Pope Leo's Team Wins Game 1, Nick Chubb and J.J. Watt debut in 2025, KD to the Lone Star State A Done Deal?

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My girl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride that.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Is Houston Sports Chill late down for the only home
grown afternoon team is Talking your Teams.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A A.

Speaker 5 (00:43):
It's two o'clock on a rainy Wednesday in Houston, Texas.
It is the A Team. Sports Talk seven ninety soon
to be simulcast on Space City Home Network. Just give
us an hour. Wex over there ac right here. Caled
Thompson along for the ride as per usual, And that
sucked last night. First of all, I didn't get my
twelve strikeouts, although I thought the bullpen was king strikeouts

(01:06):
last night. So did you win? Six of them were
from Lance? Oh that was the bet. It was a
Lance only gotcha. I thought you'd be nice and just
come in with the boxes.

Speaker 6 (01:14):
Anyways, Honestly, at two to one to five, I had
completely forgotten about it.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
But now at two one five you've reminded me. Well,
there's still time to go across the street to Target.
For no reason why they have him in there. I
didn't lose whatever. So anyways, the Astros did last night,
and as you also called, it doesn't matter because the
Mariners sucked. Now.

Speaker 6 (01:38):
Yeah, White Sox are a bad baseball team by record,
and they will finish in last place, undoubtedly, but they're
not as miserable as they were when the Astros lost
two out of three to them earlier this year.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
Believe probably their.

Speaker 6 (01:50):
Best starter was on the mound last night, and while
he put people on base, the Astros could not get
the hit necessary to bring most of them home. Especially
when they did get they make contact to bring runners home,
but not hits, driving home a couple of runs with
sack flies not taking advantage of bases loaded, nobody out
late in the game with guys you'd probably want up

(02:12):
at the plate based on where they are in the order,
and got a little bit of a backslide. That's I
hate going start for start with a pitcher like well,
anybody but Hunter Brown and from ber Valdez a little much.
But this was not a particularly sharp start, and Lance
mccullor said as much after the game. The executioner wasn't
there quite like it had been. The four walks the

(02:33):
wrong side of things. He had gotten away from that
and a little bit of bad luck. I think usually
ties in there, but a lot of trouble and unable
to get away from it. Only gave up four hits.
They scored four runs on those four hits. Luis Robert
had a couple of those, something he only does this
season against the Astros. In historically speaking, he's one of

(02:53):
the most productive players against the Astros period over the
time he's been here. I'm completely the opposite I thought
all this time, even though the price tag is probably
so high, I still can't believe he plays there every team.
I think even though he coming into this series he's
having a terrible year. He's a bad offensive player, and

(03:14):
I just feel like he's still a player that I
can't stop watching because you only see him play this team,
and he does on him, he just doesn't look like
the same player. I do think they will finally get
around to moving him this trade deadline and start building
around some of the players they've started to bring up.
Astros saw a couple of those players in the bullpen
and at the plate. You're seeing other teams start to

(03:36):
do the very same thing. And we're still about ninety
five games to go. But back to back, four to
two losses Guardians to close out that road trip and
then to open up this home stand is what they
were hit with last night. We'll try to avoid losing
the season series to the Chicago White Sox. If they
lose tonight or tomorrow, that will be the case. I've
taken three of the four games against the Astros, but

(03:58):
the Astros did not lose any ground to the team
most close to them in the division. The Mariners pitching
continues to flounder a little bit and playing on the
road usually not a good thing for them, and that
has been the case so far. Early on this road trip.
They are in Arizona, and we'll see if the Astros
again I don't know.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
At some point it will be.

Speaker 6 (04:14):
Less about everybody else and more about them, provided they
take advantage of things we have.

Speaker 5 (04:21):
NBA basketball tonight, oh they decided to play maybe.

Speaker 6 (04:24):
One of the final three games of the season. Should
either team take the next three, that will end the
NBA season and we'll go into full blown rumor mill mode.
The two teams playing now probably aren't in the market
for pretty much anything that's been talked about, but with
one team still looking for a head coach and constantly
being told no by the teams that employ the coaches
that they want, the Rockets being one of them. The

(04:47):
rumor mill around the Phoenix Suns personnel, the rumor mill
around Milwaukee Bucks first team All NBA player, and on
down the line. The Rockets are pretty much involved in
all of it. And more news on that front relating
to Kevin Durant, who's still very active on social we
love it. How that might make sense for Houston. Maybe
we'll play a little I'm the GM of the Heat.

(05:10):
Tell me why it makes sense for Kevin to want
to make a deal, because I do think Kevin and
his agent are probably if they're not driving the bus
on where he's headed, they're definitely paying for the gas.
I definitely think they have a big, big say and
where this is going to go. Phoenix is not going
to get fleeced because of it. But I do think

(05:30):
they're going to work together to try to make something
work for all parties, including them, including Kevin, and obviously
including whatever future team that is for him. It is
now off season mode for the Houston Texans until they
begin training camp just a week before August. Some news
on those dates and the fact that minicamp ended today,

(05:52):
two days of mini camp special visitor who we had
a chance to talk to, and we'll share a little
bit of that conversation with you. I thought the best
thing about practice today, certainly post practice, was when we
spoke with Derrick Stingley Junior new text and running back
Nick Chubb and returning disruptive force beast Daniel Hunter, and

(06:13):
he walked up to the microphone and I thought, he
looks like he's bigger, some more muscular, yep than the
absolute beast of a defensive end he was last year.
And in his first comments, he goes, yeah, I was
working on a few things, put on like five pounds
of muscle, and I'm like, yeah, I know.

Speaker 5 (06:35):
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (06:37):
The most physically imposing player on this roster for sure,
and quite honestly, maybe the most physically imposing figure this
team has ever employed, including the person who spoke at
the podium right after him, JJ Watt, who was there today.
So some of the thoughts of those three guys wrapping
things up and where do they go from here? Where

(06:59):
are some points of conn there's a major, major concern.
It's even more specific than this. The generic group of
players protecting CJ.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
Stroud?

Speaker 6 (07:08):
What else needs to be added? And how does this
team be better? How does this team perform better? How
do they ultimately win more? I'm not real concern if
they finished eleven and six versus ten and seven unless
it impacts their slot in the postseason chase, and then
only if that impacts their.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
Ability to do what they've never done before.

Speaker 6 (07:26):
I mean, reaching the conference title game is a pretty
nice accomplishment, and they've been in position to do so
while playing on the road every single time many times
in their team's history, including each of the last two years.
So what changes Because if nothing changes, then that's three
straight years of nothing changing, all three years of Dimiko Rans.

(07:48):
It's great to say we don't know anything but winning.
Demiko Rance does know anything but winning as head coach
of the Houston Text and CJ. Stroud obviously Will Anderson,
they don't know anything but winning. But you'd like to
see them progress beyond we won the division. We want
a home playoff game. That's where they said today. So
some thoughts on that heavy on the Astros talk from
an interview standpoint twenty minutes from now. Astro's left handed

(08:12):
starter Brandon Walter will join us three o'clock a little
bit of what Dana Brown had to say when he
joined Sports Talk seven to ninety. This morning is part
of the Sean Salisbury shows he does each and every
Wednesday at nine to thirty.

Speaker 5 (08:23):
We'll bring you some of Dana.

Speaker 6 (08:24):
At three o'clock, Chris Gordy makes his weekly visit to
our program. Our Astros Insider will do that at three
point thirty, and Space City Home Network analyst Brian bogus
Sevic working the games this week, as he has throughout
most of the season.

Speaker 5 (08:36):
He visited earlier today with Matt and Ross.

Speaker 6 (08:39):
We'll share some of his thoughts around five point fifteen.
Full Plate on a Wednesday here on the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
Yeah, going back to last night's game, I you know,
all bets aside when it comes to Lance mcclors some
of the same stuff. It's a kind of a good
news bad news situation in my opinion. When it comes
to him, he looks like himself, is that fair to say?
And that's not always good. In other words, he looks

(09:07):
healthy and he puts too many runners on.

Speaker 6 (09:10):
Baseball go with he looks healthy, But you know what
I'm saying, like, I know, we've talked about that a bunch.
You know, there's you know, too many pitches Pitcow gets
runs up, has the difficulty putting guys away. They're not
swinging at his pitches which ultimately end up off the plate.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
It's why the walk total is where it is.

Speaker 6 (09:25):
There are a lot of elements of He's pitched many,
many games like that over his career. I just would
presume it wouldn't happen, as it wouldn't happen the way
it did last night against that particular group of offensive players.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
I'll tell you a particular sequence that almost made me
punch out a window in my house. It was three nothing.
I had gone outside to check. I thought it looked
from the outside that like like a light was out
in the backyard that I needed to check on. So
I go out there to check on it. It is
indeed out. I realized this is such a like a

(09:58):
house thing. There's ant hill around it. I don't know
if that has anything to do with it. I kind
of doubt it does, but there is an ant hill
around it. I need to take care of that. I
go walk into the garage, which is right next to
this door, I get the ant killer put it on
the uh kicked over hill because I love doing that
because I'm twelve. Come back from doing all that. I
mean that took less than two minutes to do all that.

(10:21):
Louise Robert had it hit a home run, and I'm
just like, God, are you serious with this guy? Because
it's like you said, he only performs against the Astros.
He has two of his now six home runs against
the Astros across two different series this year. But it
goes back to the other thing. I look and I
don't remember when he hit that home run, what inning

(10:41):
that was in, but I do.

Speaker 6 (10:43):
Run last night. Yeah, they're leading off the fourth, That's
what I thought. Two pitches in.

Speaker 5 (10:47):
Yeah, And I remember seeing Lance's face because again that
means if I'm doing all that stuff for two minutes,
I'm not paying attention to every single pitch during that
particular point of the game. And I remember the look
on Lance's face because they hadn't put the graphic up
on the screen. I'm like, he's gotta already be in
the sixty to sixty five pitch count range, and that's

(11:08):
exactly what he had. It was like sixty one when
I looked at that or whatever they brought the graphic up,
and that goes back to what we're talking about, the
same things that again make you think, all right, life
is back to normal from a health standpoint, but the
performance would still leave a little bit to be desired.

Speaker 6 (11:25):
Yeah, it was tough to keep it where it was.
I plugged him for that. It's in the borderline of
gave his team a chance to win because he only
gave him fifteen outs and there were four runs on
the board by that point in time. Non leverage relievers
came into the game after that, and they didn't give
up any hits for four innings, walked a few batters,
struck out seven and gave the Astros a chance and

(11:47):
they put two runs on the board, and they had
many opportunities to put more runs on the board. Just
did one for seven with runners in scoring position, and
on three different occasions they grounded into very very easy
to turn double plays of the season sure part of
any given time. Just one last note on Robert who
is a career best against the Astros. His career high

(12:08):
or is the most home runs he's hit against any opponent,
obviously come from a team inside his Division, He's played
him a bunch more times.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
He's played twenty one games against the Astros.

Speaker 6 (12:16):
He's played fifty two games against the Royals and two
hundred and ten played appearances against Kansas City.

Speaker 5 (12:21):
He's hit nine home runs.

Speaker 6 (12:22):
That's the most he's hit against any team in way
less than half of those played appearances eighty five. He's
got eight against the Astros. The team he's hit the
most home runs against he slugs four to forty against.
That's Kansas City. The Astros he slugs seven to fifty against. Basically,
he's the best hitter in the in the National League this.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
Year if it's just against the Astros.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
An eleven to fifty five ops and a three seventy
five batting average for his career. Two more days of
Astros versus Luis Robert, Ryan Gusto's opportunity tonight, Ron ber
Valdez's opportunity tomorrow. Tonight tonight, we'll see if the Astros
again could shake free from that. Brandon Walter, like I mentioned,
we'll join us shortly and we'll jumping in on a

(13:07):
topic related to the Rockets, who in the next three
weeks today being June eleventh, and by the time the
first week of July rolls around, we're gonna know a
lot more about the twenty twenty five to twenty six
NBA season for from the Rockets standpoint and from all
of the teams in the west of the Oklahoma City
that are chasing the Rockets at this point.

Speaker 5 (13:25):
We'll do that next The AE on Sports Talk seven
ninety Yeah, it is the A team Sports Talk seven
ninety's It's Wild on a night like last night, where again,

(13:51):
the uh, the Astros season on any given night is
completely looked at in polar opposite ways by the two
people hosts this show. It could not be any different.
Wex's cerebral, unemotional, detached only about the numbers and the

(14:12):
greater good and the end game and all that kind
of stuff. I I, on the other hand, Oh, it's
all those are facts, by the way, facts, absolute facts.
He cannot dispute them. I, on the other hand, very emotional,
pendulum swinging throughout the game, just breaking furniture, swearing, all
sorts of things that happen in the course of any game,

(14:35):
and on a night like last night. I somehow, instead
of being upset that they could have created more distance,
I somehow find solace in the fact that not only
did the Mariners go on to lose later much later
in the evening, but they got just drubbed. Like they're
in their perennial tailspin. The calendar has flipped to June,

(14:57):
and so they've turned back into a pumpkin. They do
this every year right after May. It's uncanny, and their
fans always try to act like it's going to be different,
and it never is. They have an AO West banner
for every single May for the past like ten years.
They really do. For the better part of this run,
the Astros have been on which I don't necessarily count

(15:20):
this season as part of that, just too much has changed.
But I really feel like, you know, this is this
is right on schedule for both teams. Took that, like
I said, like we've been talking about, it took the
Astros much longer last year to come around. But roster
change over and all that stuff that factors in here

(15:41):
we are the Mariners are doing what they do and
the Astros frankly are doing what they do. And it's
hilarious to me.

Speaker 6 (15:47):
Yeah, I just it's not quite mathematically time for it.
But I'm not I do watch. I do make sure
I do follow. Well, okay, what's going on in the standings,
but it's to me, it's already gotten back to the
usual point, even with a very very very very different
Astros team.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
It's about them.

Speaker 6 (16:04):
The Astros are not going are not likely to go
on a run like they did last year. I mean
they took off, they outplayed the entire league for four months.

Speaker 5 (16:13):
That's not gonna happen this year. It doesn't.

Speaker 6 (16:16):
I don't think we're gonna go into any stretch of
this season where we think, oh yeah, I think this
is another year where the Astros look like they are
about to do something special. Now they have something working
in their favor, no matter what if they get to
the playoffs. Match all these teams up against each other
in a short series, even in a wildcard series, and
I know we just saw it last year in a
wildcard series. You're throwing Hunter Brown and fromber Valdez in

(16:40):
the first two games of a three game series, of
a five game series, if it's your first, and then
maybe you'd like to in any series that follows, but
obviously dates and times and rest will then impact it.
But any series that begins without any previous concerns. From
a scheduling standpoint, the other team has to outplay you
on a night that from ber Valdez pitches and on

(17:02):
a night that Hunter Brown pitches. Otherwise you're up to nothing.
You've already won the wild Card series. If that's the case,
you only need one more win, if it's the following round,
and your two wins away from going to the World Series,
if the series after that, and those pitchers are going
to come back if they need to, if you haven't
already taken care of the series, by no means are

(17:22):
they invincible. And other teams have good pitching, you know,
a Max Freed, Carlos Redon based on how they've pitched
to this point, obviously very very very good, and each
of the other teams in the mix. Detroit's got the
cy Young Award winner likely going in Game one, Jack Flaherty,
presumably this year's Game two.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
It's still very good.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
Just the chances of this team are still going to
ride on that, and they would have even if their
offense was very good. And I'm saying they're not going
to go on this crazy run, even though if Jordon
Alvarez goes berserk for eighty games to close out the season.
Who's to say that's what they're missing, Like stick jord
On Alvarez, Let's just put him in the four spot

(18:01):
last night when Yani Das comes up with the bases loaded,
you know when yaner Ds comes up period, Well, instead
it's it's yourd On hopefully as a nine hundred and
fifty oh ps guy, which he's been his entire career
until this year when he played with I don't know
a broken finger at for I don't know how many
number of games probably probably impacted his ability to slug

(18:23):
the way he normally does and just play baseball the
way he normally does. So it's still like usual. It's
about them. Two different stories though, it's about them. When
are they gonna make the postseason?

Speaker 7 (18:35):
Runt?

Speaker 6 (18:35):
They're gonna make the postseason because they're gonna win this division.
It's about them. Are they really the caliber of the Yankees,
the Royals or anybody else that may finish with a
better record than them or right there with him when
it gets to the postseason. Two totally different stories, totally
different angles to take, and the latter one is the
one that matters the most. It's great to be at
the dance, but you got to do something when you
get there. I'm sure they're gonna get there again this year,

(18:57):
so I'm not ready to close the book on the era.
They've gone to the playoffs during this era as a
twenty nine and thirty one team during COVID. They went
last year as.

Speaker 5 (19:05):
An eighty eight win team.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
Granted they didn't win any postseason games that year, but
I still feel like their chances of going back to
the postseason just based on what we've seen, which is
by no means great. Great is the last word I
would use for the Astros in twenty twenty five, and
they're six games over, and they win more than they lose,
and they are starting to win series pretty regularly, both

(19:27):
at home and on the road, creating distance inside their division,
continuing to outplay everybody other than Detroit and New York
in the American League. It's all it's I don't want
to say it's all good, brother, But the idea of
a big downturn, like they're about to hit a skid,
I don't see that either.

Speaker 5 (19:47):
I just see them kind of playing the way they
have been.

Speaker 8 (19:49):
Well.

Speaker 5 (19:50):
See, when you say things like that, it sounds to me.
And I'm not saying you're saying this. I just think
that this is how people are looking at them in general.
It just feels like it's a good thing they play
the Al West. I don't think so.

Speaker 6 (20:01):
Like the al is like that overall. How do they
have How did they beat the Guardians? How did they
outplay them? They're about to play the Twins, who they've
also beaten. They won the series against the Guardian, They've
won their series against the Twins. You know, they're not
playing bad baseball against good teams and feasting on these
crappy teams.

Speaker 5 (20:19):
That far from it.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
There's still four games over five hundred against team or
three games now because Seattle's not over five hundred anymore,
as we discussed yesterday, still three games over five hundred
against teams over five hundred. Line them up, like I know,
somebody posted it the other day last night after the game.
Kind of feels like I'd rather be playing teams other
than the riff raff, because when you lose them, you
can't even believe it. When you beat the good teams,

(20:42):
of course you believe it. The Astros are one of them.
The Astros are also probably likely going through the worst
stretch of pitching they're gonna have all year, barring a
future injury. And I'm talking about the starters. They've found
a way to get through the season. You know, there's
sixty six games into the season and their number three starter,

(21:04):
their number three starter has made two starts. Their number
four starter is done for the year with ten starts.
Their number five starter is done for the year with
less than ten starts. And they're making up ground on
teams in the American League and scuring their own. They're
giving the ball to Colton Gordon, Ryan Gusto, and our
guest coming up in two minutes, Brandon Walter, every trip

(21:27):
through the rotation. All three of them are in their
six man rotation, and they keep winning.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yeah, and I hope they keep winning starting tonight because
they didn't get it done last night. But we'll be
looking to do just that tonight. We will talk to
the aforementioned Brandon Walter when we come back here on
the eighteen, the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Adam Clanton Adam Wexler with you on a Wednesday edition
of the program as is Brandon Walter, Astros pitcher left hander,
I might add as he joins us as promised here. Hey, Brandon,
appreciate you taking the time out. And how's it been
so far in your brief tenure as an Astros pitcher.

Speaker 9 (22:24):
Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on. It's it's
been good.

Speaker 10 (22:27):
I mean, it's only been a couple of days with
the big club here, but I mean, just the Oregon general,
it's been.

Speaker 9 (22:32):
It's been a great experience ever since I joined.

Speaker 6 (22:34):
Let me take you back to that point in time,
because it's not necessarily how everybody does this a injury
situation and not sure how twenty twenty four is going
to go, and the Red Sox release you during the season.
Later in the season, the Astros bring you on via
minor league contract and you're not pitching for them during
twenty twenty four. Tell me about how all those things
kind of developed those you know, was it a surprise

(22:55):
that the Red Sox, so you'd been with your whole
major league or professional career, let you go, oh, and
how you became an Astro and what their plan was
for you at that time.

Speaker 10 (23:04):
I mean, yeah, it was definitely a weird timeline, not
how I visioned twenty twenty four going when I entered
camp last year, obvious for obvious reasons, the injury and
the whole changing team things. Changing teams was unexpected. Yeah,
I mean, I mean I got injured in camp last year.
I ended up part of my shoulder. Wasn't sure if

(23:26):
I was gonna miss the whole season or not. I
never I never got a surgery or anything. We did
an injection in my shoulder that actually worked great. It
just it took a little longer than we had originally
thought to fully heal. And yeah, I mean I was
on the the minor league side of the roster with
the Red Sox last year.

Speaker 9 (23:44):
They had to make some moves. I think it was right.

Speaker 10 (23:46):
I think it was right at the trade deadline actually,
so I ended up getting DFA off the IL there
and then released shortly after. So I didn't know where
I was gonna go. I didn't know that there would
be any teams interesting to sign me while I was injured.

Speaker 9 (24:02):
Obviously I wasn't gonna be able to play the.

Speaker 10 (24:03):
Whole the rest of the season last year, But I
mean those prep teams interested. Luckily, the Astros had a
pretty good offer for me, and they, yeah, they brought
me in. They got my shoulder healthy, which was my
number one priority when it came to to who I
wanted to sign with was was what's a good setup
to get my shoulder right and get me back on

(24:24):
the mountains place and then from there, obviously it's just
solid baseball stuff, but I wanted to make sure I
was healthy and be in the right spot for that,
and the Astros were great from day one brought me in.

Speaker 9 (24:34):
I went out to West Palm.

Speaker 10 (24:37):
Rehab with those guys down there for the for the
remainder of the season last year, a little bit into
the fall, and then came into spring this season ready
to go.

Speaker 6 (24:44):
Was any of that being able to go to West
Palm late last year helpful just from a familiarity standpoint
when you arrived at camp healthy to start this year,
I'd say so yeah.

Speaker 10 (24:57):
I mean I didn't get to meet really any of
the like the player there sure here just because those
guys were playing and I'm I was down there on
the morning schedule in West Palm, but but just getting
to know that, like the medical staff a little bit.
I'd say this this spring training, I was able to
go early to kind of finish up the rehab process.

Speaker 9 (25:17):
That was definitely big for me.

Speaker 10 (25:19):
Getting down, get familiar with the UH, with the ORG,
with the pitching staff, with the the coaches and everything,
and just get just get a good plan coming into
this year.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
We're talking to Astro's pitcher Brandon Walter here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. You've had two starts and they've both
been on the road, including that kind of weird environment
that is Tampa Bay's home field right now. That's not
a real stadium, but with everything you were just mentioning,
you know, all the the changeover and the injuries and
everything you've dealt with. One, it's kind of a two parter.

(25:49):
One is it is it nice to just be able
to lock in at what you're actually trying to do
as far as your craft, to kind of block all
that out. And Two do you enjoy starts on the
road like that at the beginning of the season or
at the beginning of your tenure, I should say, as
opposed to maybe being at home where there could be
some other things tugging at you in different directions.

Speaker 10 (26:13):
Honestly, it doesn't really matter where what the atmosphere is
like I know, my college coach Jim Sherman always chooses
to say, we'll line it up in the parking lot
and play there. So just just compete basically, no matter
where you're at, and just lock in on those individual
matchups when the batter steps in. The more I think
about the environment or the crowd or anything, I think

(26:34):
my mind's just wandering in the wrong direction. So I
try to keep it simple and just get the guy
out that's in the box until they take the ball
from me.

Speaker 6 (26:41):
You had a major league experience with the Red Sox,
a major major league debut. I'm sure you remember that day.
I'm curious if, over the course of your time in
that particular game where you were called to pitch in
that game incredibly early after each inning you completed you
ended up going six and two thirds out of the bullpen,
were you wondering is that it for me for today?
Is he gonna am I going back out there again

(27:01):
and again and again.

Speaker 10 (27:04):
Yeah, I mean, that was a that was an interesting
situation because it wasn't It wasn't a typical appearance for me.
I mean, it was like a it was basically a
start without being a start, but I knew I was
coming in right after that guy that they had an opener,
so I kind of figured i'd be going long, especially
when we went down early.

Speaker 9 (27:22):
In that game.

Speaker 10 (27:23):
Uh, just and just I knew at that point my
job was just to cover as many innings as possible
and and try to limit that it just about as possible.

Speaker 9 (27:31):
But it went pretty well. But yeah, definitely a weird,
weird scenario for.

Speaker 10 (27:35):
A debut because I was always a starter in the
minor leagues and then I'd go up to the big
leagues and my first real experience of coming out of
the pen was at the highest level, so it was
it was. It was a weird change and a weird time.
But yeah, that first one was was basically a start.
That one wasn't really too tough, just because I could
keep my own my own starting routine and then just

(27:56):
kind of I came in the second inning, so it
wasn't wasn't too much of a change for that, But
the other parents I had with them in the in
the pen were definitely different and kind of came along
with some some learning opportunities, uh, just with my routine
and everything, just because I did come up as a
starter and was kind of learning on the fly there
in the pen.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
So you're a you're a Delaware product and not just
born there. You grew up in that area. And then
of course with the the Red Sox situation. What what's
the biggest change about being here in South Texas and
playing here and everything about being you know, a Houstonian
at this point. Uh, that's the biggest difference from a
from a situation like that in a very different part

(28:38):
of the country.

Speaker 10 (28:41):
Honestly, the weather, it's it's it's really hot, it's really humid.
My wife's from the Philly area also, she said, I'm
sure she would say the same thing that that's been
the biggest adjustment is just as.

Speaker 9 (28:53):
Getting used to to sweating a lot.

Speaker 10 (28:54):
I know, it's it's not a huge deal here and
minute maybe, but when I was in sugar Land, we're
playing outside. Uh, you gotta get comfortable sweating. So that's
definitely the biggest adjustment.

Speaker 9 (29:05):
Not really much else.

Speaker 10 (29:06):
I mean, I've been around baseball people my whole life,
so it's easy to kind of mess with anybody, any
teammate or anything, no matter where we are. So it's
been a smooth transition, just just kind of getting used
to the weather, and yeah, that's pretty much it.

Speaker 6 (29:21):
So a Delaware guy, the Philadelphia wife drafted by the
Red Sox, played at Delaware, been in Delaware?

Speaker 5 (29:26):
Were you always a Red Sox guy? Was this your
team before they drafted you?

Speaker 10 (29:32):
No, I grew up a huge Phillies fan. Okay, I
grew up a Philly fans all four sports. Yeah, I
mean I grew up watching the early early mid two
thousand Phillies with you know, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley
and those guys. They were able to win a World
Series in two thousand and eight. So yeah, I mean
I always I was always following them until I got drafted.

Speaker 9 (29:53):
And then obviously when you get drafted doesn't really matter.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
Have you had a chance where your.

Speaker 9 (29:57):
Fandom is, You're just for fighting for your own career,
you know.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
So you haven't taken issue with your teammate ord On
Alvarez about crushing them in twenty two.

Speaker 9 (30:06):
No, I was already I was already in pro ball
at that point.

Speaker 10 (30:11):
I mean, that's that's that's a cool moment, regardless of
your fandom. You know, that's just as a cool thing
to see and then to be able like to watch
that a big moment. There's been some big moments with
this team over in my lifetime, and now being teammates
with some of those guys is really cool.

Speaker 6 (30:26):
It takes us into kind of you're here and it's
clearly a little bit different because some of the players
you've been mentioning have obviously moved on over the years
or even this off season. But you come into this
clubhouse for the first time with everybody, Like you mentioned,
first time is spring training and then you've had your
a couple of opportunities and now you're remaining here with
the club. What's your sense of the vibe of this
Astros clubhouse that you're a part of.

Speaker 10 (30:49):
I mean, I could tell from day one it's a
winning vibe. So that's that's that's exciting to walk into
and just and just trying to learn from these guys.
I mean, these guys of one World Series, not only
the play, but just like the front office and the
coaching staff.

Speaker 9 (31:03):
I mean, it's just the expectation is to win, and
I love that and that they have one. So it's cool.

Speaker 10 (31:11):
It's cool playing with Lance and and Uh and those
guys that have kind of were on a like pretty
much throughout the whole run. Yeah, just getting to those
guys and just trying to take in as much as
I can and learn as much as possible.

Speaker 6 (31:24):
I have to imagine, as we can, we let you
go here. This isn't something that's particularly normal. I'm hoping
it's also helpful that you're pitching on a pitching staff
with from ber Valdez and Josh Hater and Steven Okert
and Brian King and Bennett so Susa and Colton Gordon.
That is way too many lefties for one team.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (31:47):
I don't can there ever be too many lefties? I
don't know.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
It just seems like there's one or two maybe, or
maybe you get two in the bullpen and one as
a starter. And we've been through it here in Houston
where it's been super light on lefties. Has it been
a little of the ordinary even for you? And like
I said, has it been at all helpful for that
many guys who do a little bit different with how
they they're you know, they're wind up everything they do,
their usage of pitches.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
I imagine it has to be somewhat useful.

Speaker 9 (32:12):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's nice.

Speaker 10 (32:13):
Why it's nice being able to watch these guys go
out and work because I mean, I'm gonna be pitching
against the same lineups and and you can kind of
learn from each pitch they throw, whether it worked, whether
it didn't, and.

Speaker 9 (32:25):
Just take it in and learn from it.

Speaker 10 (32:27):
It's it's weird to say that we have so many
lefties just because I remember when I signed here last year,
I was kind of told that there wasn't a lot
of lefties and that it's like pretty much every pitcher
is a lefty.

Speaker 9 (32:38):
But I mean, it doesn't really matter as long as
you can get right he's out.

Speaker 10 (32:41):
So that that's that's one thing they preach to us
and and put a big emphasis on, is being able
to get right he's out. Not to say lefties getting
lefties out or is easy by any means, but we
definitely have the advantage there. So the so the the
most success we can have against righty's is really going
to determine how our success is going to be on

(33:01):
the mound, because those are the matchups that really matter.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
Well, you earned the right for the Astros to keep
an eye on you and bring you up to the
big club, and now made a couple of starts and
earned the right to continue having that happen next thirteen games,
to be in the rotation and maybe for longer than that.
Certainly appreciate the time, get a chance for our listeners
to get you to know you a little bit, and
enjoy your time here in Houston pitching in front of them.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
The next time you'll be out there, Brandon. We really
appreciate the time.

Speaker 9 (33:26):
Absolutely, I'm looking forward to that. Appreciate you guys having
me on.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
You got it.

Speaker 6 (33:30):
Brandon Walter, Astros starting pitcher. Two series here at home.
He'll get the ball when the next opposing team comes
in the Minnesota Twins. Six innings in his last start.
Putting the Astros in position to win is what you
want from your starters.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
He's done that. He's two for two.

Speaker 6 (33:45):
We'll jump back in on the conversation on the other side.
A couple one particular thing that he had to say
to us, I think is worthy of an additional thought
or two, and you guys might know where I'm headed.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
We'll do that next.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (34:06):
Just got finished with conversations with Astros starting pitcher Brandon Walter,
set to take a start in the Twins Series.

Speaker 5 (34:11):
Is the third start for the Astros this year.

Speaker 6 (34:13):
After an enjoyable time of things, spiked the heat in
sugar Land, as he mentioned with us, earned his right
to get a look see from Houston. Has performed admirably
since we talked about how he got here, if you
were unaware, got to spring training last year with the
Red Sox, where he had been thought of of somebody
that could be a part of their future. Had made
his major league debut the prior season, but wasn't healthy

(34:35):
and wasn't sure what the prognosis would be with that
shoulder injury, essentially a rotator cuff injury, didn't have surgery
for it, but kind of got roster crunched out of Boston,
and in August the Astros added him, knowing he wasn't
going to pitch, but he was there in West Palm
working through their program for getting better, and he told
us he was weighing his options and and you know,

(34:57):
what offer might make the most sense and what organized
might make the most sense, And on a couple of
occasions he noted how he liked this organization for their
plan of getting him back to full health and making
sure all that in his future would be what he'd hoped.
And I think also part of the pitch usage and
everything else, as he talked about with some of the
left handed pitchers he's working with, that's a pretty good

(35:18):
way to get yourself back in a good spot, a
good path towards being a successful professional. He's been a
successful minor leaguer and I was hoping to become a
successful major leaguer. And there's a long way to go
on that front, quite obviously, But the work that he
had done here with the Astros organization, it's just this
year his first time pitching for them after they added
him with a couple months of the season left last

(35:40):
year not being able to pitch. He made eleven appearances
with the Space Cowboys with a two eight. Seven of
those games were starts, essentially, the other games were games
he knew he was coming into the way the Astros
have worked through some piggyback opportunities, just the way they
utilized maybe having more than just.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
Your average five starters strikeouts.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
In those games in sugar Land, he had forty nine
of them walks seven an almost unheard of seven to
one strikeout to walk ratio. It's outstanding well here in
two starts with the Asteroids, it's ten to one. Ten
k's in his eleven innings, one walk, he throws strikes. Yeah,
he's only given up nine hits in those eleven innings
and some of those roughly half of those innings were

(36:23):
pitched in a stadium that hosts exhibition games in March.
He's done a really, really good job of what you
want every pitcher to do. Avoid hard contact, don't make
mistakes in the zone, and don't.

Speaker 5 (36:38):
Walk hitters, make them earn it. It's worked out quite
well in two starts, and I liked his mentality when
I asked him about his approach to, you know, starting
off those two starts on the road. I know you
can hear at the end he was looking forward to
pitching in front of the you know, diik in park
home crowd. But he said, as his old college coach said,

(36:59):
you just line them up in the parking lot and
will play. That's a guy who just wants to get
the job done, and as you just pointed out, he's
getting the job done.

Speaker 7 (37:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (37:06):
Should be the starter for the Astros this weekend against
the Twins to wrap up that series. Gusto and Valdez
to wrap up this series, Colton Gordon, Hunter Brown on
Friday and Saturday, and that sixth turn in the rotation,
starting with Lance last night, falls into Walter's hands and
hopefully they'll be in a good place by then, hopefully
this home stand will have gone well. It's the front

(37:28):
side of that thirteen games in a row. The only
series among those four that's more than three games, that's
the Athletics series. You know, those games in West Sacramento
they will play probably from an offensive standpoint. I'd say
it's better, maybe an an equalizer. I can't tell which
way you'd want it. All the games in West Sacramento

(37:49):
are at night, and they're all late starts. They're all
eight ZHO five West Sacramento start times. Daytime baseball in
Tampa at their non major league baseball park, and daytime
game in Sacramento at their non major league parks. With
the ability for the ball to fly out of the yard.
Do you want that when you're there as the Astros

(38:11):
so you can hit more homers knowing that the other
team's going to also Tampa or Oakland?

Speaker 5 (38:17):
Or do you not want that?

Speaker 6 (38:19):
Do you prefer it to be at Knight where they
might actually get a little bit better pitching when they
don't normally. And I don't know for sure, but they're
probably catching Louis Severino there and I've never seen anything
like it, and I don't know if it's all minor
league ballpark related, but sever Reno is one of the
best starters in baseball. For every game he's pitched this year,

(38:43):
except the ones that are in West Sacramento, he's been unreal,
almost unhittable, almost untouchable provided he's not there.

Speaker 5 (38:53):
His road splits this year are very good, quite clearly.

Speaker 6 (38:57):
Five starts, he's got a zero point eight He's given
up three runs and thirty one innings. The Astros look
like they're going to catch him in West Sacramento. He'll
make his tenth start at his home ballpark, the minor
league ballpark. He's got a seven to ten ra there,
point eighty seven away from his minor league ballpark and
seven point one zero there.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
That's the Sevarino they're getting this time. Well good. I
hope they tee off on him.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
They they need a series, and they kind of got
a taste of it in Tampa, but the other team
was eating more a taste of the ball flying out
of the yard. I'm kind of feeling, just go ahead,
reschedule that game, make it a one to oh five
Sacramento start, and let's just go ahead and see if
we can out homer them. We'll hit our six, you'll

(39:44):
hit your five, and we'll head it in next day's
game after a fifteen to twelve win. I think his
Astros offense needs a day like that.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
Oh absolutely, And hopefully the Astros will have more on
base when they hit their six to five, but on
pa or you would think that, yeah, they would prefer
that simply because the pitching more often than not, has
been fantastic for the Astros this year. But that is crazy,
and you know it's driving them crazy there in West
Sacramento nothing because they don't really care. Well, they're not

(40:17):
being driven crazy. They don't care. You mean the fans.
I'm talking about the players, Oh, the players who don't
want to be there, all of them, Yeah, exactly, but
especially guys like several. I mean, it does matter. When
you're trying to get another contract. You got to look
at your numbers.

Speaker 6 (40:30):
Awesome contract from them, a shockingly good, multi year, big
money contract from them, I hope they pay him big
money to suck at home. I don't think they expected that,
nor did he. But I didn't expect anybody to pay
them them ount they did, especially that team. I didn't
think anybody would give them that kind of deal.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
Well they did, and like you said, hopefully the uh,
the Astros take advantage. We will take advantage of two
forms of media when we come back. The radio and
television as a simulcast will continue or begin, I should say,
at three o'clock and we'll hear from Astros GM, Dana Brown.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team,
Adam Clinton and Wexfloodard A team.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety and
Space City Home Network straight up three o'clock on a
Wednesday edition of the program, Glad you're staying dry and
listening and or watching us here on either medium, wex
ac Cole Thompson with you. On a day after the
Astros lose the opener of their three game set with
the Chicago White Sox. We talked to Brandon Walter last

(41:51):
hour on the phone. He will round out their finale
against the Minnesota Twins coming up this weekend. But first
things first, you're trying to avoid losing this series to
the Chicago White Sox, and well, maybe they were talking
about on the broadcast on the television side last night,
maybe you'll uh, maybe you'll luck out and they'll keep

(42:12):
Luise Robert in that seventh hole since he just destroys
the Astros every time he plays them and is terrible
against every single other major league club.

Speaker 6 (42:21):
I mean, it'd only be lucky if he doesn't play.
He killed him last night from the seventh hole, right, Well.

Speaker 5 (42:26):
He doesn't have as many chances theoretically if he's down
further in the order. That is, that is definitely true. Well,
I'm glad you got your approval on that. Wex Dana
Brown joining the station for his weekly visit earlier, and
the first question he was asked here was can that
offense pick up on days with the mixed pitching variety?

Speaker 7 (42:51):
Yeah, I think with the addition of Pinion the leadoff spot.
You know the fact that he's hitting like, you know,
like three sixty plus, you know, and that's that and
the lead off spot, I mean that's encouraging up top,
you know, you know, a Parrettits has been really good.
You know, he's leading the ale third basements and home
runs with like fourteen and thirty nine Ribbies, so he's

(43:13):
been really good. I think those two guys really anchoring
the top. It's going to be very important for us.
We know that, you know, our two v is gonna
heat up. He's been showing the signs of heating up.
Jordan should be back you know here shortly. He's about
eighty percent healed. And you know, Christian Walker has had

(43:34):
some really big hits for it. So we know historically
he's been really good in the months of June, July,
and August in his career. And so you know, these
are some encouraging things that we feel really good but
good about down the stretch. And so once this all
clicks and comes together, I think you'll see an offense
and a pitching staff that's well, you know, well oiled

(43:56):
and into you know, their thing, doing their thing by
you know, the mid part of the summer. And so
I'm very encouraged by this club. Look we're three games up,
you know, you know, we were fighting with grit. We
got the grit every day, and these guys come.

Speaker 11 (44:12):
To play thirty six and thirty I believe right now.
And you mentioned the you know gonna get hot if
I'd have told you and be we're just talking brass
tacks here on the Bingo card. For me, I didn't
have I mean paratus good player, But when we say paradus,
look at the way Jake Myers is hit and then
moving pain into the leadoff spot. In the way he's
doing that may not have been the full three Bingo card.

(44:34):
And with Christian Walker, the struggles al tuve the inconsistency,
but we know he gets them in bunches. And you're
on being hurt and not having the power early in
the season, but sitting at thirty six and thirty games,
just the real, just the truth about this. There's no
way we would have thought considering that Bingo card that
you'd be thirty six and thirty considering the injuries as well.

Speaker 5 (44:55):
So that's got to make you happy.

Speaker 7 (44:57):
Yeah, Look, this team, as I said before, they have
a lot of grit and guys will step up.

Speaker 5 (45:05):
Man.

Speaker 7 (45:05):
That's the beauty of a good team. When one of
your buddies go down, you know the other guys was
stepping it up. You know, we got two really good
starts from our young starters that came up, and so
you know, we have a group of guys that are
stepping it up. And as you mentioned, yeah, I forgot
to mention Jake. Jake's been swinging the bat very well,
and of course he's really good defensively. So there are

(45:26):
some signs with this club that will tell you, Look,
we're not even on all cylinders and we're actually playing
pretty good baseball. Can we be playing a little bit better? Yeah,
because our offense has not hit their stride yet. But
at the end of the day, you know, these guys
have shown some grit and it's a good group of guys.

(45:48):
This is a good team and we feel really good
about it. When we get these guys on all cylinders
and our pitching comes back, you know this, this should
make it really fun for the stretch.

Speaker 11 (45:59):
Run hear culture, and we hear that these guys, you know,
the grit and the step up that you mentioned that
they just guys back up, step in and do their job.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
But the question is why and how well, why is
it that.

Speaker 11 (46:11):
When they come here or when somebody gets hurt, what
is it? You know, we all want to bottle that
up and sell it. Why with the Astros do you
guys have this unique ability to do this? What's the
main what's the main ingredient?

Speaker 9 (46:24):
And that's in that pot.

Speaker 7 (46:26):
Yeah. I think it's. First of all, it's a winning culture.
And we've been that way. You know, when you go
to the postseason eight straight times, guys come in and
they know that, Look, this is a winning call up.
As you start off with that winning attitude, you know,
and then you have the leadership under Joe Spata, who
has he's very familiar with these guys. He has great
leadership in the clubhouse. Uh he's not a raw, raw guy,

(46:49):
but he's the guy that you know, gets with each
each and every guy and and encourage. He encourages guys
when you have to encourage him, and he has you know,
when he has to discipline, he'll discipline. And so look,
I think it's the culture that's been created. You know,
you come here, you come here to win. You know,
as our owner has said so many times, our windows

(47:11):
always open, and so look, this is this is just
the way it is here in Houston. I mean we
you know, we played good baseball. We have great fans support.
I meant these the fans just continue to show up
and continue to support us. You know. I mean I
run into fans all the time when I'm you know,
walking the streets of Houston, are just going out for
a bite. You know, these guys are encouraging you know,

(47:34):
they they they encourage us so much. They show up,
And that's the beauty, the astrol fans show up. You know,
you cannot do this without fan support. And I tell you,
these guys show up every single day and that's where
we get our drive from.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
Yeah, you gotta love the fan support, especially in seasons
like last year where it was not going very well
around this time and it's been a little bit of
a rough led to start twenty twenty five. But man,
he nailed it on the head about the young pitching
it is, and really the pitching overall, especially on nights
where the offense isn't cooking, it has absolutely saved the

(48:12):
Astros bacon or at least given them a chance, even
if sometimes they don't always take advantage of it.

Speaker 6 (48:17):
Yeah, the offense might hit their stride at some point.
I definitely think there's reasons to believe it could. And
jord On Alvarez not being out. There's the biggest reason
why did sneak in there. He gave us an eighty
percent jord On Alvarez is about eighty percent healed, Doctor
Brown dropping that information on the people this morning on
the Sean Salisbury Show, and you can catch that interview
and it's entirety right there at Sports Talk seven ninety

(48:38):
dot com.

Speaker 5 (48:39):
So hope you guys heard that. Hope that is the case.

Speaker 6 (48:42):
As of yesterday, Joe Spotta mentioned he along with Zach
Decenzo and Chas McCormick, none of them have picked up
a bat yet and I'm don't think Jordan should unless
he's one hundred percent healed, So that's not quite there.
Probably a couple weeks before we get there. Just kind
of walking back through the Toplin. It's been about, you know,
not quite two weeks since Saturday's update on where things

(49:05):
were with Jordan Alvarez, and it was again, I do
think there's some vagueness in this number. I don't think
it's in anything exact, but sixty percent healed, then eighty
percent healed. Now you know, maybe we're another week, ten days,
fourteen days, twenty days away from feeling like okay, it
should be one hundred percent healed, and that's why we're

(49:25):
going to take a look at it again. That's why
we're going to go in there and see what we
can see and make sure everything is good for him
to not only pick up a bat, but swing a bat,
face pitching, BP, cage, all that stuff, and wouldn't expect
his return to be too much further away from that.

Speaker 5 (49:41):
Once it's healed, once he can swing and not have.

Speaker 6 (49:44):
Any issue while he's swinging, not have any issues soreness,
et cetera. The following day, I don't think there's much
more time to need for him. He'll face live pitching,
he'll probably have simulated game activity, and then he'll be
playing baseball for the Astros once again. Not much difference
for the Astros with the lineup today with Ryan Gusto
doing the pitching flip flop of Karattini and Myers in

(50:05):
the lineup and a flip flop of Jiner and Kartini's
responsibilities today Karattini, DH DZ catch.

Speaker 8 (50:13):
Are you like me?

Speaker 5 (50:14):
One? One of your favorite parts of the interview with
Brandon Walter was when he was talking about being teammates
with some of these guys that he would basically watch
on TV yord On Alvarez being one of them.

Speaker 6 (50:22):
Well, if you're not in the playoffs at that point
in time, and nobody was except for the Astros and Phillies,
well you're probably tuning in. He's a baseball guy. He
grew up playing baseball, he grew up as a Phillies fan.
His wife is a Philadelphia girl, so it probably meant
a little bit something. But like you said, he's he
was drafted in the early stages of the Astros Golden era.

(50:47):
He'd long since been a professional Boston Red Sox, not
just not really pitching for them yet. But he's not
locked in like he might have been otherwise. You know,
I feel like it's it's amazing how many players now
because of how long this run has taken place, Astros
players and now new Astros players talking about the Astros

(51:09):
winning while they were in college, while they were growing
up in Houston, like Spencer Araghetti and how he was
there for this game or that game, or the parade, or.

Speaker 5 (51:19):
Wasn't he at Game five against the Dodgers.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
That's what he's talked about, being there in the postseason
during some of these years. I mean it's only twenty
twenty five, He's in his second year as a major
league pitcher and at the beginning of the Golden era
of Astros baseball.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
He was at the games as a fan. That's one
of those that I'm just like, how was I not
at that game? But you know, I also missed Jordan's
bomb that we're just now talking about in person. Working
a Rockets road game here at the station that night,
missed that part of the game. But I was there, Yeah,
I know, I got there in time for the celebration after.

Speaker 6 (51:54):
The two most I guess most memorable Jordon postseason homers,
the one off ray and the one off off.

Speaker 5 (52:03):
Jose the Cheater. No, why am I blanking on his name?

Speaker 6 (52:06):
It's the same name, yes, Alvarado, Yeah, the Cheater, The
same name as the awful awfulness in New Orleans, the
little Little Pelican. But yeah, off of Jose Alvarado. I
can't imagine there are bigger moments for Jordan anywhere, let
alone in Houston.

Speaker 5 (52:21):
I bet they're both cheaters. One of them definitely is
the Phillies one. Yeah, nobody cares about that, really, nobody.
It's not great. It's the type of cheating. That's all
they care about. It is amazing. I mean, we we
are subjected to testing which you failed. You're cheating. That's okay.

(52:42):
Everybody else is doing it.

Speaker 9 (52:43):
I don't care.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
But don't you think that's why? Because everyone else is
doing it, that's.

Speaker 6 (52:47):
The It applies to both. So I'm not sure what
you mean exactly. Thank you, Thank you for saying what
I was thinking.

Speaker 5 (52:52):
We'll talk about the Texans here from new Texans running
back Nick Chubb next.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
The Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
A team rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety
just Space City Home Network. Weather didn't stop the Texans
from getting after it today. But when it comes to
who you wanted to hear from, I would say Nick
Chubb probably at the top of that list, just seeing
as how there's been much fanfare about a guy who
probably is the Is he the most low risk, high

(53:32):
reward signing of the offseason. I mean, I'm trying to
think of somebody that is like even comparable to his situation.
Maybe Aaron Rodgers just because he plays quarterback.

Speaker 12 (53:42):
You mean league wide? Yeah, Well I'm wow. Well I'm
trying to think of who has guy that just signed yesterday?
JK Dobbins.

Speaker 5 (53:52):
M I don't know. I haven't. That's a never. I
didn't even think of it that way. So I don't
even know what answer what Nick Chubb signing?

Speaker 6 (54:03):
Well, just describing it as such, I mean, it's just
there's probably ten of them like that. I just nothing
comes to mind. But give I mean, look at what
he's had on high reward only comes if the person
in front of him isn't playing.

Speaker 5 (54:18):
That's not necessarily true. What are you going to get
a high reward from Nick Chubb if planning on playing
Joe Mixon less this year because of his age, okay,
because of how the offense is structured, which we don't
know yet.

Speaker 6 (54:30):
I mean, what's your We'll take your scenario Joe Mixon
plays less? So what are you getting from Nick Chubb
this year? A couple hundred yards four or five touchdowns?

Speaker 5 (54:38):
I don't know, That's what I'm saying. I don't know
what they're planning to do with him, whether that's strictly
running or if it's more in the passing game or
a mixture of both. I would assume, But I mean,
his health is the number one thing, which is where
the low risk, high reward scenario comes into play, but
I don't know. There's guys that sign deals like this

(55:01):
every so often where I look at it that way,
and I think he's at the top of the list
this year because of what he's done in the past.
He's been great.

Speaker 6 (55:08):
He's been one of the five or six most productive
running backs during his time there, and obviously this team
saw it, and these fans saw it firsthand, so did
Cleveland fans.

Speaker 5 (55:15):
I wish there was an opportunity to.

Speaker 6 (55:17):
See him more the last two days because he quite
honestly wasn't doing anything. If they were running individual drills,
and they did, he participated. When they got into team drills,
he watched like I did, but I wasn't ready to play,
and I wasn't standing on the sidelines and I'm not
in uniform, nor am I capable, But I don't think
he was ready to step out on the field, considering
literally truly just arrived in Houston hours a day before

(55:42):
this mandatory mini camp began. So that's nothing strange to
see it. But what he had to say today certainly
is is of value. We'll just get right out of
the gate. Here's Nick Chubb.

Speaker 13 (55:53):
That's the biggest thing is knowing what this team was
about from afar. I've always been a fan of coached Demico,
and I know some guys on the team. I know
Joe Mixon, I know what he's about, and I'll watch
it from afar on the other sideline plenty of years,
and I know how how he runs the ball. And
I know the opportunity I had here with this team,
you know, being then up and coming team in past
two years, I really turned it on, so I know
how a chance to come in with a win lot
of games, surrounded by a great group.

Speaker 6 (56:14):
Of people, something he no longer had in Cleveland. Now
he was in the playoffs with Cleveland, albeit he was
unavailable and hurt when this team he's now on this CJ.
Stroud led team, Will Anderson led team, Dimiico Ryans led
team ended his team's season that first game they ever
had with a trio in the playoffs, they ran Cleveland

(56:34):
out of town, even though Cleveland had just beaten them
when quarterbacked by case Keenum a handful of weeks prior
in the very same building. So definitely aware of that,
clearly aware of the respective teams situations. Cleveland is a
very very popular pick to finish last in their division
and Paxman sorry very very popular pick to finish first

(56:56):
in their division. Obviously, his thoughts there were about some
of the reasons behind why he chose the Houston Texans.
His injury situation led him to where he was this season.
This offseason wondering where football might be for him in
the future, addressed some of those injury concerns some might have.

Speaker 9 (57:12):
I would say that's all behind me.

Speaker 13 (57:14):
You know, injuries happened, and with what I did, it
takes about two years to really get back, and so
I'm over to hump I'm back home. I was back
home all off season training where I trained you know,
every year since I was in high school, and I
was able to get a full year in of through
doing the things that I do best. And so now
I'm feeling good as I have been in a long time.

Speaker 6 (57:30):
He essentially addressed what we talked about from the moment
we thought this was a possibility, from earlier this week
when it became reality. It's a timing thing with certain injuries.
I think most would agree on the football side when
we see it. On the football side, with running backs,
when we see it. He got back on the field
last year because he was healthy, he was cleared, but
it certainly didn't look like the Nick Chubb that left

(57:51):
with an early twenty twenty three season knee injury. The
type of injury he had, the multiple surgeries that are
required to get him healthy enough to he cleared to play,
and he played eight games with the Browns last year,
and he was not particularly successful. And as you hear
him say, he's now over the hump. He's now able
to do the things he needs to do to prepare
to play the kind of football he's used to playing.

Speaker 5 (58:14):
And I think the numbers behind it, whether they.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
Were we stink as a football offense related, and they
did stink, and they got awful quarterback play, and teams
could absolutely say, I kind of think we're good if
we stopped the run here. I don't think Cleveland's gonna
be able to do very much with the group of
quarterbacks that are playing us throughout the year. And it worked,
so that had a little bit to do with it.
But this is a career five plus yards for Carrie

(58:38):
back five year twenty eighteen to twenty twenty three. Before
he got hurt, he was third in the NFL in
yards per carry. Last year, he was second from the
bottom in yards per carry. Thank god for Alexander Madison,
or else Chubb would have been dead last in yards
per Carrie, I think all of those factors together, and
to hear him say it the way he did, I'm near,
I'm two years past it, I'm over the hump. I

(59:00):
did what I wanted to do basically this offseason. I mean,
he wasn't running the ball like I told you at practice,
certainly looked like he's ready to run the football. When
they get to training camp just about a week before
the end of July July twenty third, they'll get things started.

Speaker 5 (59:16):
So then why did he sign with the Texans? If
he's behind or he's over the hump, the injuries are
behind him, and he's, as you put it, not going
to be producing as much behind Joe Mixon, why come here? Well,
what are your options on June seventh? That kind of
answers your question. Right, He's still available on June seventh.

Speaker 6 (59:38):
Because teams the Texans are concerned about his injuries, especially
should be, as were other teams who weren't interested, as
were teams that don't need him.

Speaker 5 (59:46):
As we're teams that can't win that he doesn't want. Yeah,
he's saying all the right things about his injury situation,
because I mean, the alternative is terrible. You don't want
to be saying I'm pretty juryting.

Speaker 6 (59:57):
Me to go back to what I said at the
beginning of this segment, and you know, high reward comes
only through Joe Mixon's injury. And I still think that's
probably true. He's not going to unseat him. He might
elevate past him because Joe's not on the field, and
Joe's currently not practicing. I don't think there's much concern
about his availability for the season though. But the high
reward is, Okay, we replaced Joe Mixon with Joe Mixon. Yeah,

(01:00:22):
and that is an extremely high reward, absolutely a chance
worth taking. There's not that many other teams that provide
him with what he just described. He's gonna play. He's
gonna be on a winning team this year, whether or
not he's a huge contributor or not.

Speaker 5 (01:00:35):
He wasn't.

Speaker 6 (01:00:36):
He's a running back coming off of two injuries. As
he's hitting thirty with a lot of tread on the tires.
There's not a lot of money for them even with
teams that need running back help.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
I mean JK.

Speaker 6 (01:00:47):
Dobbins got more money than him, which reportedly not from
that particular team, but reportedly Nick Chubb said no to
more money elsewhere so he could come here and build
it in a more incentive way. The team obviously wants that,
and he'll get to earn his money if he's on
the field where he's playing what locker room he's in
the opportunity to play more than seventeen.

Speaker 5 (01:01:07):
Games, meaning the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
I definitely think in his situation he cared about that,
and then that's one of the reasons why he's here.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
Specifically. One of the highlights of our show is semantics. Right, Yes, absolutely,
I'm going to pick on you and everybody else who
does it. Why do they keep talking about the tread
on the tires.

Speaker 6 (01:01:26):
Well, when your tread is low on the tires because
you've used them so much, you need new ones.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
But shouldn't you say tread off the tires. It's like
when people say I couldn't care less or I could
care less.

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
Yeah, I try to be very careful with that one
to make sure I'm saying what makes sense.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
So what did I say? There's a lot of tread
on the tires. Yeah, shouldn't there be not a lot
on the tires correct? Or a lot of tread off
the tires. Yeah, that's definitely the way to say it.

Speaker 6 (01:01:49):
Moving forward and starting at three twenty six on June eleventh,
twenty twenty five, I will do that.

Speaker 5 (01:01:54):
It's absolutely right. It's such a running back. There's a
lot of tread off the tires, absolutely, no question. Or
there's a lot of miles on the odometer which you
don't use as much. Or the chick lits inside his
mouth are getting lengthy. Chick lits are underrated. They just
lose long in the tooth. And by the way, I
can't even remember the last time I went into a
restaurant and saw them us be too long. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 6 (01:02:17):
I happen to be on the side of I think
he's going to be healthy. I think he's healthy today,
and I say it in a way that he said
it he was healthy last year. That's not what I'm saying.
I think the ability to produce like he did last
year is going to be on display, and so how
he's going to help this team is you're going to

(01:02:39):
run the ball thirty times in a game, twenty five
times in a game. Well, now he's getting seven of them,
eight of them, ten of them, instead of Joe getting
twenty two or three and Damian Pierce getting three or
four and Daria Goombalwali getting three or four, They're gonna
fall into his hands. And I think that's gonna happen
from the moment this season gets underway, I think, unquestionably,
in my opinion, there's very difficult for both of those

(01:03:02):
players to make this team this year, for both Dara
and Damian Pierce to be Texans this year. What do
you Marx did not practice yesterday, did not practice today.
He was there today, So I don't know the reason
behind it, But nothing visually obvious about any injury situation
he might have. But you just drafted him. He's making
the team unless you hide him somewhere. Chubb and Mixon

(01:03:22):
are making the team. You're carrying five running backs, none
of whom are your kick returner, because I don't thay care.

Speaker 5 (01:03:27):
For five running backs. You cannot carry three quarterbacks. That's
the rule. That's fine.

Speaker 6 (01:03:31):
They definitely don't need to carry three quarterbacks. Sorry, the
guy that throw almost all the passes the last two days,
Keaton Slows.

Speaker 5 (01:03:36):
We'll come right back here and get Chris Gordy in here.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
On the A Team, The A Team on Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
Well, you have come to the time of the week
where we catch up with our good friend Chris Gordy
on air. We see him every day, we talk to
him every day, but this is the only segment of
the week where he comes on the show unless we
start talking about SEC football and then he just does
a guest appearance like on other shows, which happened earlier
this week. Mcgardy. We were talking a little bit about
the inability for the Astros to stem both the play

(01:04:17):
of the Chicago White Sox against them and individually the
play of Luis Robert Jr. He has two of his
six home runs against them.

Speaker 14 (01:04:25):
Yeah, there's always certain guys that they just they played
better against some teams, and it's particularly small sample size
when it's a team you bay really see. But you know,
I brought this up to Ross on our Crawford Box
cast last week we were doing and I said, you know,
looking at the White Sox and what they've been doing recently.
I mean, they did just split a four game set

(01:04:45):
with the Detroit Tigers, who are awesome, you know, one
of the best teams in baseball, and then they took
tow out of three against the Royals. So even bad teams,
you know, it's a long season. Even bad teams have
a stretch where they play inspired baseball and they suddenly
winning some games.

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
So to me, it's not you know, it's not the
end of the world.

Speaker 14 (01:05:03):
You lost last night, but you have held serve at
home this year, so now it's a little bit of pressure.
I think, on hey, can you come back and win
these next two and win another home series. It's just,
you know, I feel good about frombro on the Mount
tomorrow night, Gusta on the mounta tonight, I don't feel
great about.

Speaker 5 (01:05:20):
But to me, it's the story that's been the story
with so much the season.

Speaker 14 (01:05:24):
When the Astros lose games, it's because the offense can't
get runs across. I mean, it sounds very simple, but
that's the reality of situation. Your pitching has been good enough.
There's only been a couple of real blow ups from
this pitching staff. But even a bad start, I mean
mccullor's last night, four earn it's not great. But if
you score six, we're not even talking about Lance last night.

Speaker 5 (01:05:43):
Yeah, if you score six, nobody scores six on a
nightly basis. Offense they used to.

Speaker 14 (01:05:49):
I mean that the Astros offensive a couple of years
ago was a nightly occurrence. But I just get frustrated
when it's you score two and you turn to the
pitching staff and go, come on, guys, need you pitch
the shutout here.

Speaker 7 (01:06:01):
Game?

Speaker 6 (01:06:01):
If it's a last night, they need better from Lance mccullors.
True or false, that's true.

Speaker 14 (01:06:07):
But but look, he had been really good the last
the previous couple outings, so you know, I think he's in.
He's entitled to one kind of I wouldn't call it dud,
but one kind of right, I'm speed bumping the road.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
But you scored two. I mean you were what one
for one for nobody whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
He's gonna argue the offense is not the strength of
this team. The offense isn't even good. They're they're average
at best. Totally understand that. Uh, regardless of that, this
is where it's amazing they are where they are. The
start they got last night from mcculors is likely what
they'll get pretty much anytime. Brown and Valdez don't pitch
a shorter outing and it puts strain on the bullpen.

(01:06:44):
And look who they were able to use last night.
They got four innings out of Dubin and Ort and
two from SUSA. No hit baseball for four innings the
final four innings of the game. The opportunity is there
for the offense. Do you think they need to continue
laying while jord On and Chaz and Zach are out
to continue basically trotting out the exact same outfield on

(01:07:06):
an every single night basis Melton, Smith and Myers, which
they're doing again tonight.

Speaker 14 (01:07:11):
That's it's tough because Dana Brown made the commitment. He said,
if we're gonna have Jacob Melton up here, he's gonna play.
We have to see him and Cam Smith. They can't
afford not to play him because again, same thing like,
if he's gonna be up here, he's got to play
a good bit. I think you're you're Jake Myers's and
even Chaz when he's when he's healthy, You're fine skipping
them a night or two here and there. But I

(01:07:33):
think with Cam Smith and Jacob Melton, you risk you
give those guys a night or two off and then
suddenly they come back and they're, oh for four. They
work themselves in a funk and suddenly it's like, oh,
that's gonna be hard to play out of. I think
the young guys, you have to play them every day
just to get a look and get them more of
a sample size of big league pitching. I mean, you know,

(01:07:54):
it's it's crazy to think Cam Smith is, what a
couple of months into this thing, and he's like a
savvy Vett now because how many games he's played. Jacob
Melton is just seeing his first handful of games of
starting pitching. So you know it is you mentioned the bullpen.
I mean, they were lights out and they continue to
be lights out. We were looking at the numbers earlier,
earlier in the season, they were number two in ERA
and all of baseball. Then you had those two hiccups

(01:08:17):
against Tampa Bay where that he absolutely blew up and
they dropped I want to say ninth. They're back up
to seventh, and I mean they're they're moving back up
that list again because they've been so good and it's
so funny. You think of Benett Susa at the end
of the season two years ago. He was a punchline, right,
We're like, yeah, it's a fun story, but you know
this guy, he's.

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
Not gonna be round and he would have been on
the playoff roster he arrived, but it was kind of
like a joke.

Speaker 14 (01:08:43):
It was like, yeah, he would have been on the
plan front and then he gets hurt and misses you know,
last season, but he spounced back and he's been really good.
I mean, think about Saturday, he comes in that big
spot first time you had to use hater in a
tie game this year, something you did a lot last
year and he cost you. But this year he does
well on Saturday and then comes Benett Susa to save
in mission accomplished. So can't say enough about him and

(01:09:03):
the rest of these guys. This bullpen has just been
lights out and it's crazy thing all the pieces that
have come and gone from Ryan Presley, Ryan Stanek, I
mean insert name here, and yet this group of guys
might be their best group they've had. And it's you know,
early in the season, but like collectively, they've been as
strong as any you've you've had.

Speaker 5 (01:09:21):
And you have the it's gone from sixty percent healed
to eighty percent healed hand of your Don Alvarez. I mean,
I guess that's a good speed. But even after it's
one hundred percent and he's you know, that's when you
can start picking up a bat. It's just like feels
like this is be like the longest wait ever to
get a guy who you know is going to help you,

(01:09:41):
because it's so obvious now he wasn't right when he
was trying to play well. You say that, but I mean,
what if he comes back in struggles. I mean that's
I think he's going to hit a home run his
first game back, because that's what he did the last
time he had an injury that kept him out this long.
I'm just I'm almost done talking about him.

Speaker 14 (01:09:56):
I mean, it's like it just let me know when, like,
let me know when he's ready to go, and the
day he is inserted back in that lineup, I'll be excited.
But that's the tough part too, is we're what about
seven weeks out from you know, trade deadline. Now, like
you start looking and going, do we need another bat?
And a left handed bat? I mean, I know it's
a narrative that's been brought up left and right. You know,

(01:10:17):
the Tailer Room wrote a piece in his article today
in The Athletic basically the only position you can have
had as a second basement yep, because if you add
an outfielder, who's he playing over? If you add you're
not adding a first baseman. You're not adding this and that.
So like, where does that guy play? Because when you're
on's back, he's the full time DH again, so that
becomes difficult. But look a lot of these problems could
be solved if you're comes back and hits and Christian

(01:10:39):
Walker gets us head of his button he starts hitting.

Speaker 5 (01:10:40):
Well, that was my next question is when you went
if you're tired of talking about your on Alvarez, then
you have to be sort of tired of talking about
at least the struggles of Christian Walker, because that means
he's still struggling.

Speaker 14 (01:10:51):
Yeah, and it's you know, it's we're past the thing
of oh it's a slow start. This just might be
a bad year for him, but there are no other
options he has to play. I mean, I don't you know,
you don't have a good backup first baseman. And that's
somebody tweet me the other day. I wish they wouldn't
let John Singleton go, please delete that tweet as quickly
as possible. I mean, I I just I agree.

Speaker 5 (01:11:11):
I wish they would not have let Johnson. You would,
but he was.

Speaker 6 (01:11:16):
I'm not saying he should be playing over him. I'm saying,
just a le handed bat that provides good at bats,
it's probably gonna be about a seven hundred ops guy
makes sense for a team that has none of that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:27):
Yeah, but people forget it was his walk that made
jose Al Twove's three run homer in the ALCS.

Speaker 14 (01:11:33):
I having a left hand bad as nice, but having
a left hand about who sucks too? I mean it
just doesn't you know you.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
Got I mean, honestly, look at the rest of what
they have.

Speaker 6 (01:11:41):
I mean, I'm not here to try to, you know,
pimp for John Singleton, but we're acting like their offense
and their bench and their reserves are all hitting.

Speaker 5 (01:11:50):
No, they're not.

Speaker 14 (01:11:52):
Now you would you would like to have a nice
bench veteran here. That's why I thought this team could
have used and Dubon's kind of acause didn't play every day.
But like that journeyman bench guy that comes in late
in the game that's seen, you know, a decade long
service time they don't have that.

Speaker 5 (01:12:07):
Next Crawford box cast recording is when I'll drop later today.
Sounds good.

Speaker 6 (01:12:12):
Drops appreciate it with his new album, Yeah exactly Ross's
new album.

Speaker 5 (01:12:16):
Thanks Chris, Thanks Phellos.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:12:27):
Thanks again to Chris Gordy for stopping by making his
weekly visit, chatting up a little Astros baseball switching gears
a little, and I I mean when you talk about
expecting a delivery and getting that delivery and then some
on a text exchange with Adam Wesler. Boy did I

(01:12:48):
get that from earlier today? So jokingly, of course, I
sent a link to a tweet that had an article
from Sham's Sharania about the latest and I use that
term very loosely on Kevin Durant ESPN reporting the Phoenix
Suns of Kevin Durant's business partner Rich Clement are sorting

(01:13:08):
through trade options DASH with interested teams mainly featuring Houston,
San Antonio, Minnesota, Miami, and New York. So I sent
that to the group thread for the show. Yes me,
that's Clinton, That's cool. Yeah, group thread. I put shams
in all caps and then a bomb emoji, and I

(01:13:29):
immediately got a response from one of them. I'll let
you guess which one wrote this same news slash teams
that's been rumored for weeks hashtag wet blanket wasn't Cole,
I give you one more option, And of course I
had to respond because I have to have the last word.
I said, nu huh. He listed Houston before San Antonio,

(01:13:51):
thereby negating yesterday's very important hoops high post hashtag dryer sheet.
Come on, give give hoops wire some credit. Oh did
I say hoops hype instead of hoops Wire? It doesn't matter.
I do think sometimes I'm not even kidding when I
say this, because I've seen Windhorst does this, Wendy does this,

(01:14:15):
he will I think he does this, and I think
Mark Stein has done this in the past. I feel
like a lot of these guys who are respected journalists
that have sources that aren't just whatever throwing something up
against the wall. I do think at times when it
comes to stories like this, they list in order of

(01:14:37):
the likelihood. When it comes to listing several teams that
are interested in a player in this case, Kevin Durant,
you know always saw not just yesterday but really, over
the weekend I saw this a little bit, the little
rumblings if you will, Wow, Kevin Durant prefers a deal
to the San Antonio Spurs. But I feel like since

(01:14:58):
in the middle of last year, when before the trade deadline,
Houston and Kevin Durant were being paired by a number
of people ad nauseum NonStop.

Speaker 6 (01:15:10):
Because you can walk down the list and do it
for all five teams that he listed, and he also
in the article added several wildcard suitors have made inquiry. Yeah,
I know, everybody thinks he's good and they think they
can make his team better, and they're pretty good, so
they've made inquiries. He's trying to downplay their interest, but
also opening the door or leaving the door open for well,
I know, I listed five teams, so when he got
traded to this team, I actually told you there were

(01:15:32):
other wildcard suitors out there, you know, the old John
Hayman mystery team that's involved in negotiations, same type of deal.
But can the Knicks put a package together to put
Kevin Durant in the good New York Finally, yeah, they
probably can, And depending on what direction they go with
their head coach, and what kind of relationship might already
be there between Kevin Durant and that new head coach might.

Speaker 5 (01:15:56):
Play a part in it.

Speaker 6 (01:15:58):
The three teams that the Knicks have asked to reportedly,
and Shab's reported this as well, that they've asked teams
with head coaches if it's okay if we talk to
your head coach about us stealing him and us giving
you trade compensation in return. They've asked the Minnesota Timberwolves
and they said no. They've asked the Dallas Mavericks and
they've said no for Chris Finch and Jason Kidd respectively.

(01:16:19):
And the Rockets were asked about email Udoka they also
and they said, hell no, they said no.

Speaker 5 (01:16:23):
You know what's funny about that, though, that is a
crystal clear example of well, can't hurt to ask? What
it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life.
Can't hurt to ask is one thing? How about can't
hurt to find out illegally like every other team does
before they pull the trigger on a coach firing. What
do you mean did they really not know they were

(01:16:44):
gonna say no? All this last several months when they
were contemplating firing Tom Thibodeaux. That wouldn't say No, we
don't mean I know they did. I'm being true.

Speaker 6 (01:16:53):
Yeah, I keep trying to not say the word literally,
but I mean it here did they not make the
necessary don't tell anybody about this phone call to the rockets,
to people close to em, to the mask what's funn close?
So they would already have this information before they come
to the ultimate conclusion that they're going to fire Tibbs.
Because if these are the coaches you're about to go after, well,

(01:17:14):
you're gonna be pretty far down your How bad is
TIBs that you're okay with? It's fine if we fire
TIBs and get our eighth choice. We like that, that's
okay with us. He's that bad for us. We want
him out that badly.

Speaker 5 (01:17:27):
Like I'm not the biggest Tom Thibodeau fan in the world,
but I don't know what they're thinking, Like are they
gonna offer Jalen Brunson for Kevin Durant because that's about
as stupid. No, they're not gonna do that. I know
I'm kidding, but doesn't that seems about as dumb as
firing a guy who just took you to the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 6 (01:17:44):
You can consider he was the third coach to be
fired during a successful season. Taylor Jenkins did a good
job with the Memphis Grizzlies this year, in my opinion,
and clearly prior to their blow up, injury riddled, suspension
riddled season, he'd been great. Michael Malone, same thing. He's
two years, less than two years removed from winning a title,
and they moved on from him. And now this current
Knicks team advanced all the way to the conference finals,

(01:18:06):
something they had not regularly been doing, and they've moved on.
I don't think Denver has a better coach, but that
remains to be seen. What Adalman did during the postseason
certainly was admirable. They took the Oklahoma City Thunder to
a seventh game. We'll find out if Memphis is in
a better situation. I definitely do not think they have

(01:18:27):
a better head coach. I think they have a worse
head coach, definitely, for sure. And I'm not sure who's
pulling the strings there to have made that happen, but
basically forcing him onto Jenkin's staff the year before and
now elevating him to this that's the kind of situation
that screams of somebody's some wrong buddy is pulling the
strings inside that organization.

Speaker 5 (01:18:46):
Memphis is head coach situation is like fiftieth down the
list of their issues.

Speaker 12 (01:18:50):
So my philosophy when it comes to doing the hiring
and firing coaches is pull the Steve Sarcasian mode. And
if you don't know what that means, they fired Tom
Herman and less than thirty men they announced the higher
Cy Sarkisian. You got to hire somebody that's.

Speaker 6 (01:19:02):
Fast that you can finally say, Okay, finally we can
be normal.

Speaker 5 (01:19:08):
We've fired our head coach.

Speaker 6 (01:19:09):
We can finally post the job opening, and now he
can finally make the phone call, Hey, can somebody get
Steve Sarkesian's agent's number, because we definitely don't have it yet,
because we had a head coach and we would definitely
not want to do the wrong thing, and you know,
kind of put feelers out there because we have the
head coach.

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
That's nobody does that. I wish nobody did that, but
everybody does it. And I know that he just took
the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, but he didn't. He
had Luke on his team, and then the front office
traded him. He did, I know what you're saying, and
I even think saying it that way is unfair. I
think Jason Kid's a bad head coach y, but I'm
still going to back him and saying like so they

(01:19:49):
had Luca's been to the NBA finals one time. He
went with Jason Kidd like he doesn't get any kind
of recognition for being the coach of the team. But
he said, Nico did the right thing, Nico Harrison, here
are the players, I think, and we can win a
Western Conference with, win an NBA title with Now it's
up to you to get us there. Or he said,
you can get us there. That's what I would have

(01:20:11):
said if I ran him. Maybe, but I mean, look
at this, the Knicks were blocked from talking to Kid
Udoka Finch. One of those things is not like the others. Hmmm.

Speaker 6 (01:20:21):
One was a superstar NBA player, one was an okay
NBA player, the other didn't get there at all.

Speaker 5 (01:20:26):
How often another star one title not have good coaching resumes.
Clyde Drexler.

Speaker 6 (01:20:30):
I know I May's path to being a head coach
from a player to coach role. That's the best pretty
good player. Rotational player, played for good, well coached teams,
then became an assistant coach for well coached teams, then
became a head coach. That's a great path act not
being awesome at bouncing the ball and passing the ball
and sometimes shooting the ball, and then getting transparent glasses

(01:20:53):
and coaching.

Speaker 5 (01:20:53):
For the mass that's not usually the transparent. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:20:59):
Like the huge.

Speaker 5 (01:21:05):
Edited where.

Speaker 2 (01:21:07):
Adam Wexler.

Speaker 5 (01:21:11):
On Sports four o'clock our underway here on the program
Sports Talks seven ninety Space City Home Network. Before you
know it, we will make way for Astros on deck.
Astros trying to bounce back from yet another loss to
the White Sox. I don't care if they've been playing
better lately. It's just unacceptable to me. At least the

(01:21:32):
Mariners lost last night and so the Astros remain ahead
by the same count in the division. We were talking
a little bit last segment about some NBA news and
notes the fact that the Rockets were among three teams
that said, no, you can't talk to our head coach Nicks. Sorry,
that's just not gonna happen. I think that's wild that

(01:21:53):
that's going on.

Speaker 6 (01:21:54):
What would you ask for you can talk to email.
You can even hire email. It's gonna cost you, though.

Speaker 5 (01:22:00):
What is the cost where you would even entertain the conversation.
That's why they're not. He has completely changed the culture.
He's turned this into not just oh, it's a nice
little playoff story like they were the second seed last year.

Speaker 6 (01:22:12):
The other part of that story normally is they also
decline when the coach shows no interest in it either,
So out of respect to the coach, oftentimes a team
will say, okay, well, if this is what you want, yeah,
go ahead, we'll let you talk, will work out compensation
if it gets to that point, or in advance of that,

(01:22:32):
so we know what might be coming. But they wouldn't
necessarily automatically say you can't leave, but I want to Nope,
you can't.

Speaker 9 (01:22:41):
It doesn't.

Speaker 6 (01:22:42):
It's usually more of a team effort saying, well, he
doesn't want to go there anyway, we will just decline
it and we'll be done with it.

Speaker 5 (01:22:47):
I will admit, and I think you would agree with me.
It would be highly entertaining to watch emay U Duka
deal with the you know what that are the New
York sports media. I mean, I don't know that there
was very I know what you're saying. He would he
would be fine. Well, he would do he would do
the same.

Speaker 6 (01:23:05):
He wouldn't change it if he do the same thing
Tibbs is doing. It's fun, well kind of, but it's
not impact what tip. The impact of the media on
TIBs and how he's operated is zero. That's how he
may would.

Speaker 5 (01:23:17):
Be correct, But I'm talking about the delivery, like Thibodeau,
Is it Thibodeaux or Thibodeaux. Can we finally not to
be a head coach?

Speaker 6 (01:23:25):
It's okay not to know, not even working there, or
not to care in this case, Well, I don't want
to be that glib and mean, well, you.

Speaker 5 (01:23:31):
Can't call him TIBs and then say his full name
and say Thibodeaux. It's just stupid. Make up your mind.
He spent too many years here as Thibodeaux exactly so
for uh, for the purpose of this conversation, he will
remain with a hard t if you will, But it's
the delivery. For me, it's they are very They are
two very different personalities, and I think this goes for

(01:23:53):
both on and off the court. They're both fiery in
their own way. But like he May's not going to
lose his voice yelling at anybody, No, you're right, he's not,
because somehow he manages this to not wow voice already.

Speaker 6 (01:24:11):
So to the Durant angle of this, if just we'll
take the five teams that were listed. These are no
different than I think what everybody has been focused on.
Maybe the heat. We're a little bit less of a focus.
And that's kind of the point of my question. If
you're Kevin Durant, you're getting out of Phoenix. He knows that, Uh,
there's probably three or four deals that make sense for
Phoenix with these five.

Speaker 5 (01:24:31):
Teams, and now it's kind of up to him. Where
do I want to go?

Speaker 6 (01:24:34):
I do think each of these teams probably can put
together a deal that would make it happen. And then
maybe you have the sons weighing them against each other
a little bit, but only to a certain area, because
I kind of feel like Kevin Durant is gonna help
them net really comparably. There's a lot of teams to say,
we can't live without him. So whatever deals you've gotten,

(01:24:54):
I guarantee you we're going to beat it with our offer.
I think San Antonio is actually in a position where
it might make sense to do that because of the
assets that they hold. I don't think the Rockets would
want to do that because of where their team actually
is already in the thick of the Western Conference race.
And then on down the line, are the Timberwolves in
that position. Well, the Timberwolves are in an even better
position than Houston. They're back to back Western Conference finalists,

(01:25:18):
they have one of the five best players in the conference.
They clearly put together two very different teams, one with
Julius Randall and one with kat that made it to
the exact same spot in the Western Conference. They know
that pieces around Anthony Edwards and with coach Finch, who
the Knicks can't have. Probably we're going to find a
way to make this work. And I think a little
bit of credit goes to all the other players there

(01:25:39):
that matter so much. With McDaniels and Nasried and this
past year with a de Vincenzo, this is a really
talented team. I intentionally did not mention their many time
Defensive Player of the Year award winner because I think
when the playoffs arrive, he disappears, So I don't think
he helps. Could you despise more hemmer, Jason Kid, you
don't like gridy go. One of the reasons I dislike

(01:26:01):
Jason Kidd is for a surprising reason, because it seems
like I would like.

Speaker 5 (01:26:06):
Him more for this.

Speaker 6 (01:26:08):
But his nonsense cup spillage. That's bice coach. It's a
very childish thing to do. I still can't believe that happened. Yeah,
but that's not I mean, I know that it's unbecoming
of a head coach to do it, and I should
be like, Yeah, that was cool, that was different, that
was unique, that was clever, and I just don't do.

Speaker 5 (01:26:27):
You remember when Blake Griffin was heading over to the
sideliner and time that's a paying customer. That's way worse,
right if it was deemed intentional, which they can't prove. Yeah,
this was this was water to person combat. Jason Kidd was,
I've spilled my drink. We got to stop play here.

(01:26:48):
It's hey, it's like when a player takes a little
too much time in an NFL game getting up, and
that's basically a timeout. So we'll take it back to again.
These scenarios.

Speaker 6 (01:26:58):
I think the deals will be amenable to Phoenix and
to Kevin, but it's his landing spot. Does he want
to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves, will he not take
too much away from them? And will he fit in
there on a team that's clearly they're definitely.

Speaker 5 (01:27:11):
Ready to win.

Speaker 6 (01:27:12):
They're the most ready to win of every team in
the scenario, including Houston. They've advanced further than Houston in
back to back seasons and have a true number one
Kevin Durant is the second best player on the Timberwolves
if he arrives there, is that true? I know he's
the second most important? Is he the second best? And
even saying that, aren't they already painting a picture that

(01:27:34):
says he might not like Minnesota or a rod But
if he's trying to win another title, is Minnesota a
real true life competitor to Houston for Kevin Durant?

Speaker 5 (01:27:49):
Let me ask you this. Let me answer your question
with a question. If he decided to come to the Rockets,
and I know we don't know the parameters of the deal,
but who are you then taking in a seven game
series between the Rockets and the Timberwolves because the Rockets
have KD And but what do they give up? Because
you're gonna have to answer that question about the Timberwolves,

(01:28:12):
because to get KD just from a salary standpoint, you're
gonna have to probably not purge your roster, but you're
gonna have.

Speaker 6 (01:28:20):
To give up some sort of deal. Probably starts with
Joe Ingles and then you figure out the rest.

Speaker 5 (01:28:25):
Another you can add him to the list of people
you despise in the NBA. You guys think I'm the
only hater in this room. Wex has a very quiet
assassin type list of NBA and just general sports eight
and he's definitely on it. You can't stand Joe Ingles,
can't stand him. Seriously, I'm not a coach, but just

(01:28:45):
make him dribble, dude. Then it's all over. So he's
came out, he's finished. He can't do anything. The stand
there and take wide open shots is come. I know
em told you, I.

Speaker 6 (01:28:54):
Know your coaches have come on you last ye right,
you have you have a the ability forget fire up
the iPad on the plane.

Speaker 5 (01:29:01):
You'll see it. It's right there in town for the
regular season. It was late in the year. I think
it was in April. Actually, he walked out for warm
ups and I saw him and I thought, of you.
I almost said something He also borderlines on the hey man,
it wasn't me. I didn't do it.

Speaker 6 (01:29:20):
Started his career in Utah, where they teach him. He
does all that stuff. I cannot cannot stand it. I
don't know the figure that nas Reed will be playing
for next year. Potentially Jade McDaniels is a twenty four
million dollar player. I don't think they'd want to part
with Julius Randall. I'm not sure that Phoenix would want
him in return.

Speaker 5 (01:29:38):
But that I was free agent. The way that his restricted,
he he.

Speaker 6 (01:29:42):
Has an opera, they have the I don't know how
to say it correctly. I'm sorry, like I don't believe
it's a I do believe it's a player option. But
I'm almost certain he won't be playing for that figure
next year. They're going to rework his deal, so no
way they let him go go.

Speaker 5 (01:29:55):
I would think not. I do know how to say it.
I just was stumbling. You don't want to it. You
said Kevin Durant would be the most important or the
second most important after Anthony Edwards should he land there.
I'm not saying os Reed's more important than Kevin Durant.
So don't don't get it. Twisted. But man, you talk
about that's like taking him in Thompson away from the Rockets.

(01:30:18):
I really do feel that strongly about what he does
for that team because he's not and he might he's
a better offensive player than a man, at least from
a shooting standpoint. He just has a better jump shot
or whatever you want to But like, that's how important
I think.

Speaker 6 (01:30:32):
Does it feel like he gave the Wolves more offense
than a men gave to Houston? He doesn't, though, that's
is it about the same? Yeah, he scored fourteen points
a game when a Men was a starter.

Speaker 5 (01:30:42):
That's what he does. It's the same thing.

Speaker 6 (01:30:44):
But I don't think the perception. The perception is mainly
because he does it to Houston. Yeah, he's a twenty
point a game score. He's going getting double doubles for
the defense, and he's a very flexible defender. You want
me on this big and I'm going to push him
around great. I have an enough dexterity, foot speed, quickness
to defend on the perimeter at a very high level.

(01:31:04):
He's a very I think he's a pretty good shot blocker.
He's a very good defender. They're a long team. He
fits right in.

Speaker 5 (01:31:10):
I look at him the way I look at either
Alex Caruso or Isaiah Hartenstein for the Thunder.

Speaker 6 (01:31:18):
Yeah, you just they probably just needed a few more
offensive weapons. As Edwards was inconsistent offensively this postseason probably overall,
not just against the Thunder. There was no clear Okay,
well this guy will be on or that guy we
can run a little bit of offense through him. And
you definitely could have done that with Nazried, but you're
just not counting on him for that many points every night.

Speaker 5 (01:31:39):
You definitely can do it with Kevin.

Speaker 6 (01:31:40):
Kevin's providing the Wolves the same thing he's providing to Houston,
and I'm gonna ask at the same way like Kevin
Durant's Definitely there's no player that's obviously better than him
in Houston like there is in Minnesota. That's a big,
big difference in what you're asking of Kevin Durant. Thirty
seven thirty eight year old Kevin Durant. Is he the

(01:32:00):
best player of the Rockets have for both of his
years here or all three of his years here. That's
a really big difference between him going to a team
to help them win a Western Conference or Eastern Conference
or being a part of a Western Conference winner.

Speaker 5 (01:32:14):
But while he would probably get more shots here, I
don't necessarily feel like, oh, we are putting it all
on you. We can't win unless you are the guy. Yeah,
not until there's three minutes left anyway. But that's what
he's here for at that point. Exactly interesting scenario.

Speaker 6 (01:32:27):
We never mentioned the Miami Heats possibilities, because come on,
there ain't no way Kevin Durant is going to play
for the Miami Heat, no matter how many reports that
we respect put his name in there.

Speaker 5 (01:32:38):
We will continue on this discussion.

Speaker 6 (01:32:41):
Jump back in on some Texans discussion, specifically about Will
Anderson Junior's edge rushing partner.

Speaker 2 (01:32:49):
The Aged on Sports Talk seven ninety. It is the
A Team.

Speaker 5 (01:33:03):
It's Sports Chalk seven ninety Wednesday edition of the program.
We're gonna get to our signature segment coming up next.
We did not hear I don't believe we heard from
Daniel Hunter. I know we heard from Nick Chubb. I
can't remember at this point we did. All it was
only one sound bite, right, We've only played We've played

(01:33:23):
like a million Nick Chubb sound bites in the time
we've been on the air. Today, and by that I
mean like two or three, but I don't remember which
we played for Daniel Hunter, I know that you said this,
none of them. Oh I thought you said we played one.
We've played none of them all right, Uh, I know
that you said this and tweeted as much. He looks
like he's even more of a cartoon character in a

(01:33:45):
good way.

Speaker 6 (01:33:46):
Yeah, definitely wouldn't rocked up probably phrase it like that
to him unless he's a big cartoon character guy. I
think quarterbacks would love if he was a cartoon character
rather than the beast that he is. So we'll get
to that roll through a little bit of what he
had to say and all seas and for him where
the team and he got together on you know, making things,
you know, very happy he got an extension. He even

(01:34:10):
used the word excited when he discussed that today when
he met with the media on being here for not
just one more year under contract, but two.

Speaker 5 (01:34:17):
I was excited about it.

Speaker 9 (01:34:18):
You know, I'm like, I'm from here.

Speaker 15 (01:34:20):
You know, I watched the team since I was little,
and it meant a lot to be able to play
another year year in Houston.

Speaker 5 (01:34:25):
My family was.

Speaker 9 (01:34:26):
Excited about it.

Speaker 15 (01:34:27):
I feel like my agency did a good job with that,
and I'm ready to keep playing for This.

Speaker 6 (01:34:30):
Team certainly needs more from him, And that's not trying
to pretend like he didn't give them a lot.

Speaker 7 (01:34:37):
He did.

Speaker 5 (01:34:37):
They need more. They need more from Will Anderson Junior.

Speaker 6 (01:34:40):
They need more from Staying, more from Lasser, more from everybody,
and thus they want to be in the exact same
position they are in before. It was one of the
things I asked him a little bit later in the conversation.

Speaker 5 (01:34:51):
Well, we will get to that.

Speaker 6 (01:34:53):
One of the things that undoubtedly sticks with players on
all but one team, all but the Philadelphia Eagles, how
things came to an end. The other teams that make
the playoffs, specifically those thirteen teams, to me, it's a
lot different than the eighteen teams that don't even get
to the playoffs. I mean, was it really a sour
ending or just an awful season to begin with? You know,
the season begins, you don't have much of a chance.

(01:35:14):
You know, things went haywire in week thirteen. In the
final few weeks of the season, you're just playing out
the string. But for the other thirteen teams that end
their year with a loss, they go home very disappointed
that this is our chance to advance, or in Kansas
City's case, our chance to win the Super Bowl, and
they didn't. The Texans are among those thirteen teams win
their opening game against the Chargers, lose the following week

(01:35:35):
two Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs. Yep, it's our end
of the season. That'll stick with you as you use
motivation for the upcoming year.

Speaker 5 (01:35:43):
Oh, you just got to remember that feeling.

Speaker 15 (01:35:45):
You've got to before we go out there, before practices.
You just gonna remember that feeling and have that motivate us,
you know, to keep trying to get better and better,
and not just us, but the whole defensive line.

Speaker 5 (01:35:56):
I have a problem with that. And here's why were
so good last year? Not good enough? Well, nobody is
good enough if you don't if you're not the last
team standing. But what I mean by that is they
weren't the problem, especially that line.

Speaker 12 (01:36:12):
Well, you do realize that he was asked about the
totals of sacks they had last year, which was a
franchise record. I mean they had forty six.

Speaker 6 (01:36:19):
Yep, with the extra game, sorry to mathematically point that out.
That's what happened by half a sack they set the
new team record, right, something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:36:28):
At least nobody laid down for their record.

Speaker 12 (01:36:30):
But he did talk about how this was an area
of strength that they want to get better at.

Speaker 15 (01:36:36):
Honestly, we missed a lot of sacks last year, so
I feel like this year the biggest thing is just
focusing on the little things and being able to finish
those sacks that we missed last year.

Speaker 5 (01:36:45):
He's right, and so from that standpoint, they could obviously
get back. My thing is I just and nobody's perfect.

Speaker 6 (01:36:53):
Like you're basically saying, they should they should be. They
should believe they can win a super Bowl with the
kind of defense and the roster they had last year.

Speaker 5 (01:37:00):
Even I'll do you one better. They are a super
Bowl caliber defense. I've just cleaned up what you said. Basically,
I said it the same way. They are, but I
think they are.

Speaker 6 (01:37:09):
Look at what they really truly did as a defense
last year and against the teams that it matters against. Specifically,
how about the other team only beat them once, It
only had a chance to beat them once because they
only played them once. They embarrassed them. Their offense embarrassed
the Texans defense.

Speaker 5 (01:37:29):
That's true, but it's it's even hard for me to
say that. I know their offense is what was on
the field when it was happening. Derrick Henry embarrassed their defense,
and he embarrasses every defense that I mean to me,
it was much more than that. Like, what did they
do to offer resistance? Nothing, that's a bad day. What's

(01:37:53):
your point.

Speaker 6 (01:37:55):
I know Lamar Jackson only carried the ball four times,
but he did have eighty seven yards. And I know
he only threw it fifteen times, but he'd have two
scores and no picks and one hundred and sixty eight yards.
Like they had four hundred and thirty two yards of offense,
not all from Derrick Henry.

Speaker 5 (01:38:13):
They look to me like they were playing on Christmas
and didn't want to be.

Speaker 6 (01:38:17):
It was a miracle with two minutes ago before halftime,
it was only ten to two. Now I just said
they are Baltimore's offense embarrassed the Texans defense.

Speaker 5 (01:38:26):
I don't think there's a word invented for what happened
when the other two units were on the field.

Speaker 6 (01:38:30):
It was a much bigger discrepancy. The Ravens did not
embarrass the Texans offense, because embarrassed is not a strong
enough word. So I clearly recognized their defense might have
been able to do just about anything and the result
probably would have remained the same. But I've pointed out
certain areas of this team's defense that has to be better,
and it's you know, a lot of his red zone work,

(01:38:51):
and I hope they're able to replicate the takeaway advantage
because sometimes one year to the next, it just doesn't
happen even though same DC, same play caller, mostly the
same guys. That's probably what Daniil noted most is there's continuity,
there's chemistry, even though there's a few names that'll be

(01:39:13):
different on the interior, specifically Sheldon Rankins return, but he's
worked with Will Anderson now for an entire season, and
most of the other guys on the edge, and most
of the guys on the interior, and nearly all of
the players behind them, really all of the players behind them,
other than maybe EJ. Speed if he's a big part
of this defense, and then CJ. Gardner Johnson otherwise, it's

(01:39:36):
they brought everybody back on a very very good, correctly
called super Bowl caliber defense.

Speaker 5 (01:39:41):
I'm not going to win an argument with anybody about
the Christmas Day game against the Ravens. I'm just not
so what I'll instead do, as I pitot and deflect,
is I mean point to this is where I'm getting
that point to the week where the offense was just

(01:40:02):
overwhelmingly awesome and that was the one reason why you
won that game. Because I know you can point to
like the Dallases of the world and things like that,
but I don't. I just think there were so many
games where you were like, man, it's a good thing
our defense was was as elite as it was, because
offense probably wouldn't have gotten the job done otherwise.

Speaker 6 (01:40:22):
I would look at it that way, if they were
leaving the defense in an awful position on the field
all afternoon long, turning the ball over within the thirty
and saying, hey, defense, try to keep them off the board.
Hey we keep going three and out, three and out,
your terrible field position even without a turnover, and you
got to save our bacon here. Now, their offense was bad.
Your point is valid and accurate and on the money,

(01:40:44):
and everybody saw it all like that. I don't think
it's quite that off. All these games just ended up
being close. Unfortunately, well it was if their offense was better. Yeah,
they would have comfortably beaten the Colts in Week one.
They would have comfortably beaten the Bears and the Jaguars
and the Bills, but their offense wasn't good enough to
do that. Their defense provided the opportunity. Like the Colts

(01:41:04):
game is kind of screwy, I guess, because the Colts
really didn't do anything except an accidental big play early
and to accidental big plays late. Otherwise, the Texans really
had their way with them, but they had to score
late in order to even win and keep the Colts
from catching them. They totally outplayed the Bears and then
had to force four and out at the.

Speaker 16 (01:41:26):
End of the game to win.

Speaker 6 (01:41:27):
But they did it all year long because their offense
needed even with who they're what their problems were. And
keep in mind, at this point in the year, the
offensive line play was not nearly as bad as it
was about to get. Their offensive line play the first
five weeks of the season, even with the Vikings game,
was not nearly what it became against the Packers, the Colts,

(01:41:48):
the Jets lines, and all the way through the rest
of the majority of the season of total disarray, no communication,
missd assignments, poor play, poor talent, and all this being
We just made it through two and a half hours
of the show on a day they were on the
practice field. We haven't talked about the offensive line once
until now.

Speaker 5 (01:42:06):
I was thinking about it this whole time, though.

Speaker 6 (01:42:07):
I have been thinking about it based on a few
things that we saw five o'clock at football at five,
we'll dig in there most extensively. Wanted to get to
one more thing, daneil Hunter said, so he can, you know,
spin it into a positive direction. He talked about what
he worked on this offseason.

Speaker 9 (01:42:23):
It's been a good offseason so far.

Speaker 15 (01:42:25):
Focused on gaining more strength, focus on getting better as
a football player. Put on five pounds of muscle, so
that's a plus. Just basically just getting my body ready
for the season.

Speaker 6 (01:42:34):
Hey, mister Schwarzenegger, I know you're a five time mister Olympia.
What have you worked on in between competitions? I was
trying to get oilier, bigger, and stronger.

Speaker 5 (01:42:42):
Tuesday's arms and back. I'm already the best. It's ridiculous.
I told you that a quarterback was good.

Speaker 6 (01:42:48):
I have on I told you when he walked up there,
because when he's in practice. He's wearing his jersey and
all that. I don't maybe he looks a little bigger,
maybe not a little easier to tell because his post
game and his locker room in are he's usually wearing
the partial tank top ripped off and begging for mercy,
please get me a bigger size, And that's what he's wearing.

Speaker 5 (01:43:07):
So you could see.

Speaker 6 (01:43:08):
I could see visually there's a difference. He's bigger. Then
he confirmed it.

Speaker 5 (01:43:12):
His arm veins have their own zip code. I can't
wait for them to murder quarterbacks this year. It's gonna happen.
Put him in the graveyard metaphorically. No, he's not going
to retire them. Well, that's what Miles is gonna do. Well,
that's because Aaron Rodgers is fifty.

Speaker 1 (01:43:28):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety a little
help over the hump with some Wednesday Bs, two.

Speaker 5 (01:43:39):
Adams, and a whole lot of bit stealing.

Speaker 1 (01:43:41):
Bit stealing with the bit Steelers better known as the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (01:43:49):
I trust you have the appropriate intro ready, because I've
got a good one for this.

Speaker 12 (01:44:00):
Are you talking to you?

Speaker 5 (01:44:02):
This is when we steal bits from other shows here
on the station.

Speaker 12 (01:44:05):
Yeah, I know, I know what the game is. I
just we never played that before we played the other
BS word.

Speaker 5 (01:44:10):
Oh okay, you thought, well this could actually qualifies that.

Speaker 7 (01:44:13):
I know.

Speaker 8 (01:44:14):
I read.

Speaker 12 (01:44:15):
I read the countdown, so I know what I'm gonna play.

Speaker 5 (01:44:16):
Oh, we'll just play it then I'll hang on, hang on.
I thought it would be ready.

Speaker 15 (01:44:27):
Yeah, just keep me on.

Speaker 5 (01:44:28):
All right. I'll tell you what forget the intro, just
because this is a product that I am both familiar
with and honestly Cole is too, judging from our off
air conversation yesterday, he'll know what this is about. Probably everybody,
a lot of people, let's just put it that way.

(01:44:48):
I don't think WEX does energy drinks. I know he
doesn't do coffee. You're not a coffee guy. You hate it.

Speaker 6 (01:44:54):
One tastes very bad, that's coffee also smells bad, and
the others a touch on the sugary side. Most of
the time, I've made the four into well this doesn't
taste like that, or this doesn't have a lot of sugar.

Speaker 5 (01:45:05):
But I put it this way. I have yet to
find one where I can say unequivocally that five out
of five healthcare professionals would point to it and say
that's all right.

Speaker 6 (01:45:15):
You menage enough out there, you probably find one that
would do the job. Here as we continue our signature
segment on a Wednesday, Wednesday's BS does leave us the
ability to either bit steel, could be the BS, or
just literally talk about BS.

Speaker 5 (01:45:30):
I think we're doing the latter today, but I'm not right,
not yet.

Speaker 9 (01:45:33):
Sure.

Speaker 5 (01:45:33):
It's a little bit of both, okay, but I'll just
go with the BS. There was a rumor out there
that Celsius, which I'm sure even though you don't consume
you are familiar with, have.

Speaker 7 (01:45:47):
You had us?

Speaker 8 (01:45:49):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:45:49):
No, you haven't had a Celsius. I don't think so.
I love Celsius and see Cole, now, I know that
you know what I was talking about. I already bring
plenty of energy to the show every day.

Speaker 12 (01:46:01):
Time out tell us more? Did you just say you've
had two today? That's a normal occasion for me.

Speaker 5 (01:46:08):
Wait, what segment during the show? Do you think your
heart's gonna explode?

Speaker 12 (01:46:11):
Well, it hasn't for the last fifteen years, every day
that I've had it, So I'm waiting to figure out
what age will it.

Speaker 5 (01:46:16):
Actually go ahead and hit the countdown clock. All right,
I'll just fast forward to the point of this someone
named Emily Walden. She's a writer who covers the Detroit
Tigers farm system. She tweeted something over the weekend after
hearing members of the West Michigan white Caps, this is

(01:46:39):
the franchise's high a affiliate engage in a discussion concerning
MLB approved energy drinks. According to Sports Business Journal, that
now deleted post noted that C four, which I'm sure
you're also aware of if you go to the grocery store,
you've seen all these brands, and Red Bull were the

(01:46:59):
inner she drinks of choice for the white Caps players,
before asserting, quote, Celsius has an ingredient known to flag
as cocaine in MLB drug testing, and although it's not
officially banned, it's quote strongly discouraged. I'm told so this
is C four, No, this is Celsius. In other words,

(01:47:22):
they're all like, hey, we go to our go to's
are C four and Red Bull. And part of the
reason we don't go to Celsius is because when we
get tested, it flags as cocaine.

Speaker 12 (01:47:31):
So it's old it's old time coke.

Speaker 5 (01:47:34):
I mean, I guess now this is a rumor. And
again this is from a since deleted post. The allegation
understandably causing a bit of a sture after it started
making the rounds online and some of the people at
Celsius caught wind of this, and they firmly deny that's
actually the case, with a statement that reads quote Celsius

(01:47:55):
is completely safe and is enjoyed by professional athletes, fit
enthusiasts in college students as part of their fit lifestyles.
Claims that Celsius could cause one to fail a drug
test have been proven false and there is no merit
to these claims. I had a Celsius this morning. Cole

(01:48:16):
is running on two. Apparently wex is running on zero,
as evidence by the jine Free Think right now, if
we got tested, we would test for cocaine.

Speaker 6 (01:48:27):
I'm fairly certain I would not have to issue a
statement that nobody would believe that I would never put
something unknowingly into my body that would be against the rules.
I mean, I think I would pass a drug test.
Trying to think of all the things that would make
me fail, and I don't see, haven't been using any
of them, and how many times drinking or eating any
of them?

Speaker 7 (01:48:46):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:48:46):
How many times do we come in here and talk
about a guy who got suspended, whether locally or abroad,
and he was like, man, I just had no idea
that this filling the blank ingredient was in this filling
the blank substance. I take it in Mexico. It happens.

Speaker 6 (01:49:03):
I just I meane today, Ac, you might not have
known this. This is the most difficult day of my
sports broadcasting career. Really, I'm devastated to announce that iHeartMedia
has suspended me for eighty shows for violation of the
iHeartMedia's drug and performance enhancing abuse policy without pay.

Speaker 5 (01:49:23):
Wouldn't this be the equivalent of that though, Like all
these supplements that athletes take, wouldn't an energy drink be
the most likely thing to get one of us popped
if we indeed worked under those circumstances.

Speaker 6 (01:49:34):
If the totally made up, million times debunked rumor was
true that it included cocaine.

Speaker 5 (01:49:40):
Well, I'm just talking about Hey, this substance is something
you consumed. You're suspended because you ingested it. Wouldn't energy
drinks of wide volaty of other people. But in the
fact that I'm ruining this whole conversation by never drinking them,
you really are, but at least you know it. Like,
have you never had anything like even like a five
hour energy? That's definitely I have you have? Yeah? Is
that like five hour energy?

Speaker 6 (01:50:02):
I might not have ever had that, but I've had
some of the assorted varieties, so you yeah, they'll hand
them out after you've you know, crushed a five k
or something.

Speaker 5 (01:50:10):
I might have one. Then I can't think of something
you should not consume more after a five k. Maybe
you walk some of it for starters, When did you
run a five k?

Speaker 7 (01:50:21):
I think.

Speaker 5 (01:50:22):
Each of the last two years I've walked runned one.
You speed walked? Definitely don't speed walk?

Speaker 7 (01:50:29):
That is uh.

Speaker 12 (01:50:31):
You see the treadmill?

Speaker 5 (01:50:34):
I wasn't gonna curse. I'm just trying to think of
a better way to say. What about a treadmill?

Speaker 7 (01:50:38):
No?

Speaker 12 (01:50:39):
Have you seen the trend on tread on TikTok right
now about everyone's speed walking? I haven't seen that one,
thankfully not my algorithm one today for my wife, my
current wife is the algorithm that I'm in right now.

Speaker 5 (01:50:50):
I see that was all those Is she on TikTok?

Speaker 7 (01:50:54):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:50:54):
No, no, it has nothing to do with her. That's
just what people are stok. She doesn't do any social
Just go.

Speaker 12 (01:51:00):
Home and tell Teresa, Hi, I'm hanging out with my
current wife, and see the reaction you get.

Speaker 6 (01:51:04):
She will stop cutting up T shirts and she'll cut
you up. Oh that sounds like a grape Internet rumor
Minor League Baseball started it. There's coke in and energy drink.

Speaker 5 (01:51:13):
I think your ears were burning right as you finished
that sentence, she texted me, and on my screen it
red I'm making tacos for dinner.

Speaker 6 (01:51:20):
Taco Wednesday. I did it properly ate those last evening? Yeah,
you got home and made the made the meal.

Speaker 5 (01:51:27):
How many did you consume? Three?

Speaker 6 (01:51:31):
That's shredded cheese, the taco meat, the corn chips, salsa, rice,
and hot sauce.

Speaker 5 (01:51:44):
Are you like me? Where you either the cheese or
the lettuce? As you mentioned, No, cheese goes on the bottom,
so the hot meat goes on top of it.

Speaker 8 (01:51:52):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:51:54):
Yes, that's why it doesn't get soggy and fall apart
at the bottom, just like when you go melts the cheese.
Well that too, yeah, but it's also a barrier so
that the taco meat doesn't destroy the taco. Show us
eat on a plate that's gonna eat it all anyway.
I have a fork, please exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:52:12):
Oh my god, there you go, signature segment and probably
hit that one again never.

Speaker 5 (01:52:20):
On Sports Talk seven ninety at Tesla, bus driver tweets
into the show uptime energy ain't too bad. Oh, I know,
lots of those in the fridge as we speak, underrated.
I like those quite a bit er. Uptime energy is

(01:52:41):
is just another energy drink there is, you know it.
Let's just say that the market is saturated. But of
the options out there, and you know, whether you want
to decipher what's best for you or not, I think
uptime' is good. I think it's one of the better ones.

Speaker 12 (01:52:56):
I thought you're just gonna say, what's up time with you?

Speaker 5 (01:52:58):
I'm not going to do that. I'm I'm not falling
for that, all right. So we also had Wilk tweet
in about John Singleton. He heard your John Singleton you
should still be on the roster opinion when we were
talking with Gordy and he said the Astros never gave

(01:53:19):
Singleton a chance. Joe platooning the entire team minus Pania
is a terrible way to allow players to get in
a rhythm and build momentum. He starts every minor league
call up immediately, bad players make and I'll just say
bad managers. Cleaning it up a bit, you responded, current
established starters Walker, Paynya, Altuve, Perettis, ds Slash, Keratini, four

(01:53:43):
spots left. Myers has earned his spot. Three spots left,
second base, left field, and right field. Here are the
choices Dubon, Rogers, Melton, Smith, Whitcomb. That's three minor leaguers
plus bad hitting Rogers and established reserve Dubon. It's not
you were saying to start him every single day, but
he'd be a decent option, especially considering what he gave

(01:54:05):
you in the past. My contention was they did give
him several chances. Yeah, there's two different things to address there.
The last one is his comment about, well, he starts
every minor leaguer they call up.

Speaker 6 (01:54:17):
Yeah, and are you saying that's? My response is, because
why do you think he's doing that. Let's say Melton's
on the bench today, so Dubon's playing in the outfield.
That's reasonable. You want Dubon playing every day while Jacob
Melton's on the bench or at the miners. Dubon's not
an everyday player. Do we not know that Brendan Rodgers
is significantly worse than Dubon at everything? Okay, well he's

(01:54:39):
on the team, so that's a guy, a second guy
you don't want playing every day or ever period.

Speaker 5 (01:54:44):
Yeah, it's shay Wickcombs here.

Speaker 6 (01:54:46):
He's definitely not playing every day, So the comment that
you made is definitely not the case. And he shouldn't
be playing every day either. I mean, give him an
opportunity maybe, if that's what it presents. I think people
still always have to the astros who they are, and
there are this year just like every other for the
past eight You can't just play guys. You can't just

(01:55:08):
bring guys out of the bullpen and not care about
the results. Forced Whitley's probably got the talent to pitch
at the major league level, but not here if he
can't get outs. Shay wickomb probably could play one hundred
and fifty six games a year repeatedly for the last
three years for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but he can't do
that here.

Speaker 5 (01:55:27):
They have to try to win. They don't have time
to go on and on and on.

Speaker 6 (01:55:32):
And these guys are young guys that are getting their
first chance John Singleton isn't that type of player. John
Singleton played so well in the Miners ten years after
he had played so well on the Miners that Milwaukee
gave him a chance, and then Houston gave him a chance,
and correctly gave him a chance, a chance he earned,
and he was an astro for the entire year, and

(01:55:55):
the Abraves situation opened the door even wider than he'd
already pushed it open himself. I'm not sure that you
just don't recall it, but he played five times a week,
four out of seven games a week or more for
two and a half three months. As soon as a
Bradia was gone, there was nobody else to get regular

(01:56:15):
at bats and starts at first base other than John,
and John had played well enough in the situations that
were presented to him. He stayed out there as the
actual starter following a Brado's departure, and quite clearly Singleton's
not going to play over a bray who at any
point during the time a Brady was on the team,
because of how much money they spent on him, how

(01:56:35):
much more of an established player he was, how much
people believe that he was actually going to turn it around, Yeah,
he absolutely had a longer rope than a John Singleton had.
John Singleton, I thought last year and way back early
in his career that probably doesn't matter.

Speaker 5 (01:56:50):
He did have opportunities to show.

Speaker 6 (01:56:52):
More than I am a major league reserve or I'm
a super high level minor league baseball player. All that
being said, I still can't maintain run through the list
of those five players that are currently choosing from who
to play. Singleton fits in with that group of capable players.
And he's a left handed hitter, and he has patients
at the plate, and he's doing what he always does

(01:57:12):
in the minor leagues now for the Mets without getting
anybody to give him a major league opportunity. This year,
he's hitting baseball's over the fence for Syracuse. He's hit
in about two thirty two forty SOPs is just around
eight hundred, which is going to be probably in perpetuity
as a minor leaguer. It's these are two separate issues.
You know, John Singleton, could he be what, Yeah, he

(01:57:33):
could be here here.

Speaker 5 (01:57:34):
I know they play two different positions, but it sounds
to me like it comes down to if you were
going to use one of those spots for Brendan Rodgers.
Couldn't you have just used it for John Singleton? Very
well said, I mean, that's what it comes to. I
know they play one place second base, one place first.

Speaker 6 (01:57:52):
One has no positional flexibility at second base and one
has no positional.

Speaker 5 (01:57:55):
Flexibility at first base. They're the same guy. The difference
is you have no time at first base.

Speaker 6 (01:58:01):
John Singleton is not going to play first base as
a lesser defender and a nineteen point two million or yeah,
nineteen point two million dollars less of salary per year.

Speaker 5 (01:58:13):
It's the same thing with as Abray all over again.
They just can't.

Speaker 6 (01:58:16):
They can't sit him for Singleton or anybody else, and
they won't, so his value to the team is lower.
But it then bumps up a little because he gives
you a little, and gives you he makes the other
manage your care about who he brings in in the
bullpen because he got a left handed back coming off
the bench, does he want to right hand or facing
John Singleton. That option goes out the window when you
add a lesser version of Mauricio Dubon to the roster,

(01:58:39):
which is unfortunately what Brendan Rodgers turned out to be.
Had he shown them any promise, I wouldn't be saying this.
His only promise came a couple of years ago in Colorado,
and that he started there and played well and was
a Gold Glover and was a good offensive player. And
then two years ago he got a little worse than
last year. He got bad enough that they didn't even
want him back it was worth taking a chance on him.
At no point during the or the first month of

(01:59:01):
the season or the second month of the season, has
Brendan Rodgers given his management team Dana or his manager
Joe Espotta to be happy that he's here. He's just
not helping this team.

Speaker 5 (01:59:13):
He's carrying.

Speaker 6 (01:59:14):
They're carrying two players every day to the ballpark that
you never want to play. And Salazar is not his fault.
He's the third catcher. Brendan Roys sometime relief pitcher. Yes, exactly,
the kind of relief pitcher you absolutely never want to play.

Speaker 5 (01:59:30):
It would look. I'm not gonna I'm not going to
dispute or try and dress it up. It was an
underwhelming offseason when you consider what went out and what
either stayed or in this case came in. And I'm
not talking about John Singleton for Brendan Rodgers. Either. When
I say that, well, we could.

Speaker 6 (01:59:46):
Be talking about you know, Cam Smith, you know about
six seventy oh ps. His average is now below two fifty.
He has zero pop anymore. I mean, would you be
playing him every single day if you had other options?
The idea of not playing him shouldn't even come to mind. Unfortunately,
his performance suggests that maybe you should consider it.

Speaker 5 (02:00:07):
But why so you can play who are you putting
out exactly? Who are you putting it out? Who are
you putting out there in right field? And you know
you weren't going to pay Kyle Tucker. Yeah, I'm just yeah,
that stuff's old news. They're not here. Who's on the roster?
Who does Joe have at his disposal? Who should they
be calling up in their place? And even if you
wanted to say all right, Chaz, well you wouldn't be

(02:00:28):
playing right now anyways.

Speaker 6 (02:00:29):
And I just when Zach Decenzo and Chas McCormick were healthy,
you had a little bit more of an outfield rotation
because Zach earned it, he was hitting well, He earned
the right to be in the lineup right now, Melton Altuve,
Cam Smith, those are your choices for the non Meyers
outfield positions, and Altuve has second base flexibility, which is

(02:00:50):
where he is tonight.

Speaker 5 (02:00:51):
They're all in the lineup, which is another weird subplot
to this whole season. We will switch gears from baseball
to football. You know why because it's football of five
and it's next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:01:07):
Adam Clinton and Adam Whitler are the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (02:01:18):
It is five o'clock. It's not for football at five.

Speaker 6 (02:01:22):
But first, just know that the Astros ongoing home stand
continues to go tremendously well, as they have increased their
lead over the Seattle Mariners to three and a half
games by doing nothing but watching them lose again. The
Mariners came to Houston a couple series ago, got to

(02:01:43):
win in Houston, move to twenty nine and twenty one,
had a three and a half game lead over the
Astros at that point in time, and then they played
their next seventeen games, winning only four. They've won one
of their last ten games.

Speaker 5 (02:01:57):
Nine games.

Speaker 6 (02:01:57):
They've been swept twice, including the conclin illusion of today's
three games sweep of the hands of the Airs under diamondbacks,
and that three and a half game lead is now
a three and a half game deficit, which will go
to four if the Astros win this evening.

Speaker 5 (02:02:12):
The Astros win, the Angels have almost passed them.

Speaker 6 (02:02:17):
They could tie them if they hang on to win
their game this afternoon against the West Sacramento Athletics. The
Angels and Mariners will be tied for second place in
the division if the Angels six to three lead holds
this afternoon.

Speaker 5 (02:02:34):
How sad is that for the Rangers.

Speaker 6 (02:02:35):
All these games, all these teams are under five hundred.
Rangers are three games under, Mariners are one game under, currently,
Angels two games under, and the Astros are six games over.

Speaker 5 (02:02:46):
The Rangers have won three in a row and that's
gotten them fourth place in the AL West. Congrats, stupid Dallas.

Speaker 6 (02:02:52):
We'll probably be in second place reasonably soon. Au Haaneo
swore this big reason why the Mariners lost because he
hit the second Grand Slam of the series against them.

Speaker 5 (02:03:03):
Hey, who do he used to play for them?

Speaker 6 (02:03:07):
Great delivery, Astros gotcha, kd We got a little of
that in being. That is football at five and the
Texans have rolled into their offseason now because Mini Camp
Practice two concluded earlier today without incident, most of what
we had seen over the last couple of weeks of
OTAs played itself out against today. A few more players

(02:03:27):
than attendance at mandatory mini camp, and nearly everybody that
I could note that was not there has some sort
of injury. And again when I say was not there,
I mean was not practicing. Handful of the players that
did not practice were actually there, would he? Marx, Jillen Knowl,
Henry Toatoa and a host of others have been at
the facility and around the facility but are simply not

(02:03:48):
practicing for a variety of different reasons. And Noel and
Woody's case two rookies who've been on the field at times.
Henry has not been on the field in a practice capacity,
but no reasonably there's any issue with him. It has
made for some interesting looks defensively at the linebacker position.
Christian Harris saw him again today. There's again another non

(02:04:09):
practice for him. We'll say that Demiko said he will
be ready to go by training camp July twenty third.

Speaker 5 (02:04:17):
Hopefully that's true. Wonder what kind of basis that will be.

Speaker 6 (02:04:20):
But the on field stuff I mentioned at four thirty
went and talked about their offensive line at all today.
We talked about them a lot since we've gotten to
this point in the off season. A lot of it,
to me always is going to center around their conscious
decision to send a capable player elsewhere. They told Shaq Mason,
we don't need your services any longer. He's not a

(02:04:41):
capable player, and most of the NFL is telling you
the same thing, and that he does not have a
home currently in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (02:04:46):
He has a home. He's a nice guy.

Speaker 6 (02:04:48):
Kenyan Green not a capable player here in Houston, was
used to land CJ. Gardner Johnson. The interior of their
line's going to look dramatically different. I don't know that
it's going to perform a whole lot differently. By belief
in the players they had that they could play was zero,
and I have some belief in the new players they
will use will be higher than that. And all the
other changes that go with at new OC, new offensive

(02:05:09):
line coach on down the line. But they took a
capable player. They actually took two capable players and took
them out of their positions. They did it during the
year with Titus Howard. He was a capable right tackle
who had been extended at a right tackle's pay rate
to continue playing right tackle, and their offensive line was
in such a disarray last year and their options were
so limited they were forced once again to move him inside,

(02:05:31):
which is where he's remained. He starts on their current
version of the offensive line, he starts at right guard,
and their two tackle positions have been dramatically changed. One
for that reason and the others. They sent the Commanders
Laramie Tunsel. They are going to have two new starters
at tackle unless and this is the unless. We haven't
talked much about, and I know they haven't practiced with pad,

(02:05:54):
so I'd always hesitate when thinking like this, unless forced
to move Titus Howard back to right tackle. I think
tay Ersery is going to start for this team, possibly
on opening Day, but certainly early in the season, if
it's not at left tackle, where he's splitting reps in

(02:06:16):
the off season. I'm tempering all this in the off season.
In his first NFL practices, he's had less than ten
with Cam Robinson, but he also is getting work at
right tackle, and with some of that work coming with
what would be regarded as the first unit at right tackle,
because the current starter at right tackle, based on what

(02:06:38):
we've seen, is Blake Fisher, and that is top of
the list. It's not who's snapping the ball to CJ.
It's not the flankers of the center, the two guards,
it's not the replacement for Laramie Tunsell, the blind side
replacement for Laramie Tunsell of CJ Stroud. To me, the
number one concern is Blake Fisher. Can he start and

(02:07:02):
play good plus level, playoff team caliber football for this
football team?

Speaker 5 (02:07:09):
Now? But if you're telling me that the rookie they
drafted is and again, I know you're where we're at
in the calendar and all that, but if he is
pushing someone to start, I like that because that means
the one thing they did do to address the offensive
line in the draft is presumably better than the option

(02:07:31):
that they would have had. Yeah. I can't help it,
and I don't mean it, but the blanket is wet,
the bar is low. Yeah, that's tersory.

Speaker 6 (02:07:38):
Starting only means this, He's coming to camp as a
rookie and out played Cam Robinson or out played Blake Fisher.

Speaker 5 (02:07:47):
And I realized what I was saying when I said it.
But I don't have a problem with that because it
was so bad last year. I mean, I get what
you're saying, and it's it's definitely a concern.

Speaker 6 (02:07:59):
Yeah, it's it's going to take a long time, and
certainly the football will help if they play in a
certain way. I have a hard time today as hard
a time as I had the day the news broke that.
As bad as things were, I'm convinced it's more than football.
But moving on from Laramie Tunsel with where this team

(02:08:20):
overall is and where this team's offensive line is is
still jarring to me. They just said we'd like another
football question mark at our own request, and that is now.

Speaker 7 (02:08:32):
I know.

Speaker 6 (02:08:32):
Like I said, I think there are clearly other reasons
for it. Vibes are probably among them, very high on
that list, but they chose.

Speaker 12 (02:08:41):
To do this.

Speaker 5 (02:08:42):
What'd you call it a football question mark? Yeah, they
opened up a football question market left tackle, and that
is an absolute accurate way to put it.

Speaker 6 (02:08:52):
Dimiko alluded to the unit when they were leaving the
practice field and getting onto the practice field, and the
ViBe's angle of heat likes what he's seeing from the group.

Speaker 5 (02:09:02):
I don't know that he intended it that way.

Speaker 6 (02:09:04):
It certainly sounded that way that, yeah, there were problems
inside that room coach related assistant to leader, Popovich to Strasser,
player to player, player to coach.

Speaker 5 (02:09:17):
I do think there were some.

Speaker 6 (02:09:18):
I'm not gonna call it toxic because that's the easy
media or to use, but it seems toxic.

Speaker 5 (02:09:24):
They didn't like even with the division they're in. If
it's toxic, you don't win your division. You don't The
reason they didn't do their play was toxic. Well, that's true,
But the reason that the toxic to me permeates more
than just one position group. First of all. Secondly, fair
or not, nobody else is going to the offensive line
dinner just them, I know, But I mean that locker

(02:09:47):
room and the vibes they're in. I don't worry about overall. Now,
we heard all the whisperers and all that kind of
stuff about the offensive line, and we know who we're
talking about here, fair or not. If this off defensive
line is like fantastic as a unit this season, he's
gonna get heaps of blame upon him in Washington, DC.

(02:10:09):
It shouldn't be like that because his play individually was fine.
It was at least pass blocker.

Speaker 6 (02:10:16):
I know he moves a Pro Bowl Games selection again
this past year, but yeah, as a pass blocker, he's
even if you don't like his pass blocking or him,
he's top twelve at the very least, he's probably closer
to top six. As a pass blocker, he's the run
of the mill average run blocker at best. They represent
half of the game each roughly, But the importance of

(02:10:40):
pass blocking and pass protection grades higher than anything else
you do as an offensive line, because the Texans aren't
going anywhere if their quarterback's always picking himself up or
if he doesn't even have the ability to pick himself
up because his shoulders hurt or his knee is hurt.
And the injuries that have taken place with CJ. Stroud
minor as they might be, and that they didn't often
take him off the field. The injury it was the

(02:11:00):
concussion suffered against the Jets and his rookie season, clearly
did that came from an interior issue that they had
an interior offensive line issue mistake or physical mistake, mental mistake.
It's not subjected to just one area of this team.
So to what I've been able to see, I think
that is a significant concern for them is the quality

(02:11:23):
of play they're getting from their second round pick last year,
who started for them last year due to necessity and
forced them to shuffle the line because of it. I'm
wondering if there will have to reconsider can we get
away with it on the interior with what we actually
have there between Tomlinson and Ingram and Scruggs and Patterson

(02:11:43):
and Andrews.

Speaker 5 (02:11:44):
Can we fiddle with those.

Speaker 6 (02:11:45):
Five players enough, well enough with those three spots on
the interior and push Titus Howard back outside and feel
more comfortable about what we're providing for Nick Cayley's play
calling and c J.

Speaker 5 (02:11:58):
Stroud as quarterback until we see them. You mentioned at
the very top of the segment the pads.

Speaker 6 (02:12:04):
Yeah, that's because it's not I'm not going to sit
here and say, man, Blake Fisher six hadn't worked over,
you can't play this guy.

Speaker 5 (02:12:10):
That's totally unfair. No, and I wouldn't think you would.
But it's just a kind of an incomplete assessment until
further notice. And we'll continue to be top of mind
as the twenty twenty five campaign for this Houston Texans
team looms, and as the most important athlete in the city,

(02:12:33):
any sport or otherwise. The protection of him is going
to be the main key. We will continue here on
a Wednesday edition of the program. It's Sports Talk seven
ninety Space City Home.

Speaker 2 (02:12:42):
Network the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:12:57):
It is the A team Sports Talk. A lot of
Astro's conversation on the show today, and that will continue.
Brian bogus Sevic joined the station earlier today. We already
heard from Astro's general manager Dana Brown in the three
o'clock hour talking about the offense picking things up. Speaking
of that, bogus Sevic asked about what's still wrong with

(02:13:20):
one Christian Walker.

Speaker 8 (02:13:22):
It's a lot of things. I'll say, first of all,
I don't see anything physically. I don't think it's a
oh my gosh, this guy got old over the offseason,
or the bat speed's gone, or there's some big hole
in his swing that needs to be fixed. I think
it's a combination of a lot of outside factors. I know,
you know y'all mentioned earlier the batting average on balls

(02:13:43):
in play. You know, there's a little bit of bad luck,
you know, some balls not falling, some good plays being
made against them, balls hit right at people. There's also
you know, he's he's had some pitchers make some good
pitches on him. You know, we know bad luck that
way where a borderline pitch doesn't go your way, or
you know, the first pitch is a perfectly located pitch
that that you're not going to swing at. Now you're

(02:14:05):
in a hole, and when things aren't going your way,
those things in your mind get magnified. I mean I
remember there being times standing in the batter's box thinking, Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:14:14):
Here's my time.

Speaker 8 (02:14:15):
I'm gonna get a good a good first pitch right
down the middle of fat one to hit and get
dotted up in your O one and it's like deflation.
H here we go again. And you can see some
at bats from Christian Walker here or there when when
something doesn't go his way, where you can just see
him thinking like, oh man, here we go again. It's
happening again. Today's not going to be the day. I

(02:14:35):
think there is also something to be said about just
the astros middle of the order in general. I mean,
it's been inconsistent at best in those three, four, five
six spots throughout the course of the year. You know,
I think not having healthy, productive. Yord On in there
having Yainer being up and down, Howsael Twov has been
up and down all of a sudden, Christian Walker can

(02:14:57):
be more of a focus from opposing pitching staff and
how they're game planning for the lineup as a whole.
You know, if you've got jord On hitting in front
of or behind him, maybe they're saying, hey, Christian Walker
is going to be the guy that we're going to
go after, and then all of a sudden he gets
some better pitches to hit. So you know, it's usually
a combination of a lot of things. And when you're

(02:15:19):
in the situation that he's inn where you're struggling, you
know you're struggling, you're pressing because you want to get
out of it. All of those things feel even more
magnified than necessarily what we're seeing from the outside. So yeah,
I think it's just a lot of things going on
and swimming all in his head.

Speaker 5 (02:15:35):
At once, last question about him, they'll go to some
other things.

Speaker 16 (02:15:38):
If we were to find out Brian that his bat
speed was down a tick a significant amount, how do
you fix that?

Speaker 5 (02:15:46):
How could you fix that?

Speaker 16 (02:15:48):
What adjustice would you make if you found if you
found out yourself Bolgie that your bat speed was down
from a year ago, what would you do?

Speaker 8 (02:15:54):
Yeah, Well, the first thing I would do would be
look and see if there are mechanical reasons for it,
not necessarily strengths, age, injury, physical types of things. Is
there extra length in your swing that's slowing it down,
or are you trying to do you know, are you
over swinging therefore not being as quick as you need
to be. I would first look at that kind of stuff,

(02:16:14):
and then what you do is you look for, you know,
game plan adjustments, approach adjustments. You look at estoc parades.
He doesn't have elite elite bat speed, but he can
turn on anything that anybody throws at him, and it's
just a matter of what pitches you're looking for, kind
of how you set up in the batter's box, how
you're working in at that so BA speed isn't necessarily

(02:16:36):
the end all be all of being able to hit,
but it is a big part of the calculus in
how you go about approaching an entire at bat and
how you're going to attack certain pictures with different repertoires.
So even if that speed is down a little bit,
that's not really an end all, be all of what
you can do at the play.

Speaker 17 (02:16:55):
What is happening behind the scenes right now in your
mind as far as you mentioned change game plans and approaches.
What is the the kind of mental battle that these
guys are going through where you don't want to reinvent
the wheel.

Speaker 5 (02:17:07):
But obviously what's happening right now isn't working.

Speaker 8 (02:17:10):
One of the biggest One of the biggest battles that
you're fighting when you're in a prolonged slump is not
trying to do too much and therefore digging yourself into
a deeper hole.

Speaker 2 (02:17:21):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (02:17:21):
You know, oftentimes you're not as far away as you
might feel. Especially, you know, sometimes you'll feel like, oh
my god, my swing is in a terrible spot, and
then you go watch the video and you're like, man,
it doesn't look a whole lot different from what it
normally looks like. So you don't want to go do
major overholes, you know, unless you absolutely have to. But

(02:17:41):
it's small things. It's maintenance work in the cage, it's
watching video to make sure you're not, you know, doing
something in your set. There's kind of low hanging fruit
things that you can fix pretty quickly. You know, oh
I'm a little bit more closed off than I want
to be, or a look, my hands are drifting away
from my body a little bit. Those those are kind
of quick, so you're always trying to stay on top

(02:18:01):
of that with video stuff, and a lot of it
has to do with the game planning. You know, who
are we facing today, what does he like to do?
What is he going to try to do against me?
And how can I try to tip the scales in
my favor?

Speaker 6 (02:18:16):
A lot of numbers to look at, for sure, and
Brian mentioned a lot of them. Bogie's weekly visit with
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross comes on Wednesday, So
the entirety of that interview, very good stuff, as per usual,
can be found at sports Talk seven ninety dot com.
Specific to that entire conversation was Christian Walker and the
fact that we're into almost mid June and nothing's really changed.

(02:18:37):
He's a little bit better than a five hundred OPS guys.
Now six hundred OPS guy is bat speed, which from
a publicly tracked standpoint, it's only been around for a
couple of seasons. Seventy five point zero two years ago,
seventy five point zero last year with the Diamondbacks, seventy
four point two with the Astros. Among all the things

(02:19:00):
that I've been able to look at during his time
here in Houston, that's one of the things that didn't
really seem like it was all of a sudden taking
a back seat, or some noticeable drop off, or some
noticeable change in some of his results. It really didn't
seem like batspeed is the issue. And yes, that's a
moderate downturn. I'm not sure how it would be termed

(02:19:21):
in that regard. But most of all, most of his
other numbers that are beyond the bones, the meat and
potatoes of what everybody looks at, they are pretty obviously
awful this year, you know, a career worst strikeout percentage.
He's swinging and missing far more often. You watch the games.
You hear Robert and Steve or esh who's working with

(02:19:44):
Robert tonight. You hear them calling, well, he swung right
through that. Oh he challenged him with a fastball. He's
swinging and missing at a lot of fastballs in the zone,
and the pitchers who do have good heat, they're unafraid
to challenge him there. And whether it that means his
swing is off plane. I don't think it's because of
bad speed. But his hard to hit percentage is not bad.

(02:20:08):
Not a big drop off from last year, up quite
a bit from a couple of the other previous seasons,
but he's definitely striking out more and walking a lot less.
His batting average on balls in play, which he referenced there,
is down quite a bit. Sometimes that's essentially deemed bad luck,
and we've seen a lot of that. But when you
see a lot of that for a lot of time,

(02:20:29):
like two and a half months, it's hard to point
it and as oh, the luck will turn around. I
can't deny he's had a lot of balls hard. But
that means if his first at bat he hits a
one hundred and five miles screamer that an outfielder chases down,
then he's going to strike out on two of his.

Speaker 5 (02:20:46):
Next three at bats and look bad doing it.

Speaker 6 (02:20:49):
I think the counteracting of I do see good things
on this at bat, but I don't see a good
things for ten out of fifteen at bats, or the results.

Speaker 5 (02:20:59):
The results just flat haven't been there at all. Are
you like me? We're always kind of still surprises you
when a player or I mean a former player in
this case, like by Brian Bogosvik, will kind of talk
about something that mainly guys like us will bring up
that he's pressing. I always feel like there's like this
unwritten code to like protect guys or anything like that.

(02:21:21):
But he's coming right out and saying that it's at
least in his mind something that could be happening here.

Speaker 6 (02:21:26):
I think it's partially because it's either obvious or he's
heard Walker talk about it. Yeah, and he's said it
and Chandler's written about it. He's he's one hundred percent pressing.

Speaker 5 (02:21:35):
He's why you say it, Isn't that kind of like almost.

Speaker 6 (02:21:41):
Rogers Brendan Rodgers, I think, acknowledged the very same thing
this year, saying, you know, in certainty because his worst
numbers have come in the most important spots. Well, Walker's
the same, and it's it's pressing. Pay grade is different, definitely,
so the pay grade, but you know, to getting better. Yeah,
it probably does weigh on them. I'm not gonna say
it's irrelevant. You know, Brendan Rodgers is making less, so

(02:22:04):
that pressure is different. But Christian Walker's not in jeopardy
of not being here, Brendan Rodgers is right, so that
pressure is certainly.

Speaker 5 (02:22:12):
Greater for now, not that he's gonna go full Josea Bray, You,
jose A Bray was never in danger of not being
here until he was.

Speaker 6 (02:22:19):
Some of the things I was pointing out with Walker,
bat speed and things of the sounds familiar, No, not familiar.
Jose A Bray, Who's numbers were so blatantly down that
you couldn't ignore it that the idea that it's going
to turn around was gone.

Speaker 5 (02:22:32):
Well, the idea that Walker's going to turn it around
is real.

Speaker 6 (02:22:36):
I can see reasons why he can have He can
counter his six hundred and thirty ops two months within
seven hundred and eighty ops for two months.

Speaker 5 (02:22:45):
I just mean it was a similar topic between both
guys that play the same position that pay a lot
of money by the astros.

Speaker 6 (02:22:50):
It was definitely a similar topic, and I think the
astros realized, we know where this is headed. It's headed
right where it's currently at. Nowhere he can't play anymore.
I'm not ready to say that about Christian Walker, not
even close. The numbers were very obvious in jose Abrew's case.
In case you missed it, I'll touch on those next.

Speaker 2 (02:23:12):
The aight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:23:18):
A team continues, Wexac and Cole couple things for me
to in case you missed it for turn things over,
beginning with what we left with Jose abraw some of
the numbers that should have told the Astros and ultimately
did this is it for Jose Abrews a major leaguer
and it was once they released him. There was no
future major league baseball in his career. Each of his

(02:23:39):
seasons in Chicago, all eight of them, an exit velocity
on his connections of better than ninety and no higher
than ninety two to nine.

Speaker 5 (02:23:49):
Very consistent.

Speaker 6 (02:23:50):
He was in ninety two mile an hour range five
consecutive seasons before he headed to Houston. First year in Houston,
it dropped to eighty nine. Second year in Houston, it
dropped to below eighty eight. That is a massive change
over the years here in Houston. Last year in Chicago,
it's hard hit percentage was fifty one point nine. Every
year in Chicago it was between forty three and fifty two,

(02:24:12):
or excuse me, forty three and fifty three. First year
in Houston it was below that career worst forty one
point seven worst of his career. First year in Houston,
his second partial year in Houston a massive drop off.
Even from that, it was clear the numbers were all there.
Secondarily to the Texans. We didn't even mention that the

(02:24:37):
best defensive end in Houston Texans history was also at
practice today.

Speaker 9 (02:24:41):
Did you talk to him?

Speaker 5 (02:24:42):
We did talk to him. TJ.

Speaker 6 (02:24:45):
Watt's brother was at Texans practice today. The only Watt,
the only Watt that attended an NFL Mini camp this
year was JJ Watt.

Speaker 5 (02:24:54):
Maybe he should get paid more.

Speaker 6 (02:24:55):
TJ Watt is holding out, Derek Watt is retired, and
JJ's son CoA does not have an NFL contract, though
he is two years old now and he will soon
have a sibling running around the house. I did ask
JJ about that he will now have the same number
of people adults and kids at his home front. She
is very pregnant and it will be soon that they

(02:25:15):
will become parents again. Talk to JJ Watt about his
broadcast career. It's a given, although not definitive, he will.

Speaker 5 (02:25:23):
Be in the booth for a Texans game this year,
if not several, just because of the scheduling and the
likelihood that that's how it's going to work out, so
that should be fun.

Speaker 6 (02:25:30):
I do think he's going to be very good at it.
He said the itch to do that came from his
work this season. He also noted that when he was
a player, he said, I'd never be caught dead doing that,
And now he can't help himself how much fun he's
been having and how close it keeps him to the game,
knowing that the idea that him coming back to play
is definitely not in his mind anymore.

Speaker 5 (02:25:50):
It's all subjective.

Speaker 12 (02:25:52):
Yeah, he said it was like a one percent shot
last year and that's now.

Speaker 6 (02:25:56):
Well, he continues to look like somebody who is not
about to get after it working out and start playing
in the NFL, even though he's in good shit, you.

Speaker 12 (02:26:04):
Look like an eighties bad boy from High School movie.

Speaker 5 (02:26:07):
He needed a haircut. It's all subjective, but he will
be better in his first season than Tom Brady was
in his Believe it or not, well, I believe it.

Speaker 12 (02:26:16):
What's actually funny is is that he spoke about what
was the reasoning behind the move from being an analyst
to getting into the broadcast. Prove take a listen.

Speaker 18 (02:26:25):
I mean it's I would say it's has nothing to
do with the decorations. It has more to do with
the day to day enjoyment of what you do. I
love the game of football, and when I was playing,
I always said I would never be an analyst.

Speaker 9 (02:26:37):
I was like, you'll never ever catch me doing that.

Speaker 18 (02:26:39):
And then I retired and I realized, son of am,
I really love this game like I really love football,
so I want to be around it.

Speaker 5 (02:26:47):
I want to be a part of it, and.

Speaker 18 (02:26:48):
I love watching these guys at the highest level do
what they do.

Speaker 9 (02:26:51):
So it's a lot of.

Speaker 5 (02:26:52):
Fun eat with the game.

Speaker 12 (02:26:53):
But the game can't quit you.

Speaker 6 (02:26:55):
Yeah, the censor beat will need to be used if
we play. Other items from him when he talked about
calling games fair, should he be in the booth for
a Texans game, And I'm sure it'd be the same
for a TJ game if he were doing the Steelers,
you know, Aaron Rodgers team.

Speaker 5 (02:27:07):
But I wanted to actually get.

Speaker 6 (02:27:09):
To his comment about someone who's trying to do what
he did, not Daniel Hunter, but young will Anderson junior,
watching him work, watching him improve from where he was
when they draft in or to where he is now.

Speaker 5 (02:27:21):
JJ, your thoughts, I promise he had some are there
gremlins a foot hill system. They're there, that's coming. I
don't think it is. Well, if it is, hellse, we'll

(02:27:43):
move on.

Speaker 12 (02:27:44):
No, hang on, it's just being at true.

Speaker 18 (02:27:45):
The best part about Will is that he understands his
potential and he wants to do everything possible to achieve it.
And not everybody has both of those things together. Some
people don't understand how great they could be, and other
people aren't willing to work hard enough to acomplish it.
Will has both, and it's been really fun to watch
him grow and progress because he is willing to put

(02:28:07):
in all that work and he is willing to make
the sacrifices and he's reaping the rewards because of it.
And it also is really nice when you put the
Neil Hunter on the other side, because man, what a conbo.

Speaker 5 (02:28:17):
Best duo in the NFL.

Speaker 6 (02:28:19):
I'll boldly predict, as I did last year, barely erroneously,
they're definitely They're getting thirty sacks between them, and one
of them will definitely finish in the top five.

Speaker 5 (02:28:30):
I think both will finish in the top eight. And
that's just sacks.

Speaker 6 (02:28:34):
And it's only because it's a common stat that everybody
knows if there's so much more to that all year
long pressure rate, number of pressures, they were in the
top three and top four throughout almost the entire season.
Both of the most explosive game. You know, Daniel Hunter
had one or two of those. These guys are great,
they want to be great er, as you heard from
Hunter earlier. So in case you missed it, JJ Watt

(02:28:57):
went to Texans practice today. It's chance to talk to you,
AJ Watt.

Speaker 5 (02:29:00):
So we've delivered a little bit of that to you
to open in case you missed it. What else do
we have?

Speaker 8 (02:29:05):
Cole?

Speaker 12 (02:29:05):
So we do know that Cooper Flagg is probably gonna
be the number one overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks
and he'll be coached by Jason Kidd because of collusion
as is evident, and we're not gonna get them detail.
But the Rockets do have the number ten pick. Do
you think that the player, if they do elect Keith pick,
will be in attendance at the NBA Draft. Well, the

(02:29:27):
reason I say that is because thirteen players have received
invitations to attend this year's twenty twenty five NBA Draft
in New York, including Dylan.

Speaker 5 (02:29:35):
Harper, Ace Bailey, vj.

Speaker 12 (02:29:37):
Edgecomb, Trey Johnson, Carter Bryant, Derrek, Queen, Asanowle, and a
slow of others. Another eleven invitations are expected to be
sent out over the next week.

Speaker 6 (02:29:47):
Well, that's eleven plus thirteen. If they all accept, that's
twenty four total.

Speaker 5 (02:29:53):
I have the tenth pick.

Speaker 6 (02:29:55):
It's the NBA. I'm gonna say firm hard, yes, the
player will be there. He would have to decline the invitation,
like one or two of these top so called top
twenty fours, and a lot of players beyond the top
twenty four, beyond the invitations, they just go right well yeah,
they just I feel like Capella, he was just there.

Speaker 5 (02:30:18):
I feel like per cap at a way more NBA
prospective players they do. And the draft ten it's also.

Speaker 6 (02:30:24):
Changed a little bit, not just from one day to
two days, but just the whole proceedings of it all. Yeah,
I think if the Rockets make a selection that they
do not intend to trade, that that player they drafted
will be in attendance at the draft.

Speaker 5 (02:30:38):
I'll go both firm.

Speaker 12 (02:30:39):
Yes, sure. All right, Well, speaking of the Rockets, one
more thing. I am in the team camp of hey
Jalen Brown find your way to reunite with emao U Doka.
And I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but Jalen Brown
did undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Wednesday. The
team was suspecting him to be back at the start
of training camp without any limitations for time. MVP and

(02:31:01):
all start in twenty twenty four Finals MVP. He averaged
twenty two point two points, five point eight rebounds, and
four point five assists last season, his ninth year in
the NBA. The question is what is this Boston team
without having Jason Tatum, who's gonna miss a majority of next.

Speaker 5 (02:31:16):
Season, not all next season. I mean that can't help.
But note and I don't think we did.

Speaker 2 (02:31:20):
The other day.

Speaker 6 (02:31:21):
Top two teams in the East, and three of their
top five combined players, Darius Garland, Brown and Tatum all
have had surgery. Brown's is the least worrisome because he
should be back by camp, but Garland's going to likely
miss part of the season after dealing with an injury
for more than the season. It was back in twenty
three when it first affected. Obviously, Tatum's out for an

(02:31:42):
extended period of time. This seems like a shouldn't affect
them at all.

Speaker 5 (02:31:46):
Right, Well, I just feel like the Celtics whole offseason,
much like the Milwaukee Bucks, has been predetermined fairly or
not by I mean, I it was catastrophic injury for them,
But they're in this horrible tax bracket. So are you
gonna pay a bunch of money for a team that's
clearly not gonna win a championship because of your best

(02:32:07):
players hurt?

Speaker 12 (02:32:07):
Maybe it lowers the asking price for Jalen Brown, Maybe
it does.

Speaker 6 (02:32:12):
We will continue wrap things up and get you to
the Astros on Deck Show next.

Speaker 2 (02:32:18):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (02:32:27):
One.

Speaker 5 (02:32:27):
Other thing that probably could have been put into in
case you missed it. The Missouri legislature has approved a
stadium funding bill for the Chiefs and Royals. So now
the bill is going to go to the governor and
he's expected to sign it after leading an effort to
keep the teams from moving to neighboring Kansas. Does this mean,

(02:32:50):
and I'm not familiar like with the entire story, are
they building a combo stadium for both of them?

Speaker 6 (02:32:57):
I don't believe it's a combos stadium. I believe if
it's it maybe a combo complex.

Speaker 5 (02:33:03):
Like, but they're both going to be playing in this
stadium currently they have a combo complex. Oh I got you,
I got you, Yeah, which is super old. But still
I mean, having been to Arrowhead last last season, it's
about it looks about as in good as shape as
a stadium its age could look. I mean, it's still awesome. Yeah,

(02:33:25):
I've been to a game there.

Speaker 6 (02:33:26):
Unfortunately, it was a preseason game there for the Texans,
so it was a little less exciting, but it was.
It was hot, but it was you know, the way
it's built and we've seen it countless times now during
this recent postseason run. For as old as it is
from the game standpoint and the atmosphere and the home
field advantage, you know, all the things that don't matter

(02:33:48):
to the team that because they want money and they
want to be able to generate revenue. It's it's perfectly fine.
It's actually great. I mean, the Bills are going to
have a new stadium soon. The Chiefs are going to
have a new stadium year. It's possible one of the
other top four teams in the AFC, the Texans, will
have a new stadium soon.

Speaker 5 (02:34:06):
That's just crazy. That they would do the combo, Like,
so you're you're really building two stadiums If that's the case,
I believe, Yes, I believe that is the case at
two stadiums at the same time. Man, it's just can't
believe that they would they would do that. I mean,
I get one of them. Well, her chiefs are winning
a lot.

Speaker 6 (02:34:27):
Well, you're also catching the vote at the absolute right time.
From the royal standpoint, this is the best future they've
ever had. They I don't know what they're going to
do with it. We don't know how much winning is
in their future, but they have one of They definitely
have the best young star in baseball, right, Well, he
would start the All Start. He'll start the All start

(02:34:49):
the All Star Game. He will start the All Star Game.

Speaker 5 (02:34:51):
Come on, Astros fans, it's not about that.

Speaker 12 (02:34:53):
It's about the voting.

Speaker 5 (02:34:54):
That's why I'm saying, come on, it's not all in
their hands anymore. That's true, he's got better numbers.

Speaker 6 (02:35:01):
No, I think this is I mean, we don't we
Who are we to say they don't deserve that team?
Let them take it, like we know what it's like. Well,
we know what it's like to go through getting stadiums
built to keep certain teams happy. We know what it's
like to lose a team and then go through the
process of trying to get one back, and they're not
about to lose them. That's still way would be way
way off.

Speaker 5 (02:35:21):
In the distance. Unlike the Oilers or the Texans, the
Chiefs have won something a lot of somethings of late,
so it's I'm not saying that that should be the
end all be all. When you're asking for the fun
do you like the parades? Do you like having an
extra month and a half of football? Do you like
everybody talking about how awesome you are all year? Do
you like talking about how awesome you are every year?

(02:35:41):
You mean you're tailgating fanatics win or lose, But yeah,
we like it. Let's go ahead and keep them.

Speaker 12 (02:35:46):
But aren't they just gonna move from the Missouri side
of the Kansas side?

Speaker 5 (02:35:49):
It was limited, It was a limited move. It was
a kind of kind of short distance. But it's no surprise,
Like the Warriors won a bunch of championships and oh,
by the way, conveniently, that's the exact time they got
their new building built after not having one for years
and years and years and years years.

Speaker 6 (02:36:02):
If you were thinking, I mean, I guess the Gary
Kubiak era Texans were still too new to even consider asking.

Speaker 5 (02:36:11):
For a new one. The stadium wasn't even ten years
old yet.

Speaker 6 (02:36:13):
But if they hired I don't know, pick anybody not
named Damiko Ryans, if they only drafted CJ. Stroud and
didn't trade up for will Anderson Junior, if they went
eight and nine and eight and nine the last two
years with no playoffs, think about how different things would
be when considering the possibility of moving forward on a
new stadium build in a new location.

Speaker 5 (02:36:36):
And everything you said is completely accurate in that scenario
because it's make beliefs. But I mean, I still think
they ask it today. Houston's not giving the Texans a
new stadium with a vote. You're not waiting for them
to advance further. It's they're good enough. As dumb as
this sounds, I don't even think it sounds dumb. If

(02:36:56):
the Texans win the Super Bowl this year, that vote's
going to be like a landslide. And if they did
the vote before, or if they go ten and seven
and they're out in the first round or second or whatever, again,
they're not gonna get a stadium. I don't think, not
with the public vote. I don't think they will. Now's
if it's outside of the metro you know, metropolitan area,

(02:37:19):
like is rumored. Maybe that's different.

Speaker 6 (02:37:23):
But like, but what you're saying is you think the
team is going to ask, it's going to be rejected,
and they're going to move out of the Houston area
completely and not be a Houston Texans franchise at all.

Speaker 5 (02:37:38):
That's that sounds like what you're saying, not the last part.
I think they will have those other two steps not
ultimately get to the third step. Well, I don't. I
am not admittedly sure how it works. But if they
were to build a stadium, let's just say for the
sake of argument, they go to sugar Land. So they're
in Fort ben County. It's not Harris County's money, and
that's a completely different set of circumstances, completely different leadership,

(02:37:59):
and it's Fort Benn that's voting on it. Well, how
about when they get voted down, it's rejected. They lost.

Speaker 6 (02:38:07):
We tried to do it this way and lost. Okay,
we'll have it your way. We'll pay for the whole thing. Ourselves.
So now it's burger king well, and then it's like
the mcnairs will just say, we'll get all the revenue
from it.

Speaker 5 (02:38:20):
It'll be ours.

Speaker 6 (02:38:21):
We'll buy the land, we'll build the stadium, and we'll
be the Houston Texas. Just you guys can't have any
of it. You guys can enjoy the games. We'll stay here.
We just don't have to coordinate our financial efforts with you.

Speaker 5 (02:38:33):
I think a lot of cities would say good. I
don't think it's going to come to that, and the
owners know that, especially the NFL owners. I don't think
this is as much of a slam dunk as you
think it is. Well, I didn't call it. Well, that's
what it sounds like. You're saying. You didn't hear me
call it a Grand Slam touchdown, did you?

Speaker 15 (02:38:48):
No?

Speaker 6 (02:38:49):
I just and I really truly believe if they fifty
one percent is all it requires, right, fifty point seven.

Speaker 5 (02:38:56):
Well, the Rockets referendum, it was close, wasn't it. It
was because it failed twice before, and that's the Rockets.
I like that they had won two championships. We'll dumb
it down.

Speaker 6 (02:39:05):
So it failed, and then they did it again and
it failed, and then they did it again and it passed.

Speaker 5 (02:39:09):
You just vote until it passes. Well, you're what you're
voting on? Changes?

Speaker 6 (02:39:14):
Oh well, what if we take this out of it.
It's like negotiating a trade. What's it going to take
to make them sorry rejecting the trade?

Speaker 5 (02:39:20):
Hang up?

Speaker 6 (02:39:20):
All right, let's try it again. I'm when I add
this to it. All right, I don't like it anymore.
I still don't like it. Hanging up, Okay, all right.

Speaker 5 (02:39:28):
It is crazy to think about when like that was
happening in the late nineties. The Oilers left in ninety six.
Was their last season here. I believe so ninety seven
was the first in Tennessee, but it wasn't obviously in Nashville.
And the Rockets referendum passed in ninety nine. Houston was
this close to losing two of their three major teams

(02:39:50):
within a three year span, but didn't. Yeah, they only
kept one of them. Whoop, five hundred, you're batting five
hundred at keeping franchises in the city. Great job, you're
doing great, Houston. We have what do we have now?

Speaker 6 (02:40:04):
We have football, we have baseball, we have basketball, just
like before. All good, still missing one, but they never
mean technically you could say they did the W and
that team.

Speaker 5 (02:40:17):
Would play in one of those other three buildings, unlike
building a whole new one for a new you know,
a team, undoubtedly.

Speaker 6 (02:40:24):
So we'll get you into the Astros on Deck Show here.
The Ross Viaeverel project will come your way in just
a few minutes. Appreciate those that spent some time with
us today, both you guys out there listening and watching,
and of course those guests that we delivered to you
some on our own, the Brandon Walter visit, and of
course from other programs here on the station for AC
four coal I am WEX two o'clock Tomorrow, you'll find

(02:40:46):
us right here on Sports Talk seven ninety on the
A Team.

Speaker 5 (02:40:50):
The Astros on Deck Show is next

Speaker 2 (02:40:53):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety

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