Rockets Destroy Kings, Jerrod Johnson Departs, AFC South Trade(s)!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I bet you thought we weren't here yet, We're here.
I'd just like to hear our theme song four times
a day.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
It is the eight team, Sports Talk seven ninety after
a barn burner of Astros spring training offense against the
New York Mets.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yep, Biggers, Suezo DoD Dett, Sacho Junior call Justin Thomas, no.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hikeout strikeout, no out, strikeout. None of those guys got
hits today. They were all out there, sixteen strikeouts for
Mets pitching. Ie.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
The Astros twenty twenty seven lottery Watch is on right
now because none of those guys got hits today.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
When did they start tanking like the Utah Jazz of
Major League Baseball?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Truth be told, Astros played two spring training games today,
and the one we heard right here on Sports Talk
seven ninety did provide something worthy of discussion. Actually, probably
a few things, and we'll get into that. Tatsuya EMI's
first ten pitches in an Astros uniform exhibition game we're
thrown today and he's already been hit by one of them.
Jeremy Pania, Carlos Correa, Christian Walker all in the lineup today. Honestly,

(01:12):
maybe the first six guys in the lineup today could
be in the lineup that Joe As bought a pencils
in on March twenty sixth, exactly one month from today, Thursday,
March twenty sixth, the Astros season will open. Probably saw
at least one other pitcher in this game that you
didn't have last year that should make the team out

(01:34):
of spring training, and a couple of others that were
likely being their bullpen. So some notes on how they
performed the other game that was played today, A couple
of notes from there will share with you, And obviously
all of this leads out of last night's Rockets game
and into tonight's Rockets games.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
We get started here on the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Two games at home went as expected, with Utah and
Sacramento visiting. Neither provided a challenge for the Rockets, because
early in each of those games they made sure that
would not happen, and as the game went on, they
made sure nothing else of consequence would happen, like a
meltdown or an injury of significance, And they took care
of the Kings last night, very very easily, their largest

(02:14):
margin of victory the entire season, a thirty one point
dub with a triple double from Schengngoon, a very strong
shooting performance from Reed Shepherd in a starting role. With
him and Thompson out of last night's game. Before the game,
he may Udoka indicated they hoped it was just a
one game absence. When he may made an appearance his
weekly appearance on The Mat Thomas Show with Ross earlier today,

(02:35):
he described it as he's feeling a lot better. We
had three games in four days. Want to be careful
with it, but we will see about tonight. The injury
report suggests there's nothing to see about tonight. He will
be out there and playing, considering he is not listed
on it. Just the four Rockets that otherwise are normally there,
Tristan Newton, the two way player, and the three Rockets
that are unavailable, Jay Sean Tape, Fred Van Vliet and

(02:57):
Steven Adams. It is the magic this evening, and the
Rockets have played pretty well on the road against Eastern
Conference teams. I would have had a really sparkling record
had they not had their last Eastern Conference road game
against the Knicks with the fourth quarter meltdown, but that
is on the table for today. Both from last night,
some very very important things to Rockets twitterati in last

(03:18):
night's game and some of the most recent games that
we need to discuss today and we will. And of
course today brings football players to the football field. Finally
in Indianapolis at the combine. The on field work portion
of the combine, so.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I get a smattering of daily emails from different entities
outlets that we both read up on for various things,
and one of them today, as in regards to the combine,
said the following, does the combine matter? And I thought
of our conversation yesterday. I do feel like less and

(03:57):
less it matters for certain positions.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
To separate the two things. I think this is very important.
Brought it up yesterday. The combine is two almost entirely
separate events. One is talking to players, meeting players, getting
no players, understanding who these players are so you have
a better idea of, as Nick would say, if they
fit your program once they get in your building program.
And then the other part is the on field measurements,

(04:21):
activities and things like that. Those I really do think
teams should treat them that way. Do treat them that way,
and quite frankly, the way the Texans seem to be
talking to us about over the five years that Nick
has been running their combine activities. They absolutely do, and
they put a whole lot of weight on part one,
the meetings and interviews and sit downs and informal meetings

(04:41):
and then getting ready to set up there, you know,
their thirty meetings that come later on versus do we
have to be in the stands or in a suite
at what should I call it?

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Today? Well, you had the Who's Your Dome? You had
the Rcacco field House. That's a little far north, isn't it.
I don't know where it is, ind somewhere in the neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I feel like it's a bigger venue than that, whether
they get Square Arena, whether they need to be in
a suite at Market Square Arena or in the seats
with their archaic stopwatches that they punch when the players
cross the the well.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
There's no line there because they're running along the white
lines of out of.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Base awful polyester shorts with a polo tucked into them.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Sometimes pet and coaches did.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
They don't have a lot of presence for that because
they feel like we can get all the information without
spending another four or five however many days there, so
we'll see what comes out of it. Obviously, we won't
know what comes out of it until well, the Texans
drafted blank player with the seventy fourth pick in the draft,
and he was one of their thirty visits and they
met him at the combine or they were at this

(05:45):
game against Oregon. We'll know more about it as we
get there.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
For the record, what the email thing said, the little
blast if you will?

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Does it matter? Does the combine matter?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
And the first sentence was the short answer is the
same I gave clients when I was a securities lawyer.
It depends. And since you're married to a lawyer, he's
a securities lawyer. Well, the two people he's an agent,
this is Jacob Robinson and Diana Russini, this is the
athletic who's Okay, I don't know which one of them
actually wrote that part, because it's like.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Pretty sure she's not was not ever a securities lawyer. Yeah,
I think she's been in the media game most of
her professional I.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Think that's what I thought. So I tend don't know
who Jacob Robinson is. I guess he's a securities lawyer,
a former securities lawyer. Although I don't know if you're
ever a former attorney. But he's talking about his clients. Well,
he said, are they players? So the next the next
thing he says is and this is funny because we
remember all these things. Tom Brady ran a slow forty
yard dash. Former Seahawks running back Robert Turbin was one

(06:43):
of the greatest interviews one GM ever experienced. And your
personal favorite, Kenny Pickett's hands were small, like these are
the things that are said.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, I think Kenny Pickett probably goes maybe twelfth or seventh,
but he had small hands, so he only went twentieth.
His hands had nothing to do with the fact that
he's not really good at playing quarterback at this level.
It's so funny some.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
People say I have small hands and I run the
free world. I didn't. Is that something that actually is
attached to his person. I've seen it. I'dn't heard that.
I mean, they're visualized all the time because he's a
he's a hands talker. I think that's why it became
a thing.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
But the rest of him is so large, both literally
and metaphorically, that it's just kind of.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
His hair was upon entry into the house the other night.
It looked like they just whisked him out of the views.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
You want to look at great hair, look at Millennia.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Now, just because we I feel like, because we spent
so many years following spring training baseball, we usually got
extra time when they would end early, and technically we
have less time today, but I feel like this is
a bonus half hour. Yeah, so I broach the subject
about three I wouldn't normally broach. So he spent a

(07:54):
record setting amount of time addressing us about your union.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Two plus hours, which he also told you he was
going to do.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
He mentioned a lot of the things that he's involved with,
like winning Trump, r X and some other things.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Definitely winning. Nobody's ever seen this much winning. But did
he did I miss it or did he never say
anything about Milania's documentary.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
I don't think he did.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
I think he's letting the I saw that it was
speak for themselves now, much like the television networks are
touting the Olympic victory on Sunday morning, the hockey game
the highest rated sports event ever in the morning, like
her documentary. Also, I can't remember the exact terms around it,

(08:42):
but you know, the biggest doc opening under these parameters,
the current term like something like that. I can say
this because I read this before it came out about
documentaries in general. And you know this because you I
think you've consumed your fair share of that particular genre.
They're not typically, they don't do well whether they're like

(09:05):
widely released kind of straight to digital, which back in
the day kids, you would say straight to DVD if
you know what that means.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
But they're straight to video, yeah, exactly, straight to video.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
They're in the discount movies that people that would go
on late night talk shows with Conan and get ripped
for when they were also guesting with Norm MacDonald, those
who got typhoid pox off is poisonson. I guess it's
probably called Chairman of the Board. Courtney r ed carrot

(09:35):
tops in it. Yeah, I know, it's very bad. God
may he rest so last thing on that. When they
showed the family h like I love.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
The text I got about bearing from you. He's still
enjoy not smiling so much.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
He gets so much pleasure out of being a part
of the family's visual wherever they are, whatever they're doing,
walking in for an event or seated at this event,
or standing for this event, and just nobody's got the
I'm not smiling tonight down like he does.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Well, my favorite was awesome. He was referred to at
that speech. I can't remember if it was like a
rally or if it was after the carriage business. He
is laser focused. He just stands out smiling. And the
best part is people make continuous memes using that gift, like,
for example, when I unload the dishwasher without being asked.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
It's awesome.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
And obviously, because of the length of Trump's presidential run,
his election, his non election, and then his election again,
he grew up with We grew up with Baron. We
watched him and he was he was already a tall
young lad early and now he's a tall man who
still towers over what is other otherwise reasonably tall group

(10:47):
of people.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
And he has he has two older I believe half
brothers who are not they're not short, and he towers
over them as well. And then, of course, since this
is sports, we obviously now have the Trump Sports Angle
in the Tiger Woods basically as part of the family.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Now, I like, does he just live at mar Alago?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Now?

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Like, what is going on?

Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well, Kai is a bigger figure as she goes through
her golf career. Charlie a huge figure in his own right.
He was honored at his I guess I think it
was their high school, not graduation, but the golf team.
I think had their maybe their awards dinner, And up
there on stage with him was Tiger on his right

(11:27):
and Ellen on his left.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Just good parenting, yeah, well co parenting parent as they
call it.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
So talk about the kids.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
We can always get it back to what we're here for,
which is to entertain you through the world of sports.
So all those things on the table and beyond the
combine itself. This is a topic we've talked about pretty much.
From the moment the Texans season ended, it seemed pretty
unlikely that they would be running it back the same
way they did a year ago above c J. Stroud

(11:58):
meaning coaching staff, office, personnel, scouting staff, etc. And today
the report that Girad Johnson will not be a part
of their coaching staff next year, termed mutual parting of
the ways. He went on several interviews for offensive coordinator jobs,
as he has done in the past, did not land
any of those, and now will be I don't think
he'll be out of work for long. But obviously the

(12:21):
timing from trying to get a gig, whether it's NFL
or college, is a little bit less than desirable here.
But it marks another change with the Texans thoughts on
how we need to get the most out of our offense,
how we need to get the most out of our quarterback.
I think it seems pretty likely that Jerry Schaplinsky will
just slide into taking over quarterback coaching duties, if that's
how they term it. He was brought in last year

(12:43):
as a senior offensive assistant. They had two of them
when CJ was here as a rookie. It went down
to one for year two, went back up to two
last year. We'll see if it changes again next year.
But Bobby Sloweck and Gerard in year one, Bobby Sloeck
and Gerard in year two, Nick Haley and Gerrod in
year three, and now Nick Kyley and Jerry, I guess

(13:05):
in year four, a very important year for the Texans offense.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
And c J.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Stroud, Well, it makes me wonder like he has He's not.
I'm not gonna give him the what is it, the
the Justin Herbert treatment. Well, this guy. No, it wasn't
justin Herbert, it was it was Trevor Lawrence. I mean,
he's he really did have a lot of turnover. I
know I dog on him because he plays for the
Jags and he looks like Sunshine from Remember the Titans.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
But I just feel like he really did.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
If you want to get down to it and you
want to start making excuses for a guy that are
actually legit, that's a lot.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
It would be like if CJ.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Stroud's first year was under either coach Kully or Coach
Smith and then they said this is a disaster and
we're moving on for all those somehow because he started
with urban Meyer, right.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Those two would have been nicer than urban Meyer, nicer
people without questions. You think they would have kicked anybody literally, Well,
their kicker was good, I mean, no reason to kick
him on video. Kicked him and I honestly that's a
really really bad thing to do.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yes it is.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
And he did like twenty other things that are much
worse as a head coach of an NFL football team.
You know, this is where I don't don't want to
lessen the magnitude of an assault.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
We're talking about.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
This is where one of your textbook go to terms
that you don't use nearly enough comes into play. Urban
Meyer total dirt bag. I mean in every way everywhere.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
I mean, we got to know who he was after
Bowling Green because even though he won there at the
time and day at the time we were I don't
think we really paid much attention to it, but it
got him a really nice gig at Utaw where they
won Alex Smith and all that, and they did really
kind of jump on the scene from that, and then
renegade football at Florida under urban Meyer. Absolute renegade football.

(14:54):
I mean, I kind of think the head coach at
Georgia is reading urban Meyer's book on how to coach
college football in the most renegade kind of way. I
mean the fact that somebody could even I hate even
making light of it, but most of them are just ticketed,
not actual accidents. But someone put together an entire twenty
two person starting lineup eleven on offense, eleven on defense

(15:18):
of only players that have played for Kirby Smart that
have had tickets for driving violations driving too fast.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
I saw that and I was like this, and that's impressive.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Just part of it, obviously, there have been has been
very significant because people died because of it in one
of those incidents. But yeah, he did that and obviously
moved on and gosh, the bad ownership in this division.
Same owner decided not only did he want to hire
Urban Meyer to be the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars,
he well, obviously Urban was at Ohio State in between,

(15:48):
but I'm getting to the NFL.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
He gave him so much control.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
He's like, we're gonna change everything we do here, and
I'm gonna lean on this guy who's never been here
at this level all before.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
He's run a team in college. And remember, now.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
If you run a team in college, you're much more
qualified to be an NFL head coach because you have
a salary and you have a personnel director, and you're
paying players to get there and you're trying to figure
out who fits where, and you're re signing those players
all the time.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
That's NFL football. But that's not what Erbin Meyer came
to do. And it lasted less than a year. It
was a total disaster. And I think going to Doug
Peterson was okay, and then going to Liam Cullen has
changed it.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Dramatically.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
CJ's only worked with one head coach, one leader, but
he's obviously already worked with two different ocs, which means
two different offenses, and this is just a year two
with the newer of those two offers.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
How important in the hierarchy of things, just with regards
to a quarterback, not necessarily the offense itself, although I
know that kind of sounds redundant, is the quarterbacks coach, though.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
I think it's very important in that there are things
that either they've experienced as a player when you have one,
and the Texans did. Jarrod Johnson's NFL veteran a quarterback,
not a lengthy career, but spent time in a bunch
of different offenses on the field, in some of them
more than others, and then worked his way up as
a coach. Relatively young coach will a relatively quick rise
to quarterback coach, and ultimately, I think many people thought

(17:14):
this offseason, maybe a relatively quick rise to an offensive
coordinator position, which is the next logical step, which I
still think he will achieve sometime in the near future.
But there are a lot of other quarterback coaches or
OC's that have a lot more experience and maybe are
a little bit more helpful to CJ. I guess, but
I can't act like Jarrad Johnson wasn't there for year one,

(17:36):
like the most important development season, and he was there. Now,
granted he was there case Keenum was there and off
the field, but inside the organization. And I posted about
this earlier today since we've talked about it the two
years since Dylan Thompson was a part of this team.
It's a former college quarterback. Yes he has ties to
South Carolina where he played, and yes he has ties

(17:58):
to Jack which is probably the only reason he was
with the organization. But an extremely valuable person if you've
talked to people with the Texans, or people with the
Lions where he worked before, or people with the Commanders
where he works now as a senior development executive. But
again that's with the football team. He just basically the

(18:22):
question was after CJ's rookie season, their availability after their
loss to the Ravens, you know, you know, what do
you think about your growth and who do you credit?
Who'd you lean on to get where you are through
this season. It was one of several names he brought up,
but it was the first one. He's like, he's gonna
get mad at me for saying this, but he's like
one of the greatest people I've met, g one of
the greatest just humans that I now know, and you know,

(18:44):
he means probably more than anybody else here to what
we accomplished and how much I grew this season. And
he's been away from CJ and the Texans for the
two seasons that have followed. He was in Washington for
season one of Jaden Daniels and continues to be there.
Just some of the things that have changed from year
one's extreme success to where we are now in year four.

(19:06):
If they bring somebody in for the quarterback room or
for the offensive staff, which I absolutely think they should,
I don't know that again. I think Jerry Schuplinsky will
be adding to his title and become the quarterback coach,
and he does have a lot more experience, but only
at the same level that Gerard did. But I still
think another human should be brought into the room. Bill

(19:27):
Laser's been here throughout. Shane Day was an assistant the
first year. He went to work with Justin Herbert after
year one, and just last year is when they kind
of replaced him with Jerry, So I think another person
will be brought in, and I presume that will probably
be someone with more experience than Gerard had.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
All right, when we come back to start the next
segment after another beatdown of a team trying to lose
by the way, I mean, that's what the Kings were
doing last night. And I don't mean Keegan Murray getting hert.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Yeah, he brought it up after the last game. What
it's just because they keep players keep being helped or limped.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
To the locker room. Any guy for the Jazz, it
was Vince Williams Junior. He tore his ecl right, he
did well. I don't think they've actually confirmed that. I'd
have to double check, but that was the belief. And
then some people were blaming Tarryaso for tearing it, which
is just stupid. I was not many times have I
seen a play like that. All he tried to do

(20:27):
was ward off the defender from getting in front of him.
I described it on the air that night.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
It was kind of a football play in terms of
a block, like my guy's running for a touchdown, so
I'm going to keep you from making the tackle, and
he kind of got in front of him and shouldered him.
Nothing that seemed out of the ordinary until it kind
of caught Williams by surprise. So he was knocked off balance,
and then he awkwardly went to the court, hyper extending
his knee, and I think most people believed that obviously

(20:53):
that's what happen. Was more about the way he awkwardly
fell than any force of the of the hit.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
We'll talk a little bit about this matchup tonight.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Actually in light of the fact that they got to
Florida very very early this morning.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
I was going to say late, but with the time changing.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Very quickly, Yeah, game ends, hop on and your bed's
by two thirty, well to forty five Eastern time, Yeah,
Eastern time.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
You came from the Central time zone. You lost an hour.
So what time? How many hours after the game was it?
Actually if the game ended at nine to forty five,
well it's the same amount of time, but the time
that you so it was really one forty five right?

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Sure? Now I'm asking is it one forty five or
three forty five?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Well, I'm not sure actually, now that I think about it,
I just know that it was three o'clock ish local
time when they all got into their rooms. Yeah, now
they got a six thirty tip off. It's not seven
thirty on the East coast. Exactly what are you trying
to do here? So we'll discuss the Rockets matchup tonight
at the second time in twenty four hours when we return.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Back into it here on the A team and obviously
here an awkward time today because that will happen when
the Astros are in spring training tomorrow. The awkwardness won't
come until we're finished before fifty join for Lance mccullor's
junior first start of spring training that comes tomorrow. Two
potential Astros starting pitchers or on the mound today in
their game that you heard right here on Sports Talk

(22:22):
seven to ninety with Tatsuya em and Ryan Weiss. Weiss
pitched into a third inning after his first two innings
were sparkling and quick. Emi only threw ten pitches in
his first inning and it was his only inning. Some
were wondering if there was supposed to be a second inning.
He did get hit by the first batted ball off
the bat of Marcus Simeon and ninety eight point seven

(22:44):
miles per hour off the bat a grounder that hit
him in the leg. He obviously threw a couple of
warm up pitches, was looked at by the athletic training staff,
but no real consequence. He stayed in the game, finished
the inning, and then afterwards he said the plan all
alongs for him to throw just the one inning, so
nothing of consequence there. If that was the only hit
he allowed, induced an inny ending double playball Korea spins it,

(23:07):
flips it to second and on over to first, Christian
Walker over there again. The infield nearly what it could
be on opening day, probably not going to see Nick
Allen at second base, but he was the starter today
because Altuve was not get into a spring training game
that should come tomorrow. But Penya, Coorea and Christian Walker
all in the line of today Zach Cole, Joey Lop Perfito,
and Cam Smith. Where you're starting outfield could be an

(23:31):
alignment we see at times this year should they all
make the team. Hopefully most of their games this season
won't look like they did today. Offensively, Smith struck out
in two of his three at bats, Low Perfito and
one of his two, and Cole in one of his
two plate appearances of note. On the other side, one
of the pitchers that's going to try to help the

(23:52):
United States of America show their dominance again, this time
on the baseball diamond in the World Baseball Classic. Nolan
mcl was the starting pitcher today for the Mets, who's
also been stretched out a little bit more and is
expected to make one, if not two starts for the
United States team in the World Baseball Classic. Right here
to start at Dyke and Park coming up on March sixth,

(24:15):
was just he was filthy today. I gave up a
leadoff single to Jeremy Pania and then only one other
player reached against him as he recorded the next twelve
outs to get him in and out. Of his four
innings worth of work, allowing just one hit. The team
had one hit offer Robert Stock who threw after him.
Both of those pitchers struck out six Astros batters and

(24:37):
they ended up getting two hit today. But again, many
of those played appearances taken by players who could be
an a ball, double a ball, triple a ball, but
most likely not at the major league level. Throughout this season,
as the spring training portion of our days continues, more
and more major league pitchers. We'll get into those games,
you'll have a little bit more to work with in
terms of analysis of those games. But by the time

(24:58):
we come back from the weekend, we're probably only looking
at Jordan Alvarez as an Astros regular, both position players
and pitchers that we won't have seen yet among healthy players.
And sometime early next week, according to Joe Spata, they
likely will get him into a game.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Has there been a public declaration reasoning for why we
haven't seen him or is this just now this?

Speaker 3 (25:23):
I mean, today was the first day for Karea and Walker.
Tomorrow will be the first day for Altuve, and.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
I guess it's because of who he is and his
last season.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
Now, Payne has played a couple of times because he's
about to leave for the World Baseball Classic, And again
you don't know what kind of activity he's.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Gonna get there.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Maybe he starts and plays twenty four innings out of
the thirty sixth day, Who knows. You never really have
a total idea, even if you have a good relationship
with the manager of their respective country that you're playing for.
Shay whit Come's about to leave, Zach Decenzo will leave,
and you've seen a little bit, maybe a little bit
more of them than you would have otherwise. But yeah,
I don't know, there's been no declaration on it because

(25:59):
he's just kind of matter of factly given the updates.
If you were paying attention to some of the social
media that was posted by the Astros the last couple
of days and Julie Morales of Space City Home Network,
who's still there working on some of the things they'll
feature on SEHN through spring training in the season, you
probably saw a picture of Josh Hater throwing the baseball

(26:20):
and he looked sure looked like he was awfully close
to the mound because he was. He played ketch off
the mound. You know, the portion of their training facility
at their West Palm Beach, the Cacti Ballpark of the
Palm Beaches they've got I believe it's eight mounds lined
up next to one another, and he was standing there
playing ketch, a step towards continuing his process of getting

(26:42):
ramped up. But again, the pace that it's going at is,
as obviously was on their first day there at spring training,
the likelihood of him being available, He's going to start
the year on on the il he's not going to
be available to pitch for the Astros out of the gate,
I wouldn't imagine, but I think that's perfectly fine if
it's the only time this year is unavailable, and you
make sure when he is he comes back and stays back.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Well, if he and others have to be on the IL,
i'd rather be right out.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
Of the gate.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
I know that's still not ideal because you want to
have your full squad ready to go, and you're probably
having a little bit of PTSD pointed back to last
season when it felt like every single day we'd walk
in here and there was a new update or a complication,
or someone that was expected to be back wasn't ready
or whatever any number of scenarios. But that guy, I'll
take it now as opposed to the most important time

(27:34):
of the year when the Astros are hopefully getting back
to the postseason.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Brian McTaggart, noting that earlier today that he played catch
off the mound tomorrow, I mentioned that Lance mccullors Junior
will make the start. Spencer Araghetti is expected to be
on the mound as well after him. The Saturday game,
Mike Burrows will make his second appearance with the Astros,
and as I just mentioned to you obviously via Brian

(27:57):
McTaggart reporting on it, expected to debut next week. Jordan
Alvarez not the most exciting prospect in the organization.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Kevin Alvarez.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
True, I'm trying to put that name out there as
much as I can since they added him to their
fold last season. Young young, young kid. And again I'll
bring up the Gavin Dicky interview with Jeff and Todd
during their broadcast over the first weekend of spring training games.
He was trying to temper his enthusiasm for the player
because of how young he is, but absolutely couldn't help

(28:31):
himself from using the word special and unique and kind
of one of a kind talent. Probably not even close
to the majors yet. But I'll tell you what, I
guarantee you this is the player every other team when
they pick up the phone and call Dana about that's
the one they want, and that's the one, the one
player in their entire system.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
I would imagine his off limits. He's untouchable. I would
call him untouchable.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yes, I feel like Dana Brown is hoping he gets
to hang on to some talent for a while.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
We're gonna find out a little bit about their more
recent draft classes, even the twenty twenty five draft class,
I think pretty quickly, because they've leaned on college players
so much, so there's really no reason for them to
get seven hundred and fifty one thousand minor league at
bats like some younger players do. Start them at Double
A if they're ready, or start them at single high
A ball this year. Expect them to make it to

(29:22):
double A over the course of the year, and maybe
there's not a long path for them to be a
major leaguer. Ethan Fries probably very close to the top
of that list. Nine's is another player will watch very closely.
I think their systems starting to get replenished. But he
came in when they were winning, when they had used
a lot of players in trade to get major league players,
and obviously the non punishment that the Astros never got

(29:45):
didn't impact Dana's drafting at all. Right, Oh wait, they
lost first round picks and back to back years and
second round picks and back to back years four potential
major leaguers.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
And they were fined and their manager and their GM
got fired. So anyway, I mean, god, I mean, people
are really just that I learned this following sports. I'm
seeing it following politics. People are just dumb because they're lazy.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
One hundred percent of people that you're talking about are
spin doctors. What is it that we want to present
as our message and our belief and our narrative and
we'll find what we need to do that. What we
need is to get you into the three o'clock hour,
we will talk about what a lot of people are
talking about with the rockets and the obvious change that
was made last night with A. N. Thompson on the sideline,
more about what the Texans are trying to do to

(30:30):
improve these surroundings for CJ. Stroud and a potential for
a bounce back year, back to the rookie year or better.
That's the thing, you know, CJ. Stroud could play better
than he did in his rookie season. Host of other things.
We will hear from Ema Udoka in about two a
little over an hour when we give you some of
what he had to say right here on Sports Talk
seven to ninety, and of course we've got our signature

(30:52):
segment coming up at four thirty. We ask a very
simple question, what's up? With that, and I think you're
gonna like it, especially fans of Wings, you will definitely
like it.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
It's almost three o'clock.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
The.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Three o'clock OW.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
We're underway here on Sports Talk seven ninety it is
the A Team Wexac Josh Jordan with you on a
Thursday edition of the program. Good lord man, it's February
twenty six. It's gonna be March in like five minutes.
And then before you know, we're gonna be out at
Opening Day, because I mean, Matt Thomas can't be bothered
to broadcast that day from Dyke and Parks. We're gonna

(31:29):
have to do it for him, and we'll be off
and running on another summer of fun that's never stopped.
By the way, here on the show, we're always giving
away something. But I think it's one of the most
interesting seasons when you consider what the ride has been
like the better part of a decade and what the
Astros are still trying to do, which is to say,

(31:52):
contend be one of the better teams in Major League
Baseball even after all of just simply time has past
and watching that all unfold, especially when you consider the
injuries that happened last year, like I'm already seeing it.
You know, when you look at prognostications for the Al West,

(32:12):
it's not just that a lot of people are going
to probably pick the Seattle Mariners because they were the
division champ last year. They're just dismissing, I think, to
their peril the just the amount, the sheer amount of
injuries that the Astros had to deal with. And that's
why last segment, I hear, oh, you're on Alvarez. Can
we go ahead and get our eyes on him? It

(32:34):
would just make me feel better and a lot of
other Astros fans for.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Peace's not just sitting around.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
I know he's in the cage, he's getting in field work,
he's doing usual stuff like why wear him down? But okay, again,
I'll say it like I do every year. Spring training
is too long.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
It is.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
But here's the thing, Just like with Kevin Durant this
year and again every time I even mentioned this subject
with his name, I feel like I have to do that.
Just think about how it's gonna feel on June first,
when Ordon Alvarez has not been sidelined for the better
part of a month and a half. You know, like

(33:12):
you're gonna start at the tail end of March. With
the regular season, you're gonna go all of April, all
of May, and he's.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
In better part two and a half months.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
I should say, by the end of April he'll have
topped last year's home run total. I hope, so, I
hope he tops it by the end of March. He
hit six long balls last year. You don't think he
can hit you'red on Alvarez, the Astros MVP caliber player,
arguably the best left handed hitter in the American League.
He had six homers last year. Just keep that in

(33:41):
mind when you consider what you think the Astros offense
and team in general might look like this year. Come
on April Fool's Day, get it done. He can hit
six in that many days.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
March twenty sixth through the first Yeah, why not? I mean,
I don't know how many position players the Angels and
Red Sox will be using, but maybe.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Put it this way, if he does, Astros are off
and running man, there're in good shape.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, pace yourself again.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
The timing of spring training for position players, they're just
working on their timing.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
They don't need six weeks of it now. Pitchers, I get.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
I mean, if they shorten spring training, say, by two weeks,
we're probably gonna have zero starters capable of throwing more
than seventy five pitches in a game. And that's not
ideal either, But there's a long way until the at
bats matter.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
That's funny about him is every time he's had an injury,
and there have been a lot of them, it feels
like whenever he did come back, he needed like no time,
like first at bat.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Oh, there it goes again. He's just that guy.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
I guess that's why I'm just chomping at the bit
to see him out there along with everybody else.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Whole season of Carlos Korea yep, hopefully a fuller season
of Esac Peretis. He obviously missed a ton of time
with injury the second part of the season. Jeremy Panio
was hit by the same issue, an injury, and he
was an All Star caliber player who's one of the
best leadoff hitters in baseball. All those things mattered, And
on top of all that, when they got to the
ninth inning for the last two months of the season,

(35:01):
they were figuring it out, not handing the ball to
Josh Hater.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Not to mention the starting pitching issues, guys going down,
guys coming back and not looking like themselves. Yeah, I'm
all about the health this year. Even if they're like
fifty percent healthier, they're probably in very good shape. And again,
all of that in Seattle barely won the division.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah, I think Seattle's still in just as good a
position to hold back the Astros as they were and
did last year. I don't know that they'll have quite
the pitching they did. There's some pretty big question marks
about Bryce Miller, who just simply didn't have a very
good year last year and was hurt a little bit. Yeah,
actually on the mound today for them, I do think
getting Brendan Donovan, who the Astros were very very close
to getting themselves, is a big deal. I think he

(35:46):
makes their offense and honestly their flexibility all over the
diamond a lot better. I mean, he's just like, he's
a better baseball player, a lot better baseball player than
a Hanrio Suarez. He just doesn't hit, not going to
hit fifty homers, That's all that Suarez is going to do.
He plays a good third base, but Donovan's defense wherever
they put him, will also be equally as good for
you know, they got Josh Naylor back, and while you're

(36:08):
probably gonna see some downturn in the production of Cal Rawley,
maybe there's an upturn in. They have countless players that
are on the cusp of being major leaguers every year.
They have one of the best systems in baseball, and
the still Julio Rodriguez. It's a really good team. It's
got a really good bullpen. They got a bunch of
hard throwers. Munos was fantastic last year. He's got to
come back to Earth and well he's never been.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
But he's been.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
You know, if he was if he was the best
reliever in our best closer in the American League last year,
which some thought then he was the fourth best the
year before, the third best, there was a solid tick.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, but he was.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
He was incredible his whole since he's been closing for them,
he's been pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, it didn't They originally have Edwin Diaz many years
before he went to the Mets. Yeah, they've had some
good closers there.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
The key is to get to the party, to which
they did not do last year. The Yankees, the Ray
are the blue Jays clearly believe they're two teams that
are going to make up the six. You can make
the Mariners. That's three of the six. You have a
division champ in the central whoever you think that might be.
They have to have them, So that's four. I think

(37:16):
it's Royals. So now there's two spots left for the
Red Sox probably a fifty to fifty among prognosticators. They
got better in some areas pitching most likely, and they
probably didn't get better offensively obviously the loss of Breckman
and then in season last year without replacing him, the
loss of Rafael Devers, So that is their biggest concern.

(37:37):
Is it possible the Orioles had more of a hiccup
last year and they can get back to where they
were the year before.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
They're definitely give me a threat.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
And while the Rays might end up being the worst
team in that division, they're not a one hundred lost team,
They're not a ninety lass team. They're a tough team
to play, probably not a postseason team. And then there's
probably one other. I mean, the Guardians we dismiss every
year and they're usually in it every year.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Well, I said Royals, of course, I meant the Tigers,
but I think the Royals are going to make some noise.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, there's three teams. The Royals, the Tigers, and the
Guardians are all playoff hopefuls.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
For sure.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Tigers are probably the team that wins the Central but
remember they won't be repeating as Central Division champs no
matter how long they were in first place. Last year,
they fell out of first place with an unbelievable swoon
at the end of the season, only to quickly recover
and end up in a five game series that they
ultimately lost to Seattle.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Rockets are hoping to quickly recover tonight so that they
can get back to back victories in a back to
back situation, and three straight by the way, because they
did win against Utah on Monday night, got into town.
It's their hotel around three o'clock local time, so make
of that what you will always love. When the Rockets

(38:50):
or any NBA team is playing a back to back
and the other team's rested, I just think it's stupid,
but I know it's not going to change.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
But it's the same for everybody, Yes it is. How
is it the same for the Magic tonight? It's the
same for the Rockets the next time it happens.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
But they're not playing the Rockets the next time it happens.
You're right, the Magic are rested, the Rockets aren't.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
So when the Rockets play their front side of some
other back to back, the team that's visiting them won't
be rested because they will have played the first night
the night before.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
It's not fair to them either.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
It's totally fair in the big picture. Tonight's game, Like, honestly,
I'm be dead serious, doesn't matter at all. If that
is the excuse for the Rockets coming out and playing flat,
then I think you're just giving them a ridiculous, unnecessary,
totally useless, made up excuse. I really do think that, like,
the Rockets aren't tired, they can't play this game because
they were on a flight last night. We're not asking

(39:44):
to do it four times in six days. We're asking
to do it once in a week or two days
over the course of a week.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
A back to back where you are coming back to
the same building is different than a back to back
where you get on an airplane and you go with
three hour flight.

Speaker 7 (39:59):
It.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Travel is the huge factor that everyone the two of
us clearly have the debate about. There's no question it
is something to consider. The league clearly felt it was
an issue as they tried to eliminate as many of
these as possible. Fourteen of the games this season the
Rockets will play of their eighty two will be on
the second night of two straight games.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
This is one of them.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
It's not ideal, It's definitely part of the schedule unless
you're extending the season by significant amount of days. Obviously
at least fourteen to alleviate those fourteen, and other teams
have fifteen or sixteen. I think seventeen is the max
any team has. But especially for what the Rockets did yesterday.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
I mean that was the good part.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
I mean Kevin Durant was so chill because he wasn't
playing in.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
The fourth quarter. Jeff Green got early minutes.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Did we saw him checking in. We're like, oh, okay,
it was smart. Yeah, well, I mean they were in
Finney Smith.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
It's rest. I haven't wanted to do this earlier this year.
It's just that their.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Team didn't let them, because they let morons back into
the game, this team being one of them.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
You think that the.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Rockets should have lost a nine point lead in Sacramento
headed to overtime and lost that game. No, like, this
is the kind of team they should have throttled all
four times this year. I don't care who was in
or who wasn't in. That's that's a bad basketball team.
They're just awful. No matter what Russell Westbrook did in
the first quarter doing seventeen points, really.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Well, they're bad, specifically because of what Russell Westbrook did
in the first quarter. That's the best quarter he's played in.
I don't know how many years they took one in.
They made nine shots, he made eight of them, which
shows you how bad they are. Also, the scoreboard, the
one that had the other team with many more points
than theirs.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
And as opposed to the other night against the Jazz,
they didn't turn the ball over but maybe two times
in that first quarter.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah, this is a defenseless team, that is. You know,
the players that are out there, I think are doing
what's necessary to not have some sort of reputation tarnished.
But they don't. They're not playing good basketball to begin with.
That's why they fell so far under five hundred, even
with much better players, Like they're forty games under five
hundred or thirty games under five hundred, not because of
the recent rass of injuries at all, not even close

(42:11):
to that. They had everybody on the court at the
beginning of the year, and then shortly thereafter Sabonis left
and everybody else stayed out there, and they just lost
all their games because they don't play good basketball. They
don't defend, they have terrible communication defensively. I don't think
they're playing as hard as they need to. A lot
of these guys definitely look like they're just out there
cashing checks because in addition to being really really bad,

(42:33):
you know what else, they are old.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Now some of the older players aren't healthy. Levine and
Sabonis and the olds that are out there. I mean,
it's no wonder that DeMar DeRozan acts the way he
does as a Sacramento King. That was a reminiscent of
Derek Fisher on Luis Scola, and the referees thought as
much of it to actually go and look at it.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
He was just frustrated. He didn't do anything except normal
basketball play. I'm gonna put my feet here and I'm
gonna put my hands across my chest, and when my
offensive player rubs you into this screen, that i'm setting,
you'll probably hit me and you'll hopefully not be able
to stay with your man. And he saw it coming.
He saw this screen being set, so he lowered his
shoulder and barreled into the screen set are, knowing that

(43:20):
the foul would be on him.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
He didn't care. He was just frustrated.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
It's the same thing he did a couple of years
ago to Jalen Green when he was with the Bulls
and Dylan Brooks wasn't having it.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
No, no, And you know, DeMar de Rosen, honestly, just
let's just take rockets instances. He's had a number of
those little dust ups, like he's always doing that kind
of crap. But he doesn't have the reputation of some
of the other guys. I think because he just eclipsed
the twenty first twentieth spot on the NBA's all time

(43:50):
scoring list.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
He just has the He's been a frustrated NBA player
since he left his first team. Yeah, when he was
with Toronto, he played very good basketball. They ultimately he
had a very good team. And then he left and
he went to San Antonio, where winning was kind of
an afterthought at this point. And then he went to Chicago,
where they had won a championship because of who he

(44:11):
was traded for. But he goes to work every day,
goes to practice every day, he goes to games every day,
knowing what the result is going to be no matter
what he does individually. So he just keeps piling up stats,
keeps leading the league in two point field goals, and
keeps losing.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
He loves the elbow jumpers. He's led the league.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
I think this will be the fifth consecutive season on
the longest two point shots like sixteen to twenty feet
or thirteen to twenty feet whatever, the.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Most inefficient shot in the game. He makes more than
anybody else in the league. He takes more than anybody
else in the league. And it's a foolish place to
be taking all your shots from.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
He's done a lot.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
He's got, like you said, all those thousands and thousands
of points. He passes some all time greats and will
continue to do so while he's playing out a career.
That gosh, it's got to be I mean again, personally,
it has to be frustrating playing for these franchises that
he's playing for the last five years.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Yeah, I feel real bad for him.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Anyway, another off season of key change on the Texans
offensive coaching staff.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Is it on Stroud?

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Yet, by the way, these shortcomings, if you will, We're
gonna discuss all that next.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
So I specifically remember.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
After it was probably about this time that year after
CJ's rookie year, ran into Gerard Johnson and we were
talking about how CJ's rookie year had gone. I mean,
it was just incredible. It was very electric. It was
you know, thrilling. There was a lot of last second wins,

(45:43):
come from behind wins, and just he just looked.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
The word poised was used so much about c J.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Stroud all throughout his rookie season and even into the
second game where they got smashed by the Ravens in
the second half because.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
The first half was actually competitive.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
And now Jerad Johnson's gone as of today, the team
and him, you know, agreeing mutually to part ways. And
c J. Stroud has never had more question marks surrounding
the future of his career. And it's just crazy because
that was basically three years ago this month. How much
has changed, perception wise, reality, whatever you want to call it.

(46:26):
Texans defense is way better than it was then and
it was good. But there's just I keep saying this
and I'm going to sound like a broken record, and
I'm going to do it all spring into the summer,
all through training camp. It's the most pivotal season for CJ,
like in the history of any Houston pro football athlete.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
I'll put it up there with it.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Doesn't it answer the question we teased it's on him? Yeah,
at some point that's that's what it all comes down to.
The decision on whether to extend him is clearly all
about him. You're not weighing your decision on we're about
to give this guy two hundred and eighty five million
and we're about to guarantee one hundred and whatever portion
of that. But let's make sure what do we think

(47:11):
about as quarterback coach? And what do we think about
the offensive line? What do we think about the OC
and the play calling? Well, those are all thoughts to
have throughout the time before you make the decision. The
timing will be here before you, guys know it. Obviously,
this offseason is your first opportunity for it. And that's
why Nick kept getting questions about will Anderson CJ's trout

(47:31):
because the opportunity to extend first round picks after their
third season.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
This is the first opportunity to do that.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
If they so choose, they can, and any other team
with one of those players, one of the thirty two
players in the twenty twenty three first round, they can
do that, and many of them will. Then the Texans
are probably one of them. Just with the other guy,
Will Anderson Junior who went number three. You've got three
years worth of games, fifty plus starts, all of them
include postseason starts. Now six of them. You're likely going

(47:59):
to push that decision off into the future. So now
you're gonna have another fifteen to twenty starts of CJ.
Stroud's career, split up into two portions, half with Bobby Slowick,
half with Nick Kyley, probably involving postseasons in all four
of those seasons. Three years with Gerad Johnson, four years
with Bill Laser, one year with Shane Day, two years

(48:21):
with Jerry Shaplinski. None of that stuff really matters anymore
after the fourth year, when the decision now has to
be made and all you're left with is is he
just gonna play this fifth year under his fifth year option?
Are we just gonna wait and see, and then we'll
decide after the fifth year if we franchise tag him,
which nobody does, or then we give an extension, or

(48:42):
then we move on.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
Like this decision's coming twelve months from now.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
We will know the decision in twelve months at the
very latest, because at this point next off season you're
gonna know. So it's not gonna be based on, Hey, sure,
how well does he work with Nick Kyley That I'm
not totally dismissive of, because it's about the offense. It's
about what you're actually accomplishing. Put it together with this
great defense, you know, you can win the way Demiko's
trying to win. You can win twenty to seventeen every week.

(49:08):
You can win by kicking five field goals knowing that
the other team's never going to score. Or you can
take another coach with a very new, young, defensive minded
head coach and win their way the Seattle way, where
you have both a good defense and a good offense.
An offense that takes chances on offense that makes mistakes

(49:29):
is nearly the NFL leader in turnovers until they didn't
have any in their three games of the postseason. That's
what Seattle did. You don't have to do it this way.
It's okay to have a good offense and a good defense,
even an explosive one like Seattle did well.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
I just I guess I keep coming back to the
fact too, that the you know this general manager, cause
I feel the same way about Nick Cassario as I
do about CJ. Like this offseason is so pivotal except
for that he has had some big successes. The defense
we're talking about, he put it together like he did that.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
I just I guess I'm his scale, I think is
so tilted in the positive, very very tilted in the
positive in terms of numbers of good decisions versus numbers
of bad decisions. The problem is, while it's a very
small number of bad decisions or poor decisions or decisions
that did not work, they're so important. It's the offensive line.

(50:24):
Those over and over all of the poor decisions are
all at the same place. They're all in the same
line that remains as unfixed in his first year with
CJ as it is here this year. I hate to
look at it that way, but when you started things
with CJ. Stroud, you had the same offensive line that
you have now. You can count on one player, maybe two,

(50:46):
and the other three you need to reevaluate and probably replace.
The names have changed, but you're in the exact same position.
That is an incredible, incredible failure over three drafts, three
off seasons. We are now in to try to make
all of these decisions we're saying are related to this. Well,
you're behind the eight ball every single time because you're

(51:08):
starting from it. You know, instead of a needing most
teams only have to go eighty yards to score a touchdown,
you have to go one hundred and twenty because your
line is so bad. If you catch what I'm trying
to say, like, you're making it hard on them, You're
making a herd on CG. You're making your heart on
your quarterback coach because you've been unable to do that.
But that's like six decisions, ten decisions. The other fifty,

(51:28):
the other eighty have been so remarkably good and successful
and productive and smart and cost effective, just over and
over and over Nick Cassario's roster, it's pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
It's really really good.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
So I hope that CJ and company on the offensive
side start to pick up their side of fe.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
We'll get closer to the season before I etch these
in stone. But the more or less the over unders
that I will personally set for CJ. He's going to
hit all the He's got to hit all the overs.
He's got to have a new career high in touchdown passes.
He needs to have a new career high in yards
thrown four probably needs a new career high in at
least for the offense. The offense hasn't scored, hasn't been

(52:10):
in the top twelve yet, or the team hasn't been
in the top twelve in scoring with him as their quarterback,
been thirteenth twice including this year, eighteenth in between that,
where the defense has been top fifteen all three years
in points they were second last year and they've been
top six and yards and back to back years.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
It's okay to have good. It's okay, it'd be good
in both. Yeah, let's look for that. Is that too
much to ask?

Speaker 3 (52:33):
The bar should be as high? Just go after it, man, Yeah,
like as high as it can get. Go try to
reach that not I bet you we can make it
work with this.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Start now, start with free agency, continue with the draft,
and then thirteen days it's all we got a wait
March eleventh is only thirteen days away. March ninth is
only eleven days away, and that's when he can start tampering.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Yeah, he's already started to.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
By the way.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
He was on with Ian Rapaport during the last couple
of days, also with Pat McAfee. Will share a little
bit of the conversation with Pat as it relates to
c J.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
But one thing he said with with Ian, because Ian
was asking for help, Please, don't how hard am I
gonna have to work during those tampering days? And Nick said,
because he got and the tampering window opens on the nights.
Nick mutters, people are probably doing that already, and he's right.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
And then he gave a classic Nick Cassario answer about
that as well, in which he basically said, nothing all right,
Speaking of which, there's some moving and shaking already, Texans
Division rivals working the phones, done deals in the AFC
South coming up next.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
The ag on Sports talks of that. You would hire
to come perform at a gig a party.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
Comedian, Yeah, I'd have Shane over, You'd have Shane Gillis,
Nate Bargats.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
He could come on over with Dave Chappelle, might might
be pretty darn entertaining.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
Would Shane be dressed up as Donald?

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Uh? You know, he's done enough impersonations where he is,
but he's also done so many others where he's not
right it really it doesn't even matter, Like the voice
is so.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
But when he's dressed up it's even funnier.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
But then he I kind of would you ask me
who I wouldn't necessarily limit him to that, even though
that's from an impersonation standpoint. I mean I kind of
feel like you asked me who would I have to
and it would have to be somebody they can impersonate,
an actor like someboe who does Nick Cage, because that
he could run through all of his movies. That's what

(54:29):
you're paying him for, right, He's your entertainer at the end,
but at the adult party, because it's not for a
kid's party.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
No, we were watching a Tom Cruise impersonator and I'm like,
that would be hilarious, but there needs to be more
people there because eventually the guy was just sitting on
the couch not doing anything.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
No, you got thirty five more mits.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Well, I mean, clearly, Jerry Maguire is a useful impersonation
for all the lines that are in and how he
acted in that movie. He's kind of a loose, kind
of an energetic fellow in that movie. You probably could
do his work from a few good men. Yep, you
could definitely do his work from Risky Business.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
I would not recommend doing his work from Vanilla Sky.
I wouldn't either. Good Grief that was depressed.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
Now, I don't know if this qualifies. Would you do
Tom from uh the movie where he was a caricature
of himself already in the movie Oh Uh, Oh geez.
Honestly one of his finest roles in my opinion, out
acted Matthew McConaughey, out acted Robert Downey Junior and Ben Stillers.

(55:32):
What was the character acted Jack black Les Grossman.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
That was really really good. He was awesome.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Yeah, Mission Impossible franchise.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Are you a fan? Yes, but she's not.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
There's nothing to him personally. He's just as just a
spy here. He's just a guy and you like him.
As Maverick obviously says, you always watch it. You could
do that too, I mean pretty simplistic. I mean, I
guess you could just say it's the only look I've
got yeah. Yeah, Okay, he don't Yeah, I don't think
just do Yeah, you could do that.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
I'm just wondering if there was somebody.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
Yeah, I mean it's the same thing as Denzel. What
if you had him over, Well, I would just have
Jay Farrow over. Yeah, it'd be unbelievable. He come over
to my house just studio. Yeah, occasionally we do that
him and it's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
All right. So there was one trade that was already made,
and there was another trade that's probably going to be made.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Let's start with the one that went down already. Aaron
glenn Is just will.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
I think this is a good deal for both teams. Uh,
it's not going to be official till the league year
begins because just it can't be. It's not how it works.
But physicals get taken and it's getting taken care of.
The players involved are already down and it's it's a
done deal to Andre Sweat is going from Tennessee, UH
to the New York Jets, and he already posted on
social media about his excitement for it, thanking the team

(56:50):
that he once was with, excited for the team he's
about to go to. And he's getting traded to the
Jets for Jermaine Johnson financially speaking, that the Jets have
a little bit of time to figure things out with
Sweat where he is with his rookie deal, and on
the other hand, Johnson is at the point in time
where you don't have any much more time to decide. Essentially,
it's time to decide, and the Jets decided we don't

(57:11):
want to pay him big money to continue being a
New York Jet moving forward. Injuries that have marked his
years there in New York, a very good start to
his career, totally leveled off after that, not super productive
and also oft injured and then playing for a really
terrible outfit. But he also played for coach Sala in
New York and now he will be playing for Coach

(57:32):
Sala again with the Tennessee Titans. And it's also from
a fit standpoint, I think there's a definite financial aspect
to why this deal was made, but the fit is
also part of it. Obviously, you need more edge rushers
in the defense you're going to play, or more successful ones,
and you need fewer enormous defensive tackles. There aren't even
that many in the league, and Sweat is one of them,

(57:53):
and in the defense the scheme that coach Sala wants
to run in Tennessee, it's not nearly as important. Are
also keeping the better tackle Jeffrey Simmons.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Why does it feel like, no matter what they do
in the draft and whatever they do deal wise, that
the Jets.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Are going to continue to be the worst team in
the NFL.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Like I said, I like this move because it buys
them more time. It's what we were talking about with
the running backs. If you just simply draft a running
back playing for four years and then draft another one,
if you're good enough at it and you trust your
staff and there's the right mix of talent in that draft,
well that's how you keep costs down. When that productive
player is about ready to make big money, you just
keep paying the same money. He just changed the name

(58:31):
on the back of his jersey, You get that new
four year rookie contract, and all of a sudden, it's
just it's how you can put your roster together. And
it's not quite the same thing with Sweat, but you know,
he's early enough in his career. He's got two more
years on his second round pick contract for the Jets
to determine what they want to do with him then,
and again the Titans are it was more of a fit.

(58:54):
They're perfectly happy to move on from him, even though
I thought he was a good player, and I think
some people pointed out something I would have otherwise myself,
and now I can hear on the social media when
they saw this. Just thinking about the Texans that the
Titans obviously had some things going for them against Houston.
What's the weakest part of the Texans offense their interior
offensive line. What's the best part of the Titans defense?

(59:17):
The interior of their defensive line. With Simmons in Sweat
and others over the last couple of years, it weakens
them in that department. Clearly they were going to be
different anyway because they were changing their defense.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
That's really how it's changing. Yeah, so you know this,
if it helps both teams, how much is it going
to help the Titans? Which is what the Texans care
about the most. Even though I don't think they're a threat,
I do think they've hired a really nice coaching staff
that if it if all the parts of that coaching

(59:52):
staff do what they're capable of together. Because we've said
this a million times. Good coaching can absolutely make a
better football team. You still have to have the talent though.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
They needed again new defense, but they needed help on
the edge. That's what Johnson plays. That's why he's there.
He's very familiar with the coach. He had his most
success with the coach. If he's healthy, he's gonna have
success again. I don't think talent for talent, there's some
sort of drop off from the player they added versus
the player that left. It's just that they bring something different.
They got their pass rush came from the interior. Their

(01:00:24):
defense was only remarkable, remotely competent because the interior of
their defensive line. They were just kind of figuring it
out and piecing it together. And he's gonna start this week,
and he's getting the reps now, and they didn't really
have anybody. They need much more than just Jermaine Johnson
for this new defense. They're gonna probably overhaul the whole
thing on the edge.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
We're gonna talk about another team in the AFC South
that is trying to deal a I'll still call him
a high caliber player from a name standpoint, just because
of where he was taken, the position he plays, and
all that good stuff, but it has not gone well
for him, and we'll talk about that. Plus, this is
what I know all of you are looking forward to
a way too early. Look at both the AL and

(01:01:09):
NL All Star squads. How many current and former astros
are going to don that All Star gear? Coming up
in July in Philadelphia, by the way, for the two
hundred and fiftieth birthday of our nation in the City
of Brotherly Love.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
That's next the.

Speaker 5 (01:01:27):
A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
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Speaker 5 (01:02:48):
Take it to the rim, take it to the house,
take it to first Oh inside of that ahead them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Take us everywhere, Take me.

Speaker 8 (01:02:59):
Through and through.

Speaker 6 (01:03:00):
Lets talk seven ninety what he takes to win on
our iHeart Radio Aute.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
I've been wrong about a lot of draft picks before,
which is why I'm not a huge fan of draft shows, because.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
You can't can't make the predictions correctly.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
It's just it's just really knows everybody's bad at it
to a certain degree.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Yeah, but I don't know that I've ever been as
wrong about a quarterback as I was about Anthony Richardson.
Like he had he was never perfect, not about that
far from it, right, but like the.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
League had to expect more than this, right, no question,
you everybody did.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
I mean, this is like, this is almost going out
with a whimper, unless he bounces back big time somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
Well, if he already knows he's not gonna have an
opportunity to compete for the starting job in Indianapolis, then
the reports of he and his agents seeking permission to
engage in.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Finding a new home for him, then that's what he
should do.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
He's been there with limited opportunities due to multiple different reasons.
Their team's good, and just letting him go back there
not play well while he learned to play better was
not something that they really could do over most of
this time. His first year was stunted quite obviously by
multiple injuries. And then you know, I remember that season
when we were talking about it in twenty twenty three,

(01:04:17):
they had decisions to make, and they weren't very far
removed from Andrew Luck's injury problems, and the decision on
Anthony Richardson was, do we just go ahead and have
the significant shoulder surgery now and you know, and his
season in hopes that he comes back next year in
a better place physically. And I thought that was the
right decision. It's the one they went with. It just
meant he was only going to play four games his

(01:04:38):
rookie season, and remember one of those games was here
in Houston when he ran for two touchdowns and people
were really excited about what he might be able to do.
He also suffered a concussion. He also had the shoulder injury.
He was in the Cam Newton mold of can his
coach be trusted? And I mean it to say, you
want to win so badly, and you know what you're

(01:04:59):
physically give lifted human body quarterback is capable of. He's
two hundred and forty five pounds. Why don't I just
give him the ball. It's third and two, he can
run it. It's fourth and goal from the three. Perfect,
he's going to score. Cam Newton's did that his whole career,
as brief as it turned out to be, partially because
of that, and we brought it up then just like

(01:05:20):
we will wherever he goes. It's a it's so tempting.
He's so physically capable in a body no other quarterback
currently really has, and so you want to do certain
things with him that put him at risk. So he's
been an injury concern his whole career. The freak injury
last year also was of great consequence from his vision.

(01:05:42):
It appears to have been restored to at least as
good as it was, if not better, according to some doctors,
so that's no longer concern. But it kept him off
the field last year when he otherwise would have played.
Daniel Jones got hurt, he would have played and likely
would have played the rest of the season unless he
was incredibly bad. And that goes to now to where
we are with Anthony Richards in the NFL quarterback. He's

(01:06:03):
basically the worst passer of the football in the NFL
right now. He can't throw the football to his receivers.
If you can't do that, you can't play. He's twenty three.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
And that's the thing, you heart, You've basically been ousted
because Daniel Jones and Riley Leonard are both way better
options for the team that drafted you than you are.

Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
Well, if you in this era of NFL football. If
you complete seventy percent of your passes, you might lead
the league. It's definitely awesome, but there might be somebody
else who did it, or somebody's else who do it.
If you complete sixty percent of your passes and you're
at the low end of sixty, then you're one of
the least accurate quarterbacks in the NFL. He barely had

(01:06:50):
a five in front of his number for his career.
And this is the era of completion percentages balling up.
He can't put the ball where it needs to be.
We watch that too in the Texans games that he
played against them for like a d Mitchell's first season
was kind of ruined by that. He was beaten guys
left and right, and then the ball is twenty yards

(01:07:10):
beyond him and he couldn't go get it when he
had clearly won his rep, won his route and was
wide open. Didn't even take a perfect pass. And then
we have passes like he made to Alec Pierce down
the middle of the field against the Texans, one of
the most physically impossible throws we've ever seen to be
made that well. And that's why, while I don't know
what you're gonna get for him, and I don't think

(01:07:30):
the Colts expect much. I want to see him play again.
I want somebody to. I want him to prove that
he deserves a chance. First, you don't have to complete
sixty five. If he can just get that up to
where your offense isn't doomed because it can't pass. It's
any quarterback that has the athletic abilities to be an
elite running quarterback. If you can't pass the ball, it

(01:07:52):
doesn't matter. You can't play. They can't put you out
there if that's all you can. It's Justin Fields. Justin
Fields probably has five of the ten best quarterback running
the ball highlights of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
But he can't pass the ball. He can't throw it
to his teammates, so you can't play him.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Like wherever he winds up, and he'll wind up somewhere,
he will land. I don't know where it's going to be,
and I don't think it's going to be a team
that needs a starting quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
No, he will be.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
I think he has even less of a chance to
compete for a starting job if he goes somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
But he might go to a good situation.

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
He honestly, they give Shane Stike in credit because all
he's ever done is win with nothing ever whoever he's got,
and he's made them better. Gardner Minshew is better, Daniel
Jones was better. I think he's an awesome offensive coach.
Offensive mind, I think they run a really good offense.
I think their playbook is very good and he gets
a lot out of his quarterbacks. It's not like he
was in the wrong place for that, and he needs

(01:08:48):
to find a place comparable to that that has that
kind of coaching on his side.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
I'm just fascinated to not only see where he's going
to land, but how he will be used when he
gets used, because it's not like, again, he's not going
to be starting.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
No, But if he's your number two and he's active
because he is the number two, and you score a
touchdown and you need to go for two, wouldn't you
put him out there? Would you investigate more plays where
he's a part of it? Just because now the element
of do they put him in your throw because their
starter's still out there, who's getting the snap?

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
What are they going to do?

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
How much of a weapon can he be, even if
he's not your starter, because that he can provide value
to you, even if he is still not a good
thrower of the football.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
Remember the annual NFL Players Association survey that is no
longer allowed to be made public.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
No longer allowed to be made public, but the NFLPA said,
we are still going to do it. And guess what's
going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
It's going to be made public. It's going to be leaked. Well,
it's been leaked for the Texans. We'll tell you the
results to start the four o'clock hour. Coming up next,
the eight eight team Sports Talk seven ninety Space City
Home Network Viewers Welcome in. He's wex im Ac. Josh
Jordan is our producer. This is a day that I

(01:10:06):
dreaded all the time when I was in grade school, The.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Twenty sixth of February. No, not the Thursday. No, I'm lost.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
Report card day. Report card day, oh man, first semester's over.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
I don't know, like just any sort of The worst
was progress reports. Those were like fake light report cards
that you could get in as much trouble.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
For the deadline for your grade.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
It hasn't approached yet, but you better make sure you
do something because you're in big trouble. Maybe and just
in case your parents weren't aware, now they are.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
When Brent and Darlene were perusing these documents, they could
pick which category they wanted to get mad at me
for worst. Oh look at your grades? Really again, I
should be clear, I had very good grades. I was
in the Gifted and Talented program. You know what that
did for me? That taught me how to never study

(01:11:02):
because everything was easy. I could just do it, and
then all of a sudden I couldn't just do it anymore.
Only my ad D brain, which you're a victim of
every single day and all the rest of you guys are,
was like, ah, man, I'm not studying. There's a Rockets
game on. I can't do this. Oh the projects do
It's eleven o'clock the night before. Yeah, that's probably when
I'm gonna start. But then the other side of the ledger,

(01:11:24):
Oh boy, here come the behavior marks.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
Do you think I was.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
A good, well behaved student in any grade you could pick?

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
Or do you think I was not? The behavioral grades.
Conduct goods would come in the form of a letter.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
Sometimes s you're a satisfactory that was my scale you
unsatisfactory and there might not.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Be any other?

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
There was an e excellent, excellent, excellent conduct. If I
got an S, I was on cloud nine. Man at ease,
weren't even unless it was a class. I liked radio
and television.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
How did your parents get a hold of these reports?
Did they come home with you at school? Do you
await their arrival in the mailbox? I think they were
mailed back in the day.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Do you realize what we're doing right now? And well
we're talking about this dating ourselves. I mean when did
you know what his grades were? Ten minutes after he
took the test when the teacher put it in and
I looked at it on my phone, right, But see,
how's you doing in this class? I'll just look on
grade speed and check it out. But that's all right here?
Doesn't that make it for the student in my position,
for at least way worse. The anticipation of the groundings,

(01:12:31):
the punishment, the confiscation. What grades are good actually enjoyed doing?
What about the rewards? The couples over here? The bonuses
are over here. I want to do this. Hey, look
the rocket's wrong. Well you can't watch them? Why because
you didn't get an s, you got a you? Why

(01:12:52):
couldn't you just be have I ever told you the
story when Game six of the Western Conference Finals in
nineteen ninety five, the clinching game, the Rockets are going
back to the NBA Finals. How many minutes of that
game did this guy get to watch that night? None?

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
What'd you do?

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
I was on the bus. I was swinging my belt
around making a ruckus? Did you hit somebody? Did you
get thrown off the bus? I popped off at my
teacher for telling me to stop doing it? Were you
on a field trip? Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
Huh uh? Why was your why were you a wrestler?

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
No? I don't even remember why it was off. I
needed it, I mean, holds your pants up. Yeah, And
then all of a sudden they weren't being held up
as well. That might be a reason to get to
that recommend. They didn't fall down, but it was all
about when the So this teacher said something to me
about it. I had a response, as you might imagine,
this is age. What oh, this is like creating a
ruckus on the school bus field trip? This is nineteen

(01:13:46):
ninety five, So I am fourteen years old, and again
I was in year round school that year. I should
explain because most kids were already out of school for
the year because it's June.

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
Basically, are you in year round school?

Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
Because cy Fair ISD decided it would be fun to
try the year before I'm going to high school, So
summer before high school.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
No, I got a.

Speaker 3 (01:14:04):
Month you and call McNair products cyfars Idols.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Yeah, I know, well he went to Cyfair and I
went to Syde Creek like a real He made note
of that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
Yes, American. The announcement of Toro District in Brichland.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
His roots.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
It's very he's very happy about where they're building all this.
What do you think his conduct grades were at Cyfair
in pre prior to that?

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
Do you get bad conduct marks from being a bump
on a log?

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
He seems like he was probably pretty well behaved. Yeah,
because he's docile. I'm here to learn, you teach, I'll learn.
Here's my homework. He probably did go back to the
house cal wake up.

Speaker 6 (01:14:41):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
He probably, like you said, was hoping for a good
conduct grade, good grades over all, so he could hit
the video games.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
What do you think he played? What do you think
how old is he? A little bit older?

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
Than us. I think I'm forty five, a little bit
older than me. He's what I meant. So you think
he's in his mid fifties. Uh huh, okay, so he
was probably playing like on the Atari.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
Are you asking if he played on an Atari?

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
The answer is probably awesome at pong. He's quite a
bit older than me. He's in his mid sixties. Oh,
I don't even think he played. Then was he on
the Commodore? What did he played?

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
And in television? Yeah? What he what did he do?

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
It's more about what did he play when he was office,
when he was a worker at That's I mean, we
got to thank Sage Rosenfels for all that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
Okay, that's true. All right. So we say all this
about report cards because that's the thing I didn't even
know when they are. Just look at him on the phone.
Texan's got theirs.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
Texans got their report card A plus. The nflpa's private
survey system, which grades out their teams in a number
of different areas. There's thousands of NFL players. The NFLPA
hopes to get responses from as many as possible, and
they usually do. How's our the food service, how's our
treatment of families, how ours, our travel, our flights, our hotels,

(01:15:58):
our athletic and training for warrants, both facility and staff,
on and on and on and on all these areas,
and it has been obviously it took place during the
twenty twenty five season and the twenty twenty six results
because of the ruling in the NFL versus the NFLBA
lawsuit said you can't release it publicly. The only way

(01:16:18):
we're going to know about it is if the media
gets a hold of it and it is leaked, which
it has been obviously, and everybody knew this was it
was champion as this is a big win for the owners.
Now they can't be bullied by public perception about how
bad they look in this area. It was a non
win because the information was always going to reach the public,
which it now has.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
It's just another example of them being the no fun league. Now.
I want to do something real quick before we get
to the actual results.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
I want to rattle off the categories because there's a
reason for this, and I'll get to it as soon
as I rattle them off.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
These are the categories.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
Ownership, head coach, general manager, home field, team, training camp,
treatment of families, special teams, coordinator, defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator,
strength coaches, position coaches, training staff, weight room, locker room,
training room, food, dining area and nutrition slash dietitian. The
Texans got all a's and b's except for one category.
What was that category?

Speaker 3 (01:17:13):
Okay, So there were coaches listed on there, several categories,
worth coordinators. I'm gonna say none of them. They all
received better than a's and b'sh. So there's travel, yep,
I'm gonna say the everything related to athletic training and
performance is not the answer.

Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
I'm gonna say, So that leaves travel and nutrition and
what else. Ownership, ownership Okay, I'm gonna say it's not ownership.

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
Correct. Locker room. I'm gonna say it's not locker room.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Correct. Recently redone locker room.

Speaker 3 (01:17:47):
These guys have so much space and so much additional
technology keep their gear from decaying and getting disgusting and
all that stuff. Team training camp, Okay, that's a possibility.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
Can file that away. I'm a treatment of families. Okay,
it's not that. Yeah, they don't treat them like scum. Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:18:07):
Home field Okay, so home field training facility, nutrition related item.
It's one of those three. Yes, I'm gonna say it's
training camp. No, uh, nutrition, nope, Okay, tell everybody what
it is.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
It's callan Hannah's favorite answer. What is it their lowest
marks received by their own players. It's for their home field.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Their home field is and they got a C plus.
That's interesting. So basically the surface that you play on.
Is there much else to it?

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
I don't know, because when you think about this, home
field can imply a lot of different things.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
Maybe it's the crowd itself.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
Well, you know, now, there's only so many things you
can do for a Houston sports crowd. First of all,
if you want anybody to be there, you better be
winning at a high level.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
Sorry, they probably don't pay two much attention to the
game ops angle of it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
But this is our all fields.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
They put it in day, all the things you would
want from your field. I think the scoreboard from a
player's perspective is helpful with where it is located and
the size of it and everything. Whenever you need to
look up there. Obviously they're pretty much just looking at
the field and the play clock. But the new sound
system is in which all this stuff is for the fans.
But I do think there's some element from a team standpoint,
But otherwise, like it probably has to do with all

(01:19:26):
the Like Dalton Schultz, he probably grated it poorly because
the sun was in his eyes.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:32):
Well, let's just say it's not new. It's not on
the it's kind of in the middle. It's tilting towards
an older stadium, but it's not outdated. It's not a
horrific situation. This isn't the only playing surface they've ever
used there, as we all know when it was originally
constructed with the roof situation, we'll just grow grass because

(01:19:53):
we'll just open up the roof. And they've played on
pallets of grass, They've played on grass, they've played on
different turf, different types of turf, and they obviously currently
still play on that turf. That's interesting because what is
this solution to this perceived player problem. Are they asking
them to figure out a way to bring grass back in.
Is there another turf surface they'd prefer to be playing

(01:20:15):
on that other teams are using and they just have
not done that yet, or is it more related to
the actual stadium and the atmosphere and the roof and
the sunlight that gets let in and things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
Well, here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:27):
Also noting all those things in totality, the Texans came
out very well, right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Yeah, all a's and b's except for the home field,
which was a C plus.

Speaker 1 (01:20:37):
Everything. Now, they did not get an A plus on anything.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
And it's the only thing they're keeping in this brand
new build. This is our brand new home other than
game day. Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
If you are using this to justify asking the county
for funds, whether in the form of taxes, whatever. I mean,
your own players are saying this while look at all
these other areas where we're awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Yeah, I mean, not that they didn't rank overall first, second,
or third. I'm sure they did very well. But there
are some there's some other things that were actually brought
up yesterday by Calan Hannah when they were speaking to
the media off to the side after the event. We
get into a couple of those things. We talked a
little bit about the Houston Rockets and their game tonight,
their third game in four nights. Are trying to get
wins in all three. Emai Doka stop buy Sports Talk

(01:21:24):
seven ninety via the phones over his weekly visit on
The Mat Tommy Show with Ross. A portion of his
conversation specifically focused on everybody's favorite point guard, Reed Shepherd
Emay on Reed next.

Speaker 5 (01:21:38):
The AE on Sports Talk seven night.

Speaker 1 (01:21:40):
I like about that list.

Speaker 2 (01:21:43):
Ownership got an A. Head coach got an a minus.
Come on, Texans players, what are you even looking at? Like?

Speaker 3 (01:21:52):
The coaching angle of those votes is pretty I didn't
realize that they voted on that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:57):
I thought it was more about just how everything should run.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
Have got a both head coach and GM got a minuses.
We'll see again. I think coaches are separate.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
Like, I'm surprised these players are being asked to grade
the people they those three people the special teams or
four people o C DC, head coach and special teams coordinator,
Like you have four The textan signed you to a
three year deal, You're in your rookie contracts an A,
and you're you're answering an NFLPA survey by giving your
DC your boss, the guy who leads your squad, you're

(01:22:29):
giving him a C.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
Frank Ross got an a, Matt Burke got an a.
Nick Kayley got a name minus.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
And didn't you say Dimico got a name minus.

Speaker 2 (01:22:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
I mean, come on, man, but ownership got an A M.
So it's all better than.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
The defense players vote on Kayley, I get to the
offensive players vote on Burke.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
Well, don't they all vote on everything? That's that's a
good question.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
How do you How does Demico score lower than Callan
Hannah and Janis?

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
Janis is not on there. She's getting thrown in there.

Speaker 3 (01:23:02):
I mean, I know she's part of the ownership group,
so I guess I should say that she is on there.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:23:08):
Well run team, And by the way, the locker room
is like ten billion times better than it used to
be and it only got a B plus.

Speaker 3 (01:23:16):
If you don't have players from a bunch of other teams,
how would they know what they don't have? Because they
know what visiting locker rooms look like. They're awful. They're
all the same, right, They're just a waste of the day.
Here's the only space we have left. You guys can
shower and locker here and then get out of town
with your cold water. Yes, they're recently renovated. Home locker
room is both spacious, up to date, very comfortable.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
I don't know what you need to have it better.

Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
Although I'm very fond of the visitors' locker room at
NRG Stadium because that's where I met took a picture
with James Hetfield one time. Nice.

Speaker 3 (01:23:52):
All right, So last night the Rockets were on the
court at Toyota Center man handling the Sacramento Kings, took
care of their two game homesta, and it did so
very comfortably, the largest victory of the season last night
at thirty one point triumph. They had their head coach
visit with Matt Thomas and Ross earlier today.

Speaker 1 (01:24:10):
Want to share a portion of that with you.

Speaker 3 (01:24:11):
The entire interview availed with Sports Talk seven ninety dot
com as always or via the iHeartRadio apps. Subscribe to
their podcast, our podcast, the Morning Drive podcast, and you're
all set here with Sports Talk seven to ninety. The
portion of our interview, that interview for our listeners here
begins with a little bit of discussion about last night's
game and then deep discussion about last night starting point

(01:24:32):
guard who hit seven threes, Reed Sheppard.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Here's emay, that was good to you.

Speaker 7 (01:24:36):
Know, play to our level regardless of the opponent. Had
some good carryover from things we've done in the previous games,
and you know, handle business. We've slipped up a few times,
and good to like I said, take care of businesses.

Speaker 6 (01:24:47):
Time Read with a Kerr high seven threes out be
a triple double. Reads made seven starts and obviously a
lot of that is because of injuries. But just a
thought or two about as you see Read as a
starter right now as compared to when you use him
as your primary guy coming off the bench for scoring.

Speaker 7 (01:25:03):
Yeah, get probably Obviously the threat of the shot and
him in the pick and roll and off ball is
really good our brands. Kevin attracts so much attention even
when he started with them in he does as well
in the spacing and like I said, the threat and
open looks he's gonna get. He's going to be a
recipient off those guys, and so continuing to grow whether
he starts it, comes off the bench, and is improving

(01:25:25):
as the season's going on.

Speaker 6 (01:25:26):
And you said to me yesterday that you know Reid
didn't do a whole lot of real true point guard
work at Kentucky. What was his high school life like
because he was only there one year?

Speaker 1 (01:25:34):
And and is.

Speaker 6 (01:25:35):
It crazy to you that he's still kind of learning
the nuances of running an offense even at this point
of the NBA.

Speaker 7 (01:25:41):
Yeah, I mean I would say, you know, they had
him and him and kid from Minnesota coming off the
bench together, you know, two of the two of their
main scores, and they you know, he handles the ball
a little bit more, and so, uh, I think in
high school he was just the best guy and scored
and you know, handled and did a little bit of everything,
played on off ball. But you know, I've always been
a really really good if his score. And so for him,

(01:26:02):
it's like you said, learning those nuances and not just
you know, looking to score the ball every time. Although
the shot is there, we want him to take it
and be aggressive. And you know he's hitting outprint in
the pocket, finding open guys all over the court much better,
and continue to work on the defensive end. So regardless
of high school and college, the NBA is a much
higher level, bigger leap with really good, lengthy defenders on you.

(01:26:26):
And so for him, continue to grow in those areas,
and like I said, he's finding the balance of looking
for a shot and hitting guys and I think continuing
to take strides.

Speaker 8 (01:26:35):
What are some of the things you'd like to see
from him to maybe make him more used in closing
in lat and close situations.

Speaker 7 (01:26:42):
Yeah, I mean the defense is a thing. You know,
teams start to target him and he's taking some steps.
He started the year off really well, and then you
know as time goes by, some guys have some slippage
and so a lot of times of situational offensive defense
and you know, we want to have five defenders out
there if the team is going too much and like
to read and third guys. If offensive, he'll stagnant. So

(01:27:03):
that's the biggest thing. Teams are gonna, you know, hunt
him and go at him. And we could scheme around
that and try to figure some things out there, but
taking the challenge overall defensively, that's always been a key
with a lot of young guys. And you know, you
got to these big guys, they're gonna go at you,
and then he's just gonna hold up a little bit
and he's done that. He's taking a step and we
just want him.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
To have a higher point of contact.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
You know.

Speaker 7 (01:27:24):
It was really good hands, so a lot of times
he would let guys go by and reach and slide
for the ball and just take the hit and help
over be there.

Speaker 8 (01:27:31):
Rocket Tec coach Imandoka was here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety. Is Tarry easton full going back to back
the rest of the way or are you guys taking
it case by case, case by case?

Speaker 7 (01:27:42):
But he'll be available at night. It was good to,
you know, sit him that fourth quarter and get get
some guys some rest. But he played the last Clipper
back to back going into all start breaking feel good.
So he'll do that for now and we'll see what
happens after this.

Speaker 1 (01:27:56):
Is it hard to sit Katie?

Speaker 6 (01:27:57):
I mean? Or is he no that at thirty seven
that he doesn't need to be playing thirty seven minutes
every single night?

Speaker 1 (01:28:02):
Does he fight you much on.

Speaker 6 (01:28:03):
It, because look, he's been a competitor since day he
stepped on a basketball flar. I'm just curious about what
those conversations are like in terms of playing time.

Speaker 7 (01:28:12):
You know, you got to say guys from themselves at times,
and I think any chance that we can rest him
like last night and the fourth quarter is great in
any time in the game when we go on a
nice runner without him, it's great to extend the break
and the rest. And we saw it in the Charlotte
game when you know we had the league. Going into
the fourth Alfre and Coint we kind of played through
Alfred and he dominated and we stressed to lead a

(01:28:33):
little bit there, and then as they came back, we
were able to bring Kevin back and then he got
the ten points in a row. You know, we set
him out for eight plus minutes and he was fresh
and good to go and close that game. And so
anytime we can extend the rest periods, it's great. But
a game like last night really helps. Josh A.

Speaker 6 (01:28:49):
Kochie helped you out off the bench last night with
those corner threes, and we had him on the postgame show.
Was that something that when you brought him here, you said, hey,
we know there are metrics, there's a good spot for
you on the floor. Hit your shots, and he's hitting
at a career best almost about forty percent from free
point range.

Speaker 7 (01:29:05):
Yeah, he's a really good three and D player, and
you know, he started this start the year extremely well,
especially with the injuries to Joan and Jay Shawn coming
out and so, you know, pleasant surprise as far as that,
But that's what we envisioned him being was a really
good defender and a guy that could spot up a
shoot off of off of Alp and Kevin I'm in
and those guys, and so for him, he took advantage

(01:29:26):
opportunity as guys became healthy and we're bringing back guys
back in has minutes have been a little up and down,
but great to see him coming and contribute like he
did early in the season. Aaron as well, and some
of the other guys who haven't been playing with injuries
to Jay, Shawn and some guys now, it's great to
see them, but they're always ready and they that's I've
been here.

Speaker 3 (01:29:46):
So to the Rechepherd portion of that conversation, he was
very very good against a team that is very very bad.
Is that how he's going to play more often than
not against teams that actually try or care or have
try or care.

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
I'll leave it at that, Uh, tryercare defensively specifically just period.
I mean, but he's had good games against good teams too,
He's had a few. I mean, he is what he
is at this point, already.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
Is at this point.

Speaker 3 (01:30:17):
But is this team better when he's playing in this
particular role with these particular players. And that's why I
think this entire conversation, which really has legs online and
not in reality because we're not looking at all angles
of it. Oh my god, he started, he should absolutely
be out there. Well, why is he playing so well
as a starter? In some people's mind, you definitely look

(01:30:37):
at the competition, and there wasn't any last night, And
then you gotta also look at who he's out there
with when he comes in off the bench. It's pretty
rare that he is replacing one guy and gets to
play with the other four starters. He's gonna be out
there with Josha Kogi, He's going to be out there
with you know, on a night if Tari Easton isn't
starting him, he's going to be out there with DFS.
That's just the nature of coming off the bench as
a reserve. Last night, he gets to play the first,

(01:30:58):
however many minutes of the game with Kevin Durant and
Alprin Shangoon and Jabari Smith Junior, all of whom are
playing some of their best basketball of the season, and
now he could too, partially because of that. So I
think that actually could play against most any team. But
I do think the aspect of the other team putting
up zero resistance on either end of the floor is
a factor.

Speaker 2 (01:31:17):
And I think that whatever you think he is or
isn't is skewed by the fact that the normal starter
at his position isn't and won't be out there this year.

Speaker 3 (01:31:26):
It shouldn't be skewed at all. It should be looked
at for that sole reason. Right, this is who you have.
This is your roster. You've not changed it purposely. I
don't anticipate a change, even though we're right at the
time where players better be made available before March first,
if they're going to join you for the postseason.

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
This is who you have.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
Do you already know the answer if you're the coaching staff,
and so you're playing it accordingly. He is not someone
we want out there to start games. He's not someone
who has earned thirty plus minutes of night. He's not
someone who needs to take sixteen threes a game. They
say all the opposite things, like last night Reid took
sixteen threes. He only took four in the set and half.
An email's like she should have taken more.

Speaker 2 (01:32:04):
Yeah, well, career high seven threes. I'll take it in
a blow out win over a team that's absolutely awful.
I'll also take the mantra that sometimes you just have
to lean into it. That's what the Hawks are doing,
and we'll explain that in our signature segment coming up next,
it's What's a Human?

Speaker 5 (01:32:23):
A new signature segment called What's Up with That?

Speaker 1 (01:32:31):
What's up with that?

Speaker 5 (01:32:33):
What's up?

Speaker 1 (01:32:35):
I say, what's.

Speaker 5 (01:32:36):
Up who that.

Speaker 3 (01:32:43):
We're gonna be talking about some very entertaining things here
on the show every day, and specifically here in our
signature segment at four thirty this afternoon, What's up with That?
I was over at Toyota Center on Monday night for
Rockets basketball. You were there last night for Rockets basketball
and a working capacity, of course, but we're well aware
of what's taking place in the arena on any given night.
In my case, was Hello Kiddy Night, one of the

(01:33:03):
worst first shots for charity we've ever seen, way off
to the right. I think it caught backboard. And last
night was HBCU Night. Granted, yes I'm a little harsh.
Last night HBCU Night forty one Home dates. A lot
of promotions, a lot of good collabs, a lot of
good organizations get involved, a lot of fun for the fans,
usually giveaways and et cetera. And we're kind of going

(01:33:26):
to do our own little collab here for What's Up
with That? Because I think it deserves a little mix
of best of X and that we missed it today
and yesterday with the timing of our show post Astros Baseball.
So I'm gonna bring in an element of best of
X with What's Up with That? Because this particular NBA
evening warrants it. When a team announces what their event

(01:33:49):
is of that night, what they're gonna be celebrating, what
they're gonna be touting, what their collab is, maybe, what
their giveaways are. What's part of the evening for the
fans in addition to the basketball game. Usually it raises eyebrows.
I'd love to go to that game. What time do
I need to be there to catch the bibblehead? What
time do I need to you know, where do I
get tickets? It's a single game? Is what kind of deal?
What kind of upscale upside of the ticket package? Because

(01:34:10):
I love this idea. I want to go see my
team play. I love the team that's coming in town,
and I can't wait to get out there. So there's
team in Atlanta that plays NBA basketball in eighteen days,
they are welcoming in the Orlando Magic for a visit
March sixteenth, and they announced the promotion they have that
night with this as the caption, Magic on a Monday.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
I told you it was the Orlando Magic. So there
you go, Magic on a Monday. It's not the Lakers,
it's not the Commanders, not Magic Johnson's team, It's Magic
on a Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:34:41):
Eyeball emoji.

Speaker 3 (01:34:43):
And then they tagged the basically co co sponsor of
the evening at Magic City. Okay, so there's a Magic
City sweatshirt hoodie that obviously is part of the giveaway.
There appear to be wings, chicken wings, buffalo wings coming
out of that hoodie, so some sort of collaboration. Well,

(01:35:06):
what do I know? I better just find out. They
gave me the easiest way into this. I will click
on the act at Magic City, and what comes up
is the name of the establishment. Of course it's copyrighted
because it's very famous. And then part of their logo
is a silhouette of I'm not sure what that is.
I could see some curves and things, but I don't
know what it is. And then it disc you know

(01:35:27):
what a Twitter bio and x platform bio. Sure it
gives the a link. It says when they've joined, when
they've created the account, the location, obviously, the location is Atlanta, Georgia.
And then there's a bio if you want. And the
only thing it says in the bio is established in
nineteen eighty five, Atlanta, Georgia. Now it does give a
description of the business and part of that bio and

(01:35:48):
it says dance and nightclub. And even the very first
post that you see from this account, it says best
Wings in Atlanta at Magic City.

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
Phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (01:35:58):
Sounds like a great collaboration. It's sports wings awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:36:03):
Love it. Now.

Speaker 3 (01:36:04):
There's also a link to the website for the Hawks
so they can describe the events of the evening Hawks
to celebrate Atlanta's iconic cultural institution, Magic City, during the
team's Magic City Monday game against the Orlando Magic on Monday,
March sixteenth. You guys know what Magic City is?

Speaker 4 (01:36:22):
Right? No?

Speaker 1 (01:36:23):
You don't. What is it?

Speaker 3 (01:36:24):
Okay, I'll need to go to a third page. I
have it open already. It's een dot Wikipedia dot org
slash wiki slash Magic underscore City, So I can tell
you what Magic City is.

Speaker 1 (01:36:37):
I don't know what it is.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
Some of the categories listed here, like if you look
up a coach in the NFL, it will say, you know,
like what's going on currently, career, college, career, career, professional,
and a list kind of the things they've done for
a Magic City, which is categorized as a club. It
just tells you what they are, right and I think
a one sent it's very simple. And then it goes

(01:36:59):
on to the the other headings of their categories hip
hop and raptize and popular culture, notable visitors and events.
It's pretty short entry as a matter of fact, but
the very first line tells you all you need to know.

Speaker 2 (01:37:10):
What is Magic City. Well, it's a prominent strip club
in Atlanta, founded in nineteen eighty five, currently owned by
Michael Magic Barney. So Magic City is a as described here,
very tastefully calmly subdued.

Speaker 3 (01:37:26):
It's a prominent strip club in Atlanta. The NBA and
its fans know exactly what Magic City is. Obviously, everybody
in Atlanta knows. Every NBA player from every team knows,
and Lou Williams helped to also make them famous for
everybody else in that One of the parts of the
evenings giveaways specials, food specials, will be the lou Well

(01:37:49):
Lemon lou will Lemon pepper barbecue chicken wings, which he
helped to make famous when he decided to visit there
when he had to get out of the COVID jail
in Orlando free card because he was attending a funeral
and then was pictured at Magic City there the wings.
I was there for the wings, right, I was at

(01:38:11):
the club for the food. But I want to get
in some more of the details of the event, a
special one night collab with the city's iconic cultural institution,
Magic City, during their home game against Orlando. They've worked
with Magic City to bring the best of the phenomena
for fans and attendance at the award winning State Farm Marina.
I could go on and tell you how they're A

(01:38:32):
principal owner and former actress Jamie Gertz is involved in
all of this. Most of you know who she is.
There are a bunch of other people involved. But in
an effort to make sure we get through some of
the most important things this segment, can I just instead
go to the comments. Yes, I think the one of
the funniest ones, and it seems obvious now that I've

(01:38:55):
seen it. This is Magic Monday. They're playing the Magic,
Trey say and added a picture. Magic have signed James
Harden to a ten day contract.

Speaker 1 (01:39:06):
He plays for the Calves.

Speaker 3 (01:39:07):
They can't do that, Pierre says, an NBA team doing
a collab with a strip club. I don't seen it all,
dev says Adam Silver about to be there throwing the jazz,
fine money. Mediocre says you can see Pep at both places.
I don't think they're like how the Hawks are playing.

Speaker 1 (01:39:25):
Nope.

Speaker 3 (01:39:25):
I noted that there was a hoodie obviously as part
of the giveaway. Rob's wonders allowed. Will kid sizes be available?

Speaker 1 (01:39:33):
Oh boy? See that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:39:36):
It's all fun and games until Junior starts asking what
magic is.

Speaker 3 (01:39:43):
But the reality is and I think there are many
people here. As you roll through more of the comments,
if you'd like best Lemon Pepper wings on Earth. I've
often said that okay and the wings are a part
of the night's celebration at the game.

Speaker 2 (01:39:56):
So what happens when Little Johnny asks if we can
go get some of said wings after the game? Absolutely
we can get them to go. That's how that works.
You can't take them.

Speaker 3 (01:40:07):
Magic Seedkition will serve two versions of their world famous
lemon pepper wings.

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
You can purchase them in these sections.

Speaker 2 (01:40:15):
In these sections for this night. Yeah, that you got
to go to the place, from the food, to the
music to the exclusive merchandise. We're excited to team up
with Magic City to create an authentic, true to Atlanta
inspired game experience, per Hawk's VP and chief marketing Officer
Melissa Proctor. I like that Germaine Dupree is very much involved.

(01:40:40):
It's very excited.

Speaker 7 (01:40:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:40:43):
I think somebody in the comments also mentioned something about
it being the Peach state.

Speaker 2 (01:40:47):
Yeah, great emoji use on the sweatshirt. Love it because
as cult institution Magic City, Yeah, peaches are always meant
to be referring to the fruit when you use those
in text. Just ask Bieber. Good job Atlanta. As per usual.

Speaker 3 (01:41:07):
We've marked it on the eighteen calendar March sixteenth.

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
Can't wait.

Speaker 2 (01:41:16):
Spring Training, which means overreactions galore all across complexes where
your favorite baseball team is trying to get ready for
the regular season, like.

Speaker 3 (01:41:31):
At the former home of the Tampa Bay Rays during
the twenty twenty five regular season.

Speaker 1 (01:41:37):
Yes, that one. By the way, they fix the roof.
What happened.

Speaker 3 (01:41:40):
Anticipate them not needing George Steinbrennerfield for this anticipation. They're
back in business. It's gonna be a long season. You're
not going to a major league stadium to play your
home games. You're going to Steinbrenner Field.

Speaker 2 (01:41:54):
It stinks. Yeah, okay, one of your favorite whipping boys.
This is the headline. He's so injured he cannot accomplish
simple tasks that five year olds are capable of.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
What teams he play for? Well, I'll go.

Speaker 2 (01:42:12):
Ahead and have you play some audio first, and that'll
give everybody an idea as to where we're going next.
Sports Talk seven ninety you're Southwest home.

Speaker 5 (01:42:22):
For Yankees baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:42:25):
Do you want to know about the Yankees? You don't
live in New York. You've come to the right place.
Bring it, New York.

Speaker 2 (01:42:30):
Yankees slugger Gean Carlos Stanton has been so cumbersome and
injury prone for so long that he's struggling to run
like an MLB athlete, and has for a while now,
But now that he's thirty six years old, he has
reportedly so much pain in his elbow that he cannot

(01:42:51):
do simple things like opening a bag of chips.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
Hey, honey, yes, I was trying to get these pickles.
Can you help in? The ant is an emphatic no,
I cannot. Hey, would you like some flaming hot cheese
flavored snacks? I would love some. Can you open it
for me? What are you talking about? Why don't you
just open it? It's a bag of chips. I can't

(01:43:15):
do that right now. I'm just a major League baseball player.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
So since twenty nineteen, you know, when the Astros walked
them off in the ALCS.

Speaker 1 (01:43:25):
His second year as a Yankee, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:28):
He's appeared in just fifty six percent of their regular
season games. But he's reportedly determined to play the full
season this year. That's the good news. The bad news
is the bad news is what you just described. He
admitted that his tennis elbows plural. I got some tennis elbow, No,
I have two. His tennis elbows cause him so much

(01:43:51):
discomfort that he cannot open quote chips, bottles, or a
bag of anything. I think tennis elbow for people that
don't play tennis, so football players or baseball players or
athletes of any kind is basically the turf toe type injury.

Speaker 1 (01:44:06):
Yes, turf tow doesn't sound very.

Speaker 2 (01:44:08):
Bad, but it is if you're a football Player's awful
for anybody because of what it actually is.

Speaker 3 (01:44:13):
Tennis elbow. Oh, you have tennis lebow. So don't play
tennis for five days and you'll be up and run
of tennis. It'll be good to go. It hurts a
little bit and you'll be fine in a few days.
Just let it calm down a little bit. And it's
far from it, at least according to not Mike Stanton.

Speaker 2 (01:44:28):
Well when asked about the tennis elbow he's been struggling
with in both arms since twenty twenty four. Not while
I'm in this line of work. You have your good
days and bad days, just like your mood and everything.
I can't open a bottle, I can't open a bag
of chips, a.

Speaker 1 (01:44:44):
Bag of anything. That's the way it is. That is
a quote.

Speaker 2 (01:44:48):
How much is he making.

Speaker 3 (01:44:50):
He's still on the good side of a huge deal.
Remember when they traded for him, they took on the
Marlins contract he was still playing under because the Marlins
signed him to this outrageous deal.

Speaker 1 (01:45:01):
He's on the declining scale side of it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:03):
He made thirty two million each of the last three
years he's still got twenty nine, twenty five, and twenty
five remaining through age thirty eight, so each of the
next three seasons at twenty five plus, which he's been
making since twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:45:17):
And good news for Yankees fans that are hearing this again,
he has a two forty four batting average with six
hundred and fifty nine hits, one hundred and eighty six homers,
four hundred ninety seven runs batted in, and three hundred
and sixty seven runs scored in seven hundred and forty
games for the Yankees in his career.

Speaker 3 (01:45:36):
So we know this because we pay such close attention
to the Yankees all regular season and postseason long. He's
what they have to have in the postseason to win.
He wasn't that awesome last year, even though he hit
some more long balls the year before he was great.
His postseason career numbers are awesome. He is a great
postseason hitter, ops well over nine to twenty in the

(01:45:59):
playoffs all all of his career. And the other guy there,
the captain, is like the opposite of that. They they
don't even hardly think they probably need Stanton throughout the
regular season, but if he's not healthy, then they're sunk.
Last year he played less than half the games, and
he was awesome in the games he played in offensively.

Speaker 2 (01:46:19):
It is em like not being able to do those things.
The tennis elbow parts of it, Well, that's only half
the issue. Every time he's in the field, which should
be never, and every time he's on the bases, everyone's like,
what are you doing? I know the guy behind him
doubled and he's at second, but how can you send him?

(01:46:41):
He's going to get thrown out, Like he runs worse
and seemingly more slowly than Albert Poolhols did when he
was in the late late late stages of his career
where it looked like glass in his I was waiting
for that. He's so he's lumbering around the bases. We've
seen him get it thrown out countless times in games

(01:47:03):
where he's just like, you gotta know your personnelity. It's
people called him out. Oh it doesn't look like he's trying.
He doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:47:08):
What's he doing? He can't.

Speaker 2 (01:47:10):
He both can't run and now can't do simple tasks
because of his elbow.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
But he can swing a baseball bat. But he can
swing the bat with as much force. He still leads
the league every year in hard hit balls and exit velocity.

Speaker 2 (01:47:24):
Yeah, but seriously, he's saying he can't open a bag
of chips, He can't open a bottle of water. Go
like this, and they'll go like this, but you're still
cranking that forearm.

Speaker 3 (01:47:34):
It's just like maybe even picking up your kids versus
throwing a baseball. Like your arm and your shoulder and
your elbow, they're all doing different things in these different motions.

Speaker 2 (01:47:42):
Why does he have tennis elbows? Why doesn't he have
baseball elbows? What's the difference at elbow? Did he get
it from playing baseball? Doesn't really seem like it. Well
where did he get it?

Speaker 1 (01:47:54):
Good question? I have a theory.

Speaker 3 (01:47:57):
Well, yeah, it's a very good theory. I think you're
going to be right. What's your theory? He did drugs?

Speaker 1 (01:48:01):
I think your theory is sound.

Speaker 2 (01:48:02):
Specifically performance enhancing drugs, which make your body, specifically your
soft tissue break down sooner than it should, especially if
you're playing professional sports.

Speaker 3 (01:48:14):
I think he has spent a minimum of ten years,
going back to his Miami days, as the most violent
swing in baseball, and it's it's not I don't even
really think it's close. Like some people can hit the
ball far and hit it, you know, with the comparable
exit velo.

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
Watch him swing.

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
He looks like he's going to hurt some rib cage,
muscle or something's going to hurt after he swings that
violently when he makes contact, ball go far. Well, that's
why it's so funny when Yankees fans always like to
say at the Astros, root for cheaters, because you do too,
and you have for a long time, never been punished
for it. Not him, never been found out to have

(01:48:54):
been a part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:48:55):
Not him.

Speaker 2 (01:48:56):
Yeah, he's finally several others that have not on the
current team. No, no, which is why they haven't won
in a long long time. They haven't had enough cheaters.

Speaker 3 (01:49:06):
I'm not sure what he calls would call a full season.
It's pretty much inevitable some time it will be spent
on the il.

Speaker 2 (01:49:12):
That's just who he is these days.

Speaker 1 (01:49:14):
Maybe cheat harder next time, Yankees.

Speaker 3 (01:49:16):
Maybe there's some other helpful I just want to get
back on the field. Drugs that he can use. Could
call Andy Pettitt probably hasn't number.

Speaker 2 (01:49:24):
Soon he'll be standing in front of the media and
he'll be saying, my body feels fine like Andy did
every day.

Speaker 1 (01:49:30):
He did a.

Speaker 3 (01:49:31):
Couple more segments with us. We'll get into Rockets basketball
as we continue. Five o'clock arrive. So there are some
new items on the football side that are going to
be a part of football at five next.

Speaker 5 (01:49:48):
Underway.

Speaker 1 (01:49:50):
I'm having PTSD here.

Speaker 2 (01:49:54):
Because this is what it sounded like when the board
started running itself one day.

Speaker 1 (01:49:59):
Oh, and it's just play and played and played.

Speaker 2 (01:50:01):
We'll see how Josh is fading the music down. Yeah,
he's as good as his job. Yeah, but the music
never faded that day, wasn't it at all? And I'm like, hey, Josh,
can you turn this down? Unbeknownst to me, he couldn't
hear me, and what I was saying wasn't going out
over the air or into this microphone.

Speaker 1 (01:50:17):
And then everything just shut down. It was a great day.

Speaker 3 (01:50:19):
No such problems today. For few items to get to
you mentioned a little bit about the NFLPA survey players
survey leak didn't mention ESPN had obtained a copy and
they at least could tell us.

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
Who landed one, two, and three. Well, the Texans were
I don't have that information.

Speaker 1 (01:50:39):
Oh, you don't know. I don't know. They were seventh.
Texans were seventh overall. It's in the tweet. I don't
know what tweet that is Aaron Wilson's.

Speaker 3 (01:50:48):
Okay, Miami Dolphins were number one, which the Minnesota Vikings
were number two. Okay, the Washington Commanders were number three.
So take that information Dolphins, Vikings, Commanders one, two, and three,
and then apply it to the postseason or the draft.

(01:51:11):
The Dolphins landed the eleventh pick in the draft. The
Vikings landed the eighteenth pick in the draft. The Commanders
landed the seventh pick in the draft. All given to
teams that don't participate in the playoffs are facility, great,
coach great, everything.

Speaker 2 (01:51:29):
Hey we finished, Okay, But let's be honest here, and
this is this is actually interesting because of who the
top two teams are. How much of Miami's high rankings
is the fact that they live in Miami? Maybe probably
a typical dam all the categories and it really shouldn't
have anything to do with that except maybe the stadium.
But how happy are you if you live in Miami.

Speaker 3 (01:51:50):
They're not asking if you're happy, They're asking if your
family gets treated well. They're asking you if your newly
fired coach did a good job, or your general manager
also got fired, did a good job in twenty twenty five,
or you're oc that was somebody else that's no longer there,
that currently is Bobby Slowick and they finished number one.

(01:52:10):
Now I'm not saying you shouldn't try for that. And
this has a somewhat of a reflection of the owner.
Is he willing to put the type of money into
Not only every owner roughly spends the same thing on
the team. There's a salary cap. Some teams clearly spend
a little bit less, and then in another year they
have the opportunity to spend a little bit more and
it kind of rolls with it on a little bit
of a cycle. But a cheap owner in the NFL

(01:52:33):
from terms of a salary spending, Yes, the teams that
watch good players walk out the door and know they
have no ability to replace them. That's one thing, and
that's Cincinnati for the most part and the long long
ownership they've had there. But can't you do some of
the other things, like clearly the Texans are doing whatever

(01:52:53):
letter grade Calan Hanna McNair have gotten, or Bob McNair
before that, janis they've put money in to the team.
I think whenever it's been warranted or maybe when even
internally they've gotten the information necessary to say we're not
doing it right. And when you have like your performance
and athletic training staff, when you have certain people in

(01:53:13):
place for a long period of time, and then you
look outside the organization for that, like when Mike Parsons
came from Denver, they started doing a lot of things differently,
or Mike Eubanks and they started doing a lot of
things differently.

Speaker 2 (01:53:25):
With that side of things, it's Mike u Banks, Micah Parsons.
Oh there's a Mike Parsons also, and Mike Parsons.

Speaker 3 (01:53:33):
They just keep doing better and better things. And they've
upgraded this and they've upgraded that. And if you listen
to a little bit of what Mike Tolman said yesterday
both at the podium and with the media after the
Texans team president, the amount of space they have to
work with out there that will be utilized by outside entities,
not all Texans all the time, but it's their facility

(01:53:55):
that they should have everything at the top of the NFL.
It should be the envy of every player. Now, I
don't know that they're ever gonna see it. Unless you
play for the Texans, you're never gonna see it. You
fly in, you go to your visitors' locker room at
Energy Statum, you play a football game, and you get
back on the bus and you leave town. Previously, you
probably saw their weight room. It's right there at the stadium.

(01:54:15):
You saw where this happens and that happens. You see
all the inner workings of it. I mean, their meeting rooms.

Speaker 1 (01:54:20):
Aren't necessarily what you see. I've seen them. They're right there.

Speaker 3 (01:54:23):
They'll all be different now because of where they're gonna
be officing out of and where they obviously will be
footballing out of. The Texans should be in a good
position in all those areas. It doesn't equal winning, but
it can be a recruiting tool. I do think you're
gonna go on a visit as much like literally. That's
why I use the word. You're still recruiting free agents.
And if the money's equal, it's a tipping point. But

(01:54:46):
the players almost always say so, you're gonna give me
forty five million over four years, and twenty eight is guaranteed,
but they want to give me forty seven million and
thirties guaranteed, and the taxes are same in that city.
They're probably picking the higher salary, the bower money, the
bigger guarantee. Should you be picking where you can win,
where you can play. In the NFL with the lack

(01:55:08):
of fully guaranteed contracts, money usually talks above all.

Speaker 2 (01:55:13):
Again, you're in Miami, you play in a brand new state.

Speaker 1 (01:55:17):
Why isn't Vegas number one?

Speaker 2 (01:55:18):
Then?

Speaker 1 (01:55:20):
Why isn't the chargers of the Rams number one?

Speaker 2 (01:55:23):
I'll tell you why Vegas isn't number one, because at
the end of the day, it's still in the middle
of the desert and Miami's on the beach.

Speaker 3 (01:55:30):
Like the owners in these two discussions, Mark Davis and
Steven Ross, like Ross to get all these grades and
to do all these things while clearly doing some really
incorrect but not just bad decisions, wrong things, things you're
not allowed to do as an owner. He has done there.
He has been a bad owner in terms of following

(01:55:50):
the league's rules and doing things how you're supposed to
do it under the parameters of the other thirty one owners.

Speaker 1 (01:55:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:55:57):
I mean, I think Mark Davis has done a bad
job of doing a good football team together and some
of the things that go with it. Maybe you're there,
but he's not done those things wrong. It doesn't matter
what you do or what you could, still land the players.
This is a player's vote. This is what I see
every day when I go to the facility, when my
family flies, when my family goes to home games, and
how I get to eat a proper meal.

Speaker 1 (01:56:17):
That's what they're voting. Again, going back to what I'm saying, as.

Speaker 3 (01:56:21):
They reprimanded me for taking for taking extra food out
of the out of the the nutrition area, or they
didn't have what I like there.

Speaker 1 (01:56:29):
They're wearn't enough smoothie machines.

Speaker 2 (01:56:32):
I took a bag of chips out of the cafeteria,
but then I didn't have the strength to open them
because of my baseball elbows, because I have baseball helbo.
But no, like going back to what I was saying
about Miami, what I'm saying makes no sense for the
number two team Minnesota. Like, really Minneapolis, nice place. I've

(01:56:53):
been there, It's been ruined. But also it's like minus
five degrees. You know, we have like ten months of
summer here, they have like thirteen months of winter. There
like like absolute nuclear winter. I think that in and
of itself makes it a tough sell. What makes Houston
a great cell, makes Miami a great sell. It's not
reflected in this type of report, though, seventy five degrees

(01:57:15):
on Christmas and it was this year. It was actually
eighty five this year. That sucked, by the way. Whole
week of Christmas it was like eighty five degrees with
one thousand percent humidity.

Speaker 3 (01:57:24):
I enjoyed the holiday just as I always do. It
didn't make no difference. I'm not used to scho Christmas light.

Speaker 2 (01:57:30):
If I wonder, then if I always loved building snowmen
and sledding and all of snow related activities, it would
be different. But I'll see, I will enjoy those ever before. Yeah,
but I wasn't even asking for snow. I just wanted
it to get below seventy Is that too much toa
I could wear your new Christmas clothes. Maybe you could
wear your matching cold weather pajamas. It's colder in here

(01:57:51):
right now on a daily basis than it ever was
the week of Christmas by several degrees.

Speaker 1 (01:57:57):
I'm freezing right now. You only got a little bit
longer here, plus pre game.

Speaker 2 (01:58:01):
Yeah. Well again going back to the concept of this
thing being like, why is the NFL so mamby pamby
about that.

Speaker 1 (01:58:14):
Nobody wants to be made to look bad.

Speaker 3 (01:58:15):
And when when you have player quotes to go along
with the poor grades, makes you look bad because you're
a billionaire, what's running a billion, billion, billion dollar business
and this is what you're doing. It makes you look
like an idiot or some of the other billionaires do
things the right way and get praise. It's not like
everybody's getting dragged through the mud just that. But who
are we where society? What do we cling on to approval?

(01:58:39):
Not the praise everybody gets, on the negativity and the
critiques and the critical nature of it, and be better.
That's why they want to keep it private so they
don't have to be.

Speaker 2 (01:58:48):
And since the commissioner works for the owners, he's more
than happy to say, uh, don't publish this.

Speaker 3 (01:58:54):
Well, they needed litigation to help push that message across.
But here we are sitting today and we have the
in for I'm sure reporters and other cities have also
gathered the data that was leaked for their particular vote.
We'll talk about it a little bit less clearly, because
we're not perusing the entire seventy five page report or
whatever it might be.

Speaker 1 (01:59:13):
I'll tell you, do you this is bad? You know
you were.

Speaker 2 (01:59:16):
You actually got onto me a little bit about this
a couple of weeks ago because it was very doom
and gloom. You know what, I think about an inordinate
amount of time lately, what not death. But it's close.
What we're going to be doing next summer, all summer
after the NBA Finals is long over, and way before
training camp. There's going to be this purgatory I might

(01:59:38):
take a month vacation. Man, you're just gonna have to
do these shows by yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:59:41):
I am not.

Speaker 2 (01:59:42):
We're going to be talking about baseball labor and it
is going to absolutely suck.

Speaker 3 (01:59:48):
It will be a shame because it won't be on
a daily basis because we'll be saying, I can't believe
their last thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:59:55):
How many days we did that before the last time.

Speaker 3 (01:59:57):
We also spent a lot of time on the airwaves
after Root you Go, Bart touched all those recorders, but
we had the last dance.

Speaker 1 (02:00:03):
We'll have something else.

Speaker 2 (02:00:04):
They're not dropping another documentary.

Speaker 1 (02:00:08):
Maybe they are.

Speaker 2 (02:00:08):
If you think that I take us off the rails
now with a four schedule, way off the rails. Oh
my gosh, it's gonna be the summer of love. What
do you like to do now? To think that it
gets us back on the rails. What press conferences you
watch yesterday? WEX what sports related ACTI? I won't have
answers anymore. Like after we get done with the first
segment where we talk about the stupid sound bites from

(02:00:31):
the stupid media from one side or the other press
conference from one side or the other, then it's gonna
be just like total free for all.

Speaker 1 (02:00:39):
Like it's gonna be anything goes every day the year.

Speaker 3 (02:00:41):
Round sport, because we already do football at five will
still be there for us. We're we're a month and
change away from the season, and we've had something from
the NFL every single day. We're day one of players
on the field of the combine. There's three more.

Speaker 1 (02:00:55):
Days to go.

Speaker 3 (02:00:56):
As soon, almost as soon as the combine wraps up,
it's March and Tampering Day begins.

Speaker 1 (02:01:01):
Two days later, the league year begins.

Speaker 3 (02:01:03):
Signings will happen, signings will be announced, they'll introduce players here,
there and everywhere else, and then we'll kind of get
close to the end of the month and we'll be
in the middle of pro days.

Speaker 2 (02:01:12):
We'll almost be to the draft. The good news is
then they'll have a rookie mini camp. The finals will
end roughly mid to late June. Maybe just maybe a
former Heisman Trophy winner will kill two people and we'll.

Speaker 1 (02:01:24):
Have that to talk about. Who Oh, no, only happened once.
It's not gonna happen again. That was once in a
lifetime thing.

Speaker 2 (02:01:30):
I definitely believe that was technically is once in two lifetimes,
which ended because of him.

Speaker 1 (02:01:35):
One lifetime for him.

Speaker 3 (02:01:38):
Thanks for that. Though, we got another segment to go.
We still have tickets to give away today on that
enlightening and super happy note, we'll do that next segment
forget to the extremely important information on how you can
win tickets to go see Godsmack with Stone Temple pilots
in Dorothy May thirtieth, Woodland's Pavilion's part of the Rise
of the Rock World Tour. Twenty six tickets on sale

(02:02:01):
now ticketmaster dot com. Before we get there, we've got
a question for you, and we'll give you all the
details and what you need to do to win them.
But Oh, let's just go ahead and do that first
and I'll say what I've got for after. So we
do have those tickets, the number seven one three, two
one two five seven ninety. But you can't just call
and win. You have to call some information in order
to win. And that's the answer to a question. We'll
ask you about something we've discussed this afternoon here on

(02:02:21):
the A team that because you guys are very nice
and listen to the program, hopefully we've entertained you, maybe
informed you today and every other day and you'll be
back with us again tomorrow up until Astro's Baseball at
four point fifty. But because of that, we want to
give you the opportunity to win these tickets. So you
listen to the show, you have an opportunity to win.
You'll know the answer to this simple question because you've

(02:02:43):
been listening, and you can call in with the answer.

Speaker 1 (02:02:45):
What's the question.

Speaker 2 (02:02:47):
Well, the Rockets are going to play Orlando tonight, yep.
But on March sixteenth, the Orlando basketball squad is going
to be in Atlanta, and the reason they're going to
be there is not only to play an NBA game,
but to celebrate.

Speaker 3 (02:03:06):
All Orlando knows is they have a basketball game that's
been on the schedule all year for a trip to
Atlanta to face the Hawks.

Speaker 2 (02:03:14):
But when they get there, not only is that game
going to take place, but the Hawks are going to
celebrate Atlanta's iconic cultural institution.

Speaker 1 (02:03:24):
It's a club.

Speaker 2 (02:03:26):
It's a club where there are lemon pepper wings of
two different varieties that we know of, and other things
happen there. What is the name of that club that will.

Speaker 3 (02:03:38):
Be celebrated on March sixteenth in a game between the
Hawks and Magic on the Hawks home floor.

Speaker 2 (02:03:43):
Yeah, what's the name of Atlanta's iconic cultural institution that's
going to be celebrated that night? Seven one three seven
ninety seven one three two one two five seven.

Speaker 1 (02:03:53):
Ninety We talked about it earlier within the hour, maybe definitively. Well,
sometimes I like to go outside of the fire this
subject of what's up with that today? I said four
point thirty.

Speaker 2 (02:04:03):
Oh yeah, I'm all thrown off because of the clock today.

Speaker 3 (02:04:06):
Right around noontime here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
if you were listening to our station, the home for
Houston Astros baseball, you would have heard the debut spring
debut of Tatsuya Emi through his first ten pitches as
an Astro. One of those pitches was the following that
had this result.

Speaker 5 (02:04:27):
Monday in Port Saint Lucy. The one two ground ball
sharply hit.

Speaker 4 (02:04:30):
That hit off of my goes in a foul territory
on the third base side and there will be no
play on Simeon. Am I looked like he had his
back turned when that ball hit him. Matfield's freight to
his assistant athletic trainer for the Astros comes out of
the dugout along with am I's interpreter, and am I

(02:04:50):
he's just he has his back to them. He's walking
right back up the mound.

Speaker 7 (02:04:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:04:53):
He told him when they were at the third baseline
that I'm okay.

Speaker 1 (02:04:56):
He said, beat it. It's just Marcus Simeon. He couldn't
hurt a fly.

Speaker 2 (02:05:00):
Nearly ninety nine mph off the bat oo, but it
did hit the ground first as a grounder. Marcus Simeon sucks,
stupid x ranger.

Speaker 3 (02:05:10):
First batter faced, first batted ball into the field of play,
hits the astros sixty three million dollar pitcher.

Speaker 2 (02:05:18):
Yeah, and he says, great, you got something stronger from
a guy that doesn't work guy liner at the plate.

Speaker 3 (02:05:23):
He still got out of the inning in one two
to three fashion with an out on a pop out
and then ground out to Carlos threw it on over
to Nick Allen and he fired it on over Christian
Walker as they turned one of three ground ball double
plays on the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (02:05:39):
Brand new Astros acquisition Nick Allen. So we pretty much
haven't talked about Nick Allen at all. And there's the
reasons are he can't hit. He is not a major
league hitter. He was not a major league hitter with
the Athletics, he was not a major league hitter with
the Braves. But he is a super plus fielder. He
is a middle infielder.

Speaker 3 (02:05:59):
His position would likely be shortstop if needed, but they're
not gonna be that many opportunities with Carlos Correa out
third and Jeremy Pania obviously manning the shortstop position, but
he's playing second base today. He's gonna play both of
those positions up the middle flawlessly this year. He's gonna
make plays for this team if he makes this team,
and that is exactly why he would make this team.

(02:06:19):
I don't know if he'll have some sort of moderate
renaissance with the bat, and I don't know where he
would be a renaissance because he just hasn't been a
very good hitter. I mean, a guy who's gonna hit
in the one nineties with no power. But is there
a spot on his team because they don't have a
definitive utility player. It should be Bryce Matthews, but he

(02:06:39):
hasn't proven that he can hit at this level. He
probably can play all the positions, including the outfield, and
maybe not quite at the level that Alan can on
the middle infield, but Alan's not playing in the outfield.
I'm curious to what they will actually do. I don't
think it matters that they acquired Nick Allen in trade
because I just really don't think that factors into the decision.
But as the spring continues, remember there's gonna be a

(02:07:02):
good chunk of it that continues without Jeremy Pana because
he'll be playing in the World Baseball Classic. I'm wondering
who's getting all those days at shortstop or the five
or six innings worth of work at shortstop, and it's
probably Nick Allen. He will have an opportunity to show
them why they should carry him beyond just the glove.

Speaker 2 (02:07:21):
Well, I like, how many how many positions are actually
really legit like legitimately up for grabs in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (02:07:33):
Until they bring somebody else in or when they bring
somebody else in. The backup catcher spot is not definitive,
but right now they only have one, so it's Salazar.
They have no established starting outfielders right unless you count
Jake Myers. I would count him, Okay, So they have
a starting center fielder, yeah, and then neither of the
corners are set Cole, Operfido, Smith, Alvarez.

Speaker 1 (02:07:53):
Whatever they're going to do out there, Jake Myers gets hurt.
Who's your guy out there?

Speaker 3 (02:07:58):
I mean Zach Cole and camp Smith both gotten work
in center field. Camp Smith started in right field today,
Cole was in center, and then when Cole left the game,
Smith went over to center and he's gotten previous work there.
Low Barfedo will get work there. I think any of
them will be options. And think about what we did,
what we spent time on this offseason. Jake Myers is
in trade talks. Jake Myers could get them something they

(02:08:20):
need now. They have nothing in the outfield anyway, so
I'm curious what it is they think they're getting for him,
if he truly was still being dangled in trade talks,
because he plays a position that they don't have a
replacement for, and they if they're looking at left handed
bats in the outfield, well if I wouldn't think he'd
be used to get that, because he's a bat in
the outfield, and quite honestly, the way he played last

(02:08:41):
year offensively, it was a step in the right direction,
even with a complete lack of power and pop which
he used to have. But he got on base a
lot more. He struck out less, and he got hits more.
He was He was a better offensive player than he'd
ever been as an astro. If he can do that
and bring a little power, quite honestly, Carl's Korea has
to do the same thing. Carlos Kara didn't bring much

(02:09:03):
pop here. He didn't have much pop in Minnesota for
the first part of the year either.

Speaker 2 (02:09:07):
He used to get so mad at him last year
for your hitting singles. He knows it because he brought
it up.

Speaker 3 (02:09:11):
I don't know if he well, I don't know if
it was when we were talking about fan Fest or
if it was in a different interview.

Speaker 1 (02:09:17):
I think it was with us.

Speaker 3 (02:09:18):
He said he's working on his launch angle because he
recognized what was happening last year. You know these pitches
that he used to drive to the fence or over
the fence or into the gap. Yeah, he would single
on it, but he wasn't driving the ball. He wasn't
getting the launch angle that he wanted to do much
more damage. I presume he's batting in the middle of
the order somewhere, and that's what you want from them.

Speaker 2 (02:09:39):
I mean, I think that's what he wants to.

Speaker 3 (02:09:41):
He wants to show also that he's not totally on
the backside downslide of his offensive career.

Speaker 2 (02:09:47):
So how many legit positions?

Speaker 3 (02:09:49):
Probably two hour spots, the utility spot and the backup catcher,
so four ish they're open for competition.

Speaker 2 (02:09:57):
Okay, a little. It's not like late breaking news, but
it's sort of breaking. It's it does have something to
do with the Rockets. We were watching the scoreboard last
night and the Celtics did absolutely nothing to help out
the Rockets, losing.

Speaker 1 (02:10:12):
For a couple of quarters and then kind of petered out.
Like what happened.

Speaker 2 (02:10:15):
They remember that they their best player was hurt for
like the umpteenth time this year.

Speaker 1 (02:10:19):
Well, they just won a game the game before without
Jalen Brown.

Speaker 2 (02:10:23):
Oh so they couldn't win, Well, they played a better team. Okay,
well that team that they played the Nuggets. Yes, they are,
I believe, hosting the defending champs tomorrow. The defending champs
are going to have shake gil Just Alexander back. It's
ok oh, okay, they are going to be traveling the

(02:10:44):
defending champs tomorrow. Shake guil Just Alexander has been cleared
to return after missing the last nine games due to
an abdominal strain. He is not on okay c's injury
report for tomorrow's game versus the Nuggets. That is per
the NBA's southwest to mid region of the country. NBA
reporter Tim McMahon, who is not a Dallas reporter, according

(02:11:06):
to WEX, very nice, look, is Dallas playing in that game? No,
it's it's in Oklahoma. Well, he's not reporting on Cooper Flack,
Doll and others located southern Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (02:11:17):
Covering the southwest portion of the NBA for all of us.

Speaker 2 (02:11:20):
Have you seen lately If you go to Tim McMahon's
bio on x he wrote a book you know.

Speaker 3 (02:11:27):
If you see him doing his hits on the network
that he works for, his zoom room setup for those
who lived in the COVID era. He's got the book
right over his left shoulder. What's it called?

Speaker 1 (02:11:40):
The boy is in the title right, WonderBoy.

Speaker 2 (02:11:42):
The Wonderful, the Wonder Boy, Luka Doncic and the Curse
of Greatness. He's in a Maverick's uniform.

Speaker 3 (02:11:48):
Well, he wrote it before it was almost complete. I
think before the trade.

Speaker 2 (02:11:52):
On sale three twenty five, twenty five. That trade was
made two one twenty five.

Speaker 3 (02:11:57):
Okay, Oops, so the book was almost are almost almost
wasn't Yeah, the book was probably a completely no of
all people in the media.

Speaker 2 (02:12:06):
Timic Man saw that trade go down on February first
and said, are you freaking kidding me?

Speaker 3 (02:12:11):
Because the cover is obsolete already. The cover's obsolete, the
content is desirable.

Speaker 2 (02:12:17):
Luka Doncic in the Curse of Greatness like he's a
great act, complaining every single time he doesn't.

Speaker 1 (02:12:22):
Get a call.

Speaker 3 (02:12:22):
Biggest topic in the NBA for two months and you
wrote a book about it. That's a good thing, Yes,
sort of, I would say yes to find but nobody was.

Speaker 2 (02:12:32):
Talking about how great Luca was as much as they
were talking about how dumb what's his face?

Speaker 1 (02:12:36):
Because of how great Luca was, he still is dumb
even though he doesn't even work.

Speaker 2 (02:12:39):
So he's unemployed now, he doesn't work in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (02:12:43):
I don't know that he doesn't have a job of
some kind. What's he doing?

Speaker 3 (02:12:46):
Well, he also made a big sum of money, buy
out millions. Well, he's also getting paid a salary for
all the years that he was employed.

Speaker 2 (02:12:54):
And well, if they want to have somebody that's better
at that job than him, they could hire me and
pay me that money.

Speaker 1 (02:12:59):
But they chose somebody else, even the Mavericks. I might
even work for him.

Speaker 3 (02:13:03):
We had Astros Baseball for you tomorrow at four fifty.
We got Rockets basketball for you coming up in just
a few minutes. A Rockets countdown and Rockets launch pad
will get you up ato tip off MT and I
will have tip off for you at six point thirty
and we'll be back with you tomorrow two o'clock talking
about win number thirty six, now thirty seven for your
Houston Rockets.

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