as many as they'd
had previously. Road series victories, had had just the one
against the Twins, and now they've got two. And now

(02:32):
they come back home, they've got thirteen games in a row,
beginning with the series tomorrow against the White Sox. It
is the Twins over the weekend very different places. Those
two Twins team they saw early this year not a
very good team. The Twins they'll see this coming weekend
an outstanding team, one of the best teams in the
American League over the last forty five to fifty games
or so. And so are the Astros, who got to

(02:54):
their high water mark over the weekend, nearly swept the Guardians,
but played three really good, big baseball games against a
very good team, which they have done many many times
over the last couple of years against that particular team.
We're able to manage and navigate their way through those
two starts that are being earned by pitchers that in
other situations, well, they certainly wouldn't even be here. The

(03:16):
Colton Gordon start, which was a victory. The Brandon Walter
start yesterday, which was even better than they probably could
have expected, and it was very good, but not in
a victory, but a quality start. Nonetheless, Hunter Brown in
between a victory there, and so they come into play
tomorrow sitting atop this division a two and a half
game lead, which will change before tomorrow because the Mariners

(03:37):
are playing today. This is about as good as you
could have hoped for all things considered. Still no certainty
on the return of jord Don Alvarez. We've seen quite
a bit from Jacob Melton in his one week with
the Astros. In terms of how much playing time he's gotten.
It probably seems a lot better than it's actually been.
His defense has been very good. He had a whole

(03:58):
lot of hits, but he's certainly been involved and a
lot of good things for Houston. So we will definitely
get into what they did over the weekend and what
lies ahead of them, and some pretty interesting numbers about
what lies truthfully ahead of them over the final one
hundred games or so for both themselves and the Seattle Mariners,
probably the only team in this division that has a
chance to compete with them for the guaranteed spot in

(04:20):
the postseason. There are three others. Astros are in a
very good position to do that. By the time we
meet with you tomorrow at two o'clock, the Texans will
have held their first mandatory mini camp practice. They will
go tomorrow, they will go on Wednesday. Yes, the same
question remains. Hopefully it will be answered very very early
in practice tomorrow, so we don't have to lean into well,

(04:41):
he wasn't here today, I don't know if he's gonna throw.
Not that important because we already know there's an issue.
If he's throwing tomorrow, I didn't even say who it was.
If he's throwing tomorrow, then yes, it will be of
great consequence so people can get in a better understanding
of where things stand. Texas have chosen a certain path
of information on what to give about their quarterback. Other

(05:03):
teams have definitely chosen differently with theirs inside this very
division as a matter of fact, and it's a very
important week around the NFL. Already some player movement potentially
this week around the league, and for this team. Reports
that before they hit the field tomorrow, a physical will
be passed and ink will be put to paper for
running back Nick Chubb, newest Houston Texan unofficially to join

(05:26):
the squad.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Man.

Speaker 7 (05:27):
That looks like one of those signings that would have
been so awesome several years ago.

Speaker 8 (05:31):
But that's why he wasn't available.

Speaker 7 (05:33):
I know, like, I'm not not excited about that though,
you know, like is that you understand what I mean?

Speaker 6 (05:41):
I do understand what you mean.

Speaker 8 (05:42):
And I like these signings to I like to put
them in this category. What is the downside? And it's
almost zero. There's nothing to be lost from trying to
find something with a player who, unfortunately the last two years,
which would have otherwise almost certainly even in Cleveland's offense
and all the disarrayent in if not for injury, there's

(06:02):
really no reason to doubt that he would have continued
to be one of the most productive backs in the
NFL from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two. During his
healthy five years to start his career, there was only
two running backs that had more yards per carry than
he did. It was five or more all five of
those seasons, and Texans saw at first hand a couple
of times with a couple one hundred yard games against

(06:24):
them and smart football with a he took a dive
late in the game to guarantee a victory for the
Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 6 (06:31):
But the last two years have been.

Speaker 8 (06:32):
A blown out knee, two surgeries required on that, and
then last year when he came back. His season then
got cut short again with a foot injury. He'll play
part of next season as a thirty year old, eighth
year NFL running back for a team that already has
a starting running back. The downside here is so small.

(06:53):
Not sure what the monetary figure will be, but reports
indicate he probably had more lucrative concrete offers. I'd end
up making more money here if incentives play out for
the player, and again, barring an injury to Joe Mixon,
that wouldn't be very unlikely there. Like I said, I
would keep it very simple on this deal. There's nothing
but upside. It can certainly be limited. Not expecting this

(07:16):
to be unbelievable, but in the fact that Joe Mixon's
not capable of playing, and he had several games last
year where that was the case. He's obviously not yet
participating in their offseason workouts and is not expected to
be participating tomorrow or Wednesday in mini camp. Provided Nick
Chubb is healthy, I'm sure he can perform admirably for

(07:36):
this team, again setting the bar about as low as possible.
Very good player, very good runner, very good I think
good enough out of the backfield he's outstanding pass protector,
and look at who he's competing with. No offense to
the group that they have, but he's clearly the most
talented player on their roster at that position that isn't
Joe Mixon. And at full health, he certainly rivals, if

(07:56):
not bests Joe Mixon. What's the downside?

Speaker 7 (08:00):
Now, A low risk, high reward cliche comes into play here.
Very it's a very Darryl Morriy move back in the day.
Actually it's it's a little bit different because this is
a guy I think.

Speaker 8 (08:12):
Well, he is a if you were trying to say
he's a Daryl Mory move, I would have to push
back on that because he was not a former lottery
pick because that's all he added. Well, this guy didn't
pan out somewhere else. Boom we got him.

Speaker 6 (08:25):
That's what I was getting. This guy was no good
for them, Boom we got him.

Speaker 7 (08:27):
This is not Moury and that I don't think he
ever brought in an ex superstar.

Speaker 6 (08:32):
Now.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
The one time I would make an exception is when
he went and got ron our test. But ronal test
had so much baggage, like it was insane. So this
is not baggage. From that standpoint, this is injury baggage,
and you're right, it potentially has the chance of being
a giant home run. But again, I can't say any
of that without my caveat that. I'll just keep pointing

(08:54):
to until further notice. Who's to say Nick Chubb would
do a lot of good things behind this line?

Speaker 8 (09:01):
Again, there's only so much you can do. I mean,
he's gonna be fine.

Speaker 6 (09:05):
They weren't great.

Speaker 8 (09:05):
They had a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible offense in Cleveland
for almost the entire last two years. He was out
there for ten of those games. They have had a
little bit better offense in previous years. If you can play,
you can play. Joe mix improved that last year. He
can play. He ran behind this offensive line. He got
a lot of tough yards. He was a great third
down back of both catching the ball out of the backfield,

(09:26):
because when you say third down back, for some reason,
that only means you can catch or they only throw
the ball to.

Speaker 5 (09:31):
No.

Speaker 8 (09:31):
They ran the ball with Joe Mixon on third down
quite a bit, and he was able to get the
necessary yards. He's very good on first down. There's no
reason why Nick Chubb if he has gotten past of
those two injuries, and I'm sure he's passed his foot
injury unless it becomes some more of chronic problem, there's
no reason to think that.

Speaker 6 (09:46):
The question is.

Speaker 8 (09:46):
Two years removed, and it will be about two years early
in the season from an ACL injury and the subsequent
surgeries that were required to fix it. You're that far
removed from it, which is a good sign. But you're
also pushing into the wrong age for running backs. That's
the other side of it. But like I said, this
is a player who I think they've been looking for

(10:07):
a good home he and his agents. I think the
Browns were interested in bringing him back before they did
what they did on draft day, drafting two young players
to go with Jerome Ford. Quite honestly, it's Jerome Ford
who should be going with them. He's the third best
of the three that they have in house, and so
Nick Chubb essentially was available. Again, it's unofficial. I do
like the idea of trying to get as good as

(10:28):
you can be everywhere on the board is really no
different than the question we've been asking about tight end.
There just aren't as many available. Do you want to
get better at that position. Do you want to provide
more depth? Do you want to potentially push guys at
their spots? And yes, this is what this does. I
don't think this is pushing Joe Mixon off of the field.
But if Nick Chubb's healthy, he's playing, He's going to

(10:49):
get playing time. They're going to be able to spell
Joe Mixon. They're going to be instances where they're going
to want him on the field. And quite honestly, if
they're really both healthy and good, I hope there's an
instances where they're both on the field, and I think
Nick Kyley is creative enough to make that happen. But
first things first, i'd love it if he was in
such good shape he was out there tomorrow or Wednesday.

(11:10):
I don't know that that's going to be the case.
I think there's near certainty on this though. He's not
going to be wearing the number he wore for the
Cleveland Browns over the last seven years. I think Sting
has earned the right to say no, that's mine.

Speaker 7 (11:25):
Yeah, well look at what he just signed for, and
look at what this guy just signed for.

Speaker 8 (11:29):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just just pointing at Auchub. I'm sure,
we'll find one to his liking. I think it's a
couple of switches. There aren't that many available out there could.

Speaker 6 (11:37):
Be number one for him.

Speaker 8 (11:39):
He's previously worn twenty three to different time in his
career and twenty seven, well they have two twenty sevens
right now, so that'd be a lot of negotiating he
would need to do. So I'm gonna just go out
on a limb and guess they will. They will issue
him the number one.

Speaker 7 (11:54):
Really, yeah, just because it's available. Yeah, but the number
it's just so strange for a running back. Well, although
everything's strange.

Speaker 6 (12:03):
He did give me it just.

Speaker 8 (12:04):
Real quick before you hit the first break. What's not
strange for a running back? Just rattle anything off? You
want anything twenty through forty? Yeah, there's like none available.

Speaker 6 (12:11):
I know. Well what I mean, there has to be
one of those numbers available.

Speaker 8 (12:15):
Well, there could be. It just kind of depends on
how other things shake out. But literally, from you know,
twenty one is available, which is the other? I was
going to guess that second. That's because Bullock gave that
up this offseason to switch to Robert Woods number two,
which became available.

Speaker 6 (12:30):
And there you have it.

Speaker 8 (12:32):
Those are the numbers available between twenty one and forty?

Speaker 7 (12:35):
What's available between zero? Well, zero's not available obviously. The
number I guessed that's the only one out of one
through nineteen, or I guess twenty?

Speaker 6 (12:44):
Is it nineteen? Yes, twenty's taken.

Speaker 8 (12:46):
I guess the one zero through forty. They're two numbers
of availble.

Speaker 6 (12:49):
One and twenty one are available. Correct.

Speaker 7 (12:51):
See this is why it's they got ninety dudes, bro,
then give them a stupid wide receiver number from the nineties.

Speaker 8 (12:57):
You can get a number from somebody who's probably not
going to be here. But I don't think they'll go
that route.

Speaker 7 (13:03):
Very interesting. I did not think we would be going
down that path during.

Speaker 8 (13:07):
Just trying to get people ahead of the jersey purchases.
Who doesn't want a jersey with the name Chubb on
the back of it. Something about that is actually going
to come up during the show. Something about what you
just mentioned positionally, I want to talk about in the
next segment. And oh, by the way, everybody is up
in arms about the NBA Finals for one reason or another.

(13:28):
Some of them are good, some of them are really stupid,
and yet I understand them.

Speaker 6 (13:32):
We'll get to all of.

Speaker 7 (13:33):
That, plus we'll catch up with Sparky and more on
a Monday edition of the program The.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (13:47):
Well, as per usual, we're talking about a topic and
Wex says something that gets my There's few scenarios that
can happen. It will get my brain spinning, my gears grinding,
or it'll just piss me off. And I'm like, well,
we gotta argue about this. This would be of the
first variety. In case you're wondering. You mentioned it, and

(14:08):
it's something I've we've actually talked about before and I
really hadn't thought of this angle until you said it.
Why didn't they go out and improve the tight end position?
All we do is bitch about it, and Joe Mixon
does exist. And although I think you and others, especially
going into last season when the Texans signed Joe Mixon

(14:30):
as basically like he was a consolation prize when you
didn't get Saquon Barkley, I think ever since then, we've
felt like, in a way that the Texans are playing
with house money with Joe Mixon, given his age, given
the tread off the tires, given the fact that he
did have a hamstring injury although it.

Speaker 6 (14:52):
Was, I don't think it was. It was a fluke.
I don't think it was because of wear and tear necessarily.

Speaker 8 (14:57):
And especially since injury number one was they was a
result of an illegal, unpenalized tackle.

Speaker 7 (15:04):
Yeah, I like how you keep bringing that up to
remind the jerks and losers that run the NFL from
that standpoint that they didn't do anything about it, but
they did about all these other lesser things.

Speaker 8 (15:15):
Yeah, they should. They should care about plays that injure players,
that they've put rules in four to protect the players,
but they didn't, And I think that's a terrible way
to go about policing your sport. I mean, if quarterbacks
get hurt by illegal hits, we know that they punish
the players for it. Heck, they punish the players for
breathing on their helmets. But a player who's running down

(15:35):
the field, a wide out, a tight end, a running back, well,
if they get tackled illegally, explicitly and illegally, I know
the officials aren't good enough to see it in live action.

Speaker 6 (15:46):
How could that?

Speaker 8 (15:47):
How could they possibly see it in live action to
call it even though every single person is saying it
in live action on the sidelines who have the same
view as the officials obviously in the booth and you know,
cash potatoes like myself, and then they don't really do
anything about it after the fact. As I've mentioned during
the year, when you find players for it, that is
a non deterrent. The coach doesn't care, it's not hurting

(16:08):
his team. They didn't get penalized for any yards. The
player doesn't care it helped his team he made the tackle.
Doing it after the fact from a fine perspective is
no way to enforce an illegal tackle. People will just
keep doing it, as evidenced by them doing it all year.
The tight end versus running back edition questions pretty easy one.
I think they weren't out there looking to make a
big splash in the running back game because there just

(16:29):
wasn't much for them to go get, and there's even
less in the tight end pool. Having a player the
caliber of Nick Chubb available at this point in an
offseason isn't normal, and we know the reasons why.

Speaker 6 (16:40):
You know, the Browns.

Speaker 8 (16:41):
Weren't dead set on moving him until late April early May,
when they had re situated their backfield because they added
two players in the draft and his injury situation obviously
puts him there. You know, the tight end free agent
market this offseason, I mean, I don't want to say
it was poor, because that would indicate that there was one.
Basically were five or six tight ends that actually needed

(17:03):
a contract, and there's maybe one of that group that
can play, and he's in Denver now leaving Jacksonville. That's
Evan Ingram. There was nothing to go get. You could
trade for one. You did figure out a way to
enhance the position, but there just really wasn't much to do.
I think if the Texans had a group of tight
ends available this offseason, and so the big money tight

(17:24):
ends are getting paid, and then the lesser tight ends
who probably could help you keep getting pushed back and
they just want a deal and they can want a
new home. Maybe they find a way to Houston. But
that group of tight ends this year was just got awful.
There's just no reason to put anybody on your payroll.
They can't do anything better than the guys you have.
The hope is your younger tight ends matter more to

(17:44):
you this year, led by cade Stover only because he's healthy.
Brevin Jordan has been at the facility and was on
the field undressed for practice this last week. He was
there with the tight ends, but he was not prepared
to practice as he recovers from a significant early season
injury last year. About the timeline for him is good
and that he should be able to participate when they

(18:05):
get ready for the season. And obviously, Dalton Schultz's back
PFS says he's the thirteenth best tight end in the
NFL heading into the twenty twenty five season, They're just fine.
Things are gonna change with their running game, their quarterback protection,
their offensive line play, their tight end usage, and their
formations with their wideouts because they have a brand new offense,

(18:26):
and I think this is going to dictate how these
additions to the team or how these players that remained
on the team are going to make a difference this
year as opposed to in previous years. Their tight end
group personnel wise should be identical to what they had
last year, and yet I think they're going to play
a much much bigger role for this team for how
Nick Cayley wants to use them. Super excited about the

(18:49):
fact they're probably gonna have a lot more pre snap
motion with this offense, so defenses aren't going to be
able to disguise things quite as well, there aren't going
to be able to dictate to you. But the reverse,
which should always be true if you have a talented offense,
players and or coaching or in this case both, you
got to dictate to the other team what's going on

(19:09):
when you have the ball. Don't let them dictate to you.
And that's what happened last year with their inability to protect,
their inability to recognize, communicate. You know, people have said
they that, and I think we would have said it
last year as well. They looked unprepared offensively for what
they were up against on a fairly weekly basis through
that big, meaty portion of the season. That's no way

(19:31):
to go through life. And that's why your OC life ended.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
Right, His life didn't end, just his life as the Texans,
his OC life. He could be an OC again. He
probably will be a two part question for you. One,
where would you rate Nick Chubb's blocking ability right now?

Speaker 8 (19:51):
And I know that's a loaded question. He's a very
good blocker. I mean, I don't know what scale you're
offering zero to.

Speaker 7 (19:57):
Ten, well, the caveat or the asterisk meaning he's coming
off of two big times.

Speaker 8 (20:01):
They'll be fine as a blocker regardless of it. I mean,
if he can't, you know, cut as well, he can't
accelerate quite as well, he's not well, those parts of
your running game might not come quite as quickly. He's
going to be able to block if he's a healthy player.
Most he's going to be perfect. He's gonna be probably
their best blocker as soon as he gets in the
in the door.

Speaker 7 (20:20):
And the second part would be, if healthy, whether it's
to block or whether it's just as a as a
decoy situation, specifically on the goal line, how many two
back situations would you foresee in this kind of I mean,
I'm asking you to basically give me Nick Cayley's playbook
before we've ever really even seen it in Houston. But

(20:41):
don't you think that's kind of a delicious it could.

Speaker 8 (20:44):
Be scenario anytime they line up inside the fifteen yard Heck,
I would love it if Nico Collins was taking one
hundred percent of the snaps all year, every year for
the foreseeable future. I'm not I am not as an armchair,
oh not a verse to throwing the ball in the
red zone. Not a verse to throwing the ball in
your goal to go, not a verse to throwing the

(21:05):
ball inside the five. It doesn't bother me at all.
Today's NFL, and when you have somebody it's it's the
same thing when they had you know, DeAndre Hopkins.

Speaker 6 (21:15):
There's no reason not to. He's going to win.

Speaker 8 (21:18):
At the snap, he's going to come across the face
of the dB, who's gonna have no chance. As long
as the snap is good to your quarterback, all he
has to do is throw the football. It's a touchdown.
It's also going to win. Yeah, that's just a totally
different play that I'm not That's what I'm actually, I'm
not a fan of.

Speaker 6 (21:34):
Those because.

Speaker 8 (21:37):
Are probably very specific the things that are gonna happen,
they're almost all bad. The throw is gonna be off
the mark. You didn't throw it anywhere near him. He's
getting jammed, so he's not able to get it. I
just think it's a low, low level percentage play. Yeah,
there's nothing. There's so few variables there as opposed to
to a fade.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
But they've had.

Speaker 8 (21:56):
Three receivers now in their history for almost the entirety
of their history, from Andre to DeAndre to Nico, and sadly,
the Hall of Famer is the only one of the
three that was misused in the red zone. Nico Collins
has been used very well actually his whole career in
the majority Texas.

Speaker 7 (22:15):
And by the way, when you talk about Andre Johnson,
the saddest part of that statement is that for the
majority of his prime years as a Texan he was
misused by a guy who is an offensive genius.

Speaker 6 (22:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (22:26):
I always try to not be too hard on Garrett.
I saved that for when he was actually here and
I was asking him questions. But Dan did have one
of the in this generation the last twenty five years,
one of the two or three best red zone running
backs to play during that period. That was Aaron Foster.
Your free passage, it's a given. If you give him

(22:46):
the ball, he's going to get in. And if you
give him the ball on first down and he doesn't
get in, give it to him on second down. And
they didn't run him straight into a lot a pack
of nineteen bodies, he would find a way to get
into that. You know. Marcus Allen was like that, there
are players who just have a nosework. Honestly, I think
Nick Chubb and Joe Mixon are also front line, top
of the heat, red zone, goal line caliber backs, and

(23:08):
it's for different reasons. Two backs on the field at
the same time. I don't know about that. They'll probably
I'm sure they'll be on occasion. The bottom line is
they just better. This is one area of this football team,
both sides of the football gets talked about way less
than how much it impacted their team. In twenty twenty four,

(23:28):
they weren't good in the red zone, no matter who
had the ball. Their defense was not good in the
red zone. Their offense was not good in the red zone.
For as much talent as they brought to every game
defensively and offensively, they weren't good there. And that can
ruin all the other good you do between the twenties,
all the other personnel moves you've made, all your three
hundred and fifty yard offensive games, all your games where

(23:50):
you're getting team off the field on third down all afternoon,
except when they're in the red zone. They just have
to be better in those two areas. And I'm imagining
they do a lot of things in their meat their
prep work for this upcoming season, specifically to do just that.

Speaker 6 (24:04):
Tell you what I do. Man, two becks at the
same time.

Speaker 7 (24:06):
Man, that's my Nick Cayley impression for this upcoming Texan season.

Speaker 6 (24:10):
Hey, Best of X coming up next.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
The age on.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Sports Talk seven ninety Did you all see this?

Speaker 4 (24:22):
We're putting out between five and six posts a day.

Speaker 8 (24:25):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
History repeats itself.

Speaker 6 (24:31):
Type and you will succeed.

Speaker 9 (24:34):
Never doubt that you're the one who person.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
No one will believe you're the best of X.

Speaker 9 (24:41):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of
X posting every single day and you're the best of
X breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 8 (24:57):
It is time for the best of X, something from
the socials that's worthwhile for us to discuss, breakdown, laugh
at or mock. And this is a Monday edition of it.
So Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. We don't have a shortest
of things, thatch. There's no shortest of things when it's
only twenty four hours in between Best of X installments.

(25:18):
But I knew this would make it to Monday's edition,
specifically because it was from yesterday. Just an odd time
to receive a message on my ig direct message there
from a listener, and I knew when I read it
it would make it to Monday's edition of Best of X.
I can absolutely appreciate it, and I like getting feedback

(25:40):
from people that clearly listen to the program. It is
someone who obviously follows me there and follows the show
well enough that on at five on a Sunday, a
non show day, followed previously by Saturday, also a non
show day, that he felt compelled to ask for a

(26:00):
favor of me, specifically, please stop singing jingles on the air.
You can't sing for someone needs to tell you. I
guess I'm the bad guy.

Speaker 6 (26:11):
Who's this guy? Unnamed? He has a name.

Speaker 8 (26:15):
There's known reason for me to give it wause. I'm
I can I'm not mad at it.

Speaker 6 (26:19):
I am.

Speaker 8 (26:20):
I don't mind it. I get it, and it's totally fine.
It's not fine, it's fine. It's not fine at all.
It is Actually you come after him. He's not after me,
after me, he's coming after you. Came in very politely,
I mean politely.

Speaker 7 (26:34):
He just said you can't sing for bleep. That's not polite,
he saved himself.

Speaker 8 (26:38):
Opposite polite, he saved himself the characters by using the emoji,
which I can appreciate as well. You know how much
I like that emoji always seems to fit. He wasn't No,
I'm not gonna listen anymore. This is embarrassed. I mean,
he doesn't think I can sing for bleep, which probably
is true. I'm not trying to be good at it. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

(27:00):
So that's why I can appreciate that. I'm not trying to.

Speaker 7 (27:03):
Help him along in a non kins sending way by saying, hey,
you can't decipher jokes for bleep.

Speaker 6 (27:08):
No.

Speaker 8 (27:08):
No, I haven't even responded yet. I wanted to respond
here first because now afterwards we can. Now we'll probably
have some you know what I like about it back
and forth.

Speaker 7 (27:15):
It's the best of X, which is obviously under a
greater umbrella which involves all social also, and yet no
one else saw this because it's in your DMS.

Speaker 6 (27:23):
That's what I like about it.

Speaker 8 (27:24):
He was reaching out directly, which is again also fine.
They're open, feel free if if you so, I mean,
if I can block, delete except whatever. All good, And yes,
this particular song parody for those that don't like it,
because it probably gets stuck in your head and it's awful. Yeah,
we play it every day two thirty every day, Best
of X. There's some other parodies I do there. We

(27:48):
hit you with it once a week or pops up there.
It's it's not the end of the world. This one
can be the end of your world every day at
two thirty. So I get it. Best of X. Why
do you guys talk to me like that? Mike makes
your ears bleed? It's okay, way.

Speaker 7 (28:00):
I want to talk to you all right, So that
that actually made me mad even though it didn't make
you mad. Just this is so this is more about
like a great site.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
If you're an NBA fan.

Speaker 7 (28:15):
Actually, if you're an NBA fan at all, die hard
or casual, and you've been watching for thirty plus years,
you know the difference between Well the nineties and Well now,
and you look it's I'm not as down on the
current product as maybe some people are, although we will

(28:36):
get to that aspect of the NBA Finals, and I'm
not talking about the play, but I will say this
as I go full Don Capers. It both makes my
heart sing and makes me utterly depressed when I see
things like what the NBA cobwebs x account posted over

(28:59):
the weekend not one but two memories, the first of
which I think everybody in this city will remember where
they were if they.

Speaker 6 (29:07):
Were of age to know what's going on.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
And the fact that you knew the Rockets were in
the NBA Finals, trying gunning for their second consecutive NBA
championship and had seen the upstart Orlando Magic absolutely obliterate
them for most of the first half. But then Nick
Anderson missus two free throws and Kenny Smith ducks under

(29:32):
Penny Hardaway's arms outstretched and hits a three pointer, his seventh,
an NBA record at the time. Hilarious to send it
to overtime, where Clyde Drexler drove to the basket with
mere seconds remaining.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Rest one.

Speaker 6 (29:59):
I will suck them.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Time out.

Speaker 8 (30:03):
Check the fire or land a lot of chip fire,
you are well, check for what's the man?

Speaker 6 (30:10):
And he just blocked to h and the ring it
hard to the bait and what happened to here?

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Tech?

Speaker 6 (30:16):
Coming over?

Speaker 8 (30:17):
Tech?

Speaker 6 (30:17):
How about write a plot, bitch.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
And that leads what kem a lot on all along
on the weak side and he took knock part man
out of there?

Speaker 6 (30:26):
No, I mean just okay.

Speaker 7 (30:27):
First of all, the first thing that sticks out is
Marv Albert greater than Mike Breen. See what he said
over the weekend. Well, I only saved the Bang for threes, Okay,
I didn't know there was like some sort of rules
for you using your trade bar mark. I mean, Marv
didn't wait for only threes to be taken and made
before he said yes.

Speaker 8 (30:48):
He said yes a lot.

Speaker 6 (30:49):
Well, it was awesome a lot wex. I agree.

Speaker 8 (30:53):
I'm just not a fan of Bang, but it doesn't matter.
You have to pick right now, right of your head.
Marv is better, thank you, But like that, just it
makes me so sad. That was thirty years ago. It's
been a while. Chem Olage One's lone offensive rebound in
that game was a pretty big one. I was today
years old when I knew that he had one offensive ree?

Speaker 6 (31:15):
Are you serious?

Speaker 8 (31:16):
That was it? Thank you Clyde for missing or else
he would have had zero.

Speaker 6 (31:21):
That's true. But if the shot went in there, it
wasn't good.

Speaker 8 (31:24):
It was I thought it was really good out of
bounds play to get most likely get Clyde into a
one on one situation, and because he what you also
did is you got him the ball so he could
almost assuredly do what he does well. He was able
to catch the ball in a way that would let
him plant his left foot and use the only hand
he ever used to dribble with and go that way.

(31:46):
He was able to plant, get a step on the
defender and just go to his right and go to
the basket. Shack did the right thing. That was a
good defensive play. He forced the miss. You have to
force the miss. You don't force the miss, you lose.
So he got up into Clyde. He actually bodied him
a little bit, not enough that I think a foul
should have been called, but it clearly leaves Dream alone.

(32:07):
There were some bodies around him, but not bodies strong
enough to do anything with him, and he was able
to tip it in. The Rockets were in bad shape
for much of that game. They had a great third
quarter and Orlando came back and there they weren't overtime
and it was all tied up. Well, or Clyde off
the glass, off the rim to Dream's fingertips, to the win.

Speaker 6 (32:27):
They steal game one.

Speaker 7 (32:29):
Unbeknownst to anybody at the time, Nick Anderson was about
to go into a mental tail spin for the rest
of his career.

Speaker 8 (32:35):
Yeah, you said he missed two free throws, like you're
trying to be nice. Oh well, I kind of glossed
over the fact that he missed two free throws.

Speaker 6 (32:42):
Twice.

Speaker 8 (32:42):
He missed two free throws, then he got the offensive
rebound off the second miss, got fouled again and missed
two more whoops.

Speaker 7 (32:51):
My favorite is how Mary Ellie tells that story. You know,
when a guy's smiling, he's kind.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
Of getting tight. Anyway. Game two not very much in doubt.
This was two of the game's thirty four.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Hey, they just can't believe what is happening. You watching
the away.

Speaker 6 (33:09):
Twenty eight for a game.

Speaker 7 (33:11):
Okay, the way Marv delivers that is just awesome. And
you can hear the PA announcer in the background at
the OOH Arena. He's not as Rockets as he was
before game one. They were completely shell shocked going into
game two. Sam Cassell went off and the Rockets came
back home up to oh and uh. Game three was

(33:33):
actually in doubt before or hit that shot late, but
then people showed up with.

Speaker 6 (33:38):
The brooms before Game four and the rest is history.

Speaker 8 (33:40):
Yeah, the Rockets were up huge at the half. In
Game two, Orlando made it look a little bit better
at the end. Four thirty point scores in that game,
thirty four for Dream, thirty three for Shock, thirty two
for Penny, and who had the thirty one Sam, Sam
Cassell thirty one off the Rockets bench on just he

(34:03):
told makes.

Speaker 7 (34:04):
He told Kenny to take the night off. I've got
you tonight because you were so awesome in game one.
He actually said that that was Kenny's word, and Kenny
took him at his work. He and Sam combined for
thirty one points. Sam had all thirty one.

Speaker 6 (34:17):
Kenny had done his part in game one.

Speaker 8 (34:19):
Kenny still working part of the many postgame crews that
are working at the NBA Finals. I haven't mentioned much
about that, probably for good reason. Off of the game
we come to you on here on a Monday, two
games into that series. It's all tied up at a
game apiece. Which direction is it headed in? Among the
things we still need to discuss, probably hit on that next.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (34:55):
Trying to figure out if the Goo Goo dolls and
slide has anything to do with any sort of of
breaking news now, But According.

Speaker 10 (35:02):
To the athletics Diana Russini, Nick Chows passes physical and
now we're just waiting with the details of the contract.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
I love that.

Speaker 7 (35:10):
Look, it's a low risk, high reward thing, as we mentioned,
and given the state of the offensive line and the
question marks around it, if it pays off, I'm fine
with it.

Speaker 6 (35:25):
It makes the Texans better than they would have been
without him.

Speaker 8 (35:27):
Yep, there really was no reason to think he would
not pass his physical, even though there were two significant
injuries over the last two years. The timing of the
foot injury and the recovery time needed to get past
it did he likely preclude him passing his physical. So
he has, and again I think that was really all
that was standing in the way. Terms were already previously
agreed to, whatever those might be and not been reported,

(35:48):
although it's been reported that he probably had better guaranteed
money elsewhere, a little bit bigger figure elsewhere, he might
end up making more here. If well for him, it
might be nice, and if he played well, it would
be nice for the team. But I don't think they're
anticipating unseating the starting running back. It provides you insurance
no matter what you're going your backup running backs playing

(36:10):
name the NFL team, your backup running back or your
second best running back or your third best they're playing.
It's every team needs to have that in place, and
this is better than what they have. I don't think
there's any doubt about that. I don't think we're being
offensive to Daria Goombawalle, Woody Marks or obviously Damian Pierce
trying to make the team better and a move like
this does that.

Speaker 7 (36:30):
It's pretty simple. Yeah, and I'm it's it's a It's
another intriguing part of the twenty twenty five season to
keep an eye on. I hope it is like what
I I'm hoping this isn't something that we like, we
aren't looking back on and just don't remember when they
did that. Like, I don't think this is gonna be

(36:52):
And you're gonna you're gonna roll.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
Your eze when you hear this one.

Speaker 8 (36:54):
I know what you're gonna say.

Speaker 6 (36:55):
What do you think I muna say?

Speaker 8 (36:56):
I'm on green dude.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
But he was so bad?

Speaker 8 (37:00):
But what were they wanting from him.

Speaker 6 (37:03):
To start and be awesome?

Speaker 8 (37:05):
Exactly?

Speaker 6 (37:06):
But they had a better line with him, that's the
crazy line.

Speaker 8 (37:09):
He couldn't play anymore.

Speaker 7 (37:11):
I mean not. Don't you think Chubb has more left
in the tank than Amon Green did when he got here,
even with everything.

Speaker 8 (37:18):
No question about like I would put out some information
about Chubb about his workload, Like he had a couple
of years with three hundred touches, which is a lot. Well,
Aman Green basically did nothing but that in Green Bay
over a seven year period. One of those years he
was hurt, so he didn't get to that total. The
other seven years in succession at ages twenty three through

(37:40):
twenty nine were three hundred touch seasons. Guess when he
came to the Texans, well, the very next year, I
guess when he stopped being productive that exact year. It's
very very different. The reason he's been off the field
his injuries. If he's healthy, I don't think there's a
tailspin waiting to happen. And their expectations for him are
if I fear asked to take over at number one.

(38:02):
Can you they're not asking him to take over. He's
not their guy. They don't need him to be the
guy until very very different situation, and he's got far, far, far,
far less tread on the tires.

Speaker 5 (38:14):
There were.

Speaker 8 (38:17):
Over eighteen hundred carries on aman greens around his neck.
We'll say, because he's carrying it, you know, like a
tire some sort of drill running back would do. We're
about thirteen hundred for Nick Chubb. So that's about a
season and a half's worth of extra wear and tear
that presumably isn't on Nick Chubb.

Speaker 6 (38:34):
He's an eight.

Speaker 8 (38:35):
Touchdown a year guy every year of his career when
he's healthy. Plus he's had a couple of twelve touchdown season. Again,
I don't want to beat the Chubb a horse to
death before he's even signed and put on their uniform.
But this is a simple How can you explain to
me why you wouldn't like it? I don't want you
to do that because I don't really think there's any
way to do that. There's no two sides to this.

(38:56):
There's not a debate, there's not a discussion.

Speaker 7 (38:58):
Well, I look, if he had signed with anybody, let's
just say, anybody else in the AFC South, how would
we have reacted.

Speaker 8 (39:06):
Well, in Jacksonville, he'd be the reserve. In Indianapolis, he'd
be the reserve. In Tennessee. Probably a very good signing
considering what their backfield will look like because cam Ward's
in it, but he also probably isn't their lead back.
I mean he could be a monk. I mean, Polar
didn't go anywhere.

Speaker 7 (39:24):
That's kind of how I always gauge things like this,
where there's a question mark attached to the athlete in
any way, shape or form in any league. By the way, okay,
well you're poo pooing that signing. What would you have
done if he had signed with your team or vice
versa in this case.

Speaker 8 (39:37):
So yeah, Like I said, I'm trying to discuss it
as long and as it's a detailed as we need.
But I can't fathom the downside. I mean, even with
whatever money it is, because at this point in the
off season, your money's already spent. If you have the
room to spend it on somebody, then go ahead and
spend it. It's not gonna prove I don't think it's
gonna prevent you from doing something else. Now, when injuries

(39:58):
come about and you're kind of up against it and
you spend a little bit here and a little bit,
they're sure, but there's not a bunch of talented player
sitting out there. They're probably going to sign one more
veteran player that will matter next year, and that player
is going to play cornerback.

Speaker 6 (40:12):
Now who that is?

Speaker 8 (40:13):
Because the other news around the NFL today that I
thought was fairly significant was the Jay R Alexander release
from the Green Bay Packers. That definitely requires more conversation
from us. Stefan Gilmour is among the corners that are available.
Jalen Ramsey's almost assuredly being traded. These are things that
Texans should be aware of to kind of see where
the market is on three very different players and different scenarios.

(40:37):
But yeah, it would be phenomenal for a player like
Stevon Gilmore to end up in the Texans uniform, even
though like Chubb, they're not counting on him to start.
They're counting on him to make sure when somebody does
get hurt, they're not turning to somebody who doesn't belong
on the field because they're trying to win big this year.
Three o'clock hour Beckins half an hour from Steve Sparks
jump in on both the NBA and what's going on

(41:00):
Exon's mini camp tomorrow, and we start the three o'clock.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
Hour the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Teen lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team.

Speaker 4 (41:17):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 7 (41:25):
Straight up three o'clock on a Monday edition of the
A Team Sports Talk seven ninety We are well into
the month of June. I know, I always say this,
I feel like twenty twenty five is flying by. You
know what it is, wex Here's what it is. Astros
are not nearly as bad off as they were this
time last year. They certainly weren't in first place like

(41:48):
they are right now and gaining on the Mariners who
used to be leading them. But they're I mean, the
Rockets being in the postseason. It helps, like it makes
that start to the Major League Baseball season. You're not
as focused completely on that if you're just a general

(42:08):
sports fan overall. So as we're here on June ninth,
and I'm getting depressed playing anniversaries from the rockets last
run to the NBA Finals thirty years ago. Last hour,
in case you missed that, I can say that a
year ago at this time, things were maybe a little
bit more bleak in the Houston sports landscape as compared
to what they are right now. Win Astros are in

(42:30):
first place, and we're like getting closer and closer to
when we're gonna find out I think what the Rockets
are going to do one way or the other. With
a very pivotal offseason, there's no doubt we're getting closer
to it. That the end of the NBA season is approaching.
There might only be three more games. If either team
wins the next three in a row, that will be
the case. If one team's going to do it, it's
probably the team that won handily. Last night, the Oklahoma

(42:52):
City Thunder got reports of visits for the number one
pick coming to Texas, not to Houston or San Antonio.
Reports of the team he might be playing for, becoming
the latest team in search of a head coach, Cooper
Flag when he gets to Dallas for his in person workout,
which is totally unnecessary, is he going to be working

(43:15):
out in front of Jason Kidd? And if he is,
is he going to be working out in front of
Jason Kidd New York Knicks next head coach? That apparently
is a possibility, one that I don't know, and I
don't think that the Mavericks are going to stand in
the way from U and I wouldn't if I were
them either, which is a It's not a backhanded thing,
it's a front handed thing.

Speaker 6 (43:36):
Go ahead, get lost.

Speaker 7 (43:37):
We gave you Jalen Brunson, but to kind of equal
that out, we're also going to send Jason Kidd your
away a few seasons later.

Speaker 8 (43:45):
Yeah, Jason Kidd is in last year. At this time,
he was still coaching because the Mavericks were in the
NBA Final, So I may be in a smaller group
than I once was, but I'm not a fan of
him as a head coach, So I'd actually prefer for
the Mavericks to keep him, but I don't know that
that will be the case. The Knicks one good team
that is looking for a new head coach. We'll get
into a couple of those NBA Adams for sure. The

(44:07):
Astros at thirty six and twenty nine a two and
a half game lead over the Mariners, who were winners yesterday.
Astros losers. So that three and a half game lead,
which was their biggest down to two and a half,
and much of that flip came in the last ten
days or so, with the Astros winning a nine out
of twelve. The Mariners losing four or losing eight out

(44:27):
of twelve. There was a quick five game flip in
those span in that span of time, one game back
for them with that win yesterday that I mentioned. But
at this time of year ago, as you mentioned, five
and a half games back after a win, that's what
the Astros were at thirty and thirty five, making their
way back from seven to nineteen, making their way back
from twelve to twenty four.

Speaker 6 (44:48):
I mentioned this the other day.

Speaker 8 (44:49):
They did not get over five hundred until they were
into the second half of the season, and by half
I mean math they were into the second eighty one
games of the season.

Speaker 6 (44:59):
They got to forty two forty one.

Speaker 8 (45:00):
It was the first time they were above five hundred
after that awful start they got off to. Clearly, this
year it's been very, very different. They got off to
a perfectly fine start. You know, they had an opening
series victory followed by a series loss, and then they
fiddled around at the five hundred mark for a little bit,
and then they got a little bit over then they
came back to it, and obviously recently one of those

(45:22):
streaks that Dana Brown's always talking about finally came to pass.
They were at twenty five and twenty four and then
one eleven out of fifteen, and that's when they had
their big lead of three and a half games. They'd
been in first place for a week's time. Got back
to first place with their win on Tuesday of last
week to open up the road trip. A road trip
they won four of six on are able to get

(45:43):
an additional off day for Lance mccullor's junior, He will
go Tuesday to Tuesday in between starts. His start last
week Tuesday against the Pirates obviously was awesome, keeping the
Astros a zero on their end, while Paul Sken's was
doing the same thing through six innings before Christian Walker
took him out of the yard. They got Gordon and
Walter to make starts over the weekend, both in winnable

(46:07):
games because of their work.

Speaker 6 (46:08):
Gordon gave up.

Speaker 8 (46:09):
One run and you won, and Walter gave up two
runs and when he left it was tied to two.
A rare rough inning for Steven Okert, and most of
it was some of it was due to an errant
throw to first base to the second basement, covering the
fourth different second baseman for the Astros to.

Speaker 6 (46:27):
Have played over there this season.

Speaker 8 (46:28):
Jose al Tuv has been there, Maurisio has been there,
Brendon Rodgers has been there, and it was Shay Whitcomb's
turn to be over there yesterday, but not a particularly
good throw.

Speaker 6 (46:36):
They opened this series either with a.

Speaker 8 (46:39):
Two game lead after the Mariners result tonight or a
three game lead after the Mariners result tonight. And the
reward for the Astros they get to play the they
get to play the White Sox.

Speaker 6 (46:52):
Is it a reward? What should be?

Speaker 8 (46:54):
Don't ask Detroit if that's a reward. They lost the
series to them. The Astros are hoping to win the
season series with the White Sox and the only way
they can do that is by sweeping them. The Astros
have to sweep the White Sox to win the series
with that twenty two win ball club.

Speaker 6 (47:13):
Well, that's their fault. I mean, I there's no other
way to say it. I can't. I get it. It's baseball.
I understand all that.

Speaker 8 (47:21):
That's why I put Detroit out there, and I'm not
trying to you know, grind your gears and you know,
pull up the wind pull the string on the wind
up toy.

Speaker 7 (47:27):
That they will lose games. Well, you went to Chicago
and you lost games to them there.

Speaker 8 (47:34):
Yeah, where you're no good, You're very good.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Here.

Speaker 8 (47:36):
One thing to note about the Astros, the Mariners, their division,
and where things already stand. The Astros already have a
two and a half game lead. The Mariners are the
only other team in this division with a winning record.
You know, the A's are obviously way back, and the Rangers,
while they're starting pitching three of them have been unbelievably good.
Their offense has been unbelievably bad. And the Angels are
almost assuredly sellers. If I told you the Mariner have

(48:00):
played thirty three of their games, roughly half of them
against teams below five hundred to this point in the season,
what do you think the number is for the Astros?
Say that again, if the Mariners have played thirty three
games against teams below five hundred, as we sit here
today and remind you that these numbers fluctuate all the time,
because eight games fall off your number when that team

(48:23):
goes to thirty six and thirty five all of a sudden.
So just at this point in the season, that's one
of the highest totals in the league. It's the third
most games against teams below five hundred. The Astros, where
do you think they sit on that list?

Speaker 6 (48:35):
Fifteen? Oh? On the like the ranking ears the amount.
I was gonna say, fifteen games.

Speaker 8 (48:39):
So the Mariners played thirty three games against teams below
five hundred, and you think the Astros were played less
than half of that, it would be correct. That number
is exactly correct. You and Cole are doing the same
thing to me. I didn't look at it up obviously
seen it. No, you take all the fun out of it,
and then you pretend like you haven't.

Speaker 11 (48:55):
I can't.

Speaker 6 (48:55):
I cannot be more serious when I say I had
no clue.

Speaker 8 (48:58):
I just guess the team in Major League Baseball that's
played the fewest games against teams below five hundred is
the thirty six and twenty nine Houston Astros.

Speaker 7 (49:06):
Oh good, so things are gonna get even better than
they already are. Presumably it's just as you know. It's
baseball is not quite like the others.

Speaker 8 (49:13):
If I told you the Texans had five games remaining
and they were against teams that were three and four
and six games under five hundred at that point in
their seasons, it would matter. They would probably probably crush
those teams no matter where they were playing. It's not
quite the same, but it is a factor. All this time,
Seattle's kind of been falling apart. You know, Luis Castillo

(49:34):
had a horrible start over the weekend. They I think
people were erroneously worried about Julio Rodriguez, who got hit
by a batted ball running to third base and had
to be helped off the field. He left the game, obviously,
but he came back and he played yesterday. He's fine
moving forward. But more than half of their games have
played against teams that are below five hundred. They could

(49:56):
be a game below, they could be twenty below. But
that's half your games and still trailing Houston. You still
haven't made Hay with that type of schedule. Presumably it
kind of flips on you as you move through the
next hundred. So they're gonna have to play a lot
better baseball, or the gap between the Astros and the
Mariners is gonna do nothing but grow.

Speaker 7 (50:14):
So the Mariners aren't very good. I mean, I know
that sounds like a very basic sentence to say about
the team that has been leading the division most of
the year, But Brian mctagger just said it to us
on Friday, and in a weird way. It kind of
surprised me, but it shouldn't. I can't remember it was.
I think it was Brian or Chandler. They were both

(50:34):
on on Friday. I can't remember which one of them
said it, but I'm pretty sure it was Brian during
the on Deck show. The Mariners aren't very good, just
kind of matter of factly said it, even though cal
Rawley's having an MVP season, even though their pitching staff
is still one of the best in baseball.

Speaker 6 (50:49):
Pound for pound, well with the names, at least on
yat of names.

Speaker 8 (50:53):
And George Kirby looks like he's back. He was almost
unlowable four starts.

Speaker 6 (51:00):
The starts of George Kirby on any other season, you'll.

Speaker 8 (51:02):
Take itself of an injury, right, that's pretty good progress.

Speaker 6 (51:05):
But the Astros caught him on one of those starts.

Speaker 8 (51:07):
Yeah, they got lucky, so wow, they ain't get lucky
he's played them. It was lucky.

Speaker 7 (51:12):
Yes, there you go, semantics. But like I, I guess
I just didn't really look at it that way because, well,
they've been leading the division most of the year, not
the Rangers, now anybody else.

Speaker 8 (51:21):
So heading into one of the games this weekend, this
fifteen day stretch was applicable, and that's why I posted
about it. The Astros went nine to three, while the
Mariners lost six games to them, going three to nine,
and nobody in the division won more than four games
over that time. The Astros pitching number one in the
majors in strikeouts top ten, and both whip and batting
average against. Here's why the rest of the division fell

(51:42):
apart during that same time period. The best hitting team
in baseball based on batting average was the Oakland A's,
but they couldn't get anybody out. Their era was the
a seven to sixty five mark. That's why they won
three times with the best hitters. Best they get the
most hits, couldn't beat anybody. The Rangers hit under two

(52:02):
hundred thirtieth last in Major League Baseball during those fifteen days,
and Seattle twenty seventh in ops, twenty seventh in teamy. Alright,
that's why when it was said to us one of
our baseball experts that joins us every week, they aren't
very good at least over that fifteen day stretch. There

(52:23):
are no stats that say otherwise.

Speaker 7 (52:24):
Well, I guess it's easier to believe if you say
that about the Rangers versus the Mariners when the Rangers
haven't really sniffed the division lead except for like the
very first two weeks of the season or whatever, and
the Mariners have been leading it the entire time up
until recently. We will continue here on a Monday edition
to the program NBA Finals all noted up, and that's not.

Speaker 6 (52:46):
Even what most people are talking about. We'll discuss next.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (53:00):
I'm trying to determine when I want to get in
to something I saw about NBA postseason and specifically MVP
award voters and how they trend not this segment, not yet,
but there are some discrepancies. And you know, since I'm

(53:21):
always bringing up at least one of these voters first
and foremost, I can't believe the fact that there's only
just this select few and.

Speaker 6 (53:28):
They don't change, and they don't DEVI eight and they
haven't for a long long time, don't What are you
talking about? Well, I just like, how.

Speaker 7 (53:35):
Often does the pool of voters in any given league's
postseason awards, whether it's the MVP or.

Speaker 8 (53:42):
All NBA like the awards for the finals MVP. No,
you mean the regular season awards.

Speaker 6 (53:48):
I believe, Yeah, the regular season.

Speaker 8 (53:49):
There's one hundred voters for each of them, and they're
not always the same group of one hundred people every year.
Usually too, you get to vote for two or three
of the awards if you're one of the people in
the mix. A lot of ESPN people, a lot of
athletic reporters, a lot of NBA dot Com, a lot
of ESPN ABC, I should say people make up that list,
and then assorted people from around the world. By the way,

(54:11):
there are a lot of more international voters than ever before,
and they regularly cover the NBA, both here in the
States and from overseas. Usually a lot of locals whose
papers don't require them to pass on that opportunity. But
I don't think the same one hundred voters vote for
the MVP every year. They probably have votes every year,

(54:32):
but they don't vote for that specific award. Maybe they
voted for it twenty five and twenty three and nineteen,
but not in every single year.

Speaker 7 (54:39):
Yeah, I'll give you it's a little bit. I'll give
you a crazy number when we dive into this more,
A little bit I wanted to get to just the
finals itself before we do any of that. And we'll
get to Sparky with the replay on the Astros coming
up next segment. But I like, you know, last night's
result in the NBA Finals. After again, I know what

(55:01):
I'm supposed to say. I know what the NBA wants
me to say about the amount of time between these games.

Speaker 6 (55:07):
It's just ridiculous.

Speaker 7 (55:09):
I know Matt Thomas and I agree on this in
that if you want to build any sort of momentum,
you can't have days and days and days seemingly between
finals games.

Speaker 8 (55:21):
Yeah, I know, we all know why they do it,
so I don't really think anyone disagrees with you and Matt.
I certainly don't. It's but nobody disagrees with it. That's
the worst part. Everybody, including the people who are getting
the money to have it this way the league via
their TV contracts, they know this is the wrong way,
but they can't say no to the money who's making

(55:44):
the decisions. This is how the TV side of it
wants it. I still think there are peoples you'd be
telling them you're doing it wrong, but they're not.

Speaker 6 (55:52):
They're just saying Oh, you're paying us all this money.
This is what you want to do.

Speaker 8 (55:55):
Okay, I guess we can only fight you so much.
They played on Wednesday, and the next Wednesday they will
have played one game because they just played on Sunday
and they won't play again until Wednesday. So or played
on Thursday. If last week was game one, Game three
will be seven days away Thursday to Wednesday, they will
play three times. There's only one instance in this series

(56:17):
where there's only one day off in between games. Every
other situation there are two games off. It's not related
to travel, it's related to television. They're building no momentum.
They built no momentum into this series when there was
almost a week off for one team and nearly that
for the other, and then the games have to do
an incredible job of carrying it. Game one did. Game

(56:37):
one was unbelievable. Game one was one of the best
finals games that a lot of people have ever seen
the younger generation, and certainly was among the better games.
It had a game winning shot with less than a
second remaining. It was fantastic. And then you didn't do
anything on Friday or Saturday, and then you play a
game that didn't carry it at all because it was
a non competitive Oklahoma City had the lead fairly early,

(56:58):
they extended the lead fairly earth, and while it didn't
turn into a forty point blowout, this was a blowout.
I've heard others describe it as they kind of stayed close.
They did not stay close. They just didn't get embarrassed.
It wasn't an embarrassing night of basketball. It was a
non competitive night of basketball. It was very one sided,
and you're seeing the difference, even though last week we
just got done telling you that we think Tyre's Halliburton

(57:21):
is probably right where he belongs, inside the top ten
among best players in this league and a true number one.
He is the true number one. He has to make
sure that consistently he plays like that. He did not,
and it's not because he played poorly. It's because he
took a back seat. You can't carry your team, or
better yet, drive your team to the finals and try

(57:43):
to drive your team to the superimposed trophy that was
on the court last night from the back seat. He
played last night's game in the back seat of the car.

Speaker 6 (57:51):
Can't do that.

Speaker 8 (57:51):
It's a terrible way to be a number one star.
He chose that path that wasn't a thunder forced path.
He was super passed. I don't mean he was trying
to get assists. I mean, go get the basketball, go
do something. Run without the basketball. Their offense is way
too creative and there's so much movement. They just kind

(58:12):
of let it happen like they were satisfied with stealing
home court.

Speaker 7 (58:18):
And maybe they weren't. I doubt it, well, especially against
this team. I mean, you do a team you're definitely
worse than that you beat. But everybody would have been
able to say that in this finals, right, So what
are you relaxing for? What are you saying, yippie, we
want it. You need to win four times. You shouldn't
care about home court where you got to win. What

(58:38):
the situation. We don't have to win in their building.
You have to win in your building. I do think
that emotionally, they will probably be in a very good
position to grab their second win of the series if
that's the only other win they get. Because I did
say this thing goes to six games. In Game three
you did get a split. So even though this wasn't
you know, this wasn't a great experience, and it was

(59:00):
not competitive, as you said, at least it's not too
o as asposed to one to one coming back to
your home for two games. But you did notice last night,
what was it a thirty three to twenty six free
throw That's pretty good, right, like thirty three twenty six
advantage OKC and free throw shooting attempts.

Speaker 6 (59:21):
I mean all of them went to SGA.

Speaker 8 (59:24):
That was not a non factor in the game. The
facts are what they are. You gave them thirty three
free throws to twenty six. They had a seven free
throw advantage in the game they won. They had a
three free throw advantage in the game they lost. Really
don't think that's the way they're calling the series is impactful.
I mean, they're still letting things happen that I wish
they wouldn't now. I think they're being fairly fair to

(59:47):
both teams, so I'm not complaining about that, But it
looks like there's a lot of things that they're they're
just fouls, and they're impacting both teams ability to put
the ball in the basket. They're still managing to shoot
reasonably high percentages. You got one team shooting well over
fifty fifty six percent or excuse me, forty nine percent
and forty percent in these two games for the Thunder
and over forty five and both for the Pacers. I

(01:00:10):
don't think that had anything to do with last night's result.
And what what's Shay's doing that stars should do and
that Haliburton's not doing. He's making it happen. He's twenty
four shots, twenty seven shots, thirty shots, and Rick Carlele
said after the game, well, you might as well just
pencil in thirty four points for him when we get
to Indiana. He's averaging thirty six points in the series

(01:00:32):
because he's trying to score. He's trying to take his
team to the title. He's doing what a number one
should do. He's doing what an MVP should do. His
teammates are also helping the two monster efforts off the
bench from Caruso and Wiggins or Aaron Williams if you're
Steven a Smith's name is Wiggins, They're they're just better.
I mean, I felt bad about picking the Thunder in

(01:00:53):
five after game one. I don't really feel all that
bad anymore.

Speaker 12 (01:00:57):
I'm not.

Speaker 8 (01:00:58):
I don't think they're going to destroy them, but there's
better than them.

Speaker 6 (01:01:02):
Yeah, and they've been better than everybody of most of
the season. Yeah, all of it. Look who he's sending home.

Speaker 8 (01:01:07):
Like Nicolo Jokic as a Number one, came to play
pretty much every game, even though the Thunders defense was awesome.
He only had two monster games, but he was slowed
down quite a bit, so, but he came to play
every game. What Anthony Edwards did and what Tyree's Halliburton's doing,
and I guess what John Morant did before he got hurt.
It was more difficult as non super established playoff tested

(01:01:32):
number ones and I know Edwards was in the conference
finals a year ago. They're having a harder time showing
up every single night, which is clearly what Number ones
do and Halliburton didn't.

Speaker 7 (01:01:43):
Yeah, looking at this series moving forward though, and going
into Indianapolis and just the venue shift and all that,
it is funny to me that what is being talked
about almost more than anything. And I'm guessing you think
this is overblown, but I did notice, just because I
like these sorts of things. Everybody's talking about the fact

(01:02:04):
that this looks like it's a regular season game in
Game one, and so the NBA or whomever that was
in charge decided, all right, we'll do something about that.
We'll start digitally superimposing logos on the floor if we
can't have a permanent sticker out there. And then it
looked like Microsoft Paint was what designed it.

Speaker 8 (01:02:23):
Ud League kind of acknowledged we didn't foresee this coming.
We didn't realize what it meant to so many other people,
and how it did kind of make the whole visual
of the game. Well, this is the Finals. It's the
only time we ever see it on the court.

Speaker 6 (01:02:36):
Where is it?

Speaker 8 (01:02:37):
Their solution left a little bit to be desired. We'll
see if they rethink it for Game three. I imagine
that they will.

Speaker 6 (01:02:43):
I just can't believe that.

Speaker 7 (01:02:45):
It seems like such a basic thing, and and so
this conversation seems like, oh, you're just getting but we're
not nitpicking. It's your championship round. Everybody knows the Super
Bowl is the Super Bowl and where it is and
all that there's paint as an ad nausea. But even
the World Series has it painted right there on the field.
And this is just like a game in June. You know,

(01:03:06):
I'm in the city.

Speaker 8 (01:03:07):
I'm not gonna take it that far. Clearly people do,
but I mean, I don't need it on the court
for me to I need it. I look at the
intensity of the first game. It wasn't played like it
was a regular season game. Was played like this is
for all the marbles. Well, maybe just put all the
marbles on the court so that we know you're playing
for them. Just a thought, all right, Sparky replay next.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (01:03:37):
About halfway through our number two of the Monday edition.
Back from the weekend edition of the A Team, WEXA,
C and Cole here with you. Usually around this time
we have something from earlier in the day on Sports
Talk seven to ninety. We will do that here on
most Mondays with Steve Sparks appearance on the Sean Salisbury
Show eight am Monday mornings, he makes his weekly appearance.

Speaker 6 (01:03:57):
I have a chance to let you hear a little
bit of what he said.

Speaker 8 (01:03:59):
You have a chance to catch all of what he
said via Sports Talk seven ninety on the Salisbury Show
page or via the iHeartRadio app where you can catch
all of the greatness of Sports Talk seven ninety easily
and right there on the palm of your hand. It's
even easier when you make Sports Talk seven ninety number
one on your presets. One of the features of the
new and Improved app and probably about at the stage

(01:04:21):
where New and Improved is no longer necessary. It's been
out for quite some time, but you make it number
one on your presets that much easier to catch all
that we do here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Brandon Walter making his second start with the Astros. It
did cost someone their spot on the team. We have
not talked about that yet, but we will moving forward

(01:04:42):
the idea that Brandon Walter as they move into this
stretch of no off days for two weeks for the Astros,
the conversation with Steve Sparks begins. There can Brandon Walter
be a quality starter in this Astros rotation well.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
As they go to a six man rotation. He's certainly
a very nice option. I mean, he's pitched great in
both the outings so far. Talking about Brandon Walter, the
left the Astros you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
Know, kind of targeted him last year.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
They got him with a month or two left in
the season of the minor league season, thinking about, you
know what he might be able to bring to the
table this year, and certainly he's probably exceeded expectations, but
he was a former pitcher of the Year in the
minor leagues with the Red Sox at one point, so
not totally you know, out of the dark being able
to identify somebody like this, But who identifies pitchers like

(01:05:29):
this better than the Astros Stephen Oker, even Brian King,
guys like that, as they've been able to get into
the fold and.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
Pitch so well and be able able to.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
Recognize what they do best and get those guys to
kind of double down on those things. But he's a
strike thrower.

Speaker 13 (01:05:44):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:05:44):
The Astros rookies, both rookies.

Speaker 5 (01:05:47):
They started games on that last road trip.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
No walks between either of them.

Speaker 5 (01:05:52):
So you love that go out there and attack guys
and keep his train rolling as far as the Astros
pitching staff goes, But Brandon Walter definitely is the Astros
go to a sixth man with the thirteen games in
a row starting starting tomorrow, He's in the mix for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
Steve, I've talked to Dan Brown about this, and I
don't know if I've mentioned it to you.

Speaker 10 (01:06:10):
Maybe I have.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
At the beginning when when the season just started that
you think about Bregman and Tucker gone, all the pitching
injuries they've had to deal with over the last couple
of years and this year, and then Jordon's situation. I mean,
you just look at everything that's gone on, and their
top hitters. Paine has been playing great baseball, Paradis has

(01:06:31):
been has been a really really pleasant having here. I
don't say surprised, but pleasant. And Jake Myers is hovering
around three hundred. Those have been your three best hitters.
If I told you all that was going to be
the case and they were going to be two and
a half three games up at this point, I'm not
sure we'd have bought into that right.

Speaker 5 (01:06:47):
Now, would you?

Speaker 8 (01:06:49):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
I don't think so, especially going I think there's six
games about five hundred since Jordon got hurt. Right when
they did the same thing last year when they went
fifteen games better than five hundred with with Tucker out.
You know, it's they've just got a great ability to
step up and kind of pick up the slack when
guys go down, and especially when you're talking about Tucker

(01:07:10):
or rd On, you know, guys being keys to their
success offensively. Now, have they been a great offensive team, No,
but you can certainly anticipate Yiner and Christian Walker and
Al Tube and some of these other guys to start
swinging the bats better. You know, second half of the season,
you would expect those guys.

Speaker 3 (01:07:29):
To be more in line with what they've done in
the past.

Speaker 5 (01:07:32):
So offensively, I think this team is much better than
they've done so far. And they're going to get a
lot of reinforcements in the pitching staff as well. So
if you're starting to think, you know, these guys are
gonna wear it down, you know, if things go right,
and I don't want to start naming guys off and
when they're going to be able to get back, but
there's four or five guys that are waiting in the wings.

(01:07:54):
You know, if they get healthy and they don't have
any more stepbacks, the Astros are going to have a nice,
nice little infusion in the second half season.

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
We mentioned about they just like with Tucker out and
they elevate their game yard on out, elevate.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
Your game, and you say, how do you continue to
do this?

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
So I'm going to ask you why why are they
so good at this?

Speaker 8 (01:08:12):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:08:13):
I think this year it's because their pitching keeps them
in every single game, and we were talking member Sean
coming out of spring training. How are they going to
get to Taylor Scott, Brian Embray, you and Josh Hater,
how are they going to get there? We just had
so many unknowns. Steven Okert, who's been phenomenal this year
for the Astros, was bad last year with Minnesota. How

(01:08:35):
did they identify that? I just don't get how they're
able to see something in guys that other teams don't.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
And I think that's kind.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
Of the secret sauce to what the Astros do, maybe
better than anybody else, especially on the pitching side. It's
been pitching the reason why the Astros have been able
to keep their heads above water. I think in the
last couple of years, even Pakucie, you know, being able
to identify him instead of throwing this to.

Speaker 6 (01:09:00):
The glove side last year, throw it to the armside.

Speaker 5 (01:09:02):
Who would have come up with that, been able to
recognize that if you just changed the side of the
plate you're throwing your breaking ball, things will open up.
And that's exactly what happened, you know, And he was
phenomenal for the Astros last year. People were up in
arms without the Astros gave up, but the Astros got
into the playoffs because of Kokuchie last year, and they
had a chance, you know, to go deep in the
playoffs again, but they just ran into Tarrek's schoogle and

(01:09:23):
a hot Tigers team.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
And in a three game series.

Speaker 5 (01:09:26):
You just never know, So continue to give themselves chances
because they pitched so well.

Speaker 6 (01:09:31):
I can't decide if I'm more upset, as he kind
of ended on that note.

Speaker 7 (01:09:35):
In that little snippet, we played with the fact that
the Astros did run into the team playing really hot
at the time in the round that they did, or
if the astros slow start to the season was one
of the major reasons why they are even playing in
the wild card round to begin with. I can't decide
what I'm more upset about, because now I'm like, I

(01:09:55):
still can't shake the fact that just I feel like
me personally did so much more more consternation about where
the Astros were to start the year last season, and
it just it felt the same this year, and they're
such in a better place.

Speaker 8 (01:10:10):
Yeah, I don't think it feels very similar because they
were never in that predicament. They never fell apart. They
fell apart for a month and a half to start
the year. They were a miserable They were the worst
team in baseball. You could argue that was never a
part of this year's season. I think it's pretty easy
to say mathematically last year, what you're suggesting, if they
started the year eighteen and eighteen, they probably are at

(01:10:35):
least the two seed. They only had six fewer wins
than the Yankees, who were the number one seed. They
had four fewer wins than the Guardians, who were the
number two seed.

Speaker 6 (01:10:46):
And again, the.

Speaker 8 (01:10:47):
Astros and Guardians did not play their one hundred and
sixty second game last year, So that does matter when
we're talking about just a very very very small number
of games. I mean, I'm the literal math is, if
you won eighteen of your first thirty six games instead
of twelve, you're the number one seed, as simple as that.
That's a lot to ask for a team that was
playing that badly. But yeah, mathematically speaking, there's no question

(01:11:08):
they would have avoided the wildcard spot they almost did
with their miserable start. It doesn't matter who you are,
It doesn't matter what your team's made up of, doesn't
matter how great your aces are, it doesn't matter how
many All Star bats you have. The worst place to
be in the playoffs is the Wildcard Series. Four teams
get to avoid it, and the teams that are in
it hate it. It's awful. It's not what baseball should

(01:11:28):
do to decide who advances in the playoffs. With a
one hundred and sixty two game schedule, with five or
six different starting pitchers in your rotation all throughout the year,
that is no way to determine who's better play two
days of baseball. It was worse when they played one
day of baseball. But I wish they could have this
many teams in the playoffs and not have a Wildcard
series at all. Five is almost not enough, but that

(01:11:51):
should be the bare minimum for any postseason baseball series. Period.
That's not changing, so we're not going to get to that.
Few things on the baseball side we've not yet gotten to,
including how Brandon Walder got on the roster. That meant
somebody else had to come off, and maybe not who
you expected.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
The aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:12:19):
Felt bad for Brandon Walter in that he basically made
one mistake and it cost him the game.

Speaker 8 (01:12:31):
I mean it cost him because the Astros a chance
to win the game. I guess that's a better way
to put it. Yeah, I mean he left it was
too two and the runs that put them in front,
and that they stayed in front came after he left,
when Okert just had a rare poor inning, a rare
bad throat of first and turned into two runs. The
Astros were done scoring for the day, and that was that.
I feel really good about the situation there. And just

(01:12:52):
like Steve said a few minutes ago, the options that
you have seem like they're pretty good ones. I don't
think these guys are going to go out there and
pitch you to definitive victories. But almost every time you
give them the ball to somebody else a blue ball
a Gordon, obviously, Walter, Ryan Gusto without going deep into
games very often, and six innings from Walter is fantastic.

(01:13:15):
Five and a third from Gordon the day before is good.
But you have a chance to win almost every single
time they've pitched. There's not these blow up outings.

Speaker 6 (01:13:24):
There's not these.

Speaker 8 (01:13:24):
You know, Gusto has a couple, but he's been here longer.
These two guys should stay in the rotation. I don't
think there's any question about it. Well, honestly, they don't
even have an option. Now, all three of the pitchers
I just mentioned, they're all staying in the rotation for
the next two turns. It would look like at least
as they go to a six man rotation, because that's
what they have. You know, could you get Jason Alexander
up to make a start, or aj blue Ball or Ulola?

Speaker 6 (01:13:47):
Could that happen?

Speaker 8 (01:13:48):
It could, and that would probably come at the expense
of Gusto, not Gordon or Walter. I mean, Walter's made
two starts. I'm not sure what your expectations are for
your twelve's the best starter. They got three guys in
the rotation, they got another six on the il, and
then you got all these others I just mentioned. He's
the twelfth or thirteenth option of your staff. Granted, some

(01:14:11):
of those guys aren't in the mix, and we're going
to be due to injury, but you get my drift.
He's made two starts, he's thrown eleven innings, he's walked
one batter, struck out ten, only allowed nine hits. He's
got a one sixty four era. He had a chance
to win when you give him the ball He absolutely
deserves at least another start. He deserves the opportunity to
not have a good start and still stay in the rotation.
He's only walked a handful of batters all season at

(01:14:34):
the double or at the Triple A and Major league level,
and forty nine strikeouts against just seven walks during his
time with the Space Cowboys. He throws strikes and he's
not getting hit around. Gordon throws a ton of strikes,
but he is getting hit around. The batting average against
Colton Gordon is three ZHO four. He balances that out
a little bit in that he doesn't walk anybody. He's

(01:14:56):
only walked three batters in twenty four and two thirds.
But he's still giving up too many hits. Remember the
Dubond game. Yeah, he gave up back to backs or
two out of three batters to open the game, smashed
it off the wall or smashed it out to left,
and Dubond threw both of them out trying to extend
hits in two doubles, and that mattered a lot and

(01:15:16):
helped them win that game.

Speaker 6 (01:15:17):
For sure.

Speaker 8 (01:15:18):
Walter gets on the roster this weekend. I'm sure you
already heard this. At the expense of Forrest Whitley. Whitley
was out of options, so he had to be designated
for assignment. Doesn't mean he's out of the organization for
good necessarily, but it's a high, high, high likelihood that
that will be the case. The opportunity to move him
via trade is now what they will continue to try
to have happened.

Speaker 6 (01:15:38):
If not.

Speaker 8 (01:15:39):
If he clears waivers, then he would be part of
the Astros organization at the minor league level and he
would no longer be on the forty menter roster. So
for him to pitch again for the Astros, they would
then have to make that roster move, which becomes very difficult.
They're very inflexible with their pitching staff right now. But
they waited until everybody was healthy going in to the

(01:16:00):
Walter start, and that was ultimately the move that had
to be made. Dana Brown talked about it yesterday. Joe
Spotted talked about it yesterday. A twenty sixteen first round
pick of the Astros for multiple seasons, probably four or five,
regarded as untouchable. You can call and you can ask,
and I'm going to say no. Signed Jeff Luno year

(01:16:20):
after year after year, and I don't necessarily think he
was wrong for doing that at the time with a pitcher,
they expected that much from a lot of different reasons
why it didn't work out or why it wasn't working
out this year. The bottom line this year is a
very very simple one on which I'm sure Whitley understands.

Speaker 6 (01:16:36):
We're good. We just can't do this.

Speaker 8 (01:16:39):
You know, Rafael Montero can't pitch for us.

Speaker 6 (01:16:41):
We're too good.

Speaker 8 (01:16:42):
We can't afford to give him the baseball anymore. Taylor Scott,
you can't pitch for us anymore. We're too good. We're
trying to win games. Everybody else in our bullpen is
getting guys out.

Speaker 6 (01:16:51):
You're not forced.

Speaker 8 (01:16:52):
Whitley fell into that boat.

Speaker 6 (01:16:53):
Yeah, it's it's one of those guys.

Speaker 7 (01:16:57):
I feel like he and Kyle Tucker got that Moniker
the most out of all of the picks you can call.
But you're not gonna get You're not gonna go hold
these guys. You're not gonna ever get them out of
our organization. And you're basically batting five hundred on that.
Although it took well, the Cubs eventually got him, but
it was after he had played many years.

Speaker 8 (01:17:17):
Adding five hundred on that is probably not quite I
would say it's much higher because we're only mentioning those two.

Speaker 6 (01:17:24):
Well, they are the two most prominent names.

Speaker 8 (01:17:25):
I think with that era, we know Chris Sale was
being dangled for Alex Bregman and they said, no, we
Alex Bregman is untouchable.

Speaker 6 (01:17:33):
We're not trading him. Yeah, I guess I.

Speaker 8 (01:17:36):
And they probably just make calls on Carlos Correll because
it was so obvious they wouldn't do it.

Speaker 6 (01:17:41):
Wasn't that like twenty seventeen that they were doing that
with Bregman.

Speaker 8 (01:17:45):
I think it was just as he was debuting or
getting set to debut.

Speaker 7 (01:17:50):
Yeah, no, I suppose that does count because I'd forgotten
about how that was.

Speaker 6 (01:17:54):
That was actual thing.

Speaker 8 (01:17:55):
And these prospects, all of them, when you add Springer,
when you add Korea into the they played enough minor
league baseball. They were such high picks to begin with.
The Astros knew so much about him, like, I don't
want to move any of these guys. And I think
teams realized, well, they also weren't winning, so the Astros
weren't asking other teams for their great players like they

(01:18:16):
then started to do.

Speaker 7 (01:18:17):
And I guess I feel like it's different with these
two specifically because I feel like, and I could be
completely wrong, but I feel like Tucker took longer to
come up, was down there longer, and so you were
fielding more phone calls. And I definitely feel that way
about Forrest Whitley because he spent more time down there
than he ever has up here.

Speaker 8 (01:18:35):
Yeah, and those guys are going to for the other reason,
Alex Bredman played college baseball, George Springer played college baseball.
Kyle Tucker and Forrest Whitley did not much. Younger kids
a lot more development to come body one reason the
body they were drafted in not necessarily the body they
were playing in two and three and four years later.
Karrea is more like them, just from a development standpoint.
So there's a little bit of difference into what they

(01:18:58):
might have been even when you or fielding calls on it,
but when you knew, when you felt like, I mean,
the Astros would have been really, really awesome if one
of these guys that did hit didn't. They had that
much power in their development syst and they had that
much talent, they won't even they won World Series because

(01:19:20):
they all hit. If one of them didn't hit, and
they missed on him.

Speaker 6 (01:19:25):
For he didn't hit and they still were awesome.

Speaker 8 (01:19:28):
And the only one of this entire group though, that
was a pitcher. Okay, yeah, I was trying unless you
want to include Marko Pete. That's actually the name that
came to mind, And I was like, but I don't
want to. I don't know if that really counts because
they they kind of put him back. I mean I would,

(01:19:50):
It's just hard for me. I understood why Forrest Force
Whitley was not the top a top ten pick. Top
He wasn't like so obviously out of high school going
to be so great, but when he played in the minors,
as brief as it was, he was awesome, and he
was he had become this type of prospect that this
guy's unbelievable. There's no we can't move him. There's no
reason to move him.

Speaker 10 (01:20:11):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:20:11):
Mark Appell was he was the best player in the draft,
and then he went back in the draft, and some
would argue he is still the best player in the draft.
And he was pretty good as a minor leaguer, not awesome.
Never awesome as a minor leaguer. Never, It's just it
just goes to show that Jeff Luno convincing.

Speaker 7 (01:20:32):
Convincing Jim Crane to do that plan is one thing,
but then you have to hit on those picks that
you're getting while you're doing it, and that is just
you're gambling. But if you believe in your staff, and
he did and they were awesome, it can really really
pay off. Four o'clock hour is coming up next. It
will include the good, the bad, and the.

Speaker 3 (01:20:53):
Ugly The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:21:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team.

Speaker 4 (01:21:10):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the eight team.

Speaker 7 (01:21:19):
Four o'clock howur underway here on a Monday edition of
the show, wex a c Cole Thompson with you until
six o'clock tonight. Astros taking two out of three over
the weekend from the Cleveland Guardians. I still haven't gotten
used to saying that it's been several years now and
they will now return home. The Chicago White Sox coming

(01:21:39):
to town hopefully the uh, hopefully Astros will sweep.

Speaker 6 (01:21:43):
Is that too much to ask? I know we were
talking about this earlier.

Speaker 7 (01:21:46):
I don't think it's too much to ask to sweep
the way it's well, maybe if the Rockies were in town,
you would demand it, since they're the only team that
could be said as worse.

Speaker 6 (01:21:55):
They're awful.

Speaker 8 (01:21:56):
White Sox played significantly better recently, just coming off of
a series victory over the Royals, a series split with
the Tigers. Argue two of the five or six best
teams and the AL or two playoff contenders. I guess
I should say their last two series have been pretty good.
They're definitely playing much better baseball.

Speaker 7 (01:22:12):
Yeah so, but the Astros don't care about that. They
want to expand their first place in the AL West lead.
We've talked a lot today about how things are just
so much better than they were this time last year.
Maybe even I didn't realize how bad things were out
of the gate. I mean I only talked about it
every single day, but the way the season ended and
the fact that the Astros wound up in the postseason

(01:22:35):
again against all odds, maybe I just forgot how bad
it was early on, Like how much worse it was
this time last year than it is right now on
June ninth, twenty twenty five. Is the Astros sit in
first place? They weren't even sniffing first place this time
last year.

Speaker 6 (01:22:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:22:51):
The other side of that is where they are. They're
one of the best teams. I mean, I don't know
how any long time now. By the way, I mean,
their record is what it is. There's a thirty win team,
there's a forty three win team, and then there's Houston
they're next. There's seven games over five hundred. They're ten
games over at home. As they return home. They went
four and two on the road, which had been everywhere

(01:23:11):
had been in trouble for them. They had a stretch
of baseball, but they hadn't won a road series since
the opening series on the road of the season against Minnesota.
I'm not saying it's going to continue forever, but you know,
going four and two matters, winning both of those series matters.
It's pretty simple math wise. You win series, you're definitely
going to stay ahead of everybody chasing. The Mariners are
two games over. They've scored the same number of runs

(01:23:31):
that they've allowed. That is an average baseball team at best.
And all this is happening. And I don't mean to
say so at Jake Myer's expense, but I'm kind of
forced to here. So the Mariners are an average team.
You know, they spent most of the last half month
or so with a bat era a bad ops. Their
last thirty games thirty days, cal Ralely is twenty nine

(01:23:57):
of ninety five. He's batting three zero five and Jake
Myers last thirty days, he's twenty nine for ninety five.
He's batting three oh five, absolutely identical. Twenty nine hits,
ninety five at bats three h five batting average during
that period of time, Jake Myers has one homer and
three RBI. Cal Ray has a major league leading fourteen

(01:24:19):
home runs in twenty eight RBI and they still can't
win because nobody else is doing anything and only pointing
it out and how this is going to be the
best stretch of cal Rawley's life, There's no question about it.
I'm not sure how long it will last. Everyone's already
breaking out the catcher's record books because they think he's

(01:24:40):
going to pass them because this stretch is awesome. But
he was already having a great year. It just happens
to also be taking place while they're losing, which is remarkable.
Like MVP is kind of a squirrely award, and he's
not really going to win it in a year where
Judge is doing what he's doing and losses yesterday. But nonetheless,
those are an unbelievable position. I don't know if they're

(01:25:02):
gonna have more injuries pitching wise, you never know, but
for what they've already had to overcome the fact that
every third day Colton Gordon's getting the ball, every fifth
or every fifth day for each of them, but you know,
three out of three, you had two starts this weekend
for minor league pitchers. You had three starts in your
six man rotation from minor league pitchers. I mean Ryan
Gusto made the team out of spring training to be

(01:25:25):
in their bullpen and be their long guy. Now he's
starting games regularly. All three of them are, and they've
increased their lead without having anybody go berserk. Unless you
think Jeremy Payne is Jeremy Panne is having an All
Star incredible season. They're not doing this with your onn
Issak Parentis is I think going to the All Star Game,
Josh Hater's going to the All Star Game. Hunter Brown's

(01:25:46):
going to the All Star Game. Now you're starting to realize, hey,
maybe these guys are pretty good, but there is the
other side of it. Giynar Dis, Christian Walker, Josel Tuvey
to a certain degree, and even Jake Myers, because it's
nice that he's hitting three zero five, and it's nice
that he's nowhere near as bad offensively he does. My god,
hit the ball over the fence every once in a while.

(01:26:07):
His extra base power is almost zero this year, and
his four for four day was a series of lightly
hit baseballs that found a hole. It's great, I'm not
complaining about it. But they still their increase in offense
comes when they hit the ball over the fence, comes
when they rip doubles off the wall. They're still missing that.
We know what they're actually missing. That's what mirrors last season,

(01:26:31):
and Steve Sparks mentioned it. Kyle Tucker absent, Astros get
hot yard On Alvarez absent. They've gone from middle of
the division to leading the division. We just don't know
how long this injury will last. Presumably a lot less
time than Kyle Tucker's injury.

Speaker 7 (01:26:45):
Yeah, well, I'm hoping that he's back soon, and I'm
hoping that's just another boost to a lineup that is
playing its best stretch of baseball. As we just got
done saying, and it coincides with the fact that Seattle
has been spiraling a bit of late, although they did
salvage that series yesterday, and so it's a two and
a half game lead. Like you said, Astros with the
night off, they'll play. So we'll see what happens going

(01:27:07):
into that series against the White Sox tomorrow. You did
mention that there was only two teams ahead of the
Astros in the American League right now. Who are those
teams again?

Speaker 8 (01:27:14):
Tigers and Yankees?

Speaker 6 (01:27:16):
Is that last team get any sort of media attention
more often than not?

Speaker 8 (01:27:20):
Well, so, everyone was trying to decide whether or not
to stick with the Game two of the NBA Finals.
They had one other option. As every Sunday night and
the Major League Baseball season, there's one game the Yankees
were in that one game they could have chosen to
flip over to the Red Sox victory.

Speaker 7 (01:27:35):
Don't the Yankees and Red Sox play every single Sunday
night during the regular season?

Speaker 6 (01:27:38):
I thought they did. No, it seems like that they
only have four series a year now, you know that? Yeah,
I know it's a joke. Did you see what Hunter
Dobbins said about the Yankees organization.

Speaker 7 (01:27:48):
What did he say, sports, you're Southwest home for Yankees baseball.

Speaker 6 (01:27:57):
That one might be.

Speaker 7 (01:27:58):
Actually my favorite hesitation isn't there, but it's the way
you deliver the term Yankees baseball.

Speaker 8 (01:28:05):
Let's talk Yankees baseball here on Sports Sox seven niney
here in the h and those of you listening all
across the country on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 6 (01:28:11):
What's going on with the Yankees. Well, there is a
Texas connection here.

Speaker 7 (01:28:17):
Yes, Hunter Dobbins, who is a rookie for the Red Sox.
He's a right hander. In case you're wondering which arm
he used to deliver his pitches. He is a lifelong
Red Sox fan, but he's from right here in Texas.
And he started the series finale in last night's game,

(01:28:37):
and he told the Boston Herald Saturday he'd rather retire
if the Yankees were the last team to give him
a contract.

Speaker 6 (01:28:47):
He went full Ken Griffy Junior fully endorse that.

Speaker 8 (01:28:50):
Yeah, I'm not trying to do a little quick Brian
Texas research. It's where he grew up. That's where he
played his baseball. A Rudder High School, one of the
Brian college stations. High schools the other Twin Cities was
drafted by the Red Sox back in twenty twenty one
and now is a major league pitcher. Clearly, like many

(01:29:10):
of us here in the world, hates the Yankees.

Speaker 6 (01:29:13):
Yeah, well, okay, so that's fine. That's not out of
the ordinary.

Speaker 8 (01:29:16):
As you just pointed out, it's kind of out of
the ordinary for a quote unquote baseball nobody to say
it a baseball nobody. I'm trying to be accurate and nice.

Speaker 6 (01:29:27):
Well, in this article by Jorge Castillo, he writes that
Aaron Judge did not know about this comment that Hunter
Dobbins made until, of course ESPN's Eduardo Perez relate it
to him before the finale.

Speaker 8 (01:29:43):
Yeah, they had. I was was on in the background
before the NBA game had started. He had a very long,
sit down, expansive interview with Arson Judge before the game.

Speaker 7 (01:29:55):
Well, we all need to know what's going on in
Arson's life and the Yankees life, this segment clearly points out, so,
of course, because Perez relayed that information to Arson. He
then turned a ninety eight mile per hour fastball around
and it went four hundred and thirty six feet and
one hundred and eight point six miles off the bat

(01:30:16):
to right center. It's the second longest opposite field home
run of Judge's career. By the way, if you're reading
along two feet shy of the longest according to MLB
researcher Sarah Langs, then you get to the part that's
most important.

Speaker 6 (01:30:34):
The Yankees lost eleven to seven.

Speaker 7 (01:30:36):
It took a long time to get to that though,
And look, I get it, like it's the Red Sox
and the Yankees. This is, like I said, it seems
like they're on every single Sunday night, even though I
know they're not, and they play less series than they
used to because of the realignment of how Baseball does
its schedule. But I did like the fact that Hunter
Dobbins was like, Yeah, I'm gonna lean into this villain role.

(01:30:57):
Might as well I'm a member of the Red Sox
now that I play for them after rooting for them
growing up. Yeah, I'm gonna let the Yankees know how
much I hate them. He also got the win.

Speaker 8 (01:31:06):
By the way, they got off pretty good pretty early.
Carlos Redon was going all right and then could not
get out of the inning. They've had a great season
thus far, but not a great outing yesterday. Aaron Judge
is coming off of winning the MVP. He's won the
MVP two out of the last three years, and it's
not even debatable he's having a much better season this year.

(01:31:26):
He's having a much better season than the two time
MVP award winner has ever had. It's also not even close.
He's the best hitter in baseball and is better. Like
you could have argued he's the best hitter in baseball
coming into this season, well, he's even better than that
this year. Their record's partially indicative of that. You'd think
they'd be even further out there. But beyond the surprisingly

(01:31:49):
good acquisition of Goldschmidt and Bellinger looks like he's also
coming around, they're still missing pretty much everything else in
the lineup. Three out of nine spots is not the
end of the world, but for the most part their
lineup has not been good. Their pitching has actually been
exceptional other than the very back end of their bullpen.
Devin Williams now the closer again, but they're starting pitching
without Garrett Cole has been borderline awesome, and Max Freed

(01:32:12):
is the by far the best pitching acquisition any team
made this offseason. He's been unbelievable.

Speaker 10 (01:32:19):
He might even be the second best pitcher on his team.
The way that Rod Don's pitching right now, he's the
best pitcher on the team. Well, the best pitcher on
the team actually is out this year. Yeah, he's actually
out this year. But I was listening to the broadcast
last night and they brought up a point in.

Speaker 6 (01:32:31):
And he's not on the team on the team, is
he being paid? Is he on the roster?

Speaker 8 (01:32:35):
He's not pitching. How can you be the best pitcher
on the.

Speaker 6 (01:32:38):
Team, Because he's still the best pitcher on the team.

Speaker 8 (01:32:42):
Max Freed's having a better season than Garrett Cole's ever
had in a Yankee uniform. There's no doubt about that.

Speaker 7 (01:32:46):
He's not a better season than he had in Astro's
uniform when he had facial hair wex.

Speaker 8 (01:32:50):
Apparently Garrett Cole was also the best pitcher on the
Yankees when he was an astro. Yes, okay, follow along people,
you have.

Speaker 3 (01:32:57):
To the team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:33:10):
When do you think the.

Speaker 7 (01:33:12):
Final analysis of the Luca trade finally dies down twenty
years after the fact.

Speaker 8 (01:33:18):
Probably the bigger results either of the team gets will
carry it on even Further, I mean, if the Lakers
end up not doing anything of great significance, if they
have a ten year title drought, ten year conference finals drought,
which you could say they're currently in it's brief, then
it won't be as big of a deal because the
magnitude of the deal is great. On the day you

(01:33:38):
make it. You're trading the best player off of the
defending Western Conference champion team to an all NBA caliber
roster or player. With Lebron you're putting him in late
and La. The magnitude of it can't get any bigger.
If the Lakers finish fifth next year and don't win
a playoff series again, how many more years of that
do we need? And you know, it does depend a

(01:33:59):
little bit of what Dallas does. If Dallas all of
a sudden does something, and it's possible they could, they're
going to need to stay in the race next year,
which is I think is going to be difficult with
what their roster is going to look like at the
beginning of the year. You know, counting on Anthony Davis
when his teammate is normally healthy and playing an available
Lebron is one thing. Counting on Anthony Davis when he's

(01:34:23):
clearly the best player you have, which is what the
Mavericks are facing next year for fifty sixty seventy games
before Kyrie maybe makes his return. That's a little rougher
because you're probably playing him a little more. His usage
rate is going up. If you're playing to win, you
need him, and that usually means he gets hurt.

Speaker 6 (01:34:42):
Well, no, for sure.

Speaker 7 (01:34:43):
And I it's funny because I've read, Oh, the Lakers
are going to be really active this offseason, and like,
what are they going to do? Who are you going
to trade that is of significant value enough to get
anything back in return to help improve your team that's
not named.

Speaker 8 (01:35:00):
That's that's definitely fair on both sides. Definitely fair to
look at him and say, well, what is it you
have to do? Your point of view. The other side
is fair too. They have Lebron, they do something or
are active every off season. I mean, they're the team
that landed Luca and I know it wasn't off season,
and they're the ones that decided to pay Austin Reeves.
And for the rate he's getting, this is a good deal.

(01:35:22):
I think he did not finish out his season very well,
but he you know, they're best three players. They can
win if they have some help around them. I think
on your side of things is probably where I would
sit because of who they are and because Lebron is there.

Speaker 6 (01:35:37):
Yeah, I'll give them.

Speaker 8 (01:35:37):
They're probably gonna be able to do something, but their
roster and their assets suggest it's not gonna be easy.

Speaker 6 (01:35:44):
Yeah, it's not gonna be in it.

Speaker 7 (01:35:45):
It's gonna have to be like free agency signings plural,
because who are you trading that you're getting back that
you're not gonna get like that what I'm saying, like
the thlight guys you just mentioned.

Speaker 8 (01:35:57):
You traded Basically, the answer was Dalton Connet. They traded
Dalton connect to get Mark Williams last year at the deadline,
and then they rescinded the deal. They some thought I
thought they needed more than that, but some thought if
they just did that, and now all of a sudden,
you've got a starting caliber center who plays above the rim,
you can keep him on the court, unlike apparently Jackson Hayes,
who essentially couldn't play in the postseason according to his

(01:36:19):
first year head coach JJ Reddick. So they not only
didn't get Williams, they didn't get anybody because he wouldn't
play him, So that was a huge blow to them.
But I'm not looking at Reeves, James, Luca Williams and
Ruey and saying, yeah, they could have done damage in
the West. They would have lost their opening series to
the thunder Right, Excuse me? Did the Timberwolves regardless?

Speaker 6 (01:36:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:36:42):
I just think that's why, of all people to be
the latest person a weigh in on the Luca trade,
don Nelson basically laughing at the MAVs organization as a
guy who a did a number of curious deals, not
just as a personnel guy from the Mavericks, but also

(01:37:03):
the Warriors trade on Draft night of Chris Weber, which
is extensively highlighted in that thirty for thirty on the
Orlando Magic.

Speaker 8 (01:37:12):
Weber hardaway and three first round picks for players drafted
first and third. One of the teams got three additional
future first round picks.

Speaker 6 (01:37:27):
Yeah, it's crazy and still not as bad as a
Luca trade.

Speaker 8 (01:37:30):
No, don Nelson involved in our conversation today because it
was involved in receiving his Chuck Daily Lifetime Achievement award
before Game two of the Finals last night. Obviously, very
closely tied to the NBA for a long career of excellence,
to the MAVs for a long career there Rick Carlisle
with the Nelsons for some time in Dallas there to

(01:37:51):
help celebrate him. So Don went Don, who's very locked
in on the NBA from his I'm rarely on the
mainland location and why he was getting in on the Mavericks.

Speaker 6 (01:38:03):
Yeah, well, I guess that means he's watching games at
what time locally.

Speaker 8 (01:38:08):
If he's watching games, to me, am, his lifestyle suggests
this is awesome. Yeah, it didn't be more relaxing. I
don't know that he needs the NBA in his life.

Speaker 7 (01:38:17):
No, I think he made enough money to live that
lifestyle and good for him. But he did weigh in
on it and it sounded like this.

Speaker 13 (01:38:24):
And Luca too, my dear friend. As a matter of fact,
I want everybody to know I'm wearing Luca's shoes, his
new shoes from Nike. It just got out in the market,
and I'm wearing them in protest for the trade from Dallas.
I think it was a tremendous mistake by the Dallas
franchise to trade him. I want everybody to.

Speaker 7 (01:38:43):
Know that seriously, Like the Mavericks trading Luca is like
that that forest fire that you can't quite put out
every time you think it's done, the criticism, the taunting,
whatever you want to call it. Here comes another heavy hitter.
Not only say heavy hitter from the standpoint if he
was tied like you said, to Dallas for so many years.

(01:39:05):
But like you said, don Nelson's got nothing better to
do right now, and even he's weighing in on the
Mavericks making a dumb deal.

Speaker 8 (01:39:14):
It's you talking about the shelf life. We're in the
infancy of it. Yeah, it was just born. Yeah, it
hasn't even been a full season yet. He played twenty
eight games plus their short playoff run and every other game.
He's been a Maverick from twenty eighteen, twenty twenty two,
his whole NBA life until the last twenty eight games
plus playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:39:34):
It's new. But it wasn't just that he had.

Speaker 7 (01:39:37):
It's not just that he weighed in on it. Yeah,
I'm wearing his shoes and protest. That was a dumb deal,
That's what he's saying. Basically, I'm wearing his shoes at
a protest because Nico Harrison is just the worst GM
I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 6 (01:39:49):
I'm paraphrasing.

Speaker 8 (01:39:50):
Yeah, the ownership is fine with it. They're just as bad.
If you still think that is true, and if you
think that's definitely gonna play out, I think the trade
is bad. I'm not sure that Luca's going to win anything.
Is there anybody that wouldn't make the deal though that
they made? Let me ask you this question as it
pertains to the Rockets. Is there anybody on the MAVs

(01:40:10):
roster just follow me on this that you think would
help the Rockets next year? Probably if they had to
move other players, like if they were doing some other deal.
I don't think they're setting their sights on Mavericks' rostered players.
Mavericks like a third team situation in a deal, something
like you've made a deal that cost you Jabbari or

(01:40:31):
Cam or Jalen or Tari or any combination of those players.
The Mavericks do have some players I think would make
sense for work the same reasons why Nico Harrison was
a good GM at the last deadline in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 6 (01:40:45):
He put together a great team.

Speaker 8 (01:40:46):
Those players were all added to Luca's team to make
a Luca led team capable of winning, and they did.
They won the West, they played for a championship, They
were in the NBA finals because of his moves, because
of adding Gaffer, because of adding PJ. Washington, And then
he just said, Nah, that's.

Speaker 7 (01:41:04):
Why I'm asking, because I would pick up the phone
and start calling them.

Speaker 8 (01:41:08):
They're definitely going to listen to just about everything, but
their futures still tied to the two players that are
their oldest. Anthony Davis is not going to get moved again,
and Kyrie Irving's pretty much not movable because of injury
and salary level.

Speaker 6 (01:41:24):
He had an opt out this year, I believe, which
is not going to happen now.

Speaker 8 (01:41:28):
I mean that you could sign him dude, like Jimmy Butler,
like Kevin Durant, like all these other guys who could
end up with a two year deal for several But
it was one hundred million plus.

Speaker 6 (01:41:37):
It was this offseason, wasn't it.

Speaker 8 (01:41:38):
Yes, Oh, the current offseason.

Speaker 6 (01:41:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:41:40):
I mean there's quite a few players. I mean, I
don't know how much the Rockets are truly interested in them,
but I do think they It's so obvious to say
it because of what I just said, they have players
that can help you win. They're not number ones, they're
not number twos. There are all the other players. The
Rockets have tons of them, but if you get rid
of some of them, you will need other There's PJ. Washington,

(01:42:01):
you know, and Gafford to me or at the top
of any list. I do like Max Christy, but the
Rockets top eight would make him nine. I mean, they
have eight better players than that. You'd really have to
lose something to be kind of searching for a player
and asking for a player like that, it'd be a
much minor, much more of a minor deal.

Speaker 6 (01:42:19):
Watch the Rockets wind up with PJ. Washington somehow.

Speaker 8 (01:42:22):
I mean, you want a player who can defend, rebound
and make his open three point shots. He shot thirty
eight percent last year playing with Kyrie in for some
of the year.

Speaker 6 (01:42:32):
Luca, that would be a tough bitter pill for me
to swallow.

Speaker 8 (01:42:36):
He's a I mean, I always hate the term role player.
Everybody plays a role, no matter if you're the star
or you're not. He's a He's a good fit on
a really really good team. Every team has a player
like that. What did you just say, thirty eight percent
it was his career or one of his best seasons
thirty eight percent. He's thirty six for his career?

Speaker 6 (01:42:55):
What did uh? Did Dylan Brooks shoot higher? He was
thirty nine point seven? I believe? Okay? Is I'm just
Isn't he a younger version of Dylan Brooks?

Speaker 5 (01:43:08):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:43:08):
Bigger because Dylan's.

Speaker 8 (01:43:10):
Well over front, more of a true He can play
more for Dylan because he's awesome. Can I don't think
you want him doing that repeatedly?

Speaker 6 (01:43:18):
Gotcha? All right?

Speaker 7 (01:43:20):
Just something to keep an eye on, because I do
think if the Rockets do make any sort of big deal,
it will take a third team getting involved, especially if
it's for Kevin Durant.

Speaker 10 (01:43:27):
Well.

Speaker 8 (01:43:28):
The signature segment next the Good, the Bad, the Ugly?
Next here on the eight team.

Speaker 1 (01:43:34):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety now the good,
oh good, the bad that's my good and the ugly
don't make me good with the AIGHTE we'd.

Speaker 8 (01:43:53):
SIGNI segment time on a Monday around four thirty. That
means the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am ugly,
saw weight and the wings. Cole's got the bad, AC
has the good. Full weekends worth of sporting activities or
otherwise what you got for us on the good side
of things.

Speaker 7 (01:44:10):
Well, it's uh, it's simple, it's basic, it's whatever you
want to call it. But it has been more often
than not, and going back to before this series, over
the weekend, the norm the Astros pitching has been can
I use great instead of good? Sure, because that's that's
how I feel, especially the starting pitching, and that doesn't

(01:44:31):
just it's just not limited to you know, the fromber
Valdezes and the hundred Browns of the world. Astros starting
pitching has been fantastic and we talked about how we
thought it would be. That was before mccolors got back.
That was before you know, we knew some of the
struggles the offense was going to have. But they have
certainly carried it. It's not that they're pitching overall didn't

(01:44:55):
have its hiccups over the weekend. That's gonna happen in
probably any series. But man Astro pitching is a big
reason why they have been playing so well and have
leapfrogged the Seattle Mariners of late. Ironically, since the Mariners
that's the supposed strength of their team, it's.

Speaker 8 (01:45:10):
Definitely the strength of their team. The unfortunate part is
not nearly for them. It's not nearly as strong as
it has been in a year's past. You're going to
get poor starts out of the guys they have. Logan
Gilbert also is hurt. It's just a different looking group,
and between the starters and Munno's there's a lot bigger
area of concern than they have had in years past.
To your point, Astro's this six game road trip, they

(01:45:35):
had a two twenty one er that was the best
in the American League. They struck out sixty three batters
that was the best in Major League Baseball over the weekend,
even just this or over the road trip, I should say,
even just this past weekend when they sent Colton Gordon,
Hunter Brown and Brandon Walter to the mound, those three

(01:45:57):
starting pitchers produced a two to twenty er essentially the
same era as everybody else did in all six games
and all the other innings combined. That is incredible. It's
how you win. The offense. They weren't very good, and
the Astros can win in spite of it because they're
pitching is incredible.

Speaker 6 (01:46:17):
Se That's why I didn't say the Astros offense for
this category.

Speaker 8 (01:46:21):
Their offense if you missed it. During this six game
road trip where they only lost twice, they scored three zero,
eight four five two. Not awful, not by any means.
They had an eight run game. They guess what also,
you know what you could use as a good and
maybe next week we'll have more for it extra innings

(01:46:42):
and the Astros they finally like each other this year,
winning another game in extra innings over the Guardians over
the weekend. What's the bad coal, It's not bad for Houston.

Speaker 10 (01:46:53):
It's actually bad for the city that the Astros are
coming back from Cleveland because of. But the Nick Chub
news it's just like the utteral gut punch that continues
to stockpile on with the Texans organization to that city.
Because we go back to twenty twenty when this deal
got done, when Deshaun Watson twenty twenty one, my apologies,
when the deal got done and he was shipped off

(01:47:13):
to Cleveland coming off of missing an entire year, but
also dealing with all of the allegations against him. They
signed him to a two hundred and thirty million dollar contract,
but in return, the Texans the benefits by getting three
first round picks and multiple other picks. Watson doesn't loovo
to the contract, not only because of injury, but because

(01:47:34):
if he forgot how to play football and they turned
to Joe Flacco, they turned to Joe Flacco to come
on in and be the savior that season. Well, what
happens is they get to meet the Texans in the
playoffs with that pick that eventually became Will Anderson Junior,
who's probably the best defensive prospect we've seen come out
since the days of Miles Garrett, who has nothing really

(01:47:55):
to show for in his career other than one playoff
victory with this organization, and they get dog walked by
a Texans team that was a near two touchdown underdog
in that matchup. And then, just to add more insult
to injury, Watson's not playing this year. You had a
terrible record last year, and the heart and soul of
your team, the organizationals foundation piece, the player that is

(01:48:19):
belood by that fan base, walks on over to the
team that's fleeced you, that swindled you, that bamboozled you
into making the dumbest mistake in the history of the
NFL period, No questions asked to now be a secondary
running back when there were still conversations going on that maybe,

(01:48:40):
just maybe he was willing to come on back to Cleveland.
So congratulates to the Browns. It's bad for you to
do business or ever even mention the Texans names.

Speaker 8 (01:48:49):
That's a good thing for the city of Houston. Yeah,
two things there for me. I mean, I know what
he's done for them. Hasn't Miles Garrett become the franchise face,
the franchise leader of the team, all that stuff. Nick
Chubb's basically been off the field for two years, but
his historical place in Brown's history is massive. There's two

(01:49:11):
running backs and team history that have been better than him.

Speaker 6 (01:49:13):
That's it.

Speaker 8 (01:49:14):
This is a long, long franchise. So he's certainly there.
And I know what you just said about Chuck maybe
having a willingness to return. Why and why would they
want him to? I mean, the Texans signing him is
one part of it. It ties your old bad in
together and I get that, But why would he want
to play there?

Speaker 6 (01:49:33):
He's playing somewhere else.

Speaker 8 (01:49:34):
As soon as they said with the second round pick,
with the fourth round pick, what do they need him for?
They don't want him keeping Judkins and Samson off the field,
do they?

Speaker 10 (01:49:43):
A U?

Speaker 8 (01:49:44):
I mean, do you really want to go with Jerome Ford? No,
I want to go with Judkins and Samson. I mean
to have strong and Ford as reserves.

Speaker 10 (01:49:51):
Right, But like as you said, the fact that you
have Ford as your next option, Chubb being just such
an integral part of the organization, the fact that he
is so a lot by the families. I mean, go
on to Twitter today and just read the incestual comments
made by all of the Cleveland fans, because if he's
coming to Houston. It's the other fact that that's the
main just daggering it all, is that the team that literally,

(01:50:14):
at the end of the day, started off the newest,
lowest version of Cleveland Browns football, and it's a low
version to hit like the bar has been mediocritally low
since nineteen ninety nine. He is now walking into an
organization that kickstarted the dismay.

Speaker 6 (01:50:30):
And it's bad for Andrew Barry because of.

Speaker 10 (01:50:32):
Really, this is the team he had to go to,
the one that started off your career is such a
sour note. I just think it's funny and it's bad
for Cleveland, undoubtedly, so the ugly to me, is an
unfortunate one because it doesn't have to be this way,
and it's just the kind of the nature of what
is happening to a certain degree in the industry. And

(01:50:53):
you got a lot of options after the Oklahoma City
Thunder win Game two. The network that it's on, the
NBA network, the other partner of the network.

Speaker 8 (01:51:02):
It's on it's the game's on ABC. You can go
to ESPN if the game's there, you can go to
NBA TV. But the studio crew that they are using
for pre half in post for this NBA Finals is
disastrous and unwatchable and is totally avoidable. But it's it's
a shame, and it's this is pure basketball. There's nothing
else going on but talking about the game and what

(01:51:24):
they've seen. I wrote this, so I'll just read it,
and it's all true. Hard to have a postgame studio
crew much more disjointed than we're getting this NBA Finals
stepping all over each other, long winded nonsense. The Myers
Bob Myers Kendrick Perkins dynamic is woeful. And I paused
and then I wrote this. I actually paused on posting

(01:51:46):
this to cut him a Brake. Then they did another
segment of worse Uh Bob. I Kendrick Perkins is pretty
cool customer. I think when he's on set when people
disagree with him the way Myers was taught talking to
him and vice versa, it's like they hated each other
personally and also disagreed about basketball. Myers knows basketball and

(01:52:10):
does an awful job on television talking about it in
this particular setting, and then you got Steven A. Smith
just yelling the whole time. I mean, it's just a
bad crew. It's unfortunate every other network that's doing postgame
work is doing a better job than the one carrying
the game. That's the worst way to do things, very avoidable.
Probably don't need to tell you how because it's pretty obvious,

(01:52:31):
so we won't do that.

Speaker 12 (01:52:32):
Next the ad on Sports Talk seven ninety WEX what's

(01:52:52):
your favorite Lil Wayne song? I celebrate his entire catalog.

Speaker 6 (01:52:57):
I knew you were going to say that. Don't worry
because if you are actually a fan of Lil Wayne.

Speaker 7 (01:53:03):
The Carter six North American Tour, built on twenty plus
years of Carter Classics. September eighteenth at the Woodlands Pavilion
tickets on sale now at ticketmaster dot com. However, we
will have a chance for you to win a pair
of them later on in the program if you're listening closely.

Speaker 8 (01:53:24):
Yeah, for the ones and ones of you out there
that don't know, his name is Dwayne Carter. For the ones, yes,
I think everybody knows that. I'm not the biggest, but
I appreciate that. There is a ton of people who are.
I appreciate how around sports he's been over the last

(01:53:44):
few years. I know him more from that ypect, even
when you know, I was there when he was at
Toyota Center and we talked to him. He doesn't necessarily
know everything. He always he's super nice. He's so nice.
He's always I mean, he either he gets it or
that's just him, and I tend to believe that's just him.

Speaker 6 (01:54:04):
He's just enjoying the moment. What moment is.

Speaker 8 (01:54:08):
I don't need to get into that. I mean just
everywhere you see him at all these different.

Speaker 6 (01:54:11):
Events, He's a pleasant person to be around. He's hey, man,
I'm here to have a good time. He is definitely that.

Speaker 7 (01:54:18):
Just because it came up last segment, we have an
inordinate amount of Cleveland Brown's conversation on this show simply
because of who is in their quarterback room for the
time being. But we didn't play this last week, and
it's actually that's on me because we need it to.

Speaker 6 (01:54:39):
If you think that there is pressure slash.

Speaker 7 (01:54:45):
Not a lot of leeway to the Texans offensive coordinator
coming into this year just because of what he's up
against in the offensive line and the question marks and
just keeping CJ upright after a season in which he
was hit way too much, then what do you think
is going on with Tommy Reese, the offensive coordinator for

(01:55:05):
the Cleveland Browns, who has four quarterbacks in his quarterback
room technically, and well, I'm just gonna let him say
it so I can show you just what kind of
football hell Cleveland brown fans are in right now. And
they hear their offensive coordinator talk about the quarterback position
and say something like.

Speaker 11 (01:55:25):
This, Yeah, you can see them all when in the job,
I think, right. And so in terms of the competition,
we're so early in the process, we're so early in
evaluating that. Yeah, I think you know, we have a
good group of guys that a continue to push one
another and by the time September rules around will be
ready to go.

Speaker 8 (01:55:39):
I know he's supposed to say all that, just because
what else is he gonna say? Well, what is the
alternative answer? I think Shadure's our guy. Well we're going
with Joe.

Speaker 6 (01:55:51):
That's a good point.

Speaker 7 (01:55:52):
But the two names that you just mentioned could not
be further from each other in style on obviously age,
but what they do that can help your team win.
I use that very loosely, but you're right, Like, I
don't know what he's supposed to like.

Speaker 8 (01:56:09):
The reality is the saddest part about it, because I
think what he said is right on the money.

Speaker 6 (01:56:14):
Actually, they could all win the job, and he's being serious.

Speaker 8 (01:56:16):
He's totally being serious because I don't think they've made
a determination because of how little they've seen of the
two rookies kind of competing against each other, and there
could be reasons why, Well, we're not keeping two vets.
If one of them's the starter, well then we don't
need the other. Could Kenny Pickett outperform in camp and
preseason and joint workouts Joe Flacco to the point they

(01:56:39):
decide to start him, yes, and vice versa. So I
totally think that's accurate. It's super sad like the Steelers,
with the addition of Aaron Rodgers, are now not in
that predicament where the answer to who your starting quarterback
is is the saddest face of all time. But the

(01:57:00):
Browns can't say that it is a sad face answer.
And Tommy Reese is I don't know for everyone that
doesn't know his background. He's been in the NFL now
as a coach for two years. This is year two.
He was with the Browns last year in their passing
game and now he's their OC. He's spent a lot
of time in the college game, and I think everybody
knows him because he's not far removed from his playing

(01:57:20):
career at Notre Dame and coached at Notre Dame and
spent time in the best job ever in college football
working on the quarterback offensive side for Alabama and Nick Saban.
Because he's parlayed that into being an OC in the
NFL after almost no experience. We've seen what happened with Lane,
and we've seen what happened with Bill O'Brien. It's like

(01:57:42):
the best job ever for the job you're about to
get after that. But Tommy Reese not only figuring out
who their best quarterback is and what makes the most
sense for their franchise, and then helping to guide them
through a eighteen week, seventeen game NFL season. They're gonna
get bad quarterback plays this year, and he knows it, well,
one of them's getting traded. Uh, but why who's trading

(01:58:06):
for Joe Flacco and who's trading for Kenny Pickett? Now,
like the fourth time New Orleans, New Orleans, probably, but.

Speaker 6 (01:58:14):
They could have just drafted Shadure or you're.

Speaker 8 (01:58:16):
Trying to get better. Well, they already had a quarterback
by the time. They could have drafted Shudur because they
liked somebody else better as we know. No, you're right,
they could rather than just say letting one of the
Vets go. It might make some sense for one of
those teams to have them there. But you're not getting
anything for these guys get.

Speaker 10 (01:58:29):
You get the seventh round pick, maybe at best a
sixth round compensatory pick, and you get nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:58:34):
I'm not changing what I've said from the moment the
draft ended.

Speaker 8 (01:58:37):
I don't think this is difficult at all unless there
is a locker room problem with either Dylan Gabriel or
Shadeur Sanders I'm those are the two guys, the only
two guys that are battling for the starting job.

Speaker 6 (01:58:51):
They need to earn the respect of the locker room.

Speaker 8 (01:58:53):
It's very tough to go into a season when you
know fifty two guys know you can't win and they
don't respect the guy who you feel like has been
given the job.

Speaker 6 (01:58:59):
But they do have to earn it.

Speaker 8 (01:59:01):
There's no way I'm playing football this year if I'm
Cleveland with Joe Flacco out there, with Kenny Pickett out there,
unless one of the two rookies has been hurt. They're
battling for the starting job, and that's that. If they
prove to me they both stink over the next three months,
then I'll revisit that.

Speaker 7 (01:59:18):
Yeah, the saddest quarterback room in the NFL, And I'm
trying to think of a sadder one because it's not
just about who's in there, but it's about the reasons
why they're in there or not in there.

Speaker 10 (01:59:31):
I'll raise the anties that's the saddest quarterback room in
the history of the NFL.

Speaker 7 (01:59:36):
Well, that's a lot to chew on and think about.
That might take a commercial to at least explore what did.

Speaker 8 (01:59:44):
The quarterback room look like for the Texans when they,
also like Cleveland, had Deshaun Watson in it and Tyrod
Taylor was the starting quarterback and his immediate backup who
didn't have to play until the second game. Davis Mills
went out there, what do you how do you feel
about that quarterback room? I like, if so, better than
what we're seeing right now. It's the same thing Bales

(02:00:05):
as a young middle round draft pick. Tyrod Taylor has
a non caliber starting caliber quarterback, just like.

Speaker 6 (02:00:11):
What Cleveland is. Well, who is in the quarterback room
when when well.

Speaker 8 (02:00:16):
Jeff Driscoll was there too, remember that, Oh yeah, they're
running back. I got you.

Speaker 6 (02:00:19):
I'm with you. Don't bring up.

Speaker 7 (02:00:23):
It makes my back short circuit when you bring up
Jeff Driscoll with both of them this week.

Speaker 6 (02:00:28):
Next question, that was so bad?

Speaker 7 (02:00:32):
No, but Shader Sanders unless he completely surprises everyone. What
about Johnny Manziel, who is in the quarterback room and
he was there because he was awful pretty much right away.

Speaker 8 (02:00:43):
Uh, but probably had done enough if he cared to
see the field. I'm sure we'll revisit that now that
football at five has arrived here. Revisit the Chubb News,
the only Cleveland news that actually matters to us here
in Houston. And why is it important that the day
before Mini camp for the Texans begins, It's media day

(02:01:05):
for the Texans Creative Department. I'll tell you why it's
important when we come.

Speaker 3 (02:01:09):
Back the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:01:16):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 7 (02:01:28):
Jeez Football at five, we just discussed the pigskin more bringing.

Speaker 8 (02:01:34):
The energy here final the program this afternoon, we'll take
you up till six o'clock. Six o'clock with no Astros
Baseball will bring you another edition of the night Cap.

Speaker 6 (02:01:42):
Cole will handle that for you.

Speaker 8 (02:01:44):
He'll be with us throughout the hour and obviously at
five thirty when we hit you with in case you
missed it, we'll have a follow through on the tickets
to see see Dwayne Carter coming up at final segment
of the show.

Speaker 7 (02:01:55):
Just keep calling that through Jane Carter, Lill Wayne there
you go throughout the entire time. We give these away
and that should be today's answer.

Speaker 8 (02:02:03):
Maybe it will be if you were listening in the
early portion of Football at five, just listen for that
forty five minutes from now so around the NFL, pretty
common for most teams to be getting into the only
part of the true offseason where they require their players
to attend practice mandatory mini camps, many of them around
the league happening this week. For the Texans, THEIRS is

(02:02:24):
this week will be out there with them tomorrow and
Wednesday as they go through two practices and along with
it when everybody's presumably going to be there, Because especially
for the Texans, their attendance is very, very good. It
always has been under head coach Tomiko Ryans. I have
no doubt that it will be again for these days.
Quite honestly, their attendance at non mandatory voluntary OTAs the

(02:02:48):
two weeks previous, their attendance has also been very good.
Just because there were a bunch of players that weren't
practicing doesn't mean there are a bunch of players that
weren't there. There were only a handful of plays players
that simply chose not to attend, chose to continue their
preparations for the season on another field elsewhere.

Speaker 6 (02:03:05):
CJ. Gardner Johnson among them. But CJ.

Speaker 8 (02:03:07):
Gardner Johnson is expected to be there for practice tomorrow,
and he's quite obviously there today because some of the
media day videos and photos that you'll all get to
see when you make your way inside NRG Stadium for
some of their pregame activities, so their intros and other
things that you'll see from a game production standpoint all
throughout the year, and obviously their social media crew will

(02:03:30):
have a lot of awesome things at their disposal. Seems
like a little bit of a sharp as a diamond
glittering brightly, shining brightly theme to it to some of
the things we've been able to see. Send out a
little video of the best edge duo in the NFL,
Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson Jr.

Speaker 6 (02:03:49):
Doing some media day work.

Speaker 8 (02:03:52):
They sent out a video of the dark jerseys, white pants,
number seven, football in hand, the usual football stuff and
in a media day setting that means twirling the ball,
holding the ball, moving it from.

Speaker 6 (02:04:07):
Arm to arm, showing off your guns. That's what CJ.
Stroud is doing.

Speaker 8 (02:04:12):
I took that and reposted it on by Instagram story
shoulder looks fine, ha huh. We'll find out that I
use the emoji. We'll find out tomorrow if they felt
like making fifty to seventy throws last week for two
or three days, and the week before for two or

(02:04:34):
three days was something they didn't want to do, but
tomorrow and Wednesday they do again. I'm not telling you
one way or the other because I don't know the
answer for sure, but you do think they're being precautionary.
I do not think he will be impacted during the season,
unless there's an incident during the season. I do think
he will be limited at camp based on how they're

(02:04:56):
handling him now, but I don't expect him to throw tomorrow.

Speaker 7 (02:05:00):
Let me ask you, this is just a completely wild
it's not even a conspiracy theory. Do you think there's
a scenario where he did have some sort of procedure
done and for whatever reason, they just don't want to
say it, but they know that having done this procedure,
he could turn around and hand the ball off knowing
he's not gonna get hit by anybody.

Speaker 8 (02:05:19):
It's nothing of the sort. So he's just not gonna throw.
That's what they've done here, I think with so many no,
I don't think that's the case. A we battle about
this and agree on this, the value in just not
going I don't understand it. The Indianapolis Colts have already
told us two different intensive informational items about Anthony Richards

(02:05:39):
and A he's not going to participate because the shoulder
still hurts. And then Shane Stikeen came back this week
and said it's still the same joint. It's still the
same ac joint issue. And you know he gave more
information on there's no value to be gained by that
from a competitive standpoint or just everybody involved. I'm missing
the point on where the value is not saying it.
And additionally, so he had surgery, that team hasn't confirmed,

(02:06:01):
the player hasn't confirmed, the agent hasn't confirmed, and nobody
involved is willing to let that information out. It's pretty
rare that an NFL player has a procedure and it
never gets reported on. It doesn't get reported on because
it didn't happen.

Speaker 6 (02:06:18):
Apparently Cole's going to weigh in with the procedure with
this breaking news.

Speaker 10 (02:06:22):
Sounder, no, no, But I'm going to give you the
contract details of Nick Chubb's new deal with the Houston Texans.
Soccially has passed his physical and signed with the team,
Probably will be there tomorrow over the weekend. One year
deal worth two point five million that can be worked
up to five million deal done by athletes first agent
Todd France. Well done to get all that in there,

(02:06:42):
As the text came into the reporters from Todd, two
and a half million dollars for a player of this
caliber to play the role that they hope to have
him here can double that through incentives. Apparently, this is
why you manipulate your cap to open the door for
possibility like this and the Shack Mason June first designation,

(02:07:04):
among some other deals they were able to make. I
think they spent money more than I thought they would
in certain areas, like landing Cam Robinson for fourteen million
seems like a lot for a player of his caliber.
They couldn't not sign a player like that because if
you don't sign Cam Robinson and you go into the
draft and now you're very much forced to draft a tackle,

(02:07:27):
at some point, you back yourself into a corner. I
don't think they want Cam Robinson to start there, but
they can't have nobody there, so I kind of understand it.
Even though it's a figure that's not befitting of the
caliber of player that he is, as in he's getting overpaid.

Speaker 6 (02:07:41):
This is not that Neil, you don't.

Speaker 8 (02:07:43):
Not a lot of backup running backs are making good money.
It's a one year deal. It's no different than how
we described it three hours ago when we opened the show.
Now knowing the money, there is no downside for the Texans.
There's honestly no downside for the player either. Nick Chubb
goes to a team that can win, that can be
good for him, that might provide him more opportunities than

(02:08:05):
maybe look like today. Joe Mixon has not practiced yet.
Damian Pierce has not practiced yet. They have very little depth,
I think at running back. Even though Pierce has been
okay as the reserve, He's got a few handles over
the last two years that have been electric and exciting.
They added a much better player. Their one two punch
in the backfield is Nick Chubb and Joe Mixon. Can

(02:08:30):
you that's pretty good? I'm selling it as lightly as
I can.

Speaker 7 (02:08:34):
This feels like when you were talking about who's got
a better wide receiver room going into last season. I
know it's not quite the same because there's probably well
it's got to be at least.

Speaker 8 (02:08:44):
All the differences wide receivers are in the room are
all on the field together and Chubb and Mixon just
I mean, I'm calling him one too, but if they're
both healthy, and this health conversation we keep having with Chubb,
I mean, if anybody, I don't mean it for him
becase because he's been hurt. He's currently healthy. He's going
to go into training camp barring some new injury as

(02:09:05):
a healthy player. He's also going in almost two years
removed from his ACL procedure. Now, there were a couple
of surgeries involved there and it wasn't his first ACL injury,
but the injury that kept him off the field last
year is healed.

Speaker 6 (02:09:18):
He's healthy.

Speaker 8 (02:09:19):
He should go into training camp healthy, meaning he'll go
into the season if he stays healthy healthy. So I
don't want people to be worried that, ah, he's been
hurt the last two years. They're throwing money away. Yeah
they might be, but what for You're not missing out
on somebody else that you wanted to spend it on more.
And he certainly makes your room better. He's a good
person to have in the in the in the locker

(02:09:41):
room for one thing, and he's pretty good at everything
you ask for running back to do. When he plays.
You know, my first comment. I think about the Chub
signing because I knew he did not have a good
year last year. He did have one hundred and two carries,
but he didn't go anywhere. There's only one other player
in the NFL that a fewer yards per carried, Nick
Chubb with at least one hundred carries.

Speaker 6 (02:10:02):
That's awful.

Speaker 8 (02:10:02):
Three point three awful. He's averaging well over five for
the entire rest of his career. Every carry he's ever
had prior to his ACL injury, he averaged over five
yards per carry. He was actually third in the NFL
in yards per carry during the five years prior to
his ACL injury, which was only two years ago. And

(02:10:23):
I know he'll be thirty in December, but I expect
that timeline we talk about when you're really kind of yourself.
He should be more like himself this far removed from
those surgeries.

Speaker 10 (02:10:34):
I think again, you said it perfectly. It's two point
five million on a one year deal. That's worth five
million the best version of him for five million dollars.

Speaker 8 (02:10:43):
There is no downside for the Texans in this, and
for him to get five million dollars, that means he
played and earned the right to continue playing because he's
good at it.

Speaker 7 (02:10:53):
Yeah, and look if if he is can't We keep
saying this, If he's healthy, If he's healthy, and if
for some reason something happens to Joe Mixon again this year,
they're gonna be in way better shape than they were
a year ago when that happened.

Speaker 8 (02:11:09):
If he's healthy, there's no question about it means the
whole point of what you're doing. And not only that,
how about your helping to ensure that Mixon remains healthy.
You know, snap count can go down, his snap or
his play count for our touches can go down. So
Joe gets twenty two touches in a game, nineteen touches

(02:11:31):
in a game, and Chubb gets eight to ten. Me
they did it last year at times with their reserve
running backs to begin with. Now your reserve running back
is hopefully a caliber player of Nick Chubb. It's a
big difference.

Speaker 7 (02:11:42):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing it. It's good to
know that this this did move quite quickly.

Speaker 8 (02:11:49):
I mean, I guess what season ended four months ago.

Speaker 7 (02:11:52):
No, what I'm saying is from the standpoint of we
heard about it basically like in the last several hours, and.

Speaker 8 (02:11:58):
There were a couple of mentions about how it's possible
the Texans this is more than a week ago that
they could have been interested, you know, with these players,
and there's a couple of cornerbacks out there now similarly
a position of need beyond the starters, very very similar situation.
The Texans will probably be keeping an eye on Jira.
Alexander was officially let go by the Packers today. Too

(02:12:20):
good of a player, even though his injury history is
awful for the Texans probably to be the first team
on his list, and vice versa, far too expensive, I
would imagine.

Speaker 7 (02:12:29):
All right, we are going to go from the pros
to the college level for a couple of reasons. And
for gamers out there, you're gonna love this. I think
we'll tell you about it when we come back.

Speaker 3 (02:12:41):
The Aeed on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:12:52):
I know the answer for wex Cole. Are you a gamer? Yeah?

Speaker 10 (02:12:56):
For the I mean like the game that you're about
to talk about. Yes, okay, it's like my livelihood.

Speaker 6 (02:13:00):
Yeah, I figured as much.

Speaker 10 (02:13:02):
Like again, like like the what's called Grand Theft Auto,
Like I'll play that because of it's a game that
now I'm going to embrace with you guys, but I
really didn't grow up with anything besides Spiro. Like Spiro
and sly Fox are like the two big ones for
me growing up.

Speaker 7 (02:13:15):
Okay, cause I know Wex plays next to nothing unless
I like have him. I have kidnapped him. He is
hostage at my home and I'm making him play video games.
That's about the only scenario on which I can envision
Wex playing EA Sports College Football twenty six.

Speaker 6 (02:13:33):
I'll make him sit down and play me. I'll twenty
one second. I think he would enjoy it, I really do.

Speaker 10 (02:13:38):
I'll play with Texas City, he can play with Texas.
I'll still beat him.

Speaker 6 (02:13:41):
Funny you should mention that.

Speaker 7 (02:13:42):
So the newest version, because it came out, it came
out last year, like it returned last year, and it
was very very popular, as we all knew it would be.
Everybody that played it religiously had missed it for a
long time, came back. So the newest version is going
to be released on July tenth, So a month from
tomorrow you're gonna get the twenty six version. And by

(02:14:03):
the way, it was the most widely played sports video
game of all time, with more than one point four
or one point seven billion streams of the game.

Speaker 6 (02:14:12):
I didn't sleep for two days when I first out.

Speaker 7 (02:14:14):
Yeah, well, you guys know when when Grand theft Ato
comes out, I'll be taking vacation time. But anyway, beginning
with this new edition, all one hundred and thirty six
FB