Later Lance, Welcome KD, Who Likes West Sacramento Anyways!

Wex and AC  return from Father's Day to give their thoughts on the Astros' sweep, KD rumors and more! Plus, Best of X, The Good The Bad, The Ugly and a pitching performance of a lifetime.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
My Girl.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Nolan Hockey.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Multify the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports.
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
Talking Your Teams? Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the
A teams A.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
What's Up Houston, Texas? It is a Monday edition of
the A Team. It's Sports Talks seven to ninety's soon
to be on Space City Home Network. Wex ac Cole
Thompson with you. After a weekend where the Astros refused
to lose, it was dominant and yet not unexpected. I

(01:07):
think unless you talk about the fact that, as I'm
hearing a lot of chatter and I saw this over
the weekend, you're starting to, I don't know, the pendulum
starting to swing to people like Joe Spotted now as
a manager. I feel like he got all this hate
early on in his maiden voyage last season, and now
all we hear about is how he is doing fantastic

(01:29):
things with a roster that continues to suffer the slings
and arrows of one hundred and sixty two game campaign
and all the injuries that come with it. But Astros
have now won five straight. They sweep the Twins out
of town a very happy Father's Day in walk off
fashion for the second game in a row. That was
a very fun series this weekend, wex.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
Yep dominating wins, two of them coming and walk off fashions,
so the game was tied right before each of those swings.
You don't have to do it, man, good help myself.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
What about what about Friday?

Speaker 6 (01:59):
Though?

Speaker 5 (02:00):
Dominant?

Speaker 4 (02:02):
So overall? If they didn't lose a game and they
blew them out in one of the three, is that
enough to qualify for you to call it dominant.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
I mean, we're probably not even a week's worth of
shows removed from referencing the two thousand and five World Series.
And you don't even want to hear people say the
White Sox dominated because they didn't. They just want all
the games. That's what the Astros did this weekend. They
just won all the games.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
You were the absolute worst. It's awesome.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
I just had a fantastically weekend. Couldn't be happier about it.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
They won all the games, owned all weekend and you
had nothing to do with that. But you would have
if you could have.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
Nah, No, I love the r I would soak it
all up, obviously, to bring it into the show each day,
four hours worth each day all week this week in
front of late night, I guess Sacramento's West Coast baseball.
I mean Oakland is West Coast Baseball. So we'll leave
it at that. They need to take care of business
on the road, and all of a sudden, I would
consider the Astros and elite team. Their record says you

(02:56):
shouldn't be hesitating to do so. They've drawn very, very
close to the Yankees, with Rafael Devers's former team taking
care of business against them. This was a pretty insane
weekend overall, for many, many, many, many many different reasons. Obviously,
the Astros continue to crush it at home. No team
in the Majors has more wins in their home ballpark

(03:18):
than they do. They are twenty seven and thirteen, They've
won five consecutive games, They've won each of the last
two games, and walk off fashion from guys at the
bottom of the order, with Cam Smith and Mauricio Dubon
producing those walk off hits in each case. Saturday, one
right up the middle for Cam Smith. As soon as
it was hit, everybody knew they were going to win,

(03:39):
and Dubond's yesterday as soon as it was hit, everyone
was hoping it would find its way to the wall,
or off the glove or over the wall. But nonetheless
it did the same thing. It got the Astros a
victory forty one of them through their first seventy one
games this year. Remember, this was a team that in
the first thirty six games, since you referenced their manager,

(03:59):
Joe Spotted, they managed just twelve wins. Twelve wins in
thirty six games, and the Joe of Spota era, what
an era. It was looking like it was going to be.
And then they won the division. They won seventy six
games the rest of the season. They've won forty one
of their first seventy one games this season. They've been
absolutely insanely successful since that start last year. And clearly

(04:22):
I think everyone would agree the seventy one games that
encapsulate the twenty twenty five portion of that is within
with a group of less talented players. Certainly yesterday's Roscher
you can't get much worse than that. And they won.
I mean, they're starting players that absolutely positively I don't
I'll say this right now after Cooper Hummel and Luis

(04:44):
Kiorme are dfad they won't have major league at bats
in their future ever. Again. I mean, that's pretty bold statement.
Both in yesterday's starting lineup, both a part of multiple
teams over the last couple of years, and the Astros
have had Cooper Humble before and then three other teams
had Cooper Hummel over the time since he left last

(05:05):
year and came back this year. But win the organization
for just a couple of days, can't wait to find
out what Shay Wickham did to be sent down so
they could do those couple of moves. But it was
also a weekend that had you had to make moves.
The player that got hurt during the week last week
isn't even on the injured list yet. Claims that Asak

(05:26):
Peretis will appear in a lineup during their trip to
West Sacramento. Hopefully that will be the case. Tonight will
be the fourth game in consecutive games that he will
not have played. If that is not the case, they
did have to make a move because Jacob Melton is
probably gone for a month per day of Brown or
four weeks. Yesterday right here on Sports Talk seven to
ninety during his appearance with Astros Radio. So a host

(05:48):
of moves were made around that, and that's just the
Astros part of Major League Baseball. Over the weekend, a huge, huge,
hey hey, Alex, how do you like us now? Move
was made in the American League. Alex Bregman joins the
Boston Red Sox and Rafael Devers exits the Boston Red Sox,
all within the first three months of Alex's employment. There

(06:08):
so very very interesting move for the American League in
that one of the five best hitters in the American
League is now a National leaguer, Rafael Devers sent to
the San Francisco Giants. It is a huge deal for
both leagues and how I do think this is going
to change things in twenty twenty five and maybe beyond.
Obviously need to get into that. We have NBA basketball tonight. Yes,

(06:31):
of course, as we all knew, because of outside reasons,
the NBA Finals would be tied at two games apiece,
and it is so they will see who takes that
upper hand this evening. That's like the third most important
NBA story this evening. The new league year not yet underway.
Rockets made what I think most people would agree is
a very smart move over the last seventy two hours.

(06:54):
The Memphis Grizzlies, the eighth seed, and the Western Conference
are are likely markedly worse at present time here for
the twenty five twenty six season in a monster side deal.
And then we get to the thing that most people
here want to continue to discuss, the ongoing saga of

(07:14):
I gotta get this to the reporter today because news
is changing rapidly. The amount of information being given or
sourced by reporters through their feverish work, and how fast
it's changing is insane. With the Kevin Durant rumor mill
churning at a feverish pace, I think he's going to
get traded in the next three days, two days, well,

(07:35):
maybe in a week, well maybe before that. We don't know,
but we do know that phone calls are being made
again at at extremely large number of teams expected to
be putting their a foot forward. I don't know if
every team's putting their best foot forward. I don't know
if that's everything. That's a few of the things that
we have a full show and in front of you

(07:57):
to get into.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
Well, I mean the Katies, I figured was going to
evolve rapidly once we got to the point where it
was actually going to happen. And I do think that
by the way, like Pep, too many people that are
in the know are saying things like this is a
handful of days away.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
Perhaps the problem is they're all saying things so fast
that they're essentially contradicting each other.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
Correct, But I mean, doesn't that get your attention when
people like Shams are saying this is not a matter
of weeks, it's a matter And I always felt this
way because look, one of the ringleaders, or one of
the front runners, if you want to call it to
Land Kevin Durant is the Rockets for no other reason
than they have something no one else does. The team's

(08:42):
picks who are trying to offload him.

Speaker 5 (08:44):
Probably the least desperate team in the mix, se I
would say, also probably easily. I mean, you could argue
that Minnesota is not desperate. They have an East Western
Conference finals participate back to back years. But and you
could say San Antonio was in a comparable position. If
you think they can do it what Houston has done,
Slowly build through the draft and then make your veteran

(09:05):
acquisitions along the way the Rockets did it with Van
Vliet and Brooks and a host of others. Spurs maybe
began that with dearon Fox, but now they're building around
Castle and Wemby or the Alien excuse me, as everybody
knows him moving forward desperate. The team that is actually
the most desperate is the team that has Kevin Durant. Correct,

(09:28):
they have to move him. Everybody knows they have to
move him, and it absolutely is impacting their leverage to
move him in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
But again, since you use the magic L word, none
of those other teams you mentioned have the type of
L word that the Rockets have. Because of those picks.
Phoenix wants those picks back. They want them back badly,
even though one of them is the number ten pick. Rys.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Who else wants those picks?

Speaker 4 (09:52):
Everybody else?

Speaker 5 (09:53):
Houston?

Speaker 4 (09:53):
Oh well, yeah, yeah no. And again that's where it
comes into I have a much how you feel about this.
I have a much lesser issue problem consternation about parting
ways with the picks for Kevin Durant as I do.
Maybe whatever throw in with Jalen Green would help get

(10:15):
you Kevin Durant in this case, Jabari Smith Junior.

Speaker 5 (10:18):
I'll just put it this way as we move into
the extended discussion. All day you want it, we got it.
You could have given Memphis more than Memphis just got,
which was an incredible amount to most for Desmond Band.
You could have given them a better deal than they

(10:38):
just got from Orlando, if you so choose cho Jalen
no I just maybe presumably yes, because they would be
moving there to guard and you would be giving him yours,
but giving des Moore About the picks. They got four
first round picks, one of which includes a swap, one
of which is in the twenty five draft, and then
an additional pick swap if you want to give him
some of Phoenix picks or all of Phoenix picks. That

(11:01):
I keep stressing this every time we run through a
team's assets. Oklahoma City's, Utah's, San Antonio's, Houston's, et cetera,
and now Orlando's, or excuse me, Memphis because of the
Orlando acquisitions. The term first round pick is always accurate.
They fall within the top thirty, but they are not
the same. They are not equal. You pick outside of

(11:22):
the top ten, it's not an equal pick to something
that's coming at eighteen eighteen's not comparable to something coming
at twenty five. When you get to post twenty two
or three or four, watch how many teams are saying,
we don't even want to make this selection. We know
this player can't play. We'll just move into the second
round and then we can take a player that we
can stash overseas or never see. It's amazing. So if
you got a bunch of first round picks in a deal,

(11:44):
it sounds nice. But if they're at the back end
of the draft in the first round, they carry no
weight in Adam Wexlers's opinion. So I like to great
deals for myself, and we will do that here this afternoon.
On the Desmond Bang deal, on the Kevin Durant rumors,
on the Astros lone looking to win on the road
and turn themselves into an elite team. A monster's worth

(12:05):
of returns in Major League Baseball as well. Three different
top flight players are returning this evening in Major League Baseball,
several of which could have an impact on the Astros
pass to a return trip to the American League Championship Series.
We've got best of Exit two thirty. We will hear
from Astros radio analyst Steve Sparts at three point thirty

(12:27):
some of his weekly visit with the Sean Salisbury Show
for thirty. As per usual each and every day on
the A Team, it is signature segment time. And we're
just getting started here on a Monday edition of The
eight Team.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety. Hey, wex
uh huh.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
You remember in the first segment a few minutes ago
when I was talking about Joe Spotty getting love because
of all the things he was doing, with all all
the injuries he was dealing with. I remember, Yeah, it's
not that you know, other baseball teams aren't dealing with injuries.
It happens. Uh, Astro's just got another one. So Lance
mcculler's junior is going on the IL with a foot sprain,

(13:15):
and I would assume that that's not a long term thing,
and I really shouldn't. I really shouldn't assume anything otherwise
because even though it's Lance mcculler's junior, it's his foot,
it's not anything having to do with his arm. But
that's not great news considering he's, you know, starting to

(13:36):
round into form and all that kind of stuff. And
I just without without even looking it up, whether it's
a picture or otherwise, I don't I couldn't even tell
you the best guess on the timetable for that kind
of injury.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
No, because we don't have any information on it. I
don't know if it's something that they really they wanted
to skip a start or two, or this is a problem.
I mean, fifteen day to I L for a pitcher
doesn't indicate anything, just like the sixty day ell shift
that Spencer Araghetty made over the weekend doesn't mean anything.
He was never going to be back in that time
for once they got to a certain point in time.

(14:08):
It was merely procedural. Now, obviously this is the front
side of it, so we don't know the length of it.
But he could be He could be out for fifteen days,
he could be out for forty five days, he could
be out for sixty five days, and they might never
have to change his designation. Usually those only come when
the roster is well, we don't have any more spots
on the forty man and we need it. That's what
they did with Spencer Araghetty. They didn't have any other

(14:30):
spots on the forty man to make a couple of
the moves they made over the weekend, so that was
the need for that move. Jason Alexander, who we've brought
up a couple of times. The Astros added him a
couple of weeks ago, and he has been tremendous in
his opportunities with Space Cowboys. Was pretty good before he
got here, all at the minor league level. Obviously, he
is now on the Astros, and I would assume Jo

(14:50):
Espotta will mention sometime later this afternoon that he is
going to start tomorrow night's game. Ryan Gusto is going
to get the start tonight in place of Lance mcu
and that leaves unless they're altering more of their rotation,
leaves the spot open for Tuesday. They had intended to
go to a six man rotation. They will likely stay
with that six man rotation. They will now need seven pitchers,

(15:13):
with Jason Alexander being the seventh pitcher to get them there.
So the Astros current rotation includes Ryan Gusto, who made
his major league debut earlier this season. It includes Brandon Walter,
who made his Astro's debut after a drip of coffee
prior to coming to the Astros, and He's now made

(15:34):
three spectacularly good starts, including Sundays. It includes Colton Gordon,
who made his major league debut earlier this season with
the Houston Astros, and it will now include Jason Alexander
presumably tomorrow evening. I don't believe that's a given, but
it seems very likely, and Hunter Brown and from Er Valdez.
It's an interesting way to go through life if you're

(15:55):
the Astros. But all of it has come when they've
played their best baseball. They win about a little over
now fifty percent of the games, fifty percent of the
games started by Gusto Gordon, Blue Ball Walter and the
assorted pitchers. I've been mentioning that's how well this team

(16:16):
has continued to play baseball with a bunch of I
didn't know they would ever pitch for this team in
a starting role this year, and that's what they just
keep doing. And yesterday's a perfect example of it, because
the offensive group they had behind him was also less
than you would hope. Both of the corner infielder acquisitions
for the Astros this offseason were not in the lineup.
Walker a day off and Esach Perettis the injury to

(16:40):
his hamstring keeping him off, and they managed to score
two runs. They managed to get a bunch of singles. Granted,
the last hit of the game is marked as a single,
clearly that would at any other point in the game
be more than a single. But that's how it's scored,
enough to get you two runs, enough to win a
game on a walkoff and back to back nights, Josh
hater a pitch in both of those games and coming

(17:01):
off the mound as the last astro to do so,
getting the win in both of those games. But it
is beyond amazing, and you're only hoping that what has
gotten you here, most specifically Brown and Valdez, well, they
just continue to take the ball every whatever day it
is every fifth day or currently every sixth day, and
that's how they're going to get through this season. Now,

(17:22):
everybody else from a veteran standpoint that's been a part
of their rotation has been forced to miss time at
one point or another. Arraghetti's still out, mccullors is currently out,
Blanco and Wizneski permanently out for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
This is basically the anti twenty twenty two rotation, where
there was like no injuries, hardly at all, and not coincidentally,
they went all the way to a World Series championship.
But I mean, the Astros have had insane injuries on
their way to a World Series appearance. Twenty twenty one
comes to mind. But I mean, this is it's not

(17:59):
great news, but I just feel like because of what
you just talked about, they, in a weird way, feel
more equipped, just because this season, more than any other,
feels like so many guys have stepped up and if
not thrived, then at least gotten the job done in
roles they weren't necessarily expected to be in. At the
beginning of the twenty twenty five campaign.

Speaker 5 (18:20):
You're asking all those pitchers again, I mentioned them, Gusto, Gordon, Walter,
blue Ball. Just allow us to have a chance to win,
that's all we're asking. And Walter's gone above and beyond that.
Gordon's now had us start or two. Maybe that's gone
above and beyond that. Most of the time they're giving
you five or six innings and the game's not over.
That's all they want. That's all they can ask for

(18:43):
for pitchers. I think of this caliber and it's enough,
like I said, to win more than they lose, which
is insane. You should win more than you lose with
those guys going out there and needing three to four
innings out of your bullpen, and almost every single one
of those starts. But now Gusto and Gordon and Walter
in succession, each of their life last starts during this turn,
they've all been six innings or better. Walter easily could

(19:05):
have finished seven innings. Yesterday went six and two thirds.
He doesn't walk batters. That is very helpful. It's a
very smart way to live in the major leagues. Nineteen
strikeouts in his first three starts, one walk, none of
them yesterday astros win.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
That sounds also very anti Lance mccullor's junior start, just
seeing as how he was the next one in line
to make a start. I mean, he doesn't allow a
lot of traffic on the bases, and that's the kind
of stuff that you would come to expect with a
mcculor start, even if it's successful.

Speaker 5 (19:38):
Yeah, it's only been a couple of starts, obviously for Walter.
It's been fourteen starts for Hunter Brown. Hunter Brown's got
a a point nine to three whip as he continues
to basically be the best pitcher in the American League
that doesn't throw left handed. In pitch for Detroit and
Brandon Walter's whip is lower than his because he only
gives up hits, he doesn't give up any walks. And
Hunter Brown's been sensational. That should be indicator statistically to

(20:01):
paint that picture for you of what they've gotten. When
they've handed the ball to Walter. It would be another
five games till they do so, four night games with
the Athletics, the loan team in this division that hasn't
been record wise competitive. I mentioned when we went to
break there were three major introductions to baseball again this
season coming tonight. One of them is inside the Astros Division.

(20:23):
Logan Gilbert is set to take the mound tonight for
the Seattle Mariners. He didn't pitch in May, pitched only
until late April before his injury took him out of
their starting rotation, but he's the expected starter tonight for
the Rafael Devers less Socks, who visit Seattle this evening.
Giancarlos Stanton is expected to make his debut tonight at

(20:44):
home at Tiny Yankee Stadium against the Angels and over
On the West Coast. The San Diego Padres will face
an opener for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He will then
bat lead off in the bottom of the first inning.
His name is Shoheo Tani. Has it been since he's
pitched April of twenty three? Excuse me, August of twenty three?

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Oh man, that's just it. That's an embarrassment of riches.
I do wonder how long.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
He'll keep need of them with they have had. Like
we're running through the pitching injuries for the Astros. Theirs
are very very similar.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Yeah, but the problem is when you're the Dodgers and
you spend what they do on credit, nobody cares. Nobody
wants to hear it. Now I'm saying anybody cares about
the Astros either. I mean, injuries are part of the game,
but you care less. I feel like when there's a
you know, buying your championship type club out there that's
suffering from pitching injuries, oh they get show hey o Tani,

(21:38):
poor things.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, we'll see if he is capable of really ramping
it up at some point this year. There's half a
season left, so it makes me believe that the answer
is yes. But they're also hoping nothing goes wrong, and
potentially something goes so dramatically wrong, which I don't want
to see. But he's able to play every day without pitching.
Is that at all in jeopardy? Probably isn't never know.

(22:01):
I wouldn't imagine it's something that prevents him from pitching
and still has not prevented him from hitting. That would
change here, But the elbow that has had him sidelined
and he's had multiple surgeries on it's recovered enough. He's
thrown enough live vps for the Dodgers to ready him
to start tonight's game again. I don't know what the
number is. They just made this announcement last night, but
he's not going deep into this game essentially, as I mentioned,

(22:23):
he will likely be an opener. We'll see if it
changes the fortunes for the Dodgers, who now have to
combat with the Giants having one of the American League's
best hitters over the past five years. Now he's on
their team, and of course he's willing to play first base.
I have thoughts on all of that defensive nonsense coming
out of Boston, and we'll see if Giancarlo Stanton has

(22:43):
much of a regular season with the Yankees. He opted
to kind of figure it out with his elbow rather
than maybe go ahead and get something fixed, and it's
cost him a lot of baseball. He was not a
very good regular season player last year as he kind
of went through this, did have a very good postseason,
which helped the Yankees to carry Aaron Judge once they

(23:04):
get there, because the arguable greatest Yankee of all time,
if you don't count October, continues to have everybody say
how awesome he is. If you don't count October, lots
to get to. As you can tell look excise of
that caveat, it's huge. I don't know why people don't
care about October to eight. You would think it matters
to them. I mean, I can give you ninety nine

(23:25):
reasons why he's not the greatest Yankee ever. But this
is not the home of Yankees baseball here in the
deep southwest portion of Texas. Best of x those three
returns to baseball are neat compared to this major announcement
of a return that came earlier today and of course
via social media. We'll hit on that next.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
The aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
Did you all see this should be putting out.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Between five and.

Speaker 7 (23:59):
Ten posts, four hundred people were arrested for things that
they said on social media.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
History repeats itself type banguels succeed.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Never doubt that you're the one who pus.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
No one will believe you're the best. Nothing's gonna ever.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Top you know, yo, the best.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
Post an every single day, you're the best of it,
breaking the entire internet. We just passed one of our
nation's greatest holidays, Flag Day, and we're about to get Oh,
was there another holiday that you want to talk about?

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Father's Day?

Speaker 5 (24:42):
Besides that one?

Speaker 4 (24:43):
My birthday?

Speaker 5 (24:43):
There we go.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
It was my two hundred and fiftieth birthday, and I
celebrated with a prey.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
We all got to then there were some other things
that were kind of the opposite of a celebration that
took place on that very same day.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
No king including here three rallies and accomplished absolutely nothing.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
But what I getting to is we have another great
holiday on the horizon. This month will come to a conclusion,
and then Friday, July fourth will be here. That's the
fourth of July, July fourth, however you'd like to say,
it's a day of celebration for those here in our
great nation, and everything is now somewhat back to normal

(25:23):
for those that already know what I'm talking about. Earlier
this morning, if you were rolling around on your socials,
specifically the ex platform, yes, you would have seen this
right around the nine am portion of your morning here
Central time. So the at is probably recognizable, but the

(25:47):
three threaded post is definitely recognizable. So it comes from
at Joey Jaws.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Joey Jaws, you know who that is? I think I should,
well guess I don't know.

Speaker 5 (25:57):
His name is Joseph chestnutt Oh, yes, I know hand thrilled,
thrilled to be returning. I saw this so it was a
famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contests. It was
thought that this would be the case. It was believed
that his propensity to like to earn money, even if
it meant being partnered with a variety of companies that

(26:20):
often are living in the plant based space, that they
would find his way back to the competition. He has
absolutely dominated. Like he doesn't win these competitions by eating
his final hot dog and winning in a walk off.
He dominates these competitions by doubting more doused in water

(26:41):
hot dogs than the other competitors by about fifteen twenty thirty.
Dogs in bunts dominates pepto bism dominates them. This event
means the world to me, says Joseph. It's a char
cherish tradition, celebration of American culture, and a huge part
of my life. He continues. While I haven't continued to
partner with those. To be clear, Nathan's is the only

(27:03):
hot dog company I ever worked with. I respect that
there were differences in interpretation, but I'm grateful we've been
able to find common ground. I'm excited to be back
on the Coney Island stage doing what I live to do.
This is what Joey lives to do, and celebrating the
Fourth of July with hot dogs in my hands. Stay
hungry now. Brought this up not for all the comments,

(27:23):
because the comments were almost universally the same way to
go America gifts from the hangover, We are back, things
like that, American flags, lots of great stuff, all the
great gifts that everybody loves celebrating the Fourth of July with,
and of course some more disgusting ones actually showing him
in action where it appeared more hot dogs would be

(27:45):
on the way out rather than the way in. But
I ask, were you ever? Are you currently a fan
of this event? No?

Speaker 4 (27:55):
And here's why I can't watch it, Like you know,
my hang ups on food. It's it's ninety nine point
nine percent texture based a lot of times. That's why
I don't like Mayo. That's why.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
So you're not down with a hamburger or hot dogs
served to you in a tray or container that will
be a little on the sweaty side, so the bottom
of the bun becomes wet and disgusting, which is the
intention of the competitor at the hot dog eating contest,
because you can get more of those wet, soggy buns

(28:31):
down his gullet or hearst do you do?

Speaker 4 (28:33):
You see how I'm not making eye contact with you
while you're saying this right now? Yeah, I see television
viewers are not among us yet, but they would be.

Speaker 5 (28:39):
And know and have always been to ost not eating
that is it's a contest. It isn't an eating, It
isn't eating a context.

Speaker 4 (28:49):
You're getting it down your gullet as quickly as possible,
and if you think.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
You're making it disappear, you're eating it. How about a
magic it goes in and it's gone. It's basically the
same thing as that scene in the dark Night. But like,
how many does he normally eat? What's the average? I
mean he's plus fifty, he's gotten a plus sixties, gotten
to seven.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Have you ever seen a pile of fifty hot dogs
just sitting there together? Yeah, when most normal people don't have.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
The cookouts sometimes occasionally fifty. Well they're not there for
fifty different people.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Look at that pile.

Speaker 5 (29:21):
They haven't always been put together, like you walk down
the line and put it together. Here's the bun bin,
the heated tray. Here the buns, buns are dry. I
mean I've worked at a hot dog shop before you have?

Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yeah, JCI, Yeah, was that one of your first jobs? Yeah? Okay,
why was I? I found this on.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
The grill the hot dog? No you weren't, Yes, I was.
Oh man, And there's the the meth, Like I'm an
adult now I was a teen? Then?

Speaker 4 (29:49):
Which location was it?

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (29:50):
These doesn't exist anymore, does it?

Speaker 5 (29:52):
It doesn't exist exist in its exact same location. It
just moved a couple of avenues over. It's in the
same show popping center still, but it's been totally over developed.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
That's fascinating.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
First of all, Yes, I appreciated it at the time
because it was so simple, easy and obvious. But I
appreciate even more than as an adult about it wasn't
just here's a bunch of hot dogs, make them, stick
them in the bun, and serve them like there really is.
There's a way to do it perfectly, from an assembly
line process, from a getting the customers through the line

(30:24):
as quickly as possible, but with the same quality of
service and food and product, Like every hot dog got
the same amount of chili, the same amount of cheese,
same size. It was all done so well. Going back
and I was at the front side of this. I
was making the making the wienies. I don't like the cheese.
That's that's a personal preference.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
I was in the hot dog. I mean, I was
a fan.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
I don't mind the cheese. It's not it's not a
joke to call it a cheese gun. It's it's a
literal term. You are it is a a holstered item,
and you place your hand around the barrel.

Speaker 4 (30:57):
Did you do that?

Speaker 5 (30:57):
You have your finger on the trigger, and you fire,
the cheese over, the chili cheese fries, the Freedo pie
or the hot dog?

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Did you ever have a customer like Brad dealt with
in Fast Times?

Speaker 5 (31:09):
My hot dog was a little undercooked? Did you did
you swear at this man? Excuse me, Adam? Could you
just put your hands back in the little register there?
So I had a name tax so he would have
known who I was.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
Did you have a hat?

Speaker 5 (31:21):
I had a hat and a physician and apron. Uh
yeah that sounds right.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
Wow?

Speaker 5 (31:28):
But from that to construction? What all right?

Speaker 4 (31:32):
We need like a whole hour to talk about things
that are shocking me that I didn't never know about.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
We've taken a little vote here, but you're the only
one who voted. You voted. No, you're not a fan.
There are three of us currently in the in the
triumvirate of the A team, and of course listeners as well,
but I'm not asking you to participate currently. Maybe as
you make your next post to us or call to
us or text to us, you can add in there
after you say, hey, you think Katie's coming to the
Houston Rockets. Also, I love the hot dog eating contest

(32:01):
as a ps if you so choose. But Cole, my
assumption as you are, like Ac also not a fan
of this contest on July fourth, No, I'm a.

Speaker 8 (32:10):
Fan, but like I watch with my with the trash
bit nearby, Like you talk about wet buns, something about
wet food, it automatically makes my stomach churn.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
I gotta stop. Oh my gosh, this is worse than me.

Speaker 5 (32:23):
I don't want to make this worse, so I'll continue.
Is there another eating contest event you can stomach?

Speaker 9 (32:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (32:32):
I can suck any of them. But like, as long
as the buns aren't wet, it's it's wet food.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
It's just okay. I got one. I got one that
even Cole would be okay with because even though technically
it is somewhat wet food, ribbing contests are awesome.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
We eating contest contest that's different.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
Those are supposed to be that you're.

Speaker 8 (32:51):
Supposed to be wet red is not supposed to be
like I got stop.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah, it's it's not great.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
Cole won't be with us for the rest of the show,
but on July fourth, we'll make it. We'll make it.
Everybody lots to get to outside of the Welcome back
to Joey Chestnut, and we'll continue bringing that to you
here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (33:33):
I can't.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
I can't make the joke I want to make, so
I we'll just keep on moving, do it. No, I
can't trust me on this. How was your weekend? Otherwise?
I didn't ask? Uh, Well, I didn't ask Cole about
his Father's Day weekend because he's not a dad yet.
But I'm I'm assuming you spent time with Pops Tommy
as it were Tommy Team. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (33:55):
I mowed three lawns with him over the weekend. That
was fun. I got some burn very bad. Y'all shared
the riding more.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
Could you imagine? That's like Shaq and Hakeem on the
double bike right, only not.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
In the canoe.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
Yes, I like that part too. What the beanie has? Yes,
they were wearing those the whole time. Did you see yours?

Speaker 5 (34:16):
I did, got a meal. It's pretty cool. He's the best.
I did notice a few times as I was seated
next to him at the table that I was sharing
the exact same look and mannerisms and body positions. So
I would alter it from time to time, just to
make sure nobody thought we were the same person, even
though we are. But yes, it was very nice to
get together. Kaul doesn't know just how accurate that statement is.

(34:38):
I mean, the more time has passed, the more I
have seen it. But there's a lot of I mean
I've been around for a while, and for all of
those years he's been around. Uh, there have been more
than a billion. You must be his son.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
It's not even like I've met your brother. It couldn't
be any more different.

Speaker 5 (34:57):
He doesn't get that, and he was there well, of
course he was shout out seth.

Speaker 4 (35:03):
Yeah, it's it's like a clone, although I don't. I mean,
I've been around him in person exactly one time, but
he doesn't strike me as having the wet blanket aspect
that you do. Not. So what happened there, I mean.

Speaker 5 (35:16):
I got it, and I just got it. That's okay.
I mean, Kyle's exactly like my dad and I'm nothing
like that.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
There you go, see, everybody looked more like my dad.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
It was a good time. I do see on the
rundown it says, you know ac metallic or recap. Oh
my god, wex Costco Wu Tang recap.

Speaker 8 (35:33):
Can we just.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
Talk about what happened?

Speaker 5 (35:35):
How do you know I went to Costco? How do
I know about Wu Tang? So wait for that story, Like,
what makes you even think that?

Speaker 6 (35:41):
Well?

Speaker 4 (35:41):
Am I wrong about the aisle video you sent me?
Did I see it wrong?

Speaker 2 (35:46):
No?

Speaker 5 (35:47):
You saw it right? But that was not it was
It wasn't a warehouse store. It's just a regular store,
but it had like the concrete floor grocery stores half that.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
For some reason.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
Now for sure, not wrong. I was at Costco shi
in the day.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
Do you go every day?

Speaker 5 (36:03):
I have only been twice in the last three days.
But I only had to get gas today, so two
out of three it was an accident. I should have
gotten it the other day. But we're at a far
too heavily trafficked time of Costco to wait in the
gas line come out to mine. I've come all the
way out there for you can stop by after. That's true,
it's not that far. I've now recapped the weekend.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
It was awesome, Okay, So the whole time I'm trying,
and I really honestly I thought there was a better
than average chances would happen a because I know wex
he gets fomo at times. He doesn't like to admit it,
but he wants to go places I do. And I
was like, he's got the money, he could get an
individual ticket and show up and it would be awesome.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
It was in the low three hounds. I think for
a standing rous I sent you elite or course floor
access seat.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
That's not that much above face value. It's only one
hundred bucks.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
Could have gotten dropped off and everything exactly could home.
Did you ever really consider doing it? How close did
you get? I considered it, but never because you're more
of a fan than you like to admit of that.
Oh that would like I don't need you, and I
don't think our listeners need you to say. I don't
know if you guys know this, but they put on
a great show this weekend because that's what they do.

(37:17):
Even as they get into the age of bands in
general where you're wondering is it really gonna be good?

Speaker 6 (37:23):
Is it?

Speaker 5 (37:24):
There is somehow they've managed even with a voice. It's
it's not only about the music, which has had no
drop off none.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
It is they're working on their new album and I
can't wait.

Speaker 5 (37:36):
Like it's hard to do, and I think you could
see it even just with the album released, just the
studio work itself. It's amazing what James is able to
still do. It's not easy, it's not normal.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
What's not normal is the fact that I'm pretty sure
Lars weighs about a buck twenty soaking wet, and he.

Speaker 5 (37:54):
Was like, I don't know if you're for those that
maybe haven't visualized or realized it, like the frontman guitarist
in his case and the other two guitarists. They're roaming
all over the stage. Some stage shows allow them to
really go far and really do a lot theatrical. We
know a lot of these bands, heavy metal bands. We
talked about it for the Friday A team draft, which

(38:17):
we'll get to. But having said all that, all the activity,
even David Lee Roth Caliber frontman Axel Rose, they're out
there and they're just going wild. But the person sweating
the most and losing the most weight is the guy
crushing the drums.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
And he did. And what's great. So the setup is
basically a donut for lack of a better way of
putting it on the floor, and there are not one,
not two, not three, but four drum sets which I
looked it up because I was thinking of purchasing one,
not anymore now. So his purple one that was on
the tour before this one, because they've been touring for

(38:53):
two years now. That was about six thousand dollars MSRP
from Tama. This one's eight, the bright yellow one. He
had four sets underneath that stage at different spots so
that he could rotate. That was the best concept about
this whole setup is that even if you're not on
the floor, even if you're going to get closer to

(39:14):
them at some point in the show. And that includes
Lars just rotating drum sets. But yeah, it was needless
to say, it was fantastic. I could not believe they
hadn't played in Houston since twenty seventeen, but man, yeah
they to say they And by the way, shout out
to both Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies, who were both awesome
in their own right, even though Pantera is like fifty

(39:37):
percent what they were literally, but man, Phil, he can
still bring it. And I get a text during the
show from someone who shall remain nameless. Yeah, my sister
went to high school with him in New Orleans. His
dad has mob ties there. Oh, didn't know that.

Speaker 5 (39:50):
That's our number ones. We all ought to get to
including all of the things we touched on here in
the opening hour of the show. We'll do that starting
next right up at three o'clock, we set the Strows
and Unfortunate News and Kevin Durant the latest next.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
Well, it was the day of the week yesterday, but
it just also happened to be Father's Day, which means,
of course Big City Wings had specials. They have specials
every single day, and since we are now into a
new work week, I can tell you that dollar tenders
minimum of five all day long here on a Monday,
along with bud light an Ultra five dollars thirty four
ounce beers. That's Monday. There's going to be a special

(40:34):
tomorrow and the next day and every single day after
that at Houston's Wing joint with wall to wall TVs
to watch the games you need to watch and the
food that's made fresh daily.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
Yeah, we mentioned those daily specials each and every day
here on the A team, and you get to enjoy
them each and every day, including weekends. They also have
lunch specials eleven to three each day. Hit them up
at Big Citywings dot com for more info on that
the location nearest you, and to get yourself all set
up to enjoy all the things we talk about here
on this show right there inside the walls of the
fourteen Houston area locations. More on the way with wall

(41:06):
to wall TVs, Big on Wings, Big on Specials, Big
on Sports. Big City Wings is Houston's wing joint.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Now Sports Talk seven ninety Weather powered by Generators Supercenter,
the nation's number one generak dealer.

Speaker 8 (41:21):
You use Radio seven forty fore cast some thunderstorms this
afternoon with a high of eighty five, some clowns and
a stray storm tonight low seventy seven.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios.

Speaker 10 (41:31):
Rapid Radios are instant push to talk walkie talkies offering
national LTE coverage and no subscription ever, a great alternative
to a mobile phone for your kids. For a limited time,
Go to Rapid Radios dot com and you'll get sixty
percent off free ups shipping at Code Radio and get
an extra five percent off.

Speaker 11 (41:47):
Want the truth about shopping for new floors? Big box
stores might have flooring departments, but Empire Today has flooring
experts there's a huge difference. At a big box store,
you might be getting help from someone who's in flooring today,
but it was stalking toilets yesterday. With Empire, you'll work
with a dedicated flooring expert. We bring the store to
your home, help find the right floors for your lifestyle,

(42:09):
and answer questions, all while you view hundreds of samples
with your own furniture, decor and lighting. You'll get an
all inclusive price estimate and can schedule installation as soon
as the next day for in stock styles. That's Empire's
home floor advantage, working with experts who specialize in one
thing flooring for.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
A limited time.

Speaker 11 (42:27):
Use code radio to get five hundred dollars off your
contract of thirty five hundred dollars or more. When you
call or visit Empire today dot com. That's five hundred
dollars off with code radio. You know the number.

Speaker 5 (42:38):
Eight hundred five two three hundred.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
Empire Today.

Speaker 11 (42:43):
Offer may not be applied to sales or combined with
the coupon's discount. Savings terms apply.

Speaker 12 (42:46):
Doug Bike here for American Shooting Centers, the largest non
military shooting facility in the entire state of Texas and
we've got some big ones. Three complete sporting plays, courses
eight or ten, trap and skeet fields.

Speaker 5 (42:58):
I can't even remember theirs.

Speaker 12 (42:59):
So many five stands, setups, beginner's wing, shooting rifle and
pistol from five to six hundred yards and plenty of
safety personnel around there to make sure you have a
good experience. West tim Or Parkway between Katie and Highway six.
American Shooting Centers dot Com.

Speaker 13 (43:17):
At Kroger, we've lowered prices on over one thousand items
across our stores, so you can save even more. Whether
you're shopping in store or online at Kroger, you can
always save with our lower prices. Kroger has lowered prices
across the store on items like coffee, cheese, ice cream, paper, towels,
and even trash bags. And with Kroger's lower prices, your

(43:39):
dollar goes further every time you shop with us.

Speaker 5 (43:42):
Kroger Fresh for Everyone.

Speaker 9 (43:46):
When you're trying to find quality candidates, all the searching,
screening and interviewing can become a job itself. You need, Indeed,
the all in one platform that makes it easy to interview,
screen and higher quality people visit Indeed Slash credit.

Speaker 12 (44:01):
Doug Pike here for American Shooting Centers, the largest non
military shooting facility in the entire state of Texas. And
we've got some big ones. Three complete sporting plays, courses
eight or ten, trap and skeet fields. I can't even remember.
There's so many five stands, setups, beginner's wing, shooting rifle
and pistol from five to six hundred yards, and plenty

(44:22):
of safety personnel around there to make sure you have
a good experience. West tim Er Parkway between Katie and
Highway six. American Shooting Centers dot com.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Portions of the following program were pre recorded.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
KDM E Houston, KTVHD two Houston, n iHeartRadio station Yes.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
Has a Rocket. This is Sports Talk seven ninety, your
home for your home teams.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
From the Parsons that Match Next Studios. Two lifelong Houston
sports guys named at Him Talking your Team, Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the eighteen eighty.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven to ninety
Space City Home Network. It's a Monday edition, post Father's Day,
post Metallica, post Astros sweep edition of the program. Wex
ac Cole Thompson with you on a Monday edition of
the program, and we got to a lot in that

(45:29):
first hour. By the way, I just saw this and
didn't realize it. Of the thirteen MLB series over the
Father's Day weekend, nine of them ending in a sweep.
So eight other teams besides the Astros gotta sweep this weekend.
I did not know that until I just looked over
at the MLB Network screen and here in the studio
just now.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
A lot of streaks if you take a look at
what's going on in the American League, specifically the Astros
in their division and the Yankees and Theirs. Yankees lost
three in ro raise one in a row, Jay's lost
three in a row, the Red Sox have won five
in a row on the Orlers have won three in
a row. Every division, every team in the AL Central
at least a two game losing streak, including the Twins, Guardians, Royals,

(46:11):
and Socks who didn't want win a game over the weekend,
and the Astros would have had even more distance in
between themselves and their division foes most closely chasing them.
But the Mariners were able to win every game they played.
Since we were with you on Friday, the Rangers won
every game they played since we were with you on Friday,
and had a win prior to that, so they're on
a four game winning streak. The Mariners, who welcome Logan

(46:32):
Gilbert back tonight against Boston he hasn't pitched since April
twenty fifth, they're on a three game winning streak, and
of course the Astros are on a five game winning streak.
Lance mccullors Junior was scheduled to start tonight's game, but
he will not start tonight's game or any of the
Astros game for the next eleven days. I think retroactively

(46:54):
placed on the IL. The fifteen day IL Ryan Gusto,
there's they shuffle the rotation slight. He'll make the start
tonight against either Mitch Spence or JP Series, depending on
what source you use, for which I don't know. A's
pitcher will get the ball tonight. The Astros game notes
says JP Seiars, others say Mitch Spence. Either way, the

(47:16):
ace stink in their home ballpark this.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Year hashtag analysis.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
They are twelve and twenty three, and it's likely even
at night, the balls will fly a little bit further there.
We'll see. It's definitely different than playing day games in
Oakland or in West Sacramento. So I do think that
might benefit Houston because of what they have. This is
a four game series. They have played the Athletics twice
so far this season, with the same result in both games.

(47:44):
Took those two games during that brief two game visit
to Houston earlier this year, and it's the long team
in the division that isn't any good. It's probably gonna
get there at some point for the Angels. But as
much as everyone continues to point at this particular division
and tell you loudly scream it if they have to,
your division stinks. It is almost identical to the American

(48:07):
League Central, where everyone's been telling us forever, look how
awesome these teams are. Well, the Tigers and Astros are
both in first place. Astros are now within four games
of the Tigers. Yep, the Twins have thirty six wins,
just like the Mariners. The Guardians have thirty five wins
and are at five hundred, so one less than the Rangers,
who are also at five hundred, and the Royals are

(48:28):
four games under at thirty four and thirty eight.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
And fresh off a player's only meeting today.

Speaker 5 (48:32):
Yeah, the Angels are four games under at thirty three
and thirty seven, and then both teams both divisions have
a team that's less competitive, the Athletics here and the
White Sox there. Now, in theory, I'm on board with
everything everybody said. I know the Twins are better than this,
I know the Guardians, I know they're all get all that,
But we keep score and records matter. And each of

(48:54):
those three teams in the American League Central just got
swept this weekend by a team not there, somebody else
that is apparently well, at least for the time being,
better than them. The Astros just won a series with
the Guardians. They just finished their season series with the Twins,
losing once in six games. The Astros are good. No

(49:15):
matter what you think of the rest of the division.
It might be true that the rest of the division
isn't awesome or isn't great, but the Astros are making
hay against everybody else.

Speaker 6 (49:27):
Right.

Speaker 5 (49:28):
They're winning series consistently against the other teams, and at
least half of their series against the White Sox.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
Well, and no better time than the present. On the
day that we find out the Astros are dealing with
yet another injury and yet again to Lance mcculler's junior,
although this one is a foot sprain and it's fifteen
day il variety, so at least it's not anything having
to do with his arm. That's the first part of
the good part of this. But I can't think of

(49:58):
a better time. Do you have not game series, but
a four game series with the crappy A's then right now?

Speaker 5 (50:04):
Yeah, definitely want to, you know, attack their pitching. They're
not a terrible offense, they are a terrible pitching staff.
And we pointed it out last week before the Astros
arrived there that there there's a one pitcher in particular,
Luis Severino, who has almost impossible to fathom splits, and
it's similar for other pitchers on their staff. It's just
not quite as pronounced as that as it is for them.

(50:27):
It's likely that Jason Alexander makes his debut with the
Astros tomorrow for their evening game. I think Sears will
probably pitch that game and Spence tonight, but again not
one hundred percent on that sever Reno schedule to go
on Wednesday against from ber Valdez and fromber is the
lone ace that the Astros are expected to pitch in

(50:48):
this series. It's Gusto likely Alexander fromber and Colton Gordon
and the Astros need to take three out of four.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
As Yeah, well I think I think they will. And
by the way, didn't you say this last week? And
I didn't look to see if it's still matched up?
And aren't they getting Severino who sucked?

Speaker 5 (51:05):
Yeah, it's pitching Wednesday night.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
In California more than he does on.

Speaker 5 (51:09):
That I don't know. I haven't looked at the numbers
in other California ballparks.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
But in that one in the ballpark, yes, very bad,
which is I mean, that's kind of like what you're
talking about with the ball carrying at night and all
that kind of stuff.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
Again, just to point out where the Astros are with
their roster, Jason Alexander is on the Astros. Do you
know who he is? Cooper Hummel was in yesterday's starting lineup?
Do you know who he is? How about Luis Ski
or may do you know who he is in yesterday's
starting lineup? Also, they are the.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
C two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking
your team, Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
It is the a team. Sports Talks have a ninety
space City Home Network. It's a Monday edition post Father's Day,
post Metallica, post Astros, sweep edition of the program. Wex
ac Cole Thompson with you on a Monday edition of
the program, and we got to a lot in that

(52:17):
first hour. By the way, I just saw this and
didn't realize it. The thirteen MLB series over the Father's
Day weekend, nine of them ending in a sweep. So
eight other teams besides the Astros got to sweep this weekend.
I did not know that until I just looked over
at MLB network screen and here in the studio just
now a.

Speaker 5 (52:37):
Lot of streaks. If you take a look at what's
going on in the American League, specifically the Astros in
their division and the Yankees and Theirs. Yankees lost three
in row, Raise one three in a row, Jay's lost
three in a row, the Red Sox have won five
in a row in the Orler is of one three
in a row every division, every team in the AL
Central at least a two game losing streak, including the Twins, Guardians, Royals,

(52:59):
and side who didn't want win a game over the weekend,
and the Astros would have had even more distance in
between themselves and their division foes most closely chasing them.
But the Mariners were able to win every game they
played since we were with you on Friday. The Rangers
won every game they played since we were with you
on Friday and had a win prior to that, so
they're on a four game winning streak. The Mariners, who

(53:19):
welcome Logan Gilbert back tonight against Boston he hasn't pitched
since April twenty fifth, they're on a three game winning streak,
and of course the Astros are on a five game
winning streak. Lance mccullors Junior was scheduled to start tonight's game,
but he will not start tonight's game or any of
the Astros game for the next eleven days. I think

(53:41):
retroactively placed on the IL the fifteen day IL. Ryan Gusto,
there's they shuffle the rotation slightly. He'll make the start
tonight against either Mitch Spence or JP Seares, depending on
what source you use, for which I don't know. A's
pitcher will get the ball tonight the Astros game, No,
says JP Seares. Others say Mitch Spence. Either way, the

(54:04):
Ace stink in their home ballpark this.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
Year hashtag analysis.

Speaker 5 (54:10):
They are twelve and twenty three, and it's likely even
at night, the balls will fly a little bit further
there we'll see. It's definitely different than playing day games
in Oakland or in West Sacramento. So I do think
that might benefit Houston because of what they have. This
is a four game series. They have played the Athletics
twice so far this season, with the same result in

(54:31):
both games. Took those two games during that brief two
game visit to Houston earlier this year, and it's the
long team in the division that isn't any good. It's
probably gonna get there at some point for the Angels.
But as much as everyone continues to point at this
particular division and tell you loudly scream it if they
have to, your division stinks. It is almost identical to

(54:54):
the American League Central, where everyone's been telling us forever,
look how awesome these teams are. Well, the Tigers and
Astros are both in first place. Astros are now within
four games of the Tigers. The Twins have thirty six wins,
just like the Mariners. The Guardians have thirty five wins
and are at five hundred, so one less than the Rangers,
who are also at five hundred. And the Royals are

(55:16):
four games under at thirty four and thirty eight.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
And fresh off a players only meeting today.

Speaker 5 (55:20):
Yeah, the Angels are four games under at thirty three
and thirty seven. And then both teams both divisions have
a team that's less competitive, the Athletics here and the
White Sox there. Now, in theory, I'm on board with
everything everybody said. I know the Twins are better than this.
I know the Guardians, I know they're all get all that,
but we keep score and records matter. And each of

(55:42):
those three teams in the American League Central just got
swept this weekend by a team not there by somebody
else that is apparently well, at least for the time being,
better than them. The Astros just won a series with
the Guardians. They just finished their season series with the Twins,
losing one in six games. The Astros are good. No

(56:03):
matter what you think of the rest of the division.
It might be true that the rest of the division
isn't awesome or isn't great, but the Astros are making
hay against everybody else right, they're winning series consistently against
the other teams, and at least half of their series
against the White Sox.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
Well, and no better time than the present on the
day that we find out the Astros are dealing with
yet another injury, and yet again to Lance mccullors Junior,
although this one is a foot sprain and it's fifteen
day il variety, so at least it's not anything having
to do with his arm. That's the first part of
the good part of this. But I can't think of

(56:46):
a better time do you have not just a three
game series, but a four game series with the crappy
A's than right now.

Speaker 5 (56:52):
Yeah, definitely want to attack their pitching. They're not a
terrible offense. They are a terrible pitching staff. And we
pointed it out last week week before the Astros arrived
there that there there's a one pitcher, in particular, Luis Severino,
who has almost impossible to fathom splits, and it's similar
for other pitchers on their staff. It's just not quite

(57:12):
as pronounced as that as it is for them. It's
likely that Jason Alexander makes his debut with the Astros
tomorrow for their evening game. I think Sears will probably
pitch that game and Spence tonight, but again not one
hundred percent on that. Sever Reno schedule to go on
Wednesday against Fromber Valdez and Fromber is the lone ace

(57:33):
that the Astros are expected to pitch in this series.
It's Gusto likely Alexander Fromber and Colton Gordon and the
Astros need to take three out of four.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
As Yeah, well, I think I think they will. And
by the way, didn't you say this last week? And
I didn't look to see if it's still matched up,
But aren't they getting Severino who sucked?

Speaker 5 (57:53):
Yeah, he's pitching Wednesday night.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
In California more than he does on.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
That I don't know. I haven't looked at the numbers
in other californ or your ballparks, but in that one
in his own ballpark, yes, very bad, which is.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
I mean, that's kind of like what you're talking about
with the ball carrying at night and all that kind
of stuff.

Speaker 5 (58:08):
Again, just to point out where the Astros are with
their roster, Jason Alexander is on the Astros. Do you
know who he is? Cooper Hummel was in yesterday's starting lineup.
Do you know who he is? How about Luis Giorme?
Do you know who he is? In yesterday's starting lineup? Also,
they are besieged with injuries, and because of where they are,

(58:30):
they're all to the pitching staff or all to their
outfield Jacob Melton, Chas McCormick, Zach Decenzo, Jordan Alvarez all
on the il. And we've run through all the pitching
injuries that they've had, and it leaves some questions on
how to presume to put their flexible group together. Giorm
gives you a tiny bit of positional flexibility. Shocked that

(58:52):
they made that move, though, considering Witcomb was already here,
they actually set him down so they could make these
two moves. Whitcomb can play everywhere, be awful everywhere, because
I again, I don't know what it is that they
want these other players in the lineup for. Like I said,
they're gonna be available to every team of the Majors
as soon as the Astros get healthy, and I don't
know that any team will want them. Humble has already

(59:13):
been through multiple organizations in just two months. Nonetheless as
a real possibility, we'll see them again, if not tonight,
multiple nights as they take on the Athletics. You've gotten
a whole lot more from Jander Diaz. Probably we'll see
more Brendan Rodgers, definitely will see more Mauricio Dubon. And
the assumption from what Dana Brown has said about Esach

(59:37):
Perettis is his return is imminent enough and has thought
to be imminent enough that they do not plan and
obviously have not as of yet put him on the
IL and for that reason, he's available to Joe whenever
he wants, just a matter of his he healthy or
not to go there. Dana Brown was on with Astros Radio,
as he is each and every week on on Sunday game,

(59:58):
said this about Perettis.

Speaker 14 (01:00:00):
Yeah, I would think for sure that we're definitely gonna
see him, but just take just taking precautions on this.
Don't want to bring him back too soon to very
low grade hamstring injury, and so we don't want to
aggravate it and make it a little longer than it
is right now. And so the hope is to get
him back. He feels like he can play right now,

(01:00:21):
but the hope is to get him back, you know,
at some point in the next series, maybe game two
or Game three.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
I mean, I know he doesn't mean it that way,
but we're so recently removed from letting the player tell
you how he feels. That's part of it. But we're
gonna wait to hear what the doctors have to say.
We're gonna wait to see what it looks like in there.
We're gonna wait and see. Like I said this from
the moment he walked off the field, I don't know

(01:00:48):
why the Astros do this. It's five games out of
one sixty two. Maybe just put him on the ail.
I don't understand the need to. Maybe we can squeeze
just five miss games or four miss games, and then
we get as bad for those five or six other games.
I mean, I know the math of it. I know
how important he is to them, but we're not dealing
with something that clearly takes two or three days to heal.

(01:01:11):
It is a hamstring injury, the lowest grade hamstring injury
of all time. Would tell me, amateur doctor for baseball players,
just give him the ten days, and in this case,
they play every day, so he would miss all ten games.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
Well, that's the other thing that I think, that's the
only thing that we haven't mentioned during this whole We
talked about it last week that they were going into
this stretch, that they were playing all these games.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
But now the retroactive nature of how you can use
the IL does afford them some leeway because the later
it goes, you still sometimes have the opportunity to make
it retroactive. Then the games he would have missed when
he's already gonna miss and it doesn't take you even longer.
But it doesn't change the fact that Joe Spata has
gone to Dyke and Park for three days and now

(01:01:56):
he will go to the ballpark in West Sacramento, which
we will call Sutter Health Park without the ability to Yeah,
that's what we'll call it. Uh, he does not have
the ability to use every player on his active roster
because he's unable to play. So you are playing with
fewer players available to you, and in his case, two
fewer players than usual. Because Saysarsalves, are is there but least, well,

(01:02:19):
see there's your picture right there, says ourselves. I do
appreciate John Smoltz. I believe I'm not sure where it
was whose podcast or what to where he threw that
out there, Like we get a kick out of it,
and I get why we do, but it's not good
for baseball. We set rosters up in a way and
the moves that you need to make, and the limitations

(01:02:39):
on pitchers and rostered position players. We don't want position
players pitching. It means the game sucks, it means it's unwatchable,
it means it's a blowout. You know the guy, yes, well.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
Because sometimes it's for the team that is being blown out,
and sometimes it's for the team doing the blow.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
We had a game last week where both teams, the
winning team way out in front and the losing team
way behind. They both used a position zero pressure. Yeah,
zero pressure. Let's watch these forty eight mile an hour
quote unquote fastballs get burned down home plate. We'll get
to KD. What is the latest. Well, probably something happened
in the last three minutes. Maybe something will happen in
the next four minutes before we return here on The

(01:03:17):
A Team.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
All right, it's a Monday edition of The A Team
Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home. That work. A
lot of astros conversation over the first nearly hour and
a half, but it's not like the Rockets aren't in
the thick of things when it comes to sports topics
in this town. Because let's face it, and I said
this last week, I think wex agrees, and I think
a lot of people are looking at it this way

(01:03:49):
because of the fact that the Rockets and others, but
mainly the Rockets, have those draft picks that are gonna
come into play in any deal. For specif typically Kevin Durant,
I have felt like the Durant domino was gonna fall
pre draft no matter when it fell.

Speaker 5 (01:04:09):
If they're willing to say, sure, you can have them.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Back, That's what I mean. There's other teams like the
Spurs you've mentioned, do have draft picks that I think
Phoenix would want them to include if they were indeed
the deal that was made, And I think because otherwise
you're having them draft for you and it gets more complicated.
Is that Does that make sense? Like the number ten
pick in the draft, if that's going to go to
Phoenix along with other.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
Picks from a timing standpoint, that's just that. I mean, again,
everybody now knows, and one of those picks was included
in the Desmond Bine deal that Orlando and Memphis put together.
The first round pick for this year was sent to
Memphis from Orlando along with two other players and four
other first round picks. One of those four others is
a straight swap. One of those three others is a

(01:04:52):
first round pick that has the opportunity to swap with
two others. So there it's an additional pick, but it
also has swap, right. They just don't have to give
up one of their own to get it, just because
the Magic made a dumb deal.

Speaker 4 (01:05:06):
In my opinion, like it's it's not dumb, and then principle,
but four unprotected firsts is that's something that's But that's
not the same as I saw a lot of people
trying to make that the same principle or the same
concept as, oh, well, this guy just signed this contract.
These idiots over here signed this player to this dumb contract.

(01:05:26):
Now that's gonna raise the you know, the buying power
for everybody else out there to get that's not the same. Yeah,
they want to include four unprotected first round picks for
Desmond Bain, who's a very good player, by the way,
more power. That's not gonna affect the Kevin Durant deal,
particularly because he's thirty seven. He's not twenty six or whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:05:47):
Desmond Bain is, Yeah, very very different to kind of
pen a little picture of this and give you called
it a horrible deal for them, it is. And twenty
twenty two in the off season, Rudy Gobert traded for
four first round picks and a pick swap. In twenty
twenty four offseason, McHale Bridges traded for five first round
picks and a pick swaff, and now this offseason, Desmond
Baine traded for four first round picks and a pick swap.

(01:06:10):
At Adam J. Wexler posted that this weekend. It said
wild ideas from NBA teams on how to build a winner.
Also included an fyi from yours truly go bear in
Minnesota make back to back Western Conference finals, Bridges and
the Knicks. We're in the Eastern Conference finals this year.
If you believe your roster needs this as it's currently constructed,

(01:06:33):
then you're willing to part with those picks. And in
all of these deals, this goes back to my Hour
one conversation. All first round picks aren't created equal. The
Memphis and Orlando the first round picks involved there there's
probably one or two that will be very, very good.
And even then, are you going to draft a player
that's better than Desmond Bain or in those other picks,

(01:06:53):
are you're gonna draft a player that makes a bigger
difference than Rudy or makes a bigger difference than McHale Bridges.
Nobody's trying to sit here and say Bridges, go, Bear
and Bane are worth that. They clearly are not. They're
not those caliber players of them all pure NBA caliber talent.
He already has a skill. I also think it gets
eliminated in the playoffs because teams care more and are

(01:07:14):
better and devise game plans, and then he becomes almost useless.
But he does do something that helps you get there.
He does help you win forty eight to fifty to
fifty five games. He's done that his whole career. I
don't want to discount it completely. Desmond Baine is freaking good.
Orlando gave up a lot to get him, and Orlando
believes the moment that deal became official this weekend that

(01:07:35):
they are one of the best four teams in the East.
Next year, the year after, the year after, and the
year after. The fourth seed just won the East. Orlando's
right there. Boston might be making changes, Milwaukee's almost definitely
making changes. Cleveland probably is what they are for the

(01:07:57):
next couple of years, unless they decide to make a
difference or feel like they just can't quite get over
the hump, even though they had the best record in
the Eastern Conference. And then obviously the Knicks, who may
be getting involved in a bigger deal to reassess what
they have. I'm fine with it. I von Orlando. I
think they gave up a ton, but I get it,

(01:08:17):
and I think it's fine. They upgraded that two spot tremendously,
and they remember when the Rockets played the Magic this year,
and whatever you do, make them shoot threes because they
can't make them and they don't want to take them.
And then when you leave them open, they're like, oh,
this is easy. I'm wide open. I'll just shoot it
and miss non stop all year long. They can't go

(01:08:37):
anywhere if they can't start making three pointers. But between Wagner,
Franz Wagner, Palo Bancaro, and now Desmond Bain, if you
get a little bit improvement from both of those two
first players at the line. Desmond Bane, I know when
you get traded for this amount, it seems odd to
call him underrated, but he's unbelievably underrated. Plays both ends.

(01:08:59):
SHOT's it an incredible clip. He's a top ten three
point shooter in this league, and he does so in
the body of a tank. Desmond Bain is going to
be awesome in the East if they want him to be.
If that's how Orlando wants to play it, he is
going to be a great number two to Palo's number one,
and now Franz is a number three.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
Would you trade? Would you trade Jalen for Desmond Baine?
Not straight up, but when those two are the principles
if you're involving picks, and do you think that makes
the Rockets better than a say, deal in which they
give up Jalen and Jabbari and picks for Kevin Durant.

Speaker 5 (01:09:42):
I mean, if you're just asking me who makes the
Rockets better when you put him on the court and
not paying attention to the age or money, that still
do either one of them? I mean, Bain got his
extension already and he makes more than Jalen Green will
on his extension significantly more. If you ask me, I
year one hundred and ninety seven million dollar extension is

(01:10:03):
what Bain got and so that's what he's playing under
for the Magic.

Speaker 6 (01:10:06):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:10:07):
I mean, I like Jalen Green as much as the
next guy, but he's worse than Desmond Bayne.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Yeah, he's three years younger. He averages a couple more
points per game, but Desmond Baine out rebounds him a
couple and outssists him, out assists him a couple and
also shoots the ball better.

Speaker 5 (01:10:26):
Go back to the year before where he played and
he was even out for part of the year, but
he played most of that year without John Morant, so
they went to him more and he's a frow four
more shots per game. He's a forty one percent career
three point shooter.

Speaker 6 (01:10:42):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
He's actually gone down the more they've played him, because
he was at forty three percent his first two years
in the league, playing big minutes but not starters big minutes,
and as he's gone that route, he's dipped all the
way down to thirty nine and a half percent. He's
still awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:10:56):
He's exactly what the Rockets need this offseason.

Speaker 5 (01:10:58):
Yeah, he's a ninety or eight eighty eight percent free
throw shooter. He's a bit I think he would be
tremendous defensively for a team that values defense the way
the Rockets do. Ideas what I'm saying, if you see
him get moved and you realize, could we have been
on the other end of that call and done something
dramatic like that and given away both are starting to

(01:11:21):
and some of our future draft capital to do so,
because clearly Orlando had this deal on the table. If
Memphis was shopping him in that way and they came
to you, you would have had to put something at
least as strong as that to even be in the running.
I mean, I'm again, I don't think Desmond Dane's like
this unbelievable. Every team's gonna win with him player, but
a two that is physical, is big, is athletic and

(01:11:44):
can shoot at a very very high level. Like there's
the shooters that are better than him basically over the
last five years, other than Curry, they're the guys for
the most part that that's all they do. The Luke
Cannards McDermott types. We can't play them old. We can't
play more than twenty minutes twenty five minutes a game
because while they shoot forty five percent. They give up

(01:12:05):
so much on the other end. Those are the Those
are the group of players that outshoot Desmond Banes forty
one percent over the last handful of years, Sam Hauser,
Grayson Allen, Luke Canard, Joe Ingles Oh and Kevin Durant. Yeah,
since twenty twenty, Kevin Durant is shooting forty two percent.

(01:12:27):
I know, when you get a bigger sample size, you're
neglecting the fact that, well, none of those include the
year where he played it as a thirty eight year
old NBA player, And I'm okay with that because he's
on the far far end of his age scale. The
other players are going to keep shooting the way that
they have, So I like that deal for the Rockets.
Also because the twenty twenty five twenty six Grizzlies are

(01:12:48):
worse now, less likely to be a factor, less likely
to beat you in any of your three or four
meetings four meetings, they're.

Speaker 4 (01:12:55):
Less likely to keep that core together.

Speaker 5 (01:12:56):
Everyone's been asking that question from the moment that deal
was a fi and one report says they're looking to
extend Jaron Jackson Junior and build around him. Another report
says they're looking at adding you know, Christaps porzingis potentially
if done work there or the opposite. They're going to
take calls for Marant, They're going to take calls for this.
They have a brand new future arsenal because of this deal.

(01:13:20):
And it goes back to what we thought was Kevin
Durant based last week. I think this is going to
be one of the wildest offseasons we've seen. It's starting well,
and it has nothing to do with Kevin Durant.

Speaker 4 (01:13:32):
We'll get so far, we'll get to some other people's,
highly respected people's opinions on that exact topic, because I
know we talked a lot of Desmond Bane this segment,
but look, the Rockets or someone are much much closer
I think to getting Kevin Durant than even a week ago.
And that's only going to continue. As we continue here

(01:13:52):
on a Monday edition of the eighteen the A ten
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:14:03):
Continue with the discussion on the Rockets, Kevin Durant, the
other teams interested. We will hear from Steve Sparks ASTROS
radio analysts in about fifteen minutes from his weekly visit
earlier this morning. It's the Shawn Salisbury show, wexa Ce
and Cole here with you. We'll start early in the morning.
Brian Windhors talking about what he's hearing, what he believes,
and maybe who his considered front runner is for the

(01:14:27):
services of Kevin Durant. As we all know, he's gonna
get moved from the Phoenix Suns. The next basket he
will make will be for a team he's never played for.
I mean, he's not gonna be with Phoenix, He's not
gonna be with Golden State. It's not gonna be with
the Oklahoma City Thunder, and I don't believe he's gonna
be playing for the Brooklyn Nets. Only a handful of
teams left Kevin Durant to play for. What say you
on the Latest Windy?

Speaker 15 (01:14:46):
What I understand the three teams on Duran's list, Miami,
San Antonio and Houston have not made offers that have
gotten Phoenix excited to this point.

Speaker 4 (01:14:54):
To this point is very important.

Speaker 15 (01:14:56):
Minnesota was aggressive at midseason, and Minnesota, from what I
understand and has been the most aggressive team in these
trade talks. I do think Toronto is lurking out there.
Toronto is making the number nine pick in this draft
in addition to some players available in multiple different scenarios,
and I think the LA Clippers are lurking out.

Speaker 5 (01:15:13):
There as well.

Speaker 15 (01:15:14):
But I would say right now, if I had to
put a favorite, I definitely think Minnesota is the team
that's been most aggressive.

Speaker 5 (01:15:20):
Keep in mind the last thing that was said there.
If I had to make a favorite, I'd say Minnesota's
being the most aggressive. He kind of almost said two
different things. Now he might say it in that way
because he believes the team that's most aggressive is going
to win, because the other end of the phone is Phoenix,
and they'll say, oh, they're giving us the best package,
we'll make the deal, And that very well could be true.
That is one way to say it. That's definitely one

(01:15:42):
way to look at it. And I think all of
the reporters are doing something correctly.

Speaker 6 (01:15:48):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:15:48):
They're taking the information they're given by the agent or
Rich Climbing in this case, and they're putting it out there,
and they're taking the information they have from other sources.
They're putting that out there. But I do think as
we hear from Sham Sharania, also of the exact same
outlet ESPN, describe things as he sees it. You've got
to really kind of pay attention to what they're saying,

(01:16:09):
so you don't think, well, so and so said this,
so that must just wait and hear it all out.
Here's Sham's.

Speaker 7 (01:16:14):
Phoenix Sun's remain in active conversations around the league on
a Kevin Durant deal, but their focus over the last
several days has been on three teams, and that's the
Miami Heat, Houston Rockets, and Minnesota Timberwolves. We know his
preferred destinations though, are the Rockets, Spurs, and the Heat,
and so the Sons have been working with Durant's business partner,

(01:16:36):
Rich Kleiman on just figuring out exactly where he could
end up. Could it be one of his destinations, could
it be a wild card team, because listen, at the
end of the day, his expiring contract of fifty four
point seven million dollars is going to play a part
in this. And I'm told Durant has no desire to
be in Minnesota with the Timberwls. So how does that
shape how the Minnesota Timbrels and other teams that could

(01:16:58):
have interests that are outside of his preferred decide how
to move forward with these direct discussions.

Speaker 5 (01:17:03):
So he doesn't want to be there, and they're putting
that out there publicly. The Timberwolves might already know that.
I would assume they do if this is real, accurate information.
But then the question remains, does it matter? Does it
truly matter what his preferred destinations are? You listen to
both of those two well locked in sources, reporters with

(01:17:26):
their sources kind of painting what I believe is the
actual picture. He's making sure everybody who talks about this,
everybody who's following this, all of the people inside the
organizations now publicly are aware. I prefer to play for
these teams. I think conversely, the teams are making sure
that everybody who's following this knows uh huh, And we're

(01:17:47):
listening to offers from every team and this is how
it's going to work. Now, working together with his agent
and with Kevin, how much are they working together with
him to? You know, do they want Kevin to be happy?
Do they care if Kevin's happy? Like if Memphis or
excuse me, Minnesota offers you something that's better than the
not very exciting offers that Windhorst described from his three

(01:18:08):
teams that are preferred destinations. How can Phoenix and their
new owner say yeah, but you know, we did a
solid for Kevin.

Speaker 4 (01:18:16):
He can't.

Speaker 5 (01:18:17):
He has to take the best deal.

Speaker 4 (01:18:18):
I think the NBA, more than any other league. It's
fascinating when you start talking about big names being on
the move, because you know that the NBA is run
by the players, so to speak. In large part. This
is the one of the bigger examples of that being
the case, because I mean, look at what happened with
this very player at the trade deadline this year. Well,

(01:18:39):
they're gonna ship him off the Golden State, but he
wasn't interested in a reunion, so they didn't. Well, if
this is about simply the Phoenix Suns getting the best deal,
it shouldn't necessarily matter what Kevin Durant wants, although the
team that is going to be acquiring him has to
know that he's going to at least be somewhat happy
to stay put. Maybe the team that acquires him, and

(01:19:03):
in this case this could also include the Rockets wants
to see how it goes for a year before extending him.
You know, at his age, I know it looks good
on paper and the metrics and all that say that
he will fit in not only well, but with the
Rockets specifically, probably very well for a lot of intangibles
that have nothing to do with basketball. But at the

(01:19:24):
end of the day, that's what this is about. And
if you're giving up any amount of capital of any kind,
you want it to be good for you too. It's
not just about the reason the Phoenix Suns are reaching
out to the Rockets or they're on that list. The
second SoundBite we heard is because of those draft picks.
That's plain simple, That's why they would. I think the

(01:19:47):
Suns would prefer to deal with the Rockets above anyone
else out there, and that's why they were trying to
trade him here at the trade deadline.

Speaker 5 (01:19:54):
Definitely something to consider, and we talked about it kind of.
Maybe the five teams that we had at the top
of the I do think what Windhor said about the
Clippers lurking, I think that one might be real. I
don't think the Raptors have any chance at all. I
just don't think they have the ability to offer anything
that Phoenix will want. Their quote unquote young talent stinks,

(01:20:14):
so I don't know why they would want that. Now
their picks and the future might be valuable, but you'd
probably prefer if you can pry them from Houston to
get theirs, or pry them from san Antonio to get
some of maybe the look at Atlanta's picks potentially, which
is what san Antonio has some control over. Well, what
did we say was kind of the number one thing
that he's betting on if he comes to Houston. He's

(01:20:35):
betting on Ema Udoka. Well, now he also might be
contractually at the same exact timeline if he signs an
extension to play here for three years with former teammate
Steven Adams. Steven Adams is now resigned by the Houston Rockets.
Reportedly it's a three year deal with declining salaries beginning
this year and heading down the next two. It's definitely

(01:20:55):
happened because Stephen Adams mentioned it on his own Instagram page.
But the Rockets have an yet, and he's We've known
this for years. He wasn't there at Texas for very long.
He wasn't even there on the team with Royal Ivy,
but he was elsewhere in his professional career. He's very
very close with Rockets assistant coach Royal Ivey, just as

(01:21:16):
much as he is desiring to play for head coach
Ema Udoka, Like, it's not a well, he thinks Houston's
really good and they could win if he joins them.
That's definitely part of it. But they have these other
things that no other team has.

Speaker 4 (01:21:30):
Yeah, no, the intangibles, all that kind of stuff. But again,
what are you giving up if you're Houston? And are
you comfortable with that? I still the age thing, really,
it's not just that, Okay, do you upset the apple
cart for what you've been doing as your own organization

(01:21:50):
and letting this thing grow organically? Like I say that,
like the Oklahoma City Thunder did I give them a
pass because they got SGA in his rookie year, you know,
So it's essentially like they grew it organically. Everything else
has been homegrown. And I just don't count that really
as all. They traded for Sga, Well they did, but

(01:22:11):
they were the ones that were giving up the best
player in the deal at the time. But man, the
age thing just keeps cropping up in my head, and
I'm like, I just don't know. I don't want to
give up too much to put it that way. So
all right, we will continue to discuss this it's going
to be a hot topic until it's not anymore, if

(01:22:32):
you know what I mean. And we'll also get to
sparky replay from earlier today on the Astros and where
they stand. Has Houston improved at the plate with runners
in scoring position? Among other things you'll hear him talk
about next.

Speaker 3 (01:22:47):
The age.

Speaker 1 (01:22:48):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:22:57):
We pause from the Kevin Durant to Wherever conversation to
jump back into the baseball conversation. It is the a
team Sports Talk seven to ninety as we are winding
down the three o'clock hour. We're also on Space City
Home Network. Shout out if you're looking at us on
the telly right now. But Steve Sparks making his weekly

(01:23:18):
visit to the station earlier today and was talking about
a number of things baseball related. Obviously, the Astros with
five straight victories and they're going on the road to
take on one of the worst teams in baseball. Doesn't
mean it's automatic. But I would like them to continue
their winning ways, as would everybody else. And one of
the ways they could do that is to, you know,

(01:23:38):
make improvement at the plate with runners in scoring position,
which is one of the first things that Sparky was
asked about in his visit to the station.

Speaker 16 (01:23:46):
Today, guys are still learning camp Smith is getting better
as we speak and starting to learn himself and how
guys are trying to attack him is going to be
back and forth all that time. But all this being said,
to do what they've been able to do. I think
Ken and three in June now without yord On, I
think there are ten games above five hundred.

Speaker 6 (01:24:02):
Without yord On. It's kind of a head scratcher to me.

Speaker 16 (01:24:05):
I mean, it's a lot of credit goes to I
guess the coaching staff and these.

Speaker 6 (01:24:09):
Players who are able to pick up the slack when
when guys go down. But they've got a couple of traits.

Speaker 16 (01:24:14):
I love the runs that they score with two outs
and the comeback wins. I think they have twenty one,
maybe twenty comeback wins this year, second most in the game.

Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
Soy the wins do you mean interrupt you? Soil Half
their wins are comeback wins already, is what you're saying.

Speaker 6 (01:24:30):
That's impressive. Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 16 (01:24:32):
It's a great trait, you know, and being able to
score runs off of the other team's bullpens isn't easy
to do, and they show that ability.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
When you lose the guys they've lost over the years
well documented, and then you had Tucker and Bregman to
that and try to replace them with young players. Do
you see I mean it's it's hard to sustain this,
I mean the resilience of the organization. But with that
in times when you do that, normally our thought process
and fans and media would be oh, your tearing down
to rebuild. Well, the windows not close on this team

(01:25:00):
by any stretch of the imagination. But do you see
a near future when you get when the de Zeenzos
and Meltons and camp Smith's are all in the lineup
different positions at the same time.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
I mean, when their time comes.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
They're doing a great job of bridging the gap that
should be a closed window for most pro sports organizations
in the transition. I don't see the window closing anytime soon.

Speaker 6 (01:25:21):
I don't either.

Speaker 16 (01:25:22):
You know, we're getting glimpses of the guys that are
starting to trickle up here. You know that it was
a savvy trade and I know it's not popular, but
to get Cam Smith in that deal, I think at
the end of the day is going to be something
that da Astros fans. I think they're starting to really
appreciate some of the things that Dana has done. But
I think that you know, when you watch Cam Smith,
you realize, all right, that trade doesn't get done with

(01:25:44):
that Cam Smith and the deal, and you understand why
because he's going to be.

Speaker 6 (01:25:47):
A big part of this future.

Speaker 16 (01:25:48):
The way you're talking about the turning or the passing
of the baton. You know, with some of these guys
as they move through, you've got to have a couple
of mainstays in there, and he's going to be a
big part of that unit to take fi Astros, you know,
to the championship again. You know, I truly believe that.
You know, they've got some of their core guys here
already again.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
Can you see a world where if they hit where
they you know, you said, timely hitting and coming from
behind important, but where they're not like exploding on offense
with the long ball on a regular basis, kind of
like they've been a little inconsistent this year on the
offensive side. Can you see a world where this pitching
starting pitching the bullpens now know the whole world. The
way they're pitching but we're starting pitching the guys we

(01:26:28):
got today where they can sustain this the rest of
the year, or or should we prepare that there's going
to be a downturn a little bit somewhere.

Speaker 6 (01:26:36):
I think there will be a down there at some point,
you know, there'll be the lulls. I feel very encouraged
that there's a good depth there, you.

Speaker 16 (01:26:43):
Know, And I still think there's a couple of guys
in the minor league that if they call on them,
that they would fit right in too. You know, I
feel strongly about that. You know, you watch the games
and spring training, you go to the other fields, and
you realize that there's a lot there's a lot more
down there as far as pitching. I don't care what
the team you rank, you know, as far as as
minor league publications go, but they've got some pitching down

(01:27:03):
there and they're gonna be.

Speaker 6 (01:27:05):
Able to keep this going. So they've got a lot
of guys coming back to you.

Speaker 16 (01:27:08):
When you think of Luis Garcia and Eric Getty and
Christian Javier and JP France.

Speaker 6 (01:27:14):
Outside of the guys that we're talking about that.

Speaker 16 (01:27:16):
Haven't taken the big league stage yet, they're pretty full.
You know, it might be a situation where they can
trade from a surplus right now, and you never feel
like you have a surplus of pitching, but the Astros might.
I mean, I don't know how they feel about it,
but in my eyes, they're pretty deep in that regard.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
Let's just say for talking's sake that we don't get
the normal yord on. Can they win a World Series
with the way they're built right now?

Speaker 16 (01:27:39):
I'd take Payna over anybody in the leadoffs, but well
maybe you know, Okanie, the stuff gets silly, But I'd
take pay above almost everybody at the leadoff spot the
way he's.

Speaker 6 (01:27:47):
Playing right now, and think he brings to this team.

Speaker 16 (01:27:50):
I think, I think you start to build your team
around somebody like that, and then I just feel like
there's a.

Speaker 6 (01:27:55):
Lot more in the tank.

Speaker 16 (01:27:56):
When you're looking at a couple of guys in the lineup,
I think they're going to hit some point, start to
play more like they have in the past.

Speaker 6 (01:28:03):
It'll get offense, it'll get better. But I love I
love the trait that they have with all the two.

Speaker 16 (01:28:08):
Out RBIs that means that some guys may not be
getting the job done earlier in the in the inning,
but guys are picking them up in a little bit
later on, So it makes it makes it really check
on the other teams teaching when when they become so
relentless that they just can't get out.

Speaker 6 (01:28:24):
Of innings and the Astros make them, make them pretty frustrated.

Speaker 5 (01:28:28):
One of those things that Sparks mentioned there is about
getting it done against the opposing team's bullpen. First four
innings of games so far this year for the Astros,
they've outscored their opponents in the second third. They've been
outscored by their opponents in the first and fourth. Not
a tremendous amount of difference as you get out of
the gates, starter versus starter. As you continue to go
further in the game, a dramatic change. Both teams have

(01:28:51):
scored the same number of runs in the fifth inning,
and then the Astros have outscored their opponents in every
inning after that, in the sixth, and the seventh, and
the eighth, in the ninth individually, and they haven't given
up any runs in extra innings, and they're four extra
inning games this year. They've thrown shut out baseball with
a runner on second to start every one of those innings.
They've won every one of those extra inning games. Four

(01:29:12):
extra inning games, four wins, massive change over recent Astros history,
but the sixth, seventh, and eighth and ninth inning dominance
is pretty clearly attributable to the fact that essentially Okert, King, Obrau,
and Hater handle the majority of those when you're ahead,
and you've got to give some credits to some of

(01:29:32):
these other guys. Also, yesterday is a good example. They
the Astros didn't play from in front. You know, sometimes
you're hesitant to go to your leverage guys, So you're
giving the ball to Caleb Order, you're giving the ball
to Sean Dubin, and they're also getting the job done
more often than not. And that's how you win games.
When you're not crushing the baseball, when you're not hitting

(01:29:53):
home runs at a very good clip. This year, the
Astros are not likely to finish very high on that list,
probably possibly not even in the top twenty in home
runs hit this year. Batting average is very good. They're
batting average with runners in scoring position is fine. They're
ops and they're slugging in both of those incidents instances
is lagging way behind. So you have to keep the

(01:30:13):
other team from scoring.

Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
And we've gone this whole show so far without mentioning that.
Believe Dana Brown, he said this last week that Jordon's
hand is now eighty percent, so to speak, give her
take in that realm. But more importantly, it wouldn't be
too much longer until he actually grabs a bat again
and starts trying to get his way back. That can

(01:30:37):
obviously only help those numbers you're talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:30:40):
I guess it could. I mean, they're twenty five and
fifteen without him, can't get much better than that. It's
I mean, we saw it last year. He's gonna screw
it all up. It's Kyle Tucker all over again. It's
the same thing Kyle Tucker missed all that time. They
won a bunch of games with a bunch of time,
only one.

Speaker 4 (01:30:55):
Bunch of killing it before he started missing time. And
Jordan was not killing anything before he started miss.

Speaker 5 (01:31:00):
I don't care about that time. I care about the
time what you missed. Oh okay, well that makes sense.
It's identical, all right.

Speaker 4 (01:31:05):
So we will get into the four o'clock hour again.
There's gonna be plenty of conversation surrounding both the Astros
and the Rockets as they look to improve their team
this offseason. Plus the good, the bad, and the ugly.
It's all coming up in the next hour. The A
Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:31:22):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team,
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:31:46):
It is the four o'clock hour here on a Monday
edition of the program. It's Sports Talks seven ninety Space
City Home Network. Wex say c col Thompson with you
on the Monday. Following an Astro sweep over the Twins,
they are in Sacramento to take on the A's that'll
never get comfortable saying, and I probably won't have to
for much longer.

Speaker 5 (01:32:06):
Four years.

Speaker 4 (01:32:08):
And I guess that is longer than I thought. Twenty eight.
Maybe how long does it take to build a stadium?

Speaker 5 (01:32:14):
Four years? No, it doesn't apparently. I mean, it's pretty
cut and dry. We're gonna be there for a couple
of years. And when we got a stadium boom four years.

Speaker 4 (01:32:22):
In Ron then later minute made and now Dyke In
Park did not take four years to build, did it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:27):
Nope?

Speaker 8 (01:32:28):
If you're there four years, you're the Sacramento aays that
should just be the case.

Speaker 5 (01:32:32):
They're never going to be the Sacramento I know, which
is ironic. I aren't even currently the Sacramento as they
are the A's, they're the vagabond A's. Well they're not vagabond.
They're they're in the same place. They're not traveling, They're
they're in one place. They just aren't using the name
of the city they're playing in.

Speaker 4 (01:32:48):
It's just and you know what's crazy is that maybe
by the time all of that gets done, they will
be competitive, but I doubt it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:56):
They have some competitive players now. They really do. Weird
that Mason Miller might not be one of them. He's
still struggling, and I hope that doesn't change for the
four games that the Astros have against them. But you know,
Rooker and Butler look like they can play, and even
without being going crazy this year, their numbers now look
a little bit closer what they should have been, And
I did not expect this. When the first returns for

(01:33:19):
All Star voting were released, the leading vote getter among
American League shortstops, Yeahs Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson.

Speaker 4 (01:33:27):
By a comfortable margin.

Speaker 5 (01:33:28):
By the way, a margin that's catchable.

Speaker 4 (01:33:32):
Well yeah, I mean but ok, okay, So Jeremy Payne
is a distant third, but Bobby wit Junior is what
one hundred thousand behind him. I think that's a big deal. Like,
I think he has what five hundred thousand plus, Bobby
Witt Junior has four hundred thousand plus. Uh, And I'm
I looked at it earlier and now don't have it

(01:33:53):
in front of me.

Speaker 5 (01:33:53):
But he's fifty thousand ahead of Bobby Witt Junior, like
he would catch him.

Speaker 4 (01:33:57):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:33:57):
Jeremy Paine is not pretty early in the returns to
say anything this bold, but I would put Jeremy Panna
in position to not catch either one of them. But
I do think that's also astros related. Jose Altuve is
third among second basemen. Told you that last week. He
is on the ballot at second base, but he's less

(01:34:18):
than three thousand votes behind Jackson Holliday of the Orioles
second year player, and he's less than one hundred thousand
votes behind New Tiger's second baseman, Glabor Torres. Very much
catchable later returns more votes come in absolutely within range.
There's not another astro that's going to be voted in,
and I don't think any other astro beyond Jeremy Pania

(01:34:39):
will even be close. But Jacob Wilson to get that
much support, and he's been a major leaguer for less
than three months. He is a rookie. His numbers, I
wish everybody voted like this. I wish this wasn't worth saying.
I don't know anything about Jacob Wilson before twenty twenty four.
It's literal in this case. I wish it was actual
in every case, I don't. I don't care what Jeremy

(01:35:01):
Paynia did in twenty twenty four. I don't care what
Aeron Judge did in twenty twenty four. I'm not dying
to see them at the All Star Game, and I
admit with the fans that's fair to do. So I
don't really care what Aaron Judge is doing this year.
I want to vote him into the All Star Game
because I want to see him playing in the All
Star Game. That I understand also, but Wilson's numbers suggest
that he and Wit and Paynya should be splitting these votes.

(01:35:23):
They have all three been head and shoulders above every
other American league shortstop Jeremy Paania continues to lead all
leadoff hitters in a couple of categories batting average. Among them,
he's second in the majors in OPS since becoming a
lead off hitter, and he's among the top fifteen in
ops overall. He has been incredible. And Jacob Wilson continues
to hit and Bobby Witt Junior, like Paynya, I think,

(01:35:45):
is adding so much to his team in a number
of different ways. Paynia is now stealing with a little
bit more regularity. I think of the three, well, I'm
sure this is debatable. I think he is the best
defensive player of the three. Maybe there's fewer highlight plays
than Wit Junior. And I think it's too early in
the career for Wilson to quite be there with the
two of them, just from what I've seen in person

(01:36:05):
twice from AFAR many times, and we'll see more in
person tonight. But I also think this is not where
they eliminate a third a second reserve. All three of
them should be and will be American League All Stars.
You got to cut back on another position that doesn't
even have maybe a worthy player. Well, you can put
your two there, but you don't need three at that spot.
You'll take three short stops. They all deserve it, and

(01:36:27):
they'll all get it.

Speaker 4 (01:36:28):
You sound pretty sure about that.

Speaker 5 (01:36:30):
I'm very sure about it.

Speaker 4 (01:36:31):
I'm glad, I mean cause I mean he's right. Yeah,
But I guess the initial returns. I just thought, first
of all, I thought, Bobby, what Junior was going to
be in the lead by not a mile but comfortably.

Speaker 5 (01:36:43):
Well, how about the Yankees' lead at first base and
in the outfield? And they have two outfielders because there's
six of them, but there's the only two positions a
Yankees' player leads, And based on how the Yankees played
this year, that's actually correct. And by the way, there's
only two players that I've gotten a thousand votes in
the American League. Cal Raley is one of them. He's
just over a thousand, and Aaron Judge is the other.

(01:37:05):
And he's pushing one point six million, way ahead of everybody,
and deservedly so. But you've got an oriol leading at
designated hitter, You've got an athletic leading at shortstop. You
got a tiger leading at second base, you've got a
guardian leading at third, you've got a Mariner leading at catcher.
The voters are doing a really good job so far.

Speaker 4 (01:37:25):
No, and I think I think the shortstop positions are
where that's really the case.

Speaker 6 (01:37:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:37:33):
It's also noteworthy that Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers is
currently second among all National League designated hitters despite not
playing any National League games while wearing a National League uniform.

Speaker 4 (01:37:46):
We've talked, I mean we touched on it barely. What
in the world like is that? I guess I just
don't get this on like a million different levels, So.

Speaker 5 (01:37:59):
A bunch of different ways to explain it. You just
pick the one you want. Rafaeld Devers sent from the
Red Sox to the Giants four players coming in return.
Won an established Major leaguer, but an awful starter and
probably headed back to the bullpen permanently. Jordan Hicks. If
you remember at the beginning of the year when the
Astros played the Giants, Jordan Hicks was in the starting rotation.
He threw six shutout innings. Looked unbelievable that day. He

(01:38:21):
has been totally awful, really unusable since and was shifted
to the bullpen. He's one of the pitchers they got
Kyle Harrison a more a younger, hopeful prospect type pitcher,
though his minor league or a major league work thus
far suggests otherwise, and he's actually beginning his Red Sox
career with their Triple A team. Jose Beao is a prospect,
and I would assume James Tibbs is the player they

(01:38:43):
wanted most, because James Tibbs from the Giants to the
Red Sox is identical as Cam Smith from the Cubs
to the Astros. The Giants got Rafael Devers for James
Tibbs thirteenth overall pick from Florida State got Cam Smith
form the Cubs for Kyle Tucker. Cam Smith the very

(01:39:05):
next pick, right after his teammate James Tibbs. Camp Smith
went fourteenth. Both of them were unbelievable at this time
last year at the College World Series and now have
been moved for superstar players. One of the five best
offensive players probably over the last five years in the
American League, certainly one of the ten best of this
year is Rafael Devers. I can't believe it's that bad

(01:39:30):
in their clubhouse that they told their team we're not
going to win this year. We are not going to
win this year. And I can't believe they're two years removed.
And some of this is what the reporters are saying
versus what the team is actually saying. He just signed
an extension of ten years. It kicked in in twenty
twenty four. He signed it in twenty twenty three. This

(01:39:50):
is year two. There are eight full seasons remaining on it,
and yet this not yet thirty year old player. We're
reading stuff, well, this is a player who's likely to
be in decline on the other end of his contract.
He's having the best year of his career. By the way,
you could argue maybe one other year five years ago
was as strong as this one, but otherwise he's awesome.
Was awesome last year, and there's no reason to think

(01:40:11):
he won't be awesome for at least half of the
remainder of the contract which you just signed to him.
And I went back and listened to some of the
stuff that their GM blooms said that day. He's gonna
be here a long time. This is exactly the kind
of young players you developed. They signed him in twenty
thirteen initially, and this is ten years later. He gets
all the good things you want to hear, and two

(01:40:32):
years later less than two years later. Basically, now everyone's saying, well,
they got to worry about the fielding stuff, so they
added a third baseman and didn't handle it properly, telling
their awful third baseman, you're not gonna play here anymore.
Do you know who led the league, at least the
American League, if not the major leagues last year in
errors and the year before, and the year before, and

(01:40:53):
the year before, and the year before and the year
before and the year before, all the way back to
twenty nineteen, same player every year. It's Rafael Devers. Now
that only impacts twenty to thirty plays a year. If
you think all the other good stuff outweighs it, right, well,
you're getting rid of the bad stuff. He's not making
any errors this year. He will have zero errors this

(01:41:16):
year now that his Red Sox career is over. Yeah,
but we want you to play first. Why because you
need flexibility to find spots for your other players. Do
what the Astros did with cam Smith. Find a position
for these young kids that are great athletes that can
play pretty much anywhere at this point in their career,
like they've done with Campbell, will they need to do
it with Meyer and Anthony maybe well, first base was

(01:41:38):
open due to injury. That first baseman is still going
to be here a year from now, Casses probably, so
he says, no, it's not like he's not trying to
win this Just in do you guys know who the
Red Sox best hitter was this year? He's now on
the Giants their best hitter better than Bregman, especially since
he's played in every game. They just traded him away.

Speaker 4 (01:42:02):
So obviously you think that they are going to finish
a distant whatever in the division the way you're talking.

Speaker 5 (01:42:10):
At least I don't for this year. For them to
get better, that means Bregman is on the verge of returning.
I've seen him moving. He did post that over the
Father's Day weekend, jogging on the field needs high stuff
to kind of get the hamstring loose. But I don't
know a real timetable on him. He has to play
exactly the way he did. He's a nine hundred plus
ops guy. Finally this year that has to remain because

(01:42:31):
of all the other appsence, all these kids they're counting
on all have to perform, and currently none of them
are at a high level. And they didn't add anything
else that helps them unless Hicks becomes a great part
of their bullpen, and there's a reason to believe that's
definitely going to happen. The only way this makes any
sense for them is they just said, well, this is
a bad contract. We don't mind spending money, we just
want to spend it on this bad contract for a

(01:42:52):
super duper awesome player. How you view it as a
bad contract today? By all means, go ahead. You're telling
me to They're going to spend that money on somebody else,
and everybody knows who that's. Somebody else in the offseason,
who's going to be a free agent that used to
be teammates with Alex Bregman? Is should I leave it
at that? Do you believe the Red Sox are and
that sweepstakes?

Speaker 1 (01:43:12):
No, the ad on Sports Talk seven ninety, There's no
way the rerd Socks.

Speaker 4 (01:43:32):
Signed Kyle Tucker and have the guy who has the
swing that looks the most like Ted Williams since Ted
Williams in their lineup along with Alex Bregman next year.

Speaker 5 (01:43:40):
Right, Yeah, that's what I was alluding to the end
of the last second. I really do not believe that
is in the cards for them, but I guess it's
always a possibility with any team that you know does again.
They have handed out some contracts that are remarkable, but
then they've turned around and gotten rid of contracts that
are remarkable. Alex Bregman is set to be a free

(01:44:00):
agent at the end of this season, should he so
choose to opt out of his contract. Otherwise he could
opt in and say, yeah, give me another forty million
next year. We'll see how many games I can give you.
He's been out for quite some time, although he's duper
productive during the time he was healthy. Kyle Tucker's been great.
Kyle Tucker as the second most votes among National League

(01:44:21):
outfielders and deservedly so, one of the biggest reasons why
the Cubs are sitting in a very good spot in
the National League. Definitely headed the postseason, said in a
recent interview he thought the ceiling for his team, well,
I was winning the World Series, just like he would
have said if he were still a Houston astron. I
tend to believe there's no reason to think otherwise. In Chicago,
the difference is they're not used to doing that. People

(01:44:41):
here are, and those are the kind of responses you're
getting from Cam Smith and Mauricio Duban and Josh Hater
and others who have now at least been around this
group saying this is what we do. We just go
out and win. And when you look at some of
the groups of starting nine and pitchers that the Astros
have thrown out there over the last you know, two weeks,
three weeks, four weeks are longer. There are a lot

(01:45:03):
of pieces missing from this ball club on an everyday basis.
Lance mccullors junior is the latest added to it. Instead
of making his start tonight retroactive to June thirteenth, he's
now on the fifteen day il with a foot sprain.
Ryan Gusto will start. Jason Alexander is now an Astro
and likely to get the start tomorrow against his former team.
He actually pitched for the Athletics earlier this season, but

(01:45:26):
when they got cut him loose from Vegas early May,
the Astros did grab hold of him. He's made four appearances,
three of which are start, all of which are lengthy
for the Space Cowboys, and he's been very, very good.
It's just the kind of thing that you need for
insurance when you've had this many pitchers go down, and
now they're gonna likely need to call on him again.

(01:45:47):
I expect that tomorrow he is on the active roster,
and they did make a small switch to their rotation
order to get Gusto to start tonight. But looking at
the American League from this trades perspective, yeah, I do.
I don't think it eliminates them from the postseason chase
talking about the Red Sox, but I definitely think it
makes it much more difficult, and from a morale standpoint,

(01:46:12):
like it was so bad in their clubhouse. They're telling
us that they took the best vibes their clubhouse has
had the entire season, which was current, and said, let's
upset them all. Let's throw a monkey wrench into that.
As much as some people are telling us internally in

(01:46:32):
their club, I maybe internally in the manager's office and
internally in the front office, but our players on this
team really ticked off at Rafael Devers for crushing it
offensively all year for them because he won't play badly
at third base or he won't play badly at first base.
They're really that mad at him.

Speaker 4 (01:46:51):
But that's the thing. It's it's odd that they did
this while Alex Bregman is still out, you know, like.

Speaker 5 (01:46:59):
I mean from offensive standpoint, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:47:02):
But also I mean you're talking about the clubhouse. That
was the storyline when he signed there before they ever
played a game. So it's and I'm not saying it
might be a total coincidence. Probably is, but the fact
that they did this like right before he might be
starting to get close to coming back. It's just an
interesting aspect of this given what happened when he first
signed there.

Speaker 5 (01:47:21):
They won five straight, they won seven out of eight.
It's it's odd, good luck winning now. Honestly, like they're
they're basically telling all their top prospects, Hey, it's good
this year, You're better be awesome right now.

Speaker 4 (01:47:33):
What do you think Alex is thinking?

Speaker 5 (01:47:35):
That's all that really matters because they're out after this year.
That's what I just said, that he can be a
fre He's headed a free agency if he wants to
be now. He's not going to get a forty million
dollars a year contract from any team next year, even
on sure one hundred percent, he.

Speaker 4 (01:47:49):
Comes back and he plays like he did before the injury,
and he tears it up the rest of the year.
You don't think another team will give him that kind
of money.

Speaker 5 (01:47:55):
Thirty five million, only only in the way that the
Red Sox did. They give him a one year deal
for forty million dollars, and then they said, if you
want another one, you can have it. If you want
another one after that, you can have it. Nobody's giving
forty million dollars a year on a long term deal
no matter what he.

Speaker 4 (01:48:09):
Does, especially since he's now another year older, into his thirties.

Speaker 5 (01:48:13):
And hurt again.

Speaker 4 (01:48:16):
Why you know, I wasn't gonna pile on.

Speaker 5 (01:48:18):
I'm not piling on. I'm saying I'm a GM. This
is what I'm looking at. I don't want to. What
the Red Sox did was smart. They're totally protected from
his injury, even at a super high cost. Okay, so
we paid him forty million for one year, and we're
gonna get one hundred and ten, one hundred and five,
eight ninety five awesome games for me.

Speaker 4 (01:48:35):
But this is this is why I said, I just
at forty million per I understand why the Astros said
forget it.

Speaker 5 (01:48:42):
Yeah, and they were never even in that range. They
didn't want to get creative like that. And I totally
understand why, but to him take it inside him. He
now knows his teammate in Boston if he opts in
will not be Rafael Devers. They might convince him that
that's just money we now can spend on somebody else.

Speaker 4 (01:48:58):
They also won't be Kyle Tucker, though I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:49:00):
Think so either, because I don't know that they. I
get that he's different than Devors from a physical standpoint.
If you were like build the proto type, even with
minor injury history like Kyle Tucker has. If you're going
to tell me, I believe in this player's body type
to last all eight years of this long term, three

(01:49:20):
hundred and twenty million dollar deal, you'd probably build a
Kyle Tucker like the body.

Speaker 4 (01:49:24):
Face that you said mild. That was a or minor,
that was a fluke injury. Before that, he had no
injury history.

Speaker 5 (01:49:30):
That's why I said mild. He missed a ton of time.
But he missed a ton of time because he hit
a foul ball off his own.

Speaker 4 (01:49:36):
Leg, which could happen to anybody. But that's like al
Twove's thumb, right.

Speaker 5 (01:49:39):
But just this weekend, Cam Smith did it. Everybody does
it every game, and normally they don't break their leg
and miss half a season, which is roughly what Kyle
Tucker missed. But he hadn't had any other major injury
was He doesn't have a history of a hamstring injury
or shoulder problems or you know, banging into the wall
that's caused this, or knee issues.

Speaker 4 (01:49:57):
Nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:49:58):
So he's probably the the type of player you would
give it to. The Blue Jays have already gone long
term with the only other super productive potential free agent
for this class. He's not in the class anymore. He's
a Blue Jay Vladimir Guerrero Junior. So why if all
these teams are going to make room for him, even
if one other team makes room for him, and for

(01:50:20):
crying out loud, of course it should be the Cubs.
I mean, how much more do you need to see
that this is finally the play, Like you're gonna put
Kyle Tucker and Pete kurl Armstrong together for the next
six years. If you resign Kyle Tucker, you're going to
win that division or being contention to win that division,
win ninety plus games almost no matter what, just like

(01:50:41):
Jordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker did in Houston for five years.
If you put those two guys together, why would you
let Kyle Tucker go no.

Speaker 4 (01:50:48):
Matter what it costs? Well what he said, but also what.

Speaker 5 (01:50:51):
Did you say? I was still talking because you're the Cubs. Yes,
I know that this should be what turns these dumb
teams around. Look at what we did do. We're the
team that made the trade. We wanted to win right now.
We wanted to see what it's like to win right now.
We have a team that can win right now, and
nearly everybody that's helping us win right now is going
to be a part of helping us win for many

(01:51:13):
years to come, other than Kyle. So just sign him.

Speaker 4 (01:51:17):
Does Kyle want to go there?

Speaker 6 (01:51:18):
Though?

Speaker 4 (01:51:20):
I'll stay there?

Speaker 5 (01:51:21):
How could he not be having a good time there?
He and his wife are there?

Speaker 4 (01:51:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:51:24):
No, people the presles at leagues currently were there in
their first year there, Like you're winning, You're in Chicago.
It's a great baseball town. It really seems like a
really nice place to live. Presume aren't there? Maybe they
start a family?

Speaker 4 (01:51:34):
I mean, yeah, but aren't there places you could win
more or definitely win? Like I know, the Cubs are
a nice story this year.

Speaker 8 (01:51:41):
If you look at the central right now, just the
way they're building. If they're able to get one other picture,
that's the team that beat in the central for the
next six years. Not even remotely closes there anybody in
contention with them.

Speaker 4 (01:51:54):
It's just wild to me how quickly that happened. After
it just seemed like, what are the what are the
Cubs doing well?

Speaker 5 (01:52:00):
Not resigned player they've I don't think people think this,
but the Cubs have been around and near the playoffs
pretty consistently. They had two years here this decade where
they weren't very good. The last six years they finished first, second, second, first,
and then those two years I mentioned the six years
prior to that, they made the playoffs five times. They

(01:52:22):
just haven't won it all except the only time they've
ever won it all was just twenty sixteen, during a
run of making the playoffs five times in six years.
They're not that far removed with spending at least enough
money to do that. This is a big one. This
is a monster deal, a Shoho Tani deal, a one
Sodo deal. I'm sure it will be. Somebody's going to

(01:52:43):
spend it. There is a he's signing for that, right
we're convinced. Oh yeah, why can't this team just say
we've got we're paying nothing for PCA for how many
more years? He's our second best player?

Speaker 4 (01:52:55):
This is awesome, I guess because I'm not used to
the Cubs doing this.

Speaker 5 (01:53:00):
You're right, they don't. Nobody's used to them doing it.
They don't do it.

Speaker 4 (01:53:03):
Yeah, it's it's not a National League American League thing,
it's a Cubs thing.

Speaker 8 (01:53:07):
Well, here's the other thing that you guys brought up
is that, like they've one year that they make the
playoffs that was a Saya Suzuki miscatch away from going
to the postseason that year, and they put SAEs as
you get the DH spot because they went they Gotkyle Tuckers,
so that way it doesn't happen again.

Speaker 5 (01:53:23):
No, maybe they need to tell Danzby Swanson you can
go short stop somewhere else for the next few years,
because they've got him under contract for four more years
at twenty six seven eight million dollars.

Speaker 4 (01:53:33):
That seems like something the Cubs would do.

Speaker 5 (01:53:35):
I just don't want him to be with the Cubs
because I hit the Cubs. He's probably not quite He's
a really good guy to have on the team. He's
probably not quite awesome enough to be paying that kind
of money. But that's a Cubs problem, a Red Sox problem,
a non Astros problems. How's that for? Hey, you guys
have problems too.

Speaker 1 (01:53:54):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety now, good, good,
the bad. That's my good and the ugly.

Speaker 6 (01:54:04):
Don't make me good?

Speaker 3 (01:54:06):
Up with the A team.

Speaker 5 (01:54:08):
We're showing you the takeing segment time on a Monday.
That means the good, the bad, the ugly. Plenty of
weekends that provide a lot of options. I think this
might be the all timer at this time of year. Anyway,
SAMs football. Pretty much every football weekend is awesome, but
this weekend chock full of excellence. I get to get

(01:54:31):
things rolling. I am the good. AC is the bad,
Cole is the ugly. I think it's pretty obvious. Sitting
here on your home for Astros Baseball, Space City Home Network,
sitting here on your home for Astros Baseball Sports Talk
seven to ninety, what the good was with a couple
of walkoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:54:50):
First pitch, Myers takes off brown ball up the middle
of the.

Speaker 5 (01:54:53):
Two that pashent Walker scores.

Speaker 4 (01:54:55):
Astros walk off the Twins three to two. Camp Smith.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Smith throws off his helmet as he spot behind second base,
long set the one and that has hit high in
the air, pretty deep till our center.

Speaker 3 (01:55:09):
It sends back Pastro on the warning track.

Speaker 4 (01:55:12):
He leaves he can't get it hits off the fence,
scoring against buyers, The Astros walk off the Twins two
to one.

Speaker 5 (01:55:23):
The best team in baseball is your Houston Astros, at
least recently and certainly this month of June, helped by
a winning road trip their first four out of six,
followed by a monster homestand winning five out of six,
including each of the last five in succession. The five
game winning streak they carry in two West Sacramento tonight,

(01:55:46):
ten and three for the month with a two fifteen
ERA and winning games when they don't score a lot
of runs because they're getting the hits when they need
him and their bullpen and starting pitcher. Hat tip to
Brandon Walter yesterday for sure nine k's and six and
two thirds they keep getting it done. Eleven games over
five hundred is not a fluke. Five straight wins is
not a fluke. Being within range of the Yankees for

(01:56:09):
the number two spot in the American League not a
fluke your astros are as, I just said, good.

Speaker 4 (01:56:16):
What's so bad? Well, the bad is that we're still
dealing with Major League Baseball players dealing with death threats,
the latest one coming over the weekend courtesy of Carlos Radon,
who again, he was going into his start against the
Red Sox on Saturday with a seven to one record

(01:56:37):
and a one point nine zero ERA over his previous
ten starts. He gave up three earned runs for total
and started getting death threats. Hope something tragic happens to you.
Another fan said they hoped his next plane ride crashes
and he dies. These are things that people are writing

(01:56:58):
to him on social media. Do the world a favor,
and I mean just so. His wife Ashley got involved
and she wrote on Instagram five innings, three earned runs,
I mean, not his best, but definitely not go kill
yourself bad sheesh. And of course we are familiar with this.

Speaker 5 (01:57:18):
One third of an inning, nine runs allowed, also not
kill yourself bad.

Speaker 4 (01:57:25):
Well I'm not even gonna say it, but yeah, Liam Hendricks,
Lance McCullers Junior. There was an anonymous poll that The
Athletic did and it revealed how much sports betting has
negatively impacted many players relationships with fans, and an anonymous
relief pitcher said, you receive something or I've received something

(01:57:46):
as simple as a Venmo request with a threat on
it that says you owe me nine grand because you
blew the game. I need you to send me that
money or I'm gonna find your family. That's too far.

Speaker 5 (01:57:56):
Yeah, veteran relief pitcher there anonymous did not respond with
you bet on me.

Speaker 4 (01:58:03):
It's just like, come on, and I get like I said,
I think.

Speaker 5 (01:58:06):
Yeah, we should at least acknowledge what we knew and
what the leagues knew. All three of the major sports
leagues that are absolutely churning up more funds by accepting
money from all of the gambling and making it a
part of their arena or stadiums, making it a part
of their broadcast. You see it all over the place.
Hockey is definitely no different. You see it all along

(01:58:27):
the dashers now, and there's no question there's an uptick. Well,
there's a clear uptick in your access to players because
just about every player has either an Instagram account or
an x account or both, and so they're accessible. Many
of them are open to receive messages in the DMS,
so this is often where you see it, but they don't.

(01:58:47):
All they have to do is tag you in a comment.
You don't need that to be open. There's no question
there's an uptick in it because it's that much easier
to direct it to them. Their access on social media,
and more people will have more access to you know,
daily Fantasy sports, for instance, is what a lot of
this is predicated on. Hopefully they continue to be unfounded

(01:59:11):
or overseas and inebriated. I suppose I'd like to see
less of them, but I'm not naive. I know, I
know's what's happening. It's not a coincidence that more, not
only that more are happening, most likely, but the players
are making it more of a public knowledge. Like come on, man,
we don't have any other what other direction do you

(01:59:32):
want us to go? Besides now we have to tell
everybody this is what's happening. So maybe it will slow
down or cease. What's ugly Cole besides me? I mean,
if that's what you want to do for this week,
I mean, you won't be ugly next week, so that's good.

Speaker 4 (01:59:44):
Fair we do rotate it.

Speaker 5 (01:59:45):
You're right, I mean who's ugly next week?

Speaker 4 (01:59:48):
Ac probably me because I'm bad this week.

Speaker 5 (01:59:50):
Yeah, that's the rotation. You get to good next week.
I would be bad and Ac would be ugly.

Speaker 8 (01:59:55):
Yeah, he's really ugly, But you know what else is
even uglier than him? Hey, Boston, just just just himmering
me for a second, Maybe, just maybe when you get
a franchise player, you don't trade him for basically next
to nothing, because the Raphael Devers thing is one instance
where it went south and eventually you knew that his

(02:00:17):
time was up. But this isn't the first time they
trade away Mookie Betts. What they get in return Connor
Wong who is a serviceable catcher, Alex Verdugo who's no
longer on the team, and UH Jeter Downs never made
to the majors.

Speaker 5 (02:00:35):
Then the day with.

Speaker 8 (02:00:35):
Chris Sale Chris Saale for Von Grissom, who eventually was
no longer in the long term plans of the Boston
Red Sox.

Speaker 5 (02:00:44):
Then they trade away their all star.

Speaker 8 (02:00:46):
Best hitter, arguably face of the franchise after signing him
to a mega deal for uh Jordan Hicks, who's gonna
be a reliever, Kyle Harrison, who you're sending down to
the miners after getting called up and scratched from last
night's start. A native of California making his primetime debut.

Speaker 5 (02:01:06):
Hey, you know what, man, you're out, Go ahead, get
on out here.

Speaker 8 (02:01:10):
James Tibbs, who has had his fair share of struggles
in single A ball.

Speaker 5 (02:01:15):
Meanwhile, Can Split is up in the majors.

Speaker 8 (02:01:17):
And Jose Bellow, a twenty year old that you hope
is going to be a foundational piece of your team. Meanwhile,
Mookie Betts awesome for the Dodgers. And Chris Sayle fresh
off of winning a cy Young Boston read the room,
you're making ugly decisions left and right. So it's beautiful
for the Astros, but e'sactly for the city of Boston.

Speaker 5 (02:01:39):
Amazing that they have as they've brought them up. They
have a really top flight, top level group of prospects.
They're almost all now on the team, and they can
kind of get away with it. But three megastars all
moved without really anything of great consequence in return. It's
really hard to come by now. The Astros did that also,

(02:02:00):
so in the opposite direction, they landed three superstars and
in landing Justin Verlander, the first time in landing Garrett
Cole and in landing Zach Greenke. The only player of
consequence they moved out combined in all three of those
deals was Joe Musgrove. Like, that's the way to do.

Speaker 4 (02:02:20):
You'll take that one hundred out of one hundred times.

Speaker 8 (02:02:23):
And he didn't even stay with Pittsburgh that long before
he went off to San Diego and became studt Yep.

Speaker 5 (02:02:28):
He's an interesting way to conduct themselves when they're in
a major market with major money and major deep pockets.
And this is how they have continued to operate in
a super competitive division. Again, as Cole said, ugly for them,
but easily could be good for every other American league team.

Speaker 3 (02:02:46):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:02:56):
Kind of locked in on anticipating a deal in the NBA,
but two major deals took place. We've been running through
the Raphael Devers deal quite a bit here now that
it managed to find its way into a couple of segments,
and the ugly Wexac and Cole here with you. It
talked about the Desmond Bane deal, and probably haven't talked
enough about the impact the Steven Adams deal. We'll make

(02:03:18):
for the Houston Rockets and the rest of the West,
and maybe a team in the East in June. But
let's start with those two deals, the Giants, the Red Sox,
the Magic, the Grizzlies. Who do you like the deal
for most? Who do you like the deal for the
least of those four teams with the two trades that
they were involved in.

Speaker 4 (02:03:40):
I hesitate to say Orlando because even though they clearly
got the best player in the deal.

Speaker 5 (02:03:46):
And three or four or five or six or seven
years from now that still might be true.

Speaker 4 (02:03:50):
Well, you and I talked about the Magic earlier this
year because we were talking about Paolo Bancaro and how
he was this close to being a Rocket. I mean,
everybody forgets that.

Speaker 5 (02:04:00):
Yeah, all they had to do was get the number
one pick in the lottery. No, yes, he went first.

Speaker 4 (02:04:04):
He was going to be the third pick because Jabbari
was the consensus number one until he wasn't. Again who
were But and then check goes to OKC and Powlo
would have been a rocket.

Speaker 5 (02:04:13):
But that's like the NFL draft And according to everyone,
Schular Sanders is going in the first round. He went
in the fifth round. Yeah, but I do believe there
were maybe some teams internally who thought what you were
saying would be true, maybe were one of them. It
was a little there's more credence to what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (02:04:30):
But if I think, and look, I don't know every
everybody's different in the landing spot would have been different,
So maybe that changes things. But do you think if
the Rockets had Polo Bancaro and everything else was the
same right now, they would even be kicking the tires
on Kevin Durant at that same basically positioned I mean
four to three, but Polo's a four twenty point game

(02:04:54):
twenty points per game score plus I just.

Speaker 5 (02:04:58):
Wonder at bottom line is do you think the would
be better? I mean, you're you're taking it a step further,
kind of making the assumption they would be better if
Bankkaro was here and Smith wasn't. Yeah, and now you're
taking it too how far? How much better would I mean?
We know they wouldn't have been any better than two,
They would have been the two seed, but would they
have had from a matchup standpoint, a team that looks
like they could beat Golden State, looks like they could

(02:05:19):
beat Minnesota, looks like they could beat the Lakers. The
Clippers the Nuggets. I think it's a very fair point.
It's it's both fun and awful getting pushed around on
the block like Jabbari does at times. Let's just put
it that way up. Jabari also is a better shot blocker.
He's a better shooter than Paolo Bangko. Benk Carrol also

(02:05:39):
has the benefit, and it's a big one, the benefit
of playing for a team that here's the ball, go
ahead all the time from the moment you got here.

Speaker 4 (02:05:50):
I guess it's like every time I see him come
to town all one time per year, every time every
time I see him come to town, I'm like, gosh, dude,
I forget how big he is, Like not just tight wise,
but like he's just a big body. And I think
about him and Shingoon on that front line in I
mean those two with Dylan Brooks. That's that's nasty.

Speaker 5 (02:06:12):
I think he's an underwhelming rebounder. Not sure if you
said you thought he was a better rebounter than Jabari,
and I actually don't think he is. I think he's
for the amount of minutes he plays and the amount
of rebounds that are available for his bad shooting team.
I'm a little surprised he's not better, but he's also
showing the signs you'd like to see from a young player.
You're the number one option as a rookie, and then
as a second year player, and then as a third

(02:06:33):
year player, and he's definitely not going backwards. He's making progress.
Every year he's I don't know that he becomes a
better three point shooter. Maybe he's worked on other parts
of his game and so that's just not something he's
focused on yet. But he's a bad three point shooter.
He's a thirty two percent three point shooter shooting this
year six per game. That's awful. That's definitely not what
your team wants or needs.

Speaker 4 (02:06:54):
As you would say, it's.

Speaker 5 (02:06:56):
Yeah, it's very bad. But he's a much better offensive
player overall. Not a great free throw shooter, and he's
gonna get to the line a ton. I'm looking at
his individual numbers and I'll go to the season numbers.
He must have been in the top ten in the
NBA in free throws attempts per game.

Speaker 4 (02:07:13):
The Rockets already have a big man who gets to
the line a lot and doesn't make him.

Speaker 5 (02:07:16):
But he doesn't get there nearly at that rate and
he's worse, which is twelriblesome.

Speaker 4 (02:07:23):
There's pros and concept. All of this is to say,
I am intrigued by Orlando adding Desmond Bane to the
mix that they have.

Speaker 8 (02:07:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:07:34):
I don't know what everybody else is going to do
in the East, but I do know that they are
definitively going to be ana. They're gonna matter, They're gonna
be a hard team to beat. He was fourth in
the NBA and free throw attempts per game last year
and he shot seventy three percent. Better not keep doing that?

Speaker 4 (02:07:49):
Well, I am If I'm Orlando, I'm absolutely making that
priority number one this offseason because now you're gonna add
a twenty points per game score. And I just the
East is win of a man. The East is very
winnable because the Celtics, even if they don't do anything
this season, they're not going to have Jason Tatum, so
I feel like it's wide open.

Speaker 6 (02:08:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:08:09):
I think the Pacers are also showing what I think
we want maybe some other teams like the Rockets to
show it's not necessarily all about your win total in
the regular season. Where you finish in the regular season.
You know, the Pacers they were an average based on
where they were in the seating Eastern Conference playoff team.
After this final series, would you not expect them to

(02:08:32):
be right back where they are? Miles Turner is going
to get a new deal, They're going to return the
I think just about everybody, and there's a possibility they
could go do something to make themselves better. They're going
to be big spenders. They're already spending. So what else
coaches in the NBA right now? Definitely one of the
best coaches in the NBA right now. My question say,

(02:08:53):
if you answer this one, I don't know if you
answered the last one, which teams steal did you like
the best?

Speaker 4 (02:08:57):
But I said I kind of said Orlando. But the
four first round picks still seems a little steep.

Speaker 5 (02:09:06):
But it has been being wins you a championship. It's
nothing So Rick Carlisle after Game four, Going into Game four,
we obviously talked about anytime Scott Foster referees a game.
You know, it's definitely a topic a on on the
A Team and many other shows. After the game, he
was appalled and in his defense, he spoke up for

(02:09:26):
Scott Foster, saying it's ridiculous he's one of the best
officials long respected. It's why he works these games?

Speaker 6 (02:09:31):
D D d DA?

Speaker 5 (02:09:32):
Did he say that because he believes it and he's
a he's as big a representative of the NBA coach
as anybody out there, being the president of the association,
or is he even smarter than that?

Speaker 4 (02:09:44):
Sids.

Speaker 5 (02:09:44):
We've got three games left, man, we got to win
two of them. It's possibility he works another one of
these three games. Come on, man, I gotta talk nice.

Speaker 4 (02:09:52):
That is so, if you believe the NBA brings in
Scott Foster to be the fixer, then you're we're also
going to have to believe in this case, with this scenario,
I should say that you can butter him up.

Speaker 5 (02:10:07):
Yeah, that's the thing I would say. Schedule wise, it
seems like a lot. He's a game seven, he's working
game seven if there is one. He just worked game
four and they have enough officials. Clearly he could work
every game.

Speaker 4 (02:10:19):
They get them enough day, enough other officials that they
say are good that are bad that they need to
get in there before game seven.

Speaker 5 (02:10:24):
Yes, I still don't. I mean, I know some of
the numbers that people want to tell us about suggest
well they did get this call, and they did get
I mean, the Pacers did bad things at the end
of the game. The Pacers took shots they weren't going
to make, they didn't do the things they were doing
to get the lead. They didn't lose the game because
it was how how it was called.

Speaker 4 (02:10:44):
The Rockets did bad things. They turned the ball over,
they missed shots. But part of the reason they missed
so many in a row is because Scott Foster wasn't
calling multiple obvious four point plays that should have been
so that streak never happens if he calls even one
of those. Yep.

Speaker 5 (02:11:00):
Let alone, two thirteen of their eighteen shots didn't go in.
I don't know how many of them they were fouled
on that Scott Foster didn't call. I do know there
was an offensive foul on SGA that everybody saw that
he didn't call. I know there was that nonetheless Game five,
big swing game tonight. Okay, soe he's at home. I
think I know who everybody has five o'clock hour football
at five? Is next?

Speaker 3 (02:11:23):
The A team On Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (02:11:25):
Ninety Adam Clinton and Adam Wesler are the A team.

Speaker 9 (02:12:02):
Do you know?

Speaker 4 (02:12:03):
I know it's mid June.

Speaker 5 (02:12:06):
You have a watch or a phone, or the right
bottom right corner of your computer, or it was just
Father's Day, what else, hurricane season?

Speaker 6 (02:12:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:12:19):
How do you know it's June. It's prior toy.

Speaker 4 (02:12:21):
Gone three plus hours and have not talked about football
at all. We have not talked about football a single segment,
not even a mention of anything. That's mid June sports
talk right there. Well, I mean, if there's OTA's mini
camps and all that is over, that helps. But I mean,
if you were looking for any sort of Texans like

(02:12:46):
unless there was some sort of like CJ. Stroud injury
update like this is impressive for us on this.

Speaker 5 (02:12:51):
Show anymore CJ. Stroud injury updates unless he shows up
to training camp in late July and isn't throwing on
the first day, which I doubt very seriously is going
to be the case. However, among the thousands and thousands
of tabs open on my computer, there's a football one
specifically in reserve if needed for football at five, which

(02:13:14):
NFL players will improve in twenty twenty five. A bunch
of names on the list, but only two of the
names on the list with small write ups also drew
mentioned in the cut line along the headline. One of
those is the aforementioned CJ.

Speaker 6 (02:13:30):
Stroud.

Speaker 8 (02:13:32):
C J.

Speaker 5 (02:13:32):
Stroud, Deebo, Samuel, Brian Burns, Drin Cooper, Christian Gonzales, Milton Williams,
and the number one overall pick from CJ. Stroud's draft,
Bryce Young. Which NFL players will improve in twenty twenty
five with CJ. Among the guaranteed risers guaranteed is that

(02:13:57):
because they like what they did in the offseat, or
they know how bad, or they believe he was so
bad last year, a repeat is impossible.

Speaker 4 (02:14:09):
Gosh, neither one of those options are very good.

Speaker 5 (02:14:12):
Stroud was not as strong a twenty four after he
was Rookie of the Year twice as many I and
T's took fifty two sacks, still won ten games, rebuilt
the front five to better protect the franchise quarterback. After
they finished last season twenty ninth as PFFS ranked offensive
line twenty ninth out of thirty thirty two teams. If

(02:14:33):
you're unaware there's thirty two of them, but then it
lists well. They traded away tunsl and Green and signed
Brown and Robinson and Tomlinson and traded for Ingram, which
should inspire. Nobody doesn't mention Nick Kayley, doesn't mention they
change offensive coordinators, does mention what they did with their
first three picks in the draft. And we do believe

(02:14:54):
that will help take some pressure off of the line
because of the weapons they have and maybe the speed
with which he can get the ball to them. Tay
or three is on the line, but obviously the two
other wideouts where there are other two top picks, Jadan
Higgins and Jalenole. They signed Christian Kirk and they all
get to play second, third, and fourth fiddle to elite
Nico Collins. If you guaranteed that one of these clear

(02:15:19):
big name players and all limited to these three Deebo
Samuel in a new place, Bryce Young as the not
likely to be benched again starter in Carolina, or CJ. Stroud,
and you had to slap guaranteed to be better, more productive,
to have a bounce back season one of those three

(02:15:40):
players who rates the highest, who would you put the
guarantee on?

Speaker 6 (02:15:44):
CJ?

Speaker 4 (02:15:46):
I mean, look at his Even if you hate what
they did with the offensive line, then you still have
to look about the surrounding or look at the surrounding
cast of characters, and it's just it's it's hard not
to feel like by default something goes because you can
go nowhere but up for for that unit. I think

(02:16:10):
I hope.

Speaker 5 (02:16:11):
Yeah, one through twenty eight. There were twenty ninth. It
could be thirty or thirty first, I mean second, because
some three teams will be Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:16:19):
And yet I'm saying this as Stefon Diggs is elsewhere
and Tank Dell isn't coming back anytime soon. I don't know.
That's a tough question too.

Speaker 5 (02:16:31):
They're better this year, but even Steve, how about that?

Speaker 6 (02:16:34):
I forget all.

Speaker 5 (02:16:34):
They got better at wide receiver this year than they
were last year.

Speaker 4 (02:16:38):
Yeah, top to bottom, But that's again, that's same one before.

Speaker 5 (02:16:42):
Better they are.

Speaker 4 (02:16:44):
But I just hate to take away from me things
Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell did before they got hurt.

Speaker 5 (02:16:50):
What what I I think people are looking at Diggs
because he got hurt and forgetting about what he did
do while he wasn't there. What did he do while
he was here? He got a lot of passes underneath.
He was their outlet receiver. He was their short yardage guy.
He ran in the slot, ran down the field pretty
much never. But the easiest way for one game from

(02:17:10):
stuff on.

Speaker 4 (02:17:11):
But the easiest way to talk about this, if I'm
trying to make my point is you know what did
they look at the drop off after both he and
Tank Dell went by the wayside?

Speaker 5 (02:17:23):
I mean Nico Collins was so good exactly. But they
don't have to concern themselves. I don't think this year
because they have three replacements for two players rookies, that's true.

Speaker 4 (02:17:35):
I mean I have to take that into account. I can't.

Speaker 5 (02:17:37):
I really don't anymore. I mean, it's it's a strange too,
but I just don't think you need to it. It's
not automatically, Oh he's gonna need a year like it
used to be. But I still can't say, ah, I mean,
what if what if they're not? What if they don't
acclimate to the NFL. I mean I'm taking a leap
saying they're going to be awesome. I mean that's a
pretty big leap. That's a fair debatable point. But I

(02:17:59):
just happened to believe that they will be. And I
think it's pretty clear that you not only that the
manner in which they should deploy them if they have
to because somebody in front of them is out. They
should all be playing together, and they're almost all interchangeable.
But you have a you have a clone body type
and receiver talent of Higgins and Collins. Higgins to Collins,

(02:18:22):
you have the same thing with Noel to Kirk. If
Kirk is out for three weeks, I hope Nol is
ready to just take one hundred percent of those available reps.
If you wanted to give Hutch and Simon Mechi an
opportunity to do that, then they have to beat those
two guys out. And Nol's gotten so little work this
offseason because of just being away from it. It's not a
given that he automatically ascends past Mechi or Hutch. They

(02:18:47):
they would, they have a leg up on understanding how
to be coached and understanding an NFL offense. But for
Niko and Christian and Jaden and Jalen and John and Xavier,
they're all learning a new offense. It's an offense for
the players. So is your pick then of the three?

Speaker 16 (02:19:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:19:05):
Yeah, that's why I said no, No, No, I.

Speaker 5 (02:19:06):
Know Wx's I think it absolutely it is, But Bryce
Young's not far behind, and Deebo, Samuel is way behind them.

Speaker 4 (02:19:15):
Wait for whatever it's worth, Christian Kirk made some comments
that sounded so much like everybody who talked about CJ
his rookie year. So he came over obviously this offseason
and has already you know, worked with him, and he
was on a radio interview saying that he runs the

(02:19:36):
offense like a season veteran. The quote was the thing
that sticks out about CJ's He's super mild mannered, but
he has a lot of confidence. He's smart, he sees
things well. He's a really good communicator, and I think
with that position quarterback and him being a younger guy,
that's a big part of him getting to where he
is now and still excelling the communication piece with not
only the receivers, but new offensive coordinator, offensive line, whatever

(02:19:59):
the case may be. It's just open communication and us
all being on the same page to help him excel
and anyone on to say, he's going to take this
team as far as we want to go. With him
being at his best, He's been great within a few
months of spending time around him, communicating with him in
the locker room, outside the facility. He's got a bright
future and I'm really excited to get to work with him.

(02:20:21):
That sounds like everybody that talked about him is rookie year.

Speaker 5 (02:20:24):
Sure, I like the subject. He's got a bright future,
sounds like Garry Kubiak. It just sounds so limited. But no,
the other words are very very much like what you said.
There's everybody that's worked with him, both above him as
a coach or as a teammate of his. They all
seem to say the same thing, and they were saying
it immediately immediately upon his introduction to Bobby Slowak's offense

(02:20:46):
and to being in an NFL huddle. I mean, we
got to give these guys some credit for some of
the work they do before that and some of the
places that they come from. You come from Ohio State
and you're leading that team to what they're doing. And
we heard Nick Chubbs saying how they torched him. Ohio
State torched them, and his them in this instance was
Georgia his team. Although he wasn't on that team, he
was watching the game. Because they command the offense, they

(02:21:09):
run the offense, it is their offense. They lead the team.
The leader of Ohio State with all these super top
flight talents out there that he was playing with. We're
looking to him. He's the leader, he's why they are
where they are, And it's the same thing here in Houston.
And those are the words being used by Christian Kirk.
Kirk has an interesting perspective the I mean, is it

(02:21:30):
okay if I call CJ the worst quarterback he's played with?
Considering where they were drafted. He played with number one
overall pick Trevor Lawrence and number one overall pick Kyler Murray.
So CJ number two overall pick worst. Yeah, that's that's fair. No,
that's unfair.

Speaker 8 (02:21:49):
That's not even a sense in the sense of he
was drafted number two.

Speaker 4 (02:21:53):
That just means that the Panthers were stupid, so he
drafted a midget instead of c J. Strauss. What the
Cardinals did, well, I'm not ever going to compare what
little resume Bryce Young has with Kyler Murray right now?

Speaker 8 (02:22:08):
Ever, So can I push back and say why Bryce
Young is the right answer at number one?

Speaker 5 (02:22:12):
And yeah, I mean we can trade you to Charlotte.
Sure that somewhere in the Carolinas that you'd like.

Speaker 8 (02:22:16):
I like that Anyways, c J. Stroud's already a top
ten quarterback. Wait, hang on, before he's fourteenth. We just
told everybody that last two weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (02:22:24):
Before you go any further, you need to give the
qualifier that you're a humongous Alabama fan.

Speaker 5 (02:22:30):
Sure, continue, that's what the qualifier.

Speaker 8 (02:22:32):
The qualifier is is that I believe one quarterback is
already top ten. As bad as the season as we
want to make it out to be last year, I
still don't think that there were eleven passers better than
c J.

Speaker 5 (02:22:42):
Stroud. I'm gonna ask you this about uh, Bryce, real quick.
Why who's the best NFL quarterback of all time? To
play quarterback at Alabama? Ooh, it's rhetorical. Yeah, I mean
it's probably Jalen But no, no, oh, okay, it's Jalen. No,
it's it's probably Jalen I mean, and then probably Tua.

(02:23:02):
Come on, man, no, it's probably Tooa. What is Tua done?
What has? What has? Anybody? Froms Bryce and we all
know it. It's probably gonna be.

Speaker 8 (02:23:10):
But anyways, Bryce is going to jump into that conversation
of being a top fifteen passer this year and a
top half passer in the NFC. I don't worry about
that with CJ. Because he's already there in the AFC,
and he's already a top ten passer in the NFL.
And I like the addition of Teed McMillan, and I
love the addition of having Xaberl to get in your two.

Speaker 5 (02:23:27):
Underneath Dave Canalis. And there you have it. Football at
five Panther style looks like we need a new parody
pre produced open for Carolina Sports here on Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:23:40):
The Aight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:23:48):
Two very amusing NBA notes. The first one is there
is a report from an outlet that said, hey, the
Rockets aren't going to trade Alprin shing Gun or a
Men Thompson to get Kevin Durant yet, no kidding, especially

(02:24:12):
no kidding on a Men Thompson. But I think, I mean,
was there ever a time where Alprin Shingoon would have
been traded other than in a deal for Giannis, which
was reported, all right, they're willing.

Speaker 5 (02:24:26):
To give them up for a seasons.

Speaker 4 (02:24:27):
Yeah, that's about the only guy I think the Rockets
are like, all right, we'll consider parting ways with Alprin
Shingoon because it was reported other than that, I wouldn't
trade him for Kevin Durant.

Speaker 5 (02:24:38):
No, I mean, there's too all these other pieces we've
talked about Jabari, Tari, jam Red hang up the phone. Well,
it's not even about that. When you're talking about Alprint,
you've changed your whole team. When you trade the center,
you run your offense through correct, So you could trade
any one of those other guys and figure it out
from there. It's and it's just totally different to situation

(02:25:00):
in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (02:25:01):
The interesting thing about this this, in just this report,
in a potential trade with the Suns for Durant, Houston
could include guard Jalen Green in his thirty three plus
million dollar salary for next season. With guards Devin Booker
and Bradley Beal already on the roster. Having failed to
trade bal as the Son's attempted to before the deadline,

(02:25:23):
Phoenix has done background on Green to gauge his value
around the league in case Green is acquired and it's
worthwhile to flip him again via trade. So that's the
interesting part because we've always talked about this. If Jalung
goes to the Sons in a deal for Durant, that
doesn't make any sense because Devin Booker's there. But they
would presumably still make the deal thinking knowing that they

(02:25:49):
would turn around on trade Jalen for something else.

Speaker 5 (02:25:52):
That's exactly what they're suggesting, and I think that makes
much more sense. I mean, Jalen Green as a Phoenix
Sun makes little sense because you're taking your better two
guard and you're moving him to the one. And Devin
Booker has been there at times in different forms of
whoever's been around him. He could play one. I don't
think it's the best way to utilize him, but they
could play together. But you're also highly unlikely to find

(02:26:14):
anybody to take Bradley Beal off your hands in trade,
and I think it's pretty unlikely he's going to accept
the buyout. I don't think he likes his money. So
all three of them there makes no sense at all.
You didn't make your team any better. You're gonna be
awful again. And the picks that you might not have
gotten in return for trading Kevin Durant, well they're gonna
be valuable to somebody else because you don't have them,
So moving him because Devin Booker is off the table. Clearly,

(02:26:38):
if you've traded away Durant rather than Booker to the Rockets. Well,
you're not trading Devin Booker somewhere else, so he can't
be traded. I just told you why Bradley Beal can't
be traded. So it's not like you don't think Jalen's good.
You're trading him because he's tradable. He's an asset that
you can move that another team wants. It's just a

(02:26:59):
different way to either straight up in corporate a third
team in the actual deal, or let time pass before
you make a deal. Still find it is more unlikely
than likely that Jalen Green is a part of that
deal to Phoenix, with Phoenix involved in Houston involved, in
Durant involved, I think if all those things are true,

(02:27:20):
then Jalen probably would.

Speaker 4 (02:27:21):
Not be the other. Well, before we move on, that
is the only I mean, that's the centerpiece as far
as the Rockets outgoing deal, along with the picks that
I'd be okay with. I get it. If you have
to throw in Jabbari, I don't like it. I think

(02:27:41):
it's it's man. Jabbari is a very very tough situation
for me because on paper he does you wouldn't look
at him and see and say to yourself, oh, man,
he's really important for this club and that would hurt.
It's got to hurt a little bit to make a deal.
But for some reason, I just I don't like the

(02:28:03):
idea of trading him in a durant deal, Like are
you you know what I'm saying? Like I would be
okay with him being included in deals for other players
who are younger and or I guess in the case
of Janni's better, but I don't know. It's something about
that's the.

Speaker 5 (02:28:20):
Thing, Like you're hesitating on the extension, which is fair. Well,
then how much do you really like? How much does
it really hurt?

Speaker 4 (02:28:27):
Is are you extending him and giving him a deal
like you gave to Jalen?

Speaker 5 (02:28:30):
That's the absolute how much lower can you get?

Speaker 4 (02:28:34):
But does he sign that deal? He might not, even
though he puts up fewer numbers than Jalen does by
a lot, right, And Jalen said, yes.

Speaker 5 (02:28:45):
Well, Jalen got a deal befitting of the player that
he is versus this is just what players make. I know,
people look at the numbers like, how are you paying that?
Because that's what players get. I mean, look at how
much money Desmond Bane is making. Look every player no,
it's not on a MAX thankfully. Yeah, I mean I
don't he shouldn't have a MAX, and they didn't put
a MAX in front of him, and he was accepting

(02:29:06):
of the fact that they didn't because maybe he and
his team realized that also holding out for a MAX
deal from this team was never going to happen.

Speaker 4 (02:29:13):
I know he works hard, I know he has shown
improvement all that kind of stuff, But like he and
and Alprin Shingoon are completely looked at completely different right now,
like where they're going, what they are right now, all
that stuff. And I'm not saying that I would, you know,
have given Alprn Shingun a MAX. But if you're asking me,

(02:29:35):
which one of those guys is more close to getting
that kind of money as it stands right now, even
though I don't think I would give either one of
them a MAX, it's clearly Shangun. It's not even close.

Speaker 6 (02:29:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:29:46):
Shngoon during the regular season, in which he made his
first All Star game, nineteen points per game on fifty
percent shooting forty nine point six percent shooting. Then in
their seven game playoff series, he went from nine teen
point one points per game in thirty one and a
half minutes. He played five more minutes per game and
scored twenty point nine points per game while shooting forty

(02:30:09):
five percent. Everyone is staring at Jalen with daggers about
his disappointing performance in the seven game series against Golden
State and acting like Schngoon's constant double doubles. His twenty
twelve and five was awesome. It was at times, and

(02:30:29):
he had more opportunities, but he looked at it the
way I looked at it, talking about the player himself,
at least in what he said after he didn't like
the way he played.

Speaker 4 (02:30:37):
Well, they also looked at it the same way. From
that regard, all.

Speaker 5 (02:30:39):
Right, but everyone's acting like, oh you definitely, I mean,
you can't trade Alpern Shangoon. He's unbelievable. But he gets
the what was only his first playoff opportunity, and Jalen doesn't.
He just wores the focus of the Golden State defense
instead of they never they did. I'm not gonna say never.
I almost did. They didn't send double teams at Alprin
like a lot of regular season teams did. They looked
at their film and every game in between game film,

(02:31:02):
and they said this is the best way for us
to defend that team. Allow them to get the ball
to Shgoon and expect Looney or number twenty one or
number twenty three before you guys not to have to
hear their names again, Quinton Post I can say, but
I'll just say number twenty three. So just kind of
guard them face up and look at the one quote

(02:31:23):
unquote game winning situation the Rockets had. They went to
that matchup, they went to Shngon singled up on Draymon.
Draymon absolutely won the matchup for the shot he caused.
Now Shanguon could have made it, I might say, well,
he still made it.

Speaker 4 (02:31:37):
He also could have made twelve free throws.

Speaker 5 (02:31:39):
Right, but that has nothing to do with the other
team's defense. They weren't fouling him on purpose to cender
him the doll. But it just doesn't make free throws,
and we kind of forgive him and act like it's
no big deal. Also, and I find it amazing.

Speaker 4 (02:31:50):
But Jalen's thirty eight points in Game two skews his
overall averages for that series when you consider that. In
my opinion, Shingoun was just more consistent throughout all seven games.

Speaker 5 (02:32:05):
Everybody's opinion. Your of course he was.

Speaker 4 (02:32:07):
But what I mean, that's why I think he's getting
that pass.

Speaker 5 (02:32:09):
Yeah, because he produced numbers, and I get it at
a low efficiency rate.

Speaker 4 (02:32:14):
They did well, okay, at least he produced the numbers.
Jalen didn't do anything efficiently and didn't produce the.

Speaker 5 (02:32:19):
Numbers because he was taking eight shots and ten shots
and Alpi was taking twenty shots.

Speaker 4 (02:32:25):
I get eighth. I hear that a lot. You've said
it here, and I'm not saying it's you because it
is true. But I hear people that are like pro Jalen. Well,
they're like they were. They were putting, they were keying
their offense or their defense on him. What do you
think happens in the playoffs, Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 5 (02:32:40):
I think we're making it a Jalen versus Alpi, and
clearly the last six minutes that it shouldn't be. It
should be okay, awesome, you want to take Jalen out.
He will play smart, He will let you do the
things you want to do because he and Eme and
Royal Ivy all believe we're going to beat you four
on three. When one of those four is Alpern sh
goon and single coverage most of the game. Yeah, and didn't.

(02:33:02):
It almost worked out.

Speaker 4 (02:33:03):
I mean, I mean it just didn't because James, Kobe, Bryant,
all these guys had defenses gunning for them.

Speaker 5 (02:33:10):
That's the playoffs, and it gets it gets the defense
is who they are.

Speaker 4 (02:33:14):
I know that it was.

Speaker 5 (02:33:15):
Do you think it was that hard, like this is
anti jail. Do you think it was that hard to
take Jalen out? Nope, which is why he should be
the guy that gets traded. We shouldn't be talking about
him in the same breath as those other players. He's
not them today, He's never gonna be them. He's not
that caliber talent. Well, he's he plays their position, give
or take. And if you want me to believe that

(02:33:36):
you're the dad, dude, they shouldn't trade you.

Speaker 4 (02:33:39):
That you want to stay in Houston, and all the
stuff that he's saying right now, or it's being reported
that he's saying by his camp and people in his
camp and him himself, then that's just not going to
be good enough.

Speaker 5 (02:33:50):
I mean, he could have forced it more. I don't
think it would have helped the team at all. He
could have tried to dribble through double teams. He could
have pushed it more. He definitely could have taken more shots.

Speaker 4 (02:34:00):
It comes down to this, and far be it from
me to be pro James Harden at this point in
our lives. Yeah, I never worried whether or not he
was going to be aggressive or try to like never.

Speaker 5 (02:34:13):
Now you're saying Jalen didn't try.

Speaker 4 (02:34:15):
I'm just saying I don't know what Jalen we were
gonna get on any given night of that seven game series,
and I don't like that feeling.

Speaker 5 (02:34:21):
Yeah, I can understand that, And I'll say the same
thing again, like you're comparing Jalen Green to James Hard
and that seems ridiculous for the caliber player one.

Speaker 4 (02:34:29):
Is is then that's your answer about Jalen Green.

Speaker 5 (02:34:30):
No, it isn't. Who does anybody listening think Jalen Green
should be first Team All NBA ever in his NBA career?
One of the five best players? Who are the only
players you've compared him to during this segment. I'm not
really asking, but you can call or text if you
disagree and say, yes, he's going to be one of
the five best players in this league and be first

(02:34:52):
team and the guy on a team.

Speaker 4 (02:34:54):
You know the number.

Speaker 5 (02:34:55):
You know the drill.

Speaker 1 (02:34:58):
The aged on Sports to seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:35:08):
The final segment of a Monday edition of the program
Astros and West Sacramento is East or West Sacramento athlete,
It's the West, right, it.

Speaker 5 (02:35:17):
Is West Sacramento, California, home of Sutter Health Park.

Speaker 4 (02:35:21):
Sutter Health Park. What's the capacity on that bad boy?
Ten thousand?

Speaker 5 (02:35:25):
You can push it a little past a little bit
past ten k.

Speaker 4 (02:35:28):
The Woodlands Pavilion laughs at the attendance of that minor
league ballpark.

Speaker 5 (02:35:34):
I mean pretty regularly see a crowd of a little
bit better than ten thousand there.

Speaker 4 (02:35:41):
It's June sixteenth. The draft is a week from Thursday night.
Wednesday night. Part of it Tuesday night. When's the first round? Again?
All I know is that I'm probably going to be
out of town.

Speaker 5 (02:35:55):
Probably you're out of toown the whole week. That's what
I thought. So unless it's on you're out on Sunday.
It's the twenty fifth and the twenty sixth. Okay, Wendy
is the twenty fifth, So uh.

Speaker 4 (02:36:09):
The Durant deal happens win early next week.

Speaker 5 (02:36:14):
Well, you're the first time you will be out is
two o'clock on Monday of that week, the twenty third, Right,
that'll be when it happens. Sounds good, That's so stupid.

Speaker 4 (02:36:22):
Don't do that, Rafel either.

Speaker 5 (02:36:25):
No, I think if it's I think it's pretty seems
like the things that need to happen for the Rockets
to pull the trigger have happened. They've got clarity on
seven Adams. Oh yeah, they've signed him reportedly to a
three year deal.

Speaker 4 (02:36:38):
We have been talking nearly enough about that happening. I agree,
and I have ten montes.

Speaker 5 (02:36:43):
I think they maybe, I would think they're pretty far
along on what needs to happen with Fred van Vliet
the twenty ninth post draft. Obviously June twenty ninth pre
free agency, but post draft is the date deadline for
when they have to uh handle the option. I think
they already know what they need to do, but as

(02:37:03):
the other things slide in financially, if they do, you know,
what they are in for with the tenth pick is
different than what they're in for if it's a different pick,
and so that could impact if they've agreed, Hey, Fred,
we can do third three years, this many, we can
do two years, this many, we can do a team
option for year two and no guarantee on year three.

(02:37:24):
They probably have a pretty good ballpark of where that's
going to be. So I don't think there's much left
for them to nail down, if you understand what I'm saying.
And I also don't think they're desperate. And that's why
when you hear as we played earlier, I think the
offers from Houston, San Antonio and I believe Miami aren't

(02:37:45):
are not exciting to Phoenix. Well, first of all, your
opening offers shouldn't be. If they're gonna say yes to it,
then by all means, let them say yes to an
unexciting offer. But you also might have this team drawing
a line in the say and saying, okay, okay, it's
not exciting. You're getting calls from six to seven other
team's great, we'll talk to you later. Come back to
us if if you really want what we have to offer.

(02:38:05):
But that's where we that's enough. We're not doing more.
You can't have more than just the tenth pick or
the pick of yours in the future, the one that
we want to give you.

Speaker 4 (02:38:17):
The dreaded talks have stalled.

Speaker 5 (02:38:19):
Well, they're just we're this We already told you this
is where we're headed, this is what we want to do.
I believe this. I'm having a hard time saying one
way or the other because I think the Rockets are
going to be better next year both ways one way,
but either way, the Rockets as they are currently constructed
with Steven Adams now back. Maybe there's one other smaller

(02:38:42):
deal they make, Maybe there isn't there. They're going to
be better better equipped to win in the playoffs with
the group they already have, And I do think they
will be better equipped to win in the playoffs if
it costs them Jabbari or Jalen or Jabari and Cam
or Cam and Jabari, whatever combination it is, if Kevin
Durant level player is who you've earned in return.

Speaker 4 (02:39:02):
I'm old enough to remember when we were seeing reports
that Giannis is intrigued with the zero income tax options
of playing in both Texas and Florida. Now he's not
even tied to them anymore. And if you read anything
out there, it's either well he might just stay put.

(02:39:23):
They're in Milwaukee, which's not gonna want anything there, or.

Speaker 5 (02:39:29):
Toronto, Toronto and Yannis because of some personal relationship MESSI
there gm. Maybe there's something there, and maybe he just
wants to mean it's his team no matter where he goes,
but it's even more his team, his city, his everything.
If he's playing in Toronto, I don't know if that's
something desirable to him or playing in the East matters

(02:39:51):
to him from a competitive standpoint. I mean, I don't
think people are gonna paint it besides me as the
easy way. But if he gets traded to a team
in the West, it's not gonna be easy. If he
gets traded to Oklahoma City, he probably is on the
number one seed. If he gets traded anywhere else in
the West, he's almost assuredly not.

Speaker 4 (02:40:11):
I just wonder if the Rockets have already realized or
relegated themselves to whatever, it's just gonna it's going to
be too much of a blow up to go get him.
Even though you're getting a top five player in the
NBA and he's much younger than Kevin Durant, Like, do

(02:40:32):
you look at them both as top five players? Still,
even at Durant's advanced age, you look at Kevin Durant
and Giannis each as being in the top five NBA players.

Speaker 5 (02:40:41):
It doesn't seem like that's the case. We're playing in
the finals right now, right, I mean, Durant versus Halliburton
is not a.

Speaker 4 (02:40:49):
Has Haliburton elevated himself this postseason?

Speaker 5 (02:40:51):
Woul Durant have a down game in the in the
NBA Finals at age thirty seven, like Halliburton clearly did.
I would say no.

Speaker 4 (02:40:59):
I don't think he's ever had a down game in
the NBA Finals, and he's been to a lot.

Speaker 5 (02:41:02):
Of them, so that might be still something in his favor.
I just wonder about the Yiannis to the Rocket scene.
I would feel more comfortable about. Like you're so worried
about his age and his health, Like, if he's healthy
for the playoffs, does it matter to you if he
can give you twenty five games over two months?

Speaker 16 (02:41:19):
Is that?

Speaker 5 (02:41:19):
Isn't that okay?

Speaker 4 (02:41:21):
He just hasn't been healthy for so long.

Speaker 5 (02:41:23):
Well, he hasn't played seventy plus games for many of
his seasons. Well, if you're trading whatever, you're not trying
to win fifty six games anymore. If you have Kevin Durant, correct,
you're just trying to get to the playoffs healthy.

Speaker 4 (02:41:35):
If you have Kevin Durant, So we're going to see
load management here in Houston with him. For sure. He's
not playing back to backs and neither.

Speaker 5 (02:41:42):
When you get later in the season, if he's played
a lot and been healthy, then you're going to manage
his game so he stays healthy.

Speaker 4 (02:41:48):
What kind of a flex is that? If you're like, hey,