Make or Break Homestand for Astros, NBA Playoffs/Lottery, CJ Stroud is How Young?

Monday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler previews a critical homestand for the Astros with the Mariners in town, weighs in on the NBA playoffs/Lottery, and makes a case for CJ Stroud having more time to grow than most people think.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Program, Wex and Josh here with you today. Ac a
little under the weather. Mother's Day took a lot out
of him. I'm sure that's the same for many of you.
We got lots to get to over the next four hours,
getting you ready for what I would call is a
rather important seven game homestand for your Houston Astro as
I imagine many people share that same view. And I
imagine a lot of those people are at dyke In

(00:22):
Park or shortly will be at dyke In Park in
uniform tonight, or in the suites or from their offices.
The Astros did not have a very good series over
the weekend in Cincinnati, despite winning ten to nothing in
the opener, had a hard time scoring the rest of
the weekend, scoring just one time on a Braden Shoemake homer,
and come back into a new week having gone one

(00:44):
and two against the Reds and one and two against
the Dodgers. The offense clearly had a nice outburst on Friday,
but for the most part has been very, very different
than the one that people keep pointing to when they
point to the season long nun numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
The season long numbers still look okay.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
The numbers that matter most, as in what does the
team actually look like on a daily basis over the
last couple of weeks, they don't look good at all.
And when you couple that with how they've pitched overall,
with obviously a nod to how they pitched over the weekend,
which was not all that bad. Clearly, winning a game
via shutout was fantastic with Mike Burrows on Friday night,

(01:23):
Spencer Arighedti obviously gave the team a chance to win.
Defense did not do their part, although Spencer took it
upon himself to say that's on me. And then yesterday
probably a bit too long with their opener, and I
got thoughts on that, and then they also, well, they
didn't score, so obviously aren't winning any Major League Baseball

(01:43):
games without scoring. It's never happened before and it's not
gonna start happening now. So the Astros head into seven
games at dyk In Park starting tonight, four straight with
the Mariners. The Mariners can clinch the season series against
the Astro this week here at dyke In Park. They
already lead it four games to zip after being a

(02:05):
part of the Astros opening ten game road trip of
the season, which went disastrously. Astros left dyke In Park
as a five and two team with a five game
winning streak, and then they won once in ten games
nunts in Seattle, one of two of the teams on
that road trip to sweep them Colorado and Seattle. So
with just thirteen games in a season series, you get

(02:29):
to seven wins, you win the season series. Not that
it looks like it's gonna matter a whole lot. I
don't know if the Mariners will get it together at
some point. They come in at three games under five hundred,
not fading fast by any means. In the American League story,
which we've impossible to ignore what's going on in the
American League, And I would hope front offices are excited

(02:52):
that they could put a ridiculously poor to average team
in the playoffs this year. That's exciting. You never know
what might have happened in the postseason. You never know
what the health of your team is. You might be
a little bit stronger later in the year than you
were at the beginning of the year, which is probably
not a great baseball team. That'd be great, but you
can't let that fool you into thinking you actually have

(03:12):
a great baseball team, that you actually are doing it
right and we've got great things ahead of us. The
Astros certainly can't think that sitting at sixteen and twenty five.
I don't know what the rest of the American League
actually currently thinks really outside of Tampa and New York.
Those two teams are Tampa thirteen and the Yankees eleven

(03:33):
games over five hundred. And then you go to the A's.
The A's are the third best team in the American League.
They've won two more times than they've lost. Totally wide open.
Someone's gonna put a run together, or some ones will
put a run together, whether it's just getting it together
or getting a couple of players arms whatever back. Could
I convince you, could I interest you in buying stock

(03:56):
and that somebody, some team, being the Astros, they should
getting players back at some point. While they did send
Bennett Sussa back to the injured list over the weekend,
probably we'll see Jeremy Pagna in uniform this week for
one of their minor league teams. Expectation is he will
be on a rehab assignment and hopefully will not take

(04:16):
very long for them to watch his recovery. Time after
playing in games and make sure that everything is in line.
I think they're still, unfortunately, as much as it stings,
doing the right thing. I don't think they're trying to
rush him specifically back, as his position once again is
open because of the Carlos Korea situation. Really no reason
to do that. One has nothing to do with the other.

(04:37):
I know it seems like it in some of the
other games that we watch in the other leagues, guys
come back all the time early, and you know, it's
just not like that when you have one hundred and
twenty one games remaining and you've already put this particular player,
Jeremy Payna, on the injured list twice for two different
injuries and we're only forty one games into the season.

(04:59):
Get you update on the rest of the crew that's
on the Astros current injured list and where things stand.
But again, at sixteen and twenty five, they share the
worst record in the division, which is also the worst
record in the American League, and it also has them
three and a half games out of the wildcard final spot.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Nobody in the American League is more than three and
a half games out of the final wild card spot, because,
as I pointed out, there aren't any teams having great seasons.
Outside of the two that I just mentioned, thirteen other
teams are not having great seasons. If you're the White
Sox in your nineteen and twenty one, you're ecstatic, you're competitive,
you're giving your fans something to believe in. Some of

(05:39):
your young players, and recent signings have worked out. Most
everybody else is pretty disappointed in how they've played. The
reigning American League champions are four games under. The Orioles
and Red Sox are in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
The Kansas City Royals have won seven of their last ten.
If they win seven of their next ten, they'll get

(05:59):
over five hundred. They're nineteen and twenty two. The Tigers,
who by jersey name and by roster probably have the
best starting rotation in the American League. But they're not
out there playing, they're not out there pitching. If they're
not hurt, they're suspended, and they're sitting at three games
under five hundred. And one of those other teams at
three games under is of course, the team in town

(06:20):
for the next four games, the Mariners.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
They've pitched well, they have not hit well.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
They probably haven't pitched quite as well as they thought
they might, and maybe they've hit a little.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Bit worse than they had hoped.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Cal Ralely right in the center of that will get
into some of what has hurt the Mariners offense Beyond
the obvious. You might not realize how much he personally
has hurt the offense. And all that being said, there's
one team in the division that's on the plus side
of run differential, and Seattle's it. There's one team in
the central on the right side of run differential, and

(06:51):
that's the Tigers, two of the teams I mentioned. So
we're one quarter of the way into the season and change,
and it's anybody's playoff berths. The Yankees and Rays are
an unbelievable position, and then every other team is in
reasonably good position if they want to make the postseason.
Clearly there should be more on their minds, because making

(07:14):
the postseason as a team that all these others have
played like really should show you what you don't have
going on for you. And after the Mariners visit the Astros,
they get a visit for the Texas Rangers. Rangers are
have a game this evening, a three game series before
they visit Houston with the Diamondbacks in Arlington, the Rangers,
like the Astros and Mariners, are also under five hundred. Obviously,

(07:37):
they're at nineteen and twenty one. They're all pitch, no hit,
and these are two teams you're clearly competing with. It
would be nice to get some wins against the teams
that you're facing in your division. If you're trying to
win the division, you want to get as many of
them out of the way as you can. I'm not
trying to sugarcoat anything. There's nothing faking you out, nothing

(07:59):
of facade. With what the Astros record is, they've played
to that record. There's nothing confusing about that at all.
Sixteen and twenty five is very indicative of how this
team has played baseball so far this season. They can't
afford to make mistakes. It's kind of the story of
the arraghetti game. They still refuse to throw strikes as

(08:20):
often as most major league pitchers should. Leading the league
in walks as a pitching staff is surefire away to
not have a successful season, and most of the arms
they've turned to, especially the ones that might not have
been expected to be a part of this Astros' twenty
twenty six pitching staff, Well, they just don't throw enough
strikes and they.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Make it very easy on the opposition.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Walking in runs has occurred in multiple games already this season,
and walks preceded those walking in run situations. One runner
reaches on his own and three others get a walk
and they score a run. Astros have done that on
more than one occasion this year. That's just part of
what we have today. Obviously, the NBA story from a
rocket standpoint, you got some news yesterday afternoon early if

(09:04):
you were paying attention, the announcement from the league coming
just a couple of days ago, we're gonna go ahead
and hold the draft lottery, and we're gonna do it
Sunday afternoon, and a few teams that are very interested
in it. We'll be wanting to see what happens. Obviously,
all of the teams that were tanking, and then a
few of the teams that owned other teams' lottery picks,
like the Thunder with the Clippers pick, like the Hawks

(09:28):
with the pick that they acquired from the Pelicans, Like
what's going on with the Clippers and the Indana Pacers.
Probably the biggest story from the lottery, if not the
biggest story being the worst team in the league, The
team that won the fewest games for the first time
since they reformatted the odds of the lottery actually won

(09:49):
the number one pick. Congrats to former Rocket John Wall,
the lucky charm for his Washington Wizards, sixteen years removed
from being the number one overall pick for the Whiz.
He sits on stage repping the Wizards and their number
combination was what popped out first in the drawing that
gets held before the envelopes are unveiled, and Washington earned

(10:13):
the number one pick. Should they keep it and take
probably aj debansa. Should they listen to offers, I'll take
the ladder and I'll tell you more about that as
we continue. And of course, the NFL can't go five
minutes without being in the news, and I love him
for it. They will release the entire schedule on Thursday.
Between now and Thursday, we'll have a couple of announcements

(10:35):
with primetime games, like the opener of the NFL season
on Sunday Night, which was announced earlier today. A couple
of the international games that have not already been announced
will be announced over the next couple of days, and
some primetime slots earned by the networks, like the games
to be played the final weekend of the season, two
on Saturday, and then the rest of this late including

(10:57):
a Sunday night football game, which they hope is just
like they've had the last couple of years, a game
to determine something of great significance in the postseason. Last
year's final Weekend featured the Ravens the final play as
it turned out, of John Harbaugh's Ravens coaching career when
they were playing the Steelers for a playoff burst, and

(11:18):
obviously the year before with how the Lions and Vikings
closed up their season. We'll find out on Thursday what
they are actually on that particular game. We won't know
that until the final few weeks of the season, when
they final week of the season they actually announce the
final week's schedule so they can set a game up
like that. But the primetime slots for the Texans they
will have several. They were a twelve game winning team

(11:40):
last year, they did win another game in the postseason.
They've gone three straight years finishing in the final four
of the AFC, and each year that's come with the
new look Texans, a competitive playoff bound outfit, they're featured
heavily in primetime.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
This year will be no different. Draft lottery, trade.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Talk, NFL schedule, thoughts on what lies ahead for CJ.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Stroud.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Best of Exit two thirty three point thirty. A revisit
of some of the things that Steve Sparks had to
say for his weekly visit earlier this morning signature segment
at four thirty. The good, the bad, the ugly. It's
Monday on the eight team by I said plenty of
things to get too. Obviously, the Astros front and center here,
as we'll get to Astros baseball in the next couple

(12:26):
of hours. They've got the Mariners in town for the
first of four games five through eight of their thirteen
game season series.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
George Kirby gets the ball for the Mariners.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
You ask me, that's the guy I think is the
best starter on the team, although I don't think there's
a lot of difference. I think Brian wu who goes tomorrow,
is awesome. I definitely think Luis Castillo is the worst,
and his numbers this year are atrocious. He's usually been
much better than this, but hopefully that will continue at
least one more start. They haven't named a starter for

(12:57):
the third game of this series, to be opposed by
Lance mccullor's junior, which is interesting news considering Lance mccullor's
junior pitched very poorly in the third inning of his
last start, the last of his two and two thirds
innings that he appeared in, and had an issue with
the nail on its finger on its pitching hand, a
right index finger, so pitched well enough with the control

(13:19):
of the baseball to However, his liking needed to be
over the weekend to suggest that he's going to go
ahead and make that start, and most likely they're going
to be opposed by Bryce. Bryce Miller is expected to
come off of their injured list for that game, but
until he does, they're not going to announce that. And
in between Lance mccullor's junior on Wednesday and Peter Lambert tonight,

(13:42):
tatsu Emi is set to make his next start with
the Houston Astros. Three starts to begin his major league
career his Astro's career. One of them was quite good
in West Sacramento, helping the Astros to their only win
on that ten game road trip. His other two starts
were terrible, and his two starts in the minor leagues

(14:03):
as a rehabbing pitcher with right arm fatigue were also
less than desirable, because in all four of those starts
I bring up, he doesn't throw enough strikes to allow
him to get out, pitch deep into games, or quite honestly,
give his team any chance of winning. He's one of
two pitchers the Astros will send against the Mariners who
carry an ERA of over seven into their start, mccullors

(14:23):
being the other. Mike Burrows will get the final start
of this four game series. And you have been able
to put a couple of new names on this list
that I've made up for this season, and I hope
to retire it soon, but there aren't enough starts that
are great for me to retire the list of the
best starts of the season for the Astros. When you're
bringing up the rear in pitching in so many categories,

(14:46):
most notably ERA and whip, the Astros are right there
at the bottom batting average against, etc. When you get
a great start, it's notable. And despite the fact that
this team went two and four last week, they got
two of the best starts of the season. Unsurprisingly, those
were the two games they won. You got shut out

(15:07):
baseball from both Peter Lambert a week ago Tuesday and
the opener against the Dodgers. Lambert goes Agains tonight after
five days of rest in between starts, and then obviously
the game on Friday night, you got seven innings of
shutout baseball from Mike Burrows. It led to a shutout
performance by the team. Lambert's game was a two to
one victory for the Astros. They didn't win any other

(15:28):
of their games. You don't have to get seven innings
to shut out baseball, as they started to win a game,
and you wouldn't think you did that for a team
who apparently is still a very good offensive team. But
I'll tell you why that's not necessarily the case. But
they just have to have more of them. And again,
the more they have, the quicker I can retire. This
was the latest great start, greatest start the Astros have
seen from a total dominance standpoint, I do think Mike

(15:52):
Burrow's performance was a little bit better than what Peter
Lambert did. Again, totally quibbling and nonsense conversation. I'll have
it anyway. You know, seven innings of shutout baseball against
the Dodgers and Shoheo Tana who was in the lineup,
and everything that went with it. It was pretty awesome
in a low scoring game also, which adds to the
adrenaline and intensity and focus on every single pitch. Astro's

(16:16):
got two solo homers while Peter Lambert was on the mound,
and that was all the run support that he had
throughout his start. It's very different for Mike Burrows. He
had some early runs and than a five to nothing
lead to work with, and was throwing the ball so well.
He was in total command. He was also also had
better command literally walking just the one batter, which is

(16:37):
great for anybody on this staff, but particularly great for Burrows,
who had let walks get the better of him early
this year. And this is guy who probably and I
hope this last start is that corner turn. He's gonna
throw a ton of strikes. He's usually very effective. He
did move his spot on the rubber. I'll leave that
technical part of what he changed in his arsenal to

(16:58):
Steve Sparks. He will get into that conversation at three
thirty of this afternoon from his conversation earlier this morning.
But it is a pretty simple formula and it hadn't
really changed in baseball over the years, even during the
years where the Astros couldn't score at all in the
eighties and they were still awesome because nobody could score
against them, and their postseason brief postseason series against the Dodgers,

(17:20):
and so many games where you know, we look back
now and when this version of the Astros has three
or four games where they give up one or no
runs in all of those games as the best the
Astros have gotten from their starters or from their pitching
staff at all. Since we just go back to those
Astros teams that were, you know, spinning one in zero
run games repeatedly over the course of an entire season,

(17:43):
over and over and over again. It's just not like
that anymore in baseball, and I do think we're seeing
it more of a league wide thing.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
I think for two reasons.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
The continued change in how the pitch clock is likely
impacting injuries, so the quality of arms teams are able
to put out there is going down. Because there's so
many really, really awesome pitchers on the sidelines right now.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
The Astros have tons of them. The Tigers have tons more.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
But the other thing that is a part of that
is the ABS being introduced this year. I think pretty
clearly walks have gone up, probably not to the extent
the Astros aren't showing you how much they've gone up.
They've had a staff year after year during this golden
age of Astros baseball that through strikes almost always near
the top of the league and strikeouts per nine inning,

(18:30):
and almost always near the top of the league. Correctly
in walks, as in not issuing them, well, they're the
worst in the league, in the majors this year in
issuing them.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Nobody's issued more.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
And it's just something that this Astro's pitching staff really
has never gone through during this winning time. They've just
been they've trusted their stuff, and I think that's probably
the number one reason. I'm not sure where ABS falls
in at number two or two A, but I don't
think enough of their pitchers trust their stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
So there's too much nibbling going on, and there's too much.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Inability to have a pitch you feel good about, or
maybe more than one pitch you feel good about. And
then the number of pitchers we're sitting out there that
otherwise wouldn't be out there at all, is obviously way
way too high. When you open the season with Hunter
Brown and Christian Javier and Tatsuya Emi all in the rotation,
and each of those three pitchers I mentioned are on
the injured list currently and in Hunter Brown and Javier's case,

(19:24):
extended periods of time, both of them since originally going
on the IL in early April, they've both been transferred
to the sixty day IL. But as I usually will
tell you, because it's usually the case, it's not an
indication of anything that's gone wrong from a setback standpoint,
it's just a procedural move because they weren't going to
pitch within that sixty day window to begin with. But

(19:47):
they don't put pitchers or players in general on the
sixty day IL unless they have to, because it takes
them off the forty man roster, and until they need
those roster spots, they usually don't just put them out there,
knowing that they will eventually have to bring them back on.
In the case of Josh Hater and Hunter Brown, and
hopefully not too long after that Christian Javier, each of
those players will have to get a roster spot, and

(20:09):
they will have to do something with the active roster
and then obviously the forty man roster because those three guys,
all of whom should pitch in the not too distant
future early June, I think is what we're looking at
with Hunter Brown, and let Dana give you something full
and that since he visited with the broadcast yesterday as
he always does on Sunday afternoon, but should be back again.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
We're already at May eleventh.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
We're looking at Hunter Brown maybe returning in three to
four weeks, sixteen to twenty twenty five days somewhere in
that neighborhood. Obviously, that could make a big difference if
he is who he has been, which is the ace
of the pitching staff that might give you Hunter Brown,
Peter Lambert, Spencer Araghatty, Mike Burrows, all of whom look
like they get it, and they're getting it regularly, and

(20:52):
if you all of a sudden start getting you know,
three to five instead of one or out of five,
but maybe three or four out of five days of
rotation where the bullpen doesn't have to come into the
game before the fifth inning is over or fourth inning
is over or third inning is over. And these constant
bullpen days, I'm trying to save an entire segment for
Ry rant on that.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
So we got plenty of them.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
You got plenty of them this afternoon, fourteen more of
them here this afternoon, but next halfway through our number one.
Each and every day here on the A Team, we
hit you with the Best of X. Those of you
streaming viewers probably caught wind of this last night. We'll
go with the sports angle of another legendary roast from last.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Evening on the Best of X. That's next here on
the Best of X.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
We almost always do it via the X platform, but
every platform is always open to us if you all
want to fire suggestion our way, especially when it comes
from over the weekend. Plenty of things we might not
have seen and you might have. You can always do
that at Adam j Wesxler always encourage you to be
a part of the show in a number of different ways,
and telling us what's up with the Best of X
is certainly one way you can do it. I was

(21:59):
aware that this was taking place last night, but I
felt like watching Victor Webbin Yama elbow somebody in the
face was more to my liking, so I was watching
NBA basketball, not watching Kevin Hart get roasted a Netflix special, Josh,
you watch the Kevin Hart Netflix roast last evening?

Speaker 2 (22:20):
I missed it.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
I was had Mother's Day obligations in the evening. That's nice.
You're a full day celebrator.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
What a guy. That's great.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
That's fantastic stuff. So your usual suspects were there. This
being the a team here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
there's definitely a sports angle pretty much roasts that we've
seen at least, if not already starting before Peyton Manning
or Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. They've been on quite
a few now. Tom Brady was there last evening. There
was another athlete there who both got to be roasted

(22:51):
by being there and do some roasting by stepping up
to the microphone. The other usual suspects of course, Jeff
Ross I think it's phenomenal. And watch any roast where
Shane Gillis is the roast host, and he was last
night Kevin Hart's bestest movie, Buddy the Rock.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
He showed up.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Apparently beef was squashed between Kevin Hart and Kat Williams.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
But all sorts of excellence.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
There a lot of comedians, a lot of musical artists,
a lot of people that think they're funny but aren't.
Tony Hitchcliffe was there and had a very long set.
But like I said, we're gonna focus on sports. And
number twenty three, who found out earlier in the weekend
his head coach isn't going anywhere. Draymond Green was there

(23:40):
last night. Steve Kerr has agreed to continue as the
leader of the Warriors. So a lot of things that
Draymond's been involved with playing basketball, yelling while playing basketball,
getting ejected while playing basketball, running his mouth when both
playing and not playing basketball, Steve Kerr, his head coach,
all of those things were touched the pawn by those

(24:01):
that were there last evening to help with the roast
of Kevin Hart. So I'll just run through all of
the Draymond Green related barbs. I think it's Shane Gillis
and Jeff Ross and Kevin Hart himself, and then the

(24:21):
NFL goat Tom Brady.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Now we're gonna talk about Draymond Green. Draymond Green is here. Yeah, welcome.
Draymond Green has four NBA championships the way Ringo Soar
has eleven.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Number one albums.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Draymond is the first player to make four All Star
teams for just setting picks.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Well, that will get more You guys, you don't know ball.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
Steph Cary couldn't make it tonight, but he did carry
Draymond Green all the way here.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Love you, buddy.

Speaker 5 (24:57):
I'm not gonna make fun of you because you're violent.
You've been ejected more times than a Kevin Hard DVD.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Hey Draymond, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:12):
Well, Draymond's only here because he's not in the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (25:14):
That's the only reason why he's here.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Hey, Draymond's here.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
For now.

Speaker 8 (25:24):
We'll probably get thrown out in the next ten minutes.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
You know we're not roasting Steve Kerr.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Right, Oh, Tom, you're so funny. He's got this roasting
thing down easy. He's an easy target again, when you're
out there. As much as Draymond is TV appearances past
week with the Inside the NBA crew, obviously his own podcast,
and if you know anything and pay attention to the
NBA at all, he again provides loads of fodder for

(25:50):
everybody and brings it upon himself. I'm wondering, even though
this is clearly not front page NBA debate material, well,
I wonder if people will actually think some of these
things that you heard there from the NBA side of
things when it gets to voting on the Hall of Fame.

(26:10):
I don't think they will, and I definitely don't think
they should. But I'm curious if those there will be
articles written. You know, you got so many people voting
on it, you know there will be some people that
say no. I mean, for all the reasons we just
heard during the roast, some of the reasons you will
hear from radio hosts to newspaper writers and columnists if
they think this. I don't know that they will or should,

(26:31):
But yeah, he's a coattail writer. When was he ever
one of the best players on his own team? I mean, yeah,
I guess they had three or four Hall of Famers
on it, and he was probably the third or fourth
best of the Hall of famers, if you believe that's
what he was. It's a little bit extreme to ignore,
to me, the obvious, especially when you watch NBA playoff
games on a regular basis, more so than the regular season.

(26:53):
There's two things to do each night, score and try
to prevent the other team from scoring. Not one of
those things, both of those things, and it matters if
you can stop the other team from scoring, and Draymond Green,
I don't really think there's anywhere around it. Despite his
antics and his constant nut shots and his constant gum flapping,

(27:15):
and his technical fouls and his flagrant fouls and his
non basketball plays that get him ejected and have him
accumulating flagrant foul points to get him ejected even more,
He's a.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Very good defender.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
He's probably he's definitely one of the five best defenders
of this era of basketball, and all the way through
the Golden State Championship run, he was a huge part
of why they were able to do what they did
defensively because they had weak links defensively on the court
thirty five forty forty five minutes a night that he
was helping to overcome by taking on all the different assignments.

(27:48):
You got a big, he can guard him. You got
a small, he can guard him. You got a wing,
he can guard him too, And it mattered. Now he
can't make a shot. He made his own quip about
not hitting threes at Chelsea Handler's expense last night. But
he's too good of a defender, and defense matters. I
don't really think there's any case to be made he's

(28:09):
not a Hall of Famer. But I'm curious if people
will just simply be blind to it, say, oh, he's
not a good dude. He's a bad offensive player, he's
a turnover machine.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
He ran players out of town.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
He's pretty much ripped everybody he's been around, maybe other
than Steph, including his head coach. So Hall of Fame
maybe is not for him. I think that would be
a little shortsighted. A player who will average for his
career just under nine points per game, just under six
boards or seven boards per game, and just under six
assists per game while shooting forty five percent from the floor.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yeah, that's a Hall of.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Fame career when you add four All Stars, four NBA
championships to all NBA appearances, a Defensive Player of the Year,
and nine possibly ten when this year's team gets announced
all defensive team nods for Draymond the Rock was also
there to make fun of his name, lazy as his
parents might have been, he said, just basically to add

(29:08):
a D to the super boring name of Raymond. I
hadn't heard that joke before, but probably once again either
that's best of X. Thanks Draymond, Jamal Green.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
The ad on Sports talks.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
In on the conversation or fire off some extremely warm
take that we could all take in, analyze and discuss.
Always welcome you in on the program and also via
social media at Adam, Jay Wexler or something there. I'll
always find and bring it to the table. Astros and
Mariners this evening. Peter Lambert going to make the start
for the Astros, brings a two forty two era and

(29:43):
of course comes off a very very strong outing against
the LA Dodgers. Also gets five days off in between
two starts. A couple of notes on the rehab front
for the Astros moving into the next couple of days.
Hunter Brown, as we were told, would have his first
bullpen over the weekend, which he did. Did that on

(30:04):
Friday in Houston, So more bullpens to come. No date
yet obviously for a rehab appearance, but that's likely what
comes after another couple of bullpens if they go as planned,
and then clearly the rehab appearances will be in an
effort to get him stretched out, ramped up because he
basically has to go through spring training again. In Josh

(30:24):
Hater's case. He's not going through spring training again. He's
going through spring training for the first time because he
did not go through spring training, came to the spring
training complex essentially already having been shut down, and now
is going through his spring training, and it's gone fairly well.
I think it's gone very well considering there haven't been
any setbacks. He's now made two rehab appearances in a

(30:46):
minor league uniform. Was working with the Space Cowboys Saturday,
another scoreless inning of work, and he's scheduled to pitch
tomorrow for the Hooks the Double A team Corpus Christy.
I won't be eligible to emerge from the injured list
their game on the twenty fourth, so another twelve days
minimum of rehab work for him. They won't work exclusively

(31:08):
off that date he becomes first available, but if he
happens to be ready to go at that date, then
you'll be I'm sure, made active and they'll be able
to reshape their rollpen a little bit if they have
their closer back and feel confident about the confident about
the way he's throwing. Almost got it up to ninety
seven during that outing over the weekend with Sugar Land.
You know, tatsu Emai is scheduled to return to the

(31:30):
rotation starting tomorrow. Surgery scheduled today for Carlos Korea season
ending left ankle tendon surgery, not the Achilles tendon, but
an ankle tend then nonetheless, which should have him sidelined,
he thought at the time he first spoke with the media,
and there hasn't been anyone to say otherwise. Six to
eight months of recovery time, which shouldn't put him in

(31:53):
jeopardy of next season really in any way. But after
they have the surgery, and probably in the very early
stages of rehab, they'll have a much better idea of that.
But that's probably a pretty good ballpark.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Figure.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Two other players who should be rehabbing this week. Jake
Myers off the oblique strain. He's scheduled to begin a
rehab assignment this week. I would imagine that is probably
a week's worth of it. The minor league schedule runs
Tuesday to Sunday. They're all off today. I would imagine
he is probably with wherever he is for each of

(32:24):
the next six days, getting up back to back in
there recovering after a part of a game. I'm sure
in one of those days, but it shouldn't take much
more long much longer than that. What he has to
figure out is can I swing full force and not
have much of an issue with it. The oblique strain
that sent him to the injury list is what he's
coming back from, but is scheduled to be on a
rehab assignment this week, and Jeremy Panna probably goes on

(32:47):
his rehab assignment this week. It may just be later
in the week before he starts that runs again today,
as he did over the weekend without issue following his
hamstring strain. And yes, obviously the sooner the better he returns,
the Astros should be better off. I'm shocked at the
production they've gotten from Braden shoemake three homers and seventeen

(33:10):
at bats for the Astros so far. We'll see if
he is in the lineup today. I would suspect he
will be against the right handed pitching George Kirby was
not yesterday with the left handed pitching Andrew Abbott. But
he's given him a lot more than I would have expected.
And while he hasn't made every play defensively, he's met
a lot more plays look easy and spectacularly than I

(33:32):
ever would have thought. But the team is obviously better
if Jeremy Pana of twenty twenty five is in the
lineup on an everyday basis. To that end, the Astros offense,
it's okay to say they've been good this year.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
That's fair.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
They've played forty one games. What do they look like
after forty one games in terms of American League competition?
They're basically first or second across the board, run scored,
Homer's batting average, on base slugging ops, no question. Over
the course of the year, well, those first seven games
had a lot to do with it and their record.

(34:06):
After the first seven games they went five and two,
they were on a five game winning streak, and they
immediately followed that with the eight game losing streak, the
one for nine on the road or one for ten,
one and nine on the road trip to open up
their first road trip of the season. Everything went south
and the numbers that they've produced since starting the year
five and two are reflective of that. Offensively, offensively, during

(34:30):
the thirty four games they've played since then, they're not
one of the best offenses in the American League. They're
not one of the best offenses in baseball. They're not
really even close. Well, they've hit a bunch of homers
during that eleven and twenty three stretch, which by the way,
is the worst record in baseball. They're sixth in homers,
tied for second among American League teams.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
That's nice.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
They're batting average again, it's fallen, but not too unbelievable.
Depths hitting two fifty six, which also is the second
best to figure in the American League and so fourth
overall other OPS even stands in reasonable relation to where
they were overall for the season. But what has changed dramatically.
You can look at all the numbers you want, and

(35:13):
I point them out all the time because I'm a
huge fan of what they tell you. Certainly in the
big picture more often than not, the advanced numbers OPS
OPS plus and woe, but all sorts of things like that.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
But they don't score runs.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
All those top six in Major League Baseball, first or
second in the American League. Well, during the same stretch
of time where they've gone eleven and twenty three, they're
tied for eleventh with five teams with one hundred and
fifty one runs scored. So Basically, they're barely in the
top half of the major leagues in run scoring. That's

(35:49):
not top five, that's not top two, that's not top ten.
That's very average. And guess what happens when your unbelievable
offense becomes very average if your equally bad pitching staff.
No matter how to separate the season, the five and
two start, the overall numbers, they're all bad. The Astros
have the worst pitching staff in baseball. And you can

(36:10):
pick out any numbers you want to show it, they
still are are more than three quarters of a run
worse than anybody else in baseball in terms of er
and you can't win like that.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
It is a pretty simple formula to lose.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
I'm sure they know it, and I'm sure they want
to fix it, and I'm sure they want Cody Bolton
to not walk batter after batter after batter, after he's
watched Brian Obray walk batter after batter after batter. It's
happened with way too many of their pitchers this year,
and it's why they lead the majors in walks issued
even during this stretch, one hundred and seventy four walks
from the Astros pitching staff in their last thirty four games.

(36:47):
That's eleven more than anybody else. That's twenty more than
any other American League team. It's awful, it's not even close.
That's what's really setting this team apart from well they
started twelve and twenty four a couple of years, well
remember the fifteen and thirty and the tombstone. You gotta
show me why that stuff matters. And the only thing

(37:07):
I think you can hope for is a return of
all these arms. And they pitch extremely well, So instead
of having your fifteenth and sixteenth and seventeenth best arms,
maybe you're getting your second and third and fifth best
out there.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Tatsu Emi is a huge, huge part of that.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Because they can't win games if they don't have somebody
else in their starting rotation. They can get guys out.
Lance Pick Coulors currently can't do it. He's got a
very bad season going on right now, and tatsu Emi
has missed half of the season. But the season that
he was out there for was terrible. These are guys
that were in the starting rotation and honestly deservedly so
to start the year. Not that Emi had earned it,

(37:47):
but he earned it by getting paid. He earned it
by being one of the sixth highest paid free agents
in among major league starting pitchers this offseason. He wasn't
signed to be okay, he wasn't signed to maybe catch
a few starts this year, assigned to be a front
end of the rotation pitcher, and his overseas career suggested
that that wasn't an outrageous thing to think. Looking at him,

(38:09):
it's appeared to be an outrageous thing to think. We'll
get into the NFL schedule, We'll tell you about how
important I think tonight and tomorrow are and the honest
Anatakoumpo trade chatter. They're open for business, all right, seeing
his believing that's all Next the Monday, I hope everybody

(38:30):
enjoyed their weekend, specifically, Happy Mother's Day, and everybody out there,
including those in my family, got to see a couple
of them yesterday, enjoyed a little meal, and hopefully everybody
else also enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Mother's Day.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
I'm on board with saying it should be celebrated every
day of the year, every year, no question about that.
We are into a very important homestand for your Houston Astros,
four games against the Mariners start tonight. Three games with
the Rangers begin after that. The Astros lineup, as I
suggested it likely would, does include Braden Shoemake.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
He is in the lineup tonight.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Just recently posted Altuve Alvarez Pertis Walker has pretty frequently
been the one through four, and it is again tonight.
Another designated hitter night for jord On Alvarez, Zach Cole
and his one thousand ops. Thanks to two long balls
already in his short season, he beats fifth. He'll be
in left field, Cam Smith back again as per usual

(39:28):
in right field, and as per usual, Bryce Matthews is
your center fielder. In yesterday's zero run game, it could
have been much worse, much earlier from a red scoring standpoint, again,
if not for Bryce Matthews. He made another spectacular catch
in center field. Ball absolutely tattooed dead center off of

(39:51):
AJ blue ball. He just ran it down and made
a great leap right before he crashed into the wall
and hauled it in. He has been I've said it
a bunch because he keeps doing it. He's been unbelievable.
He's been exceptional, way way above what I think anybody
could have ever expected from a player who hadn't been
out there. Now, maybe you might have expected it because
he's such a great athlete, but it's not easy to

(40:14):
figure out the angles, the speed, the off the bat
type of things that you need to know whether you're
coming in or going back, or the routes you're taking
to it. Heck, just yesterday, the other outfielder who's still
relatively new to his position, Cam Smith, one full season
of it last year, and that's it. He took a
bad route to a baseball in between a right and
right center and it got by him, and Matthews is

(40:35):
there to go chase it down. Matthews in the lineup
in center, batting seven, shoe make eighth, and Christian Vasquez,
who's going to continue to do the bulk of the
catching back behind the plate. Yesterday, you got your start
for Salazar, but most nights and now there are in
a stretch of thirteen straight days of baseball. It started
on Friday night with the Mike Burrows victory ten to nothing,

(40:58):
finished out the final three games, final two games of
the three game series, with the Reds still have ten
more games without an off day, so that'll be something
just to keep in mind. From a catching perspective. They're
currently obviously only two catchers on the roster, which has
been the case essentially the entire year, but neither of
them are Yaner Diaz. I didn't give you an update
on Diaz's health situation because there really isn't one. His

(41:21):
oblique strain just has him focusing on exercising, essentially, and
he's been in Houston and will remain in Houston and
is not ready to go on a rehab assignment anytime soon.
I would be shocked if he is playing baseball before
the end of the month. It's an extended injury for
what would otherwise be their starting catcher, who unfortunately has
not gotten off to a very good start this season.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
But that's what it looks like for the Astros.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
George Kirby obviously starts for the Mariners, and it's Peter
Lambert for the Astros. Christian Walker start to the season
has been outstanding in a great story. Nine homers twenty
seven RBI, both great numbers, and they look even better
when you consider they're right behind Yordon, who's been unbelievable
even with a slow start to the month of May.

(42:06):
Just two stakes behind Yord on who's got twenty nine
Walker's still hitting two eighty two LPs, just a bit
under nine hundred because he, like most of his team,
struggled a little bit offensively during their three games in Cincinnati.
That's a good story, the work they've gotten out of
Kaiwai Tang when they haven't forced him to start and
pretended like he could become one. He's been great yesterday.

(42:28):
He was great as a reliever. You know, a reliever
who can throw gets just three out, six outs, maybe
nine outs. They then asked him to get more than that.
I don't like that. Didn't like that before the results
were on the board. I totally understand the position that
they are in, but their bullpen was capable of taking
on more of the innings than you leaving your starting

(42:50):
pitcher out there for who's not a starting pitcher, and
I know there's no other way to stretch him out
than to do it during a major league game. If
this is really their intention, and it appears to be,
I didn't like it when they thought of it.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
I don't like it now.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
I think they are in much better shape if he
continues giving them one or two innings of excellence out
of the bullpen more so than him starting games and
giving them two maybe three innings of excellence to start
the game. Cody Bolton should have started the game, in
my opinion, and should start every game they have opened
until somebody else emerges as a possible starter. And I'm

(43:28):
fully aware Bolton did come into the game and pitch
quite poorly, giving up two runs and walking batter after
batter after batter, and having long, stressful, unnecessarily stressful innings.
But that's the pitcher I would have starting games. I
already have problem enough with the bullpen, not just from
being overworked, but from guys being ineffective. Here's a guy
in Tang who is effective. Leave him alone, leave him

(43:51):
in the bullpen. My best hope for Kaiwai Tang is
he doesn't start any more games for the Astros this year,
but if he does, he doesn't throw any more pitches
after the third inning. I wouldn't even mind if he
didn't throw any pitches after the second inning. He's been
so effective it's like, well, of course he's pitching at
thirty and by the way they pitch, but their plan

(44:11):
was to pitch him that long. Anyway, I understand all
the issues they've had. I get where they are as
a pitching staff. I know how deep into their depth
they've had to dive, but that's just not what I
personally would have done with the arms that are at
their disposal. And keep this in mind, they had a
starting rotation with the Space Cowboys this year, and two
of those four guys are the best pitchers in their

(44:33):
astro's rotation right now. Spencer Araghetty and Peter Lambert both
started the year as one of the top four starters
of the five they had in their rotation in Sugarland.
The other two guys who have been here awful can't
use them. Basically, you don't want to see him pitching
in an astro's uniform unless it's eight to nothing and
you're trying to save the bullpen. That's Jason Alexander. He's

(44:54):
pitched twice, He's given up five runs in both opportunities.
Colton Gordon is even easier to hit the and then
Jason Alexander.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
So I get it. I know the options have run thin.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
I totally understand what they're trying to do and why
they're considering a pitcher who does have some starting experience.
Most of his year last year, as brief as it
was with the Giants eight games, seven of which were starts,
he also was pretty ineffective doing that. So I'm not
sure the joy of trying to bring him to the
starting pitching rotation. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do

(45:29):
it again. I would say enough, that's enough. If you
want to turn him into an opera, that's fine, but
you gotta do the right thing and say that that's it,
that's enough. The hardest hit balls off of him in
yesterday's game came in a twelve pitch span to open
up the fourth inning. Bang bang, bang three nothing. You're losing,
essentially with the team that wasn't going to score. He

(45:49):
didn't know it at the time, but the game was
over and it was just a succession of one hundred
and five plus exit velo single, double, triple, and the
flare from Stevenson ended it for Tang. I don't think
cam Smith should have tried to catch that and dive
for it. The run's gonna score as soon as he
leaves his feet anyway, You're just potentially putting Stevenson further

(46:11):
around the bases if you do that. So I do
think he made the right play. Know Ryan Weiss is
not here anymore and did not deserve to be based
on the way he'd pitched. Nice that he got his
first minor league start out of the way and successfully.
Even though he gave up a home run to the
leadoff hitter, then he didn't give up anything else after that.
I did throw a lot more strikes. I'm one hundred

(46:32):
percent certain you will see him again in an Astros uniform,
probably sooner rather than later. But bullpen days in general,
for a team that doesn't employ that as a strategical move,
where the bullpen day is more of an opener followed
by a bulk pitcher, they don't have a bulk pitcher.
That's their biggest problem. Their bulk pitchers are all too hittable. Weiss, Gordon,

(46:57):
and Alexander have essentially been their bulk pitchers. Ever wanted
to have them be the second guy coming in, and
that's been Weiss's role a couple of times. It's why
I wouldn't want Bolton in as a bulk pitchers. Just
let him go back to starting like he did before
he got hit in the back with a batted ball
and see what happens. That's where I would take my chances.
That's what I would do. Have him go through his

(47:17):
normal routine as a starting pitcher. Get him out there
throwing strikes, try to get ahead of hitters. Trust your
stuff a little bit. I think he's throwing enough this season.
They have a tremendous Major League track record, but enough
this season. That's the way I would play it. I'm
no genius. They can choose whatever path they want. One
of us might be right, neither of us might be right.

(47:39):
And it's not a storyline for this particular series because
they have four starting pitchers available to them. Arragon he
went yesterday, and I would assume he will take his
normal turn, which would be the opener on Friday against
the Rangers. After the next four days go by. They
got four starting pitchers. Because Emi is making his return,
Burrows will throw on Thursday, mccullors goes Wednesday, and obviously tonight,

(48:05):
Peter Lambert throws for the Astros. I've set all of
that up to get back to Lambert. Christian Walker, Kaiwai
Tang and a few others probably been good stories, positive stories,
nice surprises. None of them even come close to what
Peter Lambert has done none of them. This team would
be even further sunk without what Lambert's been able to

(48:26):
do for them. He'll make his fifth start tonight. The
Astros have, in my opinion, had a chance to win
all of them. He gave up four runs in the
first start of his Astro's career, but he went five innings.
They didn't win any of the games. Against Saint Louis.
I don't know how much of a chance they had
to win that day, but gave the staff ended up
giving up nine runs. The Astros scored for Lambert gave

(48:47):
up four, had a chance to win the other three games.
You could argue they could have won. They've gotten nothing
for Lambert in terms of offensive support. Two runs in
his shutout performance against Cleveland, two runs in his shutout
performance against the Dodgers, and three runs when he gave

(49:07):
up two of his own against Baltimore is pulled during
the fifth inning. He's given him a chance to win
and two of his four starts. He's also given him length,
given him the opportunity to not run through the bullpen.
These were both close games that they won too. Nothing
in Cleveland to one against the Dodgers, but you only
needed six outs from your bullpen, and obviously you were
in front when you handed things over to your bullpen

(49:29):
to nothing. In both cases, Brian King was the only
pitcher they used in his last start, and he got
the final six outs of that game against the Dodgers.
Lambert has been huge. The Astros are sixteen and twenty five.
I can't even imagine how much uglier it would look
had he not been out there. So I'm looking for
the Astros to start this series off as best as possible.

(49:51):
You could argue their best pitcher is going tonight. Dive
back into some more Astros conversation when we hear from
Steve Sparks coming up at the bottom of the hour,
specifically on the work of Mike Burrows, both from Friday
and really overall during his first season with the Astros.
The offense quite obviously was very very good on Friday

(50:15):
Night and not so good the games that followed. And
Cam Smith, who again is in tonight's lineup, He's only
hitting two twelve a ops has dipped to six forty two,
which is the lowest figure of anybody in Tonight's starting lineup.
One thing though, since I brought it up last week.
I should definitely bring it up again here before we
get into a little bit of NBA chatter as we

(50:37):
head into a couple more game fours tonight. The game
on Friday night was great, and all the Astros scored
ten runs and put their pitcher early on Easy Street
and really never shifted. But I brought it up last
week when Seysar Salazar gave up home run number three
to Andy Pahes kind of along the lines of man

(51:00):
to work out a figure out a way where that
really is not part of your your calculations for team Era.
You're not trying to pitch well, you're not putting a
major leaguer out there. You're trying to say, I don't
want to hurt my team. I need these guys arms
to stay intact. So here's a position player. And if
you recall, all of Seysar Salazar's pitches were listed as

(51:23):
Ethis pitches. It was rainbow pitching. Hit this as hard
as you can, hopefully it's at a fielder. And the
three other guys did that. That's why I got out
of the inning so quickly. But that's what the Astros
did on Friday night. The Astros put two balls over
the fence early in the game to run homer from
Zach Decenzo, which was great to see, to run homer

(51:44):
in the sixth inning from Jordan Alvarez, and how you're
up four to nothing, you're up five to nothing headed
to the ninth inning, and then you scored five runs,
five more runs, And I don't know how much more
we're going to see from the relief pitcher that we
saw that night. But nonetheless, Astros went up by nine
runs and then Cincinnati finished things off after that. Maybe

(52:08):
maybe it matters to somebody, maybe it doesn't. Nonetheless, Jose
Travino's one run of work as a catcher like Salazar,
just that one. Note nine runs of offense off of
legitimate pitchers from the Reds noteworthy. Noteworthy yesterday before, long

(52:28):
before Victor wembin Yama was properly ejected from the San
Antonio Spurs loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBA conducted
its draft lottery and its televised extravaganza representatives from the
fourteen teams that would have selections in that opening round.
And keep in mind some of the selections they're conveyed

(52:51):
and not everybody that finished with those wretched records was
sitting there knowing that they would be able to make
a selection. Famously, in these parts, we all knew that
Oklahoma City had just a small, small, small chance. Wish
it was no chance, but it wasn't no chance of
sliding up from number twelve thanks to a deal. And

(53:15):
luckily for everybody involved, and I do mean this, for
everybody involved, this is the last thing anybody would have wanted.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
To see, and they did not move up.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Not long after that we started seeing, oh my gosh,
this team has clearly moved up into the top four.
But Charlotte, Miami, the Clippers, Golden State, and Milwaukee went
as they should have, and again that Clippers pick number
twelve overall goes to the Oklahoma City thunder. Nothing out
of the ordinary took place at that point, but Chicago
and Memphis both jumped into the top four. Utah was

(53:44):
already in the top four and stayed. They were at four.
In Washington at the worst record in the NBA. The
three teams that had a fourteen percent chance, the highest
likelihood that they would land number one overall, one of
them got it. I was Washington worst team in the NBA,
they all had the same chance. They along with the
Pacers and Nets, those of three teams with the worst record,

(54:06):
they all had an equal chance to land the top pick.
They also had an equal chance to land inside the
top four. Washington did fifty two point one percent chance
they would land in the top four. They landed number one.
It was essentially fifty to fifty fifty two point one
versus forty seven point eight or nine. Indiana and Brooklyn

(54:27):
got the wrong side of that, roughly fifty to fifty,
bumping back three spots each to five and six, and
with the ridiculous protections that the Indiana Pacers GM Kevin
Pritchard put on the pick that he traded to the
LA Clippers. By falling out of the top four and
into that five through nine range, that pick now goes

(54:49):
to the LA Clippers. The Indiana Pacers, who won nineteen
games last year, played without Miles Turner and Tyrese Haliburton,
who were on their Eastern Conference championship team. The current
champion reigning Eastern Conference champion is the Indiana Patias, the
last team to win the Eastern Conference less than twelve
months ago. The nineteen win Pacers and the trade for

(55:13):
Vitza Zubats. In season, Miles Turner signed elsewhere and Alibert
obviously hurt his achilles in the postseason and didn't play
this year. They traded for Viza Zubats and that was
the deal they gave them. If it was just that
in a draft like this, I almost think it's an
awful deal. The deal is beyond awful, so awful that

(55:34):
their GM was apologizing for it all day yesterday, sending
out a post apologizing for it, going on interviews on site,
which wasn't atypical because team representatives that were there. Both
gms are somebody that might have been representing the team
on stage, like Malory Edens for the second time with
the Milwaukee Bucks owner's daughter. They got interviewed after this process.

(55:57):
Then he also went on talk shows. He talked for
ten minutes at his interview about this because he knows
what he did and he knows how awful of a
decision that was. They're not gonna be terrible next year.
I'm sure Haliburton returns. Zubots is a good player. Most
of the team that got them to the Eastern Conference
championship will also be there with them. They're not likely

(56:19):
to be awful. They're certainly not gonna win nineteen games.
They're almost definitely gonna at the very least be in
the top six and go to the postseason. But they're
also definitely not going to have one of the best
young players in the NBA. Somebody in the top six
probably won't pan out, probably, but anybody in the top

(56:39):
six could be the best player in the draft in
my opinion. I know de Bantsa or Peterson will go
one or two, and it looks like aj will go
number one, and I think that's probably.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
The right play.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
But anybody else three, four, five, six, Caleb, Wilson and
Wagler and a Cuff, maybe Flemings is in the top
six obviously, Boozer, these guys are outstanding talents. Arguably any
one of those players could be better than any player
in next year's draft, and next year's draft doesn't necessarily

(57:10):
have to be bad for that to be true. I
just think the talent of these particular players at the
top of this draft, which also makes it a little
bit deeper, because I think there's players otherwise it would
have been lottery talents that just simply aren't because there
are not as many spots available for them because the
top part of the draft is so talented. Could absolutely
see a scenario in twenty twenty nine where Darius Acuff

(57:30):
is the best player in this draft class is a
Jah Morant level talent where you know it's his franchise
the moment he gets there, like what happened in Memphis,
and Memphis did obviously move up to top three, and
it would be very interesting if they actually drafted Acuff.
He doesn't bring any kind of those background issues. But

(57:50):
at the time, I don't think too many people thought
that Ja Morant did either John Morant. If I had
to guess, I would guess he's played his last game
in Memphis and they would have his immediate replacement if
they went that route. So to that end, I just
think I cannot believe, and we knew it then. It
was just like the trade that Joe dumar has made.

(58:11):
The New Orleans Pelicans last year traded up in the
first round to go get Derek Queen, and they traded
their unprotected pick to the Atlanta Hawks to do so.
So the Hawks now have the eighth pick in the draft.
The Hawks are good. The Hawks have made some really
good deals. The best deal they've made to date is
saying goodbye to Trey Young. And people are going to
say the same thing in the same sentence, Oh, Atlanta

(58:32):
was so much better now that Trey Young isn't there.
Then they'll pause and say, man, I really like what
Washington has now Trey Young and Anthony Davis and the
number one pick.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
You can say both things if you want. I won't.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
I don't dislike what Washington has. I just dislike Trey
Young as a franchise caliber player, super talent, dribble circles
around people. He definitely is going to pile up the assists,
probably have more assists than anybody that plays during his era.
He's just not a winning player, too much of a
chucker and not a team guy. And I know he's
advanced in the playoffs once, but nonetheless that's the Wizards.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Wizards can do what they want.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
It's good news for us in the West that are
watching things and New Orleans not taking advantage of having
a bad team, having another injury riddled season, and now
not having their pick in a very talent rich draft
to do anything with it because they gave it away
the Brooklyn Nets story is something for a full segment,

(59:28):
and I definitely want to discuss how that impacts the Rockets,
and not only for the twenty twenty six pick that
Brooklyn will make this year, because the Rockets gave that
pick back to them, but for what it means for
the future pick of Brooklyn going to Houston in twenty
twenty seven, MAVs didn't do anything good and the lottery,
Thank goodness, they actually bumped back one spot. And I

(59:51):
think you guys know that San Antonio is not likely
to spend any time.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
In the lottery anytime soon. Again.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
They are one of the best teams of the West.
They are in a fight literally with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Took the lead, had the lead, held the lead, built
the lead after Victor webbin Yama was ejected from the game,
and then lost the lead in the fourth quarter and
ultimately lost the game.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
They're in a two series.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Words from Astro's radio analysts and over the weekend, Astros
TV analyst Steve Sparks on Mike Burrows and the Astros offense.
Next here on the eight team team. Here on Sports
Talk seven nine, You're home for Astros Baseball this evening.
That means the first of four against the Mariners, Peter

(01:00:36):
Lambert and George Kirby. Lambert will face cal Raley there
is the fourth batter of tonight's game, hopefully as the
leadoff hitter in the top of the second inning, after
he goes one, two, three against Brendan Donovan, Julio Rodriguez,
and Josh Naylor. When he does, it'll be one of
the seven batters Lambert faces tonight in their lineup that

(01:00:57):
bats from the left side, the only switch hitter. Six
other lefties out there, but Cal specifically before he gets
Steve Sparks comments here if you recall, I'm sure many
of you do, you cal Raley lovers out there, remember
the twenty seventh of April when Cal homerd in his
last at bat of the game and eleven to four

(01:01:17):
loss to Minnesota back on in their thirtieth game of
the season. Well, he hadn't have any hits since then.
They're playing their forty second game of the season tonight.
He's played eight of those previous games. He doesn't have
any hits in any of them. Thirty six trips of
the plate, hitless, thirty two at bats hitless, fifteen strikeouts

(01:01:39):
in those thirty two at bats and only three walks.
It's batting average is zero if you aren't following along.
Hopefully that doesn't change the whole week. They got four
games here in Houston. Unlikely that this goes on forever,
but he's heading into a streak of eight consecutive games
starts without a hit. Steve Sparks visit with the Morning

(01:02:01):
Drive with Dan and Coles. He always does Monday mornings
at eight o'clock. If you missed it, you can catch
it in full at sports Talk seven ninety dot com.
The portion of it here begins with his thoughts on
the great Mike Burrows.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
I thought he was great.

Speaker 9 (01:02:15):
I mean right away we notice, hey, he's on the
other side of the river.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
What's he doing?

Speaker 9 (01:02:19):
And you start to figure out this makes a lot
of sense. So even moved from the third day side
to the first base side, where his right arm is
throwing arm is lined up with home plate, and he's
got a lot more plate coverage with his change up,
and that's his best pitch, you know. And if you
can throw strikes more consistently, get to that change up
where it looks like a fastball a little bit longer
to the hitters, and he's gonna be great. We've talked

(01:02:42):
about it, kind of exhausted. I would imagine fans don't
like to hear it. But I'll tell you why it's important.
You start to talk about somebody who's been unlucky, and
you look at some of the metrics and the expected
batting average compared to what's really.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Going on, and as a pitcher, you realize, you know.

Speaker 9 (01:02:58):
What, if I'm unlucky, really don't have to change too much.
I don't have to overhaul everything. But my era floating
in the sixes.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
It should be in the threes. It's not exactly where
I wanted it to be. H.

Speaker 9 (01:03:10):
He's got high standards, But I think I think this
guy is, you know, for somebody that they're going to
be able to control for five years. I think the
Astros are going to be real happy with this trade
for years to come. He's going to be probably a
number three starter, you know, every one while he's gonna
look like at number two.

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
But man, that's going to be solid.

Speaker 9 (01:03:30):
It's going to be like a Christian Javier was for you,
floating around and just carving people up.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
Sparky.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
Over the last couple of games, the offense kind of
taking a little bit of a back seat. Did you
see that it was a change in approaches at the
plate or was it more of a product of Chase
Burns and Andrew Rabbit were just really good.

Speaker 9 (01:03:49):
I think the latter I definitely don't think that they
changed their approach very often. I think they've got a
clear idea and the clear identity of who they are.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
And I'm really pleasantly.

Speaker 9 (01:03:58):
Surprised on on the teams off If I didn't expect
them to be as good as they are this year.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
You know, you stack them up with just about anybody
else in the America League this year. Run scored is
number one in my eyes.

Speaker 8 (01:04:11):
And if you can figure out ways to have a
good approach, you've got a great chance to win a
lot of ball games, or at least give yourself a
chance to win by scoring enough runs.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
And I think just Fathy Burns was phenomenal in Game two.
In the third game, Andrew have it looks like he
is starting to get on a little bit of a role.

Speaker 9 (01:04:29):
He was an All Star last year and he's found
something where he's back to who he was.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
So Ashler's just ran into a little bit of a
buzz off. It's unfortunately you're going to Cincinnati who had
eight game losing streak. Can you figure you should win
the series?

Speaker 9 (01:04:44):
But you know, you run into a couple of guys
that are pitching well and the team looks lethargic in
those games and you start to panic.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
But that's not the case. I think their approach is
really good.

Speaker 6 (01:04:54):
See if you've been in a lot of blocker rooms,
so you can attest to how a mentality standpoint goes,
especially for young players when things aren't trending upward. Cam
Smith right now has the big error that leads to
a three run fifth ending against Spencer aregatty.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
On the mound.

Speaker 6 (01:05:08):
The swing approach has been underwhelming, to say the least.
What do you say to a young player who still
is trying to get their footing in the league and
carve out a big time role and figure out who
they are with an organization to keep morale at a
high point when it just feels like it goes from
bad to worse and the landslide of issues that we
consistently see being talked about that keep on piling up.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
Yeah, that's part of.

Speaker 9 (01:05:33):
It's the magic beings for the Asterisk for so long,
and I think Michael Brandley had a lot to do
with that. He was the one who could go over
to somebody that stay with your routine, keep doing what
you're doing, have a clear approach, and try to execute
it every bat and over the long course, not only
will things look pretty good in your favor, but you'll stay.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
And that's what this game's about. It's not getting too
high or low played a corner of.

Speaker 9 (01:05:58):
The season now, right, I think we just asked by
a couple of innings in that last game of the series.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
There's a ton to go over one hundred and twenty games.
I think. So the Astros.

Speaker 10 (01:06:08):
Are going to have little mini acquisitions coming and it's
going to be you know, we can go through a
list of twelve guys that it's going to look like acquisitions.

Speaker 9 (01:06:20):
And probably starting with paying I think it'd probably be
the first one back and Hater not too far behind that,
and those two in particular, one bats at the top
and one pitches at the back end.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
You slide to everybody else where they probably should be.

Speaker 9 (01:06:35):
It makes the team look a whole lot better and
nobody's nobody has it in the DISITIONI, lets face it,
nobody that you can look at every team in the
division and you can't say defenditively that they're a lot
better than the Astros, or if they're better than the Astros.
Everybody's got weak points right now, and everybody's struggling to
try to figure things out.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
But it's a long way to go, so you just
keep plugging.

Speaker 9 (01:07:00):
And when you're talking about Cam Smith in particular, there's
going to be growing pains, you know, and we see
flashes from time to time, and those little ebbs and
flows will become less pronounced as he becomes a little
more experienced in the game. He's barely played any games
in the minor leagues, so to do this at the
major league level, it's very difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
And you can understand guys chasing numbers. When your numbers
don't look good on.

Speaker 9 (01:07:29):
The scoreboard, you start to try to chase it, and
it's sometimes hard, especially when you're young.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
Like that is to slow down and have a solid approach.

Speaker 9 (01:07:39):
Have you heard South Stewart for the Reds was talking
about I think of every at that like I've got
my golf bag with me, and if there's a runner
on first base and I'm down by two runs, I'm
going to bring out my hybrid, you know, I'm going
to try to drive the ball in the gap, or I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:07:58):
Going to take out my driver and try to blast them.
But sometimes I'm going to bring my seven iron to
the plate. Sometimes I'm going to bring my pitching wedge.
But every at that tells the hitter what they should
be doing. And I think that's what.

Speaker 9 (01:08:12):
The Astros are doing better this year than they had
the last couple of years, is having that type of
approach to do what this situation calls for.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
And for that it's fun to watch.

Speaker 9 (01:08:23):
I mean, sometimes it doesn't look real good they start chasing,
but usually in those situations it's because of the other guy,
not the guy that's at the plate.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
They did face two really good pitchers the end of
that series. I think both Burns and Abbot are outstanding.
Abbott hasn't had a great season, but he was on
a roll heading into and unfortunately out of the game
against the Astros. Mentioned I wanted a full segment on that.
NBA note Rockets Draft lottery future Brooklyn.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
We'll do that next. As always, appreciate the.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Visits all through the week from Astros personnel, whether it's
from the inside the team or from the media landscape
or players.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
We will have a visit.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
Our Astros player visit this week will be Mike Burrows,
the pitcher that Steve Sparks was just talking about. He'll
visit with us on the program, I believe tomorrow at
two thirty, So.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Looking forward to that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
I was wanting to get into one more enormous element
from a rocket standpoint on the NBA's drafts, both this
year and into the future draft lottery held yesterday. The
biggest news was that the worst team in the league
actually got the number one pick. That almost never happens.
Certainly hasn't happened since they reformatted the odds, but Washington
does land number one. To Western Conference teams will follow

(01:09:46):
Utah in Memphis. Utah is going to get an outstanding player.
And while Utah produced a miserable season record wise, they
did it intentionally and they navigated their way through significant
injuries which they had no interest in players coming back.
But this new player, maybe Darren Peterson will join a
team with Lori markin in healthy, presumably Walker Kessler who

(01:10:09):
missed almost the entire season healthy, Jaron Jackson Junior, who
barely played for Utah after he was acquired by the Jazz,
Keyonte George, and a host of other really talented young players.
I think Isaiah Collier is a young talented player. Obviously.
Ace Bailey presumably just had his worst NBA season as

(01:10:29):
a rookie, and I only say that to say as
his future continues, I think it's a very bright one.
A lottery pick from a year ago, the second best
player from Rutgers in the draft, and that's how they
were drafted. Dylan Harper is the best and he's still playing.
He plays for the San Antonio Spurs. But what didn't
happen last night is Brooklyn did not move up. In fact,
they actually moved down three spots. They have the number

(01:10:51):
six pick in the draft at one point prior to
a deal the Rockets made with the Nets in twenty
twenty four. In June, little less than two years ago,
the Rockets had that pick. They decided to make a
swap with the Nets to give them their pick back,
along with a couple of other elements of the deal.

(01:11:13):
The Rockets would get a pick swap through the Suns.
They get the Sun's first rounder in twenty twenty seven,
and they hold on to the other Nets asset that
they had at the time, which is a first round
pick from the Nets in twenty twenty seven. So they
have two selections and next year's first round. As we
sit here today, the Houston Rockets, they don't have any

(01:11:35):
in the first round of this draft. They don't have
any picks before the thirty ninth pick. They got two
in the second round. I don't know what the expectations
are for those picks, but my expectation are if they
haven't been traded five times already, they will be.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
There are three of the thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
Picks in the second round of this draft that have
not already been moved at least once, and I believe
the number is sixty six times the picks in the
second round have been moved because some of these picks
have been moved to in three times. So I'm sure
the Rockets will get into that mix.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
But a couple of.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
Picks coming in from two teams that probably won't finish
in the top six in either the East the Nets
or the West the Suns. The Sons can probably compete
just like they did this past year. I don't know
how much better they will be, probably not at all.
Maybe they'll get a few more healthy games out of
Jalen Green than they did, but they also would need
many healthy games from both Dylan Brooks and Devin Booker.

(01:12:29):
Probably need a little bit more something in the middle
with Mark Williams staying healthy, among other things.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Not a bad team.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
Obviously show a lot of improvement, but they're also built
to not compete in the West, and they're built to
be right in the middle. They're not bad enough to
be in the lottery in they're not good enough to
be a real playoff team. The Nets, on the other hand,
are awful, and they're going to be awful. They didn't
do anything specific to be awful this year. They were
just all. They have no players. They've drafted insanely poorly,

(01:12:57):
in addition to having no talent there to begin with.
They're gonna be all next year. Nobody's gonna sign there.
They're not gonna bring in some talent. You know, the
deal they made last year with Cam Johnson going to
the Nuggets and Michael Porter Junior going there, it's a
really nice individual player doesn't impact winning on a miserable team.
No single player could unless they're an MVP candidate, and
he isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
They're awful. They're gonna be awful next year.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
I do think it was a deal at the time,
and I talked about it throughout this year. I was
always curious why they felt the need to push their
draft assets into the future, because, in addition to what
I just mentioned, they still have draft assets coming in
in twenty twenty nine through some of the deals that
they've made from the MAVs and Sons. Whichever one of

(01:13:38):
those picks is better is their twenty nine first round pick,
and either one of those could be awesome. It's nothing
against what these future picks might turn out to be.
It's that they had There's a guessing game with any
future draft pick, and the further out they are, the
bigger the guess is. There's no guess with Brooklyn. The
Brooklyn Nets pick in twenty twenty six was going to

(01:13:59):
be awful no matter what. They did not do anything
specific to change their plan in twenty twenty six. Once
they reacquired their twenty twenty six pick. Their twenty five
to twenty six season was gonna be exactly the same.
They were not gonna win games. There's no nothing they
could do, no talent that they sat, no injuries that
they faked. They stink, So that pick was going to

(01:14:19):
be valuable. As it turned out, they had the third
worst record. They ended up with a sixth pick. Maybe
who You never know what kind of things change, you know,
coin flip has the Rockets not having the lottery combination
that was used for San Antonio that got them the
number one pick with Victor wembin Yama, And the same
thing happened with this year's draft with a couple of

(01:14:40):
coin flips that determined which lottery combinations went to which
teams that finished with the same record. So I can't
tell you every single thing would have been equal, but man,
it would be awesome to have a top six pick
in this draft. Hopefully you will have a comparable pick
and a slightly less talented draft next year. You're also
further along in your development, you know, having this player sooner.

(01:15:04):
Maybe you looked at Cam Wentmore, Tara East and Alprin, Shangoon,
Jalen Green, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and we've
got so much young talent, why.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
Not push it off into the future.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
I'm not saying it didn't make sense at all, but
I questioned it then, I questioned it today, and I
won't even know where it plays out until we receive
more of it, which comes in twenty twenty seven, in
this next draft, next off season, that player will probably
play one season with Kevin Durant. They also didn't know
Kevin Durant was going to be a Rocket at the

(01:15:33):
time that deal was bade, and one of the picks
that was involved in that deal from twenty twenty four
was used in the seven team deal that got Kevin
Durant to Houston. Clint Cappella and Durant come here and
six other teams with Houston were involved in that mega deal,
first of its kind with that many teams. So just
something to remember about how it played out. Have a

(01:15:54):
lottery played out where the Rockets might have been, you
know what that could have meant for the immediate future
of this and that was whether or not they would
have had Kevin Durant, which they now do, or whether
or not they would have elected not to make that
deal last year and move forward with the same formula.
Defense first formula they had with Dylan Brooks and Jalen

(01:16:15):
Green here regardless of what would have happened with Fred. Presumably,
if they don't make the deal for Kevin Durant, that
does not impact whether or not Fred got hurt in
a workout with the team before the season started.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
It's not back to the future. I'm not Marty McFly.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
He's neither not disappearing in pictures until I make sure
that Lorraine and Marty get together. But things could slightly
be different either of those scenarios. Just how I just
have a hard time looking at this year's draft class
and not expecting five teams, five teams to land the
best player on their roster in this draft. Some years

(01:16:50):
you get zero, some years you get one or two.
I think there's gonna be five. I think five teams
will now have a roster where the best player on
it and the player they're building around. They're Cade Cunningham,
they're Victor Wembin Yama, et cetera. Is coming from this draft,
and the Rockets aren't in it. It's all just doesn't
mean it's bad, good, or otherwise. Just hard not to

(01:17:11):
view this class and think what might have been able
to come to pass for the Rockets. Now you just
have to find out more about it on into the future.
I think we got a special guest coming up for
you in the four o'clock hour, and that's next edition
of the A Team and halfway for us getting you
to Astros Baseball. They got the Mariners in town to
start a seven game homestand first four against Seattle. Cole

(01:17:33):
Thompson will have Astros on deck for you, so he's
here in the building, so he's gonna be with you.
I live here with us here on the A Team
for the next little bit and certainly appreciate you jumping
in here in AC's absence. Expect to see Ac here
tomorrow as we hopefully begin this home stand. A sixteen
to twenty five Astros team would certainly like to avoid

(01:17:55):
falling ten games under five hundred and forty two games
into the season, but without a victory to it's exactly
where they will be. Peter Lambert on the mound, George
Kirby the opposition, and Cole I didn't have a chance
to mention this to our listeners. Joe Spot and the
team mentioned to the media out there, but the peronious
brevis tendon surgery for Carlos Korea on his left ankle

(01:18:18):
was successful.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
I didn't know we were making up wards these days.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
No, I will say, I've been doing this a long time,
a lot of different sports, a lot of different ankle
injuries and other assorted injuries. I can't recall anyone having
peronious brevis tendon surgery on their ankle. So you don't
play a doctor on air. Then I play it all
the time. That's why it stands out so much that
this is what it is. It's an injury and a

(01:18:42):
surgical procedure that doesn't even slightly ring a bell for me.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Just this very specific.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
And you guys had Dana Brown on last Wednesday and
you asked him specifically just to clarify because they had
said it's attendant and normally a tendon and an ankle
makes everybody think it's the big a word.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
And he said it wasn't. It was a different tendon.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
And he described where it was on the outer portion
of the ankle, which is where this tendon runs to attach.
As we all know, the base of the fifth metatarsal
in the foot, in the ankle bone. Everybody knows that
the only thing I enjoy at player's expense with injuries
is that I'll get to lean on AI for all

(01:19:21):
their ridiculous explanations.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
Of it, deeming it successful.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
The indications are four months from now the season will
come to a close, maybe five with the postseason, and
Carlos Corey is not expected to be a part of it,
although the recovery shouldn't be much longer than that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:37):
You staying optimistic. Five months from now in the.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
PA, I mean three and a half games is all
there out of the wild card last wild card spot.
That's say three and a half, because nobody outside of
the Rays and the Yankees are more than two games
over five hundred. That's thirteen teams that are either two
games over five hundred the A's or worse. And that's
every team in this division. Is it like Cleveland like

(01:20:00):
perfectly five hundred? They're twenty one and twenty one, and
they would roll into the playoffs as the third seed,
the last place team of the three first place teams.
From a seating standpoint at twenty one and twenty one,
we had the schoobol scope taking place earlier today. According
to Scott Boris, the new procedure. They didn't say being

(01:20:22):
tested on Tark Schooble, but they did say the doctor
was doing this for the first time. So sounds like
Tark school was a little bit of a guinea pig
with this. So we'll see how that one plays out.
What if he ends up becoming better because of the surgery, Well,
I thought this, and one of the beat writers in
Milwaukee are excuse me, Detroit wrote this today. The injury,
while awful for the current portion of the season that

(01:20:45):
he will miss, potentially this is lowering his value and
increasing the likelihood that the Tigers and Schooble come up
with a creative, shorter term, probably option year's deal, to
give at least one more year of Tark Schooble pitching
in Detroit. So we've argued about this in the Morning

(01:21:07):
Show before, like because the Morning of course, you know,
I gotta be able to keep me on myself on
my toes.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
Of that, Cole Thompson of the Morning Drive with Dan
and Cole.

Speaker 6 (01:21:14):
But like, I don't know if we're gonna see any
more of these lucrative ten twelve year deals just simply
because of all the injuries, especially when it comes to
pitching and teams don't want to be cut on the
hook seven eight years from now to win arbitrary to
when you could just simply let them walk get a
much more doable one year contract rather than say we're

(01:21:35):
gonna give you two hundred and thirty million dollars up
front for the next seven years. Like I think that
you're gonna see more of these four or five year
deals happen in baseball, and for Tark Schooble and for
the Tigers in this situation, it may en up benefiting
both sides because you're gonna get more than thirty two
million dollars that's what you got in arbitration by showing
up a two cy Young Awards, but you're also gonna
be able to potentially reset your market awhare. Maybe you

(01:21:57):
won't end up getting these seven year two hundred and
thirty million deal, but let's just say it's a four year,
one hundred and sixty million dollar deal. You pitch well
enough to where you're gonna be a two time sy
Young Award winner and that standpoint be considered the greatest
pitcher of your generation. And then therefore, when you get
another opportunity to go cash in you maybe get a
four year, one hundred and eighty million dollar deal elsewhere
to where it's more aav salary, So you end up

(01:22:19):
walking away a bigger winner because if you're banking on
yourself for a shorter term contract, you just.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Have to keep pitching. Well, that's all, And that's the
only thing. Do you think he's gonna slow down? Well,
injuries are the only thing. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
I don't think he's gonna get worse unless the injuries
dictate that he no longer can get guys out at
the rate he was previously, And whatever portion of the
season he returns for is probably not enough for other
general managers, even Detroit general manager, to feel super confident
that this is back to who he was. And I mean,
he could still win the Cy Young Award this year
for all I know, depending on how much he pitches.

(01:22:50):
But I do think because of the nature of this
injury and surgery, it's something that might push you and
his agent into a different strategy heading into the off
season from a monetary standpoint for the Astros. Unfortunately, two
players that they would be thinking about their long term
future are both still currently hurt. A bullpen session over
the weekend for Hunter Brown. Running progression again continuing Houston

(01:23:13):
today for Jeremy Pania, with the expectation that it's in
preparation for him to be on a rehab assignment later
this week. Jake Myers probably on a rehab assignment even
more quickly than that. That one's shocking to me because
that came out of nowhere. Well, that he just hadn't
been doing. He had not advanced past the rehab stage,
and now he has. Honestly, my hope is Jake Myers

(01:23:35):
gets healthy and plays for three or four weeks and
plays well enough that they can move him. I don't
have any interest in Jake Myers being on this team.
Oh you're saying, you're saying move him, move him? Oh yeah,
trade him. Should have traded him in the offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
Why everyone wanted him to be traded? I thought he
he would be gone by now.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
Well, that shows you what the market probably was and
the market probably will be. I'm not sold on any
of the young players that they have by any means.
You don't love that Zach coleswing and miss Right, Well,
I don't fight. It doesn't even matter. I already know
what Jake Myers is. And heck, if Bryce matt like
the other day, whichever game it was, when Cole Smith
and Matthews were playing together and the Reds were in

(01:24:18):
position with a runner on second or a runner on
third where they might be sending him, there might be
a play at the plate. So you're analyzing the arm
strength of your outfielders. Well, the Astros don't currently have
any weak arms in the outfield, none of them, None
of the three players that were out there at the
time Cole threw a runner out players and their third
base coaches know now not to run on Cam Smith,

(01:24:38):
and soon enough, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
Bryce Matthews will get run on.

Speaker 1 (01:24:40):
He's already had plenty of throws that he's made and
sure has a shortstop caliber arm. His arm is fine,
it's actually plus. They've been playing the last couple of
years with Kyle Tucker's the only plus arm in the outfield.
And not just that, the arms in the other spots
in the outfield were dreadful, and Jake Myers happens to
have one of those chas McCormick has one of those
two of the worst throwing arms, and it matters. Ninety

(01:25:01):
feet run scored constantly challenging you. So whatever Cole, Descenzo
Matthews Cam turn out to be, I'm totally fine with
figuring that out asap.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
You're not gonna get anything.

Speaker 6 (01:25:15):
You're not gonna learn anything new about a guy like
Jake Myers, where you still may learn something about Descenzo.
I think that there's more than meets the eye when
it comes to Cole, and you have a good defensive
outfielder right now. It seems like in center when it
comes to Bryce Matthews. I mean, how d this was
all you were losing with Jake Myers. I say so, literally,
you're getting a cheaper version of Jake Myers, who's gonna
be hitting what to twelve?

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
You mean just like how Jake Myers hits two twelve? Yeah,
you need more Like he clearly changed last year. I
get him a little bit of credit for drawing more walks,
getting more singles, and actually reaching base more often. But
the pop is what he was brought to the majors
for pre injury, post Miles Straw trade, and it's just
it's been it's gone. It's been gone for now a

(01:25:56):
year plus and I don't know that it's ever returning.
So that that doesn't even bring anything to him. Quite honestly,
Bryce Matthews probably has more pop in his bat than
Jake Yes. Massive strikeout rates for all three of those players.
We'll see on Descenzo if he gets consistent playing time
to acknowledge that also for him. Peter Lambert obviously throwing tonight,
that is a huge deal.

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
He has pitched very well the Astro squad, like we
all predicted. Well, I said it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:21):
Earlier, I think he's been I don't even think there's
much to debate about. I think he's been the best
story on the team this year. There's a few positive stories.
The way Tanks pitched out of the bullpen clearly, the
way that Christian Walker has played this year, those are
both pretty large sized positives. But I think Peter Lambert
Trump's is anything that's happened this year. Christian Vasquez has
been a very positive story for the Astros this year.

(01:26:41):
But what Lambert has done he was the first to
really solidify this rotation, and Spencer Araghetti almost simultaneously, but
when he made his first start, those two guys have
solidified forty percent of your rotation.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
That's the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
It's still only at forty percent, and we can't sit
here and say with certainty, yeah, we gonna get another
twenty starts out of both. We're gonna see we as
fans are gonna see twenty more starts from them the
rest of the year. Where you got a two forty
two era with Lambert and one to eighty eight with Rogaty.
Since Arrageddy came to the Astros made his first start
on April fifteenth, he's got a one eighty eighty RA,

(01:27:17):
which is the sixth best among American League starting pitchers. Dude,
he probably not where he's gonna settle.

Speaker 6 (01:27:23):
In last game he lost the game and had his
ERA diminished.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Do you know how challenging it is? Earth?

Speaker 6 (01:27:29):
But like you coming with the one ninety two era,
it's like, do you understand how challenging it?

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
But don't worries man.

Speaker 6 (01:27:34):
I mean like bre Mike Burrows has arrived, like the
version that we've all been waiting for. If we saw
it down in West Palm. That guy's here and now
to see you. Mine comes back tomorrow and he's gonna
be lights out. I can only pray I'll talk myself
into it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
I don't I don't know about buying the second part,
I can buy the first part. Good conversation you guys
had with Steve Sparks, and we shared a little bit
of that earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
I was glad.

Speaker 1 (01:27:57):
Burrows kind of saw things the same way, and we'll
have him as our guests tomorrow at two point thirty.
He didn't really need to change much. He did change
his position on the rubber, but he mostly changed his effectiveness.
Because of that, he didn't have quite as many unlucky
bounces and unlucky pitch calls and unlucky and now there's
first and third.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
He didn't walk anybody.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
He walked one batter, So those things did fall into place,
and if that continues, they'll be in very good shape.
I have a question for the owners of certain NFL teams,
one in specific that plays in Buffalo. I want to
know how is this possible? Minor detail, but I can't,
for the life of me, figure out how is this possible?

Speaker 2 (01:28:38):
Buffalo? And I will explain next.

Speaker 1 (01:28:42):
For the hour and for ac expect his return tomorrow,
and you'rero from Cole both tonight with the astros coverage
beginning with the on Deck show at six o'clock and
again tomorrow morning at six am as the Morning Drive
with Dan and Cole will be back off and running tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:28:58):
That's your call. Don't advise you to do that, but
I know how far away some people live, and if
that's what you want to do, then go right ahead.
That's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
I'm sure it will be Astro's and Mariners coming up
a little bit later tonight. Texans began Phase two of
their off season program last week. It included the weekend
rookie mini camp. We were both out there on Friday.
I did not realize that one of the players out there,
Evan Hall, would be signed by the Texans officially today.

(01:29:30):
One of the three running backs they had out there
over the weekend, and in his roster spot out goes
last year's seventh round pick, Luke Lache.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
What was your favorite leche moment?

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
There weren't any. I'm not gonna lie to you. I
was a little surprised they made the pick. Then I
was a little surprised that he was hanging around all
season long on the practice squad. Never was never really
a consideration to be brought up to the roster. Every
time they had tight end injury issues, they would go
out and find a rando like Harrison Bryant, et cetera,
and bring them in. They signed Foster Moreau this offseason. Obviously,

(01:30:05):
Marlon Klein they drafted, and so that gives them two
tight ends to add to number eight Cad Stover, new
number eight Kid Stover obviously, the expected return of Brevin
Jordan and the recently paid again Dalton Schultz. That's five guys.

Speaker 6 (01:30:22):
And then they hire Kirk's kid just to go ahead
and put assault into the wound.

Speaker 1 (01:30:26):
I know he's pretty famous, but I don't even think
anybody knows who you're talking about. Kirk Farents, the IWA
head coach, right, and who did they hire? James James
the kid? The kid, the former Houston Texans lineman. He
was a center, was he James Frentz? Yes, and now
he's the tight ends coach. One of the few coaching
changes they made from last year to this year. Yes,
that is in place now. I teased, I don't understand

(01:30:49):
this from Buffalo, but I do not think Buffalo is alone.
And I'm almost embarrassed by it. Super unimportant, but I
cannot believe it happens. Happens in the media every now
and then, and I'm surprized by that. When it happens
inside somebody's building, I'm even more surprised by it. The
Texans creatively have iron sharpens iron. The Colts have uncovered

(01:31:14):
the Buffalo Bills have embedded. These are programs they put
together internally, their digital side, their YouTube channel, their creative department,
their video department, and they give you information. They Texans
did it with the day one of Keel and Ruttledge.
Some of these other teams are giving you a lot
more draft day, draft room, phone call insight, and we're

(01:31:35):
really getting a lot more of it every year, and
I love it all.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
Buffalo is one of those teams.

Speaker 1 (01:31:40):
Embedded is that product that they're producing, so in looking
over and hearing from and viewing some of their product, obviously,
the Texans made a deal with the Bills. On night
one of the draft Bills had twenty eight, or Bills
had twenty six, Texans had twenty eight, and when it
came time for twenty four and twenty five to unfold,
of the Texans were on the phone with the Bills
in order to solidify the player that they wanted, and

(01:32:02):
they didn't want to let anybody else potentially jump them
or have them just simply not be there for them
at twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (01:32:07):
So they made the deal.

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
They moved up twenty six and they drafted Kaylin Rutlie.
The Bills ended up moving back again and again in
the draft, and the explanation of or the inner workings
of how this deal went down between the Texans and
the Bills was kind of uncovered a little bit with
this product that I was talking about on their YouTube channel,
and I think you'll be able to pick out the

(01:32:29):
part that I cannot believe took place in the course
of their conversation and then they sit down interview that you.
The GM will have Brandon Bean in this case with
their media crew so they can put it in the video,
you know how you put together hard knocks things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
So just listen in and enjoy.

Speaker 9 (01:32:46):
Did have options to go back into two right away,
which I thought were good options, but the trade that
we liked was going back to see what's still on the.

Speaker 3 (01:32:55):
Board something I think good buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:32:58):
The first trade was with Houston and the on the
phone with Nick Cesario, look like that must want to
take out.

Speaker 11 (01:33:04):
I've been in that mindset before, Nick, you know, was
in that mindset, like I want this pick.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
I'm willing to take the other teams out and make
this a strong offer.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Here told you it was pretty minor. Nick who How
is this possible? You've talked to him? How many times
he's been in the NFL? How many years you've been
in the NFL? How many years you have his name
and number in your personal cell phone? It's right there
on your programmed phones in your draft room that you

(01:33:34):
spend so much.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
How do you not know his name? How is that possible?

Speaker 6 (01:33:38):
How do you make a trade with somebody when you
don't know what their last name is?

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
Most people know you buy your last name.

Speaker 1 (01:33:45):
Sario nut like I know. There's a terrible, awful, very old,
not important. Nobody even knows who he is comedian named
Jeff Cesario. There's no confusion.

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
Why am I thinking? He sound in peace? Pasario? Like Pasario?
He doesn't know his name, he doesn't know the general
managers of the Houston Texans, but.

Speaker 1 (01:34:04):
Yet he wants to make a trade with him. It
was a good trade for both teams. I'm not like,
I'm not concerned about the football side of it at
all here on this show. I cannot believe that as
a thing, and it's not the first time with Nick.
There are other media members and other people that work
for NFL teams in these player personnel roles. How is

(01:34:24):
that possible? We'll call step further. You've made pronouncing it.
You're wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:34:29):
He's made trades with them in the past. This isn't
the first time they've done business either. It's not even
a hard name to say.

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
I know it's his name's not Smith, but I'm sure
Brandon Bean could say Austin Fort it's not Jones and
he say Guda Kunst. I mean, seriously, what's wrong with
these people? This is this is your guy, Buffalo, this
is who's putting together your team.

Speaker 2 (01:34:52):
Am I going too far?

Speaker 6 (01:34:54):
I'm at a point where I feel really stupid putting
a way too early play on Buffalo in the World
super Bowl this year.

Speaker 1 (01:34:59):
I mean, their team fine, because they have one of
the ten quarterbacks you think can win a Super Bowl.
I think he's one of the four quarterbacks you can
win because of not you also lost because of him
last year.

Speaker 3 (01:35:11):
You did.

Speaker 1 (01:35:11):
And that's one thing that I will say, like I
haven't hardly said that at all about Josh Allen in
the playoffs, because he's played some insanely successful, productive, perfection,
no mistake type games and they've still lost. I mean
thirteen seconds, Well that was one of them. He had
a series of games where he's throwing for three and
four touchdowns with no turnovers and it just didn't matter.

(01:35:31):
And in that particular game, he was obviously great and
great at the end when it mattered. His very last
should have been game winning drive, he was sensational, threw
his fourth touchdown pass of the game. He wasn't that
last year. He was making bad throws and on top
of it, humongous mental mistakes, not to be fitting of
a quarterback who had twenty five NFL starts, let alone hundreds.

Speaker 6 (01:35:54):
That was his worst playoff performance since he played the
Textans back in two thousand and nine.

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
So how are the Bills gonna win the Super Bowl?
I guess they have Josh Allen.

Speaker 1 (01:36:02):
And what about the rest of the AFC? What about
the rest of the American League?

Speaker 6 (01:36:07):
To be completely fair, it feels like the American League
of it's up for grabs right now.

Speaker 2 (01:36:10):
Kansas City, I got a question, are the Bills raise
or Yankees?

Speaker 5 (01:36:14):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
Are they one of the two.

Speaker 1 (01:36:15):
Good teams I mean, does it not shock if they wouldn't.
I think that wouldn't shock me at all. But they
didn't win the division last year. I understand some people
think there might be some distractions in Foxborough this year.
Maybe maybe they also have a harder schedule this year.
Wax that that's under the mix. I mean, yes, that
they clearly do, going from a fourth place schedule to
a first place schedule. The Bills technically have an easier schedule,

(01:36:38):
but I in facto strength of schedule and nobody can
stop themselves from doing it at this point in the
year like they were doing it again today. Like why
do I care? I'm happy to have the information that
you played this team that went ten and seven last year,
and this team that went seven and ten, and this
team that went six and eleven, but you have zero

(01:37:01):
games scheduled against that team this year, not a one
of them.

Speaker 2 (01:37:05):
Like, are you playing the Raiders this year?

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
Well, then I don't really care what the Raiders did
last year with Gino Smith and Chip Kelly, because that
ain't who they are this year. Are you playing the
Chargers this year? I really don't care that you whooped
them in the postseason last year. Without Mike McDaniel and
without all of the changes they've made to fix all
of the problems they had last year. Well, what about Jacksonville.
The sa I got Liam Cohen and Charla Lawrence. What
about the other moves that they've made that have sent

(01:37:28):
them in the other direction? Like it's okay to say
there's nothing else to do it, Like every team will
do it. They put it in their game notes, So
put it in their draft update. Here's the records, though.
All the teams were playing on the road, and all
the teams were going to visit or coming here to
our stadium, And this is what it looks like. And
how many playoff teams from last year are we seeing?
And then that's a little bit better because you're not
necessarily pinpointing the number of wins. This is a really

(01:37:50):
good team that has a chance to stay really good,
or vice versa. But we all know that some last
place team is gonna finish first next year. It happens
every year, at least one. So it's a little bit
disingenuous to be touting strength of schedule or weakness of
schedule in early May.

Speaker 6 (01:38:08):
At the end of the day, Billy Bean has it
under control. Brandon bean See, I'm sorry it is so
easy to get the he.

Speaker 1 (01:38:14):
Confused him with an actual general manager. I don't know
what Sinceio thinks about that, probably doesn't know or care
and probably has been called on the phone by that
name by someone that should know his name. Hey, Nate,
Nick gotcham Well, I mean, it's easy to deal with
the Texans from AAR and we just call everybody Nick C.
And you're probably gonna get the right person. Minor thing

(01:38:36):
I know, but I still can't even believe it happened.
Good deal for both teams. Everything worked out. Texans got Ruttledge,
they were able to stockpile assets as they moved their
way back and back and back in the draft.

Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Multiple times.

Speaker 1 (01:38:50):
Over thought on something that's going on with the Texans
and their signal call or something you might not even realize.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
As c J.

Speaker 1 (01:38:58):
Stroud heads into years or four, very important number.

Speaker 2 (01:39:02):
About c J. Stroud, I'm gonna share that with you.

Speaker 4 (01:39:04):
Next the aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:39:11):
I mentioned I've got a number for you with CJ. Stroud.

Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
That number will come up either at four forty five
or more likely coming up a football at five at
five o'clock reminder about tomorrow's program before we get to
our signature segment, The Good, Bad, the Ugly two thirty tomorrow,
a visit from Astros starting pitcher Mike Burrows, who is
expected to throw Thursday in the series finale, and five
o'clock a visit from Chandler Rome, who we were unable

(01:39:36):
to get on during Friday's shortened program. So visit with
us from Dyk and Park tomorrow at five o'clock. Good,
Bad and the Ugly is our Monday signature segments ac
out today. Obviously very ugly, and hopefully we'll return tomorrow differently.
Cole will take care of the ugly, he's here in
his stead and ugly. Josh will handle the bad, and

(01:39:58):
I'll take the good. And I hope this has taken
well last night, I mentioned it earlier. We've definitely not
given this topic much conversation. This afternoon, the Minnesota Timberwolves
game with the San Antonio Spurs, I would think most
people call the most important item from the game, other
than the fact that the Wolves won and tied the

(01:40:20):
series up two games apiece, was they ejected somebody for
a flagrant to foul the series that the Rockets played
with the LA Lakers, included an elbow to the face
of Alprin Shank Goon from DeAndre Ayton called a common
foul and then up on review, they felt the wind
up and forcible contact above the head and neck in

(01:40:41):
that area was enough to upgrade that call to a
flagrant two. And what comes with it is an automatic ejection.
It's not a flagrant tool, and we're also ejecting the player.
If you're given a flagrant to you are ejected from
the game. Some players don't know that. Victor and Webbin
Yama also must be one of them, not to mention
his hearing probably isn't very good. Last night's game included

(01:41:05):
a play similar in that an elbow made contact with
a player's face and it got reviewed to see if
it needed to be upgraded to a flagrant one or
a flagrant two. It's the good for me because this
call was simple and they didn't let other stuff get
in the way. This is textbook, and they read zach Zaraba,
read it as it should have been, or divulged their

(01:41:27):
thoughts on it to the fans afterwards. There's wind up,
there's intent, there's force, and for that reason we're upgrading
it to a flagrant two and the player is ejected,
and that was announced over the PA in the stadium.
We obviously have the feed on the television side. By
the way, excellent Trio four person with the Zora, Mike,

(01:41:49):
Jamal and Reggie. I think their games are fun to
listen to when you're watching, they do a great job.
But it's in arena and Victor's listening, I would assume
since it involves but he must not have heard the
ejection part because he asked his teammate what does that mean,
and he said, he means, you're ejected. He goes, oh,
I'm ejected. So he started clapping his hands and pumping

(01:42:10):
up his team and walking to the locker room. On
the road there in Minnesota, Spurs actually went on a
run took the lead, healthy lead through the early portion
of the fourth quarter before Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert
by the way down the stretch, took over that game
and won it. I don't know for sure. I haven't
seen it, and I could be wrong. I don't think

(01:42:30):
the league has actually officially said there's no additional punishment
for Victor wemen Yama, but it has been reported that
there will be no additional punishment for him. Sean Sharani
reported that, and I could understand looking at some previous
postseason elbows that have resulted in additional games, and even
regular season elbows that have resulted in that. I think

(01:42:51):
they also got this right. It was intentional, it was force.
It was a flagrant too. He missed the entire second
half plus the remaining portion of the FIRF. That's that
you move on, you eject him, and that's that. I
think they got it right. I think they did a
good job, not only officiating that play but the game
in general. So if this were bitstealing, I would probably

(01:43:16):
tell miss Johnson, ain't nobody got time for your We
don't care about this, We're not concerned about this. But yeah,
he needs to protect himself if they're gonna go out
there and do that. So you do care, You absolutely care.
And I don't think the Timberwolves did anything beyond the
normal way you would play any almost any player.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
This is the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
Mitch Johnson has now been a playoff NBA head coach
in the playoffs for nine games, nine games. He's been
first for six years. They haven't been in the playoffs
in any of those other years. We know what it's about.
This is it, you know, we get it, we understand it. Well,
you're talking like you don't understand it. This is totally
normal playoff physical basketball. Any player could be frustrated by

(01:44:00):
how they're being fouled, called not called jersey, being pulled,
getting pushed, getting it happens.

Speaker 2 (01:44:06):
It is literally what happens during playoff games.

Speaker 1 (01:44:08):
I think the rest did a good job in last
night's game and officiating this series in general has been
good enough that I don't need to pick those games
out and win and complaints.

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
We got plenty of other.

Speaker 1 (01:44:18):
Games to do that, such a BA out basically, basically
that's where I would go. So good job NBA, and
we'll get to see what was a super entertaining game.
I expect a very important swing game five to be
the same. What is the bad, Josh, My bad is
narratives in headlines like this, You're down Alvarez, trade talks
heat up as Astros sit in last place. You're down

(01:44:41):
Alvarez named by insiders, MLB trade chatter heats up. Yeah,
let me tell everybody this.

Speaker 11 (01:44:47):
Dana Brown wants to keep his job and as long
as the Astros still have a chance this season of
making the playoffs, he's.

Speaker 2 (01:44:55):
Not going anywhere.

Speaker 11 (01:44:56):
They are not even thinking about trading your I find
this all completely ridiculous. The only way Jordon would get
moved is if Jim Crane told Dana you have to
go trade him or find a great deal for him.
I'm tired of hearing this. It's complete nonsense. It's a
waste of time. As long as they have a shot
and think about it. Every time you hear from Dana
and from Joe'sponna, they talk about all the slow starts

(01:45:19):
they've got off to and how they've come back. They're
not thinking about trading yord On. People leave it alone.

Speaker 2 (01:45:24):
Did you did you remind people where this uh? Where
did this rumor come from? Again?

Speaker 3 (01:45:29):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (01:45:29):
You got it from Foxnews, Heavy dot com, Heavy dot Com,
Clutch points, Sporting point Dudes.

Speaker 2 (01:45:35):
I mean, is there another one? Is there? Is there
one that the Bleacher attached to it. I don't see
that one, but I see the Chronicle as one. Astro's
historically want to.

Speaker 1 (01:45:44):
Really know who's reporting this, and you are naming some
groups that are right up that alley. Total it's not
a report, it's I need to write something. This is
a bad baseball team. I think they could move this player.
Let me put it out there and see how many
other dumb entities pick it up, and they do non
stop the other actual if you want to get into

(01:46:07):
this story, I'll say it this way. So you're telling
me they're wanting to trade their best commodity who's on
a reasonable deal for many years to come. They want
to rebuild the franchise because he's so good that they
believe they can get enough in return to do just that.
All while we're talking about the future of a general
manager who does not have a contract for next year.

(01:46:27):
A manager who does not have a contract for next year.
So they're gonna want the general manager, who he clearly
doesn't believe in, to give him a contract for the future.
He's gonna entrust him to go out and get all
the talent necessary to rebuild this franchise. I mean, I
think it's hard to put all that together and say yes, No.

Speaker 6 (01:46:46):
The dumb thing is is that you're making twenty twenty
seven decisions for a guy that's not going to be
here in twenty twenty seven. If things go according to
where they are now, Yeah, that's why you don't make
thoseis that's why it's dumb.

Speaker 1 (01:46:56):
There's many reasons why I don't think it's the best
course of action for this franch at least top five reasoning. Yeah,
we got the ugly still to get to. Cole obviously
is here for the ugly. We want him to get
in his ugly and we'll do that. Next clean up
work needing to be done happens from time to time
following his signature segments, and we have that here. We

(01:47:17):
gave you the good the NBA getting it right in
my mind on the webbin Yama flagrant two last night, uh,
the bad reports articles, nonsense, space being wasted on potential
deals that other teams could make to get jord On
Alvarez off the Astros roster and Cole what is the ugly?

(01:47:38):
Do you want to go college football? Or do you
want to go with your favorite story currently trending in
the news. I want to go college football with you here?
Did you see Lane Kevin's comments in the Variety article
Lane kiff Lane Kiffen was talking no way, I do
not believe it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:52):
Pick something Lane giving opened his mouth. That's what happened?
So what happened?

Speaker 6 (01:47:55):
So Lane Kiffin in the Variety article that was talking
about his profile on leaving in a very very traumatic
and gut punching but I really just want to poach
them away and steal all of them to go to LSU.
Article talking about his move from Ole Miss to LSU,
was asked about things that made it so enticing to

(01:48:18):
go to a place like Louisia State University. Can talk
about the culture, you can talk about the championships, you
can talk about the atmosphere on game day. I personally
believe that Death Valley is the greatest game location on
a Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (01:48:31):
Enhancing your relationship with ed Orgerone.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
And enhancing my child of security with Chris Corny locked
on ICC.

Speaker 2 (01:48:36):
But he brought up how.

Speaker 6 (01:48:40):
In the state of Mississippi kids would tell him hey, coach,
we really like you, but my grandparents aren't let me
move to Auxtionord, Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (01:48:49):
That doesn't come up when you say baton rouge. Louisiana.

Speaker 1 (01:48:52):
Parents were sitting here this weekend saying this campus is
diversity feels so great. It feels like that there's no segregation. Eh, boy,
how's that been received not great from a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (01:49:04):
But now I know how it's been received.

Speaker 1 (01:49:07):
On anybody that posted that comment on social media, But
how has it actually been received, not just from the
crazies on socials.

Speaker 6 (01:49:14):
It's actually been pretty pretty synonymously disbarred by a lot
of fans.

Speaker 1 (01:49:20):
Set How how long ago was this comment made? This
got reported today? So has there been any I misspoke,
I didn't mean that conversation.

Speaker 6 (01:49:30):
On the next day, Keivin told Vandy Fair he hoped
his comment would come off as respectful to old Miss.
There are some things I'm saying there are just factual.
There's no shots.

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
Huh.

Speaker 6 (01:49:40):
The ole miss fan bas is ready to burn it down.
That Week three game is going to become a musty spect.
So Week three is that SEC game number one for
either squad? I believe that is SEC game number one
for both and it's in Oxford in Oxford in his return,
And who's going to be quarterbacking those two respective teams. Well,
one will be traded at Chambliss because he did get
the eligibility waiver right, and then somebody, somebody, maybe it'll

(01:50:05):
be the elot Kid, or maybe it'll be Sam Lovit
or the forests.

Speaker 2 (01:50:08):
Would say it'd be Sam Levitt health.

Speaker 1 (01:50:10):
He's still dealing with injuries. He missed a spring, Is
it okay? Is he the the Jackson Dart of college
football currently? Like he's They're the same guy, aren't they?

Speaker 2 (01:50:20):
I thought so, I.

Speaker 6 (01:50:21):
Mean, if you if you took the if you took
their same profiles and just said, dude who came from
a school on the West coast and then made the
jump into a lane, kif an offense but blonde hair,
you're talking about basically Sam Lovin.

Speaker 2 (01:50:32):
Oh wait, now Jackson Dart so better? No Sam Love
back to lane?

Speaker 1 (01:50:35):
Is he almost not bulletproof but close to it? Because
it would just add to the list. What has he
done wrong? What is he said wrong? How has he
acted wrong during his twenty five years coaching? Like the
list is forever long, never forget. You just add to
it and said not think I mean sadly not think
much of it.

Speaker 6 (01:50:55):
This is the same guy that got fired on a
tarmac and got told to take a hike.

Speaker 1 (01:50:58):
I mean, like again, this is like became I can't
believe they fired this person like that versus well, yeah,
of course they should have fired him, Like nobody was
saying this was a bad decision.

Speaker 2 (01:51:09):
No, it's just the way it happened.

Speaker 6 (01:51:10):
But again, and then you go through the whole rehabilitation
clinic at Nick's underneath Nick Saban, to then going to Boca,
to then getting to be at Ole.

Speaker 2 (01:51:17):
Miss the reason because of is.

Speaker 1 (01:51:20):
Nick getting more credit than he deserves or the proper credit.
Because all you have to do is get there. Doesn't
matter what you do there, doesn't matter what Sark did there,
doesn't matter what Lane did there, doesn't matter what Bill
O'Brien did there. Just get there and you're good as
your good as gold. As soon as you want to leave, dude,
I don't know you got to. You gotta look back

(01:51:41):
at the history books.

Speaker 6 (01:51:42):
There have been three solid coaches who have been underneath
the Nick Saban to transform themselves in quality names. Kirby
Smart see Sharkisian Lank Kivin. Well, Kirby Smart wasn't rehabbing
at Bama, was he?

Speaker 1 (01:51:53):
No?

Speaker 7 (01:51:54):
I mean technically not.

Speaker 2 (01:51:55):
He just was moving on off the board.

Speaker 1 (01:51:58):
Bill O'Brien was image re having for sure. Lane Kiffen
was image rehabing for sure, and because of Sark's liquid skeletons,
he was rehabbing. He's lip the courage you mean he
had skeletons in his closet and they were holding alcohol bottles.

Speaker 6 (01:52:15):
He ended up turning out to be a damn good
country Texas. But the point is, it's just like the
way that I view it. You're talking about a school
that at one point thought everyone else though you were
damaged goods. You weren't supposed to be considered anywhere near
Division one football. After the embarrassment that was USC they
took a chance on you. You changed the culture, you changed
the narrative, You change the way that people viewed Alemiss.

(01:52:38):
You turn them into a consistent ten win team that
was playing in New Year's six bowl games. You take
them to the college Football Playoff, and because of Keith
Carter says, hey, dude, signed the deal that we're offering
you the exact same amount as LSU to stick around.
You burn your entire reputation in ways that even Tommy
Tuberville is laughing at at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:52:58):
So, being the college football expert officionado that you are
at Sports Talk seven to ninety and elsewhere, I know
what happens if you throw Ryan Day into the search
bar on the X platform currently it was it absolute
total parody, satire, nonsense, or do you think this will

(01:53:22):
be looked into to see if in fact this is
a factual story.

Speaker 6 (01:53:27):
Now they're just making fun of people from Ohio state
who may or may not be completely loyal.

Speaker 1 (01:53:31):
To their significant others. And vrabel did go there. I
am aware that there is I saw the report on
the story from Mike and Diana, but we'll save that
for later.

Speaker 2 (01:53:49):
Maybe that's in case you missed it.

Speaker 1 (01:53:51):
Maybe I'll do the right thing and save it till
tomorrow when Ac presumably returns, because no topic has intrigued him.
I'm not going to use the word tittle a but
intrigued him more than that.

Speaker 2 (01:54:02):
Just getting a kick out of a better you or him.

Speaker 1 (01:54:04):
Well, I'm looking forward to having that conversation with him
about the latest bit of information via photographs tomorrow because
I want to explain my position on this particular side
of the story, because I there it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:54:20):
Exist, There is no way it exists.

Speaker 1 (01:54:22):
That what the new news item, the new picture that's
surfaced is so unnewsworthy to me and what we need
to care about in this scenario. I'm looking forward to
seeing how that conversation goes tomorrow. I feel vindicated because
I remember vindicated.

Speaker 6 (01:54:39):
I texted both of you and the other and the
two other guys I work with in the morning from
six to ten saying that this was a possibility.

Speaker 2 (01:54:46):
What was a possibility?

Speaker 6 (01:54:47):
I can't explain. You gotta save it for tomorrow. You
gotta do a full on professional radio teas wax. All right,
we will do that tomorrow. Cole certainly appreciate you hanging
out with us. In an hour, we will hear from
you again, and then after that we're gonna hear from
you again.

Speaker 2 (01:55:02):
A we're gonna hear about an Astros win? Is the big question?

Speaker 1 (01:55:04):
Well, I've made a few predictions back in the Dodgers series,
and it included a Peter.

Speaker 2 (01:55:08):
Lambert start against the Dodgers. It went well.

Speaker 6 (01:55:12):
Apparently, yeah, apparently Dan was telling me about it. Whenever
you sit in this chair and make predictions on Peter Lambert,
things go wild.

Speaker 1 (01:55:18):
I think if the Astros get a one, two three
first inning from Pete, I'll lock it up. I'll say
it's a series opening home stand opening victory for your
as pretty got the on deck show.

Speaker 2 (01:55:30):
In just over an hour.

Speaker 1 (01:55:31):
We've got football at five next last football Football at
five year the opening segment of the five o'clock hour
each and every day here on the A team, we
hit you with football. Tomorrow at this time we'll talk baseball.
Channel Roe will join us. But there's a bunch of
different things worthy of our time here Texans related. In otherwise,

(01:55:54):
I did actually make a roster move today, added a
running back Evan Hall from a Northwestern a couple of
years Northwestern and was that at rookie minicamp.

Speaker 2 (01:56:03):
He is in tight end.

Speaker 1 (01:56:04):
Luke Liche from last year's draft is out as they
obviously are getting ready for more of their offseason program.
We're not far from their first set of onfield OTAs.
Then they'll have their mandatory mini camp in early June,
and then they're off until training camp begins right here
in Houston. I've not heard anything definitive about a joint practice,

(01:56:26):
but wouldn't surprise me if that was made happen. I
think Demico Ryans realizes the value in it. Oftentimes they
set it up and two days worth and turns into one.
Whatever it turns out to be, you get more out
of it than any preseason game. Talking about the schedule,
and we'll get to two things related to quarterbacks here
in a minute. The schedule is slowly being rolled out

(01:56:49):
over the next couple of days. Official announcements on international
games and certain special games events like the first Sunday
Night football game of the season. Those are actually being
announced before Thursday's entire schedule release. The Cowboys and Giants,
big surprise, It's never happened before. They're going to open
up the season on Sunday Night football. I say that

(01:57:09):
in jest, especially for all the time I worked over
at NBC here locally over at KPRC Channel two, where
Sunday Night Football is aired, it seemed like it was
Giants and Cowboys every year. I believe it's the eighth
time in the last fifteen years they've opened up the
season against one another, and it is a draw. Jackson
Dart and Dak Prescott expected to be ready and able

(01:57:30):
to put their teams in first place. Get to one
to zero, you're in first place. We've got some of
the information about the other opening weekend specialty night games.
Nearly all of the international games have been announced. It's
also the time where you get schedule leaks. There's a
few people on social media that usually get it right

(01:57:52):
that we don't see or follow pretty much the entire
rest of the year, but when it comes to scheduling,
they usually find out out now. The teams or the
venues sometimes screw up and post something before they're supposed to,
or make it go live before they're supposed to, and

(01:58:12):
then they said no, no, no, no, that's not accurate, and
then two or three days later when the schedule comes
out it's proven to be totally accurate. Like if you're
putting together a big travel package for one of the
overseas games and you just go ahead and put that live. Oops,
h fire off that URL and now people can see it.
There was one pretty reputable schedule leak that had the

(01:58:34):
Texans playing the Jaguars in London October eighteenth, in Week six.
Whether it's right or wrong, does it bother you, no.

Speaker 2 (01:58:46):
Care at all?

Speaker 1 (01:58:48):
Excite you to have your team the Texans play an
overseas game. For me, it's strictly the travel you could
do without. It doesn't do anything for the team, doesn't
help in any way. You're playing that team regardless. At
some point, if it's say Jacksonville, you're playing them in
some venue that's not your own. I don't think you

(01:59:08):
can't win in Jacksonville so you catch a break by
playing them in London. It's not worth it for that,
for all the travel that goes into it. It screws
up your whole week, messes everything else up. You're playing
at a totally different time, and just rather do without it.
Doesn't necessarily do anything beyond that, but you might as
well keep as much as you can. Similar you're already

(01:59:29):
gonna have short weeks when you play Thursday. You're probably
gonna have a short week if you're playing on any
other specialty day, which the Texans have done quite a
bit recently.

Speaker 2 (01:59:37):
So just deal with that instead of.

Speaker 1 (01:59:39):
Gathering everybody up and going overseas for a football game,
if you don't have to, let Jacksonville worry about that
twice a year and let the other teams that are
scheduled for that. The Texans have done it once before,
playing Jacksonville in London a handful of years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:59:53):
But I just assume not have that at all. See
what it all plays out to be.

Speaker 1 (01:59:58):
We can guess on the number of prime time games,
would be shocked if it was less than four I'd
be shocked if it was more than five, So I'm
saying it's going to be four or five. They play
seventeen games, They've got Monday Night football, They've got Thursday Night.

Speaker 2 (02:00:10):
Football, They've got Sunday Night football.

Speaker 1 (02:00:13):
There's plenty of opportunities to get the teams they want
you to see the most out there. The way the
Texans played in the postseason in Week one, you better
believe we want to see that team in primetime. A
defense that's crushing like that, putting together big plays, scoring
a bunch of points.

Speaker 2 (02:00:30):
Eventually in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 1 (02:00:31):
Yeah, a twelve win team, now thirteen win team with
Will Anderson Junior and Daniel Hunter and Derek Stingley Junior
and CJ.

Speaker 3 (02:00:39):
Stroup.

Speaker 1 (02:00:39):
Yes, prime time please, standalone games. Yes, the way they
played in the game after that, unless you're trying to
program train wrecks, you probably don't want that team in
a standalone everybody's eyes are on this game, and this
is going to draw viewers for.

Speaker 2 (02:00:54):
The most part.

Speaker 1 (02:00:55):
The Texans back to back division champions, followed by last
year's playoff visit, with a better regular season record and
a nine game winning streak and a very important year
for their quarterback, they're going to be up there quite
a bit. Probably see a slight downturn in the Kansas
City Chiefs visibility, not just because they want six and eleven,

(02:01:16):
but you also have an injury to concern yourselves with.
If you're on the TV side, do you want to
put Kansas City in a standalone game in week one
or week two or week three? You might want it
if you're trying to get the return game, whichever week
that is for Mahomes. If it's week one, his first
game of the year, you better believe people want to
see it. But if he's not playing in Week one
and you've chosen week one for their game, then you're

(02:01:38):
kind of not real excited about that. So it might
be a little bit less than usual. But quarterback is
one other thing I wanted to talk about. The Indiana
Hoosiers made a visit to the White House today. Their
Heisman Trophy winning quarterback not there, Like nearly apparently nearly

(02:01:59):
every other player from the Hoosiers team that's now in
the NFL, I don't know that any of them were there.
The report I saw seem to indicate that was what
basically happened. The players that are in the NFL that
are either just wrapping up Mini camp or just about
to start mini camp, or going through that, they've chosen
to continue working with the team they now play for.
They don't play for Indiana right now. Their NFL players

(02:02:21):
Fernando Mendoza apparently reached out and let the White House
know he would not be there. He is also expected
to be the starting quarterback for the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (02:02:31):
I think it should be in week one.

Speaker 1 (02:02:32):
Let him learn on the side and how to study
film and everything he needs to do with training camp
from Kirk Cousins. All you want, then play him in
week one. That's what I would do. So let's say
he's starting quarterback for the Raiders in week one. He
will be the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL this year.
He's twenty three years old. It's the youngest in the NFL.
Aaron Rodgers is on the complete other end of it

(02:02:53):
at forty three. It'll be the Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback
when they finalize his deal, five years than Matt Stafford.
There's six ten other quarterbacks thirty or older. But this
is a Texans related item. Fernando Mendoza I'm just curious, Josh,
if you would jump in here. I just told you

(02:03:14):
Fernando Mendoza is the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL.
Who do you think the next five youngest quarterbacks starting
quarterbacks in the NFL? Are the next five? The next five? Well,
just by the way you're setting this up as c J.
Stroud's got one of them, right, that's the only important one.

(02:03:34):
Drake May, cam Wore, Jackson Dark, Caleb Williams, and c J.

Speaker 2 (02:03:38):
Stroud. CJ.

Speaker 1 (02:03:39):
Stroud is about to start for the fourth season. He
was the starter from day one. He's got almost three
full seasons of NFL work, missed a couple of games
two years ago, missed three games last year, and has
six postseason starts heading into year four. And there's five
starting quarterbacks younger than him in a thirty two team league.

(02:04:00):
That's it. That's wild. That's a big deal. That's a
ton of development still to come. And this isn't a
quarterback that barely played in college. He's played a ton
of football. He's twenty five. He's twenty five years old
with a tremendous amount of experience. You can take that

(02:04:21):
statement for any way you want. It whooped de doo Wex.
He's got great experience. Tell me about his last game.
Tell me about how he played with all that experience,
all that postseason experience in college and five games of
postseason experience in the NFL and three full years of starting,
tell me how he played in that last game. You're right,
he played very poorly. He helped to prevent the Texans

(02:04:42):
from winning that game. Their defense doesn't allow three touchdown passes.
That probably would have helped to he played well. But
those three touchdown passes allowed not something they did very
often last year, never, so that would obviously have changed
things too. But I don't think, no matter how many
times we say it, I don't think people really realize

(02:05:02):
how young he is. Twenty five is not crazy young.
But he's in a group of thirty two players, and
twenty seven of them or twenty six of them are
older than he is. Marginally twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven,
what's the difference. I'm fine with any of that too.
And the best quarterbacks in the NFL, none of them

(02:05:23):
are under twenty eight. Trevor Lawrence, is Bo Nicks, Drake
May are the best quarterbacks under the age of twenty eight,
Jade Daniels, c J.

Speaker 2 (02:05:34):
Stroud.

Speaker 1 (02:05:35):
It's one of them because those are the only quarterbacks
under age twenty eight. Herbert's twenty eight hurts is twenty eight,
Lamar Jackson, twenty nine, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow thirty.
Like there's five years of football before c J. Stroud
is starting for the Texans at age thirty. I will
hope there's a lot more progress from c J Stroud

(02:05:56):
between now and then a next segment. I want you
to hear something from an nif fell analyst on what
is in store, what is on tap, what should be
on the mind of c J. Stroud for two different reasons,
both for what has taken place around him on the
roster here in Houston this year, especially off of what
has happened in the first three years and in last

(02:06:17):
year's postseason, but secondarily what has also taken place around
c J. Stroud financially. He's spent his career in the
same locker room as Derek Stingley Junior his sole time here.
He's gotten a big fat extension. He spent his time
in this Texans locker room his whole time here with
Nico Collins.

Speaker 2 (02:06:35):
Nico Collins has gotten an extension.

Speaker 1 (02:06:37):
He spent his entire career here in this Texans locker
room with Will Anderson Jr.

Speaker 2 (02:06:41):
He's gotten an extension.

Speaker 1 (02:06:43):
And the list is long because the Texans in Nikassio
Nick Casio have done that with most of their players
that have played at that level, and there are a
lot of them. So on that note, we'll hit that
on the other side regarding c. J. Stroud, Texans quarterback,
and what he should according to at least one person
for two if you count me, because I agree to

(02:07:05):
some of those things, what he should be thinking about
heading into what soon will be the on field portion
of the offseason, heading into his fourth year as Texans
starting quarterback. Here with us on the A team. No
AC today, Wex and Josh here with you this afternoon.
Appreciate Cole Thompson hanging out during the four o'clock hour.
We open up the five o'clock hour with football at five.

(02:07:25):
More football to come a year got in case you
missed it, coming up next segment. Final segment of the
show will wrap things up. Also giveaway tickets if you
want to go see an evening with Jeff Foxworthy. This Sunday,
that's May seventeenth. Though we're Smart Financial Center and sugar Land.
We'll be giving a pair of tickets away to see
that show coming up in the final segment of the show.

Speaker 2 (02:07:46):
Just keep listening to the program.

Speaker 1 (02:07:48):
Something that is said this hour we'll ask you about
in the final segment of the show, and that's how
you will win a pair of tickets to go see that.
By the way, last week we had a chance to
go out to the Astros Dodgers ball game thanks to
my friends over at Budweiser. We're sitting in Section one
fifty celebrating the Budweiser one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Alan

(02:08:13):
and Mike Cassidy among the ticket winners that were out
there with me enjoying the game, some SuDS and that
night an Astro's victory. Unbelievable place to go enjoy the
game was also Dollar Dog Night on a Tuesday and
the Dodgers in town. So certainly appreciate those of you
listening to the program are winners there with Budweiser and

(02:08:34):
our friends right here at Sports Talk seven to ninety
had a great time out there, hopefully.

Speaker 2 (02:08:38):
And I know the answer is yes. You had a
good time out there as well.

Speaker 1 (02:08:41):
Hopefully we'll get a chance to do that again later
this year, but we do have tickets. Like I said
to Jeff Foxworthy coming up in the final segment of
the show, wanted to continue a little bit of the
conversation on CJ. Stroud, but first wanted to open it
up with a conversation about another player on the team
that could we'll go into the season under a new contract,

(02:09:02):
and that's Nico Collins. Doesn't have to be imminent, and
they have manipulated their other extensions and restructures and cap
situation in general to where they don't have to do
anything with Nico Collins contract currently. I don't know that
they feel compelled to make sure that happens before the season,

(02:09:22):
during the season, or just kind of setting themselves up
potentially for it next season. Obviously, there's been a little
bit of a game's missed issue, and the last game
of the year to be missed is a rather unfortunate situation,
and it certainly showed and the Texans loss to the
Patriots there on the postseason. He's under contract through this
season and next his year twenty eight season twenty twenty

(02:09:44):
eight would be his year twenty nine season, and by
that point in time to remain with the Texans, he'd
have to be on a second contract extension three years
and better than seventy two million is what he's currently
playing under on the first of his contract extensions. He
had his annual foot camp over the weekend out in
Santa Fe. Aaron Wilson with us here and over a
KPRC Channel two is out there with him and he

(02:10:07):
said what pretty much has been the standard line for
any player who's played here during the Debiko Ryans era,
during the Nick Cassario era, during the winning era of
the Texans, and has already been paid or is looking
forward to being paid.

Speaker 2 (02:10:22):
They all want to be here.

Speaker 3 (02:10:23):
I'm gonna put my roost here.

Speaker 7 (02:10:24):
I love a Texans you know, I got drafted here,
Somewhere I want to end, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:10:27):
So I love the city, the people, the community. You know.

Speaker 7 (02:10:31):
The's a lot of great positive bos going up to
see the Houston.

Speaker 3 (02:10:34):
So it's definitely a place I would like to.

Speaker 1 (02:10:36):
Retire, would like to retire. He's nowhere near retirement. And
the way Texans extensions go, Will Anderson just got three years.
Daniel Hunter has gotten successive extensions of one additional year
each time as he's all shire a three year extension
before him, Laramie Tunsall was regularly getting three year extensions.

(02:10:58):
Derek Stingley junior three year extension. How many three year
extensions Nico has already gotten? One will it take to
have him retire here in Houston? It's a ways off,
but another contract to keep him here in Houston is
certainly what I expect. You'd have to see remarkable production
and improvement from their young receivers, whether that includes Tank Dell,

(02:11:20):
it certainly includes both Jalen Knowle and more specifically Jayden Higgins,
and that he would absolutely literally replace the position of
wide receiver. The specific place on the field that Nico
lines up is what obviously Jaden Higgins has done in
his absence and would do if it was a permanent absence.
But those guys are not at the level of Nico,
not even close, not anywhere near that at this point

(02:11:42):
in their second NFL year.

Speaker 2 (02:11:45):
Not to his quarterback.

Speaker 1 (02:11:47):
Before we get to his comments on his quarterback, Jason
mccordy was talking about what he thought the situation was
like for CJ.

Speaker 2 (02:11:57):
Stroud in Houston.

Speaker 1 (02:11:58):
Like I laid out last Sea, his situation is watching
teammate after teammate after teammate get taken care of, and
then very specifically Will Anderson, his teammate who was drafted
in the same draft one spot after him, elite player
at his position, he was taken care of this offseason,
extension eligible for the first time. He got a three
year extension last offseason. Derek Stingley Junior was extension eligible

(02:12:23):
for the first time as a number three overall pick.
He got an extension. In both of their cases, they
were made the highest paid player at their respective position.
They've both played at that level. Clearly, CJ. Shroud's a
little bit different timing wise. He's extension eligible for the
first time, and they've clearly gone about their off season

(02:12:44):
with the intention of not making that happen this offseason.

Speaker 2 (02:12:47):
And I don't think that.

Speaker 1 (02:12:47):
Comes as any surprise to CJ, because they will have
had conversations about this. They will have made sure there's
an understanding on both sides about the thinking here and
where we're what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (02:12:57):
And what's on the table.

Speaker 1 (02:12:59):
And we talked about it the other day when Demiico
Rians made this comment to me and the rest of
the media when they were over at the Annual Charity
Golf Classic. He said, he just tells players contracts will
take care of themselves. The reality is that's a two
way street. The play dictates what kind of contract do
you have In the play isn't good, it will take
care of itself. But I think he meant it more
in watching what his team is doing. The players are

(02:13:21):
making sure that their play takes care of the contract.
They're playing so well that it's inevitable that they're getting
these massive extensions and early extensions kind of in the
off season landscape, the Texans have often signed their players
very early if they were in a market setting position
or in a year where multiple players at their position

(02:13:43):
were about to get contract extensions. And as silly as
it sounds, it's what they did with Kymie Fairbair in
this offseason. When the year ended, he was the sixth
highest paid kicker based on aav average annual value, and
then the Texans extended him and made him the number
one highest paid kick. He's already number three. It's been
a couple of weeks. Chris Boswell got his deal. Today

(02:14:05):
he makes seven million a year. Kayumi makes six point five.
Aubrey got his deal from the Cowboys. He makes seven
million a year. Texans are usually ahead of the game,
and in Kaymie's position, he didn't technically reset the market.
He just became the highest paid player for a short
period of time. Stingley's number was way out there, Anderson
Junior's number is way out there, also a hallmark of

(02:14:27):
what the Texans like to do. But here's what mccordy
said about how he thinks CJ should view this season
on the field with what is going on around him,
and financially off the field, with what this team is
doing around him.

Speaker 7 (02:14:42):
There's a ton of pressure on CJ.

Speaker 12 (02:14:43):
Shroud won the contract too, to be able to just
rebound from what he did in the playoffs this past season.

Speaker 7 (02:14:49):
I think if you're CJ. Stroud, you like the fact
that you.

Speaker 12 (02:14:52):
Don't have a contract offer in front of you because
I don't want to negotiate coming off of the two
games that he.

Speaker 7 (02:14:56):
Played in the playoffs.

Speaker 12 (02:14:58):
I want an opportunity, to your point, apply new offensive lineman.
This is a chance to put a brand new running
back in David Montgomery, to go in there and set
it tone for this offense. Nick Careley, the coordinator, it'll
be his second season. They got rid of some coaches
and brought in some guys that knows Kaylee's systems.

Speaker 7 (02:15:14):
So now for CJ. Strout, you're setting.

Speaker 12 (02:15:16):
Yourself up with success, going into a season healthy, with
an opportunity to prove that you're one of the best
quarterbacks in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (02:15:22):
Now you're negotiating from that standpoint.

Speaker 12 (02:15:24):
So yes, it's a ton of pressure, but it's also
a runway to be able to get the bag and
get paid.

Speaker 1 (02:15:30):
Runaway to get the bag. He's certainly correct that there is.
I believe they've done a lot of things to make
his job easier. Most of it has been to I
think establish the run. This we talk about this all
the time, and yet it still doesn't seem to sink in.
They can't run the ball two straight years, even with
Joe Mixon, and certainly the year before it was worse.

(02:15:51):
It got a little bit better with Joe, and then
it got significantly worse again last year.

Speaker 2 (02:15:54):
They didn't run the ball.

Speaker 1 (02:15:55):
They can't rely on the run and short down in
distant situations. They can't rely on the run in first
second down to get them in good down and distant situations.
They can't run the ball in the red zone. They
can't run the ball in goal to goal situations with
any kind of real success. All those things are terrible
for your quarterback. Yeah, some of quarterbacks like Josh Allen
and Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes, they've had years,

(02:16:17):
not Lamar where the running game could be better.

Speaker 2 (02:16:21):
They can overcome it. You know why, They're all better
than c. J. Stroud.

Speaker 1 (02:16:24):
I think that's an okay thing to acknowledge, recognize, and
know is true. They're all better than him. He needs
to get closer to them. He needs to get closer
to that level, and the team can have incredible success
even if he's not quite at their level. He just
can't play like he did last season. I know they
won nine straight games. Those aren't playoff winning performances nine

(02:16:45):
straight wins. Those were regular season wins against several teams
that were non competitive that they crushed and had no
problem beating. And some of those games.

Speaker 2 (02:16:53):
Weren't even with c. J. Stroud quite obviously.

Speaker 1 (02:16:55):
Then they got to the postseason and their defense was
good enough to help them manhandle the Steelers. Remember that
is a one point game in the fourth quarter before
they blew them out because their offense wasn't playing well.
They couldn't run the ball very well as well as
they needed to. I know Woody Marks had a statistically
strong game in that and maybe there's more of that
to come this year, but they need more of it

(02:17:16):
quite obviously. I told you there was more from Nico,
and I want to give you this last thing from
Nico because it's so brief.

Speaker 2 (02:17:22):
What kind of years CJ gonna have?

Speaker 3 (02:17:25):
Differently? Different on the mission.

Speaker 1 (02:17:29):
He's ready to hunt. He's a man on a mission.
In case you missed it. As next, in case you
missed it. In case you missed it, the Astros are
in the middle of thirteen straight days of baseball. Nights four, five, six,
and seven seven is a day game come against the
Seattle Mariners. Their four game series with the Mariners begins tonight.

(02:17:49):
Astros will be facing George Kirby bottom of the first inning.
The first batter he will face is Jose Altuve, batting
leadoff in front of jord Don Alvarez. Josel Tuve brings
a seven h two ops into tonight's game. He's got
three home runs on the season two games in which
he's hit a homer, because he has one of the
Astros two home run games this year, jost As, we

(02:18:10):
get into in Case you missed it, why don't you
wet blanket everybody on the work that's been done recently
by Jose Altuve.

Speaker 2 (02:18:19):
We need him to get hot again.

Speaker 11 (02:18:20):
Wex we know he's a streaky player, but if we
look back to the end of last season, it gets
a little two thirty one in August he hit two
eighteen and September slash October, and we remember he had
the injury he.

Speaker 2 (02:18:34):
Was playing through us.

Speaker 11 (02:18:34):
So I think we kind of said, oh, okay, we
get it. But now we're looking at last fifteen days
ops five fifteen, last seven days, just a short one
five seventeen. Over the last thirty days five point fifty eight.
The good news is my other part of In Case
you missed It, Jeremy Pania about to go hit a
rehab start and come back. I think the Astros need

(02:18:55):
him at the top of the order until al Tuove
heats up a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:18:59):
So last thirty days among Astros that have at least
forty eight bats, and there are one two three, four, five, six, seven,
eight nine. Of those players, the only one with a
lower ops than jose Al twuoves five point fifty eight
is Cam Smith. We've obviously been talking about how slumpy

(02:19:20):
Cam Smith has been recently. His OPS is four fifty four,
twenty nine strikeouts and eighty four abs. Altuve has a
two point fifty on base percentage. Remember he always walks
Altuve from the beginning of the season anymore, and he's
back to the I never walk al too. Eight nineteen
hits and nineteen strikeouts in his last thirty days.

Speaker 2 (02:19:42):
That is That is troubling.

Speaker 11 (02:19:44):
It's concerning because look, eventually you're going to see a
little bit of fall off, right guys in his mid thirties.
We're just hoping. But he's also, like I said, very streaky.
So we just got to hope he's not in a peak.
He's in a valley right now and he'll peak again soon.
But I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable. This is
my opinion. It seems like he's guessing a lot more
from when I'm watching him hit.

Speaker 1 (02:20:05):
Do you think he was guessing on that pitch from
Sho Hallo Toney.

Speaker 11 (02:20:09):
Yeah, the one that was two al two Bay links
outside of the batter spots.

Speaker 2 (02:20:12):
That was something you mentioned.

Speaker 1 (02:20:15):
Jeremy Paynia Sureland is in Tacoma for six games starting tomorrow,
while the Astros obviously are here in Houston for the
next seven games. He's going to do his rehab work
starting tomorrow. It looks like Jeremy Pania for Corpus Christy
because they are at home with Amarillo starting tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (02:20:35):
That's good news. What else do we have? Yeah, let's uh,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:20:38):
I like Turkey Day, a little bit of football on
Turkey Day and a lot of football.

Speaker 2 (02:20:41):
Three games. Yeah, and now we have these schedule leaks.

Speaker 11 (02:20:45):
Looks like the Cowboys, we know they always play on Thanksgiving,
gonna host the Eagles, possibly without AJ Brown would be
my guest. But I think that's a good matchup Cowboys Eagles.
I'm cool with it.

Speaker 1 (02:20:55):
What do you think It's almost impossible to have a
bad Cowboys matchup because even though they're the quote unquote
draw you look back at most of the games that
we've been given on Thanksgivings, seems like it's me recently,
I can't roll them off one by one. But it
seems like the matchups have actually been compelling and very
good as long as the Cowboys hold up their end.

(02:21:16):
So November twenty sixth, that's Thanksgiving this year, Cowboys and Eagles.

Speaker 2 (02:21:22):
It's been announced. It's the afternoon game.

Speaker 1 (02:21:24):
We'll have them an early game Lions most likely, and
then we'll have a late game, two non traditional teams
that now get to play on Thanksgiving. The third game
November twenty sixth. Who will be ahead of the other
in the NFC East standings?

Speaker 2 (02:21:40):
The Cowboys or the Eagles. I'm gonna go with the Eagles.

Speaker 11 (02:21:44):
I think the Jalen Hurts nonsense is getting a little
too much. I think he's a better quarterback than that.
But I think the Cowboys are going to be better
this year. But that defense was a train wreck last season.
They got to get that fixed. But give me the Eagles.

Speaker 3 (02:21:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:21:59):
I think they made some personnel moves that will make
them better, and clearly the biggest move of all was
changing their defense entirely and telling Matt Eberfluss that you're
no longer needed here. I think that will make the
biggest difference. They will definitely be much better defensively. It's
questionable whether they'll be better offensively, maybe unhappy George Pickens.

(02:22:19):
I don't know they're gonna get the same work from
Javonte Williams, who was phenomenal in his year first year
last year with the Cowboys. Will we chelsee, I would
also pick the Eagles to have a better record at
that point in the season. It's week twelve, when Thanksgiving
falls on November twenty six.

Speaker 2 (02:22:34):
What else do we have?

Speaker 11 (02:22:35):
Yeah, this is one of the guys that I wanted
the Texans to sign. Wex said, the tight end room,
it was something I thought they could get better at.

Speaker 2 (02:22:43):
He's no Foster Moreau, whoever you're gonna say.

Speaker 11 (02:22:46):
I'm gonna go with David Njoku. He signed with the
Chargers on a one year deal. And keep in mind,
the Chargers had Gatstan the young rookie player that actually
played really well last year. They're gonna add him to
that tight end room I thought the Texans could have
benefitted from. And I know najok who is numbers weren't
great last year. Keep in mind, with the quarterback situation,
wasn't a factor for sure. Yes, he's just he's also

(02:23:07):
really good in the red zone. And we know, I mean,
how many times did the Texans get down to the
goal line and they just could not punch it in.
That's why fair Barns breaking records for field goals. They
really struggled in the red zone. I thought he could
have been somebody they could have just given a shot.

Speaker 2 (02:23:21):
One year deal.

Speaker 11 (02:23:22):
I think it was only like eight million bucks, so
they didn't have to pay a ton for him. And
now it goes to one of your competitors in the AFC.

Speaker 1 (02:23:30):
A little bit less money aav I'm trying to recollect
than Coolar got from the Chargers. Yeah, that sounds right,
and obviously with Gaston, like you mentioned, it's a really
good tight end room now, no question about it. I
hate it, and I'm sure Ac hates it even more.
I'm a big fan of what the Chargers have done
this offseason, and similar to what I just mentioned with

(02:23:51):
the Cowboys, I think what they've done hiring Mike McDaniel
and moving on from their previous OC is going to
be amazing for their offense.

Speaker 2 (02:24:01):
Their run game's gonna take a big step forward.

Speaker 1 (02:24:03):
And very under the radar, even though coach McDaniel's already
talked about it a couple of times. If they get
any kind of health from Keaton Mitchell. He's going to
wow every week. He might only get five eight touches
a week even healthy, but he is going to put
wow plays in every one of their games. I'm still

(02:24:25):
amazed that never happened with regularity, and I don't know
injuries were a huge part of it in Baltimore. I
think he's an unbelievable talent and a great toy for
McDaniel Omarion.

Speaker 2 (02:24:35):
Hampton's gonna be very good.

Speaker 1 (02:24:37):
They probably have three new starters on the offensive line,
and their tackles might be healthy this year. If alt
and Slater are healthy, and Slaughter's a player, and their
new center is a player and beattish, and they're gonna
be a totally different team. And they already were good.
I think they have a chance to again. I don't
like it, but I think they have a chance to
make as big an improvement as any.

Speaker 2 (02:24:58):
Team in the that matters.

Speaker 1 (02:25:02):
I don't really care about a team that won three
games winning seven.

Speaker 11 (02:25:05):
I don't think they want to see Justin Herbert taking
that many shots, having to run so much, so, which
is smart, right. We saw what he did against the Texans,
just running over dudes, he can do that when he
needs to, But you don't want your quarterbacks taking hits
like that regularly.

Speaker 1 (02:25:18):
No, certainly not when he had an injury he was
playing through with his hand. In addition to all that,
they're going to run the ball a lot more, point blank,
But I think they have the ability to be.

Speaker 2 (02:25:28):
A much much better offense this year.

Speaker 1 (02:25:30):
Already we're a pretty good defense, and I don't really
think that that will change a whole lot of this year.
Got those tickets to Jeff Foxworthy to give away for you. Next,
we'll wrap things up on the A team, a couple
more thoughts on Kirby versus Lambert Dyke and Park Tight Next,
a couple of things to still get to here, including

(02:25:51):
a look at George Kirby versus the Houston Astros historically.
Also want to give away those tickets I mentioned, We'll
give him away all week. It's for a show coming
up on Sunday, May seventeenth. Oh, We're Smart Financial Center
that's in Sugarland. It's the Jeff Foxworthy Show and Evening
with Jeff Foxworthy.

Speaker 2 (02:26:10):
You've got a pair of tickets to give away.

Speaker 1 (02:26:11):
Tickets are also on sale at Smart Financialcenter Dot net
center is tr at the end.

Speaker 2 (02:26:19):
For those that don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:26:20):
If you would like to purchase tickets, that's where you
can do it. If you'd like to win them here,
then hopefully you were listening to the program so you
will know the answer to this very very very simple
question that we'll ask you here. You can call in
at seven one three two one two five seven ninety
in order to win those tickets seven one three two
one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:26:39):
Just answer this simple question.

Speaker 1 (02:26:41):
Schedule for the NFL is being rolled out in full
on Thursday Night. A handful of standalone primetime special event
games we're announcer earlier today, and we'll continue to be
announced between now and Thursday night's full schedule release. We
mentioned one of those games is on Thanksgiving, and I
had talked about how often the Cowboys a perennial Thanksgiving

(02:27:04):
Day team. Not only do they play on Thanksgiving, it's
not just some random team. More often than not, those
matchups have been really, really good. I played the Chiefs
last season, turned out to be an awesome game, not
just a matchup of two teams that draw out of eyeballs,
but a very good matchup. Nonetheless, and I thought this
year's leak not a leak an announcement. This year's announcement

(02:27:28):
of who they're playing on Thanksgiving, which we talked about
last segment, was also setting up to be a very
entertaining matchup. Who are the Cowboys playing on Thanksgiving? It
was just announced in discussed right here on the A
Team last segment November twenty sixth. Who is the Cowboys'
opponent in twenty twenty six seven one three two one

(02:27:49):
two five seven ninety seven one three two one two
five seven ninety If you know the answer, the Jacks
Jeff fox Worth. The tickets are yours. The Astra are
taking on George Kirby tonight. Their starting pitcher, Peter Lambert
has actually outperformed him, with fewer starts this year two

(02:28:09):
forty two ERA for Lambert two ninety four ERA for Kirby.
Kirby's having another strong season in a rotation of excellence,
while Castillo has had a rough season and Bryce Miller
has been hurt. Emerson Hancock has been very good. Brian
wu has been not quite as good as he's been
in years past, but I'm sure that will come around.

(02:28:29):
He's an all star level starting pitcher they will miss
Logan Gilbert, who's also been very good. I think George
Kirby is the best of the bunch, and I don't
just think that because of his work against the Astros.
Nine current Astros on the roster have faced George Kirby
in their career. Six of them are in tonight's lineup.

(02:28:52):
None of them have hit a homer off of George
Kirby in his career. Al Tuoveys faced him for twenty
one at bats. He's three for twenty one out Alvarez
three for seventeen. It's stinky. Christian Walker has a single
hit in eight at bats against him. And on top

(02:29:12):
of all that, nobody's ever hit a home run off
of George Kirby in an Astros uniform. He went six
shoutout innings against the Astros in that eighteen inning game
several years ago on the postseason, and in his major
league career ten starts against the Astros, fifty eight innings,
fifty four strikeouts, a two to seventeen ARA, a whip

(02:29:36):
under one, no home runs allowed. That's the prediction I'm
now making. The Astros will hit their first ever home
run off of George Kirby and Tonight's victory over the
Seattle Mariners. He's five and one all time in those
ten starts, and again an absolutely sparkling two seventeen era

(02:29:56):
Peter Lambert coming off what I think is the best
game he's pitched as a pro, and certainly the best
game he's pitched as an Astro. It was back at
Dyke And Park last week on Tuesday Night against the Dodgers,
and he shut him out in seven innings.

Speaker 2 (02:30:09):
He needs to continue that.

Speaker 1 (02:30:10):
The Astros are coming into this game a little bit
light on the offensive side. They scored ten runs on
Friday night. I think everybody knows that. Do you know
how many runs they've scored in the four games prior
to that, plus the two games since that? Eleven runs
in six games three, three, two, two, one and zero

(02:30:36):
in their last six games other than the ten run
out burst. One of those runs, by the way, was
scored against the position player. The Astros offense is not
running in gun and right now, it's not firing on
all cylinders. Right now, it's clearly missing two pieces. No
Carlos Correa, who had successful surgery today on the ten
and in his ankle and it's missing Jeremy Pania, who,

(02:30:59):
according to Joe Spotti, should could likely will go on
a rehab assignment with Corpus Christy as early as tomorrow,
and as I suggested earlier, if he's in a rehab
game tomorrow or Wednesday, then I think he spends the
weekend rehabbing six game series for Corpus Christy at home.
He'll play in a back to back, he'll play in

(02:31:22):
three or four of the six games, and he'll return
to the Astros as they leave town following the next
seven games four tonight or four games with the Mariners,
then three games with the Rangers, and the last three
of their thirteen consecutive games played will be on the road,
so when they leave town, he'll be with them.

Speaker 2 (02:31:42):
In my opinion, with.

Speaker 1 (02:31:43):
The eye towards having him play on Monday, I don't
know that for certain. I don't think they want to
rush him. I don't know how much more than six
days of rehab he would need. He hadn't played much
this season, obviously, it was hurt to begin the season,
played a little bit before he got hurt again to
totally different injuries. But they will want him out there

(02:32:06):
if he's been able to recover. If he recovers well
from being in the nine inning game or the back
to back games, everything will be fine, back on track,
and when they get to Minnesota for that Monday through
Wednesday series, I would hope he's out there for at
least to be activated and should probably see time in
probably two of those games. They'll have their first off
day on the twenty first. Over this thirteen straight days

(02:32:28):
of baseball, four against Seattle, three against Texas, and then
three on the road against Minnesota, travel day before they
get to go see Alex Breckman and the Chicago Cubs.
It's part of a ten game road trip. They've already
had one of those. This one will be better. I
guarantee it. They will not lose nine times on this

(02:32:52):
ten game road trip. They did that the first time
the first road trip of the season, they lost nine
of their ten games and had an eight game losing streak.
Not gonna happen this time, and hopefully everything falls into
the place with three starters, specifically, Lambert can keeps doing
what he's doing. Burrows will have the last game of
this series against Seattle, and then presumably Arraghetti throws on Friday,

(02:33:14):
That is not definitive yet because he would you know,
he pitched on Sunday, So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, that's
four days of rest. He pitches on Friday. Not one
hundred percent certain that's what they want to do. I'm
sure they're cognizant of the rest days.

Speaker 3 (02:33:28):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:33:29):
With tatsu Emi rejoining the rotation tomorrow, I doubt he's
pitching on four days rest. He hasn't done that in
the past in his career. He didn't do it in
the three starts he made with the Astros, and coming
off of arm fatigue, I'm sure they're putting in an
extra day of rest. Well, that means he's not pitching

(02:33:49):
Tuesday and Sunday. He's probably pitching Tuesday and Monday. So
somebody else would obviously have to slot in there at
some point. And if they don't want to make Lambert
and Araghetty work on just four days rest, not saying
they don't, just saying if they don't, then they would
need somebody else to start the Friday game or the
Saturday game, depending on how they play.

Speaker 2 (02:34:07):
That just something to keep an eye on as the.

Speaker 1 (02:34:10):
Astros play, what I think will be rather important Vision Games,
they're sixteen and twenty five. They're playing two teams that
are also under five hundred in the Mariners at nineteen
and twenty two and currently the Rangers are nineteen and
twenty one. By the way, the Rangers, who would have
otherwise had Nate Evaldi Nate Eovaldi on the mound tonight,
had to scratch him, which certainly would put his next

(02:34:31):
start in jeopardy. Well, his next start would have been
against the Houston Astros during that upcoming series, So see
how that plays out. All in preparation for Astros Mariners
tonight will do the same thing again tomorrow four hours
of us right into tomorrow night's seven to ten first pitch.

Speaker 2 (02:34:49):
Appreciate everybody joining us this afternoon.

Speaker 1 (02:34:51):
As always, we'll talk to Mike Burrows live on the
eight team tomorrow at two thirty. We'll have Chandler Rome
Jonas tomorrow at five o'clock