Mocking The Mariners, Dealing With D'Backs & Ole Donnie's Washington Rant....So A Monday Show

While a series sweep was avoided, the Houston Astros look to get back to their winning ways in the coming hours against the Diamondbacks. Wex and AC return from the weekend to recap Seattle's win, moves at the deadline, the President blocking Washington's move to D.C., a CP3 reunion in La La Land and More!

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:10):
My girl.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Nolan multi by the magnificent roller coaster ride that is
Houston Sports Chill late down for the only homegrown afternoon
team is talking Your teams.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
It's two o'clock on a Monday, Welcome.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
Back in from the weekend. Of course, you've been listening
to Sports Talk seven ninety all day long, so I
don't really need to tell you that, but it is
our first chance to say, welcome back in for the
week from the weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 5 (01:05):
Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network simulcast coming
up at the top of the hour. In the meantime,
just got the old traditional radio for the next hour.
Wex Me, Cole and you at seven one three, two,
one two five seven ninety. I'm gonna say something and
I don't really I just I just want your immediate
opinion as soon as I say it. That was a

(01:28):
lot more fun. If the Astros don't lose the way
they did the first two nights of that series, and
I realize that they're fielding the sugar Land Space Cowboys,
I realize they're just lost another key component, probably the
most consistent player all season for them, And it's just
insane the amount of lineups they've used and the amount

(01:48):
of people from their opening day lineup that are currently
on the IL right now or some sort of injury.
But that would have been a lot more fun yesterday
if at least they didn't screw up on Saturday.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Let's put it that way.

Speaker 6 (02:01):
Yeah, that was the one game they clearly didn't win
that they should have. They should not have won on Friday,
and they did one yesterday. I would certainly characterize the
weekend like that. Dominated yesterday after Hunter Brown left. We've
said that all year long. So as you get Hunter
Brown out of the game, you're good to go. Worked
out nicely. You faced their ace, they faced one of
your aces, and you took care of him. Your offense

(02:22):
and the players in your lineup yesterday took care of
things and they made it a little bit easier on
a already spent bullpen. That was the third day of baseball.
Since every pitcher for the Astros had five days off,
they didn't pitch on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or all
day Friday until first pitch of a very late game,

(02:43):
and yet over the span of three days they are
absolutely gassed. I haven't heard of a roster move being made,
but it wouldn't surprise me if they made one, just
in light of the fact they need arms. They're playing
again today and tomorrow and the next day and the
next day and the next day and the next day,
and they've got a long stretch of games without an
had Brian Abrado pitching in back to back games on

(03:04):
Saturday and Sunday. You got Josh Hater pitching in back
to back innings on Saturday, also throwing the most pitches
he's thrown in an afternoon or evening's work all season.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
Is it possible for your bullpen to be gassed two
games into the altar.

Speaker 6 (03:18):
And that they've been used too much over a three
day span because you had back to back starts Lance
first and Hunter second, where you got very very little
out of your starting pitcher. You got the shortest out
of the year from Hunter Brown at four innings, and
you got eight outs from Lance mcculler's junior. The bullpen
did their job for the majority of the day in
Saturday's game, and they definitely did their job.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
In yesterday's game.

Speaker 6 (03:41):
You needed five innings from them and they got fifteen
outs without allowing any runs. And during that time you
scored eleven times and had another happy flight prevented the
Mariners from biting into that lead even more, back up
to four heading into the set of games today and
again all throughout the week obviously, and the Astros hopefully
will get a couple of spots in the rotation figured

(04:04):
out sometime soon. Spencer Arraghetti, Christian Javier, and Louis Garcia
all through rehab starts for a variety of their minor
league affiliates this past weekend and probably characterize them as
very successful for Spencer and promising, successful and promising for
Christian Javier, and curious for Luis Garcia. When we got

(04:26):
four hours to discuss those things. Yet another player scratched
from the lineup after he was put in the lineup
that came yesterday, and Shay Whitcomb forced into a starting role.
He played an important role in the game. Pretty Much
everybody that was on the diamond for the Astros yesterday
played an important role in the eleven to three victory.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Victor Karattini continues to crush.

Speaker 6 (04:47):
He's the Astros' best hitter over the course of the
month in a certain areas without Tuove carrying them in others.
You had Taylor Tremmel against his former team, not only
helping this team tremendously offensively defensively, his work behind the
flailing Cooper Hummel in left field was huge. It kept
the Mariners off the board with his throat a dubon

(05:07):
and on home to get the officials to review it
and get it corrected upon review, and keep a run
off the board. A bunch of different things, and obviously
all of that being said, probably the most important thing
that happened over the weekend was the single from Esach
Perettis off the wall in left field when he came
up lame and immediately knew he needed to leave the game.

(05:30):
Brief visit from the athletic training staff and Joe Aspada
and limping off the field, he went and headed back
to Houston for an MRIs.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
What he told everybody after the game.

Speaker 6 (05:39):
Obviously, I think we knew then, if we didn't already,
he would be headed to the IL, which he was yesterday.
So a bare minimum of a ten day IL stint
for Perettis. Maybe a little bit of info on that
later today when they get started with their latest trip
there in Arizona, taking on a Diamondbacks team that has
a lot of cards, and nobody sure if they're going
to play them come trade deadline. Because the Diamondbacks aren't

(06:02):
out of it. They absolutely can still make the playoffs,
and so can twenty two teams. In my opinion in
Major League Baseball, I believe eight teams are out of
it and twenty two teams are in it. I'm not
sure how many sellers there will be, but ten days
from now we'll know more.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
Well, I think probably the best thing you could take
away from this weekend is that the Tigers are also
slumping of late, So if you want to have like
a silver lining situation, maybe you could. Although the Blue
Jays passed up the Astros, so.

Speaker 6 (06:32):
Yeah, I'm not I'm not worried about the teams they
need to catch unless it's now they're in third, and
now they're in third, So both the Blue Jays and
Toron and Detroit, as you mentioned, are teams they should
be watching. Toronto has been hot for about six weeks
and overtook the Yankees. There's ten teams with fifty or
more wins or nine teams in the American League with
fifty or more wins. The Mariners are playing probably the

(06:54):
hottest team in baseball starting today. The Brewers over on
the National League side, so maybe they'll down a little bit,
but it's always been about the same thing. They haven't
lost a whole lot of ground to Detroit in the
last two weeks. They haven't really been able to keep
pace with Toronto, but they need to need to take
care of their own business. It would be a shame
to win the division again and finish third overall of

(07:17):
the division winners like they did a year ago. But
I do think things will probably start to even out
a little bit. I don't think Toronto's gonna stay scalding
hot forever, and injuries have hit one team harder than
any other, and with Peretis going to the il that
put them in the lead, there are sixteen astros on
the injured list, that is more than any other team
in baseball. Obviously, we should see some players returning at

(07:40):
some point, probably soon. In the case of Paina, maybe
it's not too far off. In terms of Alvarez's work, again,
I think every two or three days. Considering he Alvarez
has picked up a bat, we should be getting updates,
whether it's Dana Brown and on his Sunday visit, whether
it's Dana Brown in front of the media, or whether
it's Dana Brown here on Wednesday mornings on the Seawan

(08:00):
Salisbury Show or Espata on any given day, or yard
on himself. He has mouth and makes now it noises
with it. We can get that too. They probably will
have updates on that. And he's already been in this
spot twice before and has had to be shut down.
Hopefully it's not three, because if it's three, that's probably

(08:20):
a season.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
Yeah, I a third time not going to be the try.
I just I can't believe it. And we'll talk about
this a little bit more in the next segment. Just
the amount I think the graphics. Was it ninety three
or ninety six different lineups? I can't remember now that
the Astros had trotted out there this season.

Speaker 6 (08:38):
Also, some of that is is the ineptitude of some
of their players offensively, m like you trotted out of
lineup to open the season that you had to change
almost immediately because nobody was doing anything. They were all healthy,
but Jordan was in a terrible slump and never got
out of it, so you had to move him around,
you know, Christian Walker, Yaner Diaz at times had to
be moved around the lineup even when health So that

(09:00):
was a little bit of it. But clearly the injuries
and the availability of players is the biggest part of it.

Speaker 5 (09:06):
And with Jordon in particular, his specific case. Isn't that
a combination of the two, because I don't think he
was ever can we did we ever determine when the
actual injury happened, because I know after further imaging you had.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
The the discovery of data when it happened.

Speaker 6 (09:24):
Plus these the belief is it's two different things. The
broken bone apparently is fine and is healed, but it's
something else kind of undetermined that he's getting shots for
that is still had still been giving him trouble.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, I guess, But I guess.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
What I'm saying is part of him not being himself
was that he was clearly hurt or as some sort
of ailment.

Speaker 6 (09:48):
If he got hurt during the year, then I would
not agree, because he started the year terribly.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
Was he already hurt And that's what I'm saying, well,
that's why I'm asking when it happened.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
It happened in April.

Speaker 5 (09:58):
According to Jordon, so his spring sucked and he came
into the season and he sucked because of just nothing,
and then he got hurt after that.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
That's what he said. I don't believe that.

Speaker 6 (10:08):
I mean, I don't believe a hitter that good Alex
Bregman sucks in April.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Why, I don't know. That's in April every year though
not Jordan.

Speaker 6 (10:15):
Jordan has a bad month most years, three bad three weeks.
I mean, it happens every hitter.

Speaker 5 (10:20):
No, it happens to every hitter, and you have little slumps.
But like, he didn't look like himself. He just completely
looked out of sorts, looked like he didn't know the
strike zone, looked like his swings were flailing, all.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
This kind of stuff the first month of the season.

Speaker 5 (10:32):
Like, yeah, but I don't He's had plenty of aprils
where he didn't look like that, And with his track record,
I'm just not going to sit here and be like, ah,
he's fine.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
He was physically just one hundred percent that whole time.

Speaker 6 (10:42):
I feel confident, not knowing any anything otherwise, when the
year began, he was healthy. I could be wrong, I suppose,
but I don't have any reason to think that.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
And maybe part of that is the medical staff we're
dealing with, or how they choose to give information about
injuries or not give information.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
I can't. I can't, man, I'm not trying to wear
a tin hat.

Speaker 6 (11:02):
No, I'm just saying, what's why would they look at
Jordon if he doesn't tell them he's hurt or they
don't see something happen.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
Because guys don't tell medical staffs and teams they're hurt
all the time and try to play.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
Jalen Green did all this last year. They knew he
was hurt, They just he played anyway, am I? Jordon?

Speaker 6 (11:22):
Jalen John played hurt constantly. NBA players playing hurt is
way different. His hand hurts. What else does he need?
I'm just saying.

Speaker 5 (11:31):
I'm just saying athletes in general will play through things
and not say they're hurting because they just want to.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
It's just the nature of the beast.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
And I just I've never seen Jordon look like he
did without there.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
Being some sort of physical ailment that was in play.

Speaker 6 (11:50):
I mean, like I said, I don't there's nothing to say.
I mean, he had two bad weeks to start the year,
and sometime in April, which is two to three weeks
into the season, he claimed he felt something and it
was uncomfortable. It was discomfort, it was sore. That's all
we have. I had nothing in spring training that suggested
he needed to be looked at. I had nothing the

(12:11):
first few weeks of the season that suggested he needed
to be looked at. He went out there every day
and played, just did not play well. I'm fairly certain
without putting the research team on it, he's had a
two to three week stretch of hitting during his career
where he has not looked very good. I mean, even
him were like, he doesn't look right. He doesn't look right.
Many of those were various hand injuries. I'll admit that,

(12:31):
but don't it's not enough of time. It's not like
he played two months and continued to not have any success.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
He played a short period.

Speaker 6 (12:39):
Of time, and at some point during that time, according
to him, he was not himself all right.

Speaker 5 (12:45):
The latest on the Astros mash unit. We will get
to the best of X this hour. We will also
hear from Steve Sparks, who stopped by for his weekly visit.
A whole lot to get to, including the good, the bad,
and the ugly from over the weekend. Here on a
Monday edition of the.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Well larger her the news Today serves My Life.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety Monday
edition of the program. Eat sak peretis on the injured list,
which makes it an even sixteen members of the Astros
organization by far, well, I guess not by far by
one by one, thank you, Thank you for the clarification.

(13:36):
The most in the majors, and I know the injuries
are a part of things, and we say this it
seems like every single year, because there's always something going on.
You're not in a season where there's one hundred and
sixty two contests. It's very rare that you don't have injuries.
That's why. And you you mentioned this ad nauseum throughout
the twenty twenty two season, the fact that the Astros

(13:57):
basically used their rotation and I think they used six
guys that year, maybe, but they just had very very
few pitching injuries that season that they wound up winning
the World Series for the second time, I like, this
is insane.

Speaker 6 (14:14):
You could almost argue they've had very few pitching injuries
this season. They've had Blanco who had an arm injury.
They've had with Ness Wiznski who had an arm injury.
So you have to count the ones they brought into
the year.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 6 (14:28):
You don't have to you're talking about this season. The
injuries that happened this season. Those two are legitimate the
things we would discuss. I think it's a little bit
different to talk about mccullor's weight room foot injury and
Arragetti's BP catching one off the dome finger injury. Sluke
like they've had is I mean, I might be missing

(14:51):
another Sean Duban, he's the third this had an injury,
and I said it then and I hope it's not
the case. And I know he's picked up a base
so maybe it isn't. It could be much longer than
a short term stint. But those who's happened in season,
those don't seem out of the ordinary. But of course,
when you list six pitchers on the IL and you
can continue to say, well, erget he's been there for months.

(15:13):
Javier came into the year and he's still there. And
Garcia ento the year and he's still there. France into
the year and he's still there. They're clearly impactful for
this season, so it certainly would be quibbling. But injuries
that happened, I mean, it's hard for me to count them.
Both years they happened. Are both of the years. They
only happened in one year. Now, setbacks count. If you
had setbacks during this period of time, I would certainly

(15:35):
mention that. But sixteen players is, as some might say,
it is what it is. It's a lot of players.
And in their case, on the pitching side, if I
told you two of their starters were going to be
lost for the season, be mean, pick which two? It
might have been the two that had happened to On
the offensive side, if you said these offensive players are

(15:57):
going to be lost for a significant period of time,
which ones pick them? Well, that's where the shoes kind
of on the other foot. You know, Alvarez is the
most important player to this offense and has been for years.
If he's himself and he's missed much more than half
the season he's missed, he's going to end up missing
much more than half the season, no matter when he
comes back. And then the player who did perform the

(16:19):
best this season, Jeremy Panna, He's now missing a significant
period of time. Your all star third baseman, Esach Peretis.
He's had two hamstring injuries. I doubt this one is
like the first. He only missed a couple of games
and never went on the io with the first one.
This one has already put him on the io. These
are the guys at the front side of your production line,
and obviously Jake Myers, somewhat surprisingly, he fits there too.

(16:42):
I'm not wishing injury on some of the players that
aren't as good or matter less or we're having miserable seasons.
You got a fully healthy season of offensive disappointment Christian Walker,
and he was actually hurt in spring training. You've got
a fully healthy season from Yan Rda, who's been a
very big offensive disappointment. And players who proved this year

(17:07):
or another years prior to this year that they were
going to be the biggest parts of their offense. Essentially,
everybody bet Altuve down.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, and I can't.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
I mean, I think with Paradis, I think this is
a particularly cruel twist of fate because Jake Myers just
went down last week, so it's like there, it feels
like they're averaging one every week at this point.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
Well, they've now had two players missed time because they
were hit by a pitch in the ribs. Zach Short
became the second one yesterday.

Speaker 4 (17:32):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
I didn't even think about that with him and Pania,
But like Paradis is the one that in a weird way,
and especially considering I don't think either of us would
have ever predicted this at the beginning of the year.
He's been their most consistent player, and I don't know, Like,
first of all, I don't know how they've won a
lot of these games with some of the lineups they're

(17:54):
trotting out there. They managed to put eleven runs up
yesterday against very very good pitching.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
You would have a bunch of wins if what happened
yesterday happened all season. Now you're catching care team. He's
been incredible earned the playing time. I think most time here,
going all the way back to last year, I thought
he could have played more when the team was healthy,
and because of injuries both years, specifically this year, he's
a regular player.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
He's an everyday player. He's in the lineup every single day.

Speaker 6 (18:21):
Now we can get into why they carried a third
catcher for two months, which I do think is part
of the reason he was in there every day, and
well part of the reason they wanted him in there
every day and thus needed felt the need to carry
a third catcher. But he's also been productive. He's hitting
well over three hundred overs last thirty games. He's their
best hitter outside of Salvi Perez. There's no other catcher

(18:41):
that's been more productive over that time. I know he
doesn't catch every day. He still dhs more than he
catches currently, but that has been huge for them to
get through this. Three hits for him yesterday, reach base
four or five times. Over the weekend, you had Taylor
Tremmel taking a four to three game turning into a
five three the double that drove in two more runs.

(19:02):
You got three hits and three runs batted in from
both of those players who are not what you would
normally consider everyday lineup players. If one of those guys
does that every day, they can probably make it through.
But over the year one in seven or one in
six stretch that wasn't happening, and compounded by the guys
that have been in the lineup every day weren't doing

(19:22):
anything either.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
I mean, you kind of looked at the end of
the month and into August, if you could just kind
of make it through the next couple of weeks plus change,
maybe you could start to see guys coming back, and
it just felt good. And then yesterday happens, and it's like,
that's why I was getting to like, I feel like
peretis for whatever reason, that might hurt the most, simply
because well, you've been doing a lot of this without

(19:45):
a lot of these guys already, or at least the
majority of them. It feels like now you'red on I
don't even count because this season has basically been Jordon
Lists and you're still in first place and all the
things that you've been able to manage to do.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
But I think part of the reason you've been able.

Speaker 5 (19:58):
To do that is because a guy like essak Per
that is in his first year as an astro replacing
Alex Bregman and all that kind of stuff, clearly he
hasn't had to deal with any mental pressure that maybe
it looks like Christian Walker has your corner replacing a brall, Well,
replacing Juli is more like it.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
That's all. I'm crazy.

Speaker 6 (20:16):
I want to I want to bury myself in front
of Christian Walker. I'll ask him that next time I
see him. Did you feel pressure this year replacing Yuli?

Speaker 4 (20:23):
Well, what's he gonna? What are you? Are you gonna
ask him?

Speaker 5 (20:25):
Do you pressure replacing what jose abray you? Because nobody would.
That's what really means.

Speaker 6 (20:30):
What is Chris Christian Walker feels pressure in the sense
that they paid him a bunch of money?

Speaker 5 (20:34):
Well, yes, clearly, yes, actually mean but these are I
mean they paid both of these guys.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, I guess that stuff doesn't matter. Well it does
for Christian Walker, I don't think so.

Speaker 6 (20:46):
I mean, I know he said he's been putting pressure
on himself for those reasons, and so I got to
take him at his word.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
But Hater said the same thing about his first year here.

Speaker 6 (20:55):
I know it makes I don't The money's done, I
know you haven't, but they don't look at it. Why
do you have it because you earned it. They're not
paying you for what you're gonna do. They're paying you
for what you've done and what they think you're gonna
continue to do that, especially for what you've already done.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
That was especially the case with a bray you because
it was never gonna be about what he was gonna
do with it.

Speaker 6 (21:13):
Yeah, and Christian Walker wasn't probably gonna be better than
he was.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
His best years were behind him.

Speaker 6 (21:18):
I think the Astros already knew that, even though he's
not over the hill or anything.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
But for whatever.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
Reasons, and I do acknowledge since he said it, those
have to be part of it.

Speaker 7 (21:26):
You know.

Speaker 6 (21:26):
The Parretta situation that you bring up is so compounded
for all the reasons you mentioned, And they already made
one switch at leadoff spot for a reason they weren't
good enough in the leadoff spot. And then they found
the best leadoff hitter in baseball, and Jeremy Pania for
the time he was there and smartly choe a spot
to put Estach Perettas in the leadoff spot. He's got

(21:47):
unbelievable numbers in the leadoff spot. He forced his pitchers
to throw pitches. A is a byproduct of that. But
I'll take a leadoff hitter with a two ninety nine average,
a five point fifty two slug and a nine to
twenty five ops every day that we have two different
players with fifty plus at bats in the leadoff spot,
seventy five plus plate appearances in the leadoff spot this

(22:08):
year with an OPS of better than nine to twenty five.
I doubt there's another team in baseball that has that.
That's been a huge part of why they continue to
make their way through without Jeremy Pania. Cam Smith got
an opportunity yesterday. It will be a guessing game what
Joaspota does in the first batter of the game spot
on an everyday basis until one of those two players

(22:30):
is back.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
Just the juggling at continues, and we'll continue to talk
about that, actually specifically Joe'spota before the end of this hour.
But next it's our usual activity this time of the day,
the best of X from over the weekend, stadium changes
and the president.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
It's all coming up.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (22:55):
Did you just see this?

Speaker 3 (22:56):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 9 (23:00):
Four hundred people were arrested for things so they said
on social media.

Speaker 6 (23:03):
History repeats itself type bang, you'll succeed.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Never doubt that you're the.

Speaker 5 (23:10):
One to plus We'll go one build you're the best
of X.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of X.
Post an every single day. You know you're the best
of X, breaking the entire enginet.

Speaker 6 (23:31):
Halfway through. Our number one is what we give to
you because they gave to us. Social media is your
friend if you let it be.

Speaker 9 (23:38):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
It was last week certainly for a number of different reasons.
People were playing in the cold at a concert and
that delivered very very good stuff. Every baseball outfit on
Earth took advantage of that over the weekend. Kiss Cam
kind of still exists, but it's kind of coldplay cam
now if you miss a lot of those videos, whether
it was mascots or just fans in the stands or

(23:59):
plays from the respective teams. But that certainly was a
best of X fiesta got three full days between Friday's
Best of X and Today's Best of X. Football season
essentially has already begun. Multiple teams have already gotten to
camp and have had practices. The Texans, as we told
you here many weeks before it happened, it would happen,

(24:22):
and all the jumping off a cliff out the window,
out of an airplane with no parachute nonsense. Oh my god,
these second round picks haven't signed yet. Yeah, the Texan
signed Tearser over the weekend, duh, just like we told
you they would. And every single second round pick but
two have already signed as of today, and one of

(24:43):
those two has other circumstances attached, but nonetheless Best of
X here for you. And with football season on the horizon,
it brings camp, it brings practices, it brings preseason games,
It sends people over to the facilities and their respective
stadiums in advance of the eighteen week towards the postseason,
and all the assorted facilities that get to be used

(25:04):
for that. There's a little added baseball to this football
related story because of the area that it emanates from,
the area of our world that it emanates from, and
the offensive nature of it all. But it truly, truthfully
and socially comes from our president right there where I
mentioned it. He dove into the sports world with his

(25:27):
comments about DC and Cleveland, and before we get started
on the you know, sometimes the best part of Best
of X is how people respond to it. Whether it's
on television, people have commented on it there on radio,
shows like ours or the ones that preceded us earlier today,
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross or the Sean Salisbury Show,

(25:47):
or anywhere else, mainly in the comments and the replies
and even some of the dms that get leaked and posted.
So we'll probably need plenty of the replies and comments
to a truth social post from earlier today that very
naturally had sports involved in it, because absolutely positively that's
what you want from someone in the know, and he

(26:09):
definitely knows. It was just last Wednesday night when somebody
questioned the president's knowledge of sports, when Shane Gillis jokingly said,
this guy doesn't know ball. You hear him up there
talking to the teams that have visited. Well in this instance,
does he know ball? Does it matter? Does he know business?

(26:31):
Does he know politics? You get to decide. Can you
give us this truth social post from at real Donald Trump?
That's Donald J. Period Trump. It is verified, it is
his page. After all, what did the President have to
say about football and baseball and their palaces?

Speaker 4 (26:50):
They play in?

Speaker 5 (26:53):
The Washington Whatevers should immediately change their name back to
the Washington Skins football team.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
There's a big clamoring for this.

Speaker 5 (27:04):
Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of these six original baseball
teams with a storied past, are great. Indian people in
massive numbers want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige
systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now
than they were three or four years ago. We are

(27:26):
a country of passion and common sense and then in
all caps owners get it done. Look, I'll just ask
you point blank right off the bat before we go
any further. When these names were changed, did you really
feel like it was life or death that it happened.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Never do.

Speaker 6 (27:48):
Because of who we are, we mean me or you
or any you know, I can understand it pretty much.
Every time things like this come up and our involvement
is in it is almost strictly precluded or including sports
related things. There's a bunch of other things have been changed,
and this has been this is offensive where we've told

(28:08):
you this is offensive, Where it's enough of offensiveness to
go ahead and change it. I'm usually on the side
of if it's enough to you know, I don't want
some tiny, tiny group of Well, we got a petition together.
There's nineteen people on it, and it says we find
this offensive. So the five million people that we got
in front of and did not want to sign it
because it's not offensive to them, and the forty million

(28:30):
people that we got in front of and said it's
not offensive to them, and the one hundred million, maybe
it's probably maybe it's not necessary to push a change
through just from the sports perspective, the Washington Commanders, the
Cleveland Guardians, other than my constantly having to think twice
when I say it, just like San Diego Chargers, except

(28:52):
they were changed for different reasons. I don't really didn't
bother me that they did change it. It wouldn't bother
me if they went back, and I don't think they're
going to.

Speaker 5 (29:01):
Yeah, I well, he's threatening to hold up the new
stadium deal for the Washington side of things. I don't
know if that's even plausible. And it doesn't necessarily do
anything about, you know, the Cleveland side of things.

Speaker 6 (29:16):
Because there's a second post on this that's the good one,
that's the one you really need to deliver to the people.
And I didn't want to take the comments from too
many different there. Everybody posted it, but the group that
posted it oftentimes had a very sizeable slant to it
because of the group that they were. You know, if

(29:38):
it was Republicans against Trump posting it, they probably got
comments on it that were very specific, both positive and
negative for those that you know, get into it. But
you know there's some sports posts that really kept it.
You could be on either side and it would totally
be reasonable there. So I think in that regard, I
put a new link there in the dock so you

(29:59):
can read it straight from that, so you'll see it
in its truest donaldest form, because it's very good. As
everything is with him, he wants to make things great,
as you know, so he put that comment in there.
He responded basically to the initial tweet, knowing that it
had created such a stir.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
What did he say the second time?

Speaker 5 (30:17):
My statement on the Washington Redskins as totally blown up,
but only in a very positive way.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Can I can we parse this one? Uh huh? But
only in a very positive way? Well? How does he
know that?

Speaker 5 (30:31):
I And when I say this, I am being serious.
I do think there is some sort of like I
don't want to call it grassroots. I don't know if
that's the but I do think there is a contingent
of not only fans, but Native American fan however you
want to refer to them, that's PC on July twenty first,
twenty twenty five. I don't know that wants the old

(30:52):
name back, and I do think on his original post,
whether you agree with them or not, that.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
Command ridiculous as he put it.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
I do think that the name recognition the amount of
time that was, I mean years and years and years.
I don't know how long the Washington franchise has been
around for.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
I mean, most of these are comparable. They're, so to speak,
a heritag.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
Jennifl Right, It's not like, you know, the Texans have
been around for twenty plus years and they're babies compared
to franchises like this.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
All right, pick up from there.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
I may put a restriction on them that if they
don't change, then aim back to the original quote Washington
Redskins and get rid of the ridiculous moniker Washington Commanders.
I won't make a deal for them to build a
stadium in Washington.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
Sounds a little thready, I like, probably capitalize a certain words.
It sounds like that's a little bit of I'm wielding
my power. I have the ability to do certain things.

Speaker 4 (31:50):
I'm send a national guard. I am the.

Speaker 6 (31:51):
President, so listen up, listen to my words. But he
gives an explanation why he wants to get involved.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
The team would be much more valuable and the deal
would be more exciting for everyone. Cleveland should do the
same with the Cleveland Indians. The owner of the Cleveland
baseball team, whoa catching strays here. Matt Dolan, who is
very political, has lost not one, not two, but three

(32:19):
elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Is that true?

Speaker 6 (32:24):
Well, the manner in which he presents it is a
very opinionated, but winning and losing an election even from him,
yes accurate.

Speaker 5 (32:33):
What he doesn't understand is that if he changed the
name back to the Cleveland Indians, he might actually win
an election. Like me, Indians are being treated very unfairly,
and once again in all caps, make Indians great again,
Mega mega, sub ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
Uh oh man.

Speaker 6 (32:59):
There are comments to no end, of course, just a
never ending strength. Some of them very funny because they
have only a sports related hint to it. Others are
very positive for those that believe in this, and others
are very positive for those that believe in that. But
We'll leave that to you and appreciate don are don
our leader delivering us some material for the day. We'll

(33:22):
probably have to sneak it in a few other times
of the course of the afternoon.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
But it is a real thing.

Speaker 6 (33:27):
What he's talking about is a legitimate item in the
Josh Harris Magic Johnson led Washington Commander's franchise.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
I can't wait to see Magic's tweet about this.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
There's a real stadium the president conversation.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
How about that go?

Speaker 5 (33:43):
The President had some unsavory things to say about our
franchise and posted about it on social media.

Speaker 6 (33:50):
I mean, I'm appreciating your pointing out how comical his
post might be. What's the most obvious way he actually
posted something? The response from Trump would be legendary.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
Look at Urban Magic Johnson. There's nothing magical about him anymore.
He's a minority owner. I can't if I if I
keep going, I'm gonna get in a lot trouble.

Speaker 6 (34:12):
He's he's an owner with less of a steak in
the franchise.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
Yeah, that kind of minority. That wasn't where I was
thinking that, Like, I just pointing that out.

Speaker 6 (34:20):
As we close out today's addition, Donald Trump inspired of
best of X.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
The A on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 10 (34:33):
Ninety Well, that's dark coal, geez, Malcolm Jamal Warner ri
ip accidental drowning on a family vacation.

Speaker 11 (34:51):
That is.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
Were you a Cosby fan back in the day Walks?
Of course? Was everybody around you? I don't know anybody
it didn't like the show?

Speaker 5 (35:01):
So yes, I totally agree. It was like kind of
it wasn't before you get to me? Number one?

Speaker 8 (35:05):
Was it?

Speaker 4 (35:05):
Number one? Was it must see TV? Yes, it is
the most popular show on television. Was Cheers on before
or after that at the time?

Speaker 5 (35:12):
After because Cheers had a little bit more blue comedy,
I guess I would assume, so yeah, that that was
discovered earlier today or I was I guess announced earlier today.
I got to ask you a question that I know
is going to you might actually have a physical ailment
as a result of the eye rolling you're about to do.
But that's that's what we do here on the show.

(35:33):
Injuries aside. And I know that's a very big aside
because there are so many. And then there was another
one after the series began, yesterday's esak paritis unfortunate news
with the hamstring and the il stint that has already begun.
Did you ever think, and again, I know that Brandon
Walter was awesome on Friday night, really really good outing,

(35:56):
made basically one mistake and it ended up that's based
why they lost the game, even though the final score
was much different. Did you ever ask yourself, this is
a division series, it's dwindling as far as the lead goes.
They've been playing well, Maybe throw your best pitchers out
there to start the season after the All Star break.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
Nope, not once.

Speaker 6 (36:22):
I mean, I think they're trying to do what's best
for their season, just like they did last year and
every other year they haven't been dominant, they're trying to
There's clearly they're trying to get through the season so
then when they get to the postseason they might have
a chance to win. Like Hunter Brown already was coming
off of his worst short stretch of the year. His

(36:43):
last two starts were the only two back to back
poor starts of the season to that end. Then he
turned in another one yesterday, going only four innings and
struggling to get through all these hitters and put hitters away.
Stuff seemed pretty good and his location was a little
bit better. Uh needed to make one pitch to or
Hey Polanco and maybe get out of trouble, but didn't,
and that was two runs right there. But he was

(37:04):
working in trouble after the second inning pretty consistently, and
that's why his pitch gawn got to where it was.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
He had ninety pitches through four innings.

Speaker 6 (37:11):
Your ace can't throw ninety pitches over four innings. I
said it long before Brandon Walter start on Friday, and
I'll continue to say it until he makes me not
with his performance. Nothing new Brandon Walter on Friday night.
Nothing new. That's basically what he's done. The vast majority
of his starts, the heavy majority of his starts have

(37:32):
been we're winning today.

Speaker 9 (37:34):
Now.

Speaker 6 (37:34):
The Astros haven't done their part. But you go out
there six out of eight times you give up two
earned runs or fewer. All of those starts are six
innings or more, except for one, which was five.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
He's been unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (37:45):
He's what's held this team together from a starting standpoint,
because not only has he given him the good outings,
he's allowed the bullpen not to be burned up on
a third pitcher through the rotation fromber does it. Hunter
does it, and he does it. Gordon doesn't do that,
you know. Obviously Lance mccullors doesn't do that, and Gusto
when he was a starter, wasn't doing that either. They

(38:06):
need somebody else to do that. He's continually doing that
for them. And yeah, you could say the one mistake
cost them the game because the offense didn't do anything.
He gave up a run. I mean, what do you
want from the guy He went on the road to Seattle,
the team that's trying to chase you down, first game
out of the break, and he gave up a run.
I mean, he was unbelievable again to gain total control

(38:27):
for the entire time he was out there. Well, he
will get he's I mean, this is ridiculous, So just
give me a second. He's pitching the way an ace pitches,
like we've seen justin Verlander pitch. You can get a
hit here and hit there. Well, if there's guys on base,
I'm probably not gonna give up a home run. Oh
but I'm gonna give up home runs. And he's given
up with a bunch of home runs or right handed hitters,

(38:49):
but they're not I mean in his starts because they've
lost so many of them. They are killing the team
because when he allows runs, they lose. Because they have
not provided a whole lot of run support in his
outings most of this year, and obviously that was the
case on Friday night. But every time his turn comes up,
I look forward to it. It's good news. That was
good news on Friday. How do you feel every time
Lance mccullor junior turn comes up? How you feel about that?

Speaker 4 (39:12):
I think they're in it for a rough day, it is.

Speaker 5 (39:16):
It's getting to the point now where I'm not dreading it,
but I know that he's like, if you're not if
you are making a start on this team, in this
rotation right now and you're gonna not last I know
I'm saying the same thing that happen to Hunter Brown,
but this isn't the norm for him. If you're not

(39:37):
gonna last four innings in a way.

Speaker 6 (39:40):
Hasn't gotten an out after the third inning and back
to back starts, right.

Speaker 5 (39:44):
So you're almost hurting the team from the standpoint of,
like we were talking about, your bullpen's already taxed and
your three games out of the All Star break.

Speaker 6 (39:54):
He also can't pitch poorly and just eat it that
day for the team and still give him five innings
when he pitched poorly.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Because his pitch count's insane, pitch counts out of control.

Speaker 6 (40:03):
Just it's it's been a very difficult thing to overcome
every trip through the rotation. You know, his handful of
starts that are strong, clearly that's not the case. The
other starts that are not. It absolutely has been. And
he pitched second the second game out of the break.
Set them up for what they're in for the next
ten games. They don't have another day. Often they have
burned up just about everybody in the bullpen. Playing extra

(40:25):
innings doesn't help either.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
But that's an hour in the books. Another hour to go.

Speaker 6 (40:28):
We'll get you started on some of what Dana Brown
had to say about their injury issues. We come back
to start the three o'clock hour and a half hour
from now, we will hear from Astros radio analysts.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
He sparks the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety
two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham talking your team
so clear.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 5 (40:58):
Eight hour number two here on Sports Talk seven ninety
simulcast has begun over on Space City Home Network.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
It is the A team.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
WEX is over there ac right here, Cole Thompson, our producers.
We take you up until six o'clock tonight. Astros dropping
two out of three over the weekend coming out of
the All Star break, and in excruciating fashion. Honestly, both
both nights were they lost just because what we were
talking about with with the pitching that you got from

(41:31):
your starter in Friday's opener, and it all kind of
became unraveled. But for the Astros to lose that game
by giving up the tying run on a wild pitch
and then the walk off off of a bray you,
of all people in the in the final analysis of things,
that set up what ended up needing to be a

(41:52):
salvage situation which wasn't looking good for most of Sunday.
Down three to nothing, Hunter brown X sits early and
you've got a mash you know, out there, because once
again East Soak Paraitis is the latest injury for your Astros.
He's already on the injured list, and for them to
cut out, well, I'll say this, eleven straight runs. Eleven
straight runs the Astros scored yesterday it didn't really feel

(42:14):
like that.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
It was just like a long, monotonous.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
Just They just kept churning it out and got some
great bullpen action as well to boot. So not what
you would want coming out of the break, but they
do still have the four game lead. And what's interesting
is what we were talking about last segment. Hunter Brown
did not pitch until the finale, didn't last as long
as you would have liked.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
And Fromer's not gonna pitch in the opener tonight.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
They're gonna go and go ahead and wait until tomorrow
to give him extra extra extra rest.

Speaker 6 (42:45):
Doesn't bother me one bit. I know it bothers a
lot of other people. They're trying to, Like I said
last hour, they have concerns about leaning on these two
pitchers as much as they already have, you know, maybe
getting an extra inning out of them on occasional starts
during the first part of the season pre All Star break,
and trying to do their best without you know, seeing

(43:06):
a lot of games skipped.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
I mean, they're both in the rotation.

Speaker 6 (43:09):
They're gonna make five starts out of the All Star break,
and they will each get one of them. The unfortunate
part is the other three fall in the hands of
pitchers who weren't even here when the season began. Gordon
the latest, obviously, mccullor's before that, and Walter on Friday Night.
I understand what they're doing. I would rather see them
if it works. You never know if it will or not.

(43:30):
There's no exact science to taking guys out when they
throw their one hundred and third pitch, taking guys out
when they throw their ninety first pitch, or even skipping
starts over the course of a season to try to
limit innings. They've done it with other pitchers in the
past pretty consistently. You know, Spencer Arighenny kind of a
candidate for that last year, saying with Renel Blanco he
would have been again this year. They are just with

(43:50):
sixty plus games still to go. Tonight is game one hundred,
I'll have sixty two more games after tonight, and they
want to make sure that they're at their best health wise.
You know Frommer's still seemingly at his best pitching wise,
and now his numbers and Hunter Brown's numbers because of
Brown's last three starts are awfully similar. Most people talking

(44:11):
about Brown being so good this year and he spent
the majority of this year being so good, but three
starts unlike those that were before it, and all of
a sudden, their season long numbers are very very similar.
Only got your four outs yesterday. The Astros played twenty
innings between Saturday and Sunday, and they needed their bullpen
to get all but six and two thirds of those outs,

(44:33):
thirteen and a third innings of work in back to
back games from their bullpen. You go extra innings in
the start from Lance, and you needed five innings following
Hunter Brown's work. You mentioned their work yesterday, Ort, King, Abrau,
Gusto Nothing didn't score a run against those guys in
five innings, and with Ort being efficient, that held a
great deal. He was able to get five outs. Brian

(44:55):
King got four outs on fourteen pitches. That's what he's
been able to do most of the year, and it
got them to the eighth to ninth inning where they
felt comfortable giving him Brellio second days in a row
worth of work. Probably also wanted to see Brian Abrew
pitch against the Mariners successfully, because we've barely seen any

(45:15):
of it all year. He's been tax attacked with four
blown saves. This year, they have come against Seattle, Seattle, Seattle,
and Seattle. He's been scored upon it in five games.
He's appeared in forty four games. Three of those five
are against Seattle. All three of those games they had
the lead and he blew that, and in the fourth

(45:38):
game they also had the lead when he came into
the game. It's incredible how they have certainly been kryptonite
for him, and.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
The way they scored the run.

Speaker 6 (45:47):
You described it a while pitch bringing it home, scoring
a tying run.

Speaker 4 (45:51):
On a ball that hit the knob of the bat.

Speaker 6 (45:53):
That should have resulted in and out, but Josh Hater
need a little more PfP couldn't field the ball and
throw home to nail the runner at the plate, which
he either would have or some kind of awesome umpiring
would have been done. With the interference because More was
pretending like he was hit by the pitch when he wasn't.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
The Astros probably felt so unlikable.

Speaker 6 (46:14):
We might as well challenge this because even though it's
going to load the bases, the tying run won't be
on the plate, and we'll give Josh Hader an opportunity
to still get out of it and run up its
pitch count and then they ultimately score off Hector Naris.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
That's the other part of this weekend.

Speaker 6 (46:29):
I think we'll probably see sometime soon if you're curious
what move the Astros will make when somebody gets healthy
that throws the baseball from the mound.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
The move is getting.

Speaker 6 (46:41):
Rid of Hector Naris, very untrustworthy. Had a good start
to his Astros third stint. They threw him out there
three times and he had three scoreless appearances. He's not
a big fan of throwing strikes, and that's a bad thing.
It's a reason why he's on his third team of
the season. It's the reason why he's played for one
ninth of the league since he left the Astros the

(47:02):
first time, including them twice. And unfortunately they were just
kind of out of arms on Saturday, so he got
the ball in the eleventh inning and it was not
particularly difficult to score.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
Against him with a runner already on second base.

Speaker 5 (47:15):
He was one of the guys that helped clench the
twenty two World Series in YEP six.

Speaker 6 (47:20):
Kyle Tucker was a big part of that team. So
it was Alex Bregman and a bunch of other people
that aren't here anymore. Ryan was the reason why Hector
Norris has been told goodbye twice already. And I like
the guy he actually is, really I think he's really
good for the other people that are here, and he's
a great clubhouse guy.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
But I mean, you can't pitch him.

Speaker 6 (47:40):
If the game matter was a great clubhouse guy too,
you couldn't play. Yeah, but that's different. I don't think
anybody cares about one of the twelve. I mean, I
do think there's there's some actual real needs bonding wise.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
In the bullpen.

Speaker 6 (47:53):
You know, guys are going out there and giving up
three runs, then the very next day they've got to
go out there and give up no runs. And I
think having guys out there have been through a before
do help, but not enough to overcome the fact that
you know, he's got the same problem in the bullpen
that Lance has as a starter. Lance doesn't throw strikes.
His pitches have unreal movement. I don't think there's a

(48:14):
pitcher on the Astros, maybe other than from ber Valdez,
that throws more pitches with more movement. And this year,
I'm the scouting report is dead on for every team
that's faced him, just don't swing. He's not gonna blow
you away, and he knows it, and he's said as much.
He can't blow fastballs by guys unless he's in a
hitters count. He's never in a hitters count because he

(48:35):
doesn't throw strikes. The balls are and they're not close usually,
And the umpire in this game was awful. He got
a huge break with the basses loaded when he struck
out Crawford with the bases loaded on a ball out
of the zone. One of the many it's just he
can't quite harness the movement on his pitches and they
all start like they're gonna be strikes, and hitters watch

(48:57):
them not be strikes.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Way to live he has.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
And this was probably the second time this season where
he was insanely transparent about analysis of his own start.
We obviously remember that he said that the NL Central
is his daddy, but he was pretty candid about what
went wrong for him, why it went wrong, and some

(49:23):
of the things you're talking about right here in his
comments after the game on Saturday. And that's the problem though,
it Joseah Brady was all these guys were talking about that,
you know, were accountable for what they did to help
and help the Astros lose in certain times and stretches
of their career that kind of made things go south
for them. I'm not saying he's on the way out,

(49:43):
but man, Lance mccullors Junior, that is a tough watch
these days more often than not.

Speaker 6 (49:48):
And he's not going to be afforded the grace of
a pitcher returning from the injuries and setbacks that he's had.
Because they're in first place, they're going to have to
make a hard decision, most likely presumably with either or
all three of Garcia, Xavier, and Righetty, all of whom
through this weekend at either Double A or Fayetteville Corpus
Christy for Xavier and Arraghetty. Garcia through at Fayetteville, and

(50:11):
hopefully we'll see something in the Astros update of where
they expect to pitch next Aarraghetty going yesterday, they'll get
a feel for how he feels, or excuse me, going Saturday.
They should have a feel for how he feels after
his outing. They should already have that with Avier, who
pitched on Friday, and they'll be gathering that information from Garcia,
who pitched yesterday.

Speaker 5 (50:32):
But this is this the regular season version of what
kind of happened at the tail end of last year
with Justin Verlander in the postseason, Like you didn't want
to have to worry about making a tough decision about
whether or not he was gonna throw, and then it
kind of got made for you because the Astros lasted
all of two games. Is that what's happening with Lance

(50:52):
mccullors in the regular season here?

Speaker 6 (50:53):
Where there didn't they make it himself by not having
him on the roster?

Speaker 4 (50:56):
Yeah? Yeah, but you know what I'm saying that.

Speaker 6 (50:59):
You're you're describing the exact situation, right. It ended that way.
They knew they couldn't trust him. It's super harsh and
it sucks to say, but I mean, even if this
team made it with the group that they currently have,
if this was the pitching staff they took to the postseason,
he's a starting Game three. They're not even carrying him
on the postseason roster. They're gonna find somebody who's not

(51:20):
currently and I'm not don'ting.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
I'm not including the injured pitchers.

Speaker 6 (51:24):
I'm including somebody else that's either outside the organization or
currently with their minor league outfit. Somewhere like it's just
it's hard to do because it's you don't expect excellence anymore.
You don't expect six innings, you don't expect five innings anymore,
and it's it stinks, but it is reality, and he's
gonna get the ball again. I'm sure during this upcoming

(51:44):
home stand they got six more games or a steady
stretch of no day off games after the series ends
Wednesday against the Diamondbacks. They really, I don't think are
ready to give the ball to somebody else. Blue Ball
is coming off of a nice start with Sugarland. You
Loo is coming off of a fantastic start yesterday, But
I don't think they're ready to make that happen. I

(52:05):
think they're still probably expecting Lance to make all spots,
all turns in the rotation for him until one of
those three pitchers I mentioned, Arregetty, javierraic Garcia comes back.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
All right, we will continue here on a Monday edition
of the program. You will hear from it Dana Brown,
as wex mentioned, plus a Rockets reunion in Los Angeles
and what we think about that. We will discuss all
that as a three o'clock hour continues here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (52:42):
I got something juicy for you coming up in the
four o'clock hour, since we are your what is it again,
your south east regional home for Dallas Cowboys football.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
Is that what your imaging says?

Speaker 6 (52:57):
No, I don't reference things quite so geographically sound like
that just because you can't.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
You're southwest deep southwest.

Speaker 5 (53:04):
Okay, it's coming up in the second segment of the
four o'clock out.

Speaker 6 (53:07):
We've got We've got a Cowboys update. Well, it's been
a Ranger's update.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
There's a Houston Texans time in Nico Harrison update. No, nobody,
nobody wants updates about it. The only update coming up
in the four o'clock Now, nobody wants Nico Harrison updates
unless the announcement is that he's been fired from his position.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Is the worst GM ever in the history of the NBA.

Speaker 5 (53:26):
Worst move ever, Well, by definition, he's the worst ever
in the NBA.

Speaker 6 (53:30):
Oh, we don't even know the results of the move yet.
Name a worst GM. You traded Michael Jordan away?

Speaker 4 (53:36):
No one. I'll just keep going until we get to.

Speaker 6 (53:39):
So hey, wait a second, who traded Michael Jordan away
in his time. Is this for trading the way Luca?

Speaker 4 (53:46):
Nobody traded Michael Jordan.

Speaker 6 (53:48):
That's the point, because he's in the conversation and the
only person in the conversation for the goat right who
traded Luca is one of twenty five I have other
great NBA players. Is the top right now NBA players?
The a top ten NBA one or nothing? Is he
a top ten NBA player? Uh, he's probably right on

(54:10):
the cusp because he's still I mean, I think he's
gonna have a really good season this upcoming year, but
it's hard to win with him. You have to have
Nico Harrison as your GM to compensate for your defensive shortcomings.
And he did that two years ago.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
And then what did you do? Then?

Speaker 6 (54:26):
He said, well, I don't really want to do that anymore,
So you rate him LA you can deal with his
defensive shortcomings.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
And what happened? They didn't win either.

Speaker 6 (54:34):
I didn't expect them to win this year, and any
reasonable person didn't either. The areas they have Marcus smart
Now Championship.

Speaker 5 (54:42):
I'm sad like that that whole expose that ESPN dot
com wrote about how oh they went in the back
door of this restaurant, and Luca was there, and Rob
Polinka slash Rob Blow was there, and some of the
other brass was there. But Lebron wasn't invited, right because
he's like fifty in it's like his last months as
a Laker.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
They're pushing him out the door.

Speaker 6 (55:05):
Is your possible answer to what's going on there? That
is a b is he's one hundred years old. You
choose which one you think is the truth. Okay, back
to what we were talking about. Yes, you want to
talk about the Astros. I want to talk about Dana
Brown giving some updates yesterday on Astros Radio about their
injury situations. We know they put their sixteenth player on

(55:27):
the IL. At sixteenth players, third baseman, leadoff hitter, all
star Esach Perettis laced one to left field. I'm an
awful defensive player. Randy arose Arena basically did a dance.
He played ballerina and spun around in circles and missed it.
And then he was wondering why there was no play
at second base. What's because Escach Perettis made no effort

(55:49):
to get to the second base because he.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
Had already pulled up lame.

Speaker 6 (55:53):
A right hamstring discomfort was the word from the team
the night of the game, and people complaining about the
Astros giving you comment medical comment like that immediately after
the game is silly. What would you like them to do?
They don't have a full analysis of this. Totally reasonable
to announce that after the game. It's a heck a
lot better than nothing. At least it acknowledges what the

(56:15):
injury is and where it is. Of course they don't
have full knowledge of it yet. Now in the days
that come, it would be nice to know what the
results for the MRI he went back to Houston for.
But these were all the initial thoughts. The day after
yesterday was when Dana Brown commented on it with Astros
Radio about Esak Peretis, who is on the IL.

Speaker 8 (56:33):
Yeah, absolutely waiting for the MRI. You know, hopefully it's
not as bad.

Speaker 12 (56:39):
You know, it's always tough when you lose the guy
that's been the most consistent for you throughout the entire season,
that's both defensively and offensively. He's had a pretty good
year for us. So you know, we'll be paying close
attention to this one. You know, it's gonna be tough,
you know, playing these next stretching games without them.

Speaker 4 (56:59):
So I missed it.

Speaker 6 (57:00):
He gave you the update, and the first one second
of that and everything else was who is a Zac Perettis?
Where they're waiting on the results for the MRI. He
obviously had not gotten them yet because he just got
back to Houston and this was Sunday yesterday. We'll see
if they have a little bit more information today in
advance of Astros Diamondbacks. Not the only player they have

(57:20):
to concern themselves with, obviously, Jordon Alvarez, as they mentioned
on Friday and their lengthy update about each player that
was on the IL, so it did not include Perettis.
It did not include Jazz McCormick, who was back with
the Astros for a couple of appearances this past weekend
and picked up a hit an infield single. This is
what the plan is for jord On per Dana Brown.

Speaker 12 (57:42):
Yeah, I mean the deal is We're gonna let him
swing the bat, get some swings in, you know, off
the tee, see how it feels that on this day off,
and then you know, bring them back the next time
and try to increase the intensity each time, and you know,
so we're gonna, you know, actually get them built back up.
But it's it's been really encouraging to know that he's

(58:06):
swinging the bat now with no pain.

Speaker 8 (58:08):
Of course he's not cutting it loose, but.

Speaker 12 (58:10):
He's at least taking his hacks and he doesn't feel anything.

Speaker 8 (58:13):
So that's a great thing. That's a great sign.

Speaker 6 (58:15):
I have a hard time describing someone swinging the bat
and calling him hacks and saying he's taking his hacks,
he's not going all out. Well, then they're not hacks.
He's just swinging the bat. I'm quibbling there. But they're
back in that situation where it appears he's healed, is
my belief from what the doctors and the MRIs and

(58:36):
the imaging has shown them. But they're still unsure if
he's actually going to be able to swing the bat
without pain because of what they discovered of the last
time and the reason for the shots, and then the
soreness that he was still experiencing, even though at that time,
even two weeks ago, they did not feel it was
because of the broken bone. So we'll find out again
in the next couple of days as he goes through
that hitting ramp up and hitting, progression and hitting and

(59:00):
then seeing how he feels, and then a day later
going back and hitting some more. Mentioned the pitchers on
their rehab assignments pitching for a Corpus Christy on Friday
night with Christian Xavier Corpus Christi on Saturday night for
Spencer Arraghetti and Fayetteville yesterday for Luis Garcia. Here's what
Dana Brown had to say about the pitchers on the IL.

Speaker 8 (59:22):
First of all, it sounds like a buffet of pitching,
which I really like. You know, those guys.

Speaker 12 (59:28):
At some point we're going to be able to use
all three of those, you know. I think Ragetty, you know,
it could be the first guy back, you know, because
it wasn't arm related. It was more of the thumb,
and so he may be a guy that you know,
you could you know, sort.

Speaker 8 (59:42):
Of expedite a little bit.

Speaker 12 (59:43):
It looks like he had you know, three really good
innings and you know, once the velo start to come back,
and if he can hold it and maintain it, you know,
we could see him you know, being built up partially
back here when he when he arrives, you know, but
we got to get him built up somewhat to at
least be a starter. So he's going through his early

(01:00:05):
stages of spring training right now, or I was just
say a little bit into spring training mode, you know,
right now, and hopefully, you know, after a couple more starts,
we could really start to think about, hey, there is
this a guy that we can go ahead and turn
the corner on and bring him back sooner he would
be huge. Javier seems like he's throwing the ball well,
ninety four ninety five. You know, he could certainly you know,

(01:00:28):
get back here, probably be after every Arrogatty, but I
could see him getting back here too as well. And
then I think Garcia is probably behind both.

Speaker 8 (01:00:38):
Of those guys.

Speaker 12 (01:00:39):
The fact that he's you know, touching ninety three with ease,
and you know, those are all good signs, and so
you know, we'll we'll see as we continue to prograss
Andate continue to get built up. But certainly we could
use those three right now.

Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
Well, for those that saw my post yesterday that included
all three of those pitchers, there are stat lines and
pitch counts and everything you might have thought. Man, Eric Getty,
be sharper my man. Thirty four pitches, twenty nine strikes
and three innings. That's actually supposed to say forty three pitches.
Didn't even notice that until just now, But he threw
forty three pitches and three innings, face ten batters, gave

(01:01:20):
up a single, retired the other nine guys four strikeouts,
twenty nine strikes on those forty three pitches. And just
like Dana said, that does appear because it was not
a pitching arm related injury. It was an injury to
a part of the thing that comes out of his shoulder,
but it was a finger that was broken.

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
It's not pitching related.

Speaker 6 (01:01:38):
Didn't hurt his shoulder, didn't hurt his elbow, doesn't have
a flexer strain, none of those things. So it wouldn't
surprise me at all if we're looking at, you know,
fifty to sixty five pitches in his next appearance. If
he gets to sixty five and eighty between that total,
then he's probably coming to the Astros. At that point,
Dana said, needed to build him up as a starter.
Forty six pitches for Christian Javier, twenty seven of which

(01:01:59):
were strikes. He's twenty three pitches for Garcia, six up,
six down in his two innings of work seventeen strikes
and based on the video we've probably all seen on
social media from the UH Peckers, that doesn't look like
the same throwing motion that Luis Garcia was using prior
to injury.

Speaker 5 (01:02:17):
The Zach sort of thing. Since you brought it up,
does that worry you in anyway?

Speaker 6 (01:02:22):
It doesn't worry me in that he's had to do
it because they're worried about the injury. But it worries
me in that I don't know that he's gonna be
the same pitcher.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
He could be better. I doubt it. That's that's what
it's like.

Speaker 6 (01:02:32):
What didn't look It didn't look as smooth. Just I
wasn't comparing old Luise to new Louise. I'm just watching
him pitch. It didn't look smooth. I'll say that. I'll
soften that comment with this comment. I don't know how
Justin Verlander throws pitches over ninety five miles per hour
the way he pitches, and I've watched him for twenty
years and I still don't understand how he generates velocity.
He doesn't And I don't think Hunter Brown looks like

(01:02:54):
him hardly at all.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
The way that they throw.

Speaker 6 (01:02:57):
I don't know how he gets his arm to whip
through the zone and generate ninety five to one hundred
like he did most of his career. So I don't
know that everything you see is results slight of hand.
It is amazing how he does it with what he does,
and especially comparing him to other power pitchers, especially ones
who've won the Astros uniform and Arrangers uniform and Mets
uniform and Angels uniform like Nolan Ryan did many many

(01:03:21):
many years ago. Speaking of pitching and the Astros, Steve
Sparks is going to talk about pitching and the Astros
and the manager next here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 11 (01:03:41):
It is the eight.

Speaker 5 (01:03:42):
Team Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network Monday
edition of the program following a weekend saw the Astros
drop two out of three and Steve Sparks making his
weekly visit on the station earlier today. Interesting enough, one
of the questions he was asked was whether or not

(01:04:05):
this stretch has been Joe Aspota's best coaching job. This
is obviously because they knew that. Later on in the show,
I would ask you what the heck was he doing
waiting to pitch his best pitchers this weekend, even though
I know it's about rets and everything else going on
with the team, but yeah, that's gonna be the first
question here as we get to our Sparks replay.

Speaker 10 (01:04:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:04:27):
I think he's done a great job. I thought last
year pulling the team out of where they started, I
thought he did a great job too. But right now,
I mean he's just trying to figure out, you know,
who can I put in there to be competitive And
there's been so many guys. Taylor Tremmell yesterday, and we've
seen Zach Short win a game for the Askers against
the Dodgers last week. We've seen Shane Wickham make a

(01:04:48):
great play yesterday on the slide behind I think it
was Cooper Humbley yesterday. Just different guys are stepping up
and doing big things for the Astros. So I think
that says a lot about the player development. But we
see it a lot in spring training, Sean. I mean,
we see a lot of these guys and we see
these relationships bloom. The major league coaching staff we see
it and we've gotten to know these guys a lot

(01:05:09):
in spring training, and I think that's the one thing
that's kind of missing is people don't realize these guys
are welcome into this clubhouse pretty easily because we've gotten
to know them so well. In the month of February
March too.

Speaker 13 (01:05:20):
Steve is a starting pitching right now, doing it all
the way through, doing enough to keep the bullpen rested,
like I know you want when we push into middle
of August to September.

Speaker 11 (01:05:30):
Wow, that's it. You know what, when you're running a
six man rotation, I think the Astros one six man
rotation right now, because they're playing thirteen games in a row. Yep,
that's going to put an extra strain on the bullpen.
So it's going to be up to whether or not
Guesto goes in the rotation or they bring somebody else up.
I'm not sure how they would do it if they
went to a sixth man, but they need a long man,
you know, somebody to cover them in those in those games.

(01:05:53):
Pitch guys three games in a row. Say, and we
watched Joe do a great job yesterday making sure he
didn't have Okert or Susa or Narra's pitch three games
in a row. I mean, I think that's probably the
back of his mind all the time. I think right now,
this time of year, you want to make sure you
don't put those guys health in jeopardy.

Speaker 13 (01:06:09):
Steve Whend, I mean, you're you're so good at getting
us talking us off a ledge when it comes to this,
and we know mccullor's.

Speaker 4 (01:06:15):
Has good stuff.

Speaker 13 (01:06:16):
You really are and listen, potential and production are two
different things. And I think we all root for Lance's success.
And I know with the injuries they're in a bad
it's tough. I mean, your down bodies. What are you
seeing that tells you that if they were healthy, he
stays in the rotation. What's missing from the arsenal right now,
other than getting ahead in the count throwing the type
of strikes he needs.

Speaker 11 (01:06:35):
To What I've seen is some games where he's pitched
really well and he's racked up a lot of strikeouts.
So that tells me, you know, when he's leveraging the counts,
when he's the head of the count, he still has
the stuff to get swing and miss when he's right.
So if everything's good, you know, maybe it's pitch mixed,
maybe it's changing where the catcher sets up to get
himself in better counts. I think he needs to do that.

(01:06:57):
So I think it's all about I know we've talked
about this a lot. It's the one on one count.
You know, get ahead of the count so you can
leverage and get guys to chase. Right now, you fall
behind two and one or three and one, guys can
be very very selective because they don't have that urgency
to protect. And I think right now he's just not
getting the chase that he's used to. But I think
it starts with getting the account in his favor. I

(01:07:19):
like his curveball right now better than his sweeper. I
think upping the percentage of the curveball rather than the
sweeper makes more sense. It's just got more depth, it's
got more swing and myth, and it's hanging around in
the strike zone longer to get guys to bite more.
So that's where I would go. You know, I'm not
the pitching coach, but right now I like one pitch
better than the other, and the other thing. I would

(01:07:40):
start to catcher more over the plate to get him
to get him ahead of the account and make guys
start to swing more.

Speaker 13 (01:07:46):
Do you trust that we're going to see the production
that we need to see to keep him in the
rotation as they start to get healthy and hopefully they
will sooner than later.

Speaker 11 (01:07:53):
Yeah, I think it's in there. You know, we've seen
some guys around the league at miss some time. Spencer
Strider had a hard time getting back into the feel
of things. There's there's a bunch of guys that when
you've had as long as the layoff is lance, there's
going to be some inconsistencies. But I've seen it, you know,
and I've seen some games where he's he's looked really
sharp and really good where I think he can help

(01:08:15):
the team. So I just think I think it gets
down to being more aggressive than the strike zone.

Speaker 13 (01:08:20):
Steve. I mean, if you know different, any signs of
health or that we're going to get people back sooner
than later. I mean, when do you see Hobby or
didn't get three innings? How quickly do you think we're
going to see some of these.

Speaker 11 (01:08:32):
Guys specific timeline, I'm not real sure. If I was
the guest, it's probably all in August. But you're looking
at You're looking at Araghetty, You're looking at Christian Javier,
You're looking at Garcia's starting to get some guys coming back,
and we're seeing the velocities of you know, Dana talk
to Robert yesterday and he mentioned that Pavier is up

(01:08:53):
to ninety five. We see Ara Getty. He dealt feel
very confident in what he's going to be able to
do when he gets back. I think he's gonna be
a huge piece of this thing going forward for the Astros.
And then you're we're going to see the other guy's trickling.
We're gonna see paying You, We're gonna see yord On,
We're gonna start to see some guys come back. Well
how long it takes myers in Eastok. I think they're

(01:09:14):
a little further out. But uh, once those guys start
to trickle in, not only are you going to get
the full squad, get the band back, if you're gonna
get some guys that are super fresh. I mean the
guys that have been off their feet and probably very
well rested going into the playoffs. I think if you're
looking for silver linings, that's gonna be it. You gotta
get him first. But I'd like some of the signs

(01:09:36):
and it's going to be a very welcome edition.

Speaker 5 (01:09:39):
See how much more positive things are when Sparky stops by.

Speaker 4 (01:09:43):
It was a nice sonny.

Speaker 6 (01:09:45):
He's right about the back end of the things he
was talking about. They will be a little bit fresher
than you know, wear and tear on. Jord On after
one hundred and twenty games won't be there for the
final forty or so, whatever number he ends up playing.
Remember they've got sixty three games left in the season,
including tonight game game one hundred, so I'm not sure
how many more games he's going to be on the
roster for, but somewhere in the forties seems reasonable. If

(01:10:05):
it's in the fifties, that's even better. It means you
maybe only have you know, ten to fourteen days without him.
I'm sure that's probably the timeline for PAINA. It does
appear that, you know, getting past the fraction small fracture
from being hit by pitch in the ribs as long
as he can twist and turn on swings and create
that torque without issue. And I'd hate for him to

(01:10:27):
try to do that sooner than his body is ready
to do that, because you could obviously be in much
more pain. It's better than an oblique probably presuming once
it's healed, it's healed, and you're good to move forward
with it, just a matter of when. That is his
thoughts on Myers, I would definitely don't think he's close,
and it's impossible until they get MRI results back. On Peretis,

(01:10:49):
it looked pretty bad. He said it was worse than
the first time. But remember the first time with the
other leg, he only missed three games. He came back
and DHD for a couple of days.

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
Crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:11:00):
I was screaming at them in a very calm way.
Just put him on the IL. It's okay. We know
he's not playing tomorrow or the next day. He's probably
not playing the next day or the next day. I'm
okay with them missing full nine games or ten games
over the schedule plays out and getting fully healthy. I
was very worried that he was playing baseball four games later,

(01:11:21):
even though he was only running when he got hits.
Oh yeah, like both times that he's heard his hamstrings
only running down to first again. You could protect him
from being on his feet all game long at third,
but he's not doing any running at third base. He's
not Luis ski Orme chasing down fly balls in the outfield.

(01:11:41):
If the fly ball gets hit into short left field
parties isn't catching it. You're barely even chasing it. You're
act somebody else's ball. You're acting like Paradis could pull
off a triple axle.

Speaker 4 (01:11:52):
Well, not many could.

Speaker 6 (01:11:53):
Let's just Giormey one of their sixteen currently injured players.
Luis ki Orme makes their injured team. And there's far,
far too many people on a few other items that
Steve mentioned, specific Delanceman colors we want to address and
will on the other side, the NFLPA, what a month
they're having.

Speaker 4 (01:12:11):
More from them too.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:12:26):
It's the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network.

Speaker 6 (01:12:31):
One of the things that you just started from Steve
Sparks and mentioned, we wanted to add a little bit
of our thoughts too, was the Astros need a long
guy during the stretch of games and probably in general,
they need one. It's something that a lot of teams want,
and they had at the beginning of the year, and
the person of Royan Gusto. Ryan Gusto has been needed

(01:12:52):
in a variety of roles and he essentially is that
has been their long guy, but kind of used on
a very specific day. The day that Lance mccullor's pitches,
so it was one in your traditional long guy. There
was times when Sean Dubin could give him some length.
He actually was so successful in pitching short innings and
short stints that I think he was probably no longer

(01:13:14):
in that mold, and I do think Gusto will be
one of them moving forward, because I think there'll be
some other opportunities for him to remain here or potentially
be a starter. He pitched in back to back game
Saturday Sunday for the first time all season because they
had to. There was really no way around it, and
luckily he only needed sixteen pitches to get his three
outs in the ninth inning of the eleven three game yesterday.

(01:13:36):
But tying both of the conversations together the three pitchers
that should be back from injury and the need for
either a long guy or the possibility that they could
stretch this all into a six man rotation. Their schedule
out of the All Star Break for those that were
not aware, three in Seattle, three in Arizona, four against
the A's, three against Washington, three against Boston, three against

(01:13:59):
Miami the Miami Marlins. The one day off comes at
the end of this month, the thirty first.

Speaker 4 (01:14:05):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (01:14:06):
So they came out of the break with thirteen consecutive
days of baseball. They're three days in and their bullpen's
been used an incredible amount.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
After just three games.

Speaker 6 (01:14:17):
I think Christian Xavier is going to be the Astros
long guy in much the same fashion that he was
previously in his career. Get you nine outs, maybe get
you twelve outs, not used very often, kind of knowing
he's going to be available on Monday. If he doesn't
pitch on monday's available Tuesday, and then he's not available

(01:14:37):
again for three or four days. Kind of like a starter.
I'm not sure if they have other ideas. If they
want to get him stretched out fully so he and
Arragetty can both be starters, that probably is a better plan.

Speaker 4 (01:14:49):
I'm just not sure if it's going to work out
that way.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
So a little bit of a prediction as it all
comes together, I think they may end up seeing him
in that role, not wanting to use him very much.
Number when Dusty did that a handful of years ago,
and we're he just didn't pitch very often and he
was coming out of the bullpen, and they thought it
was best suited for the team while still not putting
his arm at risk. It didn't seem like it was awesome,

(01:15:13):
but it's just the way it worked out. I think
we could see that again.

Speaker 5 (01:15:15):
Well, Christian Javier is a I know we're thinking about
the past, but he's a much more potentially electric guy
to have do anything for your team, whether it's out
of the bullpen, whether it's you know whatever, you're gonna
make his role over the remainder of what's left of
this season potentially more electric than anything else you have

(01:15:39):
to offer that's coming off the shelf, so to speak.
And I again, I know I'm assuming that he's gonna
be like he was, but by all accounts, he looks good.

Speaker 4 (01:15:49):
And even though you got to ramp him up and
all that kind.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
Of stuff, his stuff, as we always say, is I
don't know many teams are gonna be able to say, yeah,
we've got this coming in as some so sort of like.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
Safety net for what were what ails us.

Speaker 6 (01:16:04):
I totally agree with the caliber of his stuff at times,
but I don't want to discount his most recent work,
his work over the last two years that he pitched
very briefly last year and a full season as a starter,
exclusively as a starter, and each of those thirty eight
starts made in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four
four forty four ERA eighty one walks in one hundred

(01:16:28):
and ninety six innings.

Speaker 4 (01:16:29):
That's a that's a lot of walks. Yeah, he had.

Speaker 6 (01:16:32):
He had a hard time harnessing his stuff, struck out
a ton of batters, one hundred and eighty six k's
and one hundred and ninety six innings. But his FIP
and his ERA were the same. This wasn't really flukey.
It wasn't a lot of I don't think a lot
of bad luck in just one hundred and ninety six innings,
which is essentially a full season for a starter these days.
You pitched right around two hundred innings. He gave up

(01:16:54):
twenty nine homers. He was not the overwhelming electric no
his throwing Christian Xavier. From twenty twenty to twenty two,
twenty twenty two, he was more hittable, more pitches out
of his zone, much worse whip, much worse er. Maybe
the full wattage of electricity wasn't quite there the last

(01:17:16):
two years.

Speaker 4 (01:17:16):
But he's fresh now. He is very fresh.

Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
You know, but that's something that Steve Sparks said, and
it's not I mean, we make a joke, but especially
when it comes to the position players. This is what
I hate about, you know, guys like Jeremy Paiania who
are having their best season ever probably I mean even
his rookie year.

Speaker 4 (01:17:36):
There's no probably.

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
Yeah, but it was interrupted kind of like you know,
this is Christian Walker had a great little stretch and
then he went on the Priternity list, and then the
All Star Game came around, and then he was back
to Christian Walker until he had a nice game over
the course of this weekend. But I just wish that
Jeremy paania hadn't gotten drilled in the ribs, first and

(01:17:57):
foremost because that sucks. But secondly because I always baseball
is such a, you know, a groove type sport, and
I would have liked to have just had him keep
the good times rolling. But regardless of whether or not
he comes back in Like I was gonna ask you this,
what were what were Kyle Tucker's numbers when he finally
got back out on the field. I know he was
good because he's Kyle Tucker, but he wasn't torrid like

(01:18:19):
he was prior to the injury.

Speaker 6 (01:18:21):
Yeah, if people don't remember last year, before he got hurt,
he was on the way to the best season of
his career. He was hitting balls over the fence like
he had never done before. And he wasn't quite that
player when he returned. He wasn't really even close to
that player when he returned. You know his April March
May numbers. He played three games in June that was
when the injury occurred. I mean he was sitting at

(01:18:43):
it basically as at one thousand OPS player. He had
nineteen home runs pre injury in seventy games, sixty games,
excuse me, nineteen homers and sixty games. He came back,
was still a thousand OPS player and hit for a
higher average. His slugging percentage was just a little bit down.
He was more similar than you think, but he was.

(01:19:04):
I think the point you're making is, yeah, Kyle Tucker
twenty twenty four, Houston Astros third in MVP voting on
thousand ops three to zero five hitter, thirty nine homers,
one hundred and twelve RBIs that's what they were deprived of.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
For a long time, And I just, uh, all these guys.
Steve Sparks is is right. They will be fresh when
they get back, if they get back. In some cases,
Jeremy Panne is coming back, and that's going to be fantastic,
But what what is the long term prognostication? What's the
reality around not only Eastoc Paradis She'll be back, I think.

(01:19:40):
But the Jake Myers thing is really well, you talk
about two guys that are having unexpectedly great seasons, not
good seasons, great seasons that have been plucked out of
your lineup because of just the worst possible luck. And
what will Jeremy Panne look like when he comes back?
But also will Jake Myers come back? And what will

(01:20:02):
you know Paradus be like when he comes back? And
will you reacit?

Speaker 11 (01:20:05):
Like?

Speaker 5 (01:20:06):
The hamstring thing just freaks me out because it's such
an awful injury to have to monitor no matter what
the sport.

Speaker 6 (01:20:12):
Yeah, players shockingly are pretty good at it, knowing when
they can press and when they need not to and
recognizing will I ground it out to second? Probably not
the time to go all out, you know, I'm trying
to break up a double play, but we're up six
to three.

Speaker 4 (01:20:24):
I love my team and all.

Speaker 6 (01:20:26):
But I'd like to be their form a little bit longer,
just recognition of when to push and when not to.
He's already done it once with the left hamstring, but
admittedly he admitted this one definitely seems worse. Like I said,
and MRI is what Dana Brown said are Sunday is
what they're still waiting on to kind of get a
better idea of where things stand. I mentioned earlier today.
To me, it is football season. Camps have begun. Texan's

(01:20:49):
camp on the field begins on Wednesday. They report tomorrow
and at least in one regard and at least from
somebody out there that covers the NFL, very very high
marks for one part of their team, you won't be
surprised by it. But there's another element of it that
is shining a very nice light on the Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:21:07):
We'll tell you about that next.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adham Talking your Team. Adam Clinton
and Adam Wefler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
Four o'clock, howur underway?

Speaker 5 (01:21:36):
Here on the A Team Sports Talk seven to ninety
Space City Home Network, a lot of astros conversation a
lot of Astro's injury conversation. Unfortunately, another one tacked on
as the Astros were dropping two out of three to
their division rivals, the team just behind them in the
AO West over the weekend in Seattle. But they did
salvage it in a big way yesterday, eleven to three,

(01:21:57):
the final to get out of town and head to Arizon,
where they will start a three game set tonight from
ber Valdez will not pitch in the opener of this one.

Speaker 4 (01:22:05):
He'll pitch tomorrow night.

Speaker 5 (01:22:07):
But there's also as WEX said, it's training camp begins
this week. Football seasons underway, teams are already at camp.
We can start talking about fantasy football. We can start
ranking front sevens, among other things. I was perusing the
social media streets of x earlier today and I saw

(01:22:29):
that my esteemed colleague here had quote tweeted a certain tweet,
and it was about that very subject. The front sevens
that were ranked, if you will, according to at sharp Football,
the best front sevens in twenty twenty five, and lo
and behold. Behind the Vikings, the Broncos, the Steelers, and

(01:22:52):
the Giants, the Texans made the top five Finally.

Speaker 4 (01:22:55):
Yeah, I mean it goes.

Speaker 6 (01:22:57):
I don't think you could probably spin it any other way,
and I this is just one person's evaluation. They're not
going to be too many that disagree with that. Quite honestly,
I do think it's a very clear top five. Miles
Garrett plays for the Browns and they're going to get
some thought they are six according to him. I think
the Jets are good, but maybe lacking definitive edge rushing

(01:23:18):
star power.

Speaker 4 (01:23:19):
It may turn out that they get there.

Speaker 6 (01:23:21):
The Eagles have some players to replace, did that with
younger players and maybe it will still work out. But
they did have a couple of losses, the Bills and
the Lions. Lions getting back Aiden Hutchinson and the Bills
really just getting a lot out of the players that
they have had and continuing to develop them in that way.
But I think they're clearly those five teams ranked by
Warren Sharp here six through ten are clearly not in

(01:23:43):
the class of the Texans, Giants, Steelers, Broncos, and Vikings.

Speaker 4 (01:23:47):
We just talked about the Steelers last week because TJ.

Speaker 6 (01:23:49):
Watt signed his extension, they were going to be good
regardless of that, because of who they already had and
because of who they just drafted, I believe is not
only a great player, but a great fit for what
they do and will be able to kind of fill
in the gaps where they wherever they see fit. Talking
about Harmon high Smith, probably I think he gets a
lot of credit from those that are really in tune

(01:24:10):
with what's happening in the NFL, but not all that
particularly well known just from a name perspective. Elitees player obviously, TJ.
Watt is the elite of the elite and a bunch
of different categories. As you dive deeper into some of
the pressure numbers and pressures in this situation numbers, he's
right there at the top of the list. They came
in three the The Broncos have made some extremely shrewd moves,

(01:24:31):
especially in the draft with their front I don't really
think anybody could look at them and not call their
front seven as talented. They're super explosive and they make
a ton of plays. They absolutely fit there. Texans helped
the Vikings drive inside the top ten and they're at
number one this year. And I only say that and
that they signed two Texans front seven players away from

(01:24:53):
them last offseason last off season going into the year,
they were not in the top twenty this offseason heading
into the year. With year under their belts for both
Brian Cashman linebacker and obviously Jonathan g Reynard at edge,
they're number one and they probably got better with what
they did in the offseason. Giants drafted Abdul Carter. They've
hit on their last couple of interier or line players,

(01:25:17):
and I think they will hit again. I think the
addition of Brian Burns made that a possibility to already
be great. But Burns, Thibodeau and Carter, just those three,
even though they're not the only three that are plus
level players on their front seven, they belong there too.
And the Texans, I'm not sure where the respect level
is for everybody else for some sort of combination of

(01:25:39):
Henry Toatoa, Christian Harris and Aziz al Shire. But very
good players no matter what level you think. I don't
think anybody thinks they're bad players. I don't know that
anybody thinks they're the elite linebacking trio, and usually only
two of them are on the field anyway, but they're
front four. You have an edge duo. I don't know
if they eat anything in the middle. From a respect level,

(01:26:02):
they have it, they can't be any worse than five
going into the season. Could absolutely see them playing themselves
to an even higher spot. It's about being disruptive upfront
and then having the dogs on the back end to
turn all those disruptions into interceptions and incompletions on third
down and getting the other team off the field, setting
your offense up to put points on the board when

(01:26:23):
they need help, and the Texans offense needs help, they
belong here. It was nice to see someone respect that well. Yeah,
and you and there's a nice write up on it.
Hopefully you didn't just look at the list and eliminate
his analysis. It's brief for all thirty two teams, but
I went through it to kind of go with all
this and thought it was a pretty good analysis all

(01:26:44):
the way through with each of the teams even recognizing
I've got this team here there now, But I could
absolutely see this happening in the future, and some good
things about Will Anderson and that when he's on the field,
they're at this elite level and when he's off the field,
still good, but not quite at the level of when
he's out there as a defense. Yeah, even though he's
not even a top one hundred player according to other people.

(01:27:06):
That's why you have so many. I mean, I'm not
big every day list list, but when you start to
get enough of them, you'll start to understand. That's why
the opinions vary, and I think the vast majority will
make the same play on what they like about the text.
They'll they'll describe the same things I added.

Speaker 4 (01:27:23):
To it to.

Speaker 6 (01:27:24):
Of course, you did help point out something that Texans
had better take advantage of if you believe that Sharp's
analysis is sharp enough that it plays out this way.
The top ten defenses, there's only nine others because the
Texans are one of them, so they can only face
those nine defenses. They only see two of them, Denver's

(01:27:45):
and Buffalo's. They have eight games against the teams in
the middle of the pack eleven through twenty. They have
seven games against the teams in the bottom twelve. Fifteen
of their seventeen games preseason rankings are against Midland, too
Bad Front sevens, and they don't see any of the
top ten either of those two teams until basically half

(01:28:06):
the season's over.

Speaker 4 (01:28:06):
They'll have their off week.

Speaker 6 (01:28:07):
The first eight weeks of the season, their first seven
games are against not top ten fronts. The Texans offense
and Bobby Slowick's ultimate departure were one hundred percent related
to other teams front seven embarrassing them and they didn't
even have to be elite, which is the only slight
dousing of the blanket I have to give here. Yeah,

(01:28:29):
and hopefully moving forward that won't be the case.

Speaker 4 (01:28:32):
That's because their line sucks. Yeah, last year you didn't
have to You just had to watch film.

Speaker 6 (01:28:36):
All you had to do was watch film and tell you, guys, hey,
those things we worked on in camp that weren't working
against other teams. They're all gonna work here. You're gonna
run this game, You're gonna run this stunt. You're gonna
be coming from this rush angle. They'll never see you coming.
Come on, coach, it's week eleven. Of course they're gonna
see us. Three hours later, you were right, they didn't
see me coming. Thanks for helping me pad my stats
they need. They got a brand new line combo, they

(01:28:58):
got a brand new offensive line, I got a brand
new OC and over the first seven games of the season,
on paper, talent for talent, individual talent. It does appear
like a soft launching point for their offensive line.

Speaker 5 (01:29:13):
Although the Chiefs re upping with one of their young
defensive ends today and that is a defense they'll be facing.

Speaker 6 (01:29:20):
It is their twelfth I believe, is where he had
them some or at sixteenth. I think for the Chiefs,
I think that's going to be recognized in the very
very near future, like this year. That's one of the
best deals in the NFL. I don't know how people
I understand why he took this deal. I don't think
people realize how impactful carlaftis is and has been from

(01:29:41):
the moment they drafted him.

Speaker 4 (01:29:43):
He's only twenty fourteen.

Speaker 6 (01:29:44):
We love on Baltimore, and we love on Philadelphia and
their GM, and it's impossible not to a certain extent
love on Brett Veach and Andy Reid and what they're
doing in Kansas City. But they're doing such an unbelievable
job on drafting and they're not hitting on everything. But
they're never drafting early. They're constantly finding franchise changing players,

(01:30:07):
two of them on the offensive line that re upped
recently Humphrey last offseason, Smith this offseason, and Carlaftis. He's
definitely one of the best edge rushers in the NFL.
That list is growing because there's so many of them.

Speaker 4 (01:30:19):
He's elite. He is a game plan player.

Speaker 6 (01:30:22):
You better game plan for stopping him, even though he's
on the same line as Chris Jones.

Speaker 5 (01:30:27):
You remember all those years that the Saint Louis Cardinals
seemingly had the Astros number and then the Astros decide
they're going to hire an assistant in their front office
and everything that came.

Speaker 4 (01:30:40):
No, Now is this guy named Jeff Luno?

Speaker 5 (01:30:44):
Oh yeah, Sometimes I wonder, like, because what you're saying,
I completely agree with. The Chiefs are so good at drafting,
and that's how you know they're good is when you're
having to find this talent at the back end of
all the rounds because they win so much. Like, there's
got to be somebody in that front office that could
be a better guy at evaluating talent for the offensive line.

(01:31:06):
If you don't want to fire Nick Cassario, fine, but
can we just have somebody from them come down to
the Texans and assist him with that exact position group
so I'll feel better.

Speaker 6 (01:31:16):
And there is one other element of the Chiefs and
they're drafting, and unfortunately, I think they will fix it
this year. I keep talking about Humphrey and Smith same
draft twenty twenty one. You know, they drafted Creed Humphrey
at sixty three. They drafted Tray Smith after two hundred
and twenty five other players got drafted, and both of
them are elite players, among the top four or five

(01:31:36):
at their position. That should make you enraged if you're
a Texan fan. But after that is the point I'm
trying to make. They've drafted an offensive lineman at ninety two,
an offensive lineman at sixty three, and I don't think
either one of them are starting caliber players. We'll find
out more about Suamatia this year. He was not a
very good player last year. And they've drafted a few

(01:31:56):
other offensive line but those two specifically in the top one.
This year, they drafted Josh Simmons, a gift from multiple teams,
including Houston, and I think that's the one that's going
to put them back on the path of Yeah, we're
finding offensive linemen in the draft and not anywhere near
the top twenty five, and yet we're building our line
around him.

Speaker 7 (01:32:16):
Not to fight back when it comes to Trey Smith.
But Trey Smith, the reason why he fell was because
of a hard condition. He had a top fifty grade
and he no, no team just want to take a
risk on him.

Speaker 6 (01:32:24):
Well, not to push back on that, no team wanted
to take a risk on him for two hundred and
twenty five picks.

Speaker 4 (01:32:29):
Yeah, again, I'm not just a stupid.

Speaker 6 (01:32:31):
Like, is it really, Oh my god, we drafted Tray
Smith with one hundred and third pick, but he can't
play because of his heart. So you threw away one
hundred and third pick. No, you threw away an opportunity
to find a player.

Speaker 4 (01:32:42):
That's what you got.

Speaker 6 (01:32:42):
At some point you got to start taking the risk.
In the sixth round, they were probably like, there's no
way he's still on the board. That's like a fantasy
football draft. I'll take Travis Kelsey, he's gone. I'll take
DeAndre Hopkins. He's already been drafted. Dude, he probably sent
the card in. I'll take Tray Smith, and everybody in
the rooms like, there's no way he hasn't been drafted.
But there he was for the Chiefs, very very good
stuff for them. Not as good for the rest of

(01:33:04):
the league.

Speaker 1 (01:33:07):
The A T on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:33:16):
We are one segment away from the Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly from over the weekend. Several candidates as usual,
several topics for those candidates.

Speaker 4 (01:33:27):
There's a lot to get to. But I mean, it
wouldn't be.

Speaker 5 (01:33:31):
A show a few days shy of Texans training camp
if I didn't pull out my usual my little side
gig where I talk about all the front running T
shirt teams around the country, and one of them certainly qualifies,
the one just north of us, the one to play football.

Speaker 6 (01:33:48):
Sports Talk seven ninety your Southwest, your deep Southwest home
for your Dallas sports.

Speaker 4 (01:33:56):
It's time to talk Cowboys.

Speaker 6 (01:33:58):
Football week man love talking about Cowboys football. A lot
of great history there, recent history, all the championship caliber.

Speaker 14 (01:34:05):
Go ahead, Sorry, well there's a lot to like here
because the original clipped uh post was from one of
your favorite.

Speaker 4 (01:34:18):
You know, one of those guys that.

Speaker 5 (01:34:22):
Just takes everyone else's material, puts it together and almost
makes it as if it's their own.

Speaker 4 (01:34:27):
Your your boy Ari Marev put him in that category.
I thought you did once on the air. I don't
think I mean he was.

Speaker 6 (01:34:36):
He's become more of a he just interviewed Texans assistant
GM Chris Bonco the other day, all right, well, like
he's actually producing his own contact now. He does do
a lot of the they reported this and I'll have it,
and he gets reposted by a lot of people that
are over at the Worldwide Leader, indicating they I don't

(01:34:56):
think he works there, but it sometimes almost seems like that.

Speaker 5 (01:35:00):
Yes, all right, little Cowboys sticking point these days, I
guess this is one of the best ways to say
it that Micah Parsons is not under contract.

Speaker 4 (01:35:11):
Yet in the future.

Speaker 5 (01:35:15):
Well, I mean, wouldn't you feel better if you're a
Dallas Cowboys fan right now if he was.

Speaker 6 (01:35:22):
Well, I mean, he's in a contract, he's not a
free agent, he's not extended those when I'm he's not
there long term in other words, and I like, I
really do feel strongly that he's not going to be.
But Ari had posted I guess a video of Jerry
Jones randomly taking a shot at Micah Parsons saying even

(01:35:43):
if they sign him, it doesn't mean they'll have him
because he was hurt for six games last year.

Speaker 4 (01:35:48):
Fact check heiling this four.

Speaker 5 (01:35:50):
And then he talks about why they made Dak Prescott
the richest player in football. The point of all this
is that JJ Watt then reposted that and said, anytime
you can publicly take a dig at your star quarterback
and your star pass rusher simultaneously right before the season begins,
you just gotta take it. Nothing makes guys want to

(01:36:11):
fight for you more than hearing how upset you are
that they got hurt while fighting for you. JJ Watt
posted that, and Micah Parsons reposted that.

Speaker 6 (01:36:22):
I'm looking something up on the X platform right now,
just to kind of see if it exists. That's where
I'm looking for. I'm not sure if it exists. Hmm,
this page doesn't exist. Try searching for something else. I
went to x dot com and it says the handle
did Jerry put his foot in his mouth?

Speaker 11 (01:36:40):
Is?

Speaker 4 (01:36:40):
It's not a current account.

Speaker 6 (01:36:42):
Like I'm not trying to downplay this at all, but
this is permanent part of Jerry Jones, owner and general
manager of the Dallas Cowboys. He does it after games,
he does it during the off season. He does it
with other owners. He does it on his radio show,
he does it on his tour bus. And he's not
a performer. He constantly does this. He says things no

(01:37:04):
other person in the organization of the other thirty one
teams whatever dream of saying. Let alone get away with saying.
There's nobody to punish him. He's the general manager. There's
no one to do to successfully tell him to stop,
which is why he keeps doing it. Hey, Jerry, can
cond you just not go on the radio anymore? Nope,

(01:37:25):
I'm gonna do it. Can you say nothing? Can you
not do this?

Speaker 4 (01:37:27):
Nope, I'm gonna keep doing it.

Speaker 6 (01:37:28):
I don't even know if there's anybody there saying that,
because remember his longtime PR guy, for his own problems,
had to leave the team a couple of years ago.
But this is, as pointed out by JJ Watt very
it's just what's the word dumb doesn't sound strong enough.
It's probably not gonna impact it, except you're not gonna

(01:37:49):
find a player who's going to say, well, I think
we can get him to this amount, but that's enough.

Speaker 4 (01:37:55):
We got him to this amount.

Speaker 6 (01:37:56):
Instead, he and his agent athletes first David Mulliget a
same agent who who is killing it with the NFL's
elite and will do the same and off CJ Strowd
very very soon next offseason, did so with Derek Steinley
Junior this offseason. He's not going to want JJ's putting
it in the football sense, Oh yeah, this is going

(01:38:17):
to really want to make this player. You'll give everything
he has fight for you. Now that he's done this
well financially, it's not going to make he and his
agents say well, we'll settle for this.

Speaker 4 (01:38:27):
You know, JJ Watt's brother, TJ.

Speaker 6 (01:38:29):
Watch has got one hundred and twenty three million dollar extension,
and Max Crosby got this extension, and daneil Hunter got
this extension. Trey Hendrickson's owner. Now his owner stinks. He's
just the worst. Mike Brown, but he doesn't say stuff
like this even not not as not nearly as often,
and his stuff was pretty simple, vanilla and subdued. For
who he talked about today, he just happened to also

(01:38:51):
speak today. It's just seemingly not the way to win.
And in Dallas with Mike McCarthy, he is the previous
head coach, with Brian Schottenharmer as the current head coach.
Versus just about every other franchise in the NFL. Debiko
Rans is the head coach here, even Shane Steichen in

(01:39:12):
Indianapolis Pick a random team that's not Dallas. Who's setting
the tone the culture for the team. What's the head
coach in every NFL city but one? Jerry Jones sets
the culture in Dallas. Shot, he's not doing it. McCarthy
didn't do it, Waite Phillips probably didn't do it. Jason

(01:39:32):
Garrett didn't do it. Maybe Parcels did it. Certainly Jimmy
Johnson did it. But as the years have gone by,
it's Jerry Jones culture and he continues to foster what
appears to be a very bad one.

Speaker 5 (01:39:45):
Just to kind of give you context, this is what
the exchange sounded like. They're obviously at camp and like
you said, Jerry in front of everybody, Like I'm sure
Callan Hannah will make statements as camp gets under at
some point.

Speaker 6 (01:40:01):
Yeah, this for the Cowboys is totally normal. You open
up camp and there's Jerry, there's Steven, there's the head coach.
They're all up on the podium taking questions.

Speaker 5 (01:40:09):
Yeah, this is this is the exchange in question that
started this whole avalanche of social media posting and reposting.

Speaker 9 (01:40:17):
Just because we signed him doesn't mean we're going to
have him. He was hurt six games last year. Seriously, jeez,
we've signed I remember signing a player for the highest
paid at the position in the league and he got
knocked out two thirds of the year.

Speaker 8 (01:40:31):
Dark Prescott.

Speaker 9 (01:40:34):
So there's a lot of things you can think about
when you just as the player does, when you're thinking
about committing and guaranteed money.

Speaker 6 (01:40:42):
For people that want to fact check, Jerry, he said
he missed six games last year. That's four regular season
games and both of the playoff games they didn't play in.
He only missed four games last year, not six. And
even if you're trying to say, yeah, but he only
played part of this game, but part of that, I
mean if he played hurt, fine, yeah, but he played
more than fifty plus per of the defensive snaps in
every game, played more than seventy percent in every game

(01:41:04):
but one that he appeared in. He was hurt for
four games only. And in the NFL, I'm not quibbling
that matters. Your owner's up there saying you missed six
out of seventeen games when you only miss four. He's
actually saying we signed him, but we don't have him.
And it happened before.

Speaker 4 (01:41:19):
With like what are you doing? Yeah, and I mean,
I'm on TV.

Speaker 6 (01:41:24):
So me not saying anything hopefully is coming across to
those of you that are watching me. But there are
times when even in this job, I'm running out of words.
Jerry's been in this job for so long, I'm running
out of work.

Speaker 5 (01:41:35):
I'm gonna see if you can point out that my
favorite part of this play it one more time, and
I'll tell you when to stop.

Speaker 9 (01:41:42):
Just because we signed him doesn't mean we're going to
have him. He was hurt six games last year. Seriously,
we've signed I remember signing a player for the highest
paid at the position in the league and he got
knocked out two thirds of the year, Dark Prescott. So
there's a lot of things you can think about when
you just as the player does. When you're thinking about

(01:42:03):
committing and guarantee and money.

Speaker 5 (01:42:05):
You can hear a pin drop there because the media
is like you, they're probably exasperated, and especially the ones
that are like that, you know, cover the team every
single day and hear everything he says on his radio
show and everywhere else. And of course my favorite when
they were really going through it a couple of years ago,
it might have been out last year. Actually, they all

(01:42:25):
run together is the inevitable, you know, smattering of media
around him after each and every loss, where you know,
to his credit, I guess he would face the music,
he would face the media, but it was just one
asinine comment after another, or just tone deaf, or there's
a lot of ways you can describe Jerry Jones. But

(01:42:46):
this is why I keep saying, I kept saying, I
don't think Michael Parsons is gonna re up with them,
and it's because he's not gonna want to be there.

Speaker 4 (01:42:54):
Yeah, and the money's gonna be there for him.

Speaker 6 (01:42:56):
He's gonna reup with them, but he's gonna he's gonna
want it out very soon because if he doesn't re
up with him, then he's got three more years there.

Speaker 5 (01:43:03):
Anyway, why would he re up with him when any
number of teams would line up to sign.

Speaker 6 (01:43:07):
Him, Because he can't become a free agent for three
more years. He's going to play under his option year
this year, yeap. They're going to franchise tag him the
year after that. Then they're going to franchise tag him
the year after that. So go ahead and sign your
massive five year extension and get guaranteed money for each
of these three years if you even doesn't even matter
if you get hurt or not.

Speaker 4 (01:43:23):
On the Clowney path. Then with the Texans, I mean,
if he doesn't sign his deal, why I mean, I
wouldn't if I were him. If he really feels that.

Speaker 5 (01:43:31):
If he's retweeting things like this, he feels a certain way.

Speaker 6 (01:43:35):
You don't make more money by not signing lucrat of
long term deals.

Speaker 4 (01:43:39):
You make less. No, I know, I know, and we
saw that here with jadeveon Clowney.

Speaker 5 (01:43:44):
But very interesting stuff and not even a part of
the good, the bad and the ugly which will come next.

Speaker 1 (01:43:50):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety. Now, the good, good,
the bad, and the ugly.

Speaker 4 (01:44:01):
Don't make me good with.

Speaker 2 (01:44:04):
The A team we're selling.

Speaker 4 (01:44:13):
It's that time of the week. We come back from
the weekend and.

Speaker 5 (01:44:17):
We discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. Since
the last time we signed off here on Friday, early evening.
Right now, by my count, it appears as though Cole
will have the good. It appears as though WEX will
be bad, and I will certainly be ugly with what
I bring to the table.

Speaker 4 (01:44:38):
So let's start with Cole.

Speaker 7 (01:44:40):
Well, besides the fact that Scotty Scheffler's son Bennett has
taken over the media by storm, and we're watching the
most dominant golfer probably since Tiger Woods take the mantle.

Speaker 4 (01:44:50):
As bad as it is for the Ashers to lose.

Speaker 7 (01:44:53):
The series against the Seattle Mariners with another injury stockpiling
on up, it's not the worst thing because of you
gotta remember or right now, you're still in the lead
of the Al West. You have a four game lead
over Seattle, who is facing off against one of the
hottest teams in baseball starting tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers.
On top of that, you also got to remember every
game that you lose is an opportunity for you to

(01:45:15):
grow ground or lose ground. Against the Detroit Tigers, well,
as long as you've been on a bad losing streak,
the Tigers have been on a bad losing streak. They
lose the series against the Arlington rain Jerretts that they
call that place in Globe Life Field, they lose that series.
So every game that you won the Tigers won, the
Tigers lost, you lost, so you didn't lose ground there.

(01:45:35):
And when we talk about the Toronto Blue Jays and
what they've been able to accomplish being one of the
hotter teams in the American League. They're facing off against
the New York Yankees tonight and they play, in my opinion,
the most compact division in baseball. Because Tampa's still in
the running, Boston's still in the running despite losing the
series to the Chicago Cubs this past week. We're not
going to get into that because then I'll be here

(01:45:56):
losing my mind over how the Cubs are still doing
it right now instead of wrapping the bed like they
should every single year.

Speaker 4 (01:46:02):
But you also have the Rays and the Blue Jays.

Speaker 7 (01:46:04):
One of those teams is probably going to fall on out,
but they're going to cannibalize themselves.

Speaker 4 (01:46:08):
So yes, does it.

Speaker 7 (01:46:09):
Stinct that the Astros right now don't have a full
fledge rotation?

Speaker 9 (01:46:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:46:14):
Does it sync right now that you lose Esac Paridies
to the IL and you don't know when you're gonna
get him back.

Speaker 4 (01:46:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:46:19):
Does it sinc that John Singleton is coming back on up?
We're in thirty five and it just feels weird to
see not justin Berlander in that jersey.

Speaker 4 (01:46:26):
Yeah, but it could be worse.

Speaker 7 (01:46:28):
You could have only a game lead going into tonight's
series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who this series is probably
where they will decide. Are they sticking around and being
aggressors and maybe buying at the deadline, or standing pat
and going on a run, or this is where we
wave the white flag start making some trades. I'd be
watching Merrill Kelly just over the next couple of games
because of if he is made available Astros number five starter.

(01:46:52):
If you don't feel confident in Lance Callers Junior, you
want to make him maybe a reliever for the postseason,
that might be a name I would target.

Speaker 4 (01:46:59):
So have I heard you? Correct?

Speaker 6 (01:47:00):
The good was the Astros winning a game this weekend?
Is that correct?

Speaker 7 (01:47:04):
Winning a game and Detroit losing both of the ones
that you probably need them to win to keep gaining
ground on you.

Speaker 6 (01:47:09):
Yeah, sure sounds good. I totally agree. Happy Flight weren't swept.
You had a game that you clearly outplayed them, there
was a game that they clearly outplayed you, and the
other game you had ghost Runner gift Runners deciding. That's
a very very close series. Remember what this series also
did with the Astros dropping two out of three. The

(01:47:31):
last home series of the season is against the Mariners.
Oh yeah, and that will determine who wins the season series.
Because the Astros have beaten the Mariners five times and
the Mariners have beaten the Astros five times.

Speaker 4 (01:47:44):
Their season series is tied.

Speaker 6 (01:47:47):
Friday, the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first of September is
the astros last home series of the season at dyk
In Park. I don't believe the division will be determined
with still nine games left in the season. Astros probably
will not have a ten game lead or Seattle will
not have a ten game lead when you get there.
Thus those games are gonna be huge for the Astros.

(01:48:10):
The bad because I don't think it's ugly, is something
we teased earlier and never really got to and we
can flesh out in more detail moving forward of the
NFLPA fiasco, negative vibes. You know Pablo Torre and the
documents he's been able to unearth over the last couple
of weeks, along with Mike Florio on some of them

(01:48:31):
showing well, we thought this was gonna say how the
NFL was colluding. But also in there we've got the
interim or the president of the NFLPA telling Russell Wilson,
how much of a wimp he is, or to use
a certain term, because hey, man, even Deshaun Watson got
a guaranteed contract when nobody's getting them, so you guys

(01:48:52):
better get them.

Speaker 4 (01:48:52):
But oh it's your fault.

Speaker 6 (01:48:54):
Well, the same person who put that out in those
documents was the latest departure from the NFLPA. We talked
about Lloyd Howe, their executive director last week, as it
was on Earth that he decided to expense some very
costly entertainment club bills to back to the PA. So
the dudes that the players are playing to the PA
were being used.

Speaker 5 (01:49:14):
To Jo seventy six thousand square foot strip club and
also Magic City. Oh yeah, the other one too. I
forgot about that one. J. C.

Speaker 6 (01:49:23):
Tretdor said, even though I'm in the running to replace him,
maybe there's only a couple of candidates. Dana Rassini reported
he was one of the lead candidates to land that
now open position. Jonathan Jones over at CBS No One
only had him resigning, but had comments from JC who said,
I'm not resigning because what I've been accused of is true.

(01:49:46):
I could read the rest, but already in that the
NFLPA potential new executive director and previous president is walking
away and saying I'm not resigning because of what I've
been accused of. Like it deals on and on to say,
why do I need to keep taking shots. I'm doing
what I think is best for the whole organization. It's
doing absolutely nothing for me, So I'm out. You can

(01:50:09):
vote for somebody else for any position you want. I'm
not in line for any of them.

Speaker 11 (01:50:13):
Now.

Speaker 6 (01:50:15):
There is no CBA negotiation in the near future with
this deal running through twenty thirty. But they are currently
today at least as weak a union as they've ever been.

Speaker 4 (01:50:26):
Yeah, who is that?

Speaker 5 (01:50:27):
When they last had labor strife and they finally got
to this new CBA. I know Eric Winston was the
Player Association president at the time.

Speaker 4 (01:50:36):
Who was the who was in this role?

Speaker 5 (01:50:40):
Tredder's role would have been Winston and others, But who
was the the Maury Smith? To Maury Smith, that's who
I was trying to think whatever happened.

Speaker 6 (01:50:46):
To him, he was not asked to continue after a
long run which many deemed slightly underwhelming. Oh you think
I think they're in a tough spot because they're no
one in that role is liked, though, like some of
the other league's strife is not quite like NFL because
of the NFL if they're the big bear that covers

(01:51:07):
all these other leagues to begin with. Oh you want
to play games on Christmas? Watch this? Oh you want
to see these ratings. You're happy with those ratings. Look
at ours? Well, they hold that same bearing over you,
platform over the players in their own league to a
certain extent.

Speaker 4 (01:51:21):
Yeah, the ugly is pretty easy.

Speaker 5 (01:51:23):
I could pick a number of Astros related storylines, but
I think we kind of covered it a little bit
earlier in the show. And the Zach short injury, yes, yes,
that's the one.

Speaker 4 (01:51:35):
No, Lance McCullers Junior.

Speaker 5 (01:51:38):
And the ugly part really is the decision that I
think you're talking about that is sooner rather than later.
I mean, once they start getting healthier. From a pitching standpoint,
I think it's headed to some sort of ugly divorce.

Speaker 4 (01:51:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:51:54):
I don't honestly know what's going to happen. I just
don't think it's going to be pretty.

Speaker 6 (01:51:59):
They've got a starts to make trips to the rotation,
to make probably two more minimum before anybody comes back.
He just pitched over the weekend, scheduled to go again,
if it's every fifth day on Thursday, would go again
before July ends, and we'll be scheduled to go probably
before Raghetty or Javier would be ready to return. And

(01:52:20):
then at that point, absolutely you're starting to wonder, we
don't need a six man rotation. Can't we pitch him
out of the bullpen? Can we pitch one of them
out of the bullpen? Questions that need not be answered
yet some of those times it works itself out. But yes,
it's absolutely gotten to that point, unfortunately for Lance mccullors Junior.

Speaker 2 (01:52:39):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:52:49):
Winding down the four o'clock hour here on a Monday
edition of the program. It is the A team Sports
Talk seven ninety, Space City Home Network. Wexac Cole Thompson
with you. And when I saw the news today and
I actually had a buddy send this to me, Hey, look,
Chris Paul is signing with the Clippers. He's coming back,

(01:53:11):
and he's reunited with James Harden And I just thought
to myself, this has got to be the most underwhelming
big name to land with the team in quite some time.

Speaker 8 (01:53:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:53:25):
The biggest story to me is that this is the
third time James Harden, mister nobody wants to play with
him selfish bad teammate, just bad dude. Third time a
Hall of Famer has, for any number of reasons, money
or otherwise, chosen to partner up with him. A second
time happened with Kevin Durant in Brooklyn. Was there together

(01:53:47):
in OKAC. First happened with Russell Westbrook here in Houston.
Was there in OKC first, And now happens with Chris Paul.
First Houston, now the LA Clippers. Clearly it's also a
return to LA, and I think that's where the biggest
part of it comes. Chris Paul was probably looking at
this offseason, had only three teams Phoenix a return, the

(01:54:09):
Lakers because it's in LA, and the Clippers, both because
it's a return and because it's in LA. He wanted
to live on the West Coast, wanted to be much
closer to home. Was the reason why he went to
Phoenix the first time, and it's the reason why he's
gone to LA this time. I don't think it's because
he wants to hear Jeff Van Gundy at practice every day.

Speaker 4 (01:54:29):
Though he will.

Speaker 6 (01:54:30):
I don't think it's because he's going to play a
large role there because it's I think it'll be a
lot harder there with what they're up against in the
West as a good team to play them both together.
It was easy here. Chris Paul was much better. You
are a better team when was he was on the floor.
This is almost a decade ago, and their games could coexist.

(01:54:54):
With Chris Paul's reluctance to put the ball up like
period at all? How much time can he spend on
the court period? With James in the back court, they
have Bradley Beal. They otherwise are a very similar team.
They also added Brook Lopez and John Collins. They're really

(01:55:15):
really good. I don't know how much tipping the scale
this does, but he's as good as a backup point,
as good as a fifteen to twenty three minute a
night player can be at this stage, great at running
the team. They're just not going to get any offense
out of them. But not that they necessarily need it.
Isn't this eighty percent locker room more than anything else?

(01:55:35):
Better in leadership, which is what you already have?

Speaker 4 (01:55:38):
What yeah, I mean, what do you need it? For
isn't he just going to butt heads with people?

Speaker 5 (01:55:41):
Well, I hopefully that's one last teams have to worry about.

Speaker 4 (01:55:44):
Oh hopefully for the other teams in the.

Speaker 5 (01:55:46):
West, but you know the best. So this was a
among others. Obviously, Shan's breaking this news on his ex
account And my favorite response, Monsta Lynch said, Chris Paul, James, Harden,
and Kawhi Leonard next season on the clip and it's
the behind the scenes footage of that commercial that Dan
Marino and Randy Moss and Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice

(01:56:06):
were all in.

Speaker 4 (01:56:07):
That's very, very accurate.

Speaker 5 (01:56:09):
Although James, I think still has a little bit more
left in the tank than maybe even we're all willing
to give him credit for. It's just that when the
postseason gets there, that's when he goes full.

Speaker 3 (01:56:20):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:56:21):
There was somebody who put numbers out that his Game
seven work or end of game, end of series work
is far better than people are giving him credit for.
And I went through the numbers and I didn't say
I completely changed my mind, but I understood where he
was coming from.

Speaker 4 (01:56:36):
I think he has plenty left in the tank.

Speaker 6 (01:56:38):
He's clearly not the same player he was, but He's
a player that helps make the four guys on the
court with him much better, and he's still capable of
taking care of his own. Kawhi Leonard came back healthy
late last year and had a significant improvement in the postseason.
That's all there. I'll give you this on Chris Paul.
You know how many times he's played eighty two games
in a season. Never he's done it once. Do you

(01:57:00):
remember when, like his second year that was last year?

Speaker 4 (01:57:04):
Really?

Speaker 11 (01:57:04):
Yep?

Speaker 5 (01:57:05):
Didn't he play an inordinate amount of games in OKC
his first year because he was on his new.

Speaker 6 (01:57:11):
He played a typical number of games for him. Seventy
He played seventy the following year.

Speaker 4 (01:57:15):
Pretty good for him.

Speaker 6 (01:57:16):
Yeah, fifty eight in both of his years with Houston,
And obviously the injury that mattered most was the one
that happened in the postseason. But he also played almost
twenty three hundred minutes last year, the most he's played
since twenty fifteen to sixteen with the Clippers, but his
amount of shots was down. He just he played to
what they needed. And I'm sure he'll do the same

(01:57:37):
thing there. He'll get an unbelievable reception there. And while
I don't think it's happening. It's it'd be quite a
story if he played a part on a Clippers team
that did more than he did during his first long
and successful run there. They're just postseason success is what
he and Blake Griffin never could really find there, and
this team is certainly capable of postseason success, even in

(01:58:00):
the West.

Speaker 5 (01:58:00):
Another comment says, assembling an all star team of vets
and injury prone ring chasers.

Speaker 6 (01:58:05):
Yeah, I mean Chris is much different. Like if you
want to call Kevin Durant that he's chasing a ring
in Houston. He's playing here to win a ring. He
thinks he can win a ring here. He knows he
couldn't do it in Phoenix. He went to Phoenix because
he thought he could. He went to Brooklyn because he
thought he could. He went to Golden State because he
thought he could.

Speaker 4 (01:58:22):
He was right.

Speaker 6 (01:58:24):
Chris Paul's not really going to LA to chase a
ring with the Clippers. He's going to LA because that's
where their address is, Los Angeles.

Speaker 5 (01:58:32):
Bro went from lob City to Elderly City. That's mean
twenty one seasons, that is, and look say what you
all about pre rockets. Obviously, we know what he did
here for two years. The largest extent of that was
his first year. He's top what point guards of all time?

Speaker 4 (01:58:55):
Five?

Speaker 5 (01:58:57):
I think I think that's like solidified, because I just
don't know it's I don't think it's top ten.

Speaker 4 (01:59:02):
I think top ten is slighting him.

Speaker 6 (01:59:04):
I don't think anyone, Honestly, I don't think it's debatable. Well,
when you start trying to tell me five guys that
are better than him, you can't.

Speaker 5 (01:59:10):
When you start thinking about actual and I mean like
real point guards, not Oh, Steph's a point guard.

Speaker 6 (01:59:15):
Stockton, kid Nash Magic, if I if, I mean, if
you want to include Oscar Robertson, that gets you a
fifth guy. If you want to include Isaiah Thomas, that's
a sixth guy. I don't know that you can really
bring any other names into it. I wouldn't bring Westbrook
into it. I wouldn't bring any of the I don't
think there's anybody else there. And I'm already I'm not

(01:59:36):
telling you those guys are better. I'm saying these are
the only names I think you can in the conversation
your discussion with Yeah, he's second all time and assists
and probably will finish in the neighborhood of thirteen thousand,
which will put him he'll be almost a thousand ahead
of kid who's third, and obviously will be nowhere near.

Speaker 4 (01:59:52):
John Stockton, who's still way way out there but.

Speaker 5 (01:59:54):
Second all time. Sounds like you were pretty good. How
many assists is Stockton finished with?

Speaker 4 (01:59:59):
H fifteen thousand? And how many rings did he finish with?
Fifteen thousand? And nothing added to it? Good? None at
any RINGO.

Speaker 6 (02:00:09):
It's not all about the rings, but it was awesome
watching them fall short, over and over and over and
over again. Paul's also second all time.

Speaker 4 (02:00:18):
And steals also to John Stockton.

Speaker 6 (02:00:22):
Godly, he's the first all time steeler two by a lot. Wow,
over five hundred steels ahead of Chris Paul. The person
who's five hundred steels behind Chris Paul is ninth. That's
how bunched together. The guys after Stockton are still hate
his guts, as many do. Was just watching some more
all the smoke the other day with a Vernon Maxwell appearance.

Speaker 4 (02:00:45):
He hates him too.

Speaker 6 (02:00:46):
He was using curse words to describe the dirtiest player,
so dirty, dirtiest, so so dirty.

Speaker 4 (02:00:53):
And that guy was so dirty man.

Speaker 5 (02:00:55):
I gotta tell you, man, he was I love him
and we need to get Max in here, but not
for long because he'll do that all right.

Speaker 4 (02:01:03):
Five o'clock hour coming up next.

Speaker 5 (02:01:04):
Football at five coming up next, and there are a
variety of topics. Is we are just out I'm going
to say it. We're hours away from Texans training camp.
We will discuss the pigskin when we come back.

Speaker 2 (02:01:18):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:01:24):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (02:01:39):
That music means Football at five and we've already actually
tackled a number of topics, and that's how the show
is going to begin to increasingly become over the next
few days and weeks, as the Texans and their crew
will be underway with training camp before you know it,
and we'll start having all sorts of storylines. One thing

(02:02:00):
that I saw today, they got my attention simply because
I don't believe it, and you might, you might actually
believe this.

Speaker 4 (02:02:07):
I don't know. We all know that. Obviously.

Speaker 5 (02:02:11):
Jim Orsay passed recently this offseason, and now the new
Colts owner and CEO carle Ers Gordon is now attaching
her opinions as owner of the team because she's the
new boss. So any team Texans, Cowboys, as we just

(02:02:31):
talked about earlier, and of course here with the Colts.
You can pick any team right now. This is why
the NFL is king. There are like a million different
plot lines, a million different storylines, and the Colts are
no different. And the headline reads Colts owner says Anthony Richardson.
Quote still has time to prove it. She says, she'd

(02:02:53):
like to bring urgency to all sides of the conversation
surrounding their first round pick for twenty twenty three. He
was number four, of course, but he's gonna be in
competition with Daniel Jones, which that sentence inent of itself
just blows my mind if you were to, like go
back to twenty three when he was drafted number four,
after cj after Bryce Young and say, yeah, he'll be

(02:03:15):
in competition with this horrible quarterback for the Giants someday
on the Colts. And then the quote goes, he where
he is in his career and in his deal as
a rookie, we still have time. He still has time
to prove it. Bring a sense of urgency, and nothing
brings a sense of urgency more than competition. The first

(02:03:37):
things first, he has to stay healthy, which he hasn't.

Speaker 4 (02:03:38):
Been able to do.

Speaker 5 (02:03:40):
But secondly, the fact that he is in competition with
Daniel Jones of all people, almost sounds to me like
the writing's on the wall.

Speaker 6 (02:03:49):
You can't there's no way to be in competition with
anybody better than him. If you signed somebody better than him,
there's no competition that guy starts.

Speaker 4 (02:03:55):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (02:03:55):
They're also not available, and you're also not giving up
on a guy. I think everything she said is right
on the money. He's two years into a four year deal,
likely five because he's a you know, the fourth or
overall pick. It becomes less likely after he played the
first two seasons fifteen times. They played thirty four games.
He's played in fifteen of them. But he just hasn't
played well. He hasn't been effective enough to help them

(02:04:18):
win games. He's made too many. His mistakes aren't man.
He's throwing the ball to the other team too much,
and twelve interceptions and a two hundred and sixty four
attempts is absolutely ungodly awful. But that's not even the
worst part about how he throws it. He just misses
his guys too much. He had a terrible completion percentage,
horribly inaccurate as a rookie at just under sixty percent,

(02:04:39):
even though it was limited time. And then it got
you can't okay, he got worse.

Speaker 4 (02:04:44):
What did he go?

Speaker 6 (02:04:44):
Fifty six? No worse, fifty two, which is unheard of.
No worse. He didn't completely less than fifty percent of
his passes last year, did he? Yes, he did. An
NFL quarterback successfully completed a pass less than fifty percent
of the time in his eleven games last year.

Speaker 4 (02:05:01):
And his name was Anthony Richardson. It's unheard of.

Speaker 5 (02:05:03):
It's not gonna happen again unless it's by him, and
it didn't happen before that number of years, and certainly
not in this era.

Speaker 6 (02:05:10):
That's untenable. That's you can't play anymore. That's why they
did what they did last year, among the other things.
And she didn't really get into the maturity aspect of
it all, but that clearly played a role in why
they moved on from him during the season last year
and probably incorrectly had to move back to him in
the season last year. But she's still right, you're two

(02:05:31):
years in. Why would you if you felt that about
him then? And the same GM that drafted him is
still your GM. If he wants to acknowledge his mistake
at some point, I'm sure eventually he will. But you've
got another season in front of you. You mentioned that
if he stays healthy, part well, if today July twenty first,

(02:05:52):
if you asked her, if you asked Jane Stiken, if
you asked Chris Ballard, if you asked Anthony Richardson, are
you healthy, I don't think the answer is yes. I
don't think he's a fully healthy player as they get
into camp. That's basically what they've said, and I'm not
sure whinning if he will be. I don't know if
it's like the other team in this division that's looking
up at everybody else. So I do think Jacksonville's probably

(02:06:13):
still the second best team, leaving Tennessee at the bottom.
It's not normal for somebody not to get hurt in
the last three to four weeks, participate in all of
their offseason program, all of their OTAs, all of their
mini camps, and then decide for the best of him
and the best for the team and the best for

(02:06:33):
his future he's gonna go ahead and have season ending surgery.
But that's the decision by the Titans and Will Levis Today.
Now it probably doesn't matter because all he was going
to be was a slightly better backup than Brandon Allen.
Because cam Ward is in the he's in the CJ.
Stroud twenty twenty three portion of his training camp, they
haven't announced him as the starter. He's not really in

(02:06:56):
competition with the backup who's played a ton of football
the last two years. But clearly they're going to give
the team to him. That's what the Texans were silly
enough to do themselves with CJ. Stroud and Davis Mills.
He wasn't announced as the starter, and stupidly here on
the show, we wasted our time talking about it because
people kept asking you about it. Just name him the

(02:07:17):
starter because we all know he's starting, and get it
over with and make it public so we don't have
to mess around with it. But they did, and it
looks like the Titans maybe now they won't do the same,
but they were on the path to doing that. He
took all the first team reps and the off season,
did cam Ward, and he was going to take all
the first team reps at camp was cam Ward. I'm
pretty sure he's still going to do that now. So

(02:07:38):
while Levis has experience, they'd already essentially moved on from
him clearly by drafting Ward number one.

Speaker 5 (02:07:45):
And I don't understand is will Levis had this injury
in September of last season. They thought rest would be
the ultimate recovery, And now here you are in late July,
and all right, we gotta do surgery. I just I
know there's more that goes into person. This is a

(02:08:06):
personal decision. This is I'm heading into year three of
a second round draft pick, four year contract. Okay, Well,
I don't want to sit here all year, partially healthy,
get limited work, and head into my final year of
my contract having not played. Maybe I'm moved, maybe they
trade me, but I'm not fully healthy. They're not going
to use me. They've moved on for me. What's best

(02:08:29):
for me is to get healthy while the team I'm
on doesn't need me, rather than when a team that
wants me, either has paid me or traded for me,
does need me. I'll be healthy for them. That's what
he's doing. I mean, I hardly blame him. I wonder
where he lands.

Speaker 6 (02:08:44):
I mean, he has to get back on the field,
probably to have much of a future. I mean the
tech well, look at what the Texans did with Davis Mills,
far less talent arm talent than Levis, although he puts
it where it's supposed to be more often than Levis does.
But he decided to re sign here before he even
hit free agency. He was he had started most of

(02:09:06):
his first two years. He obviously backed up CJ. Stroud
through a year and change before he re upped with
the Texans for another season.

Speaker 4 (02:09:14):
Sometimes the money you can get.

Speaker 6 (02:09:16):
Where you are, even though you are you have no
chance to compete for the starting job, is what you're
gonna do. I didn't view Levis as wanting to do that.
If if Levis plays another year in Tennessee in twenty
twenty six, he's not gonna want to resign there. He's
gonna want to sign where they have somebody else who's
not a given as a starter, or somebody who has
injury problems. He doesn't want to be there for year

(02:09:37):
three of cam Ward as his backup. He wants to
try something else.

Speaker 5 (02:09:42):
I would assume I'm fascinated to see what cam Ward
is gonna look like this year.

Speaker 4 (02:09:47):
Not big on cam Ward.

Speaker 6 (02:09:49):
I'm not sold on cam Ward because a bad class
of players and so he clearly looked better than everybody else.
But I think there's a chance he turns out to
be really, really good. And currently that's we just talked
about two of the four teams in the division. They're
only four. You only got to be better than one
of them. And if you are better than three teams
in the NFL, if you're better than those three teams,
hello playoffs and a home game. The Texans are in

(02:10:10):
a division where two teams are curious at quarterback. Titans
hope they drafted the answer. But are they just three
years or four years removed from where Jacksonville is now?
Jacksonville paid their quarterback like they have the answer, but
you'd be just in that. We talked about Daniel Jones
this very segment. Some of his numbers, you know, don't

(02:10:33):
look all that dissimilar from Trevor Lawrence, and he's looked
at as a totally useless bum who was stupidly given
a contract over Saquon Barkley and Trevor Lawrence is just
casting checks and doing next to nothing as Jacksonville's face
of the franchise.

Speaker 5 (02:10:53):
When does his I know they've extended him, so that
adds years onto this question.

Speaker 4 (02:11:00):
And when does his luck run out? His luck that
they love him.

Speaker 5 (02:11:03):
M hmm, good question, I mean, and I'm not saying
no other team would have extended him given the same circumstances.

Speaker 6 (02:11:13):
They have bet on him a second time or a
third time. They bet on him when they drafted in
number one. Overall, it's a bet everyone would have taken.
They bet on him when they extended him, and now
they've bet on him again because they said, it's the
offense and the coaches. It's not you, new OC, new
head coach, new GM, all different ideas, they're going to

(02:11:34):
do things differently than everybody else, and they're both obviously
the OC is offensive minded. The head coach is an
offensive head coach. They did everything again to bet on
Lawrence again. So if it doesn't work, this is the
group that will probably. I don't think he'll get them fired.
I think they'll move on from him if they have to.

Speaker 5 (02:11:53):
This sounds vaguely familiar, even though I would never confuse C. J.

Speaker 4 (02:11:57):
Stroud with Trevor Lawrence. I just think he's in my
better quarterback.

Speaker 6 (02:12:01):
Well, well, the Texans did it without firing a head
coach who they've been successful under their winning football games.
They just had a deficiency which they're trying to fix.

Speaker 5 (02:12:08):
And to Trevor's Trevor Lawrence's credit, it's not like he
was playing under a good head coach the first time around.

Speaker 4 (02:12:16):
He was playing under.

Speaker 5 (02:12:17):
A disaster, so that that stunted his growth for sure,
in more ways than one, probably, but he's running out
of those types of He.

Speaker 6 (02:12:26):
Pretty much fixed it all in year two. He was
very good in year two, and then he was worse
in year three, and then he was much worse and
hurt in year four.

Speaker 4 (02:12:33):
Which was last year. Great job, he's.

Speaker 6 (02:12:36):
Trending in the greatest direction ever for the Texans in
their division clearly have a great quarterback situation. None of
the other three teams in this division have a great
quarterback situation.

Speaker 4 (02:12:48):
Guess who's going to.

Speaker 5 (02:12:49):
Win the division again this year and the year after
and the year after and the year after.

Speaker 4 (02:12:55):
It's gonna be a great run.

Speaker 5 (02:12:56):
None of these guys are going to get a better
quarterback during that time you just mentioned of three years
of the Texans just runs.

Speaker 4 (02:13:01):
Is going anywhere. Ward's not going anywhere. Hmmm. It's the
teams around him.

Speaker 1 (02:13:09):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:13:21):
You know, earlier when I was talking about all the
ways that Jerry Jones had offended Micah Parsons and Dak
Prescott and pretty much anybody who roots for the Dallas Cowboys,
I didn't even include the fact that he also questioned
Trevon Diggs's leadership. He was docked five hundred grand after

(02:13:41):
failing to participate in at least eighty four point three
seven of the offseason program, and so Dallas is enforcing
a de escalator clause in his contract. As a result,
He's going to start his fall on the pup list
as he recovers from that knee injury, and he's Jerry

(02:14:04):
Jones was asked about the negotiations around Michael Parsons, and
then he of course turned his attention to Trevon Diggs,
and he said, we expect a player's play that's paid
like Trevon to be here all the time, to be leading. Frankly,
should we have waited to extend digs and steal talking

(02:14:25):
about Terrence Steele. It's a legitimate debate, but not one
that will go over well with his defensive star. And
I guess Jerry's son had to kind of intervene to
kind of do damage control, and he said after this
is after Jerry's comments, he said, the other thing is
the willingness. You have players who decide, hey, I'm willing

(02:14:47):
to wait. I'm gonna wait on bigger numbers, and you've
got other players who want to be more conservative and say, hey,
I'd like to have my money.

Speaker 4 (02:14:53):
Now, every person's different.

Speaker 5 (02:14:56):
He's just trying to smooth over and we're getting to
a point I'm like, when do they start trying to consider.

Speaker 4 (02:15:05):
How do I put this delicately.

Speaker 5 (02:15:08):
Treating Jerry Jones, Like, well, what he is a guy
who just has zero filter, who's getting a little bit
on up in age, and you don't trust him in
front of a live mic.

Speaker 6 (02:15:19):
Well, you're saying all that like it's new, like it's
because of his age.

Speaker 4 (02:15:23):
It isn't. So they're never going to.

Speaker 5 (02:15:24):
Do some of the stuff he's saying he maybe wouldn't
have in the past.

Speaker 4 (02:15:29):
I think I really do believe that, Like, yeah, that's fine.
I don't no, there was a time where he didn't
say everything.

Speaker 6 (02:15:34):
He just I mean, he's he stepped on it so
many times and hadn't had to deal with the issues
from it, so he keeps stepping in it.

Speaker 4 (02:15:41):
It doesn't mind. It doesn't bother him at all.

Speaker 6 (02:15:43):
I mean, look at the way he delivers it half
the time, and he doesn't go back and say, oh,
I probably shouldn't have said that. When's he ever said that.

Speaker 4 (02:15:50):
Well, he's never said that. It doesn't bother him.

Speaker 6 (02:15:52):
And there's nobody in the organization that it bothers enough
or has a lowed enough voice to tell him to
quit doing it. I mean, it's a garan because it's
never happened before and it's not gonna start happening in
the future. The Texans start practice on Wednesday. Since Nick
Cassario has been here, they've had a pretty standard way
of opening up practice for training camp. But it's really
not all that different than under when they had both

(02:16:14):
a coach and a GM, so hard to compare to
the Bill O'Brien era. At some points, the coach runs
training camp, the owner doesn't run training camp, the GM
doesn't run training camp. The owner's son doesn't run training camp.
So you talk to the coach beginning of training camp
under Nick Cassio. Nick's gonna talk to us at eight
thirty in the morning on Wednesday, nine o'clock practice starts,

(02:16:35):
so as the players are coming across from the stadium
to the field, he'll be talking with us right ten
to fifteen minutes with him. Then practice will start. We
won't hear from Nick Cassio again publicly period until something happens,
a player gets suspended, he wants to address us, or
something else of that nature, and then we'll get to
the off season or sometime before the playoffs. Otherwise it's

(02:16:56):
all Damico. His assistants will talk before the first group
of practices are over first week, and we'll get players
after each practice and that's that. This is standard operating
procedure for the Cowboys. The owner, his kid, and the
coach address you for forty five minutes at least before
they get started with training camp, which is what they
did today, and they do it every year. And Jerry's

(02:17:19):
more than happy to grant more interviews and Stephen Jones
more interviews non stop. We will definitely talk to Callan
Hannah during Texans training camp, probably very early on, probably
more than once. We'll talk to them sometime during the
early portion of camp. Upon request, they'll address the possibilities
of have they found a home for their new training facility,

(02:17:42):
have they made any progress with the city, county and
everybody else about where the stadium is and how they
feel about that, and maybe some football related items. Also,
we'll talk to them again as they have a bunch
of open practices, they'll have some charity endeavors from the
Texans Foundation that they'll be in charge of, and we'll
talk to them then again.

Speaker 4 (02:18:00):
And that's it.

Speaker 6 (02:18:01):
And the football side of it. I mean, think, what's
the most significant issue football related that you would want
the ownership Kallan Hannah to have asked of them so
they can address It's it's not are you going to
resign Michah Parsons. It's not how come you haven't won
football games in forever? It's not how come you didn't
do anything this offseason. It's not are you you know

(02:18:23):
the Dak Prescott situation the year before. I mean, the
football related questions are pretty vanilla for the owners, especially
because we don't need them to answer in that way.
And I am comparing apples to oranges, which one do
you like more?

Speaker 4 (02:18:39):
Apples or oranges. I like apples to eat than.

Speaker 6 (02:18:42):
Kallan Hannah are apples. Their owners, like most people want
their owners to be. We hired the football people to
do the football things. Jerry is oranges. He is the
football people and also the owner.

Speaker 5 (02:18:56):
Yeah, but I hesitate to say that that Callan Hannah
are what we want them to be. This soon after
Jack Easter b I'm still.

Speaker 6 (02:19:03):
They made a mistake and learned from it. At at
the very least, I took them a long time. What's
the other one?

Speaker 5 (02:19:10):
They just they dude, they are like their reputation for
pretty much the entire existence of their franchise has been
being the last ones in the room to figure out
when to let go of whatever leadership or yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (02:19:23):
Mean we go.

Speaker 6 (02:19:24):
I mean I say it before we get into all
these conversations. I am probably in the minority. The Texans
have had two owners. He's number two. Bob McNair and
Cal McNair to me are totally different owners. They run
the team differently. Their face forwardness of it is comparable.
But I just view their run. I don't view anything.

(02:19:45):
Callan Hannah do and say, yep, same stuff they've been
doing all along.

Speaker 4 (02:19:48):
I think they've had. I think it's total. Oh who's
the third Hannah? Well, I consider them this.

Speaker 5 (02:19:54):
There was this little moratorium, purgatory period where if, even
if he wasn't really like Cow was the the front
and center, and that coincided with the Cully Lovey Smith
and then Hannah starts just doing the press conferences, and
that's when she became the third owner.

Speaker 6 (02:20:10):
Like as much as it was easy to make fun
of during the Cully era, the losing and the hiring
of love Smith and the losing, and it wasn't I
don't think we looked at it then or now quite
like the Astros intentional losing.

Speaker 4 (02:20:24):
But that's what they were doing. But shouldn't we Oh
well I did.

Speaker 5 (02:20:27):
Then, Like you're not kidding, Like you're not serious with
Lovey Smith? Was just your process by elimination after David Cully.

Speaker 6 (02:20:35):
Well, Lovey Smith is I almost think it he gets
stuck with a bad rap because of the process to
get to him. Like hiring David Cully should always be
looked at as worse. Hiring Lovey Smith as an NFL
head coach had already happened twice. But you were just
the third team to do it. Maybe you should have learned,
I guess, but hiring David Cully as a head coach

(02:20:57):
even one time is absolutely ridic But.

Speaker 5 (02:21:00):
You're forgetting who they really wanted to hire both times. Yeah, Lucas,
I mean no, Josh, it doesn't matter. Neither one of
them are qualified.

Speaker 6 (02:21:09):
It is now Josh McCown will probably if things go
well for the teams he's working for. Why because now
he's on a normal path. He's an assistant coach, he
works with an offensive minded head coach. They're having success.
You draw interviews, he has NFL playing experience. He was
like a coach on the field, he played for decade plus.
He's on a normal coaching path. Yes, now everything you're

(02:21:29):
not a normal interview then, yeah, everything you're saying is
perfectly reasonable. And maybe I'm just it's tainted in my
mind because it's was tainted in real life. But I've
just never just found a ton of people who are like, yeah,
I gotta have Josh McCown r on my team. I've
got to have this guy. Except for the Houston Texans. Yeah,
at the time they were doing it, and when I said, well,

(02:21:50):
what was their other mistake? We've just talked about four
other mistakes that were made, all during the same era.
You know, the Bill O'Brien Easterby area bleeding into a
little of this era and the way they went about
doing this.

Speaker 4 (02:22:02):
I mean, and those are two different things.

Speaker 5 (02:22:03):
By the way, Bill O'Brien and easter B meaning Bill
O'Brien GM and Easter B being in the building are
two separate things that were happening at the same time.

Speaker 6 (02:22:13):
Is Bill O'Brien ever the GMT if easter B's not hired.
I'm not saying easter Be made that happen, but I
think the judgment was so clouded at that point from
cal because he was listening to the wrong person.

Speaker 5 (02:22:24):
That must that might be in the annals of Houston Sports.
That might be one of the most potentially fascinating questions
that I don't really have any desire to ever have answered.

Speaker 4 (02:22:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:22:36):
Bill O'Brien has since said that being the general manager
of the football team he coached was a bad idea.
It was something he wished he had not have done,
had not accepted into that decision making process.

Speaker 4 (02:22:47):
He figured that out in what two years.

Speaker 5 (02:22:49):
Jerry Jones is still trying to figure it out, so
we'll always have that on you as well.

Speaker 4 (02:22:53):
Dallas.

Speaker 6 (02:22:54):
Yeah, that's not necessarily breeding success. And it was painful
when they went for those three seasons where they couldn't
win any games, and now.

Speaker 4 (02:23:03):
Here they are.

Speaker 6 (02:23:03):
Do you think class of the division and I still
think they're one of the four best teams, the fourth
best team in the AFC.

Speaker 5 (02:23:10):
Do you think Steven goes home at night and just
bashes his head into a brick wall and just waits.

Speaker 6 (02:23:14):
Why would you have a brick wall? I would probably
soften the blow. With all the cash that he has,
he might bang his head into a mattress covered in money,
bed or a wall covered in money. I mean you're
saying he goes home to his mansion and does that.

Speaker 4 (02:23:29):
He's fine.

Speaker 6 (02:23:30):
Oh, Jerry made another mistake today. What do you guys
want for dinner? Jerry made him he second foot in
his mouth again today? What really expensive country club do
you want to go to today? I mean, definitely having stake too.
He'll be okay, He'll be fine, and Jerry will be too.
That's why he keeps doing it. But Dallas, Jerry's not
making less money, That's true. He hasn't made his franchise

(02:23:51):
less valuable. He's made it more valuable. He's been successful.
If you're into money, not winning games, right, Yeah, that's
that's absolutely true.

Speaker 1 (02:24:02):
In case you missed it, is next the ag on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:24:14):
As always here in the final hour of the show,
we get you into In case you missed it. Halfway
home of this final hour, I wanted to get one
item out there before we turn things over to you,
Cole and your assessment of it. The Texans officially made
one transaction today. Unofficially made two transactions today. We've already
mentioned it a couple of times, but we'll mention it

(02:24:35):
here again. Arionte Ersie their second round pick. Second second
round pick number forty eight, assigned to a deal and
announced by the Texans over the weekend.

Speaker 4 (02:24:44):
He will be reporting to camp tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (02:24:46):
Just like everybody else and participating in Wednesday mornings practice.
Holdouts and second round picks, as expected, did not happen
this offseason. There are a couple unsigned but none that
play for the Texans. The unannounced move but reported by
Cam Woolf, Aaron Wilson, and a host of others, and
Arthur himself on his ig page with a picture of

(02:25:06):
him inside the Texans locker room with his locker there.
Cornerback thirty one year old Arthur will Let from the
late of the Ravens multiple stops in his career, smaller corner,
obviously older corner, and coming off of injury. But after
the Texans added Ronald Darby and he subsequently retired early
in their off season program, Damon Arnette was brought aboard

(02:25:29):
and now.

Speaker 4 (02:25:30):
Arthur brought a board.

Speaker 6 (02:25:32):
Your thoughts on those two, specifically the new one Arthur
as a veteran competitor for making the team and playing time,
there's your Ronald Darby replacement. All the way through training camp.
That was my suspicion. I believe this is a player
who will make the team and when he's needed, he's
probably he's definitely your first inside corner off of the bench,

(02:25:54):
and potentially will be needed elsewhere, but at his size,
that's where he's likely going to play. He's obviously been
with some very very good teams. Ravens could have maybe
been interested off of last season, even though he was
hurt to bring him back, but their secondary is almost
as awesome as the Houston Texans, also very young on
their Edges Wiggins there lasted a here, but I like

(02:26:17):
this edition a great deal.

Speaker 4 (02:26:18):
What else do we have?

Speaker 7 (02:26:19):
So ESPN is starting to get prepared for the MLB
trade deadline, and we've mentioned this, there's a lot of
teams that maybe are gonna be cautiously optimistic on making deals,
but still never too early to start fielding some phone
calls and Jeff passed and dropped his top fifty trade
deadline candidates, giving the Astros eight best fits on names
of target before the July thirty first marker. Sandy Alcntra,

(02:26:43):
Seth Lugo, Chris Bubach, Mitch Keller, Zach Dallen Merrill, Kelly Todge, Bradley,
Edward Cabrera, and Cedric Mullens were the nine names listed
for the Ashers as best fits. Now, remember over half
those names are starting pitchers.

Speaker 4 (02:26:59):
The names that are outfielders.

Speaker 7 (02:27:01):
So the next several days, in the next several games,
probably all the way through the Athletics series, a time
opportunity for Taylor Tremmell and for Chas McCormick to where
they don't have to worry about adding in a outfielder,
and for the starting pitching somebody stepping on.

Speaker 4 (02:27:15):
Up, whether it being a long term reliever.

Speaker 7 (02:27:17):
To add value to where maybe you go ahead to
have them as a stop gap starter, or finding out
more positive news surrounding Spencer rag Getty, Christian Javier Luis Garcia.
Seven pitchers name as options for the Astros before the tepline.

Speaker 6 (02:27:30):
Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, there were eight players on
the list. Mullin's the only non pitcher and he was
the last on the list. Just a ranking of available
free age is not necessarily a ranking of the astros
interest really doesn't have anything to do with the astros interests.
As Cole mentioned, it's more about where does Jeff and
his assorted ESPN geniuses feel our best fits. It should

(02:27:51):
also be noted that they put a chance to be
traded with all of these players. Of those pitchers Cole mentioned,
the highest likely hood they believe that that pitcher actually
gets moved, Well, Mitch Keller's at fifty percent, Merrill Kelly
is at seventy percent, and at eighty percent. At the

(02:28:12):
top of the list is Seth Lugo. You and I
talked about Seth Lugo a little bit last week. Every
name you mentioned, Cole they'd all be welcome here in Houston,
for whether their salary is a nice fit, whether they
have a couple more years of club control. And several
of these pitchers do have not only club control, but
they're not under a long term deal, so you're not.

Speaker 4 (02:28:31):
Too concerned about where their art figures are going.

Speaker 6 (02:28:35):
I feel like they're all reasonable thoughts and very reasonable
connections to Houston.

Speaker 4 (02:28:40):
And one of them starts against them tonight. Yeah, but you.

Speaker 6 (02:28:43):
Gotta have the ammunition to get them. And I still
can't quite convince myself, like Arizona wins tonight with Zach Gallon,
let's say, and they win with I don't think they're
gonna beat Fromber, but let's say they do. You've opened
this series with two wins against a very good team.

Speaker 4 (02:29:00):
You're fifty two and fifty.

Speaker 6 (02:29:03):
Are you really not, like, do you have so little
belief in the guys that have gotten you to fifty
two and fifty, specifically the pitchers, that you don't even
want to take a chance with them in the playoffs
because you're telling your clubhouse, I'm giving up on this
season even though we're absolutely in the race for the playoffs.
And ha Suarez is above both of those guys apparent

(02:29:25):
number one trade likely to be traded. He's third on
the list in homers. He's having a for what you
want from him and what well, what you want from
him if you're not Seattle because they didn't want him.

Speaker 4 (02:29:36):
He's been unbelievable. I want you always going.

Speaker 6 (02:29:37):
To strike out time, hits homers and he drives in
runs and you need him.

Speaker 5 (02:29:43):
By the way, I can't wait until they do trade
for him and he doesn't perform there.

Speaker 4 (02:29:47):
Oh yeah, everything that was really hot.

Speaker 6 (02:29:49):
Are you talking about Swarez? Where's he going to be traded?
So you mean they're not going to trade for him?

Speaker 4 (02:29:54):
Why? Because they had him and they told him to
get Hi did the same thing with Justin Verlander.

Speaker 7 (02:30:00):
That's actually number two on the list of corner pass
The number one's the Yankees, but number two is the Mariners.

Speaker 4 (02:30:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:30:05):
I mean, I don't know that he lists them in
order of likely likelihood to be there, but the Yankees
to me are probably where he plays his baseball if
the Diamondbacks decide to move him. And of those other pictures,
just for the Astros related angle of it, you know,
I think there's danger and all of these guys get
you know, other than really logo. I would love Mitch Keller,

(02:30:27):
love love, love Mitch Keller. I don't think boobage is
getting traded, so I'll reserve comment on that. But many
of these other pitchers, especially Gallon and al Contra, they're
not just available because these teams don't want to pay them.
They're available because their performance has.

Speaker 4 (02:30:43):
Made them available.

Speaker 6 (02:30:44):
Gallon's been bad this year, all Gintar has been worse.
Nice a former sy Young winner.

Speaker 5 (02:30:50):
I'm looking at Mitch Keller's numbers and I'm like, oh, yeah,
he pitches for the Pirates.

Speaker 4 (02:30:54):
Clearly, yeah, his win.

Speaker 6 (02:30:56):
What's this w Yeah, it's totally It's not an anyway
related to how he pitches.

Speaker 5 (02:31:01):
Welcome to the hell that is Paul Skins, the world,
the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Speaker 4 (02:31:07):
Everybody's saying, get me out of here. What else?

Speaker 7 (02:31:09):
Do we have a little bit of an update on
injuries going into training camp that starts on Wednesday From
Sports Talk seven to ninety Zone. Aaron Wilson. Texas linebacker
Christian Harris has made a sound recovery from a cath injury.
He is expected to be back at some point in
the early stages of camp. You also are expecting to
see Damian Pierce fully recovery at the start of training camp,
who had been dealing with a quad injury. Jalen Nole,

(02:31:30):
the third round pick out of Iowa State, had been
dealing with the hamstring strain for the kind of out
of most of the spring practices. He expected to be
back at at week one. Defensive end Innico Autry, however,
is sidelined for spring due to a kneat injury. He
expected to be east into camp really get more so
geared up towards the end of the preseason, as well
as veterans safety Jimmy Ward, who had a slew of

(02:31:52):
things this offseason that we're dealing with, a couple of
domestic violence charges. He has been running, not expecting to
be ready for the start of training camp, however involved
the recovery, is expecting to be back before the start
of the regular season. And finally Joe Mixon, he also
was expected to be back in some capacity, maybe not
full speed, but some capacity when training camp break some Wednesday.

Speaker 6 (02:32:11):
Yeah, a lot of players that we didn't see during
the off season were injury related. Pretty much everybody that
wasn't in attendance at any point in time. And you
just ran through the list as Aaron did in his article,
and it's probably the expecting news on just about everybody
in the Texans. As Demiko will tell us, everyone's on
their own individual program. Just remember when we last talked
to him during mini camp, he said Christian Harris would

(02:32:34):
be ready for training camp and that certainly Jizz with
this report. Whether he practices full every day at the
onset is another thing, but ready and healthy at the onset,
that's good news. Probably a real competition between he and
Henry Totoa to play alongside Aziz al Shier in their
almost exclusive two linebacker. Look, we'll give you some tickets.

(02:32:58):
We haven't even teased yet. We'll see hoops or a concert.
We'll do that next.

Speaker 1 (02:33:02):
You're on the eighteen, the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:33:14):
What the version of the Astros lineup is?

Speaker 5 (02:33:17):
This is this ninety five ninety six different lineup. That's
a lot Yiner's not in this lineup. You must really
need some rest.

Speaker 6 (02:33:26):
Well, you also a kind of stuck in some ballparks
where you'd prefer not to play al Tuva in the outfield,
and you might also prefer not to play him at
second base, because now where do you put Bryce Matthews.

Speaker 4 (02:33:41):
So is Arizona cavernous like Seattle and with super weird walls? Well, yeah,
I know that, Bray, you like them.

Speaker 6 (02:33:47):
So Altuve is the designated hitter, which means only one
of their catchers is in the lineup tonight, the one
doing the catching. That's Victor Kartini. The top four spots
in the order remain unchanged from yesterday. Cam Smith, Hose,
Victor Carrattini, and Christian Walker right dh catching and of
course over at first base and then filling in the
lineup because this is who Jospota has at his disposal.

(02:34:11):
Taylor Tremmel, coming off a monster day both offensively and
defensively yesterday. He's in left field, bats fifth. Mauricu Dubond's
over at third and bats behind him sixth in the order.
Chas McCormick back in center field, where he finished yesterday's
game as a defensive replacement when they took Jose Altuve out.
He's batting seventh. He came back over the weekend got

(02:34:33):
into a couple of games. Bryce Matthews is the second
baseman and not batting ninth. He's batting eighth.

Speaker 4 (02:34:39):
Zach Short.

Speaker 6 (02:34:40):
Hopefully later tonight will not be scratched from the lineup,
which is what happened when Shay Witkam got an unexpected
start over the weekend after Short was hit by a
pitch in the ribs, stayed in the game, scored a run,
and was put in the lineup the next day, only
to then say I'm not really ready to go. He'll
play Shorts up, He'll beat ninth tonight. Zach Gallon goes
for the Diamondbacks five point forty ERA. Colton Gordon makes

(02:35:03):
his first start of the second part of the season
three and two four sixty seven e. R A mentioned
we had some tickets to give away. Want to do
that for our loyal listeners here and throughout the week.
Tickets to go see the Fix. They're playing House of
Blues September third. Tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster
dot com. Got a pair of tickets to that or

(02:35:25):
if you get the answer right and would like to
instead go see some three on three, the biggest three
on three. It is the Big Three and it's coming
to Toyota Center. They are into their season five matchups
already for Houston rig Hands coached by Calvin Murphy, led
by Corey Brewer and the Greens. They're gonna be at

(02:35:46):
Toyota Center on August second. Of course, it is not
just Houston's team that will be there. You got four
games to be played throughout that day. You'll be there
for all of them if you are the winner of
these tickets. Tickets are also on sale now at Toyota
Center dot Com mentioned a list of possible Astros targets

(02:36:07):
that's been floated out there by the Worldwide Leader, most
of which included pitching help on the starting front, as
it was attached to Astros. Name the player that is
not a pitcher that we mentioned last segment on a
list of good potential fits for Houston, the list from
Jeffrey Passon over at ESPN. We only mentioned one player

(02:36:30):
that was a position player. All the others were starting
pitchers seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three, two, one two five seven ninety named
the one position player we brought up by name last
segment that is a possible great fit for the Houston
Astros and their trade targets this trade deadline, which is

(02:36:52):
rapidly approaching.

Speaker 5 (02:36:54):
You know, when was it that John Boy in his
his merry band of misfits started getting really monetized and
got that deal patched in with Major League Baseball?

Speaker 4 (02:37:08):
And that was like a what a month ago? Maybe
two months ago?

Speaker 5 (02:37:10):
Hm?

Speaker 4 (02:37:12):
Did you see the latest?

Speaker 5 (02:37:14):
And this is like an absolute snippet, but I guess
Rob Manford went on with talking baseball and this was
actually on Pardon my.

Speaker 4 (02:37:25):
Take, it's like I'm trying to. I'm trying to.

Speaker 5 (02:37:29):
Yeah, it was part of my take that he actually
said it on and he admitted that he grew up
a Yankee fan. Once again, I just wanted to remind
everybody that he's a scumbag.

Speaker 6 (02:37:38):
Commissioner of Major Shocking that the commissioner of a sports
league liked the sport he's the commissioner.

Speaker 4 (02:37:43):
Of when he grew up. Now, not absolutely shocking. That's
not what I said. I know, that's what I said.
He liked baseball team.

Speaker 6 (02:37:51):
Your sugar coating needs to be the one in New
York where he lived. Didn't you say you just said
he liked the sport, not the team, right, No, like
the team?

Speaker 4 (02:37:59):
Oh okay, I thought you said the sport.

Speaker 6 (02:38:00):
No, maybe I did say the sport and and liking
the sport, he probably had a favorite team. That's almost
always what happens when you like a sport, you have
a favorite team.

Speaker 4 (02:38:09):
I try to balance that off with equal time with
the Mets because I live in New York.

Speaker 5 (02:38:13):
But most nights I'm flipping between Yankees or Mets and
the extra innings package to follow what's going on with
the rest of the life.

Speaker 4 (02:38:19):
Pimpin MLB dot com, Smart, Why why don't you do
that too?

Speaker 9 (02:38:24):
Rob?

Speaker 4 (02:38:24):
What games are you missing?

Speaker 5 (02:38:26):
I'm fine because I don't necessarily go out of town
a lot to watch Astros games or whatever.

Speaker 4 (02:38:32):
I don't. I don't run into a lot of that.

Speaker 6 (02:38:34):
He was born in Rome and he's a Yankee fan Rome,
New York.

Speaker 4 (02:38:39):
I'm aware of where he was born or from.

Speaker 6 (02:38:42):
So he admitted he was a Yankee fan. What else
did he say? That's that's probably not the point of
your bringing this up. Well, a lot of people reacted
to that that he's a Yankee fan.

Speaker 4 (02:38:52):
Is he still giving the Yankees juiced balls to play with?

Speaker 6 (02:38:55):
We do like to joke about that, and it does
seem like, Man, some weird stuff happening with these thats
that are coming from.

Speaker 5 (02:39:03):
That was another one. He's the only of the four.
You're you what you used as an explanation here, were like,
you're going to refute it, of course, bringing of course
he was u a fan of the game.

Speaker 6 (02:39:18):
So Roger, Gary and Adam not not sports fans growing up.

Speaker 5 (02:39:22):
Well, they're the They're the ones that decided not to
say who they rooted for. Rob didn't. Rob's like, no,
I'm gonna tell you what a stand up guy. Well,
there's four commissioners right in North America. So you're the
only guy that said, here's the team I grew up
voting for.

Speaker 6 (02:39:36):
The guy that's being transparent is the one you like
that you think is doing it wrong?

Speaker 4 (02:39:40):
Transparent? In what way? Are you a fan of any team? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (02:39:44):
The Yankees? Hey, Roger, you a fan of any team? Well,
I'm not saying not coming from me. You're not gonna
get that out of me. What about you, Adam? I'm
with Roger, What about you?

Speaker 11 (02:39:53):
Gary?

Speaker 4 (02:39:54):
Nobody cares what I think that's.

Speaker 5 (02:39:56):
True on the last part, first of all, but secondly,
the answer is very easy in that situation.

Speaker 4 (02:40:02):
I like all teams equally.

Speaker 5 (02:40:04):
I don't think it's a good idea to say one
team over another, because then we would have a lot
of people thinking that I'm rigging the league.

Speaker 4 (02:40:10):
That's what he should say.

Speaker 6 (02:40:12):
Well, he's doing a terrible job of rigging the league
for his Yankees.

Speaker 4 (02:40:16):
I don't think he is.

Speaker 6 (02:40:17):
Do you think Roger Goodell is a Dallas Cowboys fan,
because that would be a kin to rigging the league
for the Cowboys.

Speaker 5 (02:40:23):
No, anything. I think he's a Chiefs fan. Ah, they
don't win anything.

Speaker 4 (02:40:28):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 6 (02:40:31):
Series last year, that is something to you. You definitely
like to promote that. Hey man, easy, we were in
the World Series. Maybe they should cover first. Maybe they
should catch the ball in the outfield when it's it
to them.

Speaker 5 (02:40:43):
Maybe if they had covered first, then they wouldn't have
lost in five games, they would have lost in six.

Speaker 4 (02:40:47):
It's certainly a possibility. It is a possibility that could
have happened. Certainly, not something you would hope for.

Speaker 6 (02:40:56):
By the way, where do you think the other three
commissioners were born? Oh jeez, it's easy. I feel like
we're guess New York.

Speaker 4 (02:41:04):
Yes, all of them, all of them, all of them,
all of them, more, all of them? How many? All
one know? More?

Speaker 5 (02:41:14):
More, why does Roger Goodell scream I was born in Ohio?

Speaker 4 (02:41:18):
To me, he wasn't Canton specifically.

Speaker 6 (02:41:21):
Big show coming your way tomorrow, just as big as
this show we came with you with it for today,
last show before the Texans practice tomorrow at two o'clock.
That will be on the field Wednesday morning at nine am.
Looking forward to that. We'll talk to you about the
Astros over the d Backs later this evening, and of
course in between now and then, as we call it

(02:41:42):
an afternoon for two of us, you got a night
cap coming your way next, Cole, we'll have that for you.

Speaker 1 (02:41:47):
We'll talk to you tomorrow, the eighteen on Sports Talk
seven ninety