Lights Out Lance, Stroud Setbacks and He's Ranked Where? Texans reporter Aaron Wilson joins!

With AC out, Wex keeps you entertained with recapping Tuesday terrific outing from Lance McCullers Jr. Plus, what's up with C.J. Stroud and his shoulder? Texans reporter Aaron Wilson lets you know!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham raised by Earl
Multipot with the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports.

(00:26):
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
talking your Teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the
A Team A.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
It is Wednesday afternoon here on the A Team wex
and Cole here with you this afternoon, ac with the
off brief program for us this afternoon into Astros Pirates
Game two of the three game series, Game two of
the six game road trip. We'll take you up until
Astros on deck at four thirty and right into the

(01:05):
Astros broadcast as mentioned with the five point forty first
pitch with Robert and Steve last night. Able to deliver
you right here on Sports Talk seven to nine. You're
home for Astros baseball. A very nice, neat and tidy
three nothing Astros win corner infielders taking care of business.
Three players who are not a part of the Astros

(01:25):
twenty twenty four or twenty three seasons really the headliners.
Estach Perettis the finishing touches on the victory with his
two run homer in the ninth inning, Christian Walker with
the most important run what turned out to be the
winning run. Their first run, the home run off of
Paul Skens second batter of the seventh inning, made it

(01:49):
one nothing and before them Lance mccullis Junior absolutely fantastic.
Second straight strong start, this one even better than the
last one. Yes, by a lot. Twelve strikeouts against the
A's is awesome. Three runs over six innings is okay,
it's pretty good. Getting six innings is great, But this

(02:10):
was a gem. This was elite. This was fantastic. This
is just what the Astros ordered. They need other pitchers
to consistently get them into the later innings, get eighteen
outs or more, and the last trip to the rotation from
ber Valdez part of an eighty three pitch effort complete game.

(02:31):
They got the Astros to one win. Hunter Brown's last
start six innings of one hit baseball part of Sunday's
shutout victory, and then last night, a two hit performance
over six innings from Lance McCullers Junior, part of their
second consecutive shut up Saturday, when the Rays put their

(02:52):
second beat down of the weekend on the Astros. Well,
that was the last time the Astros gave up any runs,
didn't give up any on Sunday, definitely didn't give up
any on Monday. Well, they took the off day in
Pittsburgh and didn't give up any last night, which essentially
was the only way is the only way to beat
Paul Skeins scored one run off of him. He was
spectacular over eight innings and very much like a hard

(03:15):
throwing ace pitcher. This lone mistake got hit over the fence.
The Astros did not hit him hard. There wasn't a
ton of hard contact. There wasn't a bunch of innings
where they just missed out on opportunities. They barely had
any opportunities at all. And then they made a little
bit easier at the end. Josh Hater able to come
in the bottom of the ninth inning with a three
run lead instead of a one run lead thanks to

(03:36):
that two run homer, team leading twelfth home run of
the season from Essach Peretis. But rather than comparing one
start versus the other, the A's start and last night's
start against the Pirates, for Lance McCullers Junior, I'd rather
put him together and say he's throwing the kind of
pitches that he wants. He is executing those pitches at
the time it's necessary to do so.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Throwing some nasty on three to two.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
That's getting guys caught looking at strikeouts, catching the black
knowing that, oh that's not what I expected, or I
don't expect it to stay in the zone.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Now that I've seen it and it does.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Those are the kind of things that really indicate to
me he is probably feeling his best. And Lance mccullor's
junior did talk about it a little bit after last
night's game about how happy he is with the execution,
you know, kind of where his pitches are, each of
them and at different points in the game. The last
two starts he's been able to execute them quite well
two twenty one over his last four starts, the starts

(04:35):
that have come after his appearance against the Cincinnati Reds
where he was unable to get out of the first inning.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
This is what a team who's lost not one, not two, but.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Three starting pitchers over the first two months of the season,
they've got to have, just got to have more of it.
Getting it from somebody who's been there and done that
is one thing. Now they're needing to get it from
two pitchers over the next three starts that haven't been
there and haven't done that. Getting more than five innings
from either Ryan Gusto or Colton Gordon is not something
they have done, never done in Augusto's case, and in

(05:07):
Gordon's case, it's hard to get there when he's giving
up as many hits as he is. But they get
the ball two of the next three days to finish
out the series against Pittsburgh and then to open up
the series against the Guardians. That start will be the
Gordon start tonight and tomorrow you got Ryan Gusto and
from ber Valdez. And when they hit the field today
and when they give the ball to Ryan Gusto, maybe

(05:28):
with the lead in the bottom of the first inning,
well they'll be doing so as a first place team.
Seattle Mariners on the wrong end of it last night.
Baltimore Orioles have a bad record. They have played bad baseball,
but they're also playing a lot better baseball, starting to
get a little bit of starting pitching. Welcome back Colton
Kowser into the lineup this week. Those are good things,

(05:49):
especially in front of a series against the Mariners.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
That's how that got started.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
So the Astros have been all alone as they wake
up just two days all alone in first This is
the second of those two days. They obviously bounced into
first place a couple of games back.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Beginning of the season.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
They were in first place after their series each day
with the Mets, but they weren't all alone in first place.
So these two days over the last week's time and
change the only two days they have been there, and
now they happen an opportunity to hopefully extend that this
Pirates team is bad. They're looking at their fortieth loss
whenever they lose their next game.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Guardians are a whole lot better.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Their situation is very similar to the Astros situation in
their fight for a playoff spot. The Central Division has
three really really good teams, all looking very high up
at an even better team, The Detroit Tigers, the Twins,
the Royals, and the Guardians essentially are the same as
the Astros and the Mariners, except the Astros or Mariners

(06:47):
are going to win the division. Those three teams are
going to be fighting for the three wild card spots,
probably with a team from the American League East who
that will be fifty games from now not really sure.
Red size continue to fade, and their pitching has been
disastrous lately. Injuries obviously a part of any offensive issues
they might have. Both of their corner infielders are out

(07:09):
for extended periods of time. The Rays and Jays currently
are playing like the next two best teams there, so
it's going to be fun matching up with some of
those teams moving forward. First opportunity to see the Guardians,
like I said, comes this weekend on the road, and
on the road is where the Astros really need to
They just have to play better baseball. Being this far
under five hundred on the road, they had only won

(07:31):
forty percent of their first twenty five road games going
into last night. It just needs to be a little
bit better. Hovering around five hundred is perfectly acceptable for
a very good eighty eight ninety ninety two to ninety
four win team as long as you crush at home,
and the Astros have crushed at home, I expect them
to continue to crush at home. Many of their best

(07:52):
seasons here during this Golden Era have included them being
not quite baseball unbeatable at home. But when you're winning
close to or more than fifty games at home, you're awesome.
You're going to win a division, you're going to make
the playoffs. As long as you're just average on the road.
You go fifty and thirty one at home, that's a
ninety one team. If you go as close to five
hundred as you can on the road, considering it's an

(08:14):
odd number of games, that puts you in nineteen games
over five hundred just at home, that's ninety and seventy two.
That's ninety one and seventy one is your overall record.
If you're just average on the road, so not too
far to get there, the Astros can actually get there
and then some if they don't lose any games on
this road trip. But that's five more games. I'm not
truly expecting that we do draw. One day closer but

(08:36):
not particularly close to the NBA Finals beginning the always
anticipated Media Day taking place today for the NBA. It's
not really like Media Day at the Super Bowl or
in any other situation. They really don't even have a
need to call it media day, but nonetheless, there's a
lot of chatter coming from there, even more chatter coming
from the league with the news of the two coaching

(08:58):
jobs over the last two days in the NBA, one
yesterday where they're now looking for a new head coach,
and one today a formal announcement yet, but they're no
longer looking for a coach in Phoenix. The expected hire
based on the reports yesterday, came today, so we will
get into that. Gonna save that for you. It's not
like I'm trying not to break the news. You probably

(09:18):
already know, but in twenty one minutes the brand new
coach of the Phoenix Suns has already found his way
to the best of X We'll do that for you
at two thirty. And obviously, with the Texans still having
a week or another day of on field activities during
their OTAs this week still voluntary. The story of what's

(09:39):
going on specifically with CJ Stroud and the inability or
the desire to not have him throw general soreness nothing
of great concern. That's where it stands from the public
commentary on it from the head coach. We have not
heard from CJ Stroud. It is mandatory camp next week
he's been attending. There's no issue with that. He will
serve be there, but I don't expect him to start

(10:02):
throwing passes over the next two days. On the tenth
and eleventh of next week, we will obviously be waiting
with baited breath. We'll be ready with our pocket phones
and our cameras and our videos, and we'll let you
know as soon as he steps aside from their team drills.
Hand off here, pitch play there, hand off there, and

(10:23):
now it's time to throw passes, Davis Keaton, if you
wouldn't mind stepping forward, and they will. Graham Mertz will
probably also be there, but like CJ, I don't expect
him to throw. I also do expect him to move.
He's wearing the sleeve over his repaired leg. He'll move,
but not during any type of drill.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
He go to the left, he'll go to the right,
He'll walk up and down the field, and then he'll
go inside.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
He was one of the players I shot some video
of walking from after they get off the bridge and
across the practice field and into their activation center, which
is better known as the Bubble. Just any day we're
out there, if they're outside, that's where we get stationed.
So any player I choose to, you know, catch a
little video of If Hawk and Locke are walking in
together and they are pretty much every day. Usually we'll

(11:08):
catch some video of that send that out to the
peeps that have to have it. But I shot Mertz
walking across and that was met on the X platform with.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Man, is he hurt already?

Speaker 5 (11:18):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah, he is. He was hurt on draft Day. He
was heard in March. He was heard in February, January, December,
and November and October all this past season when he
got hurt during their season and missed the rest of
the season. Within his jury, he's not yet fully cleared
from not fully prepared to get on the field yet,
but the timeline is that he should be able to

(11:41):
do something for this team on the field at some
point during camp. Even still a spot on the hideaway list,
the NFL calls that injured reserve would not be very
shocking at all for season number one. They probably have
a couple of players already on the roster, young players
that are almost guarantees to find themselves there when they
no longer carry ninety players, but rather the fifty three

(12:04):
plus sixteen that they'll head into the season with.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
We will have best of X for you.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
At two thirty, Dana Brown made his weekly visit on
the Sean Salisbury Show this morning. Every Wednesday, he does
that usually at nine thirty, so we will hear from
him right at three o'clock as we begin our one
hour simulcast today on Space City Home Network. Brian bogus
Sevix weekly visit also took place earlier today on the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross, So a little bit from him.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
He is outstanding.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Obviously you get great and analyst work from him on
Space City Home Network and right here once a week,
so we'll share a little of what he had to say,
specifically about Astros sixteen for sixteen closer Josh Hater and
on the Texans at four o'clock, Aaron Wilson covers the
team for us, and of course over at Channel two
he will join us at four o'clock and as mentioned earlier,

(12:52):
four to thirty, we begin the Astros on Deck show,
a little bit of what's going on around the other
parts of the NFL, well the not playing parts of
the NBA, and obviously a little bit more on Lance's
nastiness and excellent comes your way next here on the
A Team.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (13:15):
Can stop to the shame Dick jump down, coming away
and pick.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Choose not to like shot just spin up.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Very funny that I commented on Bump Music yesterday and
how we just kind of roll into the show.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
But I can't help myself.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
I watched a movie with at least one of these
guys in it just earlier this morning. Lead singer Red
Hot Chili Peppers. He was the wrong group of surfers
that Johnny Utah was after point break shot himself in
the foot when their house got raided.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
A kind of a weasel. This movie, for mister keatis.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Not even the best movie featuring a Red Hot Chley
Pewer's member.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Well, certainly it would have to be one that featured Flea, right,
it would have to be one of the Future Fleet
and what's that it.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
Would be my favorite movie of all time or my
favorite movie trilogy of all time Back to the Future
where he plays Needles.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
He's kind of a you could call him a villain, right.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Technically, Okay, think about it. This is the conversation I've
had with multiple people about this. If Marty doesn't get
in the car wreck after racing Needles, he doesn't end
up becoming a sad sack loser in twenty fifteen and
working under Needles who gets them fired. So it's like, yes,
he is a villain, but the villain is Biff. I mean, naturally,

(14:36):
the villain is Biff in every single level the Tantum family.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
I think that's a reasonable assessment. Surprised the sequel lands
on anybody's best of anything, But that's okay.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
It's my favorite trilogy of all time. Okay, No, let
me phrase like they.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Went to the West, right, yeah, and covered wagons and stuff.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
They went to nineteen eighty five and then twenty fifteen
than eighteen eighty five, right.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
So the sequel that produced any footage on the big
screen from eighteen eighty five.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah, I'm not watching that and haven't watched that. You've
never seen the third one?

Speaker 4 (15:11):
Nope, I go to your radio show at this point.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, nonsense. I don't want to see that.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
I don't have time to derail the show the way
that Clayton does.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
I want it. Yeah, I don't want to derail the show.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I gave you some he can you give some information
up about you know, red hot chili peppers. I then,
you know, bounced that off and said I'm not interested
in seeing a period piece sequel from the eighteen hundred,
except it's actually.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Filmed in nineteen eighty eight.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Props well filmed in nineteen I know there are a
lot of movies filmed in the current era that they're
period pieces. I mean, heck, why didn't they just have
it in black and white? I don't have definitely made
me say no, thank you. If you're in black and white,
I'm not watching.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
How dare you? For those that don't know that.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
So you never watched The Artist, the greatest movie that
came out in twenty twelve, oor coorin of the Academy Awards,
I don't know if you've been around for this on
the show.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
I know you've been alive for this.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
But the Academy Awards, they give out one every year
to something called the Best Picture. Sure, in recent years
they are so flummixed on who to whittle the list
down to eight nine ten movies at a time are
nominated for Best Picture. I haven't seen any of them
for I don't know how many consecutive years.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
I think I have seen five movies in the last
ten years that have one Best Picture. I think I
maybe have seen thirty movies in the last ten years
that were.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Nominated for it.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
A very good movie was on last night on Space
City Home Network in Sports Talk seven to ninety and
it was It was a sequel, and it's so far
it's been a pretty good one for Lance McCullers Junior.
As the last four starts to produced a two twenty
era He's had multiple starts where he has not been
scored upon. This by far his best six innings shout
out Baseball, two singles, only one walk, and was able

(16:50):
to get through six innings needing just those ninety six
pitches to get there. Last pitch was earning his seventh
strikeout of the game, and then before any other Astros
pitcher was out on the mound, Christian Walker hit that
solo home run off Paul Skeen. So it put Lance
in position to ernest first win in almost one thousand days,
and the Astros obviously continuing the shutout, we're able to

(17:12):
get him that fifty career wins now for Lance mccullors Junior.
And again, something this team really really needs is more
than just Hunter Brown and from ber Valdez somewhat regularly
pitching them into the later innings. He's done that in
each of his last two start six inning appearances. It's
also struck out twenty nine batters in his last four games.

(17:32):
He's number one in baseball over that four start stretch,
about a sixteen seventeen day stretch in terms of strikeouts
per nine inning among all starting pitchers. That's how well
Lance mccullors has now started to throw the ball as
a member of this rotation. Last night, he obviously spoke
about that, about how he's feeling, how he's pitched, a
little trusted with some of his pitches. Wanted to hear

(17:53):
from him a little bit. So we'll start with how
Lance thought he pitched.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Hi great defense. Pretess that played first huge.

Speaker 7 (18:00):
For me, and you know, Vick was unbelievable all night,
and then you know the offense grinded him out and
walked out a good pitch to head and put us
on the board, and then pret Us finish it up
bullpen stellar per per usual. So just happy to kind
of be back in the mix and being, you know,
patting value. You know when I'm out.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
There, I haven't heard too many people call him vic,
but I will now do that moving forward. Astros catcher
Victor Carrattini behind the plate for Lance mccullor's junior last night.
He's gotten a ton of work over the last probably
fifty days, fifty games or so, somewhat coinciding with the
absence of Jordan Alvarez for his bat to be in

(18:39):
the lineup nearly every day. And then obviously there's most
days where if Yaner's doing the catching, then his bat
gets in the lineup via the DH got the one
start over at first base for Christian Walker. Walker really
did put the Astros in position clearly to win the game.
What it's nothing, nothing and he auls off and you know,
blast the first pitch he sees from Skins in the
seventh inning into the Seeds his home run.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
No doubter.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
The no doubter from peretis that the lance mentioned in
the ninth inning turns a one nothing game into a
three nothing game. It is it does matter. Even though
Josh Hater has been perfection as a saver. This year's
sixteen opportunities and sixteen converted saves a little bit easier
to not face the tying run. Well, if it's one nothing,
you're facing the tying run. Automatically, every batter you face,

(19:23):
you're potentially facing the winning run if you allow a
base runner. So those things can put a pitcher a
little bit more at ease. No matter how great they
are and how good their stuff is and how well
they've been pitching and their execution being on point, it's
definitely a different situation when you're up three to nothing
as opposed to one nothing. Also from Lance mccullors, his
pitches have again, I think he's felt better and better

(19:44):
about his full arsenal, and that certainly yesterday included his
fastball teams.

Speaker 7 (19:50):
It's not a secret of kind of how I'm going
to be attacking. I mean, I love to rear back
in the ninety six, nine seven, but it's just not
in the cards at the moment. So I got to
be able to get in his own early with with
the breaking pitches and then kind.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Of have to establish that.

Speaker 7 (20:03):
And then you know, once once the I think the
batters start realizing, like them O to one two kind
of every time with the off speed, then they have
to kind of start and start opening up to it.
And so getting in the zone with the off speed
is a huge man.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
His pitches with movement that are in the zone. Well,
they do two things. They draw swings and misses, or
they draw called strikes. The movement on his pitches, his
off speed stuff like he was talking about there, he's got.
He got ahead in yesterday's game, just as he described
it very often, as opposed to not very often in

(20:41):
his first handful of starts. Here with the off speed stuff,
trying to land stuff back to ors, trying to catch
a corner with some of the off speed pitches, with
movement that aren't likely to draw swings because of where
the pitch quote unquote begins to especially to.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
A right handed batter.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Left handed Butter might swing out it anyway before it
ends up nearly hitting his back foot. But the stuff
was there. Each of the last two games. You had
nineteen whiffs in the start that produced twelve strikeouts against
the A's, and you got nine more whiffs in this
game that produced seven strikeouts against the Pirates. You also
had twenty called strikes. If you're throwing hit able stuff,

(21:16):
they're gonna be swinging a lot more off It's very
hard to get twenty called strikes. The way he throws,
the manner in which he throws unless the movement is
there and the execution is there, so you get it started,
say here, so when it finishes there they're still in
the strike zone. And it certainly was yesterday. Caught a
lot of black of the plate when hitters weren't expecting

(21:38):
what was coming and sat there and watched it. O'Neil
Cruz among them or early and throughout the game. His
involvement in the game, we'll get into in more detail
we get to the Astros on deck show. Something we
talked about the Astros pitchers and catchers getting together to
maybe not see so many runners run wild on them
paid off in yesterday's game, and Cruz was at the

(22:00):
wrong end of that. Yesterday Pirates lineup is out a
little bit different than yesterday. He saw Tommy fam in
the game as a pinch hitter. He'll be in the
lineup today, but most of it roughly the same. And regardless,
this is a bad offense. This is a team hitting
about two twenty five on the season. Their's zero runs
scored yesterday. It's not a given, it's not expected, but

(22:23):
the Astros with even with a non elite starting pitcher,
no offense to Ryan Gusto, but I think that's a
safe assumption and description.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Of him heading into this game.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
This might be a team for him to get the
Astros into the sixth thing for him to not see
nearly as much traffic as he's seen through most of
his starts, and the last couple of starts, he's just
been unable to go deep into the game. Three and
two thirds, four and a third, that's what they've gotten
out of him. They've had a chance to win his starts,
giving up just those two runs in each of them,

(22:54):
but not giving them length and kind of setting the
table for what could be problematic both that day and
then the day to come. It's an issue, And I said,
he's given them a chance to win. Well, they haven't
won any of his last three starts, any of his
last four appearances. They'll be going against someone with far
less experience than Ryan Gusto. Gusto appears in a major
league game for the fourteenth time tonight. Mike Burrows, the

(23:16):
opposing starter, appears in a major league game for the
fourth time. Tonight joined the rotation about ten days ago.
He'll make his third start of the year and fourth
overall major league appearance. None thus far have been successful.
I mentioned what the topic one of them for the
Best of X will be. It'll be NBA related, It'll
be Welcome to the Big Seat, the number one share related,

(23:40):
and we'll do that for you on the Best of
X next.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety did you all
see this?

Speaker 8 (23:51):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts
a day.

Speaker 5 (23:54):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 6 (23:58):
History repeats itself type, bang.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
You'll succeed.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Never doubt that you're the one who.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Plus we go one biling You're the best of X.

Speaker 6 (24:10):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know, yo, the best of
X posting ever single day. You're the best of XX,
breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Best of X.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Anything we find on social media that provides hilarity, some comedy,
something a little bit off the wall, or maybe something
you just did not know, whatever platform it might.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Be, X just happened to be the easiest song to parody.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
So whatever's out there, we'll find it here on Best
of X. Something that actually came up during the last
hour when I was sitting in on the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross certainly would fit here. The back and
forth between Brandon Jennings and a basketball trainer was absolutely hilarious.
I'll save that for the backs out of Best of

(25:00):
X if I have a moment to get there elsewhere
on the show.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
If you missed it, you'll like it.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Very unnecessary, but the type of back and forth that
results in the combinator comment are saying, up, looks like
he's just got a body bag for you. I'll let
you know who they think bodied the other. But the
Phoenix Sons apparently have made their choice on who is
going to be much much better at taking Matt Ishbia's
team to the Promised Land than all those that have

(25:28):
come before him during the Matt Ishbia tenure. Because this
is head coach number three, since he took over, came
in and said goodbye to MANI came in and hired
and since fired Mike Budenholzer, and now it's Jordan Ott
who's the new head coach for the Phoenix Sons.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
He and a couple.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
He was one of a couple of Cleveland Brown's assistants
that were in the mix for this job. And when
I saw those two names, Sean Strani had mentioned those
two names a couple of days ago that they had
basically narrowed their choices down to those two gentlemen. Did
a little bit of research on both. One item I
found that I still have not been able to verify

(26:11):
strikes me as exceptionally unlikely to be true. But like
I said, I haven't yet had a chance to verify it.
But I'm gonna get to why we're on Best of
X first at Jordan Ott PHX exists on the X platform.
Bio head coach of the Phoenix Suns hashtag sons up

(26:35):
more than one thousand followers, follows about four hundred and
fifty people, followed by a couple of media members in Phoenix.
Now all the makings of okay, this guy had a
assistant coaching job, plays around on social media a little bit,
maybe either some reposts, some cavs work, or wherever else
he's been pintweet Phoenix, I promise to give you everything

(26:57):
I have. We are going to be a team you
can be proud of. Can't wait to get to work.
Hashtag sons first comment off of that is fire ought,
he responds. Someone had to say it, And as soon
as I saw that, I went back up to the
bio and realized It also says parody account. Of course,

(27:19):
the head coach of the Phoenix Suns is not on
social media on the ex platform with one thousand followers,
already changed his header and is already responding to people
now that he's happy he has the job. No, he's
absolutely not there now. You know, some people may or
may not know that. Good luck out there. You're gonna
need it. Congrats, can't wait too to turn this thing around.

(27:42):
But more importantly, it also included this mocked up logo.
It says Phoenix Spartans. Well, it's purple and orange like
the colors of the Phoenix Sons, but everything else about
it looks like well, the Michigan State's Martins and I
already knew from the recent research if you don't already know,

(28:06):
Matt Ishbia, the new owner of the Phoenix Suns. Michigan
State ties to their basketball program, where he played briefly
else Party GM Brian Gregory hired this offseason. He coached
Ishbia during his time with Michigan State. Ishbia the walk
on and Gregory part of the coaching staff, and now

(28:30):
new head coach Jordan Ott someone I'm pretty sure even
the staunchest of basketball fans on the NBA side had
not heard of prior to a week ago.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Uh yeah, he went to Michigan State. Uh yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
He His coaching career began at Michigan State under Tom Izzo.
Worked in the video department there. So people in Phoenix
are saying, I know the Michigan State and Michigan jokes
are tired, but we can't ignore it, and suggestions and
comments like, man, this must be awesome for fifteen year

(29:04):
old Matt ishbia buy a basketball team and hire all
his buddies like it's a video game, which is what
some people are afraid of. It's not to say that,
especially in OTTs case. Ott has a very reasonable resume
to now land a head coaching job. Gregory, you could
maybe convince me he's in line for a GM job,

(29:27):
but I wouldn't exactly call it the typical path to
that position. But seemingly they both have the job for
the same reason. Ott was on Cleveland staff. He was
on the Lakers staff before that. He was on the
NET staff before that. I mentioned that yesterday because when
he was on that NET staff, one of the players
for he and Steve Nash and the coaching staff was

(29:48):
Kevin Durant, and he worked with the Hawks before that
with Mike Budenholzer, so Budenholzer was just there. I find
that rather interesting that there are some ties to him.
Devin Booker apparently has given him the stamp of approval
and was included clearly and part of this coaching higher process. Thus,
I don't imagine they went to book and said, what

(30:10):
do you think hired the guy he apparently reportedly said
yes to, and he's trying to sabotage the team because
he knows he's going to be traded or he wants out.
He has reportedly always wanted in and isn't looking to move,
even with Phoenix going nowhere and likely going nowhere under
this head coach. And I think anything reported today about

(30:32):
his involvement in the coaching search suggests those reports are true.
Doesn't mean teams won't call and ask, doesn't mean teams
might put something together that would have to get serious
consideration from them. But I do think Devin Booker more
than likely if he gave me odds and fifty to
fifty was you know, fifty one percent he stays in Phoenix.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
Yeah, obviously think.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
The odds are he stays in Phoenix. I'll give you
sixty forty you still think that, he say, Phoenix. I
think that's what's ultimately going to happen. I think they
have a player they think they can win with within
their plan of building a winner. He's not going to
be too old to win with when they have put
the players in place to win with, So he's going
to be part of that. Nobody else on their team

(31:16):
really needs to be certainly not Durant and obviously not
Bradley Beal. I think there's an extremely high likelihood that
Kevin Durant isn't there. But the information I have yet
to confirm, and I just help't have enough people in
the Cleveland area I can reach out to to see
if I can get this confirmed. I was reading up
on Jordan Not became an assistant coach for the Cavs.

(31:36):
He's from Pennsylvania, went to penn State, worked with people
at Michigan State, and had his Masters from Michigan State.
And this comes from the official coaching website. But the
last line of that bio says coach is married to
his wife, Kama Jordan. So that's mister and missus Jordan

(32:00):
and Jordan Ott, would you like to hear another fun one?
I know there was a fun one this week, and
I was actually trying to look up what it was.
I believe there was an NFL marriage where a player
whose last name is Bailey married a woman whose first
name is Bailey.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
That's one. It's not Bailey's happy, but that it's Bailey. Well,
it wouldn't be Bailey is the last name. I think
it's Harris. I think it's Harrison.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Bailey is a college player that got married and his
wife's name is now Bailey.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
So it's Bailey Bailey.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
But do you remember the actor? Of course you don't,
but maybe you maybe maybe if somebody does.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Do you remember Taylor.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Lautner, Well, it's a it's Jake Bailey the Dolphins. Jun
married a lovely woman named Bailey.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
But do you remember Taylor Latner?

Speaker 9 (32:44):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Taylor Lautner, Yeah, one of.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
The uh, one of the Sparkle well, one of the
Sparkle people. He was, he was the Werewolf.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
You can go on and on about all the specifics
of those movies which I haven't seen.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
His wife is also Taylor, Yes, and it's I think
about the exact same way.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, I am aware I did actually know that. But again,
those two people have the same name now each as
each other. Right, this presumed factoid about the new head
coach of the Phoenix Suns he and his wife now
are excuse me? The story of Bailey Bailey, I still

(33:25):
think is much worse. Oh, Bailey Bailey is a thousand
times worse. She gotta go buy something else, ales and
even that's worse. There you go, Best of.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
X the Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Big weekend coming up, Grillas that know, got a few
things to get to Here. Three o'clock we'll hear from
Dana Brown. Three thirty, here from Brian boga Sevic. Four
o'clock we'll hear from Aaron Wilson. Thirty we'll get started
with the Astros on Deck Show, Ryan Gusto, Mike Burrows
Astros Pirates coming up a little bit later tonight. There's

(34:08):
some Major League Baseball going on this afternoon. One game
of note, it's already gone final. Rather surprising several days
worth of results coming out of the very poorly attended
series between the Marlins and Rockies. The unusual results were
the Rockies outscoring the Marlins. The Rockies just won their

(34:30):
first series of the season. The Rockies won earlier today
three to two. But I got to rewind you back
to Sunday afternoon to get to the reason why I'm
even bringing this up. Sunday afternoon, at the Memorial in Ohio,
Jack Nicholas helping to celebrate the work done by Scotti Scheffler.

(34:50):
Scheffler won yet another tournament. He won yet another tournament
in a landslide, a four shot victory, and he's accepting
the trophy and then he's on the dais or at
the press conference with Jack Nicholas, and Jack was mentioning,
you know, kind of the obvious. And as Scheffler has

(35:11):
continued to win and win and win, not enough people.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Are talking about it.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
I was actually pretty stoked to hear Jack Nicholas mention it,
and mention it while he was sitting right there, so
everybody can understand that it's not a shot at Scotty
in any way, but more reality. He basically said, you know,
Ben Griffin's a nice player. Cepstraca is a nice player.
I mean, there's some nice players out there, but it's
different knowing down the stretch this who's on the leader

(35:38):
board with Scotty. He didn't have to say the quiet
part out loud. Everybody knows what he's talking about. The
best players aren't playing in these tournaments. They might play
in the majors those that have allowed them to over
the last few years with the advent of the live
tournament and the Live Tour, I should say, but yeah,
the best players in the world aren't regularly the competition

(35:59):
for Scotty Scheffler, and I don't really mind Scheffler's point
of view on it. You know, when when asked about
you know, what do you think about them playing in
this tournament or should the PGA Tour or whichever tournament
we're talking about give allowances so they can make it
to this and you know, the timing of it and
offer them, yeah, come on and play. Basically, well, the
onus isn't on them, it's it's on the other side
of the tour. It's it's they're the ones who've chosen

(36:21):
to go away, and it's a it's kind of a
nonsense battle, because the bottom line is, the best players
in the world currently don't play all the tournaments together.
Most of them are playing elsewhere, and a handful of
really good players are here, but certainly in this tournament,
there's weren't very many at the top of the leaderboard.
If they were even at the tournament, they didn't play
well enough to be a factor, and Scheffler's just crushing it.

(36:43):
To that end, a meme made its way to the
social media landscape, and a very appropriate one at the time.
It said, wins since May fourth and this was June first,
of this past weekend, Scottie Scheffler three, Colorado Rockies three.
They went about a month and they won three games.
This is when they got to fifty losses. Before they

(37:06):
got to their tenth win of the year, they were
sitting at nine and fifty.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
Well, now that the Rockies are crushing it. After their win.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Today, they took to social media a few hours ago
it says wins since June's second Colorado Rockies three, Scottie
Scheffler zero.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
So they understand.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
This is where your social media team really has to
get it, and everybody in the organization has to let
them do their thing.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Peek, you have to.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
We know we stink, We completely get it. We're terrible.
There's only so much we can do. We're the creative team.
We're the digital side. We're trying to engage with our fans,
our fans who are at wits end. They're not coming
to games, they're not supporting us. There's no reason for
them too. We've mismanaged this team. We don't have talent.
We're losing constantly. We're record setting with our futility.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
We have somebody trying to sue us because they got
hit in the foul ball because they weren't paying attention
because of how bad we're playing.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Like, that's a little more bad we're at. I can
appreciate this. You know, admin isn't getting paid enough. Media
manager deserves a raise. I hope we're at the point now.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
And I don't know.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
It doesn't come from a good tweet like this usually
comes from the other side. Are we passed? Has it
jumped the shark for people to respond to social media
posts from sports teams or entities restaurants that maybe were
in poor taste or maybe they didn't hit its mark?
Have we jumped the shark? From responders saying ugh, I
guess the intern got a hold of this account again.

(38:36):
Now people don't realize yet how important social media is
and branding is, as in people ask their unpaid, underqualified
kids to run it. Is this what people still think,
that's who run social media accounts for major companies, for
any company for that matter. I'm here to tell you

(38:56):
now that that's not how it works. It's interns don't
have control over it. Someone who shouldn't, isn't getting paid,
or doesn't know what they're doing.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Though it's not a.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Incompetent takeover it really highly paid people are the ones
sometimes making these ridiculous posts and big mistakes and one
that actually could cost them followers their job.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
There are any all.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
That, so it's not all it's don't blame the intern
They're never in charge. They barely were ever in charge.
And like I said, I think we're way way past
that time, which is only for a brief period of
time people didn't realize. You know, there's people in our
world in sports that, for some reason five six, eight,
ten years ago, thought I'm not getting on Twitter what for.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
I'm just gonna report the news whenever it is.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
My entity puts it out first thing in the morning
on the newspaper behind my paywall. Ten o'clock tonight when
I get on the news. Okay, everybody else will have
it first up to you. Everybody knows they can get
immediate news from so Meeta, But if you want to wait,
go right ahead. Didn't take long forever to say no,
that's probably not the way to go. Adapted dying and

(40:06):
that's the nature of the beast where it's no different.
Now there's influencers out there, there's sports talk radio hosts,
those worlds meet.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
I am an influencer.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
If you didn't already know that, If you'd like me
to speak for your company, I'd be happy to do it.
You want to be a partner here on the A team,
come on aboard. Just hit me up at Adam Worksley
at iHeartMedia dot com and we will make it happen.
Just like you heard me talk earlier about QC Kinetics,
just like you heard me talk about earlier Big City Wings,
I could be doing the same thing for you. Would
love to have that partnership. You know what to do.

(40:38):
Three o'clock is next. We'll join you on the simulcast.
Will hear from Astros general manager Dana Brown.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named at him talking your team's.

Speaker 8 (40:58):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckfler are d eighteen.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Eight team on a Wednesday continues here with you now
joined via the simulcast on Space City Home Network. You're
all for Astros baseball, You're home for Rockets basketball. Applies
to both us here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
and them. We'll both have Astros Baseball for you this
evening from Pittsburgh, Game two of this three game series.
A win and the Astros will claim the series victory.

(41:26):
I'm sure they're looking for much more than that after
last night's three nothing victory behind Lance mcculler's junior and
his six innings of shutout baseball, followed by three shutout
innings from the Bullpenchan Dubin, Brian Brew and Josh Hater
finishing things off home runs from the corner infielders, seventh
inning shot off of Paul Skens from Christian Walker, and

(41:48):
then a ninth inning two run homer from Esach Peretis
with the Astros up three to nothing. That's the final
and they go into tonight with Ryan Gusto on the
mound looking to make it too straight over. Pittsburgh lineup
tonight very similar to last night, but not completely Jose
Al two is back at second base. Talked about this
quite a bit here recently, with the Astros wanting at

(42:10):
least some left handed bat, a left handed bat most
days in the lineup, you're gonna see Victor Caratine. He
playing a lot of baseball. Yesterday he was the catcher.
Today he is the designated hitter. You could still put
Jose al Tuove in left field, but then you can't
get your other left handed hitter into the lineup. Newly
brought up Jacob Melton. He's been here for three days.

(42:32):
He's getting his third start. Each of those three games.
He's been a starter. Got to play against Paul Skeens yesterday.
Different end of it, Mike Burrows not nearly the prospect
to where the success of Skins giving up multiple runs
and all three of his major league appearances given up
four runs at each of his two starts so far
this season, Melton will once again be out in left field.

(42:52):
The outfield alignment and batting order for those three remains
the same. Jake Myers bat sixth or seventh, excuse me,
Cam's Smith eighth, and the left fielder Jacob Melton batting
ninth one through six Paynia partis al Tuve Walker, Yiner
Diaz is Ryan Gusto's catcher. He bats fifth, and of
course Victor Carratini there as I mentioned the designated hitter,

(43:12):
he bats six. Though a couple of left handed bats
in the lineup, how long until the left handed bat
is in the lineup? There's obviously a very major question
for both Joe Spatta, the medical staff and of course
the general manager of the Houston Astros, Dana Brown. And
to that end, he made his weekly visit on the
A station here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. He

(43:34):
joins the Sean Salisbury Show each and every Wednesday morning
around nine thirty. Usually, as was the case this morning,
Dan Matthews and Ross v a real handling duties earlier
today with that interview with Sewan out today, I wanted
to give you a little bit of what Dana Brown
had to say. We'll add to it a little bit
later with something specific to how things were handled with

(43:57):
Jordan Alvarez and maybe with how the Kings are handled
with players moving forward. But if you want to catch
the full interview, you always can do that right at
Sports Talk seven ninety dot com or via our iHeartRadio app,
our free iHeartRadio app. Just subscribe to all of our shows,
our podcasts. That interview can be found right there. Sports
Talk seven ninety should be number one on your presets

(44:20):
on the iHeartRadio app. If it's not already, you can
make that quick fix right now.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
This portion of the.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Interview for our listeners here on the eight team begins
with what exactly is ord undoing as we speak?

Speaker 10 (44:33):
He's just gonna continue to rep you know, he'll he's
not gonna hit, and he's not gonna throw, but he'll
continue to rest there. But he'll he'll be, he'll run.
He can do baseball activities in terms of shagging and flyballs,
but no pick it up the bat let, the hand
rest and it should hell, it was that sixty healed

(44:56):
and so you know he's progressive.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
Two part your final one injury wise, Spencer Arraghedty playing
catch last week, where do things stand with him? And
also Luis Garcia throwing off the mound in the bullpen
over the weekend. Is that cause to believe that he
could be progressing towards a return this season?

Speaker 10 (45:14):
Yes? And first on Arragetty. You know Arraghetty feels really good.
He's you know, he's throwing flat ground right now. He's
also biting at the bit. I mean, we have to
slow him down because he's ready to cut it loose.
And so he's got to go through a full spring training.
So we have to gradually, you know, bring him back

(45:34):
because you don't want to, you know, see any other injury,
you know, other than the thumb, because guys start to
come back too fast, you know, they could hurt their bleak.
There's other things that you have to worry about, so
you have to go through a full spring training. And yeah, Garcia,
he's uh, he's going to be throwing live vps at

(45:55):
the end of June, and so we do expect him
to get back sometime in August.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
Let's for you as a general manager, just throughout the
calendar year, really trying to plan for pitching. And how
different is it now in twenty twenty five than say,
you know, ten years ago or even longer ago, with
these injuries that have been happening, which you can never predict,
but it almost seems like it's almost if not it's

(46:23):
not if, but when with pitching injuries the last several.

Speaker 10 (46:26):
Years, Yeah, you just have to be very conscious of
your depth, and you know, because you know, it's like
you anticipate, you know, something will happen. It's it's the
nature of the beast. You know, you're not the only
club going through it. There's multiple clubs throughout baseball that
are fighting an injury bug, and so you have to
be prepared. And so, you know, thank god, some of

(46:48):
our depth has stepped up. We're gonna have some guys
coming back from injuries and so we'll be able to
ride the ship and stay the course, you know, on
this journey. Uh, you know, it's good to see that
the team is playing well right now. We're back in
first place, and uh, you know our goal is to
like get on a really good run right now. And

(47:11):
you know we're playing well, We're still pitching well, and
so the bats are heating up and you know we're
trying to we're grinding through this and.

Speaker 5 (47:19):
A couple of those bats, do you know, I mean
last night it's against a really good pitcher, Christian Walker
able to send one over the wall.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
That's good to see out of him.

Speaker 5 (47:26):
Or Diaz has put together some good at bats, but
you know, not one hundred percent back to what I
think we expect from jinor Diaz. What are you seeing
from those guys at bats to lead you to believe
that maybe they could be turning the corner.

Speaker 10 (47:38):
Yeah, we're seeing a little bit more pitches. I mean
that's going to be helpful. I mean, Paul Schemes is
his stuff is filthy. I mean he was ninety seven
and ninety nine heavy sink and movement on the fastball.
Change up was really good, really good slider. I mean,
it's just a very difficult guy to navigate. You know,

(47:59):
Walking got a really good pitch there to hit and
he took advantage of it. And you know he's done
that a little bit in the past, you know, with
the home running he got in Arlington against the Rangers
and the you know, the one versus Seattle. You know, Walker,
he's turning the corner. And so you know, as I
mentioned before, these guys are grinding, and uh, you know,

(48:21):
I really feel that the bats are turning the corner.
We're starting to see more flashes of of of of offense,
and so that's a good thing. Along with our pitching
and our defense, you know, we start to really heat
up at the bats. We'll go on a nice little
run and right down it feels like we're on the
verge of a run.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
What did you think of high levers Sean Dubin last night.

Speaker 10 (48:44):
Yeah, we've been you know, he's been stepping it up
for us. You know, he's throwing the ball very well.
He comes in, you know, he gets stouts and that's
what we like. And he's been really good for us.
You know, this year, we're you know, we're hoping that
he continues that progress since he's come on off the il.
You know, he's he's been doing an outstanding job and
you know, we gave him an opportunity in high leverage

(49:06):
yesterday he answered the bell once again, and so you
know he's been dialed in.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
He certainly has been.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
He also was a guest of the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross earlier today one thirty, so I was in
with Ross, had a chance to talk with Sean.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Catch that interview same place.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
You can catch the Dana Brown interview right there on
Sports Talk seven to ninety dot com. Duban specifically into
last night's game, like Brian a brew in the inning
that followed allowed one base runner, and in both instances
that base runner was eliminated on a throw down to
second base from Victor Carratini caught stealing the second of

(49:46):
those two. With Brian a Brew out there, O'Neil Cruz
slid into second base safely as the ball bounced into
an out of jose Al Twovey's glove. He also beat
the throw, but he slid past the bag. Now Twovey
was able to corral the bobbled ball and tag O'Neil
Cruz in the eighth inning of a one run game
out at second as he overslid the bag. I don't

(50:09):
necessarily think there was any kind of mental mistake for Cruise.
It was part physical, heavy, part physical, and a little
bit of that's very unfortunate. It does seem like there
are a lot of instances where they fall into place
with O'Neil Cruz involved. He's bat and lead off again tonight.
He's easily the best player that they have. He's undoubtedly
the player that puts the most people in the seats

(50:32):
non pitchers, of course, and it's just not quite being
harnessed to, you know, reaching that next level. He does
things that there probably is there might not even be
one other player in Major League baseball. Can do certain
things with you know what his generates with his bat speed,
what he's able to do with the exit velocity, hit
the ball where nobody else can, and now he's doing
it as a center fielder. He got to a ball

(50:55):
last night at the wall so fast he didn't even
have to jump for it. He jumped kind of because
he thought he was supposed to it looked like, but
he actually was there in plenty of time on a
ball that it looked like, Well, the right fielder had
the whole way and he was nowhere near it.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
There's O'Neil Cruz.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
He's already back right at the wall, just a nice
easy cruising jump to it, makes the catch. Learning to
play center field. We back out there again tonight. Interesting
from Dana Brown about what Jordan is.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
Doing right now.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
The opening thought that he gave you right there, not
the opening of the interview, but just for our purposes here.
He has a broken bonent in his hand. That's what
people with broke. It's really other than the fact that
he can run and field. So he's doing those things
to stay in whatever he can for baseball shape. Like
Spencerragetty had a broken finger you're not doing anything. There's

(51:47):
nothing to do, certainly on your throwing hand if you're
a pitcher, and then Jordon's case, his swinging hands, there's
nothing for you to do until it is healed, which
does obviously take us back to the unfortunate scenario of
what led to this is he clearly was doing things
with what turned out to be a broken hand. That
fourth metacarpal in the right hand, it's broken, and he

(52:08):
was swinging a bat consistently for multiple days leading up
to the ultimate diagnosis when they went in again, which
Dana did address, and we'll share with you next how
they might want to do things a little bit differently
moving forward from a personnel evaluation when the medical staff
is involved. You hear from Dana Brown on that next.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
It's Wednesday. It's the eighteen WEX. Saint Cole here with you.
Ac Off today, be back tomorrow, will be with you tomorrow.
It's same slot as today at two o'clock beginning and
right into Astros on deck at four thirty Astros and
pirates today and tomorrow from ber Valdez gets the ball
tomorrow tonight it will be the four, fourteenth start of

(53:01):
this season for a first time astro, Ryan Gusto make
start number eight. The others that make up that group
I've mentioned Colton Gordon, AJ Bluebaugh, and Brandon Walter, and
as a group still looking for quality start number one.
It's been unable to either pitch deep into games or
to keep the other team down enough that you could

(53:23):
qualify for that. He either give the bullpen a little
bit of a breather by pitching deep, or pitch your
team into a very good position to win and then
hoping to take care of business.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
And doesn't mean they haven't won some of these games.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
You've won three of seven Gusto starts, You've won three
of four Golden Gordon starts. One start a Pietz for
AJ Bluebaugh and Brandon Walter. Walter was very very good
in his start, not allowing anything in his work of
five innings, but they did not end up winning that game,
nor did they in they won.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
For blue Ball.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
This team is six games over five hundred for the
first time all season. They're eight and four win Hunter
Brown pitch, they're seven and five when fromer Valdel's pitches.
Here's the math. They're six games over when they're aces pitch,
they're five hundred baseball team. When they don't, I think

(54:14):
that's incredible. The non Valdez Hunter Brown starts and that's
all but twenty four of their games. Renel Blanco for nine,
I mentioned, Gusto for seven, Hayden was Nesky made six.
Lance mccullors Junior has now made six. Gordon Arraghetti, blue
Ball and Walter have combined for the other eight. And

(54:36):
in those games they've they've managed to play five hundred baseball,
which I will tell you, if they play five hundred
baseball in the sixty percent of the games that aren't
started by Valdez and Brown, roughly sixty percent, they'll win
this division no problem, because they're going to continue to
win games. I wish their record was better than six

(54:56):
games over five hundred with Brown and Valdez, it definitely
should be. In Hunter's case, ten of his twelve starts
have been quality starts. He's obviously one of the best
pitchers in the majors this year, certainly in the American League,
and the numbers are all there to back it up.
The eight team wins they have, well, he has eight
wins individually so each time they've won, he's been on
the receiving end of that decision. Valdez goes tomorrow, and

(55:17):
again three out of every five starts.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
In that rotation.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Well, they're gonna come from somebody else four out of
every six if they extend to a six man rotation,
which is a possibility when this road trip ends. Road
trip ends, they'll have an off day leading into Tuesday's
homestand beginning, and they'll play all the way through for
two Sundays. Won't have an off day on that coming Monday,
but rather four consecutive series, one of which is a

(55:43):
four game series, which means they don't have any days
off during those thirteen games of baseball mentioned, Dana Brown
said something else that we did not yet play for you,
regarding how they handle things, either in the past or
specifically with the Jordan Alvarez. It was asked about if
what's transpired here, what's transpired with Colin maybe others along

(56:05):
the way.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
Since Dana Brown's taken.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Over as general manager here, he can't really speak to
what took place before his time here as general manager,
but did what has happened did that suggest to him
that maybe there is a different way to do things,
and should they be changing some of the way they
approach these situations, both with their conversations with the player
and obviously with their the impact the medical staff can

(56:28):
have on this by you know, doing more.

Speaker 10 (56:31):
I think one of the things that you know we're
going to do here more is get more imaging.

Speaker 11 (56:37):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (56:37):
You know, sometimes we get this imaging early in the injury,
and you know, there's so much inflammation and fluid and
some of these injuries, and so you know, the thing
here is if we could continue to do multiple imaging
and then maybe you get a better look and a
little more clear view of what the actual injury is.

(57:00):
And I think that's one of the things that we're
gonna do more of going forward.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
It seems.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
I'm glad he said it. I'm glad they will do
it moving forward. It's still a little as a little
tough to believe that wasn't already. I don't you don't
have to have a written policy. You don't have to
have any of this stuff written out. It seems so
obvious when you go in the and to be very
specific to this case, when you go in the first
time and you know it like the doctor would know it,

(57:28):
like the GM would know it, like the player would
know it, like the player's agent would know it. There
can be things that make it difficult to see everything
you might want to see, and they mentioned those things.
The fluid, the swelling. Okay, the fluid usually goes away
or you drain it. Certain injuries, and swelling presumably at

(57:49):
some point goes down. Well, then you go in again.
They've talked about it with so many other injuries, so
many different times, this specific team. Yeah, well we'll get
a look at it when the swelling goes down. Okay,
that's pretty clearly what should have been done here, Probably
enough imaging or multiple instances of imaging along the timeline

(58:13):
to ensure what you think you saw the first time
amidst all this quote unquote cloudiness was in fact a
muscle strain which quite clearly at some point during the
imaging this week, imaging five days later, imaging four days later,
imaging before he picks up a bat would have shown
a break of some nature, a forty percent break, a
twenty percent break, one hundred percent break of the fourth metacarpal, which,

(58:37):
as we now know, is fractured. So rest and hopefully recovery,
everything goes well, there's no cast, there's no surgery. He
will just rest and then hopefully he will be back
on the Astros in the Astros line on a pretty
regular basis. I know he'll still need a day off
now and then over the final eighty five ninety hundred

(58:57):
games of the season, less than one hundred whatever ends
up playing, but probably few and far between with how
many games he's already missed. Really good this year as
opposed to last year, they've played pretty good baseball with
a huge bat out of the lineup. Consider this when
you consider the first place Astros at thirty three and

(59:18):
twenty seven, the team that Dana Brown put together for
this year, it doesn't include Alex Bregman, that doesn't include
Kyle Tucker, and for almost forty games or thirty games,
i should say, has not included Jordan Alvarez.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
And they're six games over. They're thirty three and twenty seven.
They lead this division.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
They've been unbelievable at home, and they still probably have
better baseball in front of them. They're a very good
defensive team and overall, quite obviously they're pitching has been
very good. Two frontline starters, multiple pitchers on the back end,
and in high leverage situations they can count on in
the bullpen.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
It's why they are where they are.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Doesn't mean it's going to continue forever, but there's certainly
some I think banked resume for so many of these
players that you can expect that, and then for those
that have not had particularly good starts first sixty games
of the season. Janer Diaz would certainly fit there. Even
Josel tuve would fit in that group. Christian Walker, who
homered yesterday to help them win, clearly fits in that group.

(01:00:19):
Not sure what they're going to do the rest of
the season, those three players specifically, But I'm totally fine
sitting here and saying jose Al Tuovey is going to
be better offensively in the next hundred games, Christian Walker
is going to be better offensively in the next hundred games.
Janer Diez is going to be better offensively in the
next hundred games. And none of the players who I

(01:00:41):
didn't mention who have been better than that, who've been
very good in fact, Jake Myers, Jeremy payania Iszak Perettis.
I'm not expecting some significant downturn for them either. I
don't think Jeremy Paynya is on a heater. I think
Jeremy Pagnia finally is different. I think Jeremy Paine has

(01:01:01):
gotten better at certain things, pitch recognition maybe above all else.
He's swinging at much better pitches, the right pitches, much
more often this year than he ever has in the pass.
I don't know why that would go away, and if
it doesn't, he's going to continue being one of the
most productive leadoff hitters in baseball. And credit to Joespata
and jose Al Tuvey for helping make that happen and

(01:01:23):
sliding him into that spot. Isak perretis not on a heater.
Far from it. He picks his spots. He init a
home run last night, had a terrible offensive home stand.
He's not hitting three hundred, he's not hitting two to eighty.
He's hitting just slightly above his career average. And now
he's hitting like the player the Cubs thought they were

(01:01:43):
getting when they traded for him last year, the kind
of player he had been for the most part later
in his everyday player career.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
For the race, that's what he's doing for the Astros.
Just a slight uptick.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
I mean, twelve home runs is great for an astro,
but it's not among the league leaders, thirty four of
you guys. He's not doing any thing crazy out of
the ordinary, and I just don't really see a reason
for a downs. And I'd be most concerned about what
I'm saying, obviously for Jake Myers.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
But he keeps getting hits.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
He's not hitting for any slug even with the double yesterday,
but he keeps getting on base, and he keeps getting hits.
And he just had one of the best months of
his career, and we've just got started here, and he
doubles off Paul Skeens, and he looks better in the
majority of his bats. I know he also struck out,
But if those don't take a major turn for the worst,

(01:02:33):
you get jorn On Alvarez back. And those three players
I mentioned have moderate improvements, they could absolutely have major improvements. Heck,
yan Ordz keeps hitting rockets all over the place, well,
the all over the place for the first two months
of the season for Yiner. Other than the two major
late inning home runs, they keep getting hit into people's gloves.

(01:02:54):
They keep getting hit three hundred and ninety feet when
the walls three hundred and ninety nine feet away, he's
going to I think he's going to be just fine.
More on some of those guys, and more specifically on
Astro's closer, Josh Hater.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
When you let you hear.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
A little bit of what Brian boga Svik has to
say about your Houston Astros.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
It is just after three thirty on a Wednesday afternoon
edition of the eighteen. Wex and Cole here with you
this afternoon Astros and Pirates. Tonight's update injury related update
from the Houston Astros not a good one, unfortunately. Pedro
Leone returned from his rehab assignment. He mentioned this the

(01:03:43):
other day about a week ago. A little over a
week ago, he went to the Florida Complex League to
get started with getting back on the field. A couple
of games there, and then he was sent to sugar
Land to begin his rehab assignment from his left knee
sprain suffered during spring training. The update is he's now
been returned from that assignment because he reaggravated that left

(01:04:05):
knee spring so clearly a setback for a player who
may or may not have been in the mix for
some of the adjustments the Astros have made to their
big league roster over the course of this season. You know,
Zach Decenzo and Cam Smith both made the team out
of spring training. Chas McCormick has now ultimately found his
way to the IL, necessitating a little bit the recall

(01:04:26):
of Jacob Melton. Maybe there would have been an opportunity
for him there. Obviously it's going to be pushed back.
Timeline Unknown gave you the update on Zach Decenzo yesterday.
The surgery for Renel Blanco comes on Friday. Taylor Tremmel,
the other outfielder that's been hurt since spring training. His
rehab assignment began with the Complex League Astros earlier this

(01:04:49):
week on Monday, so hopefully he will get to a
level of Minor League Baseball one of their affiliates. If
not Triple A, I would expect it to be Triple A,
but certainly could be Corpus as he makes his way
back to full health and potential for an opportunity himself
with the Houston Astros. We shall see. It's Ryan Gusto
on the mound tonight. He'll be throwing to Jainer Diaz

(01:05:10):
Victor Carrottini, one of two left handed bats in the
lineup along with Melton. Carotini is the designated hitter right
hander Mike Burrows. On the Hill the Pirates last night,
the Astros took care of the Pirates three nothing. Lance
mccullors was great, mentioned you would want to hear from
Brian bogus Sevic, analyst on Space City Home Network and

(01:05:31):
weekly visitor to The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Last
night's game was a Josh Reddick game on Space City
Home Network. Brian bogus Sevic handling the majority of Astros
baseball analyst duties from the studio, and earlier today when
he was on with The Matt Thomas Show with Ross,
I mentioned he talked a little bit about Josh Hater

(01:05:51):
from year one to year two, maybe a difference that
he sees or perceives. Initially, the conversation we have for
you here begins with how impressed he's been, especially in
the last two outings for Lance mcculler's junior.

Speaker 12 (01:06:05):
I think it's very important to remember that once a
guy is deemed healthy and active, that that's not necessarily
he's the guy who is going to be you know,
that's kind of the last step in the process. There's
still a lot of progress to me to be made
once somebody returns to action, because i mean we've seen

(01:06:26):
lance you know over what is it's six starts now. However,
many continue to get better and better and incrementally, right Like,
sometimes it'll be a little bit of the velocity either
being up a tick or just maintaining velocity a little
bit deeper into an outing or you know, having a
little bit more sharpness to a breaking ball, or having
both versions of the breaking ball working at the same time.

(01:06:49):
So there are steps to take even after your you know,
quote unquote healthy and back into the rotation. But no,
it's it's been great. I mean he continues to get better.
He's really got a feel for the off speed stuff,
and you know, he had to be fairly certain that,
you know, given health, eventually that feel for the breaking pitch,

(01:07:10):
the feel for spin and bearing, the shapes of the
breaking ball will come back, because that's.

Speaker 10 (01:07:14):
Kind of always what he's been a master at.

Speaker 9 (01:07:18):
And it's you know.

Speaker 12 (01:07:18):
It's been a lot of fun to watch, you know,
a guy who's just able to go out there and compete,
because that's what he does. You know, at his best,
what lancemoc Colors does is he goes out there and
he figures out a way to compete.

Speaker 5 (01:07:30):
Josh Hater sixteen saves also has a win. The Astros
have thirty three wins. He has factored in that way
in seventeen of them. Obviously huge. And what do you
think has been the difference for him this year?

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
You know, I don't.

Speaker 12 (01:07:46):
I don't think there's any difference in his stuff. Right
His pitches look pretty much the same. He is executing
them very well that you.

Speaker 10 (01:07:56):
Know, that's needless to say.

Speaker 12 (01:07:58):
There's probably just a little bit more comfort. You know,
obviously second year with the team, you'll be a little
bit more comfortable, even even for a guy who's coming
back to an organization, so you hit the ground running
day one. I will say this, there's there's a little
bit of a different pitch mix. He last year got
very fastball heavy, and for good reason. You know, it's

(01:08:19):
one of the best pitches in baseball and he's batting
average against on it was you know, one sixty something.
But there's a little bit more of a fifty to
fifty split between the fastball and the slider, and you know,
if if you're facing Josh Hader as a hitter, you
almost have to guess right. If you're going to give
yourself a chance, you've got to guess. And if he can,

(01:08:41):
you know, tip the scales just a little bit more
to where you know it's not seventy thirty and it's
fifty fifty, and you're going to guess wrong a little
bit more often, he's going to be that much more
effective because you know, both of those pitches are as
good an individual pitch as there is in baseball. You
put them both together and you don't know what you're
getting at an an a given situation. Good luck, and

(01:09:03):
you know, hitters haven't had a whole lot of it
Attensting this year.

Speaker 5 (01:09:06):
I'm interested on your perspective in the whole Jordon Alvarez saga.
How much do you feel that this is possibly on
the Astros Dana Brown admitting that they may have rushed
him back from from the initial hand soreness. How much
of this is kind of a freak accident thing that
could happen to any team, and especially with the context
that we kind of went through something similar with Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 9 (01:09:28):
Last year.

Speaker 12 (01:09:29):
I think from a player standpoint, from what I would think,
Jordan is feeling the worst thing to have from an
injury standpoint as a player is not knowing right, feeling
that something is wrong, but not having a diagnosis, not
having a definitive timeline. And at least now that it's
been found and they know, he can kind of be
at ease with where this process is because going out

(01:09:51):
there and saying, man, it just doesn't feel right, and
then hearing from the training staff that, well, we think
it is right is really frustrating. Hopefully we've moved past
all the ambiguity and it's defined, and I mean, we
just need the guy back and that's the bottom line.
And he wants to be back, The team wants him back,
the fans want him back, and once he is back,
hopefully we can just put it all the rest.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
One thing Dana Brown said on Saturday this past week
when they did divulge that they ultimately found that fracture.
He said Jordon was relieved that he had an answer.
I think we can all agree that that is part
of this situation. You know, he thought, I mean, Jordon
wants to play, clearly, but I don't think he wants
to play at the expense of his health and presumably

(01:10:34):
at the expense of his team, because the Jordon that
play has played in twenty twenty five, well, he's not
been particularly helpful to the Astros, cause I don't mean
he's just not having a good year. I mean his
bats have been bad enough that you know, a guy
carrying a low six hundred z ops that's a bad
offensive player. He certainly doesn't help them in any other
way because he's not often in the field.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
So, yeah, he wants to get back. Yeah he wants to.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Play, but playing hurt, which he definitely was doing for
an undetermined period of time, what wasn't helping the team.
So now knowing that he shouldn't be trying to come back,
he shouldn't be trying to say, I gotta I gotta
go up and help my team. I gotta get back
as soon as I can. It's feeling better, it's doing well.
He knows there's a reason why it's not healing and
it's not actually getting better, and as soon as he

(01:11:18):
starts to swing the bat, it doesn't feel right and
he can't continue.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
And that's why they went back in.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Did the imaging and ultimately found the fracture of that
fourth metacarpal in his right hand. Hopefully it will heal
as necessary as expected, and again at some point he'll
make his way back into the lineup injuries. Yeah, we
talk about him with your Houston Texans as well. A
former NFL quarterback has a theory on your starting quarterback

(01:11:46):
here in Houston, CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
Stroud, your QB one? Who is it? What's his theory?
That's next?

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
The age on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 13 (01:11:56):
Ninety Football season, Well, it's basically already begun as soon
as the new league year kicks in.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
It's pretty much on from March through.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
April's Draft, through May's usually rookie Minicamp, and for the
Texans and many other teams, the very beginning of OTAs,
which are now stretched into June. The wrapping up of
the OTAs, we'll have their one mandatory mini camp, then
they get their five to six weeks off and training
camp will begin late July. Got three preseason games, two

(01:12:31):
of which will be preceded by a joint workout, one
joint workout each with the Panthers and Lions, and then
the Texans sets sail for their attempt at being better
than just the fourth best team in the AFC. It's
essentially where they've been each of the last two years. Ravens, Chiefs, Bills, Jackson,

(01:12:51):
Mahomes Allen. That's the mountain the Texans want to climb over.
The Texans and Stroud want to climb over Ota tomorrow
and two days of mandatory minicamp coming next week. As
to date, c J Stroud is not thrown any passes
in front of our eyes. Media hasn't attended every single OTA,

(01:13:14):
but he has not thrown and very unlikely he's just
kept his throws to the non media view portion days
were not there. He's not throwing, and it was acknowledged
by the head coach after yesterday's session. They'll have a
couple of days next week. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't.
Reports from the team have been vague, but again an update.

Speaker 3 (01:13:36):
That general soreness. We're not concerned. Everybody's on a different schedule.
We'll leave it at that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
Only a couple more questions was asked asked of Dmico
Ryans about CJ. Before he got his point across of
I'm not answering any more questions on CJ. Stroud in
a question about did he have a procedure this offseason
was met with it an answer that did not acknowledge
a yes or no part of that question. He didn't
say he did, he didn't say he didn't, just that
I'm not saying anything more about CJ. Aaron Wilson, who

(01:14:06):
will join us at the top of the next hour.
As reported on this particular injury having it shoulder muscle tightness,
expected to be fully recovered by camp, could return to
full activities, maybe by next week's mini camp. I'm not
so sure, but I'm not reporting anything. I'm just saying

(01:14:26):
we'll just see what happens. They're taking extra precaution with
him up per the team. One of our favorite NFL
quarterbacks that's run into the broadcast world is Chris Simms.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
Chris Simms shares a microphone on a.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Daily basis with Pro Football Talks Mike Florio, so there's
always some good stuff from him. We're call what are
we maybe twenty five thirty forty five, sixty days away
from the always anticipated most ridiculous offseason list produced by
anybody associated with the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
Probably Chris Simms Top forty quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
I think we're forty days away from the biggest forty
jokes in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
It's so fun e to talk about because it's so ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
None so bad.

Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
Every once in a while I'll have to say, okay,
we'll play some sound from Chris Simms. He's played quarterback
at the college level, he's played quarterback at the NFL level,
and he spent time talking.

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
About quarterbacks as a broadcaster. He talks about Texan CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
Stroud right here, and he's got a theory on what's
going on.

Speaker 11 (01:15:29):
This has all the signs to me, Mike of ten
to nightis general soreness. This to me has all the
signs of I got back, we got back training, I
started throwing. Maybe I threw a little too much at first,
and now the inside of my elbow hurts right. How
golfers get it at times, right, Tennis players stuff like

(01:15:49):
that because of that hinging and all of this as
a thrower, and if you're not in shape for that
or don't approach it the right way, when you get
back into it after a long period of time, that's
when that can flare up. And this, to me has
all the signs of that type of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
So amateur doctor here overuse. Basically, that's where tendonitis comes from.

Speaker 3 (01:16:13):
You just overused it here.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
Whether it's the elbow that he suggests, which is unlikely,
it's more likely the shoulder, that's where it comes from.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
That's that's usually what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
Is there any additional concern or any change in your
thoughts about this coal regarding CJ Stroud? If he's right,
if this is tendonitis as in, well, what does that
truly mean for CJ's immediate future?

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
I mean I thought that this was a no story
the second that it came out. I still think I
SENDO story.

Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
Well, what I'm asking is, if this is correct, if
he has tendonitis in his shoulder, Let's say, what does
that do to your concern level? When you know your
quarterback in June as tendonitis, it goes.

Speaker 4 (01:16:54):
From one percent to three percent. There's not much to
go off of wax. I mean, like the tendonitis. I
see what Sims is saying. I can hear how despite
all of the malarkey the he spews out there, this
is actually a pretty good take. When you take some
time off, you aren't throwing consistently, you eventually start to
get back into emotion. Maybe you're throwing motion is a

(01:17:16):
little bit off, so it leads to more concerns. It
leads to a little bit more pressure. Like I can
understand what he's saying when it comes to that, but
it's the off season, it's June. I'm not concerned about
really anything that's going on with the Texans right now
because of we're looking for storylines to cover and that's
just been in the emphasis for a while. I mean,

(01:17:39):
I heard Jalen Peche yesterday say, which was, in my opinion,
the best quote of the day. Somebody asked about the
offensive line, how does the offensive line look so far
in practice? How does the offensive line look underneath Cole
Popovich Guys, I'm not really gonna comment on that because
of they don't have pads on. I don't really know
how to give you a direct answer when they can't
be putting hands on us. So let's talk about that

(01:18:01):
when you know the time is right.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
It's the same thing with C. J. Stroud.

Speaker 4 (01:18:05):
My concern level is going to go up in terms
of this will be something that he will deal with
every ota from here on out. But it's nothing to
go ahead and feel like the sky is falling. Who's
moving up in the A in the AFC South rankings?
Which team is going to be able to catapult Houston
because of c J.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
Stroud is not practicing in May?

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
Yeah, it's more about when you, you know what, what's
your concern about a quarterback who goes through this And
it'd probably be only slightly different if they just finished
up starting the season two and zero. You've gotten out
of Monday night football and you c J Stroud and
Wednesday's practice Thursdays maybe because they played Monday and he's

(01:18:48):
not throwing and it's determined that well, he's got ten
to nights or the timing of it here seems like
something that should not be of any concern. You handle
it properly, You do the necessary work on the shoulder,
and I just mean from a performance staff perspective, and
you move on about your day and you're perfectly capable
of making seventy five throws at training camp practice number

(01:19:11):
one and one hundred and five throws at training camp
practice number two, and then the team gets a day
off and then you move along, and you move along.

Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
I said something earlier today.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
I'm curious if you agree or disagree with whatever it
is that his problem is whether Sims is right or wrong,
whether there was a procedure or not, and reportedly there
was not. Whatever takes place when they get to training camp,
do you anticipate c. J. Stroud being in any way limited?

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
No, I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:19:40):
I think that they're going to rest him up all
the way through the end of mandatory meaning camp next week,
and he will be maybe not at one hundred percent capacity,
but he will be taking one hundred percent of reps.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
One hundred percent of the normal QB one reps.

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
Yeah, I one thousand percent believe he will take one
hundred and if it's one day off, I still think
that counts as one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
It's a day off. It's not missing multiple days.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
Quarterbacks in their early twenties don't get a lot of
veteran days off, starter or otherwise. So we'll obviously be
able to see exactly what's going on with him. And
again that's late July, early August. We're in early June today.
My concern level remains exactly the same. Aaron Wilson's been
all over this and his reports of it being a
minor shoulder injury, well, Aeron Wilson joins us.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
Next the A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two
lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your team is.

Speaker 8 (01:20:41):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
The other half hour of the eighteen than a half
hour of the Astros on Deck Show, and then it's
Astros Baseball coming your way against the Pittsburgh Pirates right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety last segment wrapped up
with a little bit of a conversation about CJ. Stroud
and his not throwing at Texans practice voluntary to practice

(01:21:08):
OTAs this week and last, next week, mandatory mini camp,
and then many weeks away from on field activities of
any kind until they get to training camp. And to
that end with a couple of different other storylines to discuss.
Aaron Wilson contributor here and of course you catch all
of his work right there at KPRC Channel two. Sports
Aeron Wilson joins us here on the A Team. I

(01:21:30):
always appreciate the conversation and the time from you, Aaron,
and certainly have to start there with the CJ. Stroud
situation as it stands. Here something you wrote in your
latest article was could be cleared as early as next week.
What are you saying about what the injury specifically is
and about the timeline of concern level and getting back

(01:21:52):
on the field.

Speaker 9 (01:21:53):
Yes, thanks Adam. So the injury is it's say it's
shoulder muscle tightness, so it's connective tissues within the shoulder.
It's not a structural injury, so muscles, you know, like
with anything, they heal if you give them rest and rehab,
and he's able to do a lot of things. He's

(01:22:14):
very close. Whether they make the decision to have him
do the practice and do more of the activity and
actually throw the football, that's a judgment call they're going
to make as they head into the mini camps, so
they're still deciding. At one point he was very close
to even doing it this week. No setbacks. And this
is not and theres a lot of people speculated because

(01:22:35):
they're sort of doing to connect the dots thing, And
I understand that this is not an injury from the season.
This is from exercise. So this is not like a oh,
he's got this bad shoulder. And people that are trying
to pinpoint what about this hit that hit, they're overthinking
it and I understand why they are because it's the quarterback.
It's the top spot, and that's why there's so much attention.

(01:22:56):
And obviously, yes, if Dimiko Ryans had just addressed it
from the jump when they had the first organized team activity,
this wouldn't have been a situation. But a lot of
people don't understand. They get very frustrated. Why is there
no update? There is no requirement of an injury report,
so no one has to do an injury report at

(01:23:16):
this point. The first injury report technically is to be
filed Wednesday of the first game of the regular season
against the Los Angeles Rams. Will there be the injury
updates between now and then?

Speaker 10 (01:23:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:23:26):
Probably, And then they say, what about Christian Harris? Why
does he called day to day? As far as what
will happen next with him, It'll just be that the
shoulder will loosen up, and if he doesn't, you know,
have any you know, coming back too soon from it,
it'll he'll find and my understandings, he'll be absolutely healed
well in advanced of training camp. And I haven't had

(01:23:49):
one person tell me that this was a big deal,
But I understand that everyone there's lots of conspiracy there.
This is just not one of those ones because there's
no might di diligence on it that I'm concerned about.
And like you saw it. I mean, you watch him
shoot the basketball in those videos, but even when he
was holding the football up, if you have a major
structural problem, when you're shoulder or something serious, you're not

(01:24:11):
even doing that when you're having the bands attached to
the legs and he's holding up the ball and he
even did a little bit of soft toss from a
short distance. But I think he's gonna be fine. But
I understand that your occupation because it's the star quarterback,
it's why can't he do it? This isn't that tough
of workout. All those questions, they're legitimate, but it doesn't

(01:24:32):
necessarily anywhere there's smoke their spy or this case, it's
just I didn't you know, a mild bank. It's not
a big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
And again something that once it's healed and taken care of,
you go play your season and you're fine. It shouldn't
be any issue from that standpoint, not saying that some
other injury could come about, or a hit related injury.
But I think that's why most people myself, yourself are
treating it as such. You did write something about and
you just mentioned Christian Harris, very very different situ because

(01:25:01):
most of what was taking place with Christian Harris began
at training camp last year, really in the off season.
Then he came back during training camp, then he left again,
and then it's during the season where injury reports obviously
are a part of the everyday thing. But with him
not ever coming back onto the field and not reaching,
you know, getting you know, he played three games last
year and here we are the following year. He has

(01:25:21):
been in attendance, he's at the facility, but he's not
participated in the voluntary OTAs. Thus far, where do things
stand with him and health? Demico Ryans yesterday said he
expects him to be ready for camp.

Speaker 9 (01:25:36):
Right, that's the good news. And I did some checking
around and that is fact what he's expected to do.
That he's on track for the camp. But the reason
he can't practice is for the same reason he couldn't
practice last year or playing the games, and that was
the calf. This has not been the major setback that
he had during training camp and he came back too

(01:25:57):
soon and injured. It began This is more of a
minor setback with the calf, but it is sidelining him curently,
so there's the same issue. It's just not as serious
as what happened last fall, so could be worse, but
it's still not good. Obviously, he is a very lean,
vascular athlete, and it makes him prone to soft tissue

(01:26:20):
injuries and it's very hard because there's metabolism to game weight.
So if you've been around Christian, this guy is as
fast and then as the defensive backs, but muscular. He's
like two hundred and thirty pounds. He's built like a rock,
and he's got flexibility. He's of explosive athletes. He ran
a four four four at one point, but he's almost
like two lean. It's just who he is. That's his body.

(01:26:42):
So he's always been a guy that can get dinged,
that can have calf injuries, hamstright injuries, and he stretches
and stretches and does all this stuff. But that's who
he is. So it's unfortunate he can't practice right now,
and ideally he would stake his claim and be the
guy because that's the track he was on. I mean,

(01:27:03):
he is the Derrick Henry Guy. He could stop Derek.
He hit him in the backs of a bunch of times.
In that Titans game. He had the interceptions to the Browns,
he scored a touchdown. He could be this dynamic linebacker
for them. But the hope is that when he gets
to camp he's fine and then he can stay out
there and compete for the job. It's not easy. He's

(01:27:24):
got to hear in Totoe. He's got e J speed
and can be with But yeah, Adam, it's a situation
of it's the same injury, but just not as bad
as it was last season.

Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
Pardon me, Aaron, if I ask you a question about
football here and not an injury question. The offensive line, Yeah,
the offensive line alignment that we've seen over the course
of the multiple practices suggests there there's clearly a pecking
order at four spots where it appears Tomlinson, Andrews, Howard

(01:27:57):
and Fisher certainly are a very much the leaders at
their respective spots, from left guard all the way to
right tackle. The other spot, the left tackle spot, some
number one reps been given to Cam Robinson, and it
appears to be alternating with rookie Ariante Ersery Ersery is

(01:28:17):
also getting work with the second and third team at
right tackle. But would you anticipate when they get to
training camp that there's a legitimate competition for the starting
left tackle spot between the veteran Robinson and the rookie Ursery.

Speaker 9 (01:28:33):
Yes, And I would even extend that competition because is
you try to get the best five, you may have
to make a judgment call that Ersery just does. Left
tackle look more stable with Robinson with all the experience
and dozens and dozens of starts he has, all the
years he has in the game and knowing everything about
the pass rushers, and you know, just a very solid player,

(01:28:56):
not a Pro Bowl tackle, but someone that you can
put out there and and he more than holds his own.
So if he's the best left tackle, is Erstery the
best right tackle? And we saw Blake Fisher struggles, We've
been watching him have problems a lot of people do
with Will Anderson Jr. In these practices. Well, Will is
a great player, but there are guys like him on

(01:29:17):
the other teams. So I'm kind of thinking that at
some point Erstery just emergence is one of the best five,
and that could be right tackle too. But I just
don't see a lot of scenarios where Cam, you know,
at fourteen a half million is all of a sudden
sitting on the bench and you're just like having him
sit there in some sort of insurance policy. I would

(01:29:38):
say Fisher hasn't done enough to establish himself, especially as
the playoff game, which was troubling the way he played
against the Chiefs. He has made some improvements. He looks
better physically, but I'm just not convinced that we should
pencil a minute as the right tackle just yet.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
And looking at the center position with Jake Andrews being
an off season acquisition, missed a ton of time do
the knee injury he suffered last year with the page
it did not allow him to play. I mean, did
they just basically go out there and claim a player
who's going to be their starting center.

Speaker 9 (01:30:07):
Very well could be because of his size, strength, which
is better than Patterson. Patterson's strengths are communication and technique
and his relationship he has with d J. Stroud, and
he's just great at making the line calls and he
stabilized the position. They haven't forgotten that. But Andrew's fourth
round pick a little more of a pedigree, and very importantly,

(01:30:30):
Cole Popovich was his position coach at Troy University before
he was doing a Patriot. Didn't coach him with the
Patriots by then, you know, he's already working for the Texans,
but someone that he knows so well, and very interesting
to see these connections, and you know, for Andrews to
be here that is not by accident. That is certainly

(01:30:50):
a player hand picked and coveted by Popovich. And this
reunites them from the college days. And you know it's
not just because they're you know, relationship, it's also that
if you just look at Andrews and his body, he
a little bit bigger guy to hold the point, and
sometimes Patterson was getting pushed backwards last year. A very tall,

(01:31:12):
angular kind of lineman not quite three hundred pounds, gives
you everything he has really like Patterson and see Patterson
being a part of the team. But right now Andrews
has the leg up on the competition.

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
Was there any that you have ever heard about on
draft day from Cole Popovich, who had just left Troy
to come to Houston. This is year one with the
team for him. Was there any word for him saying
to those that make the ultimate decision on draft day
that maybe they should be looking at offensive lineman Jake
Andrews out of Troy.

Speaker 9 (01:31:45):
I would think he did put in a good word.
It just didn't happen. They didn't get it done. But
you know that is probably something that happened. I don't
know that for an absolute fact, but I would imagine, yeah,
he recommended them. I know he recommended him this time around.
I've heard that.

Speaker 2 (01:31:59):
Yeah, they did take two offensive linemen in that draft.
That's the draft that produced you Scruggs and Jarrett Patterson.
Curious Also one other thing before we let you go
on the wide receiver position.

Speaker 3 (01:32:10):
You I've kind of talked about this group in tiers.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
You have Nico Collins and Christian Kirk or clearly your
number ones, as in they're going to be in the
starting group no matter what configuration you really are using
your next tier the two rookies with Noel and Higgins,
and then the next tier and I'm not really ordering them,
but they're in a separate group. Are your veteran returnees
in Mechi and Xavier Hutchinson. Then the other group is

(01:32:35):
everybody else, whether it's a veteran like Watson, or if
healthy and part of the receiver group, Raxton Barrios and
on down the list. Where do you think things start
in camp for kind of the pecking order of who's there.
This team, if I'm not mistaken, had seven receivers on
the roster when they opened up their season last year.
Not all of them turned out to be active for

(01:32:57):
the opening game, but did carry seven when you come
wide outs and those that could also return kicks like
science did last year.

Speaker 9 (01:33:05):
Yep, when you had Stephen Simms, you were carrying an
extra player. In this case, you have Braxton Barrios, who
is expected to be ready for camp. He's you know,
working on the side right now after turning the ACL
last October for the Miami Dolphins. What I anticipate is
Barios needed to earn his keep as a reserve receiver
and the race for spots it's between the John Metchie

(01:33:27):
the third, Xavier Hudginson's than Justin Watson. Remember, Watson's had
a two year contract and it's a decent deal, and
it could get crowded for at least one of the returners.
Metchi has already had some drops in these practices. I
tried to overreact to that, but he tends to be
more of a gamer. But yeah, he's had some inconsistency
with his hands and little things like that can make

(01:33:50):
the difference between him making the squad and not making
it this year. I even think that there can be
some trade possibilities that he could get some calls about
the depth they have receiver. I know that they'd love
to have Hudginson as a mentor these two Iowa State cyclones.
That could work out that way. There could be three
Iowa State guys make the fifty three man roster. Of

(01:34:12):
course the first two will, but you know, Hudginson has
to earn the spot all over again, and I could
see it happening. You know, he made a big play
in the Chargers game. It's gonna be very interesting to
see how they orchestrate this and help will probably be
one of the biggest determinive factors because you always have
at least one guy that has an injury, So it'll
be very interesting to see how the depth works out.

(01:34:34):
But you know, we're talking about guys ultimately, and I
know we track it all because we're watching everything. You
might be talking about a guy that's gonna catch like
under fifteen passes when we're talking about the final spots,
but I could see them keeping seven. I think it
makes sense again because Barrows is a former All Pro
returner and you want that on the special teams. For

(01:34:56):
Frank Ross, I think he makes it. And you know
it's not because of the contract, it's just because of
the skill set that he has. It's tough. It's tough
for these other guys. And if you're a Jared Wayne
who's had a good OTAs and actually you know, cought
some touchdowns, or you're an Xavier Johnson or Johnny Johnson,
it's tough. I mean, this practice squad will be competitive.

Speaker 2 (01:35:19):
Undoubtedly a couple of those guys were there last year
have gotten some bit spots with the Texans, both Wayne
and Johnny Johnson the third. Wayne had a great play
this past ota, a deep ball cut down the right
side of the field, put a move on the rookie
red and took it the rest of the way into
the end zone. These are some of the things we'll
be watching next week at Mandatory Mini camp on the

(01:35:39):
tenth and the eleventh. Aaron always appreciate the time here
with us. I love your coverage there over on Channel
two and obviously on all your social accounts at Aaron
Wilson Underscore NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:35:50):
Aaron appreciate the time as always.

Speaker 9 (01:35:53):
Thanks Adam, great talking to you as always.

Speaker 2 (01:35:54):
Appreciate you bet see out at the facility very very soon.
Another segment before we Astros on Deck a kind of
a makeup version on a shortened show edition of In
case you missed it?

Speaker 3 (01:36:07):
Coming all right?

Speaker 2 (01:36:11):
Cool once full segments go here before we get to
Astros on Deck, I'll have that for you coming up
in about ten minutes. Wex and Cole here with you
for this final segment before we jump into that in
an early start time for Astros Baseball five to forty.
First pitch, I've got a question for you and you'll
be guessing the answer, and I'm gonna try to make
it easy, and I still don't think you're gonna get it.

(01:36:31):
Right through one hundred and thirty six college football head
coaches ranked one through one hundred.

Speaker 3 (01:36:40):
And thirty six. Oh this is great.

Speaker 2 (01:36:42):
I'm going to ask you to give me the top five.
I'm affording you only one incorrect answer, and I'm telling
you who six through ten is okay? Now again This
is not who you think heading into this upcoming season
the top coaches in college football are, but rather a

(01:37:03):
list of a totally normal, reasonable, fairly reputable sports entity
out there. They ranked their one through one, thirty six,
six through ten. Your guy is six, Klein de boor
ridiculous that he's sixth, but nonetheless or too low, way
too high. Dan Lanning is seven, James Franklin is eight,

(01:37:28):
very red faced Brian Kelly is nine, and Ole Miss's
own Lane Kiffen is ten. Before you engage on who
the top five coaches in America are, I'm gonna ask
you one other question.

Speaker 3 (01:37:43):
Jordan Hudson's boyfriend is ranked.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
Where Ah crap, Because here's the problem. If it's just college,
you should be in the thirties. But if it's not
just college, it's this is college football ranking list. It's
only college. There's no other coaches here. It's a college
football head coach ranking. But the problem is that, like
we overrated Dion before he ever coached a game of Colorado.

Speaker 2 (01:38:05):
I'll put him at like seventeen. You'll put him at
like seventeen. Now, will you like acknowledge that you haven't
seen the list?

Speaker 4 (01:38:13):
I will like acknowledge that I know this is not
CBS Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:38:16):
So number seventeen is Kurt Signetti. Okay, number nineteen is
Kirk Farrence. Bill Belichick is number eighteen. That's an excellent guest.

Speaker 3 (01:38:25):
Wow. Wow, Honestly, I'm actually proud of myself.

Speaker 2 (01:38:28):
All Right, So, who are the top five coaches in
the country heading into the twenty twenty five college football
season according to this reputable sports entity.

Speaker 3 (01:38:36):
Okay, so number one is probably Kirby Smart. Number one
is Kirby Smart.

Speaker 4 (01:38:39):
Number two is probably ooh, Okay, Number two is probably
Ryan Day.

Speaker 3 (01:38:43):
That is also correct.

Speaker 4 (01:38:44):
Okay, number three, and I think that they're going to
go based off a national championships.

Speaker 3 (01:38:49):
Number three would be Dabo Sweeny.

Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
Again, to reiterate from five seconds ago, you have not
seen the list where I've not seen this list. That
is also correct. Okay, Smart, as one day is two,
day is three. This is where it gets challenged. You
got two correct guesses left, and I'm affording you one
incorrect guests.

Speaker 4 (01:39:07):
Marcus Freeman's gonna be on this list. I don't know
he's four or five, but he's one of the He's
one of the five. Mm hmm Okay, Okay, he's number four. Okay,
so he is number four? Okay, so the Boor was six,
Sark's got to be five. Right, So you definitely saw
the list?

Speaker 3 (01:39:23):
I swear, I have no idea? So who wrote it?
You can just tell everybody you saw it and who
wrote it and all that. I mean, maybe you wrote it.
For all I know? Is this CBS? No it's not.
I have no idea. So you wrote it? Did I?
So I'm using your material?

Speaker 7 (01:39:35):
Here?

Speaker 3 (01:39:35):
Are you? Is this actually my list?

Speaker 2 (01:39:38):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:39:38):
It's not?

Speaker 4 (01:39:38):
Okay because okay, because no, that'd be wrong because if
I have dabbo at five and I've I have I've
dabboed five and I have Sark at three, So no,
it wouldn't be So is what people are expecting from Clemson?
How he jumped back up here?

Speaker 2 (01:39:52):
Because we just spent the last two years saying, man,
I don't know, this guy doesn't get it, he doesn't
get the nil They're they're not going to be back
on topic in yeah, I know kid club. Nick's great
and all I know everyone's trying to tell us he's
the best quarterback in college football. And he might be,
But how does he jump back up to number three?
Is it because the expectation is the final four is

(01:40:13):
going to include Clemson this year.

Speaker 3 (01:40:15):
I don't know if able to include Clemson. Here's what
I'll say.

Speaker 4 (01:40:18):
The thing that I can appreciate about Dabo is nobody
asked him to change his philosophies or his identities. They
just said start start picking up some pieces, like hey,
when you go maybe the Starbucks change order every once
in a while.

Speaker 3 (01:40:30):
Just just just do that.

Speaker 4 (01:40:31):
Like hire from with outside the actual program. Maybe go
bring in a transfer portal player or two. Maybe go
back to giving a little bit more in NIL funds.

Speaker 3 (01:40:42):
And what has he done in the last few years.

Speaker 4 (01:40:44):
His offense coordinator came in from TCU after winning the
Burrows Or Award. His defense coordinator was just at Penn State.
He brought in three transfers this offseason, something that Clemson's
never done, including a really good defensive lineman. They've started
paying a little bit more to detain players. They've started
to give a little bit more money towards the actual

(01:41:04):
NIL process when it comes to recruiting, and their number
one in returning production in college football.

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
This year.

Speaker 4 (01:41:11):
They have an incredible wide receiver corps with the Antonio Williams,
Bryant westco and TJ.

Speaker 1 (01:41:16):
Moore.

Speaker 3 (01:41:17):
So back to the days of Williams and HOPKINSS and.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
It literally feels like that we're back to Sammy Watkins
DeAndre Hopkins. And then you throw in like a Martavis
Bryant like we're nearing the Deshaun Watson pre Houston Texans era.

Speaker 3 (01:41:30):
That's how well it is. All Right, let me ask
you this.

Speaker 2 (01:41:32):
Give me a coach who's probably very, very overrated on
this list. I'll tell you where he sits, and do
the opposite, a very underrated coach and where they sit
on this list. Underrated Chris climb I think he's the
most underrated coach in America. Well, I think they recognize
that he comes in at number twenty Kansas State's head
coach and has obviously done really, really good things at

(01:41:53):
Kansas State to name you pretty much will hear with
every major college opening this coming year, just like we
have the last couple of years. All Right, the other
end of the spectrum, I'll leave.

Speaker 3 (01:42:03):
Lincoln Riley alone. Go ahead and give me Matt Rule.

Speaker 2 (01:42:06):
Well, Lincoln Riley's definitely overrated, and that he comes in
at number twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:42:10):
Of course he does. Matt Rule.

Speaker 2 (01:42:12):
I kind of feel like he's properly rated these days, isn't.

Speaker 4 (01:42:15):
He Okay, here's my thing, because if we keep going
based off of what he did at Baylor and what
he did at Temple year one, establage of culture. Year two,
build a foundation with the roster. Year three, win the
dang title or at least compete for the title. And
Nebraska's not gonna do that this year. But yet all
the content creators in the world of college football, because
I'm one of them, is funneling in on It's the

(01:42:38):
rule effect.

Speaker 3 (01:42:38):
It's the rule effect.

Speaker 4 (01:42:40):
It's like, it's Lincoln, you haven't been relevant since the
nineties when Tom Osborne was there. Like, let's pump the
brakes a little bit on if he's gonna be that
guy's and then I'll say, yeah, he's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:42:50):
Comes in at thirty six, and I'll leave everybody with
the thoughts from the top forty on up. Couple of
things that stand out. Rule comes in at thirty six,
three spots better than Dion Sanders, four spots better than
Shane Beemer, and just outside the top twenty five three

(01:43:10):
straight mics at twenty six twenty seven and twenty eight.

Speaker 4 (01:43:13):
Let me if I can guess them. Mike Gundy, he's
twenty seven. Okay, hold up, Mike Gundy.

Speaker 3 (01:43:22):
Right up the road. Oh it is Mike Olco. Mike
Elko's twenty six. And then, uh, what conference is the
other one? In the Atlantic Coast Conference?

Speaker 2 (01:43:33):
Oh, won a lot of games one year and then
almost lost every game right after that.

Speaker 3 (01:43:39):
And Bill O'Brien comes in at thirty. She does what
list is?

Speaker 4 (01:43:43):
By the way, I'm genuinely at Sporting News. It is
Sporting News, so it's Bender's list. Okay, I have not
seen this one yet. I genuinely did not see this one.
I just thought it was a couple of interesting talkies
in there. The Willie. Where do you think Willy is?
And I will inform our listeners.

Speaker 3 (01:44:00):
I think he is thirty four? Really forty three?

Speaker 2 (01:44:05):
Fifty one, you're getting closer fifty eight he's fifty six.

Speaker 10 (01:44:09):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:44:09):
Well, I mean he's actually like I think, almost seventy.
But still we'll say that he's on the list. He's
right ahead of Rich Rodriguez.

Speaker 12 (01:44:16):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:44:17):
Well, there you have it.

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
Like I said, college football always fun to get into
a little bit. They will finish up workouts away from
the team. School will start, They'll be on campus. Arch
will have his Heisman Trophy winning campaign and then stay
in school.

Speaker 3 (01:44:33):
Like everybody keeps telling me, unbelievable, we do have astros
on deck. It comes your way

Speaker 1 (01:44:39):
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