No. 1 or BUST For Rockets? Astros Respond vs. Reds, Lance McCullers DESERVES Better, H-Town!

On Monday's edition of the show, The A-Team breaks down the odds for the Houston Rockets to win the lottery, where the Texans stand entering the offseason, the Astros' response to the threats made against Lance McCulllers Jr. and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised, my Earl,
Nolan Molted pot the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
That is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hello, chill age down for the only homegrown afternoon team
is Talking your Teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are
the A teams.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
A What's Up Houston?

Speaker 4 (00:52):
It is a Monday edition of the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety wex Ac and Coal with you until
six o'clock tonight. Hope you guys all had a very
spectacular Mother's Day weekend. You never noticed that when you
have a holiday weekend like that, it doesn't matter what
it is, but if it's on the weekend, a Father's
Day is the same way, especially during the summer, and

(01:14):
you come back in and you just jam packed as
much as possible into whatever holiday it is weekend, and
you're like, well, that was very relaxing. That's that's how
it was. I mean, we had a good time, but
it was like exhausting. I felt like we got hit
by a bus when we woke up this morning when
that alarm clock went off. So hope you guys had
a little bit more of a relaxing weekend. It certainly

(01:36):
wasn't from the sports landscape standpoint.

Speaker 5 (01:39):
Holy cow.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Okay, So the Astros won their series, right, they take
two out of three, and there was some really really
good pitching involved too, but there was also not so
good pitching involved. Somebody had requested some tickets for a
game this weekend and I couldn't remember if it was
Saturday or Sunday. And I'm texting with them yesterday because
I realized it was yesterday's game that they went to,

(02:03):
and I immediately felt better that they did not go
to Saturday's game for a number of reasons. But yeah,
Lance mccullors junior, that was that was something, and then
of course the fallout from that, which is just unbelievable
at this point. There's no doubt in my mind wex
that that was someone or someone's that was playing some

(02:28):
sort of fantasy or there was gambling involved. Let's just
put it that way. There's gambling involved. As to why
someone would do and say such things in a threatening
manner because of a pitching performance like what Lance suffered
through in the first inning of Saturday night's loss.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
No doubt my.

Speaker 6 (02:46):
Mind, it probably was hopefully HPD who has a hold
of it down is undergoing and ongoing. Their investigation from
this will have some answers at some point. We're never
gonna have any real answers because we every time it happens,
we act like we can't believe it. And I'll probably
do that myself, But it happened so often, why wouldn't
we believe it? And I'm not doubting anyone's authenticity. I'm

(03:08):
just marveling in a bad way about people, probably possibly
hopefully not our listeners, but who knows. Astros fans seemingly
are the ones on the other side of this. Who
are those who do partake in what you just mentioned.
We'll hear what was said after the game from Lance
and from manager Joe Espada. This was Saturday. In between

(03:30):
the Astros didn't let the Red score any runs. And
in those games you don't lose, the other team doesn't score,
you don't lose, and they didn't a couple of shoutouts
over the weekend, the kind of starting pitching that they
have had throughout the season was on display again. What's
probably best about the weekend isn't even another shutout performance
from Hunter Brown, but rather the shutout performance yesterday by

(03:51):
Renel Blanco and C. B. Buckner. It's hopefully a sign
of things to come for Renel. Because I can't deny
he didn't pitch extremely well. I can add that he
had the assistants from behind home plate wor stumpire and
baseball behind home plate, and again probably both teams suffered
from it. Fans did as well we do, and at
some point it will no longer be there. I don't
know when he wants to retire, but the sooner the better.

(04:13):
Renel threw the ball. Well, that's what comes out of it,
and all that leads us into the next four hours
of I don't know kind of seinfeldes going YadA YadA, YadA,
and here's the lottery. The NBA lottery comes your way
four hours from now. We will find out exactly who's
season last year paid off for them. If you feel
like the prize at the top of this year's draft

(04:35):
one or one, two, three or four is something that
can turn your franchise around, well, the franchises that have
sent representatives there, well they will find out there are
other non face forward representatives will actually find out about
an hour before the lottery is on television. If you
know the process. Obviously, it all takes place off camera,

(04:57):
behind closed doors, no phones allowed, and then they are
able to put all that information into the envelopes for
the Deputy Commissioner to unveil the information. We'll know a
few things early on, with the Rockets being at the
back end of it, any of the teams that are
on the other side of them, and the worst way, well,
if you don't hear their names where you're supposed to,
well you'll know that they jumped up. Similarly, if you

(05:18):
don't hear the Rockets where you're supposed to, you'll know
that they jumped up. They sit at number nine with
the appropriate lottery balls and number combinations assigned to them.
We'll explain the process and go through what the prizes
are again. After Cooper Flag, I think everybody believes is
not following too closely. He said, Ay, there's a one
player draft, it's Cooper Flag. Well, it's probably a lot

(05:39):
more than that, and the Rockets could have a pick
anywhere of the top thirteen other than five, six, seven,
and eight. So we'll get into that a little bit today.
For the Texans to be back at the facility as
a team, no access for us. But that's how they
get around, or that's how they get to the start
of the off season. And today was the intentional I

(06:00):
don't even want to call it a leak because it's
not a leak. The league announced it. The league will
announce the entire NFL schedule on Wednesday, all seventeen opponents
and when. For the Texans, we already know who they
will be. We just don't know when or where, particularly
on the schedule, they will fall. But the league announces
many many games before Wednesday, and those began today, they

(06:23):
will continue tomorrow. We know the opener for the season. Naturally,
one of the best teams in the NFL will be
on display on Thursday Night football for all the eyes
to see, and they'll be playing the Eagles. Because the
Cowboys are that team I obviously was talking about. They
draw first blood on the twenty twenty five NFL season.
You know a little bits and pieces of some of
the other portions of it. The entire international schedule will

(06:44):
be released tomorrow, So if the Texans are to be
facing one of a couple of teams that we already
know will be playing overseas, unless if they are on
their Texans schedule, then there's a small possibility they could
be there. I'm not anticipating that, And we'll also find
out how much the league like the Texans on television.
They loved them last year when the schedule came out.
I don't know how much they loved them at the

(07:06):
end of the year after they were on display for
everybody to see on Christmas Day and all two of
their points were scored. Probably liked them in the postseason again,
as they usually do some pretty entertaining, exciting football, and
I imagine the CJ. Stroud led Texans will once again
get quite a few standalone assignments on the upcoming twenty
twenty five schedule.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
I uh, it was not a shock at all that
the Dallas Cowboys were the opponent, because it's just seemed
natural if you know that you're going to put your
defending champ on opening Night, which is usually the tradition.

Speaker 5 (07:38):
The fact that there.

Speaker 6 (07:39):
Would you say they're their biggest division rival, no question.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
But I seem to remember back in the day where
it would either be the Giants of the Redskins three options. Yeah,
but I mean, like I don't ever remember one being
bigger than the other. But I guess. I guess in
more recent years, the.

Speaker 6 (07:57):
Eagles biggest rival is the Cowboys. That's how I took
your question. Oh okay, well I just met right, So
you're basing it on the Eagles. The Eagles are playing,
no question about. Now, who do we find for them
to play biggest riv NFC East in general? Yeah, I mean,
I'm sure are extremely boisterous and welcomed. Dallas Cowboy fans
can bust us off and say, dude, it's of course

(08:20):
it's the Commanders. This almost five year rivalry has been awesome.
I mean the Redskins Cowboys rivalry that's been awesome. The
Giants rivalry is the one that actually national TV audiences
have probably seen the most in the last twenty years.
I bet you if you go into NBC's history since
they acquired Sunday Night Football, the amount of times the
Cowboys Giants game has appeared on their network, I bet

(08:43):
it's number one. I bet it's the most common game
matchup they've had in their several decade history of Sunday Night.
From sure, thus, I believe it's perceived as the Cowboys
biggest rival.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yes, I was at I was actually working at KPRC
Channel two when they when the NBC acquisition happened, and
I don't know if it was twenty ten or eleven,
somewhere in that range, I want to say, but yeah,
I would. Everybody's got their their different run. I'm sure
everybody in the NFC East. Their biggest rival is the Cowboys,

(09:17):
simply because their fans hate them.

Speaker 6 (09:19):
In my opinion, from a rivalry standpoint, that division boasts
the best.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Rivalries because there's so many.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
Well, they've been around together for such a long period
of time, and each of them has had their time
or day in the sun.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
Well the Cowboys haven't since like nineteen nine.

Speaker 6 (09:35):
They have had their day in the sun, and it
was a very bright day. They've had multiple title teams
and they dominated their opponents for such a long period
of time. But the Giants have done that too. The
Eagles are probably in it right now. I think Joe
Gibbs Redskins had a pretty strong run of excellence. So
they've all been very good different times, or hopefully two
or three at the same time, which we might have now,

(09:58):
probably two, not three, because I still don't think the
Cowboys are quite there. But yeah, this is from we
want people to watch the game. You can dislike it
if you want, being here in Houston, but this is
a very typical smart choice for an opener.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
It is crazy that with all of the realigningment that
has happened over the years, not that there's been a ton,
but there certainly was back in two thousand and two
when the Texans came in, that that division magically has
never really been touched right.

Speaker 6 (10:26):
And I think the Packers Lions Bears also boasts something
very very similar, And I'm sure their fans would think
what I just said is blasphemy, because no, we have
the best Ones Vikings for the same exact reasons, except
to a lesser degree. The Vikings have been so awesome
that they've lost all of the super Bowls they've been to.
The Lions have been so awesome that they don't even

(10:47):
know what the super Bowl is. The Bears are worse
than the Cowboys when it comes to winning because Lovey's
the only coach that's gotten him back since Walter eighty five.
So it's the the rivalries from how long they've been
around and how important they are. They're comparable, but the
NFC East has much more excellence behind it.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
Yeah, Yeah, I just I want to shake it all up.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
I want it all realigned, because there's no way that
the Dallas Cowboys should be in any sort of division
that has East on the end of it.

Speaker 5 (11:19):
But I digress. We've had this conversation before.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
We have also had a conversation about your Houston Rockets,
and we'll get to that as well, because I think
there's a lot of buzz surrounding not just the draft
lottery tonight, but after the Rockets figure out where they
stand in that lottery, which they did nothing to put
themselves in other than acquire Phoenix picks because they were
too good to be in the lottery this year with

(11:43):
their own record. But we'll get to that in a
little bit when we come back. However, want to weigh
in on, honestly, if we're doing the good, the bad,
and the ugly later on today, and we are, this
will probably come up, but no need to wait on
what happened with Lance McCullers junior and those threats, both
he and the Astros skipper weighing in on that.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
We'll touch base with them when we return.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
It is the A team It's Sports Talk seven ninety
Monday edition of the program. So the Astros actually took
two out of three over the weekend, which is a
very good thing, especially in light of the fact that
the Mariners helped them out. If you want to look
at it that way. What a terrible division the Astros
play in? Go ahead, disagree?

Speaker 5 (12:39):
Tell me why?

Speaker 7 (12:40):
No?

Speaker 5 (12:41):
Tell me why?

Speaker 6 (12:42):
Why? What?

Speaker 5 (12:42):
Why you disagree?

Speaker 6 (12:44):
I don't know. It looks the same as every other division,
but the.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
Central it's a terrible division that they play in. I
didn't say every other division. I said the Astros play
in a terrible division. That's what I said. Then baseball
would be terrible.

Speaker 6 (12:57):
By and large. I think it kind of is this year,
to be honest with, somebody has to win and lose
every day. The best team in the other division as
twenty three. They're twenty three and seventeen. The best team
in this division is twenty two and seventeen. Next best
team two games over Astros, one game over, they're the same.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
This sucks.

Speaker 6 (13:13):
It's just it's just no there's a lack of awful teams.
The entire league consists of one awful team, and they're
nowhere near as awful as the team that had to
fire their manager, the Rockies. It's just the White Sox.
There's three teams in the Al East that aren't losers.
There's four teams in the Central that aren't losers. The
Rangers are under five hundred. Otherwise there'd be four teams

(13:34):
in this division that aren't losers. There's just not there
this year. I think we're certain of it at this point,
unless the Tigers or Royals maybe go on some kind
of incredible run because of their starting pitching. This is
gonna be a season where we're here all year long.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
I eight around five hundred.

Speaker 6 (13:54):
No, No, who's gonna win ninety five games? Is any
team gonna win even ninety five? Or we look at
it the end of the season where the Yankees are
trying to hold off the Red Sox and the Tigers
for the fact that they're not gonna finish third when
they could still finish first. I think that's what's gonna
end up happening. They're you know, I don't really think
injuries are much a part of it, but you know,
Seattle is once their offense came around, they showed what

(14:18):
Houston and Texas should be waiting for and the Astros offense, unfortunately,
is so close to turning it around. They are among
the best offenses in baseball this month and a lot
of areas that usually indicate you've turned it around. The
one that would really be the best indicator is runs,
and they're not quite there yet. They're one of the

(14:40):
top five hitting teams this month in terms of batting average,
they're one of the top eight teams in terms of ops.
Guys are on base NonStop. Guys are on base NonStop.
In the game they lost this weekend, they easily could
have won that game fifteen to thirteen, no problem at all.
But they're not quite getting the slug still. When two
guys are on, they're getting a single and the guys
days at third, When two guys are on, they're getting

(15:02):
a double and only scoring one. They're no home I mean,
they've had a bunch of three run homers here recently,
but then that means that's the only homer they get
that day. They once that comes around, And clearly, if
you're unaware, they did this this past weekend essentially without
Jose Altuve and clearly without Jordn Alvarez, who's still on
the IL a minor hamstring issue for Altuve. Hopefully an

(15:22):
update today from Joe A spot a probably not a
part of today's lineup, but they keep indicating they mean
Joe and Dana Brown, that it doesn't appear that an
IL stint is needed, and that before the homestand even
ends he could be back. But they did that with
both of those guys. On the sidelines. Yaner Diaz has
been phenomenal. Finally this month, Christian Walker is producing more

(15:44):
his Some of the peripherals were always good, but now
he's actually producing something with those hits, and you know,
up and down the lineup, you're seeing a little bit
of a resurgence to closer to what we expected to see. Now,
if they can turn it into we're scoring four or
five six runs every game, well, I don't think the
pitching's going anywhere, even as they clearly are going to

(16:04):
have to figure it out a little bit with the
Wasznski to the IL, with needing to run almost the
whole bullpen out there on Saturday, That's another reason why
Renelle start yesterday was so huge. You needed two arms yesterday,
a day after of essentially you basically used everybody this
was day two of playing seventeen games without a day off,

(16:25):
and you have to spend the entire bullpen essentially of
non closer esque arms. Well, you got a quick recovery
from that, and they hopefully won't have to get back
into Well, hey man, great job today. You know what
that means. You're out of here because you can't pitch
tomorrow and we need an arm that is available. Hopefully
they don't have to do that a bunch, but they
already had to do it two days in.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, I mean what you're saying, Well, what you're saying
sounds like it should be so exciting because there's so
much parody involved, and yet it's just.

Speaker 6 (16:56):
Well, I don't want to pretend that the only reason
the Astros are aren't out of it is because nobody
else is good. I don't see it that way at all.
I see it as they're lucky. They're growing pains are
just the different growing pains than some other team is
going through right now, because no one Again, the three
teams in the Central are arguably the three best teams
in the whole league, the Tigers, the Guardians, and of

(17:16):
course tonight's opponent, the Royals. They've been playing really kind
of since the Astros visit of in April. They've been
awesome ever since then. And look how hard it was
for the Astros to score when they were there in
Kansas City. Luckily they scored in the finale and won
that one. Need to take two out of three d
even that season series be nice. If you could win
more than four games on this home stand, five would

(17:38):
be even better. But everybody that's an American League team
essentially other than the White Sox, they've got something that's
kept them from putting five, six, seven game winning streaks together.
The Astros love affair with did we win yesterday? I
guess I know what we're doing today. I wish that
would go away.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Yeah, it's I mean, we should be more excited about
this weekend just from a standpoint of series wins or
an even bigger deal given what you just got done
talking about. If you're winning two out of three in
this climate, in this division, you should be sitting pretty eventually.
But it's just it just hasn't. And you know, you're

(18:16):
talking about the offense. It feels like you want to
get excited about it, but you just got done talking
about the Astros doing this without two of their best bats,
presumably at the beginning of the year. Now, if you
want to talk about where they're at now given age,
an injury or a mixture of both, because I think
that does factor into both the guys we're talking about,
depending on what you're talking about Jordan and al Tuve.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
You know, that's another discussion. But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
Everything was tainted in my opinion, by what happened in
light of what Lance mccullors went through on Saturday night.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Yeah, and he's not talking about not getting out of
the first inning by no means not getting out of
the first inning is a baseball issue. It's a I
just got back from not pitching at the major league
level for years, plural and just could not find the
strike zone. Wasn't capable of challenging the hitters, maybe the
way he would have liked. And you know, the Reds
had the right approach, and they probably saw a little

(19:08):
bit of Lance's history and then his recent history and
his one start before this. Just be patient. There's not
a lot of pitches in the zone. But to be
met with what the media was met with from Joe
Aspota after the game, obviously let everybody in on what
took place during the game via social media, as Lance
indicated when he spoke later. But if you did not
hear it, this is what came from Joe Aspota when

(19:30):
he sat down at the table inside the text of
the Astros media room right after the Saturday game, which
they ended up losing thirteen to nine. I'm going to
start saying something.

Speaker 8 (19:43):
I just left my office and is very unfortunate that
Lance mccullors that they are people who are threatening his life,
in the life of his kids, Sophie's performance. It's very

(20:04):
unfortunate that we have to deal with this after all
he's done for the CD, for this team. The fact
that we have to talk about that in my office,
I got kissed too, and I'm it really drives me
nuts that we have to deal with this. Very sad,
very very sad.

Speaker 6 (20:24):
He tried to keep himself from getting too upset and
cursing and hitting the table even more than you heard there.
Was asked a follow up question about it and said
he really didn't want to want to get into it.
In his explanation about the pitching side of it. You know,
Lance has been away for this period of time. It's
gonna take time. He did have a little bit more

(20:45):
to say about what took place. Again, with the threats
regarding Lance mccolors and his family.

Speaker 8 (20:51):
Twenty a half years has him pitched, So it's gonna
take a little bit of time to get him going.
And that's it's fine, but this can't happen. It just
I'm really upset that this happened to athletes. And you know,
we try in our best. Anybody's trying our best, right,

(21:14):
But the fact that I got to go in my
office and deal with this, you know, come on, we
better than that.

Speaker 6 (21:21):
We are better than this.

Speaker 4 (21:24):
Unfortunately, I don't think we are because we, being society,
think that this is okay far too often. And I'm
not saying this happens every day, and I'm not gonna
I mean, I'm certainly not going to sit here and
lecture everybody about it.

Speaker 5 (21:37):
That's it goes without saying, honestly, a lot of this.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
But that's also assuming that most people have a brain
in their head that's functioning enough to not sit down
and do this type of thing. And I was wrong
thinking that apparently, Like I said, I would guess that
if you have the audacity to sit down and take
the time to do something like this.

Speaker 5 (21:58):
You had money writing, at least, I would hope.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
So just from the standpoint of I really think it's
even more pathetic if somebody that didn't have money involved
would do this. That just means that you're just that
bad of a person. I mean, you're a bad person
anyways if you do this. And I'm not making excuses
for the person or people who did this, but yeah,
that's the lowest point I would have to say other

(22:21):
than actual physical harm happening to someone that's about as
bad as he gets.

Speaker 6 (22:26):
And that's what concerns the player and his family and
his team and their security and hopefully HPD as well
as they continue this investigation. That is what is so
very very concerning. Obviously, Lance McCullers, who spoke after Joe
A spotted, did comment on that, so we'll share with
you what he said also on this as he went
through it that night. His night on the mound quite

(22:48):
clearly was an ineffective one. You know, let the first
two guys reach via walk and hit by pitch pitch
to Ellie d la Cruz. Probably not quite where he wanted,
but I doubt he expected him to put it in
the opposite field Crawford boxes to put him down three.
Nothing continued to go full. He had a three to
two count on for the first five batters, walking three

(23:11):
of them and hitting the other. Then finally gave up
those two hits. And that was all not so much
that he couldn't pitch himself out of his own jam,
but more so that at some point you don't leave
a pitcher out there for pitches thirty seven forty two
forty seven in any one inning, regardless of who they are.
In his case, even more so because of who he is,

(23:31):
that's certainly not what you would want. It was something
that Jospota had to consider in his last outing, multiple
innings in which he was pushing the very limit of
how many more pitches can you throw? And unfortunately, when
Logan van Y came into the game, he was unable
to retire any of the first three batters, and when
it was all said and done, ten reds had crossed
the plate. All of the runs that were left out

(23:54):
there for Logan were sent home on mccullor's ledger, and
the Astros were down ten nothing before they came up
to bat then they scored nine times the rest of
the game and had multiple opportunities for even bigger innings
than that. But as we said, the story from the
game is not a four run loss to a team
from the National League. It is what took place via

(24:15):
social media directed at an ASTROS player and his family
and his kids. As you hear from Lance when we
come back here on the eight.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Team the Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (24:31):
Did you just see this putting out between five and
we just went through this last segment. I can't even
hear myself right now. We gotta shut this off. Well,
we were talking about last segment and even in the
opening segment and now into this segment, which normally is
reserved for Best of X, and we actually have plenty

(24:52):
of other candidates which we'll push too later in the show.
We just can't do it today. We can't do Best
of X in its pure It's not like normal this
morning form when we're like, you can't get more divergent
it is. It's not one hundred and seventy nine degree turn.
It's not a one hundred and eighty one degree turn.
It is exact one to eighty. This is the worst

(25:13):
of x This is the worst of social media.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Do you think I was doing that for effect this?
I guess it was last night when I posted that
my heart just wasn't in it. I should have been
having a sensational recap VID this morning Mother's Day edition
and all that.

Speaker 6 (25:27):
Yeah, and it really would have been a celebration of
a couple of shutouts, the Diesel doing what he does,
last year's hardest pitcher to hit back at his old
tricks with eleven strikeouts. And I mean I wasn't hoping
for a second hit against him, but as Todd and
Jeff mentioned multiple times, the first hit should have been caught,

(25:50):
but their left fielder started a slide kind of early.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
If you combined Hunter Brown's effort with yesterday's effort from Blanco,
you'd have quite the montage of strikeouts.

Speaker 6 (26:03):
He certainly would. Five and two thirds of shutout baseball
from Hunter, eight innings of shutout baseball from Renel, eleven
strikeouts for Renel. Hunter continues to show why he definitely
was not the best pitcher of the first month of
the season. But close, well that was real close, I
really really closely. I mean I could sit here and
say Hunter had his worst start of the year on Friday,
because he only went five and two thirds, even though

(26:25):
he didn't give up any runs, so you could argue
that was his least one of his certainly least successful starts,
and all he did was say, you're not scoring on
me again today. But we do travel back to the
worst of it, a diesel as promised, unfortunate as it was,
and three more days for the Astros to be here
before they go back out on the road. And Lance

(26:45):
pecullor is obviously not scheduled to pitch during these three games.
The Astros already intending on going to a six man rotation,
which has kind of been in flux with who was available,
who just got heard how that game went, how the
pitchers at the minor league level, AJ Blue, Bod, Colton Gordon,
we're lining up. They haven't made any announcement on what
that will hold, but odds are pretty good that Hunter

(27:06):
Brown won't make the final start of this homestand but
rather the first on the road. So back to Lance
mccullor's after Joe Spotto met with the media, this is
what Lance mccullors said to the media after the Saturday
night game with the threats.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
It's been tough evening.

Speaker 6 (27:24):
You know.

Speaker 9 (27:25):
You know, I understand people are very passionate, and people
love the astros and love sports, but you know, threatening
to find my kids and murder them, it's a little
bit tough to deal with. So, you know, just as
a father, I think there have been many many threats

(27:48):
over the years aimed at me mostly, and I think
actually one or two people have from other issues around
baseball actually had to go to jail for things like that.
But you know, I think I think bring kids in
to the equation, you know, threatening to find them or
next time they see it's in public, they're gonna justab

(28:08):
my kids to dead.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
Things like that is tough to hear as the dad.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
I mean, Okay, first of all, people have gone to
jail for things that they've said to Lance in the past.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
I'm assuming he's referring to the cheating scandal.

Speaker 6 (28:22):
Well he would. He also said this is he laughed
at it slightly. You know, it's happened before. You know,
I've been here long enough, this has happened before.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
Like here we are again.

Speaker 6 (28:32):
Like all he does is play Major League baseball, right,
It's a game. Yeah, he plays a game for a living.
He entertains people for a living, and he's very good
at it, by the way, and this is common or
let it just fall off my back, because it has
happened so frequently, And he's one of their twenty six guys,

(28:54):
he's one of their forty man roster guys. There's twenty
nine other teams, and this is just one sport. We
know what happens in football, we know what happens in basketball.
We know what happens all over the place. We know
what happens inside the arena at the basketball games because
we've heard of it and oftentimes we've been close enough
to here it literally and it's I mean, I like

(29:17):
I said in the opening segment, it it should, it
should surprise us, but how could it anymore? And that
was pretty graphic in detail and unfortunately far too descriptive
and direction from a threat.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
I'm going to say something here that's probably not going
to be popular with some of our listeners. That'll not
be the first time that happens, but I have because
of the scandal especially, and because of how much time
in my life that I'll never ever get back that
I wasted on one specific God forsaken app then I'll

(29:56):
never delete. Of course, it doesn't surprise from the standpoint
of I've seen some pretty stupid stuff from not Baseball Twitter,
from Astros Twitter, and again, a lot of this I
think has come from the same place that my mentality
was when it came to a lot of this kind
of interaction. You know, you feel like you're fighting against

(30:18):
the world when something like the cheating scandal happens. But
in no way, shape or form does that excuse this
kind of thing, which is a completely different situation. I
know that what Lance is referring to, as far as
what he's dealt with in the past, probably had to do.
I mean, it's the same reason that Yankees fans will
boo Altwove when or any really fan base will boo

(30:41):
Altov At least with Yankees fans, he destroyed their hearts
so many times in postseason situations that it kind of
feels like a little bit more warranted. But the fact
that baseball fans in general, when the Astros come to
their home stadium, he gets the inordinate amount of booze.
Given what we know about the scan itself and who
participated the most and the least. I e him just

(31:04):
shows you the lack of real knowledge when it comes
to anything like how many of those people are casually
booing him. They don't know any better, They're just going
along with a mob, because that's just how sports and
really life is at times a mob mentality. But this
is different, This is different from that, And I don't know.
I just think it's unfortunate, yet not really surprising given

(31:27):
today's climate, in today's access to something like an app
that allows you to be faceless, anonymous and say whatever
you want with very little if any consequences.

Speaker 6 (31:39):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think, as you mentioned, it's
pretty separate. I don't think one has anything to do
with the other. I think someone was again totally hypothetical.
You're watching random major League baseball game, and you laid
a random wager on this team, and random pitcher was
unable to get out of the first inning, and there
was a ten spot on the board which was not
helping your wager at all. In fact, maybe you already

(32:02):
lost your wager. Yeah that quickly. Well, then you fired
off a ridiculous, faceless threat. What could be to any pitcher,
could be to any player. I don't have anything I
don't think it has anything to do with you know,
where that person, what their history is. Their his history
is that he wears an Astros uniform and they were
one of multiple teams to be sanctioned by Major League
Baseball for stealing signs illegally. But this is the one

(32:25):
team that we obviously reference more and more often. Hopefully
this is there's some comfort to be found from Lance
and his family, his wife and daughters, and that they
can learn something through this investigation and they can feel
a little bit more comfortable about the situation that I
imagine they felt most of the rest of the day
and night Saturday and even yesterday and maybe even today

(32:48):
because of what was said on an app and on
social media that he presumably and it appears, will not
be participating in anymore.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah, and I just real quick, and I said this
online before we go to break. You know, this is
a family and specifically Lance, but really the entire family
that went above and beyond to help out with a
very unfortunate situation a few years back that I always
you know, you can criticize Lance, you can criticize his performance,

(33:17):
you can be frustrated that it took him so long
to get back out on the mound from a health standpoint,
which is really stupid because it's not like that's in
his control. But I said this in a minute, like
they're really really nice people away from all of the
cameras and off the field and all that kind of stuff.
At least from my dealings with not just Lance but
his wife, they're nice people. Like they did a really

(33:40):
really nice thing that they didn't have to do that
I know about personally, and that's all I can speak of.
So it just irked me a little bit more from
that standpoint because it's not every day that you have
that kind of interaction with some of these athletes and
you think you know the me.

Speaker 5 (33:53):
I don't know Lance, I don't know him very very.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
Well, but I know him and his wife enough to
know with confidence that I feel like I can say that,
at least on public airwaves. And it just sucks from
that standpoint that they had to go with this because
or goes through this, I should say, because nobody in
here or anywhere else should have to deal with that,
especially if you have kids.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
You understand where they are coming from.

Speaker 6 (34:15):
All Right, we will switch gears a little bit.

Speaker 5 (34:18):
Next.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
There's a lot of rumors out there involving your Houston Rockets,
or at least chatter, let's put it that way, a
lot of chatter involving your Rockets and big names both
already in the league and maybe one on the way.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
We'll talk about that next.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (34:51):
It is Monday, lots going on, let's talk about and
of course, got a long way to go. This was
kind of obvious something would happen in this regard, and
it happened right out of the shoot. As many people
woke up from their Mother's day hangover, we knew the lottery,
the NBA's Draft lottery, was taking place this evening. As

(35:12):
soon as we wrap things up and get into Astros
on deck, we will find out exactly where each of
these slots. There's fourteen spots in the lottery. Possible that
one team has a pair of selections. Possible a couple
of other teams lose their selection based on where the
lottery combinations turn up. But what I was referring to is,

(35:32):
of course something would happen the morning of is well,
let's make it even more interesting. I'm aware of this news.
I know this is the case, I've talked to the
sources necessary. Yeah, but it's Friday. I don't want to
tell people about this on Friday. I don't want to
tell them about it on Saturday or Sunday either. How
about if I wait till Monday morning, the morning of
the lottery. This is me playing super cynic Super. I

(35:54):
don't know about this, but I'm sure the story is accurate.
There was reported this morning by a sham st about
it is finally time maybe for Gianni Sonodacumpo to maybe
go to the Milwaukee Bucks and consider maybe asking them
if they maybe could find a better situation for him
as it relates to winning. He's the Milwaukee Bucks days

(36:16):
of winning with Giannis appear to be over multiple seasons
without winning in the first round after their title, which
is now several seasons ago. The group that he could
be on the court with he can't be because the
next best player to him is likely going to have minimal,
if any impact next season because of injury and Damian Lillard,
and that essentially turns into NBA dead money because he's

(36:38):
due better than fifty million dollars next season and won't
be on the court helping them win basketball games. The
East isn't super unbelievably competitive like the West. The top
four are pretty good as you're seeing currently with the
four and three seed leading their series respectively. The four
seeds going to win their series, and the three seed

(37:00):
probably did all they can do. Don't think they're gonna
win their series, but they do still lead it two
games to one. But the news that there's a possibility
that this is the offseason that Gianna Sano dea Coupo
goes to Bucks Management and says, all right, I mean
I see it, you see it. I love by time here.
This is my whole life in America. This is the
only city I know, it's the only organization I know.
But I want a second championship. I want to cement

(37:21):
my legacy. That is something he has talked about multiple
times and that this is what he wants to do.
And again, I just don't see it happening there. They
lost to Indiana in five games in this opening round
of this postseason. Probably could have been a longer series
if they didn't give one game away literally at the
end of the overtime period. But they also lost to

(37:41):
a team that's probably gonna be in the Eastern Conference
Finals if they can win one more game. So it
got started early leading into the excitement about the draft.
We know all these things that were said by guys
like Brian Windhors this morning. Where would he want to go,
what would a deal kind of look like, who should
be interested, what kind of package should Milwauk be looking
for in return? And cognizant of wherever this is a

(38:04):
superstar trade, Guess which team's gonna be very good the
team with the superstar. Guess whose picks aren't gonna be
very good the team you're trading him to. So there's
other ways to go about it. They need other assets,
they need somebody else's picks potentially. So Wendy got off
on that pretty early this morning when he was describing
a couple of places, a couple of teams, a couple
of organizations that maybe, just maybe could be landing spots.

(38:27):
So you're gonna look at.

Speaker 10 (38:27):
Teams that have players to trade, and other teams draft
assets that they can trade besides theirs. San Antonio and Houston,
San Antonio and Houston. San Antonio and Houston.

Speaker 6 (38:38):
Pay attention there, we will San Antonio and Houston.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
Okay, So tell me and others you know, in the
cliffs Notes version Layman's terms, however you want to phrase it.
I get Houston, I get that. I also get that
we've talked about famously. Uh Spurs gave gave up nothing
for Daron Fox. What do they have from a draft
capital standpoint that puts them in front of the Rockets.

(39:06):
We know what puts them in front of the rockets,
as far as they don't have Victor wimban Yama sitting
there on their roster to come play with.

Speaker 6 (39:12):
They have Atlanta basically as their other team's picks to
use to trade, whether it's this year's pick with no
protections that they're going to get the twenty twenty six
swap that they could use presumably if Giannis is on
their team, I know Atlanta's pick will be worse. If
it's not, it's still probably would be or better in
this case their own picks. If Giannis is playing alongside

(39:34):
Victor Webbin Yama, and I don't really even care who else. Yeah,
those picks become very invaluable, non valuable for the Milwaukee Bucks.
But potentially if Atlantic becomes one of the teams that
says we're not going anywhere with Trey Young and they
move on from him, all of a sudden, they're a
thirty win team or a twenty eight win team potentially
if they do other moves that put them in the

(39:56):
constant lottery participant balloon, and those then are something san
Antoni would have to give up some probably Stefan Castle
would would have to be moved.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
I would think so if you're Milwaukee, and we'll carry
this over because this is fascinating to me, given that
we are hours away from finding out where the Rockets
will pick in the lottery with Phoenix's pick who. We
also found out they are not interested in Devin Booker anymore. Supposedly,
I don't believe anything publicly, right See there you go,

(40:27):
So yeah, I want to get to all of these
layers on this onion. That is a fascinating off season
for your Houston Rockets, and we will do that when
we come back.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Teen lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Team.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
It's straight out three o'clock in Houston, Texas. It's a
Monday edition of the A team, our number two on
the radio side of things, Sports Talks seven to ninety hour,
number one on the simulcast with our friends over at
Space City Home Network wex AC. You see us on camera,
you do not see Cole Thompson, but he's here. Trust me,

(41:21):
we will take you up until six o'clock tonight. A
lot of talk about the Astros in that first hour,
not just because of the fact they took two out
of three over the weekend, but also the fact that
the Lance mccullors just gross shenanigans. I won't even call
it shenanigans, whatever you want to call that, with the
death threats to him and his family after he had

(41:41):
a unfortunate outing in the first inning of Saturday night's
blowout loss, which, by the way, as wex mentioned, the
Astros came right back somewhat into that thing.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
Do you want to call it that?

Speaker 6 (41:53):
Well, I thought you were gonna say they came right
back the next day like the World Series and shut
up out and got a huge way.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
It seems like that it was very reminiscent of that
Philly series in twenty twenty two where Lance got shelled
and then they threw a no hitter the next night.

Speaker 6 (42:07):
The Astros shut out the Reds on Friday, and they
got to add a digit, a single number, and add
one to the win column. They lost the next game,
gave up ten runs in the first You add a
number one added to what their lost total was, and
then you shut them out the day. They don't count anymore.
They don't count any less. They all count the same.
It felt like a better series than it was, especially

(42:29):
since I mean, if you tuned into the game anytime
after the first three innings on Saturday, you would have said, oh,
just everybody's hitting today, Okay, no problemlet's see if the
askers have enough to come back. If you tuned it
in at the onset of the game, then you saw
the Astros are down ten to nothing, and you might
have already called it today. It was not really that
kind of blowout game, and clearly the other two days

(42:51):
they took air of business. Is a pitching staff that's
definitely driving this team where they are. They're just a
game over five hundred. They're playing one of the best
teams in baseball beginning tonight for the next three team
that already took two of three from them, and They're
into a stretch of their rotation where there are more
question marks than answers. Quite obviously because of the absences
Noahs Nesky, no Spencer Ghetti. The Blanco and Brown starts

(43:15):
should preclude them. I would assume from pitching again in
this series, and Joe Spotta should nail down Wednesday's starter today.
I hope he doesn't have to, but I don't think
there's any more pitching coming from Colton Gordon. He was
very good over the weekend, pitched on Friday, and would
line up to pitch Wednesday if asked. Same thing for
aj Bluebaugh, whose schedule dictates he could be available if necessary.

(43:37):
Ryan Gusto gets the ball for the Astros tonight. And
remember again that series. Not only did they lose two
of three to the Royals in Kansas City, they did
what the Reds did this weekend. They didn't score in
two of the games. They didn't score in the first
two games of that series before ultimately picking up a
win in the finale of that series. The Royals have
kind of taken off since then, and as expected and

(44:00):
most expected, they're one of the best teams in the
American League. This would be a pretty productive series victory
if they can get it, and obviously turns into a
very productive homestand if they win at least four of
these six, the Astros have turned into a team that,
at least early on, is creating some unfortunate and non
desirable splits where they're thirteen and eight at home and

(44:21):
they're just seven and eleven away from home. Don't like
those trends. Puts you in a very tough spot every
time you go on the road when you know, ah,
we're playing the White Sox, no problem. Well you're not
playing here in Houston, and you don't seem to play
well when you're not playing here in Houston. I hope
it's not a sign of what this season might be like.
But their division, like we mentioned the opening hour, certainly

(44:43):
has them right there with everybody else. The only division
in the American League and the only division in baseball
that did not have a team win more than half
their games over their last ten. So as you open
the show calling it's a terrible division, that would be
a point in your corner. And Athletics won five of
their ten games last week and gained one game on

(45:05):
the other three teams in the division. Nobody in this
division is on a roll. Nobody in this division is hot,
Nobody in this division is kind of found what they
were missing. Yet I do believe the Astros are very close.
Jose Altuve doing some pregame workouts today, hopefully to indicate
that he is close to his return. Jord On Alvarez
is just now picking up a bat. The expectation that

(45:28):
he was going to return after just the ten days
stint never seemed like it was reality, and it probably
won't be. But it also doesn't mean it's far off
in the distance. But I pointed to these teams individuals
and their may numbers, their last fifteen games or fifteen days,
things like that, all of a sudden, you have quite
a few players that are doing great things. You got
three players in their last twelve games hitting better than

(45:50):
three forty, all of them with an OPS of better
than nine hundred. They're in the lineup every day, talking
about Jiner and Jake and Jeremy Pana. Zach Descenzo pretty
much has become an every day player because he's been
hitting well. Christian Walker's OPS is now above eight hundred,
hitting nearly three hundred over that same twelve game stretch.
That's how this team's going to put one of those

(46:11):
winning five out of six, winning nine out of eleven
streaks together if multiple guys are all hitting well, just
as multiple guys were all saying, hey man, good teammate here.
You're not hitting, I'm not hitting. You're not getting any hits.
I'm not getting any any hits. I'm your guy, I'm
your pal. We're gonna all struggle together. Well, now they
need to all get hot together, and we're getting pretty close.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
No problem, No problem is what it is.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
It's very very close to happening for some players.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
Yeah, And in the interum we were solving the world's problems,
as we are so wont to do both on and
off the air, and those problems right now centering around
what the Houston Rockets are going to do in probably
the most fascinating offseason since I was trying to think
about this yaoming draft off season. That was two thousand

(47:01):
and two. They've had the McGrady deal two years later,
where Francis and Mobley and Kelvin Cato and stuff went
out and you put together what you thought was going
to be a championship corps and it probably would have
been had you'd stayed healthy. And then you fast forward
to the James Harden era that wasn't really an off
season because you got him at like the eleventh hour,

(47:23):
right before training camp was basically over.

Speaker 6 (47:26):
It's probably in Vegas at the time, Yeah, getting ready,
of course.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
But I just you knew going into this offseason that
you were gonna at least refer to it somewhat like
this a fascinating off season, and it's really I feel
like we can't it's begun, clearly because they're not playing
right now, but it can't really begin until we find
out the results of the draft lottery in now a
few hours.

Speaker 11 (47:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (47:49):
The only thing is that changed between now and you know,
free agency and obviously the draft itself, which comes just
before that, is if something unfortunate and catastrophic happened to
somebody like what happened to Damian Lillard, that's the only
thing that's really left that could change a team's outlook
or their future or what other people think about their
conference per se. And certainly if it happens to more
than one player, that would be awful and definitely noteworthy.

(48:12):
They'll find out a little bit more probably some internal
information about where the cap is probably set, so that
will help. Now that Fred van Vliet's option has been
pushed back to the end of June along with the others,
they got a few players to kind of make internal
basketball decisions about, yes, we want Steven Adams back, what
price range makes the most sense, and then they can

(48:32):
get to the part of making it happen and hopefully
he reciprocates. But yeah, the information tonight is extremely important.
The lottery consists of fourteen slots. Those slots belong to
teams that played exactly six playoff games or excuse me,
seven playoff games, all by the Rockets. The other teams

(48:55):
in the draft lottery, they're not playoff teams. The Rockets
have the Sun's pick Sons obviously weren't a playoff team,
but nobody else that's in, and the San Antonio Spurs
have an additional pick tonight coming from Atlanta. Atlanta's not
a playoff team. You know, Sacramento's not a playoff team.
Their picks probably going to Atlanta and everybody else didn't
make it. The Rockets did, and they're probably hopefully I

(49:18):
mentioned this earlier. If you know certain things are unveiled
by the Deputy Commissioner, like when he unveils with the
twelfth pick in the twenty twenty five NBA Draft, it
goes to the Dallas Mavericks. That would be a bad sign.
That would mean Chicago is now up there, or if
it got to that point, so that you don't want
any of the teams that are behind you to be

(49:39):
skipped over. When those envelopes are unveiled, rockets are getting
one through four or nine through thirteen, more likely nine.
They have a better than fifty percent chance of seeing
themselves sit where they are, but it's better than the
nothing they would have had had they not changed the
way that they wanted their acquisitions to play out, because remember,

(49:59):
they could have been just sitting on Brooklyn's pick. There's
a fifty one roughly a fifty one percent chance they
have the ninth pick. Second most likely is they got ten,
and that encompasses seventy nine percent of their possibilities. That
will be nine or ten. Everything else is a little
bit less than five percent. But each of those one
through fours four point nine percent, four point five, three

(50:21):
point eight, seventeen and point three percent they're landing in
the top four, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Speaker 8 (50:28):
No.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
And just in case you're wondering, when they won the
number one pick the last time, which was Yao Ming,
I think they had just over eight percent chance to
get it. So it's not even that it's not even
remotely that good to get that that kind of situation.
But once they have that in other words, like and
I think I've asked you this before, if they got

(50:49):
the number one pick, what would they do because at
that point you have so many more options than you
already do right now, and you're sitting pre right now.

Speaker 5 (50:59):
Is stands even if you got the number nine pick.

Speaker 6 (51:01):
Yeah, if you think Cooper Flagg is your guy, and
I would think every team in the NBA does. If
you're trading the pickaway, that team's drafting Cooper Flag. If
you're keeping the pick, you're drafting Cooper Flag. So now
you're looking at him with the development of your roster
and who he's kind of competing with in theory, because
he's probably not going to be competing with them on
the floor because those players won't be here. I wouldn't
think if you have Cooper and those are all your

(51:23):
wing guys other than a man, and man is such
a freak. He's everywhere and he'll play anywhere and he'll
fit with everybody. But is he basically a player you
think is not quite as good as Jabari Smith Junior
or better? Is he a player that helps you more
than Tarry Easan? Is he somebody that could do more
for your team both ends than Cam Witmore? These are
all those players in that group. How much flexibility does

(51:44):
he have? Does he have the flexibility that Jabari Smith
Junior has to play five when you're using those small
lineups to play three when you're not to play four,
which Jabari clearly has shown that he does. That may
be one area where you really have to consider how
much you're getting and how much better you can be.
And then Jabari's case a little bit unlike some of
the others, I still don't think there's an answer to

(52:05):
where it ends with him. How much better can he get?
His shot, obviously was one they were in desperate need
of in this past postseason, and it showed the team
shot very well in the non game one in Game sevens,
but he shot well throughout the series and that was
huge for what they nearly did against Golden state to me,
that's what it comes down to, and that's the question

(52:25):
we ask, is Cooper Flagger Rocket if you have the
number one pick. Well, they don't have to answer that
for two months, but we will next.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
Eighteen back here on a Monday mentioned a lot of
the Rockets questions that one will be answered tonight when
we left you last segment. But before we continue with
that conversation, probably worth noting that Jose al Tuve will
be in the Astros lineup tonight after the hamstring issue
cost him most of the week end. He's playing second
base again tonight. Gives them the option and the opportunity

(53:05):
to get their outfield back out there is they have
trotted out a few times, Myers, Descenzo and Cam Smith
all in the lineup and center left and right at
the bottom of the order. If you've got four home
runs or more, you're still in the top five. That's
how the Ashros have lined it up quite a bit
with jord On Alvarez out, paanal Tuve, Parretis Walker, and
Yaner Diaz Diaz will catch Ryan Gusto, their lone lefty

(53:26):
in the lineup, will be Victor Kartini his two home
runs of both come and the last handful of games.
And that's your one through nine for Gusto against the Royals.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
All right, So all this Jannis chatter, and it's funny
because this is so obviously, in my opinion, it's so
obviously been planted put out there, however you want to
phrase it. By Giannis's camp, I would have to say,
if if Damian Lillard doesn't have the serious injuries situation,

(54:02):
this probably doesn't happen. Although I can't guarantee it. Jannis
and Brook Lopez, I believe, are the only two players
still remaining on that roster from the championship squad. Was
Bob Portis there? I don't think so, Okay, I could
be wrong on that. I feel like he was added
later to kind of continue that, but I could be wrong.

Speaker 6 (54:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
It all gets murky.

Speaker 6 (54:27):
I'm like, by no means wish you know, injury on
anybody for any reason. But if he needed he Yanis
needed the Lillard injury to open his eyes, then thankfully
it happened.

Speaker 5 (54:39):
Portis was there.

Speaker 6 (54:40):
How could you not know you're going nowhere? I mean,
I'm not a genius, and it's gonna sound like I
think I am. The second they pulled the trigger on
the deal, it was over. Why did you win a title?
You've been awesome in almost every postseason you've played. You
were awesome this year, you were awesome last year, you
were awesome when you won the title. You were awesome
before you won the title. Oh but the team played

(55:01):
really good defense then, and they play awful defense now.
Trading for Drew Holliday was the good trade. This is
gonna make us a championship caliber defense along with the
other pieces. And it did, and they said, well, let's move.
You know, we got it. This guy carries a much
larger profile. He scores all these points, he's hit all
these huge shots. He's mister Clutch. And that's all fair

(55:23):
and accurate on Damian Lillard. But your defense is going
to be just as bad as Portland's defense was all
those years where they underachieved as a team even though
they were super talented. Now it's just in Milwaukee. Now
it's your teammate, your number two. This isn't the first
year Milwaukee's come up short with Lillard on the team.

Speaker 4 (55:40):
This is the every year they've come up short with
Lilard on the team, which is short like first round
three years in a row. Like if the Rockets losing
the first round next year for whatever reason, whatever team
it is, I forget this talk. I'm just talking about
the Rockets now what we just saw. If they don't
advance out of the first round next year, and I'm sorry,
this is where they have put themselves.

Speaker 6 (56:02):
Okay, sorry, say it proud, Absolutely a huge colossal disappointment,
regardless of what they do this offseason to improve the team, right,
because we appear to believe their options are continuities where
it's at. Let's let these players grow. Okay, let's say
they do that and lose in the first round. That's
a huge colossal disappointment. Well if you do the other
thing and add Durant, Booker, barant Yannis, you name it,

(56:25):
and you don't win in the first round, that's a
colossal disappointment.

Speaker 4 (56:29):
Yeah, it's good to have these options, and they're clearly
set up very pretty seeing as how they're the only
playoff team that has a top ten pick in the
lottery in all likelihood. But you've got to you've got
to really be my fear with any sort of Yannis
deal is you're just gonna gut the team so much
that you won't necessarily set yourself up for that type

(56:53):
of disappointment we're talking about.

Speaker 5 (56:55):
But man, that is an all or nothing type move.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
You're basically saying, all right, we want to start taking
the next step to win a championship, but it's going
to cost us so much of our core that got
us to where we were to begin with in this
situation that it's just not you know, it's just not
worth it. I don't happen to think. And this is again,
I haven't talked to anybody. I don't know anything. Just
when I hear we're no longer interested in Devin Booker,

(57:20):
and one of the main reasons we're not interested in
him is because he took a step back this year.
And in the same breath you're saying, we really believe
in Jalen Green. We want to see how that goes.
I just I can see from a logistical standpoint where
you would say that. But at the end of the day,
we had this conversation off air, it just comes down

(57:41):
to do you think Devin Booker is better at your
two guard position or Jalen Green? If you really mean
what you just said, and as you put it, well,
Jalen Green was a better outside shooter this year than
Devin Booker.

Speaker 6 (57:52):
But it's not that simple, no, And I just pointed
out as a three point shooter this season, and Devin
Booker shot worse than Jalen Green did. It's just the
numbers are what they are. A little bit more was
asked of him this year than in some years past,
and I definitely think that weight on his production because
of how bad his team was around him, and I
definitely think that impacted his play. The phrase or the

(58:14):
quotes the article that we're referring to in the Athletic
Kelly Eco reads like this. The Rockets have previouly held
serious interest in the sons Devin Booker, but team sources
said that is no longer the case. Not only do
team official Steel will have faith in Jalen Green, who's
five years younger than Booker and sixty six million dollars
cheaper over the next three seasons, but also Booker's struggles

(58:35):
last season shifted the thinking on this front. So explain
some of those struggles if you will. The other parts
of it are definitely factors and it's not even that
the individual contract is sixty six million dollars cheaper over
the next three seasons. You know who rafel Stone has
to call on the phone and negotiate with and work

(58:57):
out a deal with to put Jalen Green on this
roster and part with assets to put Jalen Green on
this roster. Nobody and nothing. He's already here, cost you nothing.
Just send him back out there. Again, it's not equal.
It's not apples to apples. Getting Devin Booker here is
costing you probably Jalen himself and the assets that it
takes to pry him from Phoenix, where he is the

(59:18):
player they believe they're going to win with, or they're
at least purporting that publicly. So that's the one that
probably costs a ton in addition to Giannis, because Giannis
is level of play. If you're thinking he's fallen off,
that would be foolish.

Speaker 5 (59:31):
He has not.

Speaker 6 (59:32):
At some point he might. He's older than Booker, He's
played a ton of minutes, he's played a ton of
extra long postseasons. But we shall see if they view
it that way. The core of the team versus the
bulk of your assets that's what these negotiations for Giannis
to me, have to be all about. I don't see
any reason. Just like you pointed out, it's pretty clear
what's the point of adding yanis if the players he's

(59:53):
currently playing with are now not good enough to compete
in the Western Conference. That's the core that you nearly
won a first round series with. Well, your group of
assets include a bunch of non NBA players in twenty
twenty five and twenty six and twenty seven and twenty
eight and twenty nine. So from a development standpoint, from
a financial standpoint, it's just very, very different. I mean,

(01:00:14):
all of your non current roster assets. Just send them
all over there for a hypothetical sake. Send them all.
Send this year's first, send another first in the year after,
Send three first, send five firsts, and keep the core. No,
you're probably gonna have to. You give them one more player,
You give them whoever they want, and you pull back
one of those firsts. Can you win with Giannis minus

(01:00:37):
one core player? Yeah, it sure seems like.

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
You said this is not a men Thompson.

Speaker 6 (01:00:41):
Yeah, I'm not going to willy nilly on this, but
as much as it would hurt be realistic about it.
You could win without a Men Thompson if Yannis was here,
I don't know how big, and it would hurt, and
we'd love to see his development, and I would consider
him untouchable.

Speaker 5 (01:00:55):
I get that.

Speaker 6 (01:00:56):
But if you're able to keep everybody else because you
parted ways with a men, your team's probably pretty darn
good immediately and for all of the years that you're
paying Yanna's sixty million dollars, which is at least three But.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
The thought of a men and Yannis just defensively is
I believe the word tantalizing comes to mind.

Speaker 6 (01:01:17):
You're already awesome defensively. You could get better. You could.

Speaker 4 (01:01:20):
Could you imagine a Men Thompson and Yanni's playing volleyball
with some poor idiot's shot.

Speaker 6 (01:01:24):
Could you imagine watching next year's postseason saying, we get it,
the other team's never gonna score, but by god, you
have to put them all the basket.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
But Jannis would probably that's the difference between him and
a men. Right now, Yannas has no problem. He was
put His postseason numbers were insane, even in a first
round exit, like the guy. In his regular season numbers.

Speaker 6 (01:01:47):
He scored three It was only one series, so it's
a little lights sample, but he scored thirty three points
per game in this series against Sandiana that they did
not win on sixty percent shooting, with an effective field
goal percent of well over sixty percent. He had never
scored thirty points in a postseason overall before. Many of
them have lasted more than I give you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:07):
I'll tell you this much. Draymond Green's not pushing him
around in the postseason this series. Would the official will
allow for it, I don't care. Probably would, so maybe
he would still be talking to him too. Well, if
you noticed alprinchingoons. Thank you to Houston Post today. The
first pick and I think the third pick where both
him just yamming on Draymond Green because everything they were

(01:02:29):
chosen very by the way, the discussion about Steph Curry's
worth and how well he still plays and how much
he matters when Steph Curry's off the floor, you've taken
two players off the floor for Golden State. Draymond Green
is borderline useless when Steph Curry is not playing basketball
for Gordon.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
In Game three's loss, again, point.

Speaker 6 (01:02:53):
That was the one I heard. Yeah, well, he doesn't
do with the other things. Either he's not creative for
the team. He's not scoring in rebounding for the team.
He's not defending like they need him too, because they
can't have a crappy offensive player out there that's only
out there just to defend Steph anymore. Now they can
put whoever they want out there because Steph's not out there,
and that neutralizes some of what Draymond is so effective

(01:03:15):
with for them as they tried to fall not fall
down three games to one.

Speaker 5 (01:03:19):
So nice for the Timberwolves that they had that option.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:03:32):
I think this sounds right for tonight if you're unaware.
Over at the Ballyard this afternoon evening for the Houston Astros,
Houston Texans wide receiver Nico Collins will be throwing out
the ceremonial first pitch. He had his camp over the
weekend and continues to do it can here in the
h Town community. He is embedded here. He's got his extension.

(01:03:55):
He's going to be a part of the best Texans
football team that's ever played.

Speaker 5 (01:03:58):
For the end.

Speaker 6 (01:03:58):
He's the most likable Niko in the state of Texas.
He's pretty strong, pretty strong in that regard. We'll hear
from him a little bit later as he commented on
his two new mates in the wide receiver room from
Iowa State. But our good friend Jonathan m. Alexander of
the Houston Chronicle noted that Nico's thrown out the first
pitch today before the Astros Royals game, So I'll go

(01:04:19):
ahead and hit that up with a quote sweet that
reads Collins drained his first shot before Rockets Warriors Game two,
then Houston proceeded to run the Warriors off the floor.
So I guess we should expect to strike from Nico
on the ceremonial first pitch and a Houston beat down
to follow. Does that sound about right?

Speaker 5 (01:04:34):
I'll take both.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Please, all right, I'll hit post. It's all been sent
away programming your ex account the.

Speaker 6 (01:04:41):
Earlier this morning. As we move away from the honest
discussion briefly and into some extended Astros discussion again, jose
Al Tuove is back in the lineup tonight, playing second,
hitting second by Jeremy Pania. Astros Royals begin their three
game series, the last three of the six game homestand
for the Astros is sit just a game over five
hundred eight AM on Monday morning here on Sports Talk

(01:05:02):
seven ninety. That's when we get our weekly visit on
the Sean Salisbury Show from Astros radio analyst Steve Sparks.
It begins lustly. We give you a portion of it.
You can catch the interview in its entirety right there
at sports Talk ninety dot com or via the iHeartRadio
app where you should have. Sports Talk seven ninety is

(01:05:22):
your number one preset. Subscribe to their podcast, our podcast,
and everything else that keeps you entertained and abreast of
what's going on. So we send you to this portion
of the conversation where Steve comments on yesterday's brilliance from
Renel Blanco.

Speaker 12 (01:05:38):
Yeah, Blanco was unbelievable. I don't think a lot of
people realize how consistent he was last year. We know
about the note kitter, but he had a better or
The Astros had a better team record when he pitched,
and the Detroit Tigers had when Derek Scouble pitched, who
was the Cy Young Award winner. The Astros were twenty
and nine when Blanco pitched last year. That's how consistent

(01:05:59):
he was them in the game. And he's just been
that type of guy to have him as your fourth
or fifth starter to be able to go out there
and do stuff like eleven punchouts. It gets a pretty
good lineup with the Cincinnati Reds. Good patient lineup anyway,
I thought was very impressive. And he's been doing this
for a little bit, you know, under fan fair a
little bit. He's had a couple of clunkers this year,

(01:06:22):
but I think he's starting to get it rolling pretty good.
We've always talked about his ideal is to throw all
four of his pitches twenty five percent of the time,
so he's unpredictable, and that's what he's getting back to.

Speaker 13 (01:06:32):
What's the difference in him last year in this year
than previous Well, you mentioned those getting all four of
those pitches to where it's it's the versatility and the
diversity of his pitches. But there's got to be more
to it than that. What is it what sparked the
turnaround for him to worry? He became this guy When.

Speaker 14 (01:06:48):
I talked to the analytics people with the astros and
I say, why is he so good? Because with my eyes,
each pitch in a vacuum doesn't look to be that good.
They tell me that he ton in particular his fastball
and slider. He tunnels his pitches probably better than anybody
else in the major leagues, which means to a hitter,

(01:07:09):
his fastball and the slider halfway.

Speaker 12 (01:07:12):
Home look identical. So one goes one way, one goes
the other way, and that's very frustrating. So I don't
know how he does it, and I don't know what
the secret is to be unable to tunnel your pitches
very well. But I think, in a nutshell, he repeats
his delivery really well. But I think that's the secret
sauce more than anything else. All this pitches halfway home
look the same.

Speaker 13 (01:07:32):
Are you pleased or at least getting more pleased with
the pitch selection. I'm talking about the hitters, about how
they're the discipline at the plate.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Are they getting closer?

Speaker 5 (01:07:44):
Just from your naked eye?

Speaker 7 (01:07:46):
You know?

Speaker 12 (01:07:46):
And it always comes back to the results. You can
look at Brendan Rodgers or somebody like that and say, Okay,
don't change anything, because look at these numbers. Your hard
hit rate is the highest on the team. You're gonna
get more love, You're expected batting it.

Speaker 15 (01:07:59):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:08:00):
You look at these nerdy stats, but they can prove
to a guy that what you're working on is the
right thing to do, so don't change things too quickly.
And I think that's the beauty, you know, of the
cameras and the numbers and all of that is is
when to change things, when to make adjustments, and when
not to. And I think the Astros are kind of

(01:08:20):
getting rewarded because we kept talking about, man, they're hitting
the ball right at them. You know, we used to
always be able to say that as a blanket statement,
but we couldn't back it up as well as we
could now with hard hit rate and exit velocity and things.

Speaker 5 (01:08:33):
Like that, which is helpful.

Speaker 12 (01:08:34):
I love that, you know, you can say, hey, you know,
this picture might be getting unlucky right now because of this,
you know, all the soft contact. So I think in
that regard, this stuff is great for these guys. And
I think it's starting to pay off with Christian Walker.
Of course, he's swinging about much better. Pain has been fantastic. JANR.
Diaz has been great and great, and it's all you know.

(01:08:57):
The theme I think for all of this, Sean is
that they're picking up the slack. The Jordon has been
out you know for eight or nine days now, and
the Astros have an ops of over eight hundred since
he's been out, so a lot like last year with
Kyle Tucker when they were fifteen games about five hundred
in his absence. They do a good job of picking
up the slack offensively.

Speaker 13 (01:09:17):
Steve watching pain you play, I know you rave about him.
Did It's it's I don't even know by different saying different,
the table set or the energy, it's it.

Speaker 5 (01:09:28):
It's it's a no brainer.

Speaker 8 (01:09:30):
He is.

Speaker 13 (01:09:31):
This team's going to go where he takes him. I
understand the Jordan. You get my point at the top
of the there's an energy about him that's starting to permeate.
And when I want when he's going good, it feels
like everybody feeds off it. So whatever it is that
he's accepted and decided to take more on and do it,
he's doing it at a high at a high level
right now on both defense and offense.

Speaker 6 (01:09:51):
I'm loving watching his Another addition to his game me too.

Speaker 12 (01:09:56):
You know, he's third in the American League in more,
he's best among all American League shortstops. Here's the thing
for me, I think base running it's kind of like
a book cover to your player, to a player, when
you watch him take secondary leads, you watch him take
extra bases, you watch him hustle down the first base line.

(01:10:16):
I think that's almost a window to his baseball soul.
You know, you learn about what he's really about as
a baseball player.

Speaker 6 (01:10:24):
What's cam Smith.

Speaker 12 (01:10:25):
By the way, his base running is impeccable too.

Speaker 5 (01:10:28):
That's the book cover to this player.

Speaker 12 (01:10:32):
And I think that means anything, That means everything, And
I think that permeates as you mentioned, you know, to
the rest of the team. Put him at the top
of the lineup and you watch him spark the team
with his play, and he's just coming into his own.
I think he's figured some things out offensively to allow
him to get into a position to let his talent
take over. And we've always seen the twitch. We know

(01:10:55):
he's got fast hands. In a ninety eight mile partor
fastball is probably not going to beat him. But now
I think he's able to relax because of less movement
and less things going on in his stance and his setup,
that everything's starting to come in to play everything.

Speaker 6 (01:11:12):
Man, he just practices right. Practice makes however the saying goes,
Jeremy Penne has had a really good start and he's
now an even better starter than what they used to have,
I mean at the top of the lineup. No offense
meant personally to jose Al too. They but they're clearly
better at the leadoff spot than they were at the
beginning of the season. And buy a lot. Not only

(01:11:34):
is Jery Payne, He's totally taken off at this point.
I'm sure he will level out a little bit, but
it makes a big difference, and you've seen it in
the number of opportunities they've had to score and score
at a high level and just simply score more runs
when he has been at that spot than the guy
that's now and healthy enough to bat behind him. Tonight
in jose Al to the a little reset of where
things stand with the draft lottery coming up tonight. Jannis Durant, Booker,

(01:11:58):
Luca Morant and your Houston Rockets all next.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
It is the eight team Sports Sox seven ninety. Hopefully
you got to hear most of, if not all, of
the sparks fly replay. Is Sparky got in here on
some pitching questions and just basically all things Astros. As
they'll start their series with the Kansas City Royals tonight

(01:12:35):
three straight seven to ten starts, no sort of quirk
in the schedule, the same thing all the way through.
Hopefully the Astros will be able to keep Bobby wit
Junior somewhat in check. He destroyed them last time, but
that's not really out of the ordinary.

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
He does that to most teams these days.

Speaker 4 (01:12:56):
He's really Are you surprised by the way that they
just I say this only because it's Kansas City, that
they just locked him up immediately. I mean, I know,
theoretically that's not of course, you're not surprised. He's a
great player. It just doesn't seem like something they always do.
They're always trading those kinds of guys.

Speaker 6 (01:13:13):
I mean, they really haven't had anybody, honestly like that.
This is this is unique. This is one of the
you know, we say those things probably more often than
we should, you know, once in a generation or you know,
once in a lifetime. But in start a franchise. Give
me the five names he's on it, Judge Soto, Otani,

(01:13:34):
some other guys well, I mean, and every player you mentioned,
I think, including Soto, is older than him.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
They are by probably you could have significant significant a non.

Speaker 6 (01:13:44):
Soto's a little bit older than Tatisa another name you
might add. Even though he's a cheater, but nobody cares
because he wasn't stealing signs. He was just using drugs.
It's fine. Uh, that's why you do that. This is
what you hope your franchise does. And you know the
Astros have done it to a lesser agree with a
bunch of different players. Obviously Bregman and Altuve would be there,
and Alvarez similarly. This is much more of the megadeal variety.

(01:14:06):
But at that age, in that stage, you know, you
look at what Tatis signed for, you look at what
Bobby Witt signed for. I think you pretty much knew
extremely early in their respective careers. I mean, the odds
that this person isn't going to be unbelievable because we've
already seen a little bit of it. It's just such
a small, small number, so we're totally fine. He also

(01:14:27):
because you're able to, you know, build it this way.
You're buying out his arbitration years. But he's an eight
million dollar player this year, he's a fourteen million dollar player.
Next year he's a twenty million dollars a year player.
He doesn't get to the basically the full eurn on
this contract makes thirty six million, but not until twenty nine,
not until twenty twenty nine, and it actually tails off

(01:14:48):
after that. There's a bunch of options in there which
you'll probably end up picking up, so it might not
tail off too much, but it's it's the way to
you can and he also happens to play about his
premium of a premium spot as you can have. Baseball's
changed a little bit so you don't have to have
that ultimate shortstop. But we're not that far removed from
you know, a Rod Nomar Jeter, et cetera at shortstop,

(01:15:10):
just being the forefront of some unbelievable teams regular season
or otherwise. And that's what he is for the Royals.
They're able to hopefully cultivate more of these young players.
They stole Cole Reagan's from the Rangers. They've done a
really nice job. You know, went out and got Lugo,
went out and then got and re signed Michael Waka,
the starter for tonight. I think Salvador Perez is going

(01:15:33):
to stop being really good at some point, but that
hasn't happened yet. And they're just kind of, you know,
different days as different other players in the mix. You know,
if any passed Quen Tony can Tony could be very
very good. He's not having a particularly good year. He
has in the past prior to injury. Last year, she
built your team are on a superstar and he's been
everything that you would have ever hoped. He's also you know,

(01:15:55):
he's a second overall pick. This is a a His
dad's a major league talent. I think they see this
coming the moment they were able to say, we'll take
Bobby Witt.

Speaker 5 (01:16:03):
What's his dad's name. It's Robert Witt. No one has
anybody ever called him Robert.

Speaker 6 (01:16:09):
Since he was like a young boy, he was known
as Bobby Witt as a pitcher in the majors, and
this little kid of his is known as Bobby Wit Junior.

Speaker 4 (01:16:16):
Well, hopefully they can keep Robert Witt Junior in check
for the next three games.

Speaker 6 (01:16:20):
I mean, he's been good this year, not unbelievable, but
that's really just for his standards. He'll be good. It's
it's more about everybody else. The Astros pitched very very
well against the Royals.

Speaker 5 (01:16:31):
The first wave.

Speaker 6 (01:16:32):
They just couldn't score.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
Gusto or Gusto. I'm tired of hearing it both ways Gusto. Well,
then why did the GM come on and call it
Gusto today or over the weekend? I should say I
think he would like to have said it differently.

Speaker 5 (01:16:45):
He said it twice. I was making sure when I
was listening.

Speaker 6 (01:16:47):
Doesn't mean it's right.

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
Well, it's his player that is correct, just making sure.
I've heard it both ways, but I've tended to go
with Gusto.

Speaker 6 (01:16:57):
What about the guy who throws with his left hand,
who wears number fifty nine? Have you heard his name
said correctly?

Speaker 5 (01:17:03):
I've heard it both ways on this show. You've heard
it both.

Speaker 6 (01:17:06):
Ways from people that work with him and our teammates
of him and have signed him and manage him. It's
it's sometimes it just doesn't get said correctly.

Speaker 4 (01:17:14):
Well, I don't I don't understand why some people couldn't
say Maury, Luno and Bigio. It's not Bigio, it's not Lunaw,
it's not Moray. What about Oswalt, since he told people
to say and then his what's his middle name? Roy

(01:17:36):
Harvey Oswalt, Oswalt?

Speaker 6 (01:17:37):
What is it? How do you say it is that
what you're referencing.

Speaker 5 (01:17:41):
His name's not Lee.

Speaker 6 (01:17:42):
Oh it's not. I am just a patsy.

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
I I worked with a guy one time on the
TV side who kept saying roy Oswalt and I'm like, dude.

Speaker 6 (01:17:56):
Well, you had two players in town that spelled their
first name identically but said it differently when the Texans
had a defensive end and the Rockets had a kiss
of death or one is Mario Williams and one is
mary O Ellie. Yeah, and a lot of people I
think would Actually, I don't think a lot of people.

(01:18:19):
I don't remember screwing up either of those guys. I
do Mario Ellie, it's not Mario. It's Mario. Mario happens
to be Mario, but he's like.

Speaker 5 (01:18:29):
One of the few guys.

Speaker 6 (01:18:30):
But that's how it was said.

Speaker 5 (01:18:31):
Yeah, it's not super Mario brothers.

Speaker 6 (01:18:33):
Oh did he ever have that nickname?

Speaker 5 (01:18:35):
It's not Mario and Luigi. No, it isn't.

Speaker 6 (01:18:39):
That'd be dumb, and thus it didn't happen. I saw
Mario before.

Speaker 5 (01:18:44):
I think it was. Uh it was.

Speaker 6 (01:18:46):
I was during Game five graduation weekend recently for he
and the family.

Speaker 4 (01:18:52):
He's surly, he's focused. Yeah, like during the game and
it was during a time out. It just went over
and you know, basically tapped him up. Because anytime you
see a guy that hits that kind of shot, you
want to say Hi.

Speaker 6 (01:19:04):
Yeah, Well mean during NBA games these days, he's working,
That's true, he's still scouting.

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
Well, who's he scouting for again?

Speaker 6 (01:19:12):
Believe the Pels.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
Okay, you know he's scouting during Game five for next
season when Zion Williamson doesn't play for the Rockets.

Speaker 6 (01:19:20):
Now, Zion Williamson will be seen tonight. He is the
face front on stage representative for the New Orleans Pelicans.

Speaker 5 (01:19:29):
I'm sending for the draft lottery Pels. Zion Williamson.

Speaker 4 (01:19:32):
Beat that, you trous Sniffer'll okay, We'll go with Hakim Elaijawan.

Speaker 6 (01:19:36):
I'll tell you what I did when I first saw
the list of representatives, and then you tell me what
you think I did when I first saw the list
of representatives. Okay, you tell me first, what do you
think of your eyes? For sure, I didn't roll my eyes.
I had an inkling that I knew who the Rockets
were going to be sending. But then when I saw
the names of you know, Rolando Blackman, Zion Williamson. I

(01:19:59):
already kne Jared McCain to Monty Camaro the Blazers, Kean
Ellis of the Kings, Bob Carrington of the Wizards, Modess
Buzalis of the Bulls. My very important first thought and
has to happen before today's show, was Huh, I wonder
if a kim Olaje want to scored more NBA points
than all those guys combined. I'm bind and I did

(01:20:20):
the research, and he had. He's just shy, just two hundred,
because Orlando Blackman had seventeen thousand points.

Speaker 4 (01:20:27):
Man, if he hadn't gotten hurt during ninety five regular season,
he probably would have had him.

Speaker 6 (01:20:30):
Yes, a bunch of active players for some teams, and
a legend for only one team, the Houston Rockets repping
at tonight's lottery.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team.

Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wentworth are the A teen.

Speaker 4 (01:21:03):
Four o'clock hour underway here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Space City Home Network. It's a Monday edition of the eighteen.
Welcome back in from a hopefully fantastic Mother's Day weekend.
By the way, weather was pretty good this weekend. Is
it true that we're gonna have some ridiculous heat wave?

Speaker 5 (01:21:21):
Did I see that?

Speaker 6 (01:21:22):
You ask if it's true it's being forecasted. I can't
tell you if it's true. Diplomatic, our local forecasters, some
of our favorite people out there, have indicated we will
see temperatures approaching triple digits.

Speaker 4 (01:21:35):
They will start with a nine. So our oldest kid
just got back from the Dallas Lake area. I don't
remember which. I don't even know which sho I don't know.
I mean and lakes they have up there in Dallas.
If it was the most majorist one or whatever. Okay,
they're up there in this ridiculous lake house. The tough
academic here, you know what, she did a great job.

Speaker 5 (01:21:58):
So that's why we're a little bit like.

Speaker 6 (01:21:59):
All right to make Howard Dan's list.

Speaker 5 (01:22:02):
He didn't scream at her.

Speaker 6 (01:22:04):
I don't think it's called the Howard Dan's list.

Speaker 4 (01:22:06):
It should be that performance. You ever seen somebody by
the way that torpedoed his campaign back then? So silly,
that's like a blip on the rainar line. What's wrong
with us? You can do what you want now and
cocaine whatever. It just keeps on going, just so he's screamed.

Speaker 6 (01:22:22):
Just don't scream a bunch of states and where you're going,
and we're gonna take the White House. Don't do that.

Speaker 5 (01:22:27):
You just don't name like not even a fort Oh we're.

Speaker 6 (01:22:31):
Gonna go to Washington. We're going, you know, and we're
gonna take the White House. Bad idea, big mistake.

Speaker 4 (01:22:37):
It's such a great audio clip though, all right, so
you were she was liking it, Yeah, And Teresa was
talking about how I think it had already started up there,
the heat wave, this heat wave that we're hearing about
that these people are forecasting, these forecasters.

Speaker 5 (01:22:53):
If you will, are telling us about just I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:22:59):
I think it's because I've been like, hey, it's May,
it's Mother's Day. Is Mother's Day usually later? Am I crazy?
I feel like it's later in.

Speaker 6 (01:23:07):
The weekend we had or this coming weekend pretty standard, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:23:11):
I feel like in the past it's always already been
muggy and disgusting, like you know, we're used to.

Speaker 6 (01:23:15):
It does look like again their forecast starts tomorrow like
today's great, right, and tomorrow will be less so and
maybe we will start our stretch of one hundred straight
days in the nineties.

Speaker 5 (01:23:27):
I live in the wrong city.

Speaker 6 (01:23:29):
Why because I love it here. I do, but I
believe I believe you've told everybody you love it here.
I do, but I believe you rep us.

Speaker 7 (01:23:37):
I do.

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
But I hate the weather. That's okay, not all year, yes,
all year? Well, because think about.

Speaker 6 (01:23:45):
It, we've had five pretty or four months and twelve
days of pretty good weather. Yeah, that's one third of
the year, pretty good, pretty good. For that two inches
of snow in there, that was awesome, It was awesome.
But I just want I want seasons. We had two
days of winter. What's wrong with that? A season indicates

(01:24:06):
that it lasts longer than forty eight hours.

Speaker 5 (01:24:08):
That's what I want.

Speaker 4 (01:24:10):
But you won't even have to wait that long to
find out where the Rockets are going to pick in
the NBA Draft the draft lotteries tonight. As we mentioned,
Hikim Olijuan is the representative by far, the most distinguished
on that list of just I don't even know what
to call that list you rattled off last segment.

Speaker 5 (01:24:28):
Some of the people on there who.

Speaker 6 (01:24:31):
Well, when you take guys off your current team, and
you're probably there because you earned it by winning very
few games. Odds are that player is not awesome, and
for those teams who've sent those caliber players, that would
be true.

Speaker 5 (01:24:44):
And isn't in Chicago tonight?

Speaker 6 (01:24:46):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (01:24:46):
And isn't it normally in New York or it has been?

Speaker 6 (01:24:48):
Uh, they got the draft combine on going and the
lottery that goes with it.

Speaker 4 (01:24:52):
Chicago, are they starting to do the thing that the
NFL is doing where they do the mobile draft.

Speaker 6 (01:24:56):
It's not. They're never gonna en. There's nothing like it.
I mean, we even think it was silly that they've
moved it to two days. The draft is now the
first thirty picks and then the second thirty picks on
two different days, which is very I wasn't super excited
about the draft lasting all day and or all night
when you went all sixty picks or fifty nine or
fifty eight or fifty seven, depending on how many teams

(01:25:17):
that forfeited their pick for doing things illegally, but it
would take forever. You know, the draft would start at
seven and would end at eleven thirty or midnight. It
seemed a little bit of overkill. But now it's just
Friday's draft with all the players that won't matter.

Speaker 4 (01:25:34):
That's so accurate. Actually, I was sent this trade proposal
earlier and I shared it with you off the air
because Jannie is being tied now to not just one,
but two Texas teams, you know, because there's three there's
three teams here in the state of Texas, and you
could play for all three of them and not have

(01:25:54):
to deal with state income tax.

Speaker 6 (01:25:56):
But apparently you ready for the national media to tell
you where he's going. Sure, so Shaum's is the one
who made had this report come out. We'll get to
your trade proposal momentarily. Yeah, And so he obviously has
been on a lot of the programs on his own network,
and he also goes on a couple of podcasts pretty regularly,
especially when Kay Adams asks if he wouldn't mind coming on.
They got a nice little relationship, yes, both on the

(01:26:18):
air and on the air is involved. Yeah, So they
were discussing, be honest, and he I think explained the
situation just as clearly as he had in his article.
And her response is exactly what you love about the
national media, because I don't think she was serious, and
he still answered her.

Speaker 15 (01:26:36):
Query he wants to find the best fit long term.
He's been saying for years, the goal is to find
that option if it's not going to be a Milwaukee. Well,
now we're here and he is actively exploring it from
what I'm told, and that process starts here at the
combine in our home city in Chicago. All thirty teams
are here, his representatives are here. There's gonna be a

(01:26:57):
lot of conversations going on.

Speaker 6 (01:26:58):
Oh week, so he's going to the Lakers. Thank you, Schamps.

Speaker 15 (01:27:03):
I don't think that that would be something that I
would be putting all my money on if I'm you.

Speaker 6 (01:27:10):
Ken't I even tried to figure, like, is that even
possible this nightmare of a situation we already had to
go through this current season. Is there any possible way?
She said it? For Yeah, of course he's going to
the Lakers. There's no way.

Speaker 4 (01:27:26):
There's one way, and the and Milwaukee should still slam
the phone down. So we'll give you Lebron straight up.
That's the only way to get that deal done.

Speaker 6 (01:27:35):
Well, you don't you think something else would go along
with Lebron? I would hope that, like his son, Oh, well,
how is it? How do you sell that to Milwaukee.
We're gonna give you Lebron James, and that's how you
sell it. No, I don't I agree with you. Austin
Reeves certainly a possibility for a guy to be moved

(01:27:56):
johannist and Luca is nasty now anything, and Giannis with
the second star pretty much whoever it is. That's why
we keep trying to put him here so nobody would
be able to play around them. There's another interesting best
of X level question I'll bring from a current NBA player.
But I want to hear that trade proposal or something real,
not he's going to the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (01:28:16):
Okay, this is admittedly this is from a dedicated listener
who I happened to have a lot of respect for
off the air.

Speaker 6 (01:28:27):
That uh that worked in sports. I'll just leave it
at that. I'll make it very vague.

Speaker 4 (01:28:32):
So this is a potential Yannis deal that, by the way,
keeps Jalen Green in Houston.

Speaker 5 (01:28:40):
Just to add a cure if you're curious about that
aspect of it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:43):
Shingoon, Cam Whitmore, Jabari Smith Junior and three picks take
it or leave it.

Speaker 5 (01:28:52):
That's how this person phrased it for Yannis.

Speaker 6 (01:28:54):
No negotiating.

Speaker 7 (01:28:55):
This is it.

Speaker 6 (01:28:56):
This is the no changes, no amendments, no.

Speaker 4 (01:28:59):
But again, if you're the Milwaukee Bucks, I challenge you
to find a trade package that's going to be more
attractive than that.

Speaker 6 (01:29:07):
Yeah, let's start from our side of things. We reside
in Houston. That's a lot to give up. So put
the team on the court. They until they re signed
Steven Adams. That trade leaves you with nobody in the
middle on offense or defense. Jannis will operate in the
post at times, and I know having nobody clogging up

(01:29:27):
the post is very good for Yannis, but that changes
I'm not trying to put alburn on some high ranking
defensive pedestal, but it certainly changes how you're going to
approach things defensively, and absolutely changes how you're going to
approach things offensively. Because what did the Rockets do for
an entire postseason series this year? They run their offense

(01:29:47):
through Albert and Shangun. And when all the defense focused
away from Fred, then he started taking over more of
the responsibility of creating, although as it turned out, he
really only created for himself. He didn't have a tremendous
series of finding other guys shots and that's not really
who fred is to begin with, but it's part of
what they did over the course of the year. So
now you're taking your point center off of the team.

(01:30:09):
Don't get me wrong. If I'm gonna tell you that
Giannis is gonna help create for you, I mean it.
Jannis doesn't do it in the conventional sense quite obviously,
but it's it's not an accident that he's consistently giving
his team six seven eight assists per contest, and certainly
that's what you saw from him all throughout the last

(01:30:31):
several years of his career. He's averaging about six six
and a half assists over the last six to seven years.
Because he has the ball so much and you've got
to work around him. He's not out there trying to
drive and dish and things like that. But he's so
creative with the basketball, and he's so unconventional as an
offensive player. Well, the defense obviously has to commit a
little bit more to him. Well, you sent a second guy.

(01:30:52):
That means they're playing four on three everywhere else, so
you should have open teammates. He's don a i'd say
a pretty good job of finding them, so you would
do things differently but I think the ability to find
open looks won't change at all, And you think there'd
be plenty of need for shooters around him, just like
there should have been around what they were doing this year.

Speaker 4 (01:31:10):
And Sho I should have prefaced it by saying, not
only are you not parting ways with Jalen Green, you're.

Speaker 5 (01:31:14):
Also keeping a man Thompson.

Speaker 4 (01:31:16):
So a men Thompson and Giannis again on the same
team just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Speaker 6 (01:31:25):
It's an interesting way to try to defend. They should
be better at certain things. I think the idea that
Giannis is a you know, some sort of unbelievable defender
might move away. I'm sure he'll probably finish in the
top five or six again this year and defensive Player
of the Year, not a finalist for the award, but
that's where he's been for seven years running top six

(01:31:46):
defensive player. I would think a team that's been very
good defensively can utilize his skills, you know, put that
on the coaching staff to figure out what's the best
way we do things. They're missing something, you're taking things
away that they need to be really really good away.

Speaker 5 (01:32:00):
Don't you feel like I know we're up against it.

Speaker 4 (01:32:02):
Don't you feel like once Gianni says I want to
go somewhere, even if it's just Texas. But once he's
even if he just said, if you said Houston, that
you can already kind of get him for pennies on
the dollar. Relatively speaking, No, because too many teams would
be in on it. Okay, maybe he needs to find
his joy. I'll ad Jimmy Butler, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
I got the a team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:32:37):
It is the eight teams four Socks seven ninety hosting
our show and doing deals.

Speaker 6 (01:32:41):
So we spend a lot of time preparing for each show, myself,
Cole Thompson, mister Cole Thompson, and Adam Clinton. We put
a lot of time and effort into making sure we deliver.
We get twenty hours a day to prepare for the
four hours we give you each day in between those
four hours, and.

Speaker 5 (01:32:57):
We try the only one that uses all twenty.

Speaker 6 (01:32:59):
I mean, that's what they're there for. There, realized we've
got a rundown. Got audio we'd like to use, got stories,
we'd like to talk about, interviews that we've heard that
we'd like to share with you from our other great
hosts here on Sports Talk seven ninety. A lot of detail,
a lot of tension to detail, A lot of planning
needs to go in there every once in a while, though,
for the sake of authenticity and newness, and I can't

(01:33:24):
wait to give you my actual authentic never heard of
this reaction. I'll glance at the rundown. Client will glance
at the rundown, and I don't know what this is
about this segment. It says we did not see this coming,
and there is a link presumably to an article about
I don't know what I specifically chose to steer clearity,
love it until this segment arose. We've got our good, bad,

(01:33:47):
and ugly coming up at four thirty signature segment time
four thirty each and every weekday afternoon here on the
eight team, so we had time to flesh this out.
Tell me and the listeners, please, what did we not
see coming?

Speaker 4 (01:34:01):
You are aware that we are on the precipice of
a new it's a it's the dawning of a new age.

Speaker 5 (01:34:10):
Of NBA coverage upcoming.

Speaker 6 (01:34:13):
Yes, there this past twelve months, tons of negotiating all
the angst about inside the NBA on TNT going away,
which it's not, and all the new money they're bringing
a board with some streaming services that now will have
a piece of the NBA pie and the network that
brought us round ball. Rock is getting back into the

(01:34:35):
getting back into the broadcast game. Our friends over at
NBA on NBC have slowly let us know who's going
to be a part of their broadcast. You got the
Eagles father and son that are gonna do play by play.
You have Rockets legend Carmelo Anthony set to be a
studio analyst, Jamal Crawford and Kevin Harlan's partner Reggie Miller

(01:34:58):
will be gating two place.

Speaker 4 (01:35:00):
We probably could have aimed a little bit higher with
the talent department. Really, Reggie and Jamal is just a
little less seasoned. I think he's going to be outstanding.

Speaker 6 (01:35:11):
He's okay. Reggie is awful. I don't care how much
he's improved. He's extremely He does bring name recognition to it.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
Yes, he's that.

Speaker 6 (01:35:19):
I recognize.

Speaker 4 (01:35:21):
He's a terrible name that you should put on your
broadcast if you're serious about covering basketball.

Speaker 6 (01:35:26):
So am I on the path towards what did we
not see coming I've given you all the information. I
think we knew about the NBA on NBC before today,
Well yes, and no, also we know before today, well
we knew that he knew that they were going to
AI generate the voice of NBA on NBC because unfortunately

(01:35:46):
pass right, which by the way, I never knew that
guy's name, and now you do so posthumously. You can
salute him.

Speaker 5 (01:35:53):
But it's isn't his isn't he? Or his voice was
different than the guy that would The.

Speaker 6 (01:36:00):
Only voices I know are the whoever was doing the
game and the two and a half minute intro they
would have them voice hitting into the game.

Speaker 4 (01:36:08):
Who Robert Costas sometimes Robert, Yes, I'm glad he's not
gonna be a few good ones. Yeah, but he was
awesome unlike Robert gotcha. So anyway, NBA on NBC and
Peacock and the handle on X is at NBA on NBC.
It's the official, it's got the legacy verified, you know,

(01:36:31):
the yellow check mark, if you will, a legendary addition
to our team.

Speaker 5 (01:36:36):
Who could this be?

Speaker 6 (01:36:37):
All you gotta do is look at the video underneath
Cliff Robinson.

Speaker 5 (01:36:41):
No, isn't he dead?

Speaker 6 (01:36:43):
Always got to bring us down.

Speaker 5 (01:36:45):
Well, you brought his name up, the dead guy.

Speaker 6 (01:36:47):
He's in the he's in the video. I think he
meant David Robinson.

Speaker 5 (01:36:50):
Well, he's in it too. He very much alive.

Speaker 6 (01:36:53):
And yes, unfortunately Uncle Cliff Robinson has passed. Didn't he
say he was going to kill Robert Orri before a playoffs?
So back to NBA on NBC.

Speaker 5 (01:37:03):
We're thrilled to welcome.

Speaker 4 (01:37:06):
Mike Jordan Mike that's what he was called in high
school and college, as a special contributor to the NBA
on NBC and Peacock. Stop throwing Peacock in there. We
all know it's your streaming service. Just call it the
NBA on NBC. That's what we're all used to. How
many games a year does he do? Less than five?

Speaker 6 (01:37:28):
Well, special contributor means to me he's be in the
studio for a handful of their days broadcast.

Speaker 4 (01:37:34):
How much are they going to have to discourage him
from gambling on the games? Well, Charles has been in
studio for years. First of all, that guy is pathological.
He got a problem. If I got a problem, he
got a bigger problem. Like he's the biggest name in basketball.
To have him as any part of your network is huge, Like, Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:37:53):
He's gonna be I'm assuming.

Speaker 4 (01:37:55):
I don't know this for sure, but if Michael Jordan
is a special contributor, let's just say they're putting him
on the set, which I'm assuming, which they're not gonna
put him. They're gonna fly him around the country and
make him actually work. How many things like who's he
on the set with? Give or take? Like who's the
host of the studio? You just went over this, I know,

(01:38:17):
but I did not mention the studio.

Speaker 6 (01:38:20):
I mentioned most of the others, Mike Turrico, I said,
Ian and Noah. It's actually Mike and Noah. Who will
be play by play guys? I don't think they actually
said who they think will be the lead studio voice,
yet they did not mention it in their release.

Speaker 5 (01:38:36):
Not put Bob Costas there?

Speaker 6 (01:38:38):
Come on, man, why I don't know? Bob Costas would
be the oldest person there by how many years he
is distanced from basketball so far that nobody's.

Speaker 4 (01:38:49):
A moderate shod who's probably salivating thinking about, oh, well, didn't.

Speaker 6 (01:38:53):
We just get him? If Michael Jordan's going to be there,
what day should be on Saturday? Friday Wednesday, we're golfing
eighteen holes.

Speaker 5 (01:39:05):
And then where we're going to be special contributors.

Speaker 6 (01:39:06):
Yeah, my assumption is, you know, let's say they have
a Game of the week, uh huh for thirty weeks,
probably be a studio analyst contributor for ten to fifteen
of those.

Speaker 4 (01:39:16):
Well, first of all, you know they paid top dollar
for this, for sure, because he's never done this before.

Speaker 6 (01:39:22):
This is a big deal.

Speaker 5 (01:39:23):
I'm all for it.

Speaker 4 (01:39:24):
But secondly, the whole reason I'm asking you about who's
on the set with him, who's on the panel. How
many people are going to say something that he takes personally?
All of them they come back from break. Yeah, I
noticed that you said such and such and I took
that personally. Well, here's what will probably have it. You're
making a joke because you would love it.

Speaker 5 (01:39:45):
I have seen the Last Dance.

Speaker 6 (01:39:47):
If anybody has a sense of humor, most people that
get on TV and these roles develop one or already
have one. Just look at everybody who's on every night
on TNT or ESPN where they have the big panel shows.
Somebody's bringing an iPad out there.

Speaker 5 (01:40:01):
The first night for him to look at him.

Speaker 4 (01:40:02):
Yes, absolutely, someone's also going to bring a pizza so
that he can eat the whole thing.

Speaker 6 (01:40:07):
Well, before our show tonight, we had this beazzas out
here for everybody.

Speaker 5 (01:40:12):
Guys out in the hall delivering it, and they looked
really squirrely.

Speaker 6 (01:40:15):
Now, even though we're joking around about this, and I
don't think he's going to be super locked in on
trying to give the best analysis possible, Like what if
he does, though he should, he's what's going to be
amazing about this? As a player obviously just unbelievable in
every possible way you could think of it. And then
he went into the front office. Awful owner off or

(01:40:37):
front office is not accurate. He was an owner. He
wasn't running a basketball team other than he was the
owner of the team, so he was running it and
then not real good.

Speaker 5 (01:40:46):
Now he's going to go back to this and he's
going to kill it again. I fright. Well, if he's honest,
which I don't know why you wouldn't be, he's.

Speaker 6 (01:40:54):
Pretty I mean, he is a minority owner of the
Hornets still, and obviously there's no con flick there or
he would not.

Speaker 4 (01:41:01):
They'll never be involved because they won't be featured because
they suck.

Speaker 6 (01:41:04):
Well, they traded this this I got this guy from
from the Hornets is what do you what do you think, Michael?
I went to pizza another mistake. I just I was
not expecting this. Things we did not what I'm saying. Yeah,
this is very much of it.

Speaker 5 (01:41:17):
Is a Would you go so far as to say
it's a coup?

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
I mean, because no one else is going to be
able to say, we have MJ nobody And it makes
sense because I mean when you see these highlights that
they're putting on this video, like that that music, which,
by the way, why did they have somebody not named
Ray Clay announcing this? I really should have had cold

(01:41:43):
play the audio because it's not Ray Clay saying from
North Carolina. It's like some knockoff. It's like Ray was
sick that night and they recorded it and that's what
they used for this. But I just I don't know
how like real and forthright he'll be. But he's insanely

(01:42:04):
competitive about everything else in his life. I can't imagine
he's not gonna want to be like he'll be better
than Brady if it's.

Speaker 6 (01:42:10):
Less than what we're anticipating. And his special contributor role
is contributing to their studio show from somewhere else like
a satellite feeah from yes or twenty twenty five version of.

Speaker 5 (01:42:23):
Does he give betting lines?

Speaker 6 (01:42:25):
I mean, you're chase, none of that's going to be involved.
Why because it's just not how the He's not going
to be their betting analysts. He's not there a perpecialists
they bring into all right, Michael Jordan is here to
tell us what his plays are.

Speaker 4 (01:42:39):
What if it is you go to him at a
remote location and it's sponsored by filling the blank?

Speaker 6 (01:42:47):
Probably not going that route.

Speaker 5 (01:42:48):
It's just be so funny if he did.

Speaker 4 (01:42:50):
Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what MJU provides to
the new NBA and NBC broadcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:42:59):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:43:05):
Now the good, good, the bad, that's not good, and
the ugly don't make me good with the A team.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
Were still the good, the bad.

Speaker 6 (01:43:18):
SIGU segment time, mondays, we bring you the good, the bad,
the ugly. That's three things. There's three of us, split
them up and run them down. Presumably no one's good,
bad or ugly will be Congratulations to drama filled Boston
Red Sox designated hitter Rafield Evers. He was just one

(01:43:40):
Player of the Week in the American League this week
for his baseball playing, offensive baseball playing.

Speaker 5 (01:43:45):
You know what he said to the Red Sox organization
by winning that?

Speaker 6 (01:43:48):
What did he say?

Speaker 5 (01:43:49):
Two words? Thank you?

Speaker 6 (01:43:50):
Nope, not gonna happen.

Speaker 5 (01:43:52):
No, three words.

Speaker 4 (01:43:53):
That's three A good job, Charles Barkley. I got two
words for you. I can't remember the names. Will were?

Speaker 6 (01:44:00):
He said, the starting with four words and he was
like it was five, he says, and must see TV something.
I think, all right, Cole's got the good, I've got
the bad, AC's got the ugly. Cole, let's go.

Speaker 7 (01:44:13):
I think it's really disappointing that most of the first
hour we talked about the Astros performance. I think it
was really funny that we talked about the Astros performance
in a negative connotation because of the Lance mccullors stuff,
and naturally nobody wants to deal with that. But what
we need to talk about more so is this may
have been one of the more complete outings that we

(01:44:36):
saw from the Astros this season so far. Their plus
five run differential was the best mark they've had in
the game since the sweep over the Blue Jays. They're
thirty eight strikeouts against red hitters, including twenty combined by
Ronel Blanco and Hunter Brown, is the most since they
went up against the Tigers with thirty one. Blancos at
a record with eleven strikeouts on Mother's Day. The thirty

(01:44:57):
five hits that the Astras required over the weekend were
the mo so since that Blue Jays sweeper they had
thirty three. They improved to the number two team in
the American League in strikeouts with three hundred and sixty eight,
only trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by five total strikeouts.

Speaker 6 (01:45:11):
The bullpen era drops down to two ninety two on
the year.

Speaker 7 (01:45:15):
Christian Walker he went five to nine with two rbi
I mean with two extra base hits, two walks, five RBIs.

Speaker 6 (01:45:21):
He slugged three to sixty eight.

Speaker 7 (01:45:23):
Cam Smith, Zach Decenzo, Jake Myers all had good days
of the plate, Yner and Essac Parades. Who really need
to be moving up in the lineup at this point
and consistently hitting I would say two, three and four
in some capacity. They were great with nine combined hits,
seven RBIs and they combined for an ops of one
point one when you add all that together, going into

(01:45:43):
a series against one of the better teams in the
American League where you're trying to get back on pace
to where it is a consistent force of being the
number one team in the American League West, a division
that AC is one hundred percent correct is a joke
right now. It's a pretty good way to end up
putting yourself in a really prime situation where this continues.

Speaker 6 (01:46:03):
Watch out the rest of the rest of the division.
That's a lot of good and all accurate on what
the Asters have been doing. Probably noteworthy in a weird
way that their ability to win on Mother's Day is
starting to become hard to believe. Seven straight wins on
Mother's Day back to twenty eighteen. In twenty seventeen, they

(01:46:24):
actually did also win on Mother's Day, but they also
lost on Mother's Day because they gave Mothers two games
that day, played a doubleheader. But that was a pretty
solid day of baseball for them, And amidst all those
things that were good, what they got back to for
the most part was the kind of defense that's had
them also at the top of the league. Last year

(01:46:46):
was a big downturn the year before, a small downturn
last year major downturn, and this year they've gone back
in the right direction. They're a very very good defensive team,
even with their inability to throw out runner stealing bases,
they're very good on the infield. They're way above every
everybody else and out's above average. The plays that their
outfielders are getting to, they're making. Camp Smith is chasing
down balls, Jake Myers is still playing at a Gold

(01:47:09):
Glove finalist level from a fielding standpoint, and unfortunately, I
do still feel like there's a separation between outfield glove
work and outfield arms. Teams haven't been able to dramatically
take advantage of the astros incredibly weak outfield arms other
than Cam Smith, because the pitching's been so good and

(01:47:29):
they haven't had as many plays as you might normally see.
Zach Decenzo's shown the ability to use his arm. These
are maybe things that won't be as big a deal
as they move forward, but well worth it. Two wins
the three games, an opportunity to go up against a
little bit better competition in Kansas City. The Astros for
the weekend as a whole, considering two of the three days,
the other team didn't score any runs. I would say

(01:47:50):
that that is pretty good bad. It's a tough one here.
Which NBA storyline do I want to run out?

Speaker 12 (01:47:59):
There?

Speaker 6 (01:47:59):
Is bad? Oh, so I've seen some bad performances. I'll
give the Nuggets a pass on their extremely bad performance
in the first quarter of yesterday's game with the Oklahoma
City Thunder. They were attempting to take a three games
to one lead, so they went out on their home floor.

(01:48:22):
They know that floor pretty well. They've played a bunch
of games there this year. And if you missed it,
this is the offense they put together to open up
the game. I'll be nice to them. Here's the defense
they put together to open up the game to try
to get to a three games to one lead. The
terrible awful Thunder were six of twenty two from the floor,

(01:48:43):
one of eleven from deep, and turned it over four
times and managed to score only seventeen points against the
incredible defense of the Denver Nuggets. And how did the
Denver Nuggets offense respond. They made two shots shots that
is in the first quarter.

Speaker 5 (01:49:02):
That's not the ugly two for twenty.

Speaker 6 (01:49:04):
It's not even the bad I'm getting the Nuggets a pass.
They went two for twenty two, They missed all fourteen
of their threes. They scored eight points, and naturally they
had the lead late in this game, but they did
not win. The ugly was yesterday. The Cavaliers season ended
yesterday unofficially with the performance they put out there. It

(01:49:26):
was absolutely unattended. You know, we make fun of pro
days for quarterbacks or practice sessions like look at this
throw from Jalen Millrod today at Seattle Seahawks practice. That's
what it was like for the Pacers yesterday. Even though
the Calves were actually on the floor, they actually put
five guys out there. I kept watching it, thinking, this
isn't real. Another basket, another three, a seventeen to oh

(01:49:49):
run after you were already up twenty four points in
the first half. The Calves got out scored eighty to
thirty nine in the first half of a series. In
Game four, they were already down two games to one, and.

Speaker 5 (01:50:00):
Then Theredavin Mitchell got hurt.

Speaker 6 (01:50:02):
Yeah, he had his MRI and he'll be day to
day and it is it is a significant ankle injury.
And that's a shame. But wouldn't the game was already over?
This is that this stage of the playoffs. We do
see blowouts, but I can't remember something quite so often.
I know the Nuggets got blown out in this very series.
Gave up one hundred and forty nine points. This was special, though.

(01:50:25):
Did I leave you enough time for the ugly?

Speaker 2 (01:50:27):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:50:27):
Because it happened really only about three hours ago, so
it's still technically the weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:50:32):
Did you see how it happened? Before you say it,
then it's part of the weekend, right? Did you see
how legendary.

Speaker 4 (01:50:41):
ESPN and really NFL journalist Adam Schefter, let'll just cover it.

Speaker 5 (01:50:47):
Well, he he he made everybody think somebody got dead.

Speaker 6 (01:50:50):
Well he did.

Speaker 8 (01:50:51):
What do you do?

Speaker 2 (01:50:51):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:50:52):
Chris Berman extended his contract Did you know that? I
did not know that through twenty twenty nine, so that
he can sell lebrate his fiftieth anniversary with a network.
Adam Schefter worded the congratulatory tweet as follows. Legendary ESPN
anchor Chris Berman, who joined the network just after its

(01:51:12):
September seventh, nineteen seventy nine launch. Immediately, by the time
people got to that point, they're.

Speaker 6 (01:51:18):
Like, what, he's dead. It's not even the first seventh
I know, Oh, do we have that short of attention span,
I think so, so.

Speaker 4 (01:51:27):
It was the low hanging fruit here would be to
go back to the Lance mccullors junior. But I just
figured another embarrassing tweet from Adam Schefter where he basically
made somebody dead and a lot of people's eyes was
ugly enough.

Speaker 6 (01:51:39):
Chris Berman still alive and works at the ESPN. Thank you,
You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:51:47):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:51:55):
I know we got football at five coming up at
five o'clock, so we'll get into a couple of things
there the NFL schedule, But just kind of thinking out
loud about one of the more recent pieces of information
that was delivered came within the last half hour that
a couple games announced for the holidays. Over on the
Fox Network, they cover NFL games, they bring you the action.

(01:52:16):
They announced a double header for the Saturday prior to
Christmas Day, that's December twentieth this year, the rematch from
the NFC title game. Commanders will host the Eagles and
they will also have the Bears hosting the Packers. If
you recall last season, on December twenty first, a Saturday,

(01:52:37):
the Texans and Chiefs played the Steelers, and Ravens played,
and they all played again on Christmas Day. The only
way to allow for teams to have any kind of
reasonable still short but reasonable rest is the teams that
are playing on Saturday prior to Christmas are the ones

(01:52:58):
playing on Christmas Day, right, Yes, so these four teams
should make up two thirds of our Christmas Day triple
header this year in the some sort of opposite matchups.
Then really tell me anything about the team that plays here,
and I'd be kind of surprised that the Texans were

(01:53:19):
placed back into that very same spot that they were
a year ago. A very heavy AFC slant last year
and now quite obviously a very heavy NFC slant this year.
I think our Christmas Days and our Christmas Game will
be available to us to enjoy. However, we see without
the Texans or a concert being involved.

Speaker 4 (01:53:41):
A concert, yeah, musical act. That was the highlight of
the day for Houston fans. I think that day well
there was.

Speaker 6 (01:53:47):
Partly concert and two points. I'm not sure which one
you preferred more. Yeah, that was that was a They've
got to there's certain teams. It's kind of like the
Rockets with the Warriors. Although again I've gone over how.
I think that's just there's difference. Though the Rockets haven't
been able to beat the Warriors, even though it certainly

(01:54:10):
seems like they're on their level. They came in as
favorites or with a sixty five win team or sixty
seven win team, should have beaten them. They had them
down in the series, didn't beat them. This year is
a totally different dynamic to it. I think the Texans
are in a different spot. The Texans aren't better than
those teams. They're underdogs every time they're on the road
and facing that uphill battle every time, and they don't

(01:54:32):
have it similar to your comparison. They still don't have
the one win. They keep playing these teams, they keep
seeing these teams, and every time it's been there and
they're building, it has come out this way. And I
know the Texans, the players set as much this time around,
we have to do the things necessary so those games
are played in our building. One because of the ridiculous

(01:54:53):
storyline of the officiating in the Kansas City game this year,
leading into it and then back out of it. But
more so that clearly there's I think it's always true
there's a home field advantage there is an advantage to
playing at home, and you need to make it your
advantage and make it your goal to have it be
there for you. You know, the schedule will come out
and its entirety on Wednesday. We found out pretty early

(01:55:14):
last year, early in the calendar the Texans were going
to be a big deal. The second weekend of the season.
They drew the home Sunday night game. It was their
home opener, and you had Caleb Williams on the other side.
I think we're going to see minimum of three to
four games like that this year, also several standalone games.
They'll be on Monday night, they'll be on Sunday night, obviously,

(01:55:34):
they'll be on Thursday night, and they'll get an additional
Sunday or Monday night game pre flex.

Speaker 5 (01:55:40):
I don't know that.

Speaker 4 (01:55:41):
I don't think they're going to be like down to
like three games this year nationally because I and again
I could be completely wrong on this. Ultimately, the driving
determinating determining factor is the ratings.

Speaker 6 (01:55:56):
Well, think about the pointed out the opener for a reason.
Their home opener was against Caleb Williams, who brings with
him something no quarterback in this year Straft brings cam
Ward did go number one, but they're not angry eager
to get the Tennessee Titans against a division team or
any team in primetime football like they were with Caleb Williams.

(01:56:18):
So those games aren't as those games are kind of
pushed aside. Who are these other teams that are surpassing
the Texans from we want to see them more? Because
it's no, it's not a team like the Bears from
last year. There just really isn't any. Are there teams
you have in mind? Like, are there teams that are
more interesting to the national viewers from a television viewing
audience than where the Texans were at this time a

(01:56:39):
year ago? I can believe they fell a little. Well
that's what someone's got to take over. Go ahead, what
if every Chargers?

Speaker 3 (01:56:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:56:45):
But what if every time you're on By the way,
I saw a graphic where since twenty twenty there's all
the and the Chargers had like twenty two appearances.

Speaker 5 (01:56:52):
Why because they have played some of that time in LA.
That's about it.

Speaker 4 (01:56:58):
Probably the good that's made a marquee Charger players that
we've all wanted to see on quarterback.

Speaker 6 (01:57:03):
Has nice hair, great we didn't even talk about the
other quarterback news from the weekend. We're saving it for
football at five, Yes, as an all five fingers waiting goodbye.

Speaker 5 (01:57:12):
Yep, okay, we'll do that. Then I thought about that
being the ugly too.

Speaker 6 (01:57:15):
So the same teams that have been ahead of the
Texans in terms of notoriety, well they'll be the same
Josh Allen's, Bill's Lamar Jackson's Ravens, Pat mahomes cheek.

Speaker 4 (01:57:23):
How much does when you're on in these spots you
completely bleep the bed factor into it?

Speaker 5 (01:57:31):
And I'm not saying they did they beat the Bears last.

Speaker 6 (01:57:33):
Year, or how do you view the game against Detroit?
See that was good television if you were a Detroit
fan period football, right, it was unorthodox. It was unwelcome
to Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:57:46):
If your Netflix and you put that game on on
Christmas Day this last year, you're like, thanks for nothing,
Houston except for Beyonce.

Speaker 6 (01:57:56):
Right, But the Lions Texans game, that's Sunday night football.
This is what we want to see. Texas dominated the
first half, Lions dominated the second half. It was compelling,
keep you interested football the whole night. Both teams made
a lot of great plays that's what you all. CJ
gets back to his rookie year of highlight reel type stuff.

(01:58:16):
Though you're not putting the Texans on just because it's CJ. Stroud, Unfortunately,
you should be because I think he's still in there.
I didn't even think he went that far away from
it this last year. He just they just didn't win
these games because he couldn't. He was running for his
life too much.

Speaker 7 (01:58:31):
So I think you guys have missed one team specifically
in the AFC.

Speaker 6 (01:58:36):
Well, he hasn't signed with him yet, so I don't
know which team Aaron Rodgers is playing for them, So
I didn't want to name them.

Speaker 7 (01:58:40):
Ah, the Bengals because they still have Joe Burrow and
they have two wide receivers that have just been paid up.
I think that there's still going to be a threat
because of who their quarterback is.

Speaker 5 (01:58:48):
I can't wait until they don't make the playoffs again.

Speaker 6 (01:58:50):
With him, they'll make it. Remember, the Steelers are out
this year, so they're in, so some other AFC team
will be in. Yeah, Cincinnati in very simple.

Speaker 4 (01:59:01):
Now I'm saying something. I mean like, uh, Denver made
it last year?

Speaker 5 (01:59:07):
Did they not?

Speaker 6 (01:59:08):
Was the ten and seventeen that came out of nowhere.
Great defense, strong play from their rookie quarterback, should be
able to replicate that.

Speaker 4 (01:59:16):
I think there will be some team that makes it,
that keeps Cincinnati on the outside looking in.

Speaker 5 (01:59:22):
M They think they with their wide.

Speaker 6 (01:59:26):
Receivers, they're having a great time with Trey Hendrickson right now.
It's going super swimmingly. Their defense got markedly worse. Uh,
it'd gotten any worse than what it was like, it
was bad enough. And if Hendrickson in fact is not
on their team, that would be really bad, which there's
a better than average chance that happens. Like anytime we
bring up Daniel Hunter or Will Anderson or t J.

(01:59:47):
Watt or Miles Garrett. Hendrickson is that good of a player.
He belongs to that same group. I don't think anybody
really realizes how disruptive a force he's been, at least
of all the Bengals. Apparently, so their defense was a
massive hit. They'll say, hey, Joe Man, we're gonna need
to score a lot of points this year, and he'll say,
you mean like last year? Yep, good luck. They won

(02:00:08):
more than they lost last year. They won nine times
by closing the season on a five game winning streak
to miss the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (02:00:14):
Still O'Brien coaching them.

Speaker 6 (02:00:16):
Yeah, no more of that eight and eighth nonsense, only
because they changed the schedule. The major quarterback news from
the weekend that's coming in Football at.

Speaker 2 (02:00:24):
Five the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:00:31):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (02:00:36):
All right, the Football at five music is underway, so
I can finally do this with authority. I can steal
a bit from the Matt Thomas Show and ask my
co host, what was your favorite Derek Carr as an

(02:00:57):
NFL quarterback moment?

Speaker 6 (02:00:58):
Probably being una available for Texans Raiders playoffs so Connor
Cook had to play.

Speaker 5 (02:01:04):
That's definitely Bill O'Brien's favorite moment from his career.

Speaker 6 (02:01:06):
That's a Texans postseason dub. David Clowney and company took
care of Connor Cook, brock O landed in the w
column as a playoff quarterback starter, unbelievable, and the rest
is history. Derek Carr's career has some pretty impressive individual
statistics that go along with it. You know some years

(02:01:27):
where you looked at those and if you knew nothing
else about his team, his record, anything what happened in
any of those individual games. You could look at those
individual numbers and say, man, this quarterback's probably pretty good,
almost good enough that I wouldn't laugh my backside off
when I don't know who, not a real media person,

(02:01:47):
but somebody on our favorite social media platform took a
post about Derek Carr and said, is Derek Carr Hall
of Famer? But I did laugh my backside off because
obviously that does not require our discussion. He is a
corequarterback who posted a lot of numbers that look really
good without helping his team finish wins off. If he
played really well in the first half twenty one to

(02:02:09):
twenty five, two hundred and seventy five yards, three touchdowns,
no picks, his team's leading twenty one three, the final
score would be twenty seven to twenty four. Other team.
It happened all the time, first half to second half.
Very Kirk Cousins, like, you know, I'm doing everything right.
Impressive completion percentage guy spent most of his career in
the sixty eight, sixty seven, sixty nine percent completion percentage range,

(02:02:32):
and even in this day and age in the NFL,
that's outstanding. He's got one of the best interception rates
of players of this generation. They just don't win football
games when he's at the controls. I mean, at some
point during his ten years nine years as the starter
with the Raiders organization, we know they had good teams
around him. Clearly, the one year they played the text

(02:02:53):
in the postseason, which not coincidentally was his best year,
he just got hurt at the end of the year
and was unavailable, but they went twelve to three with
him starting those fifteen games, and he still finished fifteen
games under five hundred in the games that he started
with a season where he was nine games over. Because
all of his other seasons are get this guy off

(02:03:16):
my team caliber seasons. You cannot win. You won't lose
enough to make your franchise better. And I'm not trying
to tell you he's awful, but he's Andy Dalton, He's
Kirk Cousins. He's is the worst place to be as
an NFL team. He's too good to sit and you're
not guaranteed to find somebody better. But you can't win

(02:03:40):
big with them. You just didn't even really win period
with them. Really great person, obviously, great little family, he
has there personally, and the car family has spent a
lot of the last twenty three years in the NFL,
and it's stealing money. His story is pretty cool and
where he was in his life, his age, when David
Carr was the number one pick.

Speaker 4 (02:03:59):
I still remember him running around. I mean, it was
this little lunatic kid just flinging the football and I
just I still that's who I see you when I
see him at press conferences. Was hilarious.

Speaker 6 (02:04:10):
Eleven years where he was essentially the unquestioned starter. His
team didn't win any playoff games in any of those years, well,
not even one. That's why when you kill Kirk played
in one. Yeah, he did find a way to not
be in there for a lot of those games.

Speaker 5 (02:04:34):
Reasons. Yeah, just or whatever.

Speaker 6 (02:04:36):
Passer rating numbers look good, Like I said, all those
numbers that make you believe this, this can't be that
bad and this could be better. And he's also retiring
because of I'm I feel confident saying this was injury related.
They had to work out some financial details. There's even
someone suggesting, well that he did actually leave a lot
of money on the table by going the retirement route.

(02:04:56):
Is it possible that this was just an exit strategy
from the Saints, and I'll take the necessary it was
real retirement time off. But it's sometime in the future,
when my shoulder feels better, when I've gone through this,
or I'm not completely closing the door, we shall see.
I personally do not expect to see it. I think
it can be, you know, as much as I just

(02:05:17):
was mean about it, I think he can be happy
about what he, you know, accomplished in the NFL, all
things considered, and that's that. Speaking of people who were
happy about this, the Saints, well, the Saints probably had
some information on this as they went about their offseason.
They have a I mean, I happened to see the
awesome picture from Jets or excuse me, Giants camp where

(02:05:39):
all four quarterbacks are lined up getting ready to throw,
and I'm just like, oh my god, this is awful.
From left to right, it's Jackson Dart and Tommy Cutlet's
and Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson. And if you look
at what the Saints set to go into all of
their off season work with the group that they have,

(02:06:03):
which is significantly worse, which as I read it off,
I'm sure, that sounds hard to believe a little bit
of playing time for the two guys obviously that were there.
Last year, they drafted the dog Murphy's dad in the draft,
Tyler Schuff. He was the most famous person in that shot.
But him, Rattler and Hayin none of them highly touted prospects,

(02:06:24):
none of them surefire NFL starters. This is probably I mean,
I guess the Steelers could give him a run for
their money, but at least Rudolph's had got playing time.
This quarterback room is beyond awful and they should absolutely.
I don't want to give a guy a job, but
if Scheff can't win the job over Jake Hayn and

(02:06:45):
Spencer Rattler that he was only a second round pick,
but still, this is a team that is lined up
to lose a lot of football games this year. They
had this knowledge going into the draft. I believe they did. Yes,
I mean, they knew it was a kind of degenerative condition.
And even if he at some point got healthy, it's
how healthy going and you're already losing with him anyway.

(02:07:07):
We haven't checked in with Chris Gordy for his thoughts
on this. He's he's looking at the not including Arch
manning twenty twenty six draft, I'm sure already there will be.
I'd probably set the over under right now four and
a half quarterbacks drafted in the first round of twenty
twenty six, knowing that Arch will not be one of them,
and I think after cam Ward. Cam Ward would fit

(02:07:30):
in with this group somewhere after maybe one, two or
three of the five that get drafted. There's gonna be
much more excitement about next year's quarterback class than there
was this year around the NFL, with fans everybody, and
I think we'll see that in how some teams play
their last five six games of the year trying to
get to those draft positions just because you.

Speaker 5 (02:07:50):
Brought them up. I do wonder how Arch is gonna
do this year.

Speaker 6 (02:07:53):
It's gonna be great, swimmingly, splendidly. I just got word
from Fox, thankfully, that the Ohio State Longhorn game will
in fact be Week one this year on their network. Like,
did they think they were getting usurped by the NFL
schedule releases today? Didn't we already know all that stuff?
There was no game time associated with it. They sent
an email, it's just a post on their old social

(02:08:14):
just everything. I guess now he's he will have to
and they offensively sark. They've got to figure out exactly
what they have up front with their roughly brand new
offensive line.

Speaker 5 (02:08:27):
That's a big deal.

Speaker 6 (02:08:28):
It's a huge deal, except everywhere else is. Even with
all of their losses overwhelmingly loaded, Losing Jaden Blue, for
the caliber player he was, should be hard to overcome,
and it's it has nothing to do with him. They're
bringing back players that they couldn't even play last year,
and the player that eventually played a ton Wizteners unbelievable.

(02:08:49):
Their wide receivers are going to be fine. They will
have replacements for Gunner Helm and the others at tight end,
and there's nothing wrong with their line except the obvious.
They just haven't been on the field very much. Let
me explain this way.

Speaker 7 (02:09:00):
They've lost a ton defensively, and yet most people still
believe they are a top five defense college.

Speaker 6 (02:09:06):
Best player on their defense last year is returning true
or false. I'll go false because I thought jo Day
Baron was the best player. Now the women's running a
close second. Now that's the thing. The most influential player
I think was Colin Simmons, so key is returned. He's
one of the best five defensive players in college football
this coming year. Oh true, and his teammate is right
behind a man him influential.

Speaker 5 (02:09:27):
That's what I want to I want to know.

Speaker 7 (02:09:29):
When you have a guy that can go ahead and
create separation at the line of scrimmage, that is what
is influential. I mean that's talking about just say, straight
up baller. That is Joday Baron.

Speaker 4 (02:09:39):
When we talked about the Longhorns all last year, that's
what we would always go back Wat's what I would
always go back to.

Speaker 5 (02:09:44):
And I think WEX would agree with this.

Speaker 4 (02:09:46):
Their defense would give them a chance, regardless of how
quinn Ewers was doing on any given week, which changed
from week to week, a.

Speaker 6 (02:09:54):
Chance to get it figured out whatever they were. If
they didn't get off to a good offensive start, they
had more than enough time, possessions, great field position to
get it worked out. And their season schedule also even
with Ohio State out of the gate, then what then
you play at home and at home at home against
San Jose State UTEP in Sam Houston. You'll be fine
by the time you get today. Graham Mertz's Gators.

Speaker 7 (02:10:14):
I'd say the toughest game that you have probably outside
of maybe Texas, A and M is on the road
in the swamping.

Speaker 6 (02:10:20):
You don't know what DJ Lagway is going to be
at that point. I mean, I'm anticipating very good things.
Nice to see him. I don't know if this was
super recent, but caught a little snippet of his interview
when he was with the Griffins on Roberts podcast. Yeah,
last week. He was super, super complimentary to how influential
Graham Mertz was for him as a freshman this past year,

(02:10:41):
both when he was when Graham was starting and then
when Lagway was starting and when Mertz was hurt and
still and I think you could see a relationship developing
between the Lagways, the family and Mertz, and they were
nothing but overwhelmingly appreciative of the time this much older
experienced player was there with Lagway in school. And I

(02:11:02):
mean a lot rides on it for Florida. They have
a they have an opportunity. I guess you could say
with how things finished last year and with coming back
with Lagway this year.

Speaker 7 (02:11:10):
Billy Napier was one hundred percent right saying the best
thing that's ever gonna happen to DJ Lagway sitting behind
a guy in Graham Mertz. That's the perfect game manager
to help you build a rapport and gain confidence into
your system.

Speaker 6 (02:11:21):
And that's why I think they're gonna be a good
team this year. How helpful do you think it will
be for CJ. Stroud to sit in front of him?

Speaker 7 (02:11:26):
I think it'll be wonderful, probably beyond helpful in front
of him.

Speaker 6 (02:11:31):
Hey, sit in the back there, Mertz, go drive your
Mercedes to be fair. He can sit right now. Yes,
he was out there on the field if you missed that.
This last week a mini camp. Mertz was with his
repaired ACL in a brace, but was out on the
field doing their limited activities. Teams getting together this week.
They'll be back on the field shortly and we'll be

(02:11:51):
over there for it. But your question asked and answered,
I believe is a resounding arch is gonna be great
this year. Everything's fine on the forty acres undoubtedly with
a manning in control.

Speaker 2 (02:12:03):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:12:11):
Just to carry over a little bit the Football at
five conversation, where this has really nothing to do with
football other than it involves a guy who rooted.

Speaker 5 (02:12:20):
For the Chiefs.

Speaker 4 (02:12:21):
Have you seen this story about the Chiefs super fan
getting convicted to thirty two years in prison the Wolfman. Yeah,
Chief's a Hollock.

Speaker 6 (02:12:31):
That's who he is. Yeah, there's something new. I remember
when we went over this, he.

Speaker 4 (02:12:36):
Was already serving as seventeen and a half year federal sentence,
and now he just got sentenced to thirty two more
years today, two and a half years after authorities caught
him in the state as he fled from a local
bank robbery. One of these robberies he did was on
his way to a Texans game here in town. Back
in twenty twenty two, he was stopped in noted booming

(02:12:57):
metropolis of Bixby, Oklahoma.

Speaker 5 (02:12:59):
You ever been through there?

Speaker 4 (02:13:01):
I if I have, I can't recall. It's outside of Tulsa.
He was stopped in Bixby and pointed a gun at
a bank teller at the Credit Union before fleeing with
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He was caught shortly afterward,
and in February twenty twenty three was released on bond,

(02:13:22):
and then a month later, after receiving one hundred thousand dollars,
in winnings from two bets on the chiefs. He removed
his GPS device and went on the run. He was
on the lamb Wex.

Speaker 8 (02:13:34):
I just.

Speaker 4 (02:13:36):
I just too much time on people's hands. I'm reading
through all of this stuff that he was involved in.

Speaker 6 (02:13:45):
And so he's down for serving seventeen and a half
years in federal Prinson. Then he's going to Oklahoma to
serve fourteen and a half years to finish things off.
I guess which the DA said. I think he caught
a break.

Speaker 4 (02:13:59):
It offensive to me that a serial robber could victimize
as many hard working Americans as this guy did all
across the country and only receive seventeen and a half
years from the federal government. My preference was for him
to serve the rest of his life in prison. He
caught another break today, but at least he's going to
be serving some additional time, and my thoughts are with

(02:14:21):
the victims who continue to be tormented by his violence.

Speaker 6 (02:14:24):
And in addition to the court finds, the judge ordered
to pay two thousand and ninety nine dollars in restitution
to replace that ankle monitor. Really, he's got to pay
for the ankle gone bad for him, I guess so,
I don't even want to joke about it. This is
just bad, dude.

Speaker 5 (02:14:38):
He's not going to see a lot of Chief games.

Speaker 6 (02:14:41):
They have television. They shouldn't they do, mean, it shouldn't
be like a hotel. I don't believe it's viewing some
of the Michael Hotel.

Speaker 5 (02:14:51):
Some of them are. They're posh uh not.

Speaker 6 (02:14:54):
Probably the one where a spend his time. You ever
driven by the State Penitentiary Oakla. No, just the one
in Huntsville.

Speaker 5 (02:15:02):
Well, they have lots of those.

Speaker 6 (02:15:04):
Well, the one that's the big one literally right, Hey,
look there's the what's going on there?

Speaker 4 (02:15:09):
People used to ask me, because you know, the death
row in Huntsville is right by the university. So when
I was at sam Houston, people would be like, aren't
you kind of nervous? I'd said, hell no, if people
somehow get themselves out of the walls unit where death
row is, literally it was probably like two or three
blocks north of where I would sleep every night when

(02:15:29):
I was living on campus, I said, if somehow somebody
gets out of there, they're going to be making a
bee line out of town so fast they're not gonna
come anywhere near.

Speaker 6 (02:15:38):
Where I'm at so I never worried about it. So
you're cool, Well, obviously I made it out. Do you
anticipate hearing this tonight?

Speaker 2 (02:15:47):
And that means that the number one pick belongs to
the Houston Rockets? Wow, an absolute stunner.

Speaker 5 (02:16:00):
Who's saying an absolute stunner After it happens.

Speaker 6 (02:16:03):
Well, they were ninth in the well once they get
it back, I mean, they're not saying I can't believe
what the Deputy commissioner just said. I'm shocked. You know,
everybody knows at that point. But the big story is
that is an absolute stunner that the team that had
only the ninth spot a three point eight percent chance
to land the number one pick have done it.

Speaker 4 (02:16:25):
If that happens, you know what you will be able
to hear right here in town, all the way from Phoenix, Arizona,
the sound of Matt Ishbia hitting the floor as he
passes out, and then he's gonna start offering the farm
to get that pick back. Here, have KD and Devin
Booker just give us Cooper flag. Starting over with Cooper flag.

(02:16:49):
Sounds pretty intriguing, doesn't it. That's what they would be
doing if you're them. Yeah, Yeah, for them. That's exactly
what I mean. I keep asking you, if the Rockets
get the number one pick, are they just gonna keep
Cooper Flag?

Speaker 6 (02:16:59):
I do, I think he said, I am a believer
in him being able to elevate his game to a
pretty high level. I'm not sold on you have to
keep him because I do think he presents that to
so many other teams. You're maybe then capable of putting
a trade together that gets like Cooper Flag probably makes
this current Rockets team better than they currently are, But

(02:17:22):
trading Cooper Flag could make this current Rockets team significantly.

Speaker 4 (02:17:26):
One that plays his position in a package to improve
another part of your team that's weaker.

Speaker 6 (02:17:31):
Well, yeah, keeping Cooper Flag doesn't is very unlikely to
mean that's the Rockets offseason move adding Cooper Flag. If
they add Cooper Flag that offseason, that'd be a fantastic
But you're you're doing it at the expense of Like
Cooper Flag comes into this situation, then it's either Cooper
or the player he's replacing that's now no longer in
a good situation. We talked about it with Reed Sheppard.

(02:17:52):
We certainly should be talking about it regarding Cam Whitmore.
I mean, if those two guys got drafted by pretty
much anybody else, I mean literally almost any of the
other twenty nine teams their first read or first two seasons,
Cam would be totally different in terms of how the
rest of the league has seen them play and might
even view their futures.

Speaker 4 (02:18:12):
I know that Cam Whitmore can't crack the rotation essentially
when he's out there on the floor. Are you ever
as shocked as I am at how little minutes it
takes for him to fill up the stat sheet? Oh,
he was out there for seven minutes tonight and he
had forty points. I mean, basically, that's what I've never shocked.
It's just insane.

Speaker 6 (02:18:30):
I said it before and it met with some backlash.
Just purely offensive skills. You know, just put the ball
in the basket. I don't care how you played basketball.
I'm not really concerned about your defense, your attitude, you're
helping the team win, none of those things. Just put
the ball in the basket, b mellow. I think Cam
Whitmore rates very, very high on the roster he's currently on,

(02:18:51):
like at least top three. I said the other you know,
or during the season, just pure ability to score his
I'm sure it doesn't show because most of his minutes
were in garbage shim or most of his minutes are
on nights where everybody sat out when he was actually
playing against frontline, other caliber teams. But you can't accidentally
shoot the ball as well as he does. You can't
accidentally finish at the rim the way he does. Your

(02:19:13):
athleticism is clearly off the charts. You can flush it
on anybody at any time. And he's got the array
of moves necessary. And this is all still for him
in its infancy stages. From a development standpoint. He will
turn twenty one, but he hasn't yet. He won't do
that until July of this year. Yeah, he's twenty years

(02:19:34):
and three hundred and eight days old. He's with no
consistent playing time for two years. He's a thirty six
percent three point shooter. And we know from doing the
games the way we do, which just feels obvious. If
this was a twenty five minute a night player for whomever,
even teams that could focus on him because the rest

(02:19:55):
of his teammates are awful, he'd be a thirty seven
or thirty eight or thirty nine percent three point shooter
as a young player, that's hard to come by. I'm
projecting something that's purely hypothetical, But I there have to
be ten gms out there that were equally as shocked
as Houston on Draft night. How come nobody's said at

(02:20:17):
this point in the draft it's worth a chance. There's
we know why he might be there. But we're at twelve,
we're at fifteen, we're at eighteen. He's still there. He's
such a talent.

Speaker 4 (02:20:25):
Like think about the Lakers passed on him, the Warriors
passed on him.

Speaker 8 (02:20:29):
Now.

Speaker 6 (02:20:29):
I didn't bring it up during the series because it
would have been awful to talk about Brandon Pajemski being
drafted ahead of Cam by the Warriors for their team
with Steph Curry, with Draymon, et cetera. He's that was
a really good pick for them. I don't know that
they'd be better with Cam what he does for them,
the way he plays, the way he moves without the ball.

(02:20:49):
He sadly is a reasonable defender because he will fall
down and they'll get files called his way.

Speaker 5 (02:20:56):
What did he shoot?

Speaker 6 (02:20:57):
He got?

Speaker 13 (02:20:58):
Boy?

Speaker 6 (02:20:58):
Did he fall off? He was fine until it mattered most.
Why do I feel like Cam would be better if
he got his minutes. I think offensively you could. He's
there's no questions, a better offense that is such a
fit for.

Speaker 5 (02:21:11):
What they get it need.

Speaker 6 (02:21:12):
Yeah, he has a punchable face and he hits three.
I mean his season numbers, like I said, they were
really good. He shot thirty eight and a half percent
as a rookie. He shot thirty seven percent this year,
and then he shot thirty two percent against the Rockets
and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Speaker 4 (02:21:24):
Thus far in the playoffs, he's been awful shooting in
the play It's gonna be awesome when he goes home.
Do you see do you envision morwins? Yeah, exactly. I'm
rooting hard for the Timberwolves, never have rooted harder for them.
Do you envision a scenario where Jalen Green goes out
in some sort of deal. Forget what's been said this weekend,
he goes out in a deal and instead of bringing

(02:21:46):
back somebody who would play that position, Cam somehow stayed
and he's your starting too.

Speaker 5 (02:21:51):
I know he's a small forward and all that kind
of stuff.

Speaker 6 (02:21:53):
I think it's tough because if let's say Cam went
somewhere else, I think he'd look back on his time
here and recognize the value and how he was coached,
how he dealt with how he may work with him
out the staff worked with him. I think it's going
to pay off somewhere. I'm not sure what it's going
to take for him. Is it just the guys in
front of him not being here and he has to
take on those minutes and they allow for him to
take on those minutes. I'm sure he would play well,

(02:22:15):
but will he help this team in the ways that
the guy who's in front of him have helped this team?
Because it's about winning.

Speaker 4 (02:22:21):
Yeah, I don't say this because I know anything, or
it's just totally a theory. I think part of his
sulking body language is that he sees Jalen Green getting
every benefit of the doubt in front of him that
he can't get at the same position.

Speaker 6 (02:22:35):
We definitely will have to carry that over either into
in case you missed it, or beyond, because that's an
interesting point to make about your Houston Rockets. Half an
hour out from tonight's lottery.

Speaker 2 (02:22:47):
The aed on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 6 (02:22:50):
Ninety we have done a reasonably good job today. All
though Cole told this otherwise earlier. Let's see what he
has to say now in case you missed it. So,
I'm sure there's something that was very important that took
place since we last spoke. What is it? What have
we missed? Yeah, you guys are terrible today, in my opinion,
just the absolute worst way to have him greatest every day.

(02:23:12):
It's gonna be C minus today.

Speaker 7 (02:23:14):
I'm gonna give a seed just because he made me
chuck of a few more times a C plus.

Speaker 6 (02:23:18):
So good job. Based. Oh, okay, you know how the
NFL hates college football? Because it does hate college football?

Speaker 7 (02:23:24):
You want to high know that because of that double
header that you talked about earlier between the Chicago Bears
and the Green Bay Packers and then the Philadelphi Eagles
and the Washington.

Speaker 6 (02:23:34):
Commanders is the exact same day.

Speaker 7 (02:23:37):
As the start of the college football Playoff in twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 6 (02:23:41):
Now, do both of you remember last year who played.

Speaker 7 (02:23:44):
On the start of the college football Playoff in twenty
twenty four? Tell us that'd be the Houston Texans and
the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the
Paul Ravens. Those two alone brought an over thirty point
five million viewers, while the college football player off four
games over two days brought in a grand total of
thirty one point two million viewers, including fourteen point two

(02:24:07):
million of which watched one game Tennessee versus Ohio State,
where the lowest scoring game was SMU versus Penn State,
which only drew in an average viewer attendance of six
point four million.

Speaker 6 (02:24:18):
So nfls released those dates. It's a doubleheader on Saturday,
December twentieth. The college football postseason opening weekend is that weekend,
one game that preceding Friday Night the nineteenth, and three
games that same Saturday, December twentieth.

Speaker 7 (02:24:35):
Yeah, so that's what we're gonna get where the NFL
is going to once again try to destroy college football.
But college football is doing a pretty good job of
itself with nil no regulations on how much a player
can profit off of the transfer portal being open and
players being able.

Speaker 6 (02:24:48):
To just move and say I went to X school,
X school, X school, and X school whenever I saw
a fit.

Speaker 7 (02:24:54):
So they're already destroying itself internally, but you know what,
it's just nice that the NFL is helping get to
that level too.

Speaker 6 (02:25:00):
It's nothing out of the ordinary these late week This
is week sixteen in the NFL, Week seventeen. Obviously Week eighteen,
the final week of the season. The NFL expands beyond
their usual Sunday slate. This is typical operating procedure for
them late in the season.

Speaker 7 (02:25:15):
Sure, it's typical. Hey, you know what else typical? Hey,
what do you call the second runner up?

Speaker 5 (02:25:22):
Ac?

Speaker 6 (02:25:22):
What do you call second runner up?

Speaker 5 (02:25:24):
The number one loser?

Speaker 7 (02:25:25):
Yeah? No, I call it third place because that was
what Jordan Hudson placed this past weekend at the Universe
at the Miss main pageant.

Speaker 6 (02:25:33):
So she's not going to be Miss America.

Speaker 7 (02:25:35):
But Bill is still dealing with the fallout of everything
that has gone on with her not being allowed inside
of the building and will should be allowed back inside
the building? Hey, Bill, blink twice if he wants to
save you, Pablo Tori, though he's not stopping with his reporting.
According to him, there is still a significant shot that
Bill Belichick never sees the field at Chapel Hill come

(02:25:56):
week one June. First man, look at that contract.

Speaker 11 (02:25:58):
Right before all of this, the buyout from the Belichick
side of things dropped from ten million dollars to ten
times less to one million dollars. And then the question becomes,
this Bill want to remain there if his bosses are
actually saying, look, man, you can't embarrass our school this way,
in which case he may not feel like he's in
charge anymore, In which case is it really worth it?

Speaker 6 (02:26:19):
This is the story about power and who gets it
and everybody around.

Speaker 11 (02:26:22):
Belichick got walked over by a very ambitious young prodigy
named Jordan Hudson, who is driving that program into the ground.

Speaker 6 (02:26:30):
All right now, I'm gonna I'm gonna stop us all here, okay,
because I think we're way, way out a lot. First
of all, I've got a dare for you, since you
told us a joke, or try to sure, I dare
you to tell me who is Miss Maine who won?
I don't care, Nobody cares. It's miss Okay Well Shelby Hall, congratulations,
see you great. She was the winner. She placed two

(02:26:52):
spots higher than Jordan HUDs Jordan.

Speaker 7 (02:26:54):
Jordan, and she was the third most important person there
behind Jordaan and of course Belichick.

Speaker 6 (02:27:00):
Second of all, the media I think is pushing a
story that even the North Carolina president, like the university
side and the athletic department side. I don't believe is
going to fall for Is he embarrassing the university? Is
this really embarrassing? Is as bad as we're talking about

(02:27:20):
it all the time on our sports talk shows all
across the country. They've obviously had a scene on CBS.
He's gonna get interviewed by Strahan this week. Like, I
don't feel like it's an embarrassment at all. I feel
like there's one hundred percent chance he's getting to the
field because all anybody cares about in these situations are
did you help our football team win games and bring

(02:27:40):
money in? It's that's it.

Speaker 5 (02:27:42):
Well, he's definitely going to bring money in.

Speaker 6 (02:27:44):
Well are they gonna win if they don't win and
they do bring money, I don't think they can go
hand in it.

Speaker 7 (02:27:49):
I mean, their schedule outside of two games TCU Week
one and Clemson in the middle of the season is
an absolute joke. They landed a really good quarterback in
go Lopez from the portal. It's like they are patent
made to go on an SMU type run this year
and make it to the college football.

Speaker 6 (02:28:05):
Player consider the alternative. The alternative despite the financials that
Pablo laid out, you're going with who who's your coach
at this point, Who's going to lead you into the well.
This is why we got rid of Mac Brown so
we could do what I think it's I don't know
if it's fabricated or blown out of proportion, or a
mountain out of a mole hill. This is not as

(02:28:28):
big a deal. It's fun to talk about because it's
a comedy show. I don't think that the university is
being embarrassed.

Speaker 9 (02:28:34):
Now.

Speaker 6 (02:28:34):
If the boosters feel otherwise, if those that are contributing
to the collective feel otherwise, that's clearly a different story.
But I doubt they do. They want to win, and
Bill Belichick's their head coach. That sounds like an okay thing.
I think those throwing.

Speaker 7 (02:28:47):
Money into Bill Belichick's contract into being a part of
this organization that is turning the corner and losing millions
of dollars and dealing with the headache of Jordan Hudson
to say, Jordan, come on, stop being seriously.

Speaker 6 (02:28:59):
Seriously stop that.

Speaker 7 (02:29:01):
I think I think they're the ones that are more
embarrassed because if it's millions of dollars that could have
gone to a coach that probably believes here long term,
and speaking of millions of dollars, Texans don't play Cincinnati
this year, which may be a good thing for the
pass rush because well.

Speaker 6 (02:29:16):
Trey Hendrickson's on that team, or is he?

Speaker 7 (02:29:18):
Because according to reports from ESPN, no communication has taken
place between my camp and the organization post draft. The
offers prior to the draft do not reflect the vision
we shared when we promised last last offseason.

Speaker 6 (02:29:30):
If I continue to play at a high level.

Speaker 7 (02:29:32):
Now wex You said something very prominent when we compare
Trey Hendrickson to some other players, we need to put
him in that same category as to Neil Hunter, because
if he has been the definition of consistency since his
final year in New Orleans and worked his way up
to Cincinnati and got a massipating so.

Speaker 6 (02:29:50):
Our favorite Houston Texans defensive lineman that once wre ninety nine.
He posted something after Trey Hendrickson's quote was posted by
Adam Schefter, and he said, I assume it wants something
like this last offseason. We can't don't want to do
a deal now, but will make you right next offseason
and get it done early. Then player has great season.

(02:30:12):
So this offseason low ball offer and or crickets pay
a fair price early or pay top dollar later. Teams
want to treat it like a business, but don't like
it when the players do the same. This has happened
with many other players and many other situations on many
other teams, and JJ's one right on it. If you
really wanted to have him long term on your terms,

(02:30:34):
then when it presents itself to sign him last off season,
that's your best bet. They knew what other players would
be up, They knew what other players they would have
to consider also reupping with which they have on all
three fronts, Higgins, Chase, and Burrow. Well, now he's odd
man out on a defense that's really really going to

(02:30:55):
struggle if he is disrupting other teams offenses while I'm
not wearing Bengals color.

Speaker 4 (02:31:00):
If he's not on that defense again, you think they're
definitely making the postseason.

Speaker 6 (02:31:03):
Yeah, I'll still stick with that. Sure, all offense. I
love it. Outscore teams put up forty. It's on you, Joe,
Joe cool if you will. This generation's version.

Speaker 2 (02:31:16):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:31:24):
Final segment of the A Team It's Sports Talks seven
ninety Space City Home Network, we will step aside shortly
for Astros on Deck, the one and only Matt Thomas
finally working a full day as he hosted all four
hours of his show, and we'll host the Astros on
Deck Show and a little bit of slight breaking news

(02:31:45):
if you want to call it that for the Astros
via our good buddy Chandler Rome with the athletic your
Don Alvarez, who is eligible to come off the injured
list tomorrow, hit in the cages today before the game.

Speaker 5 (02:31:58):
According to manager Jo, I.

Speaker 6 (02:32:02):
Don't expect him in the lineup against the Royals at
the very least tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (02:32:08):
You mean or the next day. Oh so they're going
to slow roll this thing.

Speaker 6 (02:32:12):
I just don't think it makes any sense to have
him back out there that quickly when this is what
his issue was. He just picked up a bat to
swing in the cage today. You want him back on
the field.

Speaker 2 (02:32:22):
Is that quickly?

Speaker 5 (02:32:24):
Can I see how he performs?

Speaker 6 (02:32:26):
I just feel like that's you're slow playing hitting bombs, man.
I just I don't anticipate that happening. Just a non
doctor response from me, And I don't think it's anything's
bad about it. I don't think there's any real issue here.
But another couple of days before they hit the road
and then he'll be back out there at some point
during the road trip would be my best. Guess.

Speaker 4 (02:32:48):
Yeah, I'm fine with that. I'd rather have him for
the long haul than a quick offense.

Speaker 6 (02:32:53):
Wasn't the problem over the weekend. That's true, and really, honestly,
this month, they have taken some clear signs mentioned kind
of running through some of the numbers before they just need.
It's still the issue with the biggest hit, the final hit,
the hit that turns a one run inning into a
four run inning, and the hit that means, well, what
are these guys doing on base? They got to get home.

(02:33:13):
They've drawn a lot more walks, They've been patient throughout
most of the year. They're clearly hitting the ball better,
but they just need that other hit or really to
slug at some point, four or five home runs, as
your team leaders, not really enough. Lagging at the bottom
of the majors in terms of home runs hit isn't
quite enough, but they clearly are much much just night

(02:33:35):
and day, even from just a month ago, what this
team is doing offensively. The numbers are all there except
for basically the last one. The one area that matters
the most is run scored. You can talk advanced numbers
all you want, batting average and ops and slug all
you want, but unless the runs are actually being scored,
that's the only thing that truly differentiates from when we

(02:33:56):
weren't going well, let's say as an offense, and when
we are going well, they're ops this month, not quite
halfway through fifth in baseball. They're batting average this month
first in baseball. They're not first or fifth in runs
scored this month. You better watch out Seattle, because once
they get it together, they're fourteenth.

Speaker 5 (02:34:14):
Yeah. I don't know. At least Christian Walker seems like
he's coming around of late.

Speaker 6 (02:34:20):
A little bit better luck, and some of his peripherals
suggested it was probably going to happen. And still it's
for him and Brendan Rodgers and Rogers to the nth degree.
Just stop striking out all the time when it matters.
If there's nobody on base, I can just go ahead
and grab a drink from the fridge. He's going to
get a hit. If there's anybody on base, I could
just go ahead and go to the fridge. And grab
a drink. He's going to strike out probably on three pitches.

(02:34:42):
Well that's better than it was last year, or it
was the opposite. Well, I'm just talking about Rogerson. Yeah,
I'm just saying for the Astros offense in general, he
cannot and he's even said it. Chandler wrote an article
about it when he was talking about his contractual possibilities,
like he is putting too much pressure on himself. Quite
obviously in those situations where runners are on base, runners
in scoring position, he lets the best pitch of the

(02:35:04):
it back go by and then it's an almost automatic swing,
no matter where the next pitch is, and then he's
talking to himself on his way back to the dugout
see Christian Walker month one. That's Brendan Rodgers month too.
The talking to yourself part is not as the ordinary.
That's what a lot of curse it yourself. Well, if
you're not performing, well maybe you should. They I'm moderately surprised,

(02:35:27):
and it's probably because Mauricio is not much of an
offensive threat that they chose this path with Rogers not
in the lineup today, because obviously all two v's playing second,
and Rogers gives you no positional flexibility. He plays second
nowhere else. I don't really know that they need him
and needed him here. They're carrying a third catcher right now.
I know Saysar Salazar exists. I've talked to him.

Speaker 5 (02:35:50):
I know him.

Speaker 6 (02:35:51):
He gets a jersey every day, he has his own
catching gear. But they aren't. Doesn't seem like they're going
to put him out there. A lot of playing with
a light lineup option when you're the manager and you've
got a player that doesn't ever play, and you have
Chas McCormick who also basically doesn't play.

Speaker 4 (02:36:07):
And how about what Chandler said to us last week,
These are your guys, this is it. This is your
twenty six man roster, however, whatever combination you're talking about.
And he did mention a few names, and I think
I can't remember if Caesar was one of them or not.

Speaker 6 (02:36:22):
Two ways to look at it. He's right, there aren't
many other options. But this is the team specifically put
together to be much better than they are offensively, and
I think Dana Brown should have all sorts of patients
with them. They should be better. They will be better.
They've already started to get better. And most of that
time of getting better has been with Jordon Alvarez watching,
Like what if Jordon Alvarez comes back and looks like

(02:36:44):
Yordon because everybody else is hitting and there's even less
pressure on him to be the guy to carry the
offense by himself. They need to get to the point
where they can win games without him going off, going
all Yordon, which they're literally doing because he's not even
in the lineup because he's hurt. But how about the
days where they have to the other team has to
concern themselves because he's in the lineup, because how do
I pitch to this guy because he's waiting? How do

(02:37:06):
I get around him without him killing us? But they
have to care now, and if those guys behind him
one through five should pretty well be set Payna, Altuve, Perettis, Alvarez,
and Diaz, you gotta find a place for Walker or
you really have to consider doing something different with Altuve,
which isn't gonna happen. But those are your top six hitters,

(02:37:28):
and I'd hate to think Yainer is stuck in the
sixth spot while he's at his hottest, and he's clearly
not gonna be until Jordan comes back. Jord's batting second
or third. Could you see walk? Could you keep Walker
in the six hole? And he can provide protection for
Dz and Diaz providing protection for Perettis, who maybe dial
is your cleanup hitter. I mean, he's your best on

(02:37:48):
base guy. Those guys if they're not your best hitter,
but they get on base all the time. And Perettis
is almost at four hundred, he's at thirty eight eight.
He's got a bat one, two or three on a
team that lacks that. There's so many things just waiting
to explode. And I wish they took care of it
against Cincinnati in the form of three wins, no losses.

(02:38:09):
So you're afforded the opportunity to just go win this
series and turn in a tremendous five and one home stand. Well, now,
to get there, you got to win all of the
your three of these games, and it's all coming into
the a fun matchup any year, but you got games
against the Rangers. Finally, this is now directly in front
of you. Your first stop off of this homestand is

(02:38:30):
to take on the team closest to you and the
standings behind you. And while we're on the subject, Where
will the Rockets pick in the draft? Lottery is going
to take place this evening. We've given you all the percentage,
just laid out all the grafts, maybe graphics for you.
I actually feel pretty good about that seventeen point three
percent chance of landing in the top four. I don't
feel quite as good that they're gonna be the team

(02:38:51):
that gets lucky and gets number one. But I'd willing
to flip a coin and say, yeah, I think they're
gonna land top four. Utah is getting Cooper flag was
written there is that I feel very very good about
not happening. Why, it's the same thing when the Rockets
were on that side of the lottery, the top four side,
before the lottery had been played out. It's fifty to fifty.
You even get top four. If you're one, two, or three,

(02:39:14):
there's a forty seven point nine percent chance you don't
get in the top four. You're the worst team in
the NBA. You're number one right now, forty seven point
nine percent chance you're number five coming out of the lottery.
So lock it in. Where are the Rockets picking tonight?
I'll just give you the number three because you're forcing
an actual pick. I think they'll land top four more
than I think it's gonna be three, But I'll say three.

(02:39:35):
They're getting the number one pick in the draft tonight,
Hakeem is there. They're getting the number one pick unbeatable. Well,
I probably should have just said three or four, since
that's what he wears. Empt's got the on deck show
for you.

Speaker 5 (02:39:46):
That is next

Speaker 2 (02:39:49):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety