Imai Struggles Against Mariners, Texans in London, Vicky = Golden Child

Wednesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to Tatsuya Imai's underwhelming performance against Seattle, discuss the Texans' international game vs. the Jaguars, weigh in on the NBA playoffs, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh great, googlely mooglly.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
It is a Wednesday edition of the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's gonna be a long summer. Dude, Dude, you're here
for four hours to talk sports. Make people want to
listen less?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Why don't you make people want to watch your baseball
product less astros?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
God, well, we're gonna throw emay back out there the
next time because he's earned it. Actually, he has earned
it because you gave him eighteen million dollars this year
to suck. So who's starting in his place? God, they suck.
They're so bad. They're so bad, wax, and you know what,
I wish I wouldn't have interrupted you. Now, this isn't
even like oh AC's just coming in after those he

(00:48):
does his every season.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
They've got the second worst record in baseball. They suck,
and stop telling me they're injured. I'm done with that
excuse you, Dana Brown, you, Jos you, Jim Crane. Doesn't
matter who says it, it does not. It rings more
than hollow at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Why it's not an excuse, It is a fact.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
When they get healthy, there's still gonna suck. And you
know it, No, they will. I don't believe that Hunter
Brown's gonna win them. He's good for how many more
wins this year? Just Hunter Brown? I know he can't hit.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
I know he can't really field in the true essence
of the word. First of all, they have the worst
record in baseball, just so you know, my bad I
slighted them. And second of it, why are you only
giving them Hunter Brown back? You won't don't want to
give them Jeremy Payne, you back, you don't want to
give them Josh hayterback. I haven't gotten to their names yet. Look,
you just said only Hunter. I'm just saying how many

(01:39):
how many wins is he worth? How many more wins
would he be worth if he was if he had
been healthy this whole time? I guess is the better question? Well,
if he'd been healthy the whole time, then that's how
many starts you didn't have to hand the ball to
insert name of pitcher who can't get it done. That's true.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
But some of those insert name of pitcher who can't
get it done made the opening day roster when they
probably shouldn't have in hindsight.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Uh, I guess not really, Well, what was the concrete
reason that guest Lance tonight's starter. But I don't think
we thought he shouldn't make the opening day roster. He
just hasn't pitched.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, why what had he done in the last two
years that made you think it was gonna be different?

Speaker 1 (02:19):
So the alternative is you were going to release him?
Sure not reality.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I mean, it's one of the worst contracts in Astro's
history in hindsight, Sure it is.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
But you don't release players when you have very limited options,
and you don't you have no reason to believe he
can't make something. Here's the problem. They've You've given him
eight opportunities to do something.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
You have no problem throwing bad money around when you
want to, but you won't throw good money around to
either keep or go to get different stratospheres. Well not really,
You've got another same stratosphere on your roster right now.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
He's definitely going to opt in the next two years.
You chose to pay some won eighteen million versus one
hundred and eighteen million, it's eighteen per it's eighteen million
if he's great, and then he's gone because you're gonna
release him. No, if you give him the contract you
gave tatsu Ema three years eighteen million a year player
option for each of the following two years, and he's great.

(03:17):
That's it. That's an eighteen million dollar contract. He's not
coming back. He's gonna go test the market again. He's
gonna make even more money. He's going to Alex Bregman.
The situation or you could have given roughly one hundred
and eighteen million over three seasons with player options to
from ber Valdez, who probably would have taken it, which
is circumstance, vice as much money, different strategy year.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Pitch twice as many innings every night, even if he
was crossing up your catcher.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Or throwing at batters, he's now done per Honestly, you
don't believe if Emi threw it a batter, But he
was getting nice strikeouts last night, not on purpose.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
That's the difference. If Emi was good, I wouldn't care.
Just like everything in sports, you aren't worth the baggage.
If you're not talented, if you're not good at what
you're supposed to do, you're not You can't.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Do the job. He can't do the job, Yeah, he
has not so far. Last night was another example of it.
Very unfortunate that that's what they have at their disposal,
and it was only his first Grand Slam of his career.
I mean he grooved to fastball after putting everybody on base.
I'm talking about can Zone, right, he's in the majors.

(04:21):
He got a fastball groove to him right down the middle.
You what a tough job he had of hitting it
to one of the easiest places for a left handed
hitter at a homer and baseball Adam ever, couldn't have
done that for since his first Grand Slam. He's a
fringe player. He's got a great pedigree player for him
to be great, you know, player great for years. I'm
not a fringe player, bad player, unfortunately, a bad player.

(04:43):
He's I was being nice. It's not accurate, though, so
we we can't have that here. We can do this
for hours. We will obviously rein it in a little bit,
but certainly there's much to discuss, and we'll hear from
those that matter a little bit more than we do.
We will hear from both the general manager and the
manager now on Todd So both visitors to the station
earlier today, Dana Brown and Joe Aspota. Brian bogus Sevic

(05:06):
also weighing in earlier today television analysts over at Space
City Home Network was a visitor to the station, so
their viewpoints of both the long term picture for tatsu
Emi and obviously last night's outing and the upcoming outing
that Joe Spota said last night he is still in
line for they do drop the game. They have lost
both games to open up this home stand. They've lost

(05:27):
every game they've played this year to Seattle. They're now
zero and six with seven games remaining, two of which
will take place tonight and then tomorrow afternoon. Three more
games on the home stand after that, another four game
losing streak for the Astros, their third losing streak of
four or more games since they left town for the
first time. Their longest winning streak of the season obviously

(05:49):
is five and since then they've had three losing streaks
of four or more games and zero winning streaks of
more than two games. And that's what leaves them at
sixteen and twenty seven. They could good move up before
the day's show ends because the Angels are playing right
now and they're the other team at sixteen and twenty seven,
and it's looking good. The Angels are losing. They only

(06:10):
have two more bats left so by the time the
astros first pitch comes tonight against the Mariners, Garding's looking good,
they will be the twenty ninth worst team in baseball
all by themselves, rather than tied for twenty ninth with
the Angels. But we shall see. This is at some
point you do ask the questions of ownership, and we've
asked them here on the show for quite some time now,

(06:32):
because this is foreign territory. As much as the bad
starts have wildly been a staple for the Astros more
than you can believe during this excellent run of baseball,
this one certainly is a little bit different regularly getting
out classed on the diamond. And for as much as
the angst over Tatsui EMI's performance last night and three

(06:53):
of the four performances at the major league level in
his brief major league career, last night was another night
in a stretch of a very long period of time
now where the Astros offense is totally overmatched. Brian was
a really good pitcher the night before. George Kirby's a
very good pitcher. What about the other six games over
their last nine where they've scored three runs are fewer
They've now done that eight times in that nine games,

(07:15):
and they can't do much winning if they can't put
many runs on the board. And for this team's pitching staff,
it obviously becomes even more of a difficult task because
how many runs they do need to put out there.
So five more games on this home stand as they
continue to actually now put some distance between themselves and
the other competitive teams in their division, I can't call
them winning teams yet. You know, the Rangers won yesterday,

(07:38):
and the Mariners have obviously won each of their last two.
They're still losing teams, but they are starting to create
a gap between themselves and the Astros. The Athletics, sitting
atop the division at only one game over five hundred,
also now five more wins than Houston. At some point,
that does become a little bit too overcome. Same thing
with the rest of the American League in terms of
a wild card race and not really scoreboard watching with

(08:00):
one hundred and twenty some odd one hundred and nineteen
games to go, But it does become mathematical at some point,
when do you put it together to where this run
can come. Dana gave an update on some of those
returning players like we discussed, We obviously will get into
that quite a bit. Texans found out officially one of
their games earlier today. As expected, as we discussed yesterday

(08:21):
and essentially said this is going to happen. The announcement
did come that Jacksonville will welcome them to their home
in England this season. They will play at Wembley Stadium
in Week six against the Jaguars eight point thirty here
in the States two thirty in the afternoon over there.
Do think it's a little beneficial to the Jaguars and

(08:41):
that it's their second consecutive game in London. They will
play Week five, so they'll travel from the States to
London for their Week five game. Then they will stay
in London the entire week, change stadiums where they play
the game, and the Texans obviously will travel there during
the week and then come on back. Jaguars all also,
we'll have their off week after that. We'll find out

(09:03):
tomorrow definitively if the Texans will also have their off week,
which is somewhat expected in Week seven and then the
rest of the schedule, but it's one standalone game now
on the board. We'll see which others follow when the
official announcement comes tomorrow evening. All of the international games
have now been announced, so we'll get into that quite obviously.
And we are one San Antonio Spurs victory away from

(09:27):
what everyone expected to happen, and many are gonna have
a tough time stomaching. But they won last night in
Game five, so they are one win away from going
from out of the playoffs for five straight years into
the Western Conference Finals. If they can beat the Minnesota
Timberwolves one more time in Minnesota on Friday night or

(09:48):
back in San Antonio on Sunday, they'll get an extra
day off, They'll line up the game sixes together, presuming
there will be a second Game six, and we'll see
what happens after that.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, if there was ever any doubt that Vicky is
the golden child of the NBA suits on Madison Avenue,
as I mentioned yesterday, I think that was rapidly taken
out last night with what happened and what didn't happen
in that case. In the case of Game five, I
didn't necessarily think that the outcome of the game was
surprising regardless, it was just the way it all went

(10:22):
down at times.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
It's not like not much fight in Minnesota, right. Unfortunately,
I was just about physically or scoreboard will I'm not
giving them any credit because they don't deserve any. They
looked like they rolled over and died.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
They almost looked like they knew this was going to
be the outcome, so just let's just play for forty
eight minutes, rolling all out.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
I wouldn't quite go that far. I mean, sorry, I
met Julius Randall Cecily. Well, he's done that the whole series.
He's had a terrible series. Unfortunately, they got it within
five early in the second half, down seventy two to
sixty seven, and then immediately the Spurs went on what
would ultimately be the final putaway run. They went on
a bunch of them over the course of the game.
Had a big lead early, created another big lead in

(11:01):
the second quarter, and third and fourth similarly, just had
too much for what Minnesota has to offer. And we've
gone on and on about how much we love what
Anthony Edwards brings to them, what he's brought to them
this postseason, and probably haven't said this enough. If you've watched,
it's very visible he's put up some incredible games, incredible
numbers incredible fight, and I don't even know what percent

(11:23):
to put on his health because he is not himself
and it's not even close. He can't get up off
the floor like he normally would leaping wise, I don't
mean after he gets pushed over. I mean he's just
not healthy and he's out there given everything he has
because that's what playoff performances are all about. So we'll
get into that a little bit. Also, it is Wednesday,

(11:44):
so that means we will visit with ourbs, and it
could be every segment of the show, but specifically Taylor
to that for our signature segment coming up at four
point thirty. And as mentioned, each of those voices on
the Astros we'll get to over the course of the afternoon.
Will jump in on a visit with Mike Burrows. Also
coming up in fifteen minutes. Astros starter coming off his

(12:06):
best performance, uh probably as a major leaguer, let alone
here with the Astros in season one. He joins us.
Like I said at two thirty, so that question continues
to be asked. What does the latest and the future
Astros losses should they come during this homestand what does
that do to the thought process of those in charge
over at Dyke and Park. We'll talk about that next.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
The age on sports talk step without even knowing the
name of this artist, and I'm not even kidding, sounds
like it was in the nineties.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
I mean, it's a motor oil this stp, I believe
it is.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
My wife would kill me if she heard me. Oh,
now I recognize it. I didn't recognize it at first.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Whatever, give it the program. What everybody here listening knows
if they want to know anything about music. They turned
to me. When was your last concert attendant? Again? Nineteen
eighty six?

Speaker 2 (13:04):
People could have seen the musical exchange this morning before lunch.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Perfect opportunity. I didn't know when it would come up.
I have to step away from my microphone just a bit. So, uh, oh,
give mean a stall or oh we had a conversation
about music the other day. He's reaching for the bag.
You remember, uh, yesterday in the eighties. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
she'd run in a mixtape. It's an actual cassette tape. Kids.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
A cassette is something that people listen to before the
advent of compact.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
A ninety minute TDK blank cassette. Can I touch it? Box?
But the cassette that's in the box case and everything,
so I can get sixty minutes worth of music recorded
off my favorite radio stations.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Realized that if you recorded different speeds you could get
more audio.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
The B side is fully listed of the songs that
I was so excited to hear when I dial tuned
in FM radio station to hear this music in the eighties.
I've got Crossfire, an SRV hit.

Speaker 5 (14:06):
WHOA.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
I got Stairway to Heaven. I need to tell you
about that. By the way, I tried to do something
this past weekend in Austin. It did not work out.
It can happen, yes.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Album.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
I got Eminence front here, that's the who. I've got
fifty nine years of traditions, favorite music that you get
to see every night before rockets home games. Oh, dream
On by Aerosmith. I got dream On in there. I
got Flying in a Blue Dream, the title track off
of Flying in a Blue Dream. Uh huh from Joe
Satriani pretending Eric Clapton. Okay, hey Joe.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
By the way, Eric Clapton only the thirty fifth best
guitarist according to that stupid rag.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
I won't even mention by name, you idiots. I got
hey Joe, Yeah, that's Jimmy Hendrix. Yeah, well you were
playing your part. I give the song, you give the artist. Oh,
I'm sorry, and then something to hold on to. You
probably don't know that. That one, I don't know. That
is from one of the members of Yes, the guitarist
Trevor Raven. Trevor Rabin, by the way, you guys can

(15:10):
make fun of Neil Young is the only song I
listed for SADAY. Rocking in the Free World. Okay, you
guys can make fun of Yes all you want. And
the Owner of a Lonely Heart track because it was
on that breakup movie with Vince Vaughn where he didn't
want to participate in the kick drum Come Come. But
the solo on Owner of a Lonely Heart is really
really underrated. What about the video, Trevor Raven, I had

(15:33):
nothing in the eighties that wasn't Michael Jackson is underrated.
He was losing it, yeah, mentally out of it. But
that solo is it just crushes shockingly, these very very popular,
talented bands had talented musicians in them.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
And that's already like three or four minutes of us
not having to talk about the stupid Astros right now.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, Astro's roster is still littered with players who otherwise
would not be on it if not for the enormous
amount of injuries probably seen some of the lists now
a little bit over a month into the season, number
of games lost, players who have been sent to the
injured list. The Astro sit a top of both of
those lists this year, and it was very unfortunately similar

(16:14):
last year. Everyday basis, they're going with a reserve shortstop.
Every day. Basis, they're going with a reserve catcher every day. Basis,
they have a hodgepodge of reserve outfielders in there. Those
three positions specifically, not that Jake Myers is saving this team,
not that Janer Diaz is saving this team, not that
Jeremy Pania is saving this team, but that's three of

(16:35):
the eight you have on the field every single day,
you're turning that position over to someone who would not
otherwise be in the lineup really any day, because all
three of those players play most every day. Obviously the
catcher has a few more days off. That's just one
of the things. Clearly Carlos Korea is added to that.
That's four guys who would otherwise be in your starting
lineup almost every single day that you're running out a

(16:57):
replacement player for. And then obviously the pitch of it.
We got into that part, but that one's much worse
because of who you do have and because of what
has happened with who you do have. And last night
was another example of that. This is a pitcher last
night that came here with the expectation that he would
solidify their rotation in somewhat a similar fashion to from

(17:18):
ber Valdez in his years here. It's why you felt
probably better about spending money on a pitcher to take
over for a pitcher. It's that, on top of so
many other things, when you look inside what the pitching
staff has done and they reassumed the position and thirtieth
last night for starters era. Their team ERA has been
at thirtieth pretty much the entire season since they left town.

(17:39):
But they actually were up to twenty eighth in starters
RA before last night, and it went back to thirtieth
in starter's RA. You look up and down this roster
and it's nice that our guest coming up next has
an opportunity to bring his ERA under five with his
performance tomorrow afternoon and the finale of this series. But

(18:02):
most of the rest of the pitchers they've given the
ball to this year, they just have not pitched well,
and not all of it is due to injury. Lance
mcullors Junior gets the ball tonight for the eighth time.
We're eight or seven starts into his season. He's carrying
a seven to forty one RA into his eighth start,
having not missed any of his starts. Obviously, the numbers
went up for tatsu em His ERA is over nine now.

(18:26):
It went up almost two more earned runs because he's
barely pitched. He has pitched out of the fourth inning
one time in four starts. He's only given the Astros
twelve and two thirds innings this season. We're six weeks
into the season. His ERA is nine to twenty four.
That right there is eleven of the starts that you
have this year. You got two more starts for Ryan Weiss,

(18:47):
who's now starting in sugar Land. RA is seven to six.
Four more starts for Colton Gordon and Christian Xavier. Both
of them carry eras that start with a one, and
it's not three digits, it's four. That's the number. These
are starts other than the one for Colton Gordon, maybe
because Ryan Weiss was brought in to fight for a

(19:07):
starting spot. These are all starts given to pitchers you
expected to get the ball you thought would be in
your rotation, you wanted in your rotation, and too many
of them have not pitched very well. They've they've pitched
very poorly. That's that's the bigger difference to me, and
looking at what the offense is currently not doing and
what the pitching staff, unfortunately for most of the season,
hasn't been doing well. We'll keep it right there and

(19:29):
transition into our conversation with one of these pitchers. I've
got questions after that. It should be a good time, Okay.
Mike Burrows is set to join us here in just
a few minutes as we come back, he'll be here
with us on the other side, here on the A team.

Speaker 6 (19:44):
The AE.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Get right into it here on the A team. Always
a pleasure to be joined by. I remember the Houston Astros.
Our player guest today is Mike Burrows. Mike, you got
Adam and Adam here with you this afternoon as you
guys are in the midst of a seven game homestand
a stretch of thirty team consecutive games of baseball. You
had the start to open up the first of those
thirteen games last weekend in Cincinnati, But I wanted to

(20:08):
open with a really odd question, taking you back a
couple of years. Does the number three seven five zero
mean anything to you, Mike.

Speaker 5 (20:16):
No, not off the top of my head.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
All right, listen up and see if this jogs your
memory from twenty eighteen.

Speaker 7 (20:23):
Pirates select draft ID three seven five zero.

Speaker 8 (20:26):
Burrows Michael, a right handed starter from Waterford High School
in Waterford, Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
That's the number they gave you when you were in
the draft in twenty eighteen. As as you heard a
Pirate's eleventh round draft pick. I want to take you
back to both that day and the decision that had
to be made because you were all ready to go
to where I'm sure you wanted to go all along, Yukon,
and ultimately had to make a big decision.

Speaker 5 (20:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (20:55):
I thought I was going to get taken day two
by a couple of different teams, and it just didn't
work out. Numbers didn't work out. I went to dinner
and my dad that night going to going to school.
So next day woke up, you know. I mean I
probably had two weeks of high school left, so I
was just going in for normal classes and got a call,
and you know, the money started.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
Money stuff started being figured out.

Speaker 9 (21:19):
After day two and I got a call that I
was going to get taken, So I actually left school
that day and then, yeah, I kind of celebrated getting
drafted and stuff working out that day.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Was it a pretty difficult decision? Again, an eleventh round pick.
I think a lot of people are aware sometimes that,
especially recently as the draft has changed a little bit,
kind of when teams might select a player they believe
they've got money in their pool to you know, give
a little bit more to maybe convince them that they
can better make a professional career by getting it started

(21:50):
now rather than going to school. Talking with both the school,
the organization, and your family, how'd you come to the
decision that this was was a path you wanted to take.

Speaker 9 (22:00):
Yeah, I think it was my family more than anything.
I didn't, uh, I didn't have an agent through that process,
So it was definitely wild experience experiencing it as a
player and kind of an agent myself, and you know,
talking to teams and kind of trying to use your
words carefully and understand that you have leverage. You know
that you're you're planning on going to school, And I

(22:22):
truly was. I was ready to go to Yukon. But
I had a number of mine and if it, if it,
you know, came came to it came to be, then uh,
I was gonna go. I thought I was ready. You know,
it was really just about getting getting the right amount
of money. I would, you know, make me forego that
experience of college and uh maybe possibly you know, working

(22:43):
up the draft board three years later.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Agents are overrated anyway, right, you got it done.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
I mean, I don't know, it's tough to say. I had.

Speaker 9 (22:53):
Uh, I definitely had quote unquote advisors, people that were
in the game, not agents, but just kind of guided
me a little bit and just took their advice and
ran with it.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Well, we're and we're talking to Mike Burrows astros starter
here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
We won't sugarcoat it. It's rough right now.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
I think I feel like I've asked this question an
inordinate amount of times, regardless of who the guest was,
over the last several weeks. What is the mood like
in the clubhouse right now, because I know that for
people like us and the fans and even maybe some
members of the organization, it's different from a day to day,
hour to hour basis than it is inside that clubhouse

(23:35):
when you're actually living it. So what does Mike Burrows
think about the current state of affairs in the Astros clubhouse.

Speaker 9 (23:42):
Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously, after after games end,
it's you know, everybody's a little glum about it. You know,
everybody kind of has to sit on that egg that
you know, we're not exactly living up to our expectations
of you know, how we want to be playing and
how we want to be finishing out games. But you know,
every day of the new day, so we show up,
you know, with the you know, with an attitude that

(24:03):
we're gonna.

Speaker 5 (24:03):
We're gonna steer the ship in the right direction.

Speaker 9 (24:05):
You know, because I mean, you don't want that energy
to keep feeding into the next day and working into
that next game. So I'd say every day, you know,
just coming in fresh attitude, fresh day of mind, and
getting after it.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
You had an interview the other day with the TV
side or at Space City Home Network, and it was
something we noticed when you were pitching, and it was
brought up by Steve Sparks during that interview that for
this most recent start that you made, you're you're on
a little bit different trajectory towards home plate with where
you've lined up and situated yourself on the rubber. Is
that something more from your end of just going through

(24:38):
the things you know that might work best for you,
or was it a conversation with Josh Miller, Christian Vaskaz,
et cetera. What went into the decision to go from
that spot on the rubber.

Speaker 9 (24:48):
Yeah, I think it was a you know, somewhat of
a desperate time calls for a desperate measure, So just
trying something there in the best place to try it
as in the game. You know, that's where you're gonna
see the results. That's where you're going to see, you know,
kind of how it's going to play. That's the best
place to see it is against live hitters in the game.
So I didn't think he was gonna I definitely didn't

(25:09):
think it was gonna hurt. And you know, I worked
over there for a long time, so kind of just
moving back to the other side.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Well, one of the things that I know was brought
up after you were acquired by the Astros in December,
by our listeners, by ourselves quite a few times over
those months before you got to spring training, is what
you might have been able to learn from somebody. Everybody
here's familiar with Brent Stromp, who spent so many time
years here with Houston helping cultivate and develop pictures and
work to their strength, and obviously he was there in

(25:36):
Pittsburgh with you. From your standpoint, what did you get
from working with him?

Speaker 9 (25:42):
Yeah, I think I think one of the things was
my direction, because at one point when I first met
strom I was really stepping out of the box towards
left handed hitter and working a lot of my direction
towards the left handed hitter, and I just kind of
over that year just made a drastic change and really
started stepping towards the right hindhitter.

Speaker 5 (26:02):
And it was really good.

Speaker 9 (26:04):
But now just I'm kind of bumping myself back the
other way.

Speaker 5 (26:07):
So yeah, he really really helped with that.

Speaker 9 (26:10):
I mean, he helped with my pitch shapes, the mental
side of things, getting through a full season and working hitters.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Talking. I want to ask you one more thing about
Pittsburgh because I saw something that obviously was a joke
and I found it pretty funny. Someone posted on social
media that we need to keep an eye on Paul's skeins.
He's trending in the wrong direction. His ERA this year
is one nine eight, His ERA last year was one
nine seven. His ERA the year before that was one
nine six, So we better be aware of the trajectory

(26:39):
he's on. This is a kid new to the majors
and like yourself, what did you think of the stuff
that he had? And I think it seems easy to
say that you expected excellence once he hit the major
league mound.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 9 (26:53):
I mean, yeah, Paul's Paul's the unicorn, and he got everything.
He's got the stuff, he's got the mentality, and he
just he really puts it together. You know, he's he's
a special player, special pitcher. And it was really fun
working with him, watching how he works, watching how he prepares,
and getting after with him. He's a great teammate. You know,

(27:15):
he's a great guy in the locker room, and yeah,
you can't really ask for much more out of the guy.

Speaker 5 (27:20):
He does. He hits every check check point. It's great.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Were there any conversations with the rest of the pitching
staff on which of the two of you were least
showing of emotion, most stone faced and stoic.

Speaker 9 (27:33):
No, I don't think so. I think I think I
think a good amount of us were last year. But no,
I'm definitely, definitely.

Speaker 5 (27:41):
None of that. I would say Paul might actually have
more emotion than I do.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
I'm not sure you're pretty stoic right now. That's okay,
it's not a bad thing.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
By the way.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
We're talking to Mike Burrows, astro starter here on Sports
Talk seven ninety and it says here in front of
me on my computer screen that you were born in
nineteen ninety nine, which means you were born the year
I graduated from high school, which means I low key
kind of hate you right now. But at the tender
age of twenty six years old, which you are, did

(28:11):
you still hear about you were talking about the astro staff.
Did you hear things about this staff before you arrived
in Houston? And has that been you know, a realization
now that you've gotten here about how.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Good they are specifically with pitchers.

Speaker 9 (28:25):
Well, for sure, yeah, I mean, obviously you knew the
names that have been here, you know, over the last decade,
and I mean it's impressive of those guys that are
obviously still playing today that were here and that came
over here and excelled and played really well, and you know,
so it was definitely obviously the first thought when you
think of the Houston Astras as a pitcher. Yeah, it's

(28:47):
been a great experience since I got.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Here, Mike. We certainly appreciate the time this afternoon. Look
forward to catching you on the bump tomorrow afternoon, the
finale of this series against the Seattle Mariners, and hopefully
more to come. Like your last start, and you put
it all together, I'll leave you with that. What did
What did you think about, you know, being able to
come out of that start? You kind of said, desperate
times call for desperate measures. I don't know if you

(29:09):
felt like you've been throwing the ball well but weren't
getting good results. And now that you've thrown the ball
well and gotten good results, you know, have the last
few days leading up to this start tomorrow been a
little bit different for you mentally? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (29:23):
Yeah, I mean yeah, I kind of say that lightheartedly.
I mean, it's it's just been you know, some unluckiness
along with some you know, a couple of bad decisions
on my end and on pitch selection. And I think
for me, I was just trying to by moving over
to that side, just create a lot more room for
my arm to work over the plate and you know,
get these guys swinging in a little bit more, a

(29:46):
little bit more stuff, you know, get a little more chase.
And yeah, I mean I think it. I think one
starts not going to sell it for me. But you know,
if I start putting together a few more and you know,
the unluckiness is going to happen. But it's it's really
just been pitch selection and you know, a couple of
a couple of bad located, you know, pitches that kind
of you know, put a blemish into surmounting. So I'm

(30:08):
just kind of locking in on that stuff.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Well, we certainly appreciate the visit with our listeners this afternoon,
look forward to the rest of the homestand like I said,
your start tomorrow and everything that is to come. Mike,
appreciate your time.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
I appreciate it. Thanks guys.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Mike Burrows Astro's starter. He gets the ball tomorrow. Lance
mccullor's junior gets the ball tonight as they have an
opportunity still to split the series with Seattle, and during
our conversation with Mike, as we suggested in the opening
segment of the show, the Astros did in fact slide
in front of the Angels earlier this afternoon, who just
turned in their twenty eighth loss. Suck it, Anaheim, come

(30:44):
back and visit a little bit about what Mike had
to say, and also looking into this game tonight, a
big one for it. Lance mccullor's junior right here on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
The ad on Sports Talking thanks again to Mike Burrows.
Tell you what, in spite of things that are happening
around that team right now, he's very upbeat.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Yes, he was very upbeat. He knows. I'm just kidding.
Like if you've heard him from spring training, if you've
heard him from his postgame interviews, if you've heard him
from his recent which I brought up television interview. During
a recent SEHN Astros broadcast from the Cincinnati series over
the weekend, Steve Sparks was sitting in for Blum and

(31:28):
helped he along with TK, had him in and then
here with us. He sounds exactly the same in all
of them. That's who he is, that's how he is,
and it's also how he is on the mound. As
it was brought up by Todd, he actually asked him about,
you know, a fist pump, a minor little yeah during
his last outing, which obviously was very successful. I'm all
for more of it, and then I'm sure Mike is

(31:49):
as well. This is what they need from everybody that
they give the ball to, but specifically some players Emi
and Burrows. They were not accidentally here in Houston. They
weren't well, this is what's out there, let's go. These
were targeted pitchers, those two specifically, they orchestrated a three
team deal to go get Mike Burrows. Obviously they saw

(32:10):
him pitch against them last year. For those that weren't aware,
it was very impressive outing, and I think they'd long
had their eyes on a pitcher with his arsenal, thinking
that there's maybe a little bit more to unlock. Maybe
his last start showed that a little bit more of that.
I think he Because we didn't even get into this
is Tommy John surgery. The season of minor league baseball
during the COVID year, there's not a tremendous amount of

(32:33):
workload on his right arm for a number of different reasons.
Pittsburgh the way they handled him last year, he threw
less than one hundred innings. There are some things to
look forward to with Burrows, especially if, as he said,
I think can build on what he did in his
last outing. And like I said, he was targeted. The
Astros clearly targeted tatsu Emi and unloaded eighteen million a

(32:54):
season over three seasons each of those three seasons to
bring them here. And you know, Burrows has been unfortunately
not quite as good as his last start, and maybe
there's more of the good starts to come. And EMI's
clearly barely been on the mound and when he has
been out there outside of his game in West Sacramento,
I hope the rest of the major league ballparks aren't

(33:15):
Emi kryptonite and he's just fine provided it's a minor
league ballpark, because that would be a bad thing moving forward,
especially since I could throw that out of the window
already because he's pitched in a minor league ballpark two
other times while he was on his rehab that go
did not go well. Not arm fatigue, the reasoning, Well,
that's it. Nothing about what he did in any of
those starts. I again not saying that it wasn't there,

(33:40):
but there was nothing that needed to be done other
than well he's said it, and so he's stopped pitching,
so now he has to work back up to it.
He was on a little bit of a pitch limit
yesterday through eighty pitches. I don't know that he would
have gone back out there anyway, with how laborious that
inning was and how poorly it went for him, But
he had to get back in tune with being capable

(34:01):
of pitching this much. He was gonna go on a
rehab assignment no matter how he had pitched, because he'd
been shelved for two weeks.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
That's the difference between Mike Burrows and him. They were
both brought here to do something. One of them has
made incremental improvements and the other guy's actually going.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
The other way. Yeah, there's many one fairly significant other
difference what culture shock Okay, like ten because they're all
related to times. Well, I'll stick with the baseball. The
mound is a different stadium, the baseball is different. Yeah,
people forget about that. It's you know, that is.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
That's something that's different in college football versus regular football.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
I mean pros and regular football.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Well, it's there's also a big difference between college basketball
and pro you know what it is?

Speaker 1 (34:46):
One of them is regular what's college not radio active orange?
That's not plus for the championship games? Well, putting on
a show. Jersey and tank tops, they're not underwear, There's no,
they're not. It's the NBA's combine, which is ongoing, is

(35:07):
not the underwear Olympics you have. They wear regulation shorts
and jersey tops. Are these goals regulation size or what ers? Also,
if you've watched the recent NFL combines, they do offer
them different gear than they used to. They're wearing shorts.
Now's licensed span Oh, they're wearing shorts. You can elect

(35:28):
to wear the SPANX if you'd like, and i'd like
you run the risk of something happening during your forty
yard dash, or you can wear the shorts that are
also offered to you. I'd like the Andre the giant unitard.
Please all black.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
That's what if I had to go to the NFL combine,
That's why I would roll up in.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
I don't care what my body physique is get in
your stance. But I'm in a unitard, go for it.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Or you could go with the kurt angle one that
has both straps and you could take.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Them off on the bench. We're gonna see how many
reps you can do at two twenty five in your
unit hard.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
I saw something on social shuttle drill you can only
your unitar Most men can't even bench one thirty five.
And I'm like, isn't that like two bars?

Speaker 1 (36:13):
What's the bar? Forty five bar forty five each plate?
That's one thirty five a plate on each plate of
forty five on each side with the bar one thirty five.
Now I have a torn laboram that I never addressed,
so I probably can't either. You can address it right now.
You've got a microphone. See, I can't help myself. You
are awful that even for you, that was bad.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Hey laborom so hey man, so in all honesty like
and I you know, I had to ask Mike Burrows
the same question I've asked Christian Walker and Paul Lambert, uh,
Peter Lambert, sorry, Paul Lambert, Peter Lambert, A bunch of
other guys we've had on you know, what's what is
the mood of the clubhouse.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
But here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
By the time we have a guest on next week,
maybe the person leading that clubhouse isn't there anymore. I mean,
I've never been more convinced that someone's not surviving this week. Well,
if the Astros go winless this week, how can somebody survive?

Speaker 1 (37:09):
That might be a better way of phrasing it. Well,
it's what I've said all along with what they're up
against and who he's the manager, who Joe Spot has
at his disposal. You know, he's not using tatsu Emi
because he's been awesome. He's using him because he has
to or don't have a lot of other options, which
is why he said he's obviously helped her exactly. And

(37:29):
then he goes out there and turns in a start
like that yesterday, and who knows what he'll do the
next time. And the same thing when you're trying to
force Kaiwai Tang to become a starter during the season,
and when you're giving Cody Bolton the ball multiple times
and you've got Ryan Weiss not pitching very effectively and
he's given the ball, and you've got Lance mccullors coming
out early and you give the ball to Jason Alexander,
you've given a start to Colton Gordon. If you're doing

(37:51):
this because you're telling the players it's on you, and
the only way to tell you that is to let
the manager go, then that's really all you have at
your disposal. You're just trying to shake things up, blaming
Joe Spotty, even though I'm not gonna get behind every
single movie he's made, every single lineup he's thrown out there.
I'm not telling you he's infallible and he's done no wrong,

(38:12):
but there's he's not done anything that's put them in
this position overall. A game like even yesterday, should he
have gone to get Emi at all? He didn't go
get him at all. He obviously finished the inning, but
should he have Should he have done that? I mean,
I guess you could say that the bases are loaded,
he's hit guys, he's walked guys. Did you have somebody
else pitch to canzone? Or should you do it before

(38:33):
he's walked and hit two guys? I guess you could,
But you have all the other things that are there
as well? Are we keep going to the bullpen over
and over and over again. Almost every single million you're
going to So it's well, you're not. You just figure
it out, get out of this inning. You're you're too qualified,
we think to be in this mix and a major
league baseball rookie, yes, but a long time professional pitcher

(38:58):
at a level higher than the minor leagues overseas, I
think the expectations would be a little bit different for him.
They were, and it did not work. Tough questions for you.
I'm still here for another coming three hours. If you
guys are up for it, I'm in for it. Next
here on the A.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Team Timocast has officially begun over on sc HN. That's
where you will see the Astros and Mariners get together
for another one tonight. And we've already accomplished a lot
in the first hour. In order of priority, we had
an interview with Mike Burrows, who is as cold blooded

(39:34):
as they come, and that's a compliment, and we revealed
and it's been done both here on the air and
publicly on social media. You can go ahead and go
over to either of our accounts of any kind if
you like, and you can see the evidence of this.
Wex's mixtape that he made for himself and I do
mean tape.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Mixtape. I do think has the connotation that you've made
it to give to somebody. Presumably all I said was
that it was a mixed tape. I didn't say it mixed.
It is a bunch of different artists, by the way.
But the reason why I have it is because it
wasn't meant for somebody else. It was for me of
my favorite music whenever I want.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
That's verbal tactical warfare that all wives and girlfriends. Do
you ever experience it? Well, you haven't because ours normal.
Like you'll be having a conversation, it'll turn into an
argument and all of a sudden she'd be like, why
are you getting set offensive?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Why are you? And I'm like what, But yeah, you
made yourself a mixtape. Yes, as I explained in a
quote post, since you decided to share it on social
media for me, Uh, this is how it was done.
People don't know what high speed dubbing is, period, and
that was mainly for pirrating other people who had purchased it,
and you could just take it from them. You just

(40:44):
pop the tab out and you could do whatever you wanted.
But yeah, if I wanted to hear music in the eighties,
I would have purchased my blank cassette tapes. I would
have my ghetto blaster at the ready. I would hope
to have tuned in the radio station as crystal clearly
as possible, which was difficult. And then I would be
listening and when I would hear the DJ a t

(41:06):
that's a tist of jockey, a rock face type character. Yeah,
would say sorry, that's brod Ryan, all my broad light character.
When they would introduce the third cut off the latest
album from the Who Yours Eminence front and I would
be ready hit record.

Speaker 8 (41:26):
You know what?

Speaker 2 (41:26):
I listened to for at least a fraction of the
drive as I was driving all over the state this
past weekend for Mother's Day and other activities. We had
to go to Austin and we wound up in Galveston.
We were all over the state and there is an
iHeart station. I recommend that you listen to it outside
the hours of two and six pm every weekday. It
is old repeats of Casey Kasem from the seventies and eighties.

(41:48):
Now some of you guys are gonna be like, that's
ancient time. I don't want to hear that. But some
of you would appreciate that because that's the kind of
stuff he would say.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
It's the third track off their album from nineteen eighty five.
Here's dire strait with money for something like that. So anyway, last.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Segment, we were kind of reacting to what Mike Burrows
said and again appreciate him for coming on and all
the Astros guests that we get. Appreciate both the guests
and the team for making that possible.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
I have it on good authority.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
By the way that we are being watched right now
in the Astros clubhouse, do you know that should we
wave to the players?

Speaker 1 (42:22):
It's up up, y'all the locker the clubhouse is usually
open around this time for seven o'clock start about three
to three forty five, three fifty. Manager speaks in the
dugout round ten till four.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Here's the one question, and it's kind of like it's
it's it's actually a live because it's a series of
questions that I wanted to pose to you two segments ago.
I asked you in the opening segment, like if Hunter
Brown had been healthy during this entire stretch of the
Astros going from Hope Spring's eternal, like for every team
on opening Day to now we have not quite the

(42:55):
worst record in baseball. Props to the Guardians for helping
us out this afternoon. But what would X player be
worth as far as wins? If Hunter Brown's healthy and
this offense, you know that has had its moments this year,
regardless of who is in and out of that lineup,
props him up, you know, is that good for X

(43:16):
amount of wins? And then you can just go down
the list, because I mean, apparently we're living through the
sequel to twenty twenty five right now. Astros baseball il
record number of injuries. I hope we don't break their
own record this year because that would suck in the
worst way possible.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
I'll give it to you this way. First, the three
pitchers and well four pitchers, because I have to say it.
I remember they're watching. There are four pitchers on the
among those that have thrown pitches for the Astros this year,
and there's twenty four of those. There's only four that
Carrie an Era under three. Logan van Wi is one

(43:51):
of them. He's pitched twice. He was the move that
they made yesterday. I sent him back down to sugar
Land so Emi could reclaim his spot. Spencer Araghedty and
Peter Lambert, current members of the starting rotation, are two
of the other three. Each of those two guys have
made five starts. Both of them have been on the
show this year. They have. And the only other pitcher
who's thrown a pitch for the Astros this year with

(44:11):
an ERA under three is Hunter Brown. He's made two starts,
He's given him ten and two thirds innings. Literally not
walking through that door anytime soon. He watched. He's there.
He's with the team every day, I mean with his
uniform on zero point eight four. He gave up one
run in those ten point two innings came in a
second start. He through shutout baseball against Jose Soriano in
his first start, which ultimately was an Astros loss. But

(44:35):
that's kind of a quick, little, easy snapshot of the Astros.
There's only two more pitchers you could add to that
list that have an ERA under four. You can only
add two more pitchers to the list when you say
er under five. That's just a tiny, tiny, tiny number,
and it goes right into why they have produced the
worst pitching numbers in baseball so far this season. In

(44:55):
too many different categories to overcome. This month has seemed
to take a turn for the worst as a team
because now it's coupled with the offense is having problem
scoring runs getting on base. They actually went two for
six last night with runners in scoring position. The Mariners
went two for eight, So the Astros were better, but
they didn't have any base runners and they weren't being

(45:16):
gifted base runners. Emi walked a few batters and hit
a couple batters. These batters that keep getting put on base.
Jaden Murray then followed, Similarly, when you're putting these gifts
out there for the other team and you're the Astros,
the other team is taking advantage of the amount of
times those batters who've been gifted first base that are
coming around to score is astronomical. You know.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Conversely, the night before they out hit the Mariners barely,
but they did well.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
They also this yesterday they got doubles from Descenzo and Walker.
Those are now there are only two extra base hits
in the last three games.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
It's just it's I mean, I don't want to call
it death by a thousand cuts.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Well, baseball is that you inevitably you have to because
it's a half hours of.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
But take that and then like exponentially blow it up
to a billion. That's what every day of following this
team and being on this team, by the way, it
probably feels like.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
And you've experienced the exact opposite of that for so
many years since twenty fifteen. Obviously they didn't make the
playoffs every year since twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, no, and
now this most recent last year they willed. We are,
but we immediately are. Just immediately preceding that, we were
the opposite of spoiled. We were watching. That was what
was different. Still, this team I don't think is going

(46:33):
to produce a record quite like that, but it's a huge, huge,
There was no expectation for that team. We knew who
was on the team, we knew what their goals were.
As with their management team, these players are incapable of
winning baseball games. They don't have enough talent on this team.
I really don't think that's as big of an issue
with this team. It gets to be an issue when
too many of the talented players are elsewhere, and we
could mention here just so because we have not you know,

(46:56):
four players that would otherwise most likely be here all
planned for Corpus CHRISTI. Yesterday you had Jeremy Paynia leading off, doubling,
getting hit by a pitch, and getting run over by
a base runner. All happened in last night's game.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Great job as he tries to make his way back
to being at full health.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Dana Brown this morning, during his visit with the station,
indicated he expected him to probably be a little bit
sore because of that getting run over. He got up ended.
He was trying to feel a throw on a guy
trying to turn a single into a double from his outfielder,
and the base runner ran him over as he leaned
into the bass path trying to catch the ask me
and then he came out of the game. After he

(47:36):
was hit by the pitch, he went down to first
base and then they took him out of the game.
So I'll find out if he's in the lineup today.
Jake Myers played a little bit more than that. The
plan was to have paynya dh today regardless, we'll see
if that happens. Hater got another innings worth of work
and everything again went as planned from a velocity standpoint
and effectiveness standpoint, and Nate Pearson did throw at least

(47:57):
one pitch at better than one hundred and one miles
per hour during his one inning of work. He's not
yet made his astro's debut because he had a procedure
during the off season, a little bit of a setback
during spring training in baseball we actually call it spring
training donald and so he has not yet been able
to make it to the big club. But all four
of those players, three of them could come back essentially

(48:18):
at any time because of when their il stint ends,
which is whenever they wanted to. In the case of Hater,
it sounded like from Dana this morning, an early June
arrival is what they expect. He could technically come off
the final week of May, but it sounds like they
expect him and hope he'll be here at the beginning
of June. You know, with this week's sound bites alone,

(48:38):
if you had said that in front of him, he
would have called you stupid. What a stupid question, That
what a stupid comment you just made. Wex very semantics
of us. But we brought it up yesterday and here's
Fernando Mendoza is currently in spring training for the NFL's
Las Vegas Raiders.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
That's that's the roundabout way of explaining what we're saying,
is that, right, Kurt, Hey, he's getting ready for He's
gonna be quite good very early.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
I think the Raiders know that.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
So all of this culminates to what I feel like
we ask every time he pitches, and if he's watching
right now on the Clubhouse television Tonight's starter, he knows
I personally love him. I don't care what anybody says
about Lance mcullers junior, that's my dude. But it always
feels like every one of his latest starts has so

(49:25):
much more pressure packed into it, regardless of what's going
on with the team in any given season, but because
of what's going on with the team this season, that's
just another layer to the Lance mccullors experience.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Yeah, we'll have Dana Brown's conversation for you in twenty minutes.
Joe spot I got into Lance mccullor's a little bit conversation,
not lit him up, got into a conversation you've got
after him with Matt and Ross earlier today. Let him
explain how things are going from a health standpoint, because
he obviously had the finger issue, finger nail issue, hear
from Joe Aspota and at five point fifteen, and he'll

(50:01):
update you on on how things stand with that. We'll
get to Dana, he'll talk about why he is still
so optimistic both about the team and very very specifically
about tatsu emih But we also have a few other
things to mention, and we brought it up earlier on
the show, a chance for us next segment to dive
into it a little bit more. We could see we're,
like I said, we're one San Antonio Spurs victory away

(50:24):
from seeing them reach the conference finals, just a couple
of years removed from getting the number one overall pick
three lottery picks in the top four are the driving
force behind that team, and they got a big game
five win yesterday. Now that victor was able to start
and finish a game without elbowing anybody in the face,
he's a victor, not a victim.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
We'll get to all that coming up next as the
show continues on a Wednesday afternoon. As my co host
mentioned going into the break, we're one win by San
Antonio away from getting that all important number one versus

(51:09):
number two Western Conference Finals.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Well, they're significantly better than everybody else in the regular season,
they've shown to be better than everybody else so far
in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Plug the West, Especially if you're PJ Tucker, you believe
that san Antonio is just going to waltz right through
to the NBA Finals.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
PJ Tucker sliding off the NBA court announcing his retirement
on social media earlier in the week, getting congratulations from
so many different sources because congratulated him both people and
his many outfits that he worked for over the years
are played with the University of Textas overseas, the many
NBA teams, a lot of his NBA player friends and

(51:45):
well deserved. But he spent some time today working on
maybe his next career in the media seat as part
of one of the panelists on the early morning for
Letter Network television programs.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Yeah, hopefully he doesn't choose the Yellow people for a
living in this chapter of his life, but others have.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
San Antonio won twenty six Minnesota ninety seven. Well kind
of went through it earlier. This was a game where
the Spurs just they kept pushing their lead out and
Minnesota would fight back a little bit. They were down
big in the first quarter, closed only down fourth. They
were down big in the second quarter and went to
halftime down twelve when the lead had been even larger

(52:24):
than that. They went down big in the third quarter
after they closed within five, and then eventually in the
fourth quarter that those runs were done and they got
scoreboard clobbered.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Well, that's because of the big bounce back from the
huge victim that is Victor Winbinyama.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
They had a great game. He did twenty seven to
seventeen and five. Yeah, I mean in thirty three thirty
two and a half minutes. That's clearly courageous.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
When courageous, yeah, I mean, this guy is a complete
victim here.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
What's the overcoming I mean, what's he the What's he
the victim of his own ejection? So he's the victim
of his own doing. He almost got suspended, No that's
not right, almost got fined, but he didn't, and he
overcame that. He's there to put up those numbers you
mentioned last night, and I for one am proud of
him because we've never really seen anything like this, a

(53:14):
star player getting ejected for doing something dirty on the
floor and then fighting back to will his team to
victory in the very next playoff game. God I wish
that we could.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Have something inspiring like that happen ever in the history
of sports. But thank god Victor winmbin Yama was the
first one to do it, and that is why he's
the NBA's golden child. And if you criticize him, you're
just a hater. Well, let me ask you about that.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
In specific NBA player perspective and maybe other media perspective,
you think maybe, with what is actually happening, what we've
actually watched happen, and that includes the elbow, his reaction
to that, and then the postseason play in general, do
you think there's anything that is maybe turning this acquired
voice group, turning people against absolutely him and it's not

(54:02):
just him. Well, let me ask the player side first.
Do you think players around the league are all are
less enthused about I mean it almost sounds like, oh,
are the other players jealous of his success? Of course
they are, But do you think there's more too? They're
not appreciative of just how he's treated, or how he plays,
or how he's officiated, any of those things that maybe

(54:23):
just three years in has turned a little bit.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Strictly from the player's standpoint, We'll start there, because that's
what you asked. They're already staring at an OKC conference
final that was basically a foregone conclusion back in October,
and they give.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
A little bit less credit to San Antonio. They're fully healthy. Yeah,
and they're beating a beaten up Minnesota team who's obviously
playing completely without one starter and their best player is
not himself health wise. Correct.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
But let's just because players have specifically brought up the Thunder.
That's why I bring this up. They've been complaining about
SGA's whistle, they've been complaining about lou Dohrt's assault plural.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
I don't have to ask you do you think players
do not like the Thunder? They don't like the Thunder.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
In fact, they hate them and they hate and honestly,
to make it worse, SGA's leaning into it. But he's
not leaning into it in a cool way. He's leaning
into it in a what have I done?

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Way? And it's like, come on, dude, that's he says
it with sunglasses on.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Need Espresser's especially, that's very cool when he says it
totally sunglasses on, because you're taking the most unlikable person
who also happens to be Canadian. He's got that at
going against him as well, and you're making him worse.
Now you've got a guy who apparently I was told
everybody loved going into this season.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
I wasn't one of them. I've been calling this guy
a fraud the whole time.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
He's the most entitled, disingenuous in his own right, petulant
little child I've seen in quite some time, going back
to the draft lottery. And now you've got NBC putting
up a graphic that says, this is Wimby's redemption game.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Are you efing kidding me, NBA? Are you effing kidding me? NBC?
Like seriously, you think, what is he redeeming himself from? Yeah,
any angle like that, I don't have any reason to
push back against it, pushed back against your perspective on it,
because it doesn't make any sense. Like he took himself
out of the game, he cost his team the ability
to maybe go up three games to one.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
And is this guy put on Twitter? This guy's a
bona fide Wimby hater. He goes bro elbows to someone
in the face and they're acting like he just returned
from an acl Yeah, that's.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
How it felt, and they really don't even try to
back it up with bogus. Oh, he's gotten the way
he's been a man handled in the play He's goett.
We said this every day of this series, even of
their last series when Portland couldn't even really put up
a fight. There's nothing out of the ordinary happening to
Victor webbin Yama. He plays in the NBA. This is

(56:53):
what playoff NBA basketball is about, whether he's a big
or not, because.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Especially because he's a big esrificion differently unless they're him,
of course, well.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
A big in the in the usual playoff sense of
getting beaten up like alprin or DeAndre or further back,
Shack Robinson, Zoe Ewing, et cetera. Shack's the one I
always say they're getting beat up when they're trying to
barrel over the player behind him. Correct And all you're
left with is I'm gonnaoul him as hard as I can,
and maybe they'll even call it, but I don't care
if they do, because this is all I can do

(57:23):
because I don't have any other recourse. They're doing this
to Wemby like he's Durant or Curry. They're just not
letting him move around cleanly. They're clutching and grabbing, they're
pushing him around. They're not killing him like a usual big.
They're doing what they do to every player in the NBA, just.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
In the interest of fairness, because I know all you
guys are gonna say, oh, he's just a rockets homer
who hates the spurs, which is true, by the way,
so go screw. But also he's a big. And I
love that you brought up Shack, because I would have
if you didn't. This was the perfect example of this
Shack in his prime, you know, after he spent the
first three months of the season playing his way into shape,

(58:01):
after he showed up three hundred and fifty pounds for
training camp, and he was an unstoppable force. The ninety
nine two thousand Shack season is one of the most
terrifying things I've ever seen in my entire life. This
guy was averaging like thirty five and twelve every He
was killing people, and he was literally killing people because
you couldn't stop him. He was going through you like

(58:22):
a freight train at full speed, and all your recourse
was was to beat up on him. So I would
routinely hear him and Phil Jackson, of course, and the Lakers,
everybody but Kobe basically would be like, well, he gets
beat up on every night.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
No freaking kidding. He's killing our big guy with offensive
fouls every time he goes to the hoop, and you're
not gonna call it. So that's the only recourse we have.
That's the biggest difference between Shack and those other bigs
and Wenby. He's not beating up anybody. Webby, He's not
beating up anyone. He doesn't play that way. He gets
on the podium and starts acting like case.

Speaker 10 (58:59):
Just play it.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
He was asked about, you know, his reaction in this
game and the Minnesota is playing this game versus you know,
maybe did he did he learn something? Did he figure
out how to go about things in this game? More
so because of how Minnesota defends him. This is after
last night's winning game five. Yeah, I feel like the
rage baiting roue would have been maybe one of the
strategies of feel like Newistate composed as.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
A team like I can't roll my eyes hard enough.
We are over what comment.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
That one? Right there? Rage baiting? What are you on Twitter?
Rage baiting? Seriously? Dude like you are.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
So we're about to have a Western Conference Finals slash
de facto NBA Finals between one of the most unlikable
Canadians and unlikable French people I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
And yes, I'm stereotyping. Both of those countries suck for
their own different reasons. I will absolutely go there.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
I will go to town with anybody who wants to
fight me on this because as an American, you know
I'm right. All of you know that I'm right. Nobody
Wan wants to see Canada versus France.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
I think Rudy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Gobert is a sympathetic figure. That's how unlikable Wimby is.
And I've been saying this from the start. I'm not
Johnny come Lately. All these people are like a Victor Wimbiama.
This this series kind of made him unlikable. Where the
hell have you been for the last three years. He's
a absolute unlikable tool who's gonna have a de facto
NBA championship if he wins this and Sam goes for SGA.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
So congrats, NBA, you got a great product. It's not
their fault. The two of the most marketable known talented
players happen to be these two guys, and that's where
we're currently.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Absolutely loathsome both of them. Nobody wants to see this.
I've never rooted harder for an Eastern Conference. Whoever is
the champ in.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
My spans that next to me camps, I will wait, listen.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
I will wear whoever comes out of the East, I
will wear their JERSEYX.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
Jersey and you can wear it on the show. I
can't fit into that. I'm a human joining us next
on Tatsuya Emi, among other things. The a Astro's GM
Dana Brown joined the station earlier this morning for his
weekly visit, and you might find this utterly surprising.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
You might not, but he is still the big O word.
It's called optimism. He's optimistic.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Yeah, very very much so, both for the team. Obviously,
they're going through it a little bit right now. Running
a four game losing streak to the ballgame tonight. Tatsu
Emi has struggled to find a foothold in Major League baseball,
and that's putting it mildly and off of his start
last night, he visited with The Morning Drive with Dan
and Cole. Portion of that interview for you here specifically

(01:01:41):
beginning with why he's so optimistic both for the team
and the offense, but very very specifically, very bullish on
the future for Tots.

Speaker 8 (01:01:51):
We still have a really good offense and we're waiting
on our pitching, you know, in terms of injuries and
so we can catch the base. We have the pedigree.
This is the ruder team. I want people to stay
with us, stay positive. We're speaking life into this season.
We're going through a rough patch right now, without a doubt,

(01:02:14):
but this team is still really good. We have some good.

Speaker 5 (01:02:16):
Things going on.

Speaker 8 (01:02:17):
We're going to get brown back heaters throwing.

Speaker 6 (01:02:19):
The ball very well.

Speaker 8 (01:02:21):
Pinya is out on a rehab. I would just say
stay focused, state positive because we're still.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Locked in Dan.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
It just real fast on Jeremy paying the last night,
there was a scary situation where he got slid into
at second base. He left the game early after being
hit by a pitch. Was that precautionary or is that
something to be concerned about?

Speaker 8 (01:02:39):
Yeah, more precautionary. I'm sure he's going to be sore today.
If anyone have seen the collision, and if you played
football in your life, you know he had that collision
at second base trying to receive the throw from the outfield,
and so I'm sure he's definitely going to be sore
this morning, but I don't see that this is going

(01:03:00):
to derail anything. You know, it may prevent him from
d H and today I thought we were going to
probably have him DH after playing a night game. But
just because he's probably going to be sore this morning,
we'll take some precaution care. But that's that's pretty much it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
Dana.

Speaker 7 (01:03:18):
You mentioned the offense for your team in the last
few games that hasn't looked the way that it had
early on in the season. What are you seeing are
you are you seeing that approaches are being changed or
do you think that they're being pitched differently.

Speaker 8 (01:03:30):
Yeah, I mean I think it's a combination of both.
Guys are pitching us differently. I think we have to
get back to what we were doing early in terms
of taking our walks. I think sometimes guys try to
do too much and so we just have to get
locked back into the strike zone. You know, get our pitch,
take the walk if it's there, and you know, continue,

(01:03:54):
you know, to get after it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Dana.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
Last fifteen games, Cam Smith is a buck fifty four
outing average, a two thirty one slug twenty two strikeouts.
It feels like that he's over correcting too much. What
is the reason for the decline in your opinion on
what you're seeing, And just to be completely transparent, do
you believe that maybe a send down when you have
a more fully healthy outfield of a return of Joey

(01:04:17):
Libraffito and Jake Myers maybe beneficial just to get Cam
Smith right.

Speaker 8 (01:04:23):
Look, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I
think Cam Smith is going to be fine. I think
he's still learning at the major league level. He's twenty
three years old. We all know what he's capable of doing.
I think he's, you know, just in his load. I
think he needs to quiet to load down a little bit.
I think he's getting a little bit out of sink.

(01:04:45):
I'm sure our guys are working it with him and
working it through, and so I think Cam Smith is
going to be fine. But you know, look at the
end of the day, you know, we'll cross that bridge
when we get there. But I really like Cam's that's
going to turn it around. Uh, you know, loaded with talent,
and you know, we just got to give him a

(01:05:05):
little bit more runway.

Speaker 4 (01:05:06):
Dana the last two games, and at the minor league level,
toutsy I struggled with command. You did see the strikes
go on up last night, but it also led to
a fourth inning that got off the rails with a
two count, moving to to hit by pitch to by
hit by pitches a grand Slam. While the strikes are there,
what more do we need to see to get toutsy

(01:05:28):
I back into a rhythm of where it's not just consistency,
it's also not working in a position where it feels
like that you already have your backs against the wall
and you're not even through five innings of work.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:05:38):
Look, he was so good in spring training. He pitched
very well against the A's this year, stuck out nine.
A is a pretty good hitting team. I would say,
we we have to let this guy work out the kinks.
You know, his fastball was up to ninety seven. He
was throwing more strikes. He made some bad pitches, you know.

(01:05:58):
Last night, you know, got a change up of sorry
slider up. It didn't break that much and it got
hit out of the ballpark, you know for a grand Slam,
And so it's it's it's all about making the pitch
when you need to make a pitch, and you know
he's still here learning in the US first time. No

(01:06:21):
minor leagues got to give the guy a little bit
of runway. The guys very talented, Make no mistake. I
am still very confident that Emi will have a really
good season this year.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
I'm not worried one bit.

Speaker 8 (01:06:37):
I know that in the major leagues. Look, we were
talking about the best in the world. The major Major
League Baseball is the best baseball in the world, and
so you know guys are going to go through these periods.
There's a learning curve, and I really think he's going
to turn the corner. I'm not worried about it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:54):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (01:06:54):
It's a like I said, it's a long season where
you know, we played forty three games, we got one
hundred eighteen left. We have to give these guys an opportunity,
uh to make some adjustments. And I really feel that
Emi will make those adjustments. The talent is just it's
too great, right, And so I would say, stay positive,

(01:07:16):
good things are gonna come.

Speaker 5 (01:07:18):
And I'm not worried one pick.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
So super super positive. General manager. His signing understandable. Not
a whole lot with what we've seen that suggests that,
but he's also going off of you know, they're scouting
their history, his professional career prior to here. Now, I'm
curious what you think since he went on to say
this will wrap the segment up with this, he reminded
everybody of Hunter Brown before he immediately became the ace,

(01:07:42):
The immediate Hunter Brown before that was he's going to
lose a spot in the rotation because he can't get
anybody pitching for his spot in the rotation. He couldn't
get guys out, couldn't get out of the early portion
of innings. Bad innings would turn into horrendous innings, he said.
He said, remember what Hunter was, Remember what the struggles
that he want went through. Trying to correlate the two.
Do you find that as a reasonable correlation.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
No, And here's why, because Hunter Brown would be like
I don't know if he said at the time, but
I do remember once he started pitching like the Hunter
Brown we expected, and maybe this will happen with Emi,
but I don't. The problem is what he has already
said kind of negates that Hunter Brown. Clearly, in hindsight,
it was a mechanical issue or ten I don't know.

(01:08:25):
I don't know how many it was, but he would say, look,
we saw something mechanically. Justin Furlanders said the same thing
late in his career here in Houston. They found something
I was doing mechanically, and it kind of, you know,
injected a nice spark into my career.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
That's some spark.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
By the way, EMI's talking about times he eats and
like adjusting to the last and listen, I'm not minimizing
coming from Japan and all that kind of stuff. That's
not a small thing. But the other flip side of
that is if you're gonna keep telling us that you're
bullish on him and you're optimistic because of all this
talent we see, I need to see it, and I

(01:09:00):
don't see it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
I see a guy that can't get anybody out. The
Astros have five more games on this home stand, two
with Seattle, three with the Rangers, and then they're out
on the road to finish out those thirteenth straight days
of baseball, and Emi is scheduled to make his next start.
It's mccullors tonight, Bros. Tomorrow afternoon. More on that and
a few other items, obviously, both with the Astros and
what's on tap around Major League Baseball as the negotiations

(01:09:23):
have begun to make sure the twenty twenty seventh season
takes place. All that more coming up on the ET.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
All right, it is the A team Sports Talk seven
to ninety Speaking of the NBA, how would you rate
with the letter grade the six year tenure of Philadelphia
GM Daryl Morey, Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
No, better than a C minus in the C minus
would come for two really main reasons.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
I would say you might contribute more to this if you.
I think there are more reasons. But definitely trading McCain
to the Thunder is not great. And I don't necessarily
fault him for going and getting James Harden again, but
allowing it to kind of blow up the way it

(01:10:18):
did however it happened. I don't know the particulars. In fact,
I've I've talked to him about that situation off the record.
I'm not going to share what was said, but he
was kind of shocked when James Harden stood in the
middle of China and said.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Dear mooy's a lawyer and we were going to play
for him again. You remember that, where was he China?
And he hasn't played for him again. That's true.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
He hasn't played for the Rockets again either, that much
to the Sugarin of Rockets Twitter.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
There are a couple of things on the positive side,
and I still wonder if he's getting the due credit
for that. Drafting Tyrese Maxi is something that should be
wildly hized as a super positive. I think everybody knows
he drafted him. He's turned into one of the twenty
best players in the NBA. I know he's had a
little bit of an injury issue here this year, but

(01:11:11):
on a per game basis, he and a Men Thompson
played more minutes than anybody else out there, and to
get him outside the top twenty is incredible. And drafting VJ.
Edgecombe this year also should be regarded as a very
very smart pick. With options at his disposal, it wasn't
obvious that Edgecomb should be the next player off the board.
I think the two players that went in front of

(01:11:32):
him are also awesome with Flag and still playing Dylan Harper,
but he that is a franchise altering draft pick. He's
that good I think moving forward. But the other side
of it is you mentioned the James Harden acquisition. I
would say the acquisition of Paul George is equally destructive today.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Franchise I forgot that one. That's good because he makes
a crap ton of money. It was the most anti
Darryl Moury trade since Russell Westbrook.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
Well, what falls in line with Darryl's tenure is you
were like a superstar, right, you were a superstar right then,
I want you run down the list of superstars he's
added to his teams. It's as big as any probably
bigger than anybody's in the NBA. Probably the latest blooming one,
not I mean late Bloomer and James, Chris, Russell, Paul,

(01:12:24):
I mean, on and on and on and on.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
But he tried to get KD when KD was very
much in his prime. He got Dwight when Dwight was
very much in his prime. He got James before his prime.
Those are things that kind of negate those deals. I'm
not saying those weren't bad gaffes. They were, but.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
When you add the money that goes with them at
that stage of their careers, and not just the player himself,
we're talking about the manner in which you acquired them.
Here in Houston. I know we're talking Philadelphia, but Chris
Paul Russell Westbrook and the fact how bad that hurt
the franchise moving forward because of the draft capital that
went on horrific deals I see. So Philadelphia only like

(01:13:01):
he you're gonna you're stuck. When you've got a player
like Joel, do you do extend him or not? Do
you pay him the max or not? You you know,
you know he is not going to be there. It's
a fact. Even though it's injury so it's not but
it is. You know that when you got you took
the job, right, So why why did you give him
sixty million dollars? I know you you don't have many options,
and how do you replace that? That way? It's like

(01:13:22):
the most irreplaceable center in the league. It's not that way.
It's like a quarterback in the NFL. It's like CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
Right now, you're not gonna go get another one, and
you're not You don't really necessarily want to pay him
the going rate. So that's why they're doing what they're
doing this year. They're gonna Wait, you can't do that
in the NBA. It hurts more it actually, in my opinion,
hurts more in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Yeah, because your players mean more. You have so few
of them and there's only five guys on the court.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
And you've brought this up when we've had conversations off
the air about this. You can feel sorry for Darryl
Morey having to deal with injuries in Houston because he
got here before. I mean he got here what year
three of YAO ming before all of the injuries, and
Tracy McGrady had not yet started doing the whole back
thing and then everything else, and then he had all

(01:14:08):
sorts of injury issues while they were while they were here,
he saw what had happened already in Philadelphia and not
only left Houston the way he did. And I've said something,
I've said this to Darrell's face, like I hated the
way he left here.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
He told me, I'm speaking more totally family. No, he's not.
His family obviously is the Sixers.

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
He's taking a job in Philadelphia like two seconds later. Yeah,
but he took it at a place where they were already.
Wasn't Bill Ben Simmons there already or was he already gone?
I can't remember.

Speaker 8 (01:14:40):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
Look at who they actually have and who's out out
there on the court during this sweep out of the playoffs,
they did something remarkable and beat the Celtics, and they
were equally remarkable, just in the different connotation of the
word when they got swept out of the playoffs by
the Knicks and manhandled in most of the games of
that series, several of which Joelle was not on the
court for the Ross sure of Maxi and Embiid and

(01:15:02):
Edgecomb and George and Ubre. And it's really like, it's
capable of winning the East probably m M. But you
know you're banking on things that just simply are so
remarkably unlikely. You navigated the still the season through the
first seventy five games with Joel and it felt like
you navigated it right. And then he had appendicitis.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
I mean, it's just incredible, ironically, where Darryl first started
as a GM A couple of things, well, a few
things here, first and foremost, he's going to get hired
in like two seconds by another team probably role if
you want to kiss, well, if he wants to be
a personnel guy for another NBA team, and he lets
it be known through whatever his representation, that somebody's gonna

(01:15:45):
hire him you don't.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
Have an opening. Don't you where exactly where? Where's this opening?

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Well, there should be one in Sacramento perennially, But if
you don't want to work for that ownership, I understand. Yeah,
I think that, Uh number number two, I don't care
what the Rockets say.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
I would have him back to run this team in
a heartbeat. I don't. And number three is the reason
for that. It'd be a good gm for the people
that think chemistry would be darn.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
Well, he's never you know, he lasted here ten more
years than he did in Philadelphia. Wasn't a sixteen year
tenure here in Houston, it was six was his first
I think full year on the job. So I don't
remember what exactly the year he left. I think nineteen
twenty twenty one, somewhere in there.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
I don't know. They all run together, Plus COVID happened.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
He was never allowed to tear down this team like
Jeff Luno did for example. He's never allowed to draft
high hardly ever. Yeah, to me, it's it's a little
bit amazing. Something I said about Sam Press the other day,
and I stand by it. I think he's the best
talent evaluator of a personnel group or person that there
is in the NBA. I honestly think Daryl's pretty good
at that too, really really good at that, finding players,

(01:16:51):
knowing what players could become. James is an example. And
most of Darryl's draft picks here in Houston are example
because they were never very high, especially the one that
worked out tremendously well. And it's weird that I think
he's so good at that, and yet the things that
are kind of his blind spot which we opened with,
are so prevalent in that all mixed together, you think
if he had the third pick in that draft, he

(01:17:12):
takes Reed Shepherd.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
I don't. I think he takes He'll probably he'd probably
take Castle. I mean, I don't know, Well, does it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
Seem like a I mean, Darryl Moury is a an
analytics guy. I just don't I wonder what he would
have done with He.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
Also likes the philosophy of free throws, dunks and three pointers,
and if he felt like Reach Shepherd.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Would have taken Ability instead of Jalen Green. It's possible
he dunks a lot. Mainly, he does dunk a lot,
and Jalen doesn't hit threes.

Speaker 1 (01:17:42):
Very well. So Darryl Mory is a front office free agent.
He was let go by the Sixers officially yesterday, so
Bob Myers could find everybody's replacement, potentially him himself as
he helps to run some of Philly's sports properties owned
by mister Harris. Two more hours of us here on
the A team Major League Baseball. All we ever do

(01:18:02):
is talk about how bad it is, even though it's not.
But could we fix it? I think we could. We
got some suggestions. Next, it's a.

Speaker 2 (01:18:11):
Four o'clock hour Sports Talk seven to ninety SCN simulcast continues.
We're taking up until six o'clock tonight. Lance maccullors will
take the mound just after seven when the Astros take
on the Mariners in Game three of this four game set.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
It has not gone well so far for Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
They are over and they haven't beaten the Seattle Mariners
dating back to the was it the last weekend of
last season or the second to last weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
The last home stand of the year. Yeah, that wasn't fun.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
That essentially eliminated a team that was hanging on by
a thread for postseason contention, even though even if they
had gotten there, they would have still been down so
many men, and then it just kind of rapidly transitioned
into this year where you're not quite living through the sequel,
but it's basically the same act, the same movie. Bunch

(01:19:00):
of people that you think would be helping you win
games are unavailable to you, and there's no end in
sight as far as when you're going to be completely healthy.
And I realize no team's ever completely healthy, but this
is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:19:12):
Yeah, they should see. We're a month out from seeing
a major difference in the roster, barring any setbacks. One
month from today, it'll be June thirteenth. Hunter Brown, Josh Hater,
Jake Myers, and Jeremy Payne should all be active for
the Astros by then. Probably see Jeremy Pine and Jake
Myers active on the first series after this Homestand I
think we'll see what happens with Jeremy Tonight. Played in

(01:19:33):
last night's game, but doubled, was hit by a pitch
and got into a collision while playing shortstop. Was expected
to be the designated hitter tonight. I will see if
that is in fact the case. Probably a bit sore
from that. Jake Myers got in a hand fluid bats
in yesterday's game, but Josh Hater's timeline is a little

(01:19:54):
bit longer than that. He still needs to get built
back up, and same thing for Hunter Brown. Brown not
even yet on a rehabit side. I'm next for him
will be live vps, but those probably come after his
bullpen this week. Through a bullpen on Friday, we'll have
another one this week and if all goes well, live
vps would be next, and then the ramp up period
is what would follow the rehabbing players. By the way,

(01:20:15):
Nate Pearson also among them. They're doing it with Corpus
because the Astros are here in Houston and the Space
Cowboys are all the way out there in the Great
Northwest taking on Tacoma. It's one of the benefits of
having multiple minor league franchises here in the Great State
of Texas, so that definitely is beneficial for the Astros

(01:20:37):
and they get to take advantage of it in that regard.
Not sure that much else is going to change. It
sounded like Dana indicated it's not that far off for
Yaner Diaz, but he has not done anything like a
rehab but he had the same injury as Jake Myers
that oblique strain, So maybe just that it happened a
couple weeks later, maybe just a couple weeks beyond, and

(01:21:00):
that a June return for him is probably likely. He
was not having a very good season in any area.
He was not receiving pitch as well, he was not
throwing runners out very well, and he certainly was not
hitting the ball very well. So none of those things
had gone well for him, and he's been on a
reasonably steady decline since he really came up and was

(01:21:21):
close to the everyday catcher his first season. It's not
been nearly that good in any of the seasons since.
So not everybody coming back was doing great things, and
now you can just hope that that for some reason
is different when they returned. But clearly this lineup on paper,
it's better with Jeremy Pania in it, And clearly the
pitching staff is significantly better when the number one pitcher
on your entire staff is healthy and your bona fide

(01:21:44):
closer is now available to you. There's some numbers that
will help indicate what's been going on with the Astros,
and they're pitching staff, and I point them out from
time to time. One that's pretty notable about how they
play their games was looking at the last thirty thirty
five days pitching wise for the Astros, much since their
opening home stand of seven games. Since that five game
winning streak, and every team in the Majors had at

(01:22:06):
least nine save opportunities since then, most had fifteen or
sixteen or twenty. The Astros had six. It's not only
in that they aren't winning a lot of games. They're
they're not blowing saves. They're just not playing baseball that
allows them to be competitive as often as you would like.
Yesterday is a great example. They're down to nothing on
the home run, and they scratch and claw their way

(01:22:28):
to tying the game at two to two, and then
their starting pitcher can't throw strikes, puts three runners on
and grooves on right down the middle, and six to
two immediately because you give up a grand slam.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
And that's why Josh Hater's return isn't as sexy as
it looks, because if that's happening, he's not gonna be
out there.

Speaker 1 (01:22:45):
He is going to be out there because they don't
have a choice. That is also true, unfortunately, but in
the he's not going to be getting saves. He might
he might be giving you an inning of shutout baseball.
Maybe as long as he pitches like we think he
can trickle down effect. We're also it hasn't changed during
the last five games, first five games of this thirteen

(01:23:06):
in a row. Brian Obray is barely on this team.
They're not providing save opportunities for one, so he's definitely
not gonna be used because there aren't any. But they
did on the previous home stand when it was two
nothing with the Dodgers and then went to Brian King
for two innings.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
I know he pitched in Cincinnati hurt no, And that's
the thing I don't I feel like if he was.
I'm hoping he is, because it would be a lot
better than the alternative.

Speaker 1 (01:23:32):
He can't pitch anymore well, I still think, and I'm
surprised it's taken this long. If it is, as they
have said, a mechanical thing. I just cannot quite lock
in the mechanics that I've had locked in for three
consecutive years of you know, two hundred plus innings more
than amazing. He's just he's been so locked in with
his mechanics. He hadn't had perfect outings, and he's had
some blow up outings and kind of kryptonite with Seattle

(01:23:54):
over the years, can't find the strike zone. But this
year's totally different. He can't do the things he was
doing last year. He's not throwing his swing and mis
pitch into and then immediately out of the zone. He
can't throw it competitively, So nobody's swing down. Velocity is down,
but you should he's not going out there game after
game after game. I know it's a limited number of

(01:24:14):
game after games, but with an injury, there's I mean,
I'm almost one hundred convinced he's not hurt, because he
wouldn't be able to do the things he was doing
if if he was hurt. But I can't deny what
you've pointed out, and everybody sees and the gun will
tell you. The velocity is down. He has not gotten
up to anywhere near the velocity in a single outing

(01:24:36):
he's had the entire year. That is a tough pill
to swallow because and isn't he up for it is
a bad personally financially speaking, bad spot for him to
be in. Yes, I mean, it's just brutal, and I
wouldn't say they abused him, but he pitched a lot.
Nobody pitched more than him out of the bullpen over
the last three years and made multiple managers that did

(01:24:59):
that to him. Why wouldn't you, well, Dusty, he at
the bell all the time, He got everybody out. He
was phenomenal. That's what I said. I don't think they
overused him. They just used him a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
You know, what he reminds me of is an awesome
running back that just got run into the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
He's dominic Davis.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
Uh if indeed that's what has happened here, you know,
like Dusty's rep was he kills this pictures.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
That's I mean, I don't even want to gosh, that's
just nothing, so far out of it. Can't believe, honestly,
I can't believe you brought that up into this. Why
everybody has said it about his time with Houston. I mean,
my god, Mark Pryor and carry Wood are the walking
injured wounded pictures of all time. And we're twenty years,
thirty years later, forty years later. But he got blaming Dusty.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
He got it set about him at every stop, not
just Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:25:45):
He got set about him.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
In San Francisco, he got and set about it in
who are these other things?

Speaker 1 (01:25:49):
I mean, well, I immediately went to the Chicago pictures.
Who are these other pictures that Dusty's over used and
ruined in the last forty years?

Speaker 2 (01:25:57):
I would have to look up the rosters to be
sure sign not just like pulling a name out of
my head.

Speaker 1 (01:26:01):
What he did in the postseason, I guess he used
the same guys over and over and over again. Ryan Presley,
Rafael Montero, Hectoraris, and Brian abrew They were also pitching well.
Of course, this is what managers are supposed to do.
The pitchers that are pitching well pitched but okay, but
he's not being used like one hundred innings out of
the bullpen and everybody else is at seventy. But we
were talking about this happened to be slightly ahead of

(01:26:23):
several other relievers who have also pitched a ton.

Speaker 2 (01:26:25):
But we've been talking about Brian Abra, who's usage for
three seasons now, and how it's too much.

Speaker 1 (01:26:31):
We've been talking about that in Houston. We have, and
we have here on the shore, expect it to continue
to be great, not necessarily too much to expect him
to not get hurt. Yeah, but here we are. But
he's not hurt.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
Yeah, but you're talking about physical deficiencies in his game
that weren't there prior to this season, and it's kind
of been. I don't want to say it's like you
can shrekking downwards, but it hasn't because it hasn't been
in the last three years. He was just trending down
with Yeah, he wasn't as sharp last season. Last season

(01:27:03):
was the worst of the three. I'm saying it could
be very gradual, the demise or in this case, decline.
I don't want to say that Brian Bradh's done, but
I mean the guy from twenty three on, because twenty
three was the last time I thought he was at
the real peak of his powers.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
I know it's a long time ago. You should include
twenty twenty two. He was incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
No, I'm saying last time he was at the peak
of his powers of twenty three. I know what he
was in twenty two. They won the World Series and
he was a big part of that. I was on
the Mountain Game six.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
I've said this about a bunch of different things. Just today.
I'd never even that thought never crossed my mind, I know.
But twenty two he was unbelievable. So they said, here's
the ball fifty five times, and then they gave it
to him seventy two times. Then they gave it to
him seventy eight times, Then they gave it to him
seventy times. Why wouldn't you why would you expect that

(01:27:54):
to be we better? Of course they want to be careful,
but there's no evidence that since they're doing something wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
There is a fine line. There's a balance for every
pitching situation, for every even non successful teams, but especially
the successful ones because of that very thing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
Well, we're rolling, We're about the commodity angle of it.
He's a low priced young pitcher. We haven't committed huge
dollars to That's the Astros way. So how about another
Well why not why don't we just keep going to him?
Because when and if we do commit to him, we
might decide not to or well, you don't thinks could
be different.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
So the reliever version of Fromber look at this guy
all this usage, and he's also a head case. So
we are not giving him money.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
But he's not I don't think he's he's struck, but
he's I'm talking about a break. I wouldn't categorize as
any of those things. He's not a head case at all.
He's quite the opposite, in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
That's why the whole flap up with stupid arroitous Garcia
in the playoffs, right, He's like, he's going bad, but
you're so mad at Brian Abray you and so what
do you do?

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
If with Maldonado, what an ass clown. It was happening
on both sides.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
I think people forget that Jordan came back from injury
and was immediately hit by and.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
That's what's so dumb about it. And Garcia is basically
living up to his billing. I can't stand that loser.

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
Ray overworked right into your wheelhouse of don't play here
a dulus garciat that head, you know, grow five hands
on what he's doing now that he's not arranged, still
watching me and they know I'm right, And that's how
we would fix major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
We were just extolling the virtues of Beverly Hills nine
O two one oh. And this all started because yesterday
was apparently the anniversary of Donna Martin being banned from
prom because she got or graduation because she got drunke
at prom.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
A great student?

Speaker 5 (01:29:59):
Though?

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
Was she did she really lie to get into the
audition so she could get on that show that her
dad was the executive producer? About what? I don't I
thought she was on the show specifically because Aaron was
her dad. All right, uh so we're having our casting call.
All right, your next Tory Smith. I think you look familiar.
You look like our EP. I think her only acting

(01:30:22):
credits prior to that were only things that he'd been
a part of, like love Boat. She was on love
Boat as a child. In the Kentucky Derby. She had
an oat bag at the end because she won. That's
that's really mean, very Carrie Bradshaw commentary from you another

(01:30:43):
what do they call him something or other? Yeah? Something
or other? What rule changes would you make to Major
League Baseball?

Speaker 2 (01:30:52):
Since we're on the topic, I'm sorry, I just did
not transition into that. So the two that popped out
at me again.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
Just year to run through things that we might think
would make this great game even greater.

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
This is from an athletic mailbox, but it was like
the article, it was a the author made it into
an article based on these pieces of mail email electronic
mail that he got and two of them that popped
out at me. The first one and this is my favorite.
You're gonna hate it. Allow teams to concede a game

(01:31:25):
instead of having a position player pitch. And it said,
and this is the email itself, don't talk to me
about the integrity of the game and give me this nonsense.
What used to be a once in a decade event
is now commonplace.

Speaker 1 (01:31:38):
Who does that sound like?

Speaker 2 (01:31:39):
Don't talk to me about the integrity of the game
and have this gift runner on second base because you
have made it up during COVID.

Speaker 1 (01:31:45):
That's me. Well, when you open up your comments is me.
When you open up your comment with don't talk to
me about well, then I think you're trying to be
Ryan Leave.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
Don't talk to me, knock it off friend of the show. Yes,
really nice guy.

Speaker 1 (01:31:57):
I would probably be on board with that, maybe much surprise.
The Astros did it a bunch last year, right next
to each other, and Chas was pitching every other day.

Speaker 2 (01:32:06):
Oh he was, No, he was lobbing because the follow
up very very quickly, too.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
Many readers agreed.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
David Dee I love these last initials.

Speaker 1 (01:32:17):
He wrote.

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
If you're putting in position players to pitch, you're no
longer trying to win the game, so there's no reason
to keep playing. Watching an eleven to one game in
the eighth inning is like sominex and he says. The
guy that actually wrote the article says, the problem with
position players pitching is that they aren't under orders from
the manager to get the game over with without getting hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
They love the ball rather.

Speaker 2 (01:32:43):
Than show why they were an All county pitcher in
high school, they are or there are position players who
could throw triple digit fastballs, others who could carve with
breaking balls, but they're not permitted to try. It's not fun.
It looks bad, and we're counting the stats. The game
stats are sacred, yet it allows non competitive behavior. It's buffoonery.

(01:33:06):
It's Sully's the sport. Let them concede. I agree, you
would be better off with synththy of baseball by letting
teams forfeit or concede, then letting these chases go out
there and make a mockery of things.

Speaker 1 (01:33:21):
Yeah, we brought up the stats angle. Obviously, if you
were listening earlier this week, and late last week. I
totally agree with that, and you are you literally are
conceding you're trying to not hurt anybody else in your bullpen.
Agree with this, Yes, I think it because it makes sense.
It would be nice if we could manage your way
through nine innings, But there's things that are more important,

(01:33:41):
like the next game and the arm of a pitcher
who threw forty pitches three days ago, two days ago
you can't use again. Cooper Hummel gave up the fourth
home run of the game to Nick Kurtz last year
at Dyke And Park. It counts, of course it counts.
Here's the things Ar Salasar gave up a home run
this year.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
If you're okay with the gift runner on second, where
the number one priority of that being implemented into the
game is we're not sitting here eighteen innings later, then
you should be fine with this because at the end
of the day, you're trying to what keep guys healthy
and not have everybody stay there until two am.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
Except for one major difference during the postseason, No, when
when do you get a gift runner? What's the score
at that time tied? What's the score when you're putting
a position player out there, not tie. It's too much
of a difference to make the comparison. I understand the
silliness of the same, sure, but yeah, you're you're in
a tie game. All you're trying to do is get

(01:34:36):
a winner. In these games, you have to we have
a winner. We already know who won the game, all right.
And then they did put in a couple of nuanced
rules to when you're actually allowed to use position players
to pitch. Now, the score has to be at a
certain point. It can only be in certain innings, late
the last inning. So but for the winning team too,
it applies. So this is the one you definitely will

(01:34:58):
not And I'm not saying I agree with this, but
I'm ready to fly off the handle. I do see
where they're coming from. Put the kaba. This is from
Andrew M. Put the kabash on all electronic technology in
the dugout during games. Okay, keep the phone to the bullpen.
Players and coaches should create technology exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:35:18):
Players and coaches should be using their own physical senses, experiences,
and communicative abilities in real time to figure out what's
going on. Here's the response he wrote, and then I'll
let you have the floor. It is disconcerting to see
a hitter return to the dugout after a strikeout or
home run trot and go straight to a tablet to
consult video, But it would be relatively complicated to ban tech.

(01:35:43):
Even if tablets weren't permitted in the dugout, players could
then retreat to the clubhouse or video room to review
footage of their at bat. If MLB managed to ban
even that access, it's unlikely the no tech approach would
significantly impact gameplay. If anything, it would pictures at even
more of an advantage. It would just look better, and

(01:36:04):
that does matter. This is Alex Bregman's anti rule. He's
always on a tablet.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
One of your most favorite moments in Astro's history came
immediately after a tablet was used, right here at Minute
Made Park a few years ago, when it was Minute
Made Park, and we were all sitting together up in
the auxiliary press box auxiliary tables, and Scott's servis had
just retreated to the dugout after summoning his lefty Robbie

(01:36:30):
Ray a starter when that pitching change got made in
advance of Jordon Alvarez going to the plate. Jordon Alvarez
just leaned back on the beyond the on deck circle,
right next to the dugout, and he was looking at
the tablet of Robbie Ray and just going through some
things that probably were little reminders or this looks like this,
or and he went up there and he was he

(01:36:52):
always let's say, so, Earmus, that was a piss missile.
We're we're looking at this. This is a performance enhancing substance.
So fast a tablet, it's a performance enhancing substance. Yeah,
I'm pro having it available. I knew you would be,
and I like, you want to see better baseball, and
this helps to produce it. I mean, I'm not saying

(01:37:15):
a two to one game or two nothing games should
go by the board and we got to get rid
of those. I'm not like that at all. I'm fine
with all that stuff, and this does tend I know
pitchers have access to it. Where where it comes into
plays is what we saw probably with Fromber the other day,
definitely with the Red Sox and Yankees and Rockies. Over
the years, it's gotten to the point where it's being
used for other things like pitch tipping. The I really

(01:37:39):
don't think there's gonna be much an offense could gain
from watching a pitcher if they didn't have the use
of video during the week in advance of the start,
the day of the start. I mean, you're really gonna
be able to pick this up after not looking at
it on video and not studying it to the nth degree,
these minor, minor changes to where his glove is being
held and where you're getting that because you have access

(01:37:59):
to all this vide and you have people specifically employed
to find all these little nuanced parts of a pitcher's
wind up, so you can then relay that to the
players legally with a funny part about that whole because
that's that game. The comeback in Game one that Jordan
looked after an awesome JV start. Not awesome, I mean

(01:38:20):
JP Crawford went yard off of him. What an absolutely
and lead off tonight, He's a turd. That was the
start of a run that I was legit concerned about
because of what rust.

Speaker 2 (01:38:35):
Rest they're gonna have. This has never happened before. These
guys are gonna suck.

Speaker 1 (01:38:38):
STU destructed the game until the World Series, not even
until game three, and then they know hit them the
next game out, so that fun. I was dumb. I
said so many dumb things. Yeah, it is. Technology is
kind of all or nothing kind of thing, right, But
there's a lot of it I want, but I totally
get how much of it people don't want.

Speaker 2 (01:38:58):
Like you love PitchCom if for no other reason, then
it supposedly is keeping everyone from cheating.

Speaker 1 (01:39:05):
Right, So if you got rid of it, got rid
of the tablets and everything, you would have never they
never need PitchCom, right because they You're still allowed to
cheat from second base, but now you if you don't
have electronics to do it, it's still fine like you're
third base, if you're Eric Cosmo. PitchCom is strictly in
place to combat sign stealing, which they never could figure

(01:39:28):
out how to get rid of it any other way.

Speaker 2 (01:39:29):
Somebody brought up Jeff Passen's old tweet after the letter
was revealed and how he went into the levels of
cheating so that he could just come back to the
original conclusion Orange Team Bad.

Speaker 1 (01:39:40):
I hate that, dude, So we'll recollect this and briefly here.
So if the Astros Orange Team Bad worst kind of cheating,
that's deaf con what.

Speaker 2 (01:39:49):
I don't know because I always get that wrong. Deaf
Con five is supposedly the lowest right way to go.
Def Con one is like nuclear Wars upon us. Astros
are def Con one cheaters. You'd think with all the
times I've watched Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide,
I would know this by now.

Speaker 1 (01:40:03):
Yeah, fueling their missiles. Wait, way to mention all the
movies you shouldn't have. Everybody knows the number one movie
for talking about def Con is War Games. Take a plug. Yeah,
you are the panel I'm hosting. Just behind the scenes,
a little BTS for you as we get to Wednesday's
bs here our signature segment. On a Wednesday, there's two
and a half, three and a half four four and

(01:40:24):
a half minutes in between segments on any given day,
at any given time on the show. During those times,
go get a drink, facilities, grab something from the printer,
or look through your reels, or check texts, or prepare
for the next segment, any of those things.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Get all of the above, except for prepare for the
next segment. Is what I do and what I have
done since I was in grade school. And I'm not
the kid that didn't do anything on the group project
but I am the kid that had add and was
willing to do anything to not do whatever I was
supposed to be doing on task at any given time.

Speaker 1 (01:41:01):
Does that sound familiar? So during this last break, well,
I'm trying to put the finishing touches on another graphic
to appear later in the show for our TV show
that we are on currently, Hey, what's up? The most
graphic I do will be the first one you were
locking up an event you have coming up featuring Richie
Vallen's television brother Bob.

Speaker 2 (01:41:21):
Yeah, Lou Diamond Phillips will not be there, but is
Sime Morales will be at Comic Palooza and it's May
twenty third and twenty fourth, it's that weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
We previously appeared together at Comic Palooza on a panel
featuring Creed, Oscar and David of the Office.

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
David Wallace was awesome, he gave both guys were great. Yes,
and Creed was very Creed.

Speaker 1 (01:41:46):
And again doing this and Comic Palooza is enormous and
hits a bunch of genres. Yes, and you will be
the host of the panel with is Sime Morales.

Speaker 2 (01:41:56):
Well, he's got a wide range of appearances in both
types of screens large and small. For the record, for
your question during the break, LaBamba was eighty seven. He
was the aforementioned Bob. He was I don't know the
name of the character in Young Guns. One year later,
lou Diamond Phillips Diamond.

Speaker 1 (01:42:17):
We were looking around at some of East size work
Mission I possible and awesome. He popped up in fifteen
cop shows over his career. Whether he was a main
character or someone who was on both sides of the
law helping them with the case, or the person they
were looking for in the case, yep, no, he's he

(01:42:38):
is a.

Speaker 2 (01:42:40):
Career yeah, very long, very like, it's varying, does not
even give it justice, but it's uh, if you want
to come to the panel, there's tickets. I actually put
a story on my Instagram and I think if you're
friends of me on Facebook, it's there too. There's a
link to get tickets because he's got photo ops as well.
He's super nice guy and he's it's it's May twenty fourth,

(01:43:01):
which is a Sunday. His panel is from eleven thirty
to twelve thirty, which I mean, let's face it, panels
are about letting you guys talk. The less I talk,
the better.

Speaker 1 (01:43:12):
Yeah, a little introduction, a couple of back and forth,
and then basically it opened up four questions from what
is usually very in tune with the person's career or show,
and very good questions.

Speaker 2 (01:43:23):
Just to give you an idea. And I probably should
not say this, but it's not my panel, so I
don't care. My wife is hosting a panel a few
hours later with Laurence Fishburn and it's probably geared more
towards the Matrix side of things, but he's got a
huge resume.

Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
Like East I Furious Man.

Speaker 2 (01:43:40):
Yeah, so that and I've never seen the Matrix movie.
That's That's what I shouldn't have said out loud. I've
never seen any of them.

Speaker 1 (01:43:46):
Yes, I was just wondering what was it like to
work with Keanu Reeves? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (01:43:53):
And if it was Keanu Reeves, he would say whoa
and then you would continue.

Speaker 1 (01:43:58):
Larry's career is spec tacular. Yeah, and I'm actually like
pumped low key for her. She says that because my
panels in a movie with Mike Tomlin, was he Yeah,
higher learning Omar Epps. That is thin Mike Tomlin, Omar Epps.
He was also in the program.

Speaker 10 (01:44:16):
He was supposed to play the Sam Jackson character in
Diehard three. Die with the vengeance, dude, because why didn't you.

Speaker 1 (01:44:21):
Say he was supposed to play the Sam Jackson character
in pulp fiction? Well that would have been much different. Awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
Wait a second, Omar Epps was supposed to be Samuel L.
Jackson and they're in part three.

Speaker 10 (01:44:32):
Noisper Oh okay, but he threw me out too much
money and uh. And then pulp fiction came out tying
back to your pulp fiction. They're like, hey, let's just
go get Sam Jackson. He's cheaper and now he's a
huge star. Because Diehard three was ninety three, was it not?
And pulp Fiction was ninety four?

Speaker 1 (01:44:47):
I was not really asking Josh he knows. Actually I don't.
Actually I think I'm wrong. I think Diehard three was.
You think there are a lot of roles that one
of the two of them played Samuel Jackson Lawrence Fishworm
that either could have equally he.

Speaker 2 (01:45:00):
Delivered as long as they were saying the very multi
syllabic curse word.

Speaker 1 (01:45:05):
Yes, and by the way, one role, I would say
maybe not Samuel. Two roles for Samuel L. Jackson. I
think he was perfect in the Plane. No, no, come on, Well,
you won't think he was perfect for that. He was
perfect in smaller roles in Goodfellas, oh geez. And he
was perfect in a smaller role in Coming to America.

Speaker 2 (01:45:26):
Okay, I'll give you those, but you can't say that
the most perfect Lawrence Fishburn on the plane. You don't
think that movie would kill. I think the snakes were
going to kill either way. I mean, when the two
went into the Mile High Club bathroom to do their thing,
there was no way one of them wasn't dying from
a snake bite.

Speaker 1 (01:45:45):
Okay, so there was one other item we had for
this segment, and there's a perfect amount of time for it,
not a whole lot. The headline in one of the
local news stories in Miami reads as follows, I've never
been a nice guy. NFL Hall of Famer blank blank.
He speaks out after judge orders he stay away from
Hollywood City Hall. Well, this is in FLA, this is

(01:46:07):
in Miami. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:46:08):
And you know who's from there, The Rock And also
Warren Sapp who actually beat out the Rock for his
spot on the defensive line on that University of Miami
team that year.

Speaker 1 (01:46:18):
And now the connection to the Rock is over.

Speaker 2 (01:46:21):
Yeah, the Rock has had a wildly more successful career
at all sorts of levels. And Warren Sat had a
very very good Is he in the Hall of Fame?

Speaker 1 (01:46:29):
Hall of Famer Warren Sap? That is about this, This
is who the article is about. He's also just one
of the worst people ever. And I personally experienced this
here in Houston at the stadium that was Reliant Stadium
then and will be again soon. But yeah, according to
an instant report from the Hollywood Police Department, Warren Sat
made a quote unusual amount of requests and prevented a

(01:46:53):
female city employee from performing her duties while he was
at the police department's headquarters. He also allegedly refus used
to stop recording video inside the station after a lieutenant
repeatedly told him he was not allowed to record video
inside an official police area. And then, several weeks later,
according to another court filing, Sap visited the Hollywood Police

(01:47:16):
Department yet again, and while there, a city employee described
him in a statement as being rude, aggressive, and intimidating. Now,
the news outlet there in the Hollywood, Florida that wrote
this up couldn't help themselves in writing now. The repeated
confrontations led to Sapp being charged with disrupting the official
duties of city employees. The judge sacked Sap with a

(01:47:40):
standard pre trial supervision order.

Speaker 2 (01:47:43):
Going to your quote, I've never been a nice guy.
You think I give a damn about what you think
of me. I know who and what I am. It
ain't done. It ain't done. I've got a June tenth
court date.

Speaker 8 (01:47:55):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (01:47:56):
It ain't even done, not even a little bit. Yeah,
we know. There you go. Or on SAP not currently
coaching college football.

Speaker 6 (01:48:06):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:48:11):
It is the a team Sports Talks seven nineties.

Speaker 2 (01:48:13):
We are winding down the four o'clock hour on a
Wednesday edition of the program. That's one of Wex's favorite
lines of mind. When I say that we are winding
down an hour, it's because it's the last segment of
an hour. But he thinks, I don't even know why
you don't like it.

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
Here's what I think you're saying. We're bringing the energy
level down and we're just going to coast through this
because it's just about over anyway. So that's all good.
So that's so like you. That's not even where my
mind would go. You'd even hear it the exact same way, right.
That's that's now the opposite shoes on the other foot.

Speaker 2 (01:48:48):
I mean, that's so weird. Why are you so weird?
You probably make mixtapes for yourself too. I just check
it out on at Adam Clanton on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (01:48:57):
I put together random recorded music that I like that
I can only get without purchasing the entire cassette or
album by listening to the radio. In the eighties, I
heard You're a weirdo. That's what I heard, completely the
only normal thing to do. Like every person my age
had fifty of these tapes laying around, falling five notches.

(01:49:18):
That Stairway to Heaven from nineteen seventy three, right sounds
about right? All right?

Speaker 2 (01:49:25):
So as we extend this amazing talk show for another
few minutes during the four o'clock hour before we get
to our prime listening hour of five pm.

Speaker 1 (01:49:35):
Has that better longer? But better? A lie? Who should
get extended? First?

Speaker 2 (01:49:41):
From the top of the twenty twenty three NFL draft,
where the Texans, thank god didn't trade up or get
the number one pick so that they would have could
you imagine this defense with Bryce Young wasting it? Oh
my gosh, that would have been awful. That bag on CJ. Stroud,
don't know how good you have it. Could you imagine

(01:50:05):
Will Anderson after Bryce Young? Somebody's not holding up there
into the bargain.

Speaker 1 (01:50:10):
I think the Texans made of steak by extending Will
Anderson before they extended Bryce Young.

Speaker 2 (01:50:14):
That said, no one ever like if the Texans extended CJ.
Stroud like tomorrow in time for the twenty twenty sixth season,
there's gonna be some people that are like, well he
didn't earn that, But they're not gonna be like, he's
a midget, why would you.

Speaker 1 (01:50:29):
Give him that money? Listed at five ten two four,
that's Bryce? Yeah? Right?

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
How many phone books is he standing on? How many
platform shoe pairs does he own?

Speaker 1 (01:50:40):
They won half of his starts last year platform cleats
after winning just six of the twenty eight starts he
made in years one and two. He's undefeated head to
head against CJ. Very important to Carolina's growth if they
can beat the Texans once every four years. Right, But yeah,
they won half of their games last year. They sat
in a division that allowed them to compete for the
division title.

Speaker 2 (01:51:02):
What I mean they have played in the worst division
in football for all of his years.

Speaker 1 (01:51:07):
There were moments last year, some comeback opportunities or some
fulfilled comebacks where he really did make plays. But three
years of starting for the Panthers, a coaching change. He's
now in the year three with that coach and OC
and a benching all a part of his time there
in Carolina. New general manager too, Dan Morgan. He went

(01:51:29):
did an interview with the folks over at the NFL Network.

Speaker 2 (01:51:33):
Do you think he goes by thunder Dan Morgan or
is that just from Marley Well?

Speaker 1 (01:51:38):
He was a thump linebacker as an NFL player.

Speaker 2 (01:51:42):
Those linebackers are just to ask Dirty Diana, But I
thought he.

Speaker 1 (01:51:47):
Was a tight end to her. No catching touchdown passes?

Speaker 2 (01:51:52):
No, who's a Linebacker's the Mike linebacker?

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
Uh? No? Listing of nicknames for Dan on his Pro
Football Reference page. Sorry, Big Thunderdan sounds about right. He's
general manager now helping make personnel moves for the Carolina Panthers.
Was asked if they're considering this offseason, which there's still
plenty of off season, making it happen and extending their

(01:52:17):
quarterback Bryce Young.

Speaker 11 (01:52:20):
That's something you know here internally that we'll keep talking through.
We'll be in touch with Bryce's agent, and you know,
we'll figure it out at the right time. Right now,
I know Bryce is focused on, you know, getting better
every single day, and you know, we obviously love him.
He's getting better year after year, becoming a great leader

(01:52:41):
for us and really mastering Dave and Brad Idseay's offense.
So we're excited about Bryce. When a contract happens, you know,
we'll see about that. But you know, we're excited about
him and you know, our future here in twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:53:00):
If you didn't know who that was, names and just
let you hear what he said, you say, oh, I
recognize him. That guy's a general manager of a sports
franchise and he was asked about a player that we
have questions about, and that's why he gave the answer
that they did. We're excited about his future. He's made strides.
What a leader. Working with Brad and Dave, everything's going

(01:53:20):
to be great. I'm hesitating on whether or not to
share with you the reference nickname for Bryce that I
know you've never heard before. There is one black Cat
No black Jesus, I do it every time. Black is
not a part of it. Okay, well those are one
Michael Jordan's nicknames. I don't really think they're close the

(01:53:42):
decisions between what the Texans should do with CJ or
what the Panthers should do with Bryce. I don't wait,
what are the nicknames? There's just one? What is it?
It's the name of an extremely hot pepper, Cayenne. No,
an actual pepper, not a spice. Well, why is it
called a cayenne pepper if it's not a pepper? You

(01:54:02):
said cayenne?

Speaker 2 (01:54:04):
Oh my gosh, the semantics hoops you jump through?

Speaker 1 (01:54:07):
What is it? Carolina Reaper? There's no this just that's
why I said to do it. He didn't even play
there until three years ago. The Texan c J. Stroud
looking for a contract extension, same as the Carolina Reaper.

Speaker 2 (01:54:23):
They're in a panther land. How bad does it look
if the number two pick gets his deal before you do.

Speaker 1 (01:54:29):
Well, neither of them are getting at this off season,
So before or after is only going to come next year?
And some really more of a semantics thing. If Bryce
Young's team is competitive in their division next year, and
they will be a much worser division. They're going to
extend it. And I'm not saying that the South is good.
I sit here today thinking both teams are going to
extend those players based on how Bryce plays. If he
plays at the same level last year or worse, I

(01:54:53):
would not extend it. I would say, you got a
fifth year option, let's go play it. And then you're
even in a position to say, all right, go play great. Well,
you can't go anywhere, because now you're great, we're gonna
slap the franchise tag on you. There's no reason for
Carolina to commit to Bryce Young if he doesn't have
at least one awesome season, specifically this coming season, because

(01:55:14):
he doesn't have any yet.

Speaker 2 (01:55:15):
What if, okay, take Bryce Young out of the equation.
Even though I totally wanted to discuss this, let's just
talk about CJ.

Speaker 1 (01:55:22):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:55:25):
What if he has a slightly better year than twenty
twenty five. How many yards he passed for last year?

Speaker 1 (01:55:33):
The numbers are awful, so it's easy to I know,
but I need to know them for this purposes of
this conversation. Four He didn't throw for four. He threw
what three five hundred thousand? Remember he missed three games
three forty one. Yeah, it was this worst season by
a lot. I'm actually surprised. One hundred yards less than
his previous career low. Rightly, but he missed three games. Yeah,
that does factor into the equation. Hey picks, well, his

(01:55:55):
yards per game was also his career low. Eight picks
versus how many touchdowns twenty five? Dude, stop, he was
not winningwhere near that good nineteen Good Lord CJ twenty
Kazer rookie twenty in year two full season nineteen last
year missing three games.

Speaker 2 (01:56:10):
Okay, let's say he has twenty five touchdown passes, misses.

Speaker 1 (01:56:15):
One game and he only throws eight picks again, then
we will absolutely talk about it in football at five next.

Speaker 6 (01:56:30):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven nineteen.

Speaker 1 (01:56:33):
Program one hour until we get you into Astros baseball coverage.
They have the Mariners tonight. Lance McCullers junior for the
eighth time this year, Ryce Miller for the first time
this year. He's making his season debut. No Cam Smith
in tonight's lineup for the Astros. Ridden Shoemake back out there, Descenzo,
Matthews and Cole doing the outfield work at least from

(01:56:55):
a starting lineup perspective. One other note before we dive
head first into the car line of Reaper. The Corpus
Christy Hooks game earlier today featured zero Astros rehabbing baseballers
as expected, an earlier game for them, and no activity
for either of the pitchers who threw yesterday, obviously, and

(01:57:15):
the same for Jake Myers and Jeremy Pania, who will
continue their week's worth of work. Likely with the sixteen
and nineteen double A outfit. We will get more into CJ.
Stroud and Bryce Young in their futures, but we'll pick
back up right there for those that were listening, We'll
start right up there, and then we'll get into where
do your rank? Texans Jaguars Wembley Week six that was

(01:57:41):
announced earlier today. All of the international games have now
been announced. Many of the other standalone special games over
the course of the season the last three days have
been officially announced. The entire schedule will come out tomorrow evening.
Astros baseball in the afternoon, so we'll come on after
the game wrap up their series with the Mayor, and
then at six o'clock we will transition into special edition

(01:58:04):
of the Nightcap, will be on six to eight of
the we being Cole and Josh Jordan. They will take
you through the evening's worth of Texans chatter. When now
you know where to have your very well paid and
intune locked in travel agent, I'll lock up your trips
to go see the Texans, not only in London, but
surely you want to make a trip to Indianapolis and Jacksonville,

(01:58:27):
Nashville on purpose. Great place is to go visit Nashville's cool.
Don't diss Nashville and the five other stops the Texans
will be made.

Speaker 2 (01:58:35):
The only thing about Nashville that sucks is the team
there and the owner of that team.

Speaker 1 (01:58:39):
And just as a reminder in case anyone was not certain,
the game the Texans are playing overseas in London is
a home game for the Jaguars. Yeah, the Texans still
play eight home games this year nine road games. That
is not a true road game. It's more like the
neutral site game. Even though the seats are never all

(01:59:00):
the seats are paid for. Yeah, so there you have it.
We'll get into some of the other announcers. There are
a handful of games that were not yet known before
earlier today and which ones the Cowboys are in, but
we were having a discussion about what the Texans and
the Panthers should do. The third overall pick in the
twenty twenty three draft has been one of the best
players at his position. From the moment he put on
the number fifty one jersey here in Houston, he was

(01:59:21):
the defensive Rookie of the year. He's gone on to
receive plenty of other accolades and watching him chase down quarterbacks,
stop the run, and lead this football team well deserved
fifty million per year on a three year, one hundred
and fifty million dollars extension this offseason. Went first eligible
from the twenty twenty three first round of the draft,
Will Anderson. Two guys drafted in front of him, two quarterbacks.

(01:59:43):
They've been the the starter from day one in both cases.
The only games that CJ. Stroud has missed or games
he missed due to injuries, also started and played through
six postseason games. Bryce Young was actually told to not
play when healthy because Andy Dalton was there and they
wanted to give Andy a shot. Over the course time.
Also has had a head coaching change. CJ's had a

(02:00:03):
coordinator change, and obviously personnel changes for both their respective
careers probably are both stalled out a bit. It's really
never been anything great yet for Bryce Young and his
first year was disastrous. The two years with Canalis have
been a little bit better, and his ability to stay
on the field and help guide a team to winning
half the games he started a much bigger step in

(02:00:25):
the right direction. For CJ. Stroud obviously started gangbusters. There
was just big play after big play, sparkling numbers two
hundred and eighty yards roughly per game last year. It
was two seventeen. The rookie version of c J. Stroud
won the Rookie of the Year Offensive Rookie of the Year,
made playoffs in year one, won a playoff game in
year one, and it hasn't quite been at that level since.

(02:00:48):
A bunch of other issues for both of their teams
offensively we could dive into, but most people really won't care.
It's all about how they individually performed. Their team will
go along with it this year. Your expectations for CJ.
Stroud this year, you said, as you were arriving at
his numbers from last year, which are not sparkling. If

(02:01:09):
he's on the field for fifteen sixteen and seventeen games
this year, because it was just fourteen last year, his
total stats should blow away, absolutely bury anything he did
last year. His touchdown percentage in year one was four
point six. His touchdown percentage last year was four point five.
He just threw the ball less, so his total stats,

(02:01:32):
his counting stats were lower. The ability to connect in
the end zone wasn't much different. Neither of those are elite,
By the way, you'd like that number to be higher.

Speaker 2 (02:01:40):
Again, with the run game being addressed the way it
was this offseason, with the offensive line probably most importantly,
being addressed the way it was this offseason, with the
defense somehow, health included getting better. I think if he
had twenty five touchdowns, eight picks through four, I'll say

(02:02:05):
thirty seven fifty, just to kind of give you an
in between number between basically what he did last year
and four thousand yards.

Speaker 1 (02:02:13):
Leaning towards the four thousand you sign him.

Speaker 2 (02:02:18):
You don't do the scenario you mentioned with Bryce Young,
where you say, all right, fifty year option time and
then we're gonna franchise you.

Speaker 1 (02:02:24):
It's harder to do that with someone who's had success.
Bryce hasn't.

Speaker 2 (02:02:27):
That's the funny thing I was looking up a redraft
for the twenty twenty three Pooka Nakua head and shoulders
above everybody else. But Will Anderson is still the second
best player in the draft according to this one. And
I would say that would be one two if you
redrafted the twenty twenty three draft.

Speaker 1 (02:02:41):
Wouldn't you?

Speaker 2 (02:02:43):
For you do you put that much stake in getting
after the quarterbacks, so you would say Will Anderson's number one.

Speaker 1 (02:02:49):
I probably would like.

Speaker 2 (02:02:51):
Here's how they have it, Puka number one, Will Anderson
number two, b Jon Robinson number three, Devin Witherspoon number four,
and Jamiir Gibbs rounds out the top five Jackson Smith
and jigbas six. In case you're wondering, c J. Stroud's
seventh on this list, ahead of Ze Flowers. That's easily
said ahead of I'm just picking out some names that

(02:03:15):
seem like they're strong to very strong.

Speaker 1 (02:03:18):
Yeah, is another guy. Devony Change's the next name actually
after Zay. That's why c. J. Stroud is where he was.
As you're talking it out loud, it's hard to put
him any lower than that.

Speaker 2 (02:03:31):
Tank Dell is number twenty six on this list, which
kind of surprises me that he's that high.

Speaker 1 (02:03:37):
That's alarming.

Speaker 2 (02:03:40):
Yeah, well, Bryce Young's number thirty two. In case you're
wondering where he is on the redraft, the number one
pick in the draft in twenty twenty three is all
the way down. He barely made it into the first round.

Speaker 1 (02:03:51):
Okay, twenty five and eight probably indicates a pretty good season.
Would love to see him maybe throw for clo two
forty two fifty per game. You know, a good chunk better.
You got to be better in the red zone as
a quarterback. They couldn't run the ball in the red zone,
so a lot of the pressure falls on the play
calling the quarterback to now make plays where everything's all
constricted because you're in the red zone. But they just

(02:04:13):
need to be better, and they were bad. There's no
other way around that. As an offense. They were bad
in the red zone. But you realize going from nineteen
touchdowns to twenty five touchdowns for CJ and again, if
he played more games, maybe the GAP's not as large.
That's six times you're not scoring three points, you're scoring
six points, and even over an eighteen seventeen game season,
that does add up. That does put you in this

(02:04:35):
Why does Demiko love playing close games. Well, he wouldn't
play as many close games if they were closing out
these drives with touchdowns instead of field goals. I want
no part of Kayami Fairbairn leading the league and scoring.
I want him kicking forty five to fifty pats for
the first time ever. And maybe you kick twenty four
field goals instead of thirty eight or forty or forty two.

(02:04:57):
And remember Kayami missed games. That's where they're provement has
to be made extending drives clearly being better on third
down where you hope what you mentioned the offensive line
and the running back situation gives you third and fours
and third and threes and third and twos instead of
third and nine's and third and elevens, Because third and
nine with CJ. Stroud last year, more so the year before,

(02:05:18):
would turn into fourth and twenty because he'd dropped back,
wouldn't have any throw to or wouldn't have time to
go through his progressions. Instead of eating it for a
three or four yard sack loss, he would spin around
a jump over a guy and lose eleven yards and
they'd be punning from even worse field position. Now if
they're punting. They're not even giving the ball to Tommy Townsend.
They might be giving it to Kai Kroger or Jackstone

(02:05:39):
asking me about that, So that is a little bit
of a concern. My biggest concern overall offensively is probably
not even CJ. But if he performs at a slightly
better level, which means they're gonna win at least the
same number of games as they won last year, which
means they're in position to win the division just like
they were last year. Hard to believe they had a
nine game winning streak in a seventeen game season and

(02:06:00):
did not win the division. But Jacksonville basically kept winning
the rest of their games after they lost to Houston,
the same as Texans won almost every game during that stretch.
But they're gonna be better because of those things. Even
just twenty five and eight. Why can't we Why why
is thirty unreachable? Why can't you have a quarterback who's
out there every week throw for thirty touchdown? The reason
I didn't go for thirty. If it's thirty, it's a

(02:06:22):
done deal. I mean, maybe we're trying to just debate
here and good in the low end.

Speaker 2 (02:06:26):
The reason that I don't go to thirty is because
I do think they are leaning even more heavily into
we're going to be a running team, and when you
are running that much, I'm factoring in a margin for
err on that kind of number, because A, when you're
running that much, that drains the clock, and B I'm

(02:06:47):
just thinking the defense is going to be that impressive
as well.

Speaker 1 (02:06:50):
We'll give people a hint as to why we're not
going to thirty. How many quarterbacks do you think I
have a thirty touchdown past season? Last year? Probably less
than I'm thinking ten, way less. Seriously, in a pass
heavy league like this, yards were down, touchdowns were down. Five? Nope? Four? Wow? Okay,

(02:07:11):
so wait, let me see Stafford. Uh Am I on
the wrong year here? Yeah, I am on the wrong year.

Speaker 2 (02:07:18):
Okay, thank you, But I wouldn't be surprised if I
don't know. Now, I'm kind of curious, so we'll recalibrate.

Speaker 1 (02:07:26):
Okay, you don't how many quarterbacks through for thirty touchdown
passes last year? Ten? Nope? It less? It's four again?

Speaker 5 (02:07:34):
All right?

Speaker 1 (02:07:35):
Stafford? He had forty six? Uh Darnald, No, he had
twenty five? What dude? They had twenty four of them,
Jackson Smith and Jigbu. Kenny Walker was running wild. He
wouldn't run that wild. Zach Charmonday was filling it up.
Who are the other three?

Speaker 5 (02:07:51):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (02:07:52):
Dallas's quarterback? Oh my gosh, what a waste? Uh Coach
Campbell's quarterback and Diana Versini's boyfriend quarterback. That was for you. Wow,
that's a low blow. That was it last year? All right?
You say giving away tickets again today? Are we not?

(02:08:12):
That's what it says, ron.

Speaker 2 (02:08:15):
A pair of tickets do in the evening with Jeff
fox Worthy of this Sunday May seventeenth, it's Smart Financial
Center in Sugarland.

Speaker 1 (02:08:22):
It's this Sunday just what I said to you that
weren't paying attention.

Speaker 2 (02:08:26):
That's what I said this Sunday Perfect. It was in
the prompter, so I read it perfect. Tickets are on
sale Smart Financial Center dot net. We have established that
either spelling of the words center will do. You'll go
to the same website even if you put R like
a dumb Canadian. What people that spell center R and

(02:08:46):
sga are the worst kind of Canadians. Dylan Brooks is
the best kind of Canadian. Him and Brian Adams have
that in common. There's best and there's the worst. Anyway,
Jeff fox Worthy, this Sunday, May seventeenth, Smart Financial Center
at Sugarland, You'll need to be listening very closely to

(02:09:08):
something we say between now and then in order to
win those tickets by calling Josh.

Speaker 1 (02:09:13):
Opening week of the NFL season eight thirty five evening
game ten thirty in Melbourne is when the Niners and
Rams will get together in week one one of these
special games. It's spinning outs before the overall schedule gets
out there. International games. These are the international games that's
in Australia Week three as the Ravens and Cowboys in Brazil.

(02:09:36):
Three straight weeks of games in London. First one features
the AFC South, same for the second, same for the third,
Colts and Commanders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium week four. The
following week, Jacksonville begins its two week stretch in London.
First they host the Eagles in that same stadium, and
then the following week it's the Texans game. The Texans

(02:09:57):
go over seas to London for the second time, their
third overall international game. I remember they played with the
Laser Beam game in Mexico City a full of years ago.
Shauber probably remembers someone in the crowd had a laser
pointer and he was shaub was there saying or what

(02:10:17):
was it? It was Shaw right, not Brock.

Speaker 2 (02:10:22):
That sounds bad and that's not even the only Houston
athlete that had to deal with that. Although when James
Harden had a laser pointer in his eyes, I think
he dropped like sixty on that poor team.

Speaker 1 (02:10:31):
So Texans and Jaguars in London at Wembley, the other
London stadium that the Jaguars are calling home this year.
Following week Steelers and Saints, they play in Paris Week nine,
first second week of games in November Bengals and Falcons.
That's the Madrid game. The following week, week ten, the
Munich game Patriots and Lions. So Mike Rabel will be

(02:10:55):
going overseas for that game, presuming he's still employed by
the Patriots. And the final international game is that Mexico
City game for this year. That's in Week eleven, Vikings Niners.
Obvious question which we brought up when we heard the
rumor of the report of the Texans playing overseas, uh,
just in general making a trip in season to play

(02:11:15):
a game in London against it, for it, indifferent?

Speaker 2 (02:11:20):
I don't like having a wake up before nine am
to watch football on a sud.

Speaker 1 (02:11:23):
Let me ask that again. From a team standpoint, are
you for it, against it or indifferent? Not from a
personal viewing standpoint, I'm gonna renswer it in a football sense. Ready, Yes,
you have to let me finish the whole statement. Got it?

Speaker 2 (02:11:37):
If I have to wake up at eight thirty to
watch an NFL game before nine am, it better be
against somebody that's better than the stupid Jaguars who don't
even have a home game to show for it.

Speaker 1 (02:11:47):
Isn't that better? No? From a Houston Texans organization football
team trying to win games, win a division, win a
super Bowl, do what everybody wants to see him? Do
you like it? Do you dislike it? Or are you
indifferent to playing a game and anser it a third way?

Speaker 8 (02:12:03):
You?

Speaker 1 (02:12:03):
Ready?

Speaker 2 (02:12:03):
I'm ready give me the most sexy twenty twenty six
Houston text and the opponent just look at their schedule
and give me a name that's better than Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 (02:12:13):
Shoot for the top. Every good team that's on it
is better than the Jaguars don't have to be good
or best to say Buffalo always the argument, let's just
say Buffalo. Okay, all right, Josh Allen.

Speaker 2 (02:12:24):
Maybe Hailey Steinfeld is gonna be there with the newborn whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:12:28):
Very important.

Speaker 2 (02:12:29):
It is important if you have to have cutaways of
stupid Taylor Swift.

Speaker 1 (02:12:32):
At least I look at somebody that's cool anyway, Probably
still have time for them to put one out there,
so may running.

Speaker 2 (02:12:42):
Now the math doesn't math. If you've got to wake
up that early, wouldn't it be awful? But they really
got after it soon. They just have the kid. If
you have to wake up that early to watch NFL football,
isn't it way more awesome to watch Josh Allen versus
stupid Sunshine?

Speaker 1 (02:13:02):
Do you think it matters to the football team that
they're traveling overseas. I'll be honest with you. It sounds
like with my I'm attempting to get you to answer it.
You refuse to answer it, but then you surprise me
and say, yes, you think it does. You're acting like
you're indifferent to it. This is why it matters. And
I'm being real here.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
This is not like talking about Taylor Swift now they're
going to give the Texans their week, their bye week
in week seven.

Speaker 1 (02:13:26):
You know that, right? It seems likely what they're doing
is they're.

Speaker 2 (02:13:29):
Putting Jacksonville in London and they're letting them sit there
for three weeks. They're playing back to back games there,
are they not?

Speaker 1 (02:13:35):
Yeah, they travel out there before their Week five game,
and the only thing that changes between Week five and
six for Jacksonville is they end up playing in the
different London stadium, but they get to stay over there
in advance. That's like a regular game week. For what
if we talked about their bye week in week seven
all off season? What have I talked about?

Speaker 2 (02:13:50):
This defense is gonna probably be better than last year,
provided they're healthy. You want your bye week in week
seven on a seventeen week calendar.

Speaker 1 (02:13:57):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (02:13:58):
I want it week ten after because I know inevitably
there's gonna be injuries to one or both sides of
the football. And I got a bad feeling that we
got lucky last year and wasted that defense because CJ
couldn't get his head together. So I mean, forgive me
for not being crazy about you have to have your
bye week in week seven because we put you in

(02:14:19):
London against the stupid Jaguars. At least if it was
against the Bills or a sexier opponent, I could be like, well,
that was cool. They had a really awesome game against
a way better opponent instead of freaking Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 (02:14:30):
I already hate that they're in the league anyways. What
a terrible place to play a team They could have
had Jacksonville playing London games in Week nine to ten.
That would have been better for the TEXANSUS. It's that,
I guess. I'm not bye week was a week earlier.
I last year, after the bye week they won almost
every single game they played, any game winning streak.

Speaker 2 (02:14:50):
I'm not waking up and looking to complain about something,
and I'm not I hate everything guy, no matter what
he tries to paint me as. I'm not cool with
anybody playing anywhere outside of the United States in the NFL. Well,
it's too physical of a game. The travel takes too
much time time, you know, time zones and all that
kind of stuff on players who are playing a far
more physical game than any other sport out there in

(02:15:11):
major American sports.

Speaker 1 (02:15:12):
Because hockey doesn't do this. They're playing in another country.
But it's up North. It's so basically Canada and Mexico
would be acceptable, and that's progresh it.

Speaker 2 (02:15:20):
I'd be fine with that. Hey, let's have a game
at Niagara Falls. Sweet, I'm there. It's in another country,
so it counts. Yeah, it's all the game in Mexico City.

Speaker 1 (02:15:28):
Same thing. Eight thirty Central time kickoffs. And that's the
majority of the international games. Six of them are eight
thirty am kickoffs. Those are three thirty in the afternoon
or two thirty in the afternoon, one thirty in the
afternoon in the destination where they're playing the game. But
it's it's more about you're gathering everything up from a
logistics standpoint, but you're also taking these like people in

(02:15:52):
the NFL are already complaining about, oh my god, this
is an East Coast team and then to fly out
to the West Coast twice. But there is these are
games that are overseas that you're flying to.

Speaker 2 (02:16:04):
But aren't there statistics that back that way of thinking,
especially when teams go from the East Coast to the
West coast.

Speaker 1 (02:16:11):
If I don't believe that there are without even knowing.

Speaker 2 (02:16:14):
If the Dolphins have to play in Seattle this year,
they're not winning that game.

Speaker 1 (02:16:18):
But they're the Dolphins exactly. They're not winning because the
Seahawks are champions and the Dolphins.

Speaker 2 (02:16:23):
World patriots who can overcome all sorts of sex scandals,
go all the way from Boston to Seattle.

Speaker 1 (02:16:30):
They're not winning that game. Yeah, I think it's just
it's more about who the teams are.

Speaker 2 (02:16:34):
Can I I'll tell you the biggest gripe I have
about this particular list.

Speaker 1 (02:16:37):
It's just one that I grabbed.

Speaker 2 (02:16:39):
They ranked them, and the number one game was the
Cowboys versus the Ravens in Brazil. They're ranking the international games.
They say this one is the best, and here's why.
Get ready, it's gonna be sour like a lemon. The
Cowboys remain the NFL's biggest brand and one of the
most recognizable franchises in professional sports. Bringing that level of

(02:17:02):
star power no pun intended to South America marks a
major win for the league's international expansion efforts. I'm one,
I'm not even gonna read the paragraph about Baltimore. What
are you talking about? Where's the star power? Dak Prescott
and you traded the other guy? Was this a dad joke?

Speaker 8 (02:17:22):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:17:22):
Because of their helmet. I mean That's why I said
pun intended. They do matter that their individual players matter
less who they are the Cowboys, it still matters internationally
in business wise, And.

Speaker 2 (02:17:33):
As someone who brought this up said earlier, I'm like,
why why do they matter? I read this earlier on
social media. I think it was an actual journalist that
wrote this, like, why are we still doing this with
the Cowboys? They haven't won squat since nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 1 (02:17:48):
Look at the numbers that why are the Cowboys and
jump that Cowboys? They have a bunch of dumbasses that
watch their games. They like to lose. That's all that matters.
I guess if people watch, that's what you're that's what
you care about. People are interested as much as it
seems like they shouldn't be.

Speaker 2 (02:18:03):
Strive for better standards, America, I have a better team.

Speaker 1 (02:18:07):
Keep asking.

Speaker 2 (02:18:12):
Real quick before we get to In case you missed it,
you're aware of the presence of one Justin Termine on
social media and co.

Speaker 1 (02:18:21):
Host of an NBA radio program with Eddie Johnson.

Speaker 2 (02:18:25):
Yeah, he is a He's like that jackass out in
the Bay Area. He's one of my mortal enemies in
the media landscape. Like we've gone back for enemies. You know,
you remember the time that I remember the time of
Greg Twoey thought that it'd be fun in Miami to
get me in that jack hole together.

Speaker 1 (02:18:43):
I'm not even gonna say his name. You know who
I'm talking about. I was there.

Speaker 2 (02:18:46):
He's one of the members of the Warriors media who
thinks they're partially responsible for those championships. He's a moron too.

Speaker 1 (02:18:54):
Jeez, what a day.

Speaker 2 (02:18:58):
Justin was one of those guys because he was an
anti Harden guy. Okay, so we would always go back
and forth. Lately, lately, I've been agreeing with him a lot.
And this is the latest everybody's talking about. And you
had the same reaction today when we were both in
our rundown remotely and you were like.

Speaker 1 (02:19:19):
Love Lebron, Season's over.

Speaker 2 (02:19:21):
Move on, even though there's new fresh crap about him
coming out, like he was jealous of JJ Reddick getting
a game ball for winning his whatever game it was. Yeah,
he thought, well, Rob Polinka should to give me that bow,
because that's who he is. So Justin writes the following.
He quote tweets this, and he says, they gave his

(02:19:43):
kid a job, but they didn't give him a ball,
So now he's a victim and we have to read
a whole article on it. And I said the following
just now during the break, because you know, this is
one of the things other than preparing for the next
segment that I was doing. I said, lately, I've been
agreeing with you more and more, and it's terrifying. Who
knew that all it would take was James Harden dropping
a nuke on Houston's franchise to get it done. Like

(02:20:06):
he said other things lately NBA related where I'm like, yeah, man,
right on, it's weird.

Speaker 1 (02:20:13):
Huge swing game tonight for James Harden and the Cavs.
Game five. Better not to go to Game seven tied
to two games apiece. It's definitely going to Game seven.
Member rod Tidwell's brother. Everybody knows. When the lights are right,
he chokes up.

Speaker 2 (02:20:24):
He was bad that I'm on the turf probably dead
at least as far as Marcy knew, Regina was.

Speaker 1 (02:20:30):
He was kicking him out of the room. Marc, you
know what, get out of here, Okay, So yeah, you
a lot of we will still have some lebron talk
find its way to the show. Over the course of forever.
He's not playing in Houston, So stop. What do we
have in the in case you missed at Arsenal today.

Speaker 10 (02:20:47):
Yeah, well, we've been talking about these international games and
you asked Ac if it mattered to him about going
across overseas to play. Jacksonville and CBS put out this
article here that calculates the miles track for the upcoming season,
and they got the Texans in the top three third
most miles traveled coming this season at twenty eight thousand,

(02:21:07):
four hundred and seventy. They're only behind the Rams and
the forty nine ers. So if you are a person
that believes in this could be a disadvantage for the Texans.

Speaker 1 (02:21:16):
Yeah, I think it's unquestionably something you'd prefer not to do.
But one thing that's different this year, more so than
in previous years, is so many teams are doing it.
They keep adding international games. So now someone's traveling to Munich,
someone's traveling to Brazil's slightly less unfair. Now too many
teams are involved. Now the Niners are way out front.

(02:21:37):
The Texans are third, like Josh said, and the Niners
are first. That's a coastal team I'm assuming plays into that, well,
they've got two international games, so they're at thirty eight
thousand miles. The Texans are at twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (02:21:49):
I'm telling you, going back to what you were asking
me last segment, I have long been like I would
silently fist pump every time the international schedule come out
and the Texans weren't on it, because I think this
is stupid.

Speaker 1 (02:21:59):
Yeah, I don't know if I say it's stupid, but
it definitely appress. And that's why they're doing it. It's
why they do everything to make money. Yeah, but pretty
simple business play. The same reason.

Speaker 2 (02:22:06):
They're making these guys play seventeen games, and we'll soon
make them play eighteen games. Same reason, and for the
same reason. It's bad idea. It's it's not going to
be good for the actual players. They don't care about them,
even though they say they do.

Speaker 1 (02:22:18):
Texans will fly twenty eight thousand plus miles to go
about their twelve to thirteen win season, and at the
bottom of the list, Carolina Reaper quarterback less than nine
thousand traveled miles for your Carolina pa.

Speaker 2 (02:22:32):
Now like you call Arson Judge and all the other
nicknames you use.

Speaker 1 (02:22:36):
YEP, miles travel by NFL teams. All right, check what's next?

Speaker 10 (02:22:40):
Yeah, Well, if you're a person that does not like
going on the streaming apps to watch your games, well,
Netflix and the NFL have expanded, well yeah, and extended
their offer here, Well, they're contract basically now. It's gonna
go through all the way through the twenty twenty nine
to twenty thirty season. According to PFF, the move protects
the Netflix Netflix Christmas games against the possibility of renegotiation,

(02:23:04):
so it looks like Netflix will continue to be a
part of our NFL lives.

Speaker 5 (02:23:08):
Well.

Speaker 2 (02:23:08):
Fortunately Christmas is on a Friday this year, so when
they inevitably shove three games down our throats that day
and night, at least it won't be on a Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (02:23:17):
Yeah. I don't mind the streamed games when they're basically
getting standalone games. I would be very perturbed if I
was trying to watch a game on a stream while
three other games were going on over the air, because
the channel flipping is out the window when you have
to do that, like base just one game. I don't
mind going to the stream for it. And clearly I'm
almost always saying it without realizing it. It costs more money.

(02:23:41):
People that want to watch games over the air like
they have for their whole life watching NFL football. Oh
my god, money net football is going to ESPN. This sucks.
That was twenty years ago. That's what people said then,
and they're gonna say the same thing now. It's costing
them more money. I've got to have a subscription to
this and subscription to that and this, and I've already
already paid for the direct TV pack. Well, that's a
YouTube package that is a real factor, and I kind

(02:24:03):
of gloss over it every time, and I apologize.

Speaker 2 (02:24:05):
Well, but what you gloss over isn't the cost, which
is a real, actual factor. The only thing I'm apologizing
for the you gloss over the fact that people are like,
I have to go look up where to find this game.

Speaker 1 (02:24:17):
If you heard me say that about the NBA and
thought I was ridiculous because there's so many of them,
that's different now in the NFL. Come on, you can't
find where this NFL game is with you.

Speaker 2 (02:24:26):
But when the NBA is airing playoff games on fifty
different streaming services and you have the attention span of
a gnat because you live in the year twenty twenty six,
I get it.

Speaker 1 (02:24:37):
Cav's Pistons tonight. Where are you watching? Who knows?

Speaker 2 (02:24:40):
It's just if I decide to look it up, maybe
I'll watch it. But you know what, it's just not
that important to me.

Speaker 1 (02:24:45):
When you turn on your television, you'll be able to
see it if I have a smart TV. Just a
regular TV that gets over the air. Major broadcast networks. No,
I'm sorry, it's on a cable which one the only
cable channel that carries the NBA. I don't even know anymore.
No BBS, you know what it is?

Speaker 5 (02:25:06):
F S one.

Speaker 1 (02:25:06):
It's the Disney owned network. Oh, espin, What else do
we have?

Speaker 10 (02:25:11):
Yeah, I'm not a guy that ever cheers for injuries
or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (02:25:16):
Stop lying, Josh is about to cheer for an injury.
I am not.

Speaker 10 (02:25:19):
But as a fan of the Astros, after everything they're
going through, it's nice to see that it's it's not
just them. It's nice to see that who got hurt.
Yankees lefty Max Freed pulled from his start. He was
getting shelved by the Orioles, by the way, after three
innings with a sore elbow. Gonna go get some imaging.

Speaker 1 (02:25:36):
That's never good. Yeah, I mean all we have to
do is take you at the exact words that you used.
I'm not one to cheer for injury. And then when
you delivered the information, you said, it's nice to see
you know what, lean into it, Josh be a villain.
Carlos Redon had recently made his return to the Yankees rotation,
and then what happened did not go well? Yeah, why

(02:25:58):
he didn't get enough guys, that's one of two reasons.
He either sucked or he got hurt. Story of his career.
But the Astros cheated and he's mad about it. The
Yankees provided one hit of support today for Max Freed,
and I thought the greatest lineup of all time, the
under five hundred Orioles bludgeoned them seven nothing today. That's baseball.
So Aaron Boone sucks again? Interesting, No, no, true. I

(02:26:23):
thought that's how it worked when they win. He's a genius. Yeah,
exactly what. You're right what you said down to cash,
no question about it. Yeah, we'll give away those tickets
because you were listening to which one of the three
of us was cheering for injury in the previous sec
that's so mean.

Speaker 6 (02:26:42):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:26:46):
Back here for the final segment of the program, but
don't go anywhere. Astros Baseball will follow. You've got the
Mariners and Astros tonight, Lance mcculler's junior and Bryce Miller.
Bryce Miller making his season debut coming back from injury.
That starts at six o'clock with the Astros on Deck show.
And of course, we got tickets to give away to
an evening with Jeff Foxworthy that is this Sunday, that

(02:27:08):
is May seventeenth. He is performing at Smart Financial Center
that is in sugar Land, and you can get tickets
to that show should you not win them right here
with us at Smart financial Center dot net. You know
the drill. We reward our listeners for hanging out with
us each and every weekday afternoon, even if we're talking
about mixtapes and isi morales. We appreciate you. And if
you've been listening the last handful of segments, most specifically

(02:27:30):
the most recent segment, you'll know the answer to this
very simple question seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. You can fire off the answer to this
question that we just discussed, and you can win that
pair of tickets to go see Jeff Foxworthy seven to
one three two one two five, seven ninety. When Josh
wasn't rooting for injury last segment, he was talking about

(02:27:52):
how far NFL teams must travel this upcoming season. So
when calculated the mileage, the Texans are set to travel
the third most miles of any NFL team this year
at a little over twenty eight thousand. The Bryce Young
led team Carolina is set to travel the fewest miles
this season, at under nine thousand. Who's scheduled to travel

(02:28:14):
the most miles this year? We mentioned that team a
couple of times. Uh, they'll play internationally. As your obvious hint,
what team in the NFL is scheduled to travel the
most miles to play out their seventeen games schedule in
hopes for a return trip to the playoffs. I'm purely
seven ninety. I liked your first idea better. Which one

(02:28:37):
of the three? I can't confuse people here? I get
a little good question, Yeah, yeah, which team? Which team
is set for the most travel miles this year? In
the NFL? They already know the opponents and the road games,
and now they know the additional games that might take
you overseas. So those calculations can be made prior to
Tomorrow night's six thirty Central time. They're going to release

(02:29:00):
the full schedule for the every team in the NFL
next year, and we've got programming schedule for that six
to eight tomorrow night. Josh and Cole Thompson will be
with you here to walk you through what's going on
with the Texans and their newly released schedule tomorrownight after
we wrap up with the tenth Inning Show and the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (02:29:19):
You said almost haphazardly, twelve to thirteen wins when you
were mentioning it earlier. Is that what your realistic win
total is for this upcoming season, considering the schedule and
now that you have the draft in place, and what
they've done in free agency and bad bad bo.

Speaker 1 (02:29:37):
If you won twelve last year and had terrible run game,
an average to below average quarterback well, and he missed
three games, they would have had to have a really
bad offseason or a crazy difficult schedule for me to
look lower than that. You know what didn't luck into

(02:29:57):
nine straight winsfrad is gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (02:30:00):
I hate to say this, I hate even putting it
in the universe, but I've got to be honest, I
am afraid that you're gonna get better health from CJ,
but you're gonna have a massive blow on the defense
just because of the nature of the game, and that's
going to not necessarily set you back, but maybe you
don't improve on last year. That's the only way I
think their defense doesn't improve on last year, and that's

(02:30:21):
saying something it was historically good.

Speaker 1 (02:30:23):
They're in such a good position even if what you
say does happen, and it very well could because kind
of law of averages thing. You know, you're in tough
spots depending on who it is, but I think they're
well equipped to handle it in most situations. They have
no depth a to edge right now, and we're curious
who will technically turn out to be the next corner.
Could it be Jalen Smith, as it somebody else that
they've brought in. How does that all play out? Beyond that,

(02:30:45):
they could probably figure it out and pick this piece
to move into that spot. They've got multiple Pro bowlers
up front, They've got Pro Bowler at the one of
the two linebacker spot. They've got three to five Pro
Bowl caliber players in the secondary. I think they can
manage through it. But yes, I think that would be
the reason. Just for those that don't know before tomorrow,

(02:31:07):
the Texans will get visits, will welcome in, will host
at Houston Stadium this year the three teams of the
AFC South Alliance. Currently it's Houston Stadium. It's not a
FIFA event at the NRG Stadium formerly known as Reliant Stadium,
which will currently in the future once again be known
as Reliant Stadium. So much words. Yeah, that is dumb. Hey,

(02:31:30):
here's what the Texans are hosting this year. The teams
of the AFC South obviously Ravens, Bengals, Bills, Cowboys, Giants.
These are the places they're visiting this year, along with
the three division foes Cleveland Pittsburgh, LA to face the Chargers, Eagles,
Commander's Packers. What if I were why can't they won

(02:31:51):
twelve games?

Speaker 5 (02:31:51):
Again?

Speaker 2 (02:31:52):
What if I were to tell you they end up
having a better road record. That's not an outlandish thing
to say when you just rattle off those opponents.

Speaker 1 (02:32:02):
You need to win three home games against the division.

Speaker 2 (02:32:05):
I bet right now, having not seen the winning percentages,
and I know it's not based on the prior year,
I would say right now the winning percentage of the
teams they're facing at home was higher than the ones
they're facing on the road collectively.

Speaker 1 (02:32:18):
Two teams that played poorly last year, in addition to
Tennessee would be SINCEI in New York, New York probably
won't be a lot better, but maybe better. And Cincinnati
you never know because they're breaking it up.

Speaker 8 (02:32:30):
You know.

Speaker 1 (02:32:31):
Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, and Josh Allen are the other
quarterbacks coming to NRG Stadium and go just rattle off
the road opponents again. They will be facing Deshaun Watson,
Aaron Rodgers, Justin Herbert, Jalen Hurts, Jaden Daniels, Jordan Love
along with the three division games. They're going to have
a winning road record, and it might be kind of lopsided. Yeah,

(02:32:55):
I think it's fairly even. I think that's a pretty
tough both spots. You said, Aaron Rodgers is Saint twenty ten.
That's one of the easiest quarterbacks and one of the
easier teams they're going to face. But you're still trying
to go to Pittsburgh at I'm not sure what time
of year. Justin Herbert's going to win roll them the
ball at least three times. I know they made the
playoffs last year. I think Josh and I were talking

(02:33:17):
about it on my favorite show of the week earlier
this week. I'm not sure which day that was. I
think the Charge that was Monday. I know listeners total
d I hate that. I love what the Chargers have
done this offseason. I think they're going to be significantly better.

Speaker 2 (02:33:35):
They still have Justin Herbert as their quarterback, and people
keep saying that that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (02:33:39):
Madison Bear's boyfriend is good.

Speaker 2 (02:33:42):
That's and that's another reason, legitimately reason that he's gonna suck.

Speaker 1 (02:33:49):
He's just doesn't. Sorry to name me his most marquee
performance ever. Go ahead, do that for the Texans quarterback.
I mean I can choose three from his rookie year. Okay,
So which of his three regular season games during his
rookie season three years ago? Do you want to mention
the comeback against Tampa? It was rhetorical? Man, three years ago?
Was his best game? Well, I'm just what about the

(02:34:11):
last two years? What about the last two postseasons? But
nobody's talking about CJ. Stroud as if he was developed
in a lab. That's the different because Justin Herbert is
the prototype. Well, of course, look at his hair. It's
not a funny thing is He's had awful hair and
awful seasons he's had relative to how he's talked about.
He's had some bad performances and he gets away with

(02:34:32):
it because they, Oh, my god, how's he supposed to win?
Look at their line? What's he supposed to do?

Speaker 2 (02:34:37):
Yeah, all the things that CJ's dealt with, except for
in his case, he doesn't get a pass.

Speaker 1 (02:34:42):
Yeah, his postseason game against the Texans two years ago,
they obviously clobbered him. And then they had their issues
this year, both against Houston late in the regular season
and then when they got to the postseason. Same reason.
He's the prototype.

Speaker 5 (02:34:56):
He is.

Speaker 1 (02:34:57):
If you could build it. It's funny how you say it.
It's like so little. If you could build a quarterback
in the lab.

Speaker 2 (02:35:02):
The prototype that would be actually plays football right now,
honestly in Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (02:35:08):
He's just never healthy. Not the very good prototype, breaking
down all the time. Give him Justin Herbert's health. He's
probably already won a ring, if not too. And Justin
Herbert's healthy while he's getting beaten up. Yeah, good for him. Impressive.

Speaker 2 (02:35:22):
It's almost as impressive as the real prototype in Cincinnati,
the Queen City.

Speaker 1 (02:35:27):
We'll see what year seven has in store for Justin Hurt.
I'll tell you what it doesn't have in store. A parade.
Gave those tickets away. Appreciate everybody listening. It's the Niners
who will travel the most in the NFL this season. Josh.
That is rooting for injuries. We did not ask that question.
We got Astros on deck for you. Coming up next.
Lance mccullor's junior does what tonight? He does not get shelled.

(02:35:54):
That's good enough for me, But he only lasts four
and two thirds. I'm giving him in the full five
hens count agree on unshelled. We'll be back with you
tomorrow again with the day game Tomorrow. Our presence will
come after the ballgame for the Astros tenth inning show
and of course the conclusion and duration of the A

(02:36:14):
team tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (02:36:18):
The eighteen on Sports