Rockets Ready to Even Up Series, Texans Taking WR or OT, Astros Sweeping Success On The Horizon

AC and Wex get you prepared as the Rockets look to improve from their 0-1 record in their playoff series vs the Warrriors. USA Today's Jeff Risdon joins the show to talk all things NFL Draft. The guys discuss what the Texans could do with their first-round pick. Who does Cole have on "With the No. 25 pick" on the penultimate date of the series? Can the Astros get their first sweep of regular season and close out the homestand with a 5-1 record? Wex thinks so!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You know two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam raised.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
By Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Nolan Multipi with the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
That is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Is talking Your teams?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight teams eight.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
It is the A team. Sports Talks seven ninety is
game day. People.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
Get your minds right, Houston. I'm tired of hearing all
the belly aching about.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Who's the Moon's a game? You we go again.

Speaker 5 (01:01):
I was talking to somebody earlier today wex and I
was saying, listen, they're winning tonight, and I don't want
to hear anything otherwise. I feel like I'm getting that
a lot just but I think it's the uniform.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
I think.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
I think Houston has PTSD. I really do. This is
absolutely not over. This is absolutely a winning series. And
in fact, I think.

Speaker 6 (01:22):
The Rockets should still be favored even though they've dropped
Game one.

Speaker 5 (01:26):
But if they lose tonight, they were never favored. Yeah
they were fair there, weren't they favored? Actually I'm in
Game one going into it.

Speaker 6 (01:33):
I'd have to double check, but I can't imagine why
if they weren't favored to win the series.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Because they're the home team and the Warriors just aren't.

Speaker 6 (01:39):
Say well, if you're favorite at home and you play
at home four times, you'd be the favorite in the series,
wouldn't you.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
I would think I would think so too.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
Vegas thinks that they're just you know, listen, the Rockets
are going to have to dispel this myth that the
Warriors are still championship contenders because they're not. They're just
if for no other reason. Look, do you do I
think the Rockets are championship contenders. No, it's for the
same reason as long as Oklahoma City exists.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Ain't nobody coming out of the Western Conference.

Speaker 6 (02:04):
Yeah, for those of you that are unfamiliar with my
thoughts on things like that, if you say, yeah, he's
he's under consideration for the cy Young Award. Uh, he
got a lot of traction. I think he's okays in
the running. He's somebody that you you got to consider
among the candidates. Well, if somebody else gets all thirty
of the votes, you're not a candidate, you're not in
the running. That's like Oklahoma City, right, Like, are the

(02:27):
Rockets gonna win the championship. No, are the thunder or yes, okay,
end of story. They're gonna win the West. I think
everybody thinks they're such an overwhelming favorite the other seven
through two games.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yes, they're playing Memphis.

Speaker 6 (02:38):
I absolutely think that is more relevant than I thought
maybe a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Their opponent, yes, oh okay, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:46):
The top seven in the Western Conference are pretty good.
I don't really think Memphis belongs there, and it's not
because of what I've seen against Golden State. It's because
what I've seen from them for the last three weeks
with their new coach. Just a lot of things going on,
and we obviously just the one Western Conference game tonight
with the Rockets. You had a couple of Game two's
already taking place in the West with the two LA teams,

(03:07):
and we will see where things go with this particular
team as we get you ready for it. We will
have another later than usual Houston area tip off eight
thirty with a potential for a slide. We'll be with
you throughout seven thirty four rocket scountdown and then on
through tip off whenever that might take place. Of course,
we've got the game for you at tip off over

(03:29):
on News Radio seven forty KRH. We'll jump over to
Sports Talk seven ninety after the sweep is complete over
at dyke In Park, because we've got Astros baseball starting earlier,
and that'll be right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
We will get you ready for that with the Astros
on Deck Show five thirty, First Pitch, six forty. A
four to one home stand already in the books earlier

(03:52):
over the weekend after they won the opener of the
home stand against the San Diego Padres, and I said,
they need to win this. This needs to be a
winning homestand and we talked about it, yeah yesterday, A
win yesterday would ensure it's a winning home stand. Well,
it needs to be a five to one home stand.
You need to get to, oh my goodness, two games
over five hundred, Oh my goodness, a three game winning streak,

(04:13):
the first of its kind. Well, those will be facts.
If the Astros take care of the Blue Jays for
a third consecutive game. They have dominated them over the
last two seasons at Minute Made Park should be undefeated
against them, having allowed only one run in the five games.
If not for Josh had blowing the save early last

(04:34):
year and giving up a two run homer in the
top of the ninth inning, that would be the case. Nonetheless,
they've outscored the Blue Jays thirty one to three in
the last five games. They gave up two hits yesterday,
they gave up two hits the day before. The Blue
Jays have batted in eighteen innings against the Astros at
dyke In Park. They have four hits. They have scored

(04:55):
one time. So hopefully the Astros can continue piecing together,
getting it connected a little bit. We asked Jake Myers yesterday,
does it feel like it might be coming together? Played
great defense, got great pitching, got timely hitting. You had
another semi explosive inning, three runs in the first inning,
the same total they had in the first inning the

(05:17):
entire rest of the season combined. So again, thinking good
thoughts certainly seem reasonable with the Astros. And now we
are one day out from the Nick Cassario Show tomorrow
night in the NFL. He gets to wheel and deal,
move the Texans from twenty five to ten or thirteen
or fifteen or eighteen or stand pat. We'll have it

(05:39):
all for you right here. As soon as the a
team is complete. We'll bridge the gap between then and
the start of the draft at seven o'clock, Cole and
I will take you through the night. We could be
through the Texans pick at ten, or through the Texans
picck at twenty five, or even later she decided to
go in the other direction. But each of those three
things are sizeable topics for our program today.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Four fifteen will bump back.

Speaker 6 (06:02):
Our Texans will pick this player with the twenty fifth
pick in the draft. Because we'll talk draft at four
o'clock the draft wires, Jeff Risden will join us. Then
we will hear from Dana Brown, Astro's general manager. He
made his weekly visit to the show on Salisbury Show
this morning, so a little bit of that. Obviously, we'll
talk quite a bit about the Rockets. A couple of

(06:22):
voices involved in this series. You'll hear from them, including
Steph Curry. And we probably should go ahead and say
and answer the question not made for this show, but
not made for any show in particular, because I know
the semantics behind the question, but it's about math to
me when you ask, is tonight's Game two at home

(06:43):
for the Rockets a must win? Clearly it's not an
elimination game, So I understand the perspective of no, it's
not a must win. You have five opportunities after tonight
to beat them four times. Well, you had seven opportunities
to beat them four times times when the series began
a team that's basically your equal and split the season

(07:05):
series once Jimmy Butler arrived.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Well, then you lost game one.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
So now you have four opportunities or six opportunities to
beat them four times if you don't win this one.
Now you have five opportunities to beat them four times,
with three of those games not at Toyota Center. Yeah,
including three of the next four not at Toyota Center.
Once you get to that point, as you think about
the must win nature of winning a series, can you

(07:30):
go down two and win a series? You don't have
to ask too many different cities, but you can certainly
ask this one.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (07:36):
Can you fall behind two games to none at home
in a series and still win.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
Three games to one? As long as you have a
kiem Olaijuan in his prime? But here's the deal, Like,
I permission to make a little bit of a comparison
to something you said earlier in the second you can
approach the bench.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
I think sidebar.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
What was that cumulative score you said about Astros Blue Jays, Yeah,
thirty one to three. Yes, that's how I feel like
some people think this has been.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
Yeah, the Astros have shut out the Blue Jays three times.
They've put quite a few runs on the board. They
have been lopsided games for the most part. The two
to one win on their side. But you got a
ten oh victory, you got the seven oh victory this week.
Last night was five to one. You know, the Rockets. Again,
I don't want to do too much historically with the
Warriors over the years. Just do this season then. But
this season, when you even the game that was one

(08:28):
hundred and twenty seven to one to twenty one, well,
that one was an overtime game.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
You know.

Speaker 6 (08:32):
The Rockets ten point victory is almost you know, foolish
to look at it that way from how that game went.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
It's the only double digit victory until Sunday night, right.

Speaker 6 (08:40):
But it was a super close game. The Rockets held
Steph Curry to one three pointer in the first half,
a hail Mary. It led them to a one point
halftime lead. This game was tight until Jalen Green scored
ten points in three minutes in the fourth quarter to
turn a two possession game into a four possession or
five possession game, and they ultimately won by ten. Obviously,

(09:00):
the other games, as we've discussed many times, we're also close,
including the February game with Jimmy Butler. Those two games,
plus the game that was played on.

Speaker 8 (09:10):
Sunday History repeats this, wow, gam it Now, like, does
does somebody here think we can fast forward our way
through the show?

Speaker 6 (09:31):
I mean, I know you want to get to you
got us all the way back to Monday. I know
you're anxious to get the tip off. My gosh. Yeah,
and that's gonna do it for us on the tenth
Innic Show, Robert and Steve have it from here. We'll
see at Toyota Center. Oh my goodness. By the way,
you're coming tonight. I'll be there tonight. Hey, I'm part
of the team.

Speaker 5 (09:48):
No, I know, but like I like I My theory is,
as I do this on the air and don't tell you.

Speaker 6 (09:55):
Yes, three man crew, Okay, the rest of the way,
it's the Posty Man. Yeah, I mean it's traveling too.
That would be awesome. Share a hotel room, We've done
it before. The teams, the Rockets aren't the only ones.
Team teams have a tendency to you could say, bonus
some of their biggest, brightest contributors to the cause, whether

(10:18):
it's season ticket holders with them.

Speaker 5 (10:22):
Don't you people out there want to see me interact
with the locals in San Francisco. Don't you think that
could be good Internet content?

Speaker 6 (10:28):
Like you haven't been out there for Rockets Warriors postseason right.

Speaker 5 (10:31):
Into San Francisco one time, and it was in two
thousand and six, way before any of this history was made.

Speaker 6 (10:36):
Before Saturday's game, I'll trot out some of my old,
old photos and videos from my trips to Rockets Warriors
postseason basketball in the Old Arena, because obviously I've not
been there to the new Arena for the seasons they've tried.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
To class it up a little bit, going across the
bay and building a new building.

Speaker 6 (10:54):
I was perfectly fine with the location of the old Arena,
considering when I went there solo with a camera a
Channel two, I was on the other side of the
freeway in a definitely not a Matt Thomas caliber hotel,
and there may have been US star, maybe two stars
definitely not three, four or five. But it was right

(11:16):
next to In and Out well, and I must have
had it four times five times, I don't know, So
this is old.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
I don't do stuff like that anymore. Clearly, do you
know who? We went to WrestleMania in Vegas.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
We were picked up between a holiday inn and an
in and out Burger, right next to Allegiant Stadium.

Speaker 6 (11:35):
Yeah, where Allegiance Stadium is, which from the event hotel
this past weekend. This is the opposit's opposite end of
the strip and the other side of the strip little
bit of a right, but they're both based not only
the opposite end, they're basically the end each of those
two venues, the hotel and Allegiance. So that's when you
start seeing much more of the non strip size strip

(11:57):
centers that can fill up with whatever they want in there.
I mean, some of the best places to eat that
aren't the obvious five hundred diamond Michelin Star.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Restaurants in the hotels there.

Speaker 6 (12:08):
There are plenty of really good, relatively inexpensive, totally no
name local places to eat there.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
Some of you might not know this.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
There are perfectly normal people living in the suburbs everywhere
around Sin City.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
Also true.

Speaker 5 (12:23):
I mean just the most people that they have no
desire to even go to the show.

Speaker 6 (12:27):
Or maybe sometime in the future we can hop on
a Rockets postseason flight for broadcasting duties when they have
a team to play in Las Vegas.

Speaker 5 (12:35):
That's what I didn't get to yesterday. In fact, maybe
we'll do that here a little bit. But there's other
things to get into.

Speaker 6 (12:39):
On a Wednesday edition of the program mentioned we are
one day away from the Texans fixing their offensive line.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
How that's what's gonna That's what's gonna happen. We shall see,
all right. So yeah, a lot to get to Before
the end of this hour. You will hear from Astro's
manager Dana Brown. Chris Gordy's gonna hop in studio. Next hour,
We've got some NFL draft conversation. In the four o'clock hour,
we will have the Mock the latest Mock edition, uh

(13:07):
sung and told by Adam Wexlern Company. It's all coming up,
and yes, we will step aside technically a little bit
early for Astros on deck to get you ready for
an Astros sweep over there.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
You know what.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
The Toronto Blue Jays all of that coming up here
on a Wednesday edition of the show.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
The Eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
It is the eight team Sports Sox seven ninety, all right.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
So occasionally things will just come out of one of
our mouths during a segment, and it'll lead me to
want to expand upon that in the very next segment.
And in this case, it reminds me of something I
forgot to get to yesterday. So I've been back in
Houston for forty eight hours now, roughly a little bit less.
My skin has acclimated. I mean, it's so dry up there,

(14:01):
it's unbelievable. I'm not even that guy. Like it's just
like a woman talking about that twenty four to seven,
Like Teresa's saying, I can't wait to get hel and
put a mask on my face, Like that's typical. That's
a female thing to say.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Typically.

Speaker 6 (14:15):
I'm not like, Oh, I've got to like soak up
some humidity in Houston.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
I couldn't wait to get out of Houston because of
the weather.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
You know me, I'm not built for this place, even
though I've lived here all my life. But going up
to Vegas and coupled with seeing a documentary about the
last time WrestleMania was there, which was like a fifteen
thousand attendant attendants outdoor. It was like where Caesar's Palaces,

(14:44):
big huge building is now in the middle of the
two hotel towers or whatever.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
That's where this was.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
It was like a parking lot basically where fifteen thousand
people were there and then to go to where it's
it's sixty one thousand people now. And they talk about
the fact that at the time, which was nineteen ninety three,
you know, all of you guys remember that very well
that are listening totally.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
It especially the start of a championship season. Yeah, it
was for the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
They were down in Galveston, sweating and becoming champions. Yet
well of course you weren't. What is it ninety seven?

Speaker 4 (15:16):
Sure, we'll go with that, Okay, make me feel better
about myself. All right.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
Well, so, you know, like the point of it was
in that documentary they were talking about Vegas and like
they were trying to find their identity as a city,
not a sports city, not an entertainment city, just whatever,
just trying to find their identity. Fast forward to twenty
twenty five, They've got the Golden Knights, which I was
talking to some of the cab drivers multiple ones while

(15:40):
we were there, and they were talking about sports and
how the Raiders aren't really accepted there by and large
by the locals because they're just imported. And people are
already grumbling in the same way about the A's, Like
they're not there yet, they haven't even built the stadium
and they already hate them. Not they all hate them,
but you know what I mean. Like the Golden Knights

(16:01):
were home grown. Now it helps that they were like
in the Stanley Cup finals the first year they were there,
and then a few years later they win the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
They also have one of the best pregame interests in
the history. Oh yeah, no.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
We ate in a Golden Knights themed restaurant at the
airport before we left town.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
And it was good, like medieval Knights something like that.
I don't know what it was called Golden something or other.
The people Joustinger. I had an Italian toasted sub.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
Oh, Jim Carrey. There no no cuton, no, no, no, no,
nothing like that. It was a limited menu, I will say,
but it was good. So anyway, So yeah, like the
point of it all is in some of the cab drivers.
We were talking about this with like the NBA is
going to be there next time around Seattle and Vegas
are there. I would bet my mortgage on it that

(16:46):
those two cities get the next two NBA teams when
they inevitably expand, and I think they'll expand versus moving
a franchise, even though there's some franchises out there Memphis
that shouldn't exist anymore, or they should move to another city.
But I think Seattle ANDAs definitely get a team. They're
getting the baseball team, they've got the football team.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
Like they are.

Speaker 6 (17:08):
They're a major sports city, and you never would think
that they weren't ever major sports city even though they
didn't have the teams, because Vegas always went together, just
not in the sense that the leagues were part of it,
and now they are.

Speaker 5 (17:24):
But like you could because of what you're talking about,
like the fact that there are actual betting facilities in
sports facilities across the country now where it's legal. Yep,
Vegas could have never gotten any of these teams and
still been what you're talking about, but the fact that
they have them, and like there was a time where

(17:45):
exactly what we're talking about was the reason why owners
frowned upon even looking at Vegas as a place to
put their team, Well, we can't. It's just gonna the
gambling aspect and oh my gosh, there's gonna be people
throwing games all the time.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
Nobody even thinks about that now, not even close.

Speaker 9 (18:00):
Also, were really smart by going with the smallest market
in terms of sports and watching it hit with the NHL.
So the second that that started to grow, everyone got
on board, saying, this is an actual sports town.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
The others will work.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
They were also first, Like they've got there first. It's
a big deal to be the first one. Like the
is Nashville a great sports town? Well, the Oilers moved
to Tennessee, the Predators are now there. There's thought that
major League Baseball will then be there. Now are they
going to be able to support all three? I think
we've always looked at Portland in a similar way. Well,

(18:33):
they clearly supported their soccer team long after the Blazers
have been in town Salt Lake City. But is there
room for a Major League Baseball team in the Portland
area from a financial support or from a fan support
city you just mentioned, but I tend to agree pretty
simple from an NBA standpoint, I think those are two
of the most prime possible locations in Vegas.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
I mean, how I don't even know what the population
is there.

Speaker 6 (18:59):
Are you including Henderson and the other surrounders? Okay, let's
do that because they would certainly be among your fan base.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
Like many times, Saint Paul, Dallas fort Worth, which is
dumb because they're like an hour apart.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
They include that. It's such a cheat.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
The Dallas Cowboys are fort Worth's team, The Dallas Mavericks
are Fort Worth's team. The Rangers are fort Worth team.
I mean, that's reasonable, and they don't play in Fort
Worth or Dallas. But it's not so well. They also
it's the DFW is a real thing, and the Metroplex
is a thing. It's a little different than others. It's
like Minneapolis Saint Paul from a recognition and perception standpoint.

Speaker 9 (19:32):
So according to the last Census Bureau taken in twenty
twenty three, six hundred and sixty nine pounds.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
I was going to guess five hundred thousand. But what's
crazy about it? We haven't counted since twenty twenty three
how many people are there now we're almost halfway through
twenty twenty.

Speaker 5 (19:49):
Now, Okay, so staying at the hotel that we both
stayed at separate times. When you're up there, you can
see just you can see everything. You realize how small
Vegas actually is. Well, you can see all the suburbs.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
All the people for your purposes are all in one place. Yeah,
but you can look beyond that place, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (20:08):
When you're up on a fifty ninth floor and these
aren't residents, They're plopped in the middle of the desert, right,
but they know how they get stuff there. And you're
right there on the strip and it's one massive occupancy
hotel after the other. The number of people you jam
into this relatively small area of land is out of control.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Right, and they're all walking ever New York esque exactly.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
That's it in Yes, And the good news is as
I put a bow on this very important sports segment
here for Houston, Texas.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
Yeah, segment two. Well, there are there are ties.

Speaker 6 (20:39):
Obviously, the biggest one is the A's because they're in
the Astro's division.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
Like the Astros will go to Vegas in four years.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
Yeah, but like that's awesome for us if they don't
realign for some reason, which I still think they should.

Speaker 6 (20:49):
I believe Oakland, Sacramento, and Vegas are all considered West
Coast baseball products. Yeah, but like that's gonna be awesome
going to Astros games in Vegas. It definitely will be
a destination for It's a new location first of all,
but it's a destination location. Absolutely. I don't know that
fans are still looking. Well, I got I got it.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
I mean if you compare it to the each of
the opportunities.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
Other than the NBA, because nobody cares about who's in
your division, and a trip to San Antonio doesn't fit
in this conversation, but trips to Jacksonville, Indy and whatever.
The third city is Nashville, nobody really yipee right, certainly
other direct first time, maybe it was neat, but Seattle
kind of always feels like that's a great place to
go visit and you might be able to mix it

(21:31):
a few other stops up in the north. Now you
will have Vegas as compared to Oakland, which was less
desirable for the NFL too. And then you get to
an AFC team just drive up the road to go
see the Arlington Rangers, and then you have one of
the biggest cities in America, Los Angeles.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
Why would you do that, though, when you could just
go to their ballpark right here in Houston that they copied.

Speaker 6 (21:51):
Well, they might not be playing that day, okay, but yeah,
an AFC team, you're more likely to go there to
see because the Texans playing there and NBA team when
they get one is no doubt going to be in
the Western Conference.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
That's a trip there multiple times a year. Probably. That's
awesome compared to the stupid cities you mentioned. All of
them are stupid every year, three, especially Jacksonville.

Speaker 6 (22:14):
Take you to those three places a great disagree on
and won the cities what you like? Nashville?

Speaker 4 (22:19):
No, I do too.

Speaker 5 (22:20):
I always make that as an exception, not just because
my sister lives there, but because I've been there several
times before she even moved there.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
I do like Nashville.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
They just happened to host And how's the team that
I hate the most in the division.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
That's very fair, very fair assessment.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
So, but Indianapolis and Jacksonville, if I never go there,
it's like Paris.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
I have no desire to go to Paris.

Speaker 6 (22:38):
Ever, That's why everybody says Paris Jacksonville like the same place.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
It's the same place to me because I never want
to go there, have no desire.

Speaker 6 (22:48):
Everywhere you don't want to go is the same as
absolutely relate to that.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Paris, all the places I don't
want to go see a supporting event. All right, enough
of that, we will get to the the X like
we do every single time of day. This time of day,
I should say each and every weekday. That is straight
ahead here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (23:14):
Did you just see this?

Speaker 10 (23:15):
We should be putting out between five and fifte posts
a day.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
Four hundred people were arrested for the things of day seven.

Speaker 8 (23:21):
On social media, history repeats itself type bang.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
You'll succeed.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Never doubt that you're the one to ples.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
We go one, build the lead. You're the best of X.

Speaker 10 (23:34):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of
X posting every single day and you're the best of
X breaking.

Speaker 6 (23:45):
The entire internet agent every weekday afternoon unless we schedule
something else at two thirty, we hit you with best
of X. And it's really just a playoff of social
media as you heard from the well written and sung song.
Anything you might find on social media is fair game
and usually provides us with entertainment. We want to entertain

(24:07):
you with such today we will go to the X
platform to find a couple of items. Here we are heavy, heavy,
heavy into what Texans general manager Nick Cassario passionately refers
to as silly season rumor. Mills are flying at an
all time speed. This team is making that call, and
they're gonna move up for this. And they've invited this

(24:29):
quarterback in for a workout, so they must be looking
at him with the number three pick. And then they
invited three other quarterbacks in for a workout, so they
must not be. There are a lot of NFL reporters
that want to get as much as they can from
all of their team sources, agent sources, player sources, et cetera,
and you know, try to be at the front of
the line, and with teams also welcoming their players back

(24:52):
for phase one of the offseason program, the Texans and
everybody else among them, the Niners among them. A report
and write up on the athletic today from at DM Rassini.
That's Diana Rossini. Brock Perty's parents at forty nine ers
Ota is a positive sign, as as extension talks continued
between San Fran and it's quarterback George Kittle's absence is

(25:13):
also contract related, sources say, and the two sides remain
far apart, and an excerpt from the article says Kittle
wants to become the NFL's highest paid tight end Comma
per source.

Speaker 5 (25:25):
Also in attendance at WrestleMania both nights, George Kittle.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
Well, he was luckily enough for him. He's recovered enough
from WrestleMania to hit the X platform himself. You're familiar
with readers have added context in the X platform now it's.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
A new feature by my friend Elon.

Speaker 6 (25:43):
So underneath her post, it says readers added context they
thought people might want to know, and it attaches a
post that was made by a reader, and then right
below that you can see the actual reply from the
reader of this post. It's at g Kittle forty six.
He's got a blue check mark. His first name is

(26:05):
George and his last name is Kittle. And he responds
with four words, your source is incorrect, fake news.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
I love that this keeps happening.

Speaker 6 (26:15):
He was asked immediately after that by a Colt Tootles
forty five source question Mark, and he said me exclamation point, well.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
What yeah, exactly, that's what you have to do.

Speaker 6 (26:29):
With John said, she needs to understand your absence is excused.
You're allowed to be hungover and need to recover from
WrestleMania weekend.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
See as you said.

Speaker 6 (26:38):
Yeah, he was a picture of Miami Dolphin's head coach
Mike McDaniel.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Sneering.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
Snickering was also added in the comments come to Miami.
I you know, was he that visible that I'm seeing
four or five six comments about hey man, he was
just at WrestleMania this weekend.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Yes, because they put him on the big screen both nights,
during the broadcast and in the stadium, which I think
is the same thing.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
But you know, I don't know, because you're maybe not.

Speaker 6 (27:05):
It's just what we're talking about you. By the way,
there's some other good I won't read them. First night,
by the way. Oh so they put him on the
big screen and he went Taylor lawn On, I went up.
Jeff Blum has done that. I believe our favorite unemployed
superstar soon to be Hall of Fame quarterback has also
done that.

Speaker 4 (27:22):
I think it was at a Bucks game. Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 6 (27:24):
Well, I knew you weren't talking about Deshaun Watson, even
though soon to be unemployed. Well he's now this person
is currently unemployed Aaron Rodgers. Deshaun Watson is currently employed
VERA at the facility in his walking boot following an
additional surgery on his ailment. But yeah, it's it's always
good when the source can recognize a story and maybe

(27:45):
spinet he could be lying.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
I doubt it, but.

Speaker 6 (27:48):
He also isn't there, so the speculation would come and
then a report. I'm sure it's still from a reputable source.
It just in this case wasn't correct. I figured there
would be a bunch of excellence in the comments. I
was a little disappointed that, you know, astros Twitter didn't
jump on board and just go berserk with this. But

(28:09):
I was aware that a couple of very key offensive
players for the Texas Rangers were off to very very
slow starts. Jake Berger homered yesterday and has had a
very tough time getting going offensively. Marcus Simeon is having
a start to his season significantly worse, although he did
also homer yesterday. Then Christian Walker's basically at yannardy as levels.

(28:33):
This is somebody they spent a boatload of money on
and was part of the team that won the World Series.
I knew those two key performers were performing poorly, and
I was under the impression, based on not hearing anything
about him, that Jack Peterson, mister run your mouth, was
also underperforming. I didn't quite realize to the extent that

(28:54):
it was until I saw at Rangers Nation take to
the X platform. Peterson has set a Texas Rangers record
by going hitless in his last forty one at bats.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
I love it. I love that for him and for them. Oh,
this makes me so happy.

Speaker 6 (29:10):
So there were a few of the astros out there
that remembered Jock from the day he signed his deal.
Do you remember Jack from the day he signed his
deal with the Rangers?

Speaker 8 (29:23):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (29:23):
I remember.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
But I think we should refresh the memories of the listeners.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
I mean, we could if we had the audio, but
I don't know where it is.

Speaker 7 (29:30):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
I thought it was in there still.

Speaker 6 (29:31):
It probably is, but that takes you know, planning and
recognition and acquisition and preparation.

Speaker 5 (29:38):
I thought, if you just searched Jack Peterson's name, it
would come up in rcs since we have such a.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah, and that's what's been done to no success. If
it was not coming up, it ain't there obviously. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (29:49):
Sometimes you send audio into to get played and encourage
the players to put it in the system for future use,
and sometimes it doesn't happen.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
It could be me. I don't be audio. SI, I
don't think it was you. I just have a hunch and.

Speaker 6 (30:04):
Just we need this real fast. Just fire up, play
right off. X. You don't have to put in this.
It happens all the time.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, I know, I know, he said.

Speaker 6 (30:10):
They he insinuated that it was a nice little run,
is what he said. He went, he went herb Brooks
on him. Their time is over. It's our time. They
had a nice little run. But now the division goes
through us. They're in first place. Yeah, by the way,
Yeah barely. He however, is not contributing.

Speaker 5 (30:32):
No, And I listen, I actually, if we're being honest,
I am a little surprised at that, because like it
or not, everywhere he's gone it feels like, at least
early in the tenure, for sure he's done just that,
but not the case here.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
But it's still I mean it's April twenty third.

Speaker 6 (30:51):
Yeah, he's played the Astros a couple times in the
World Series. The Astros are put together a nice little run,
and it's coming to an end. It's time for us
to take over the West. His comments when he was
flanked by the two most important people and putting the
roster together, and he made them both laugh and chuckle
at the Hey, I know he won the World Series
and all, but come on, manky.

Speaker 9 (31:08):
See you said it was April twenty third today, right, Yeah,
I think so. So that's just only two more months
until he's dfa'd and playing in Mexico.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
You're putting him in Mexico.

Speaker 9 (31:19):
Jack Peterson is my least liked player.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Well get that of the MLB, No, I get it.

Speaker 9 (31:25):
Send him to Siberia and be very happy sleeping that night.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
You know, it's funny. I'm looking at the Al West
right now. Texas Rangers, as wex mentioned, firmly in first
place with a whole ass two game lead, and then
the Mariners and Astros with identical records right behind them,
the Angels and the Athletics.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Just like it was written.

Speaker 5 (31:50):
It'll be a matter of time at this point if
the Astros keep playing like this, or if they keep
playing the Blue Jays, or a combination of both, that
they'll be right Worthy wanted to be.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (32:00):
Surprisingly enough, the Rangers pitching is why they've won. Their
pitching has been incredible, comparable to what the Astros have done,
if not in certain areas a little bit better. Tyler
Mayley has been insanely successful. Their bullpen has been a
lot more successful. And I thought they might be with
the exit of Tyler Yeats and then he gifted them
a Hey.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
A do lis Onhyn't you had to walk off? Homer
off me. Well, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 5 (32:23):
The Astros are obviously off tomorrow, because they're off every
Thursday for the rest of time, or at least through
the end of May.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
I believe their next Thursday game is the fifteenth.

Speaker 5 (32:31):
Yeah, so of May. So because we're already past fifteenth
of April. That's the main reason they're going to go
to Kansas City. And Kansas City is off to a
little bit of an uneven start. But Kansas City, as
I recall last year, had its way with the Astros.
Yeah pretty and Kansas City was still you know, looked
at as a lurking, not power maybe, but they're definitely

(32:53):
on the up and that'll tell me a lot about
where actually both of these teams are. I know it's
still early, but given where the Astros have kind of
turned themselves around and they are finally over five hundred,
and then the Royals are not probably having the start
that a lot of people expected. That'll be a very
interesting series this weekend in Kansas City, by the way,

(33:15):
it's on the road.

Speaker 6 (33:16):
Yes, they snuck one past the Astros in the first
game at Kansas City two years ago when Wander Suerro
came in and threw up pitch in extra innings, So
that was the last pitch of the game.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
I remember that.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
And then Spencer had his seven run inning and the
next day Hunter Brown had his nine run inning. They
did not come back to win either of those two games. Yeah,
they are lucky that they got early Hunter Brown. Yeah,
they will see him if the probables hold in the
finale of that series coming up.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
In that Astros win because that's what they do when
he pitches.

Speaker 6 (33:43):
We'll talk a little bit more about that ball club
when we come back. Dana Brown is weekly visit to
the Seawan Salisbury Show came earlier this morning, so we'll
hear a little bit from Astros general manager Dana Brown
and the quality of their pitching when we come.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Back the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (34:06):
Not surprisingly, before we get to our Dana Brown audio,
Felipe sent along a link to the audio. Do you
know who put that audio up of Jack Peterson that
we were talking about.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
Well, I'll answer that question for you. It was John Boy.

Speaker 5 (34:20):
And the best part is when you start reading the comments,
go own those cheaters, champ things of that nature that
look even dumber in hindsight now that he's playing like
absolute crap.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
Just wanted to put that out there, John Boy sucks.

Speaker 6 (34:33):
Among the topics not discussed this morning on the Sean
Salisbury Show, and Dana Brown, the Astros general manager, joined
them was the progress of what was a free agent
option for the Astros and everybody else, the progress of
Jack Peterson.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
They did not have time this morning to get to that.

Speaker 6 (34:47):
What they did have time to get to was the
astros tremendous pitching. That's where Dana Brown's conversation with Sean begins.

Speaker 7 (34:55):
Yeah, I'm really.

Speaker 11 (34:56):
Excited about the way our staff has been pitching. You know,
we're off to really good start. You know, the bats
started off cold, but they're starting to heat up right now,
and so you know, the pitching has been you know,
carrying us early on this season, off to a much
better start. You know, twelve and one one over two
games back. You know, four of our last five in

(35:18):
his homestand and of course you know five of our
last seven. So we've been playing some pretty good baseball.
You know, the club is starting to heat up, and
once those bats get to the point where they heat up,
we'll be on all cylinders. And it's really good to
see that the pitching has been doing.

Speaker 12 (35:32):
Well, sure have, and it is great to see Dana.
And this may be a question that I may be
reaching a little bit here, but a little bit of
old school, which you got that in you. But you know,
time's changing. You got to adapt to it. Just but
it feels like are we making a switch in baseball
or is it just ironic that if a guy's going
good and we're on the bubble of okay, he's in

(35:52):
the fifth inning, he can give me fifteen more pitches.
We're starting to see it gett into the sixth inning.
It's no longer okay to get to the fifth. Is
there a concentrated effort to push him more or is
it just basically again how they're rolling and where they
are in that game.

Speaker 11 (36:07):
Yeah, I think how they're rolling. You know, you look
at the stress of certain innings, and if you've got
a guy that's had two stressful innings, say the fourth
and fifth, and you know, you may decide to go
to the pen at that point. But if the guy's
cruising along a little bit, his pitch counts down, you know,
you'll you'll extend him.

Speaker 7 (36:25):
Out a little bit.

Speaker 11 (36:26):
And I think, you know, Blanco was an example of
that yesterday. You know, he was cruising along, he wasn't
giving up many hits, and you know, we got six
and two thirds out of him, which was really exciting
to see. And you know, he was off to a
little bit of a slow start, but he's turning the corner,
you know. And he's been really good of.

Speaker 12 (36:43):
Late the bullpen too, Dana. It's it's been pretty damn good.
And you know, with the versatility, and we'll get to
Forrest Whitley in a second, but I do want to
get the hater, you know, had his ups and downs,
but saved a ton of games. And you know that's
why you traded for him and went and got here,
signed him and took care of getting him here. Should
I say? But Dana, there was questions, Okay, is he

(37:05):
worth the ninety plus million? Would you make that deal
all over again? Because he is rolling right now and
hasn't blown a save yet. Looks like the elite closer
that you went out and got.

Speaker 11 (37:15):
Yeah, he's off to a really good start. You know,
last year, unfortunately we got off to a slow start.
We were asking him to pitch, you know, multiple innings,
and you know, it compounded things, and so you know,
this year we're off to a little bit better start.
You know, he's pretty much in the groove right now,
and you know, let's uh, you know, he's gonna you know,

(37:35):
continue to throw well. And I like the way he's
you know.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
Been pitching.

Speaker 11 (37:38):
He's been he's been really really good and he's showing us,
you know, what he's capable of doing. And so the
bullpen itself has been really good. You know, shout out
to our group that brought in some of those guys
that are throwing well right now, you know, and that's
been really good. Like Oakert, the acquisition of Oakworth, you
know that that's been pretty good. He's been good for us.

(38:00):
So it's been exciting to see the pin so well.
And you know, like I said once, it was bat
fat up, we'll be on all cylinders and hope we'll
run off of you know, a group of wins seven,
seven in a row, five in a row, ten in
a row, whatever it is.

Speaker 12 (38:13):
Dana, are you as giddy about the bullpen as you
are about the way the starting pitching is going for
you right now?

Speaker 4 (38:19):
Similar feeling.

Speaker 11 (38:20):
Yeah, I'm excited about both. You know, at the end
of the day, you know, you lose a guy like
Arraghetty and then you get a you know, guy like
Gusto who steps in and does a pretty good job.
That's always exciting. And so I'm really excited about the
way our arms have been throwing the ball. You know,
our starters have been really good, our bullpen's been really good,

(38:41):
and you know, pitching, pitching, Pitching is.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
The name of the game.

Speaker 11 (38:44):
And you know, when you when you guys are throwing well,
you got a chance to run off some wins. And
so it's been.

Speaker 12 (38:48):
Exciting to watch Spencer Araghetty. Where are we at with him?

Speaker 11 (38:52):
Yeah, so Araghetty spoke to him at Lynz yesterday. He
actually feels pretty good. You know, we think it'd probably
be about four more weeks or so, know before he
can get out there on the mound. And so, but
he's he's chilling nicely. Freak accident as I said before,
but he feels confident and he feels pretty good, to
be honest.

Speaker 12 (39:11):
And now, how about Garcia? Any updates? Throwing the ball
around a little bit. What do we hear and see
about him?

Speaker 11 (39:17):
Yeah, Garcia's doing some tauson. You know, I was looking
forward to him at some point, you know, getting back
on the mound. But you know, as you mentioned, you know,
think about if you know this the way we're throwing now,
you get Garcia back, you get my colors back, you
get arra Getty back now. And that's the makings of
that's like the makings of a powerhouse, you know.

Speaker 7 (39:38):
You know type pitching staff.

Speaker 11 (39:39):
And so you know, Garcia at some point will get
off of mound and you know, we'll have more updates
that once he starts to get off the mound. But
at least he's uh, you know, playing catch and developing.

Speaker 6 (39:52):
Nice powerhouse Astro's coming to a stadium near you. He's right,
if all those players come back and pitch well, then yes,
they certainly would have a surplus of arms.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
The more you can have, the better you always need them.

Speaker 6 (40:06):
It didn't take long to see that come to pass,
really really nice start for the first time this year
from Renel Blanco and last night's game, allowing just the
solo homer and one other hit as the second consecutive
two hitter was tossed by the Astros' pitching staff. That
looked a lot more like the guy who was hard
to square up, hard to make good contact off of,

(40:29):
didn't allow a lot of hits in twenty twenty four.
This is the first time he looked like that. Nearly
completed seven innings when six and two thirds you needed
one pitch for Brian Kane to get you to the
final six outs. Bray you and Hater without any drama.
We're able to take care of their two non save
situation innings and they've got a chance to go out
and sweep this team. Get to thirteen and eleven, you know,

(40:50):
start to think about, okay, now, if we do put
something together now, Dana Is He's never shot away from
what he just said there.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
He said it every year he's here.

Speaker 6 (40:58):
You know, once you kind of get going, you string
together a bunch of wins, a seven game winning streak,
you went eleven out of twelve, and like it's it's
a commonplace. It's normal to do that. It has been
normal to do that as general manager of the Astros
for each of the last three It's just not normal
for everybody in baseball to go about it and think
like that. But I'm glad that he does, and they
certainly should be capable of doing that. Need a lot

(41:19):
more consistency from the offense. Twelve runs in the last
two games a nice place to start, but you need
probably a little bit of the luck they also got
in last night's game an hour in still an hour
and then another hour and then Astros on deck. We
got Chris Gordy, Jeffrisdon, Tom Tolbert all set to join
the show over the next two and a half hours.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
The A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking
your team, We're so very.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A teams.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
A What's Up Houston?

Speaker 5 (42:01):
The three o'clock Our is underway here on Sports Talk
seven to ninety and now Space City Home Network. It
is the A team wex Ac and Cole Thompson with
you on a Wednesday afternoon, Astros looking for the sweep
tonight against Toronto, the Blue Jays still in town, still winless,
barely scoring in this series. Seven to nothing was the

(42:24):
score via the Astros in that opener, and then of
course last night, a five to one victory, Chris Bassett
coming in with all the accolades you could ever want.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
Okay, I'm just kidding. I'm playing that up a little bit,
but he was.

Speaker 5 (42:36):
Having a decent season and the Astros pounced on him
early and it was pretty much never in doubt.

Speaker 6 (42:41):
Last night, well, the other team only scored once, you
scored three in the first hit. You're right, it was
never in doubt. They definitely caught a break in the
first inning. I honestly think Christian Walker was gonna hit
into a double play. I thought him then this was
gonna make the pick flip it and they would fire
it and that would be that. But it hit the
bag and it bounded away from him. And that allowed

(43:02):
the Astros to score and keep the inning going. Rogers
collected a sack fly and so instead of being one
nothing and disappointed, was three nothing. And you're starting pitchers
now maybe in a little bit different frame of mind. Also,
it looked like Renel Bronco was in a different frame
of mind when he started the game, retired the first
eight batters before the nine hole hitter hit.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
The home run was the only run against him.

Speaker 6 (43:24):
But they took care of business, did play a little
bit of add on and didn't put any additional stretch
on a pitching staff that now has really kind of
settled in with the bullpen usage, the.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
Arms that they have out there.

Speaker 6 (43:37):
I mean, I'm not it's no attempt to look at
who has been given the ball out of the bullpen
at times this year, but when they weren't a hundred
percent healthy getting out of spring training, they basically were
forced to use a couple of arms that they would
otherwise not have. Both of them pitched yesterday for the
Space Cowboys, which is where I think they should be
and hopefully are. And it's nothing against Contreres, thing against

(44:00):
Nick Hernandez, who didn't even pitch here when he got
called up, but they have better personnel, they just weren't healthy.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
Force Whitley is now thrown.

Speaker 6 (44:08):
His two innings look phenomenal, Caleb ort is not far behind,
and what Dana Brown just talked about is their starting
staff might get a jolt when Lance mccullors makes his return.
He's probably lined up all things. Indicati's lined up for
his final rehab start this weekend with Corpus and then
potentially will they'll figure out what's the best way to
slot him back in. Is he slotted into pitch on

(44:31):
a day where maybe Ryan Gusto is throwing and the
timing might not look like it matches up since that's
who's throwing today for the Astros. But maybe you're looking
to not go six man rotation. Maybe you're looking to
fill up the nine innings with just those two starters.
I mean, mccullor's actually kind of did that the other
day with aj Bluebaugh at sugar Land. He had Forced

(44:53):
Whitley throwing one inning the fifth and the other two starters, well,
they got the first four in the last four and
we'll see how eventually plays out. All that being said,
and all this great pitching that they continue to get
they're still not going to go anywhere if the offense
completely comes around. It's awesome that they've had a four
run inning, a three run inning, a twelve runs over
two days output, but their offense still isn't clicking. They're

(45:17):
still not putting together the extra base hits that are
necessary to really score runs the way that I still
think this team is capable of. You still seem like
you're getting to that middle of the order, and yesterday
you had five RBIs from five different.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
People through the middle part of your order.

Speaker 6 (45:31):
And today's also just day two of what's probably going
to be another one hundred and thirty lineups that look
like this. Jordan Alvarez is probably going to continue as
the number two hitter. He's the two hole hitter again today.
I don't think there's any reason for Joe Spotted to
reverse that decision. I was totally on board with him
batting third, and I like the reasoning behind it because

(45:51):
of the type of hitter pereticis in front of him.
But I also understand the simplistic reasoning behind Well, if
he's our best hitter, we wanted to bat his offense
as possible and batting him second will give you a
few more opportunities to see him hit, and maybe there's
a few more opportunities where he's lurking a little bit
more often, And so that's on the minds of the
pitching staff. Out of the opposing pitching staff, Altuve, Alvarez, Perettis,

(46:16):
Pana Walker, Diaz, Zach Decenzo's thumb good enough to have
him in the lineup and thus affords them the opportunity
to get Cam Smith a day off in in front
of a day off. So Decenzo starts and write Mauricio
Dubon will try to not cover first base tonight he's
playing second, and Chas McCormick gets Jake Myers.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
A day off before the team day off. He starts in.

Speaker 5 (46:38):
Center a little bit later after that thing gets underway, obviously,
Game two between the Rockets and the Warriors tonight over
at Toyota Center. Rockets looking to not head out to
the Bay Area down two. I've all but guaranteed a
victory in tonight's game, which Wex has left it up
to you guys to determine if it's a must win.

(46:58):
For different reasons. Now, the semantics that Ross argues about
on the Matt Thomas Show. When it comes to this,
I get it. I mean we love semantics here on
the A team.

Speaker 6 (47:08):
Well, sometimes you treat the non mathematically inclined must wins.
And this is not math related. There's more games in
the series, no matter what happens tonight, so it's easy
to not call it a must win. But the idea
that you know this series is also because you've called
it a must win. If you're calling it a must win, okay,
now they're good to go, it's so far from the truth.
Winning tonight's game, does that prevent you from coming back

(47:30):
to Houston down three to one in any way?

Speaker 4 (47:32):
No, And here's the thing.

Speaker 5 (47:35):
The Rockets, probably outside of Alpera and Shingoon did not
play a very good game. Well, they didn't play a
very good game offensively.

Speaker 6 (47:42):
And you know me, I like to, you know, see
at all sides of it. I could do without the
poor decisions and five turnovers of Alpern shing Gun. I
can't win. They can't win without as eleven baskets.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
I get that.

Speaker 5 (47:55):
Well, everybody was trying the ball over, but didn't help
the cause when he was doing it. Even if he
was good offense. But emy Udoka said the most pointed
thing about this, like, you should be able to win
most basketball games in today's NBA in which you hold
the opponent to ninety five. Yep, in the regular season. Well,
I would think in the postseason that's still the case.

(48:17):
In today's NBA, the ninety five is nothing.

Speaker 6 (48:20):
Well, the other team since Butler arrived best defense in
the NBA, that's Golden State.

Speaker 4 (48:26):
Now they held you to eighty five and they won.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
Yeah, well, I would submit the Rockets defense like light
years ahead of me ever submitting their offense until they
added Kevin Durant or somebody like that. Where you know,
and this includes outpri in Shingoon. You can go to
this person and they're gonna get you a bucket. They
don't have a guy like that right now, including Shingoon.

Speaker 6 (48:51):
Yes, it's proven to be a very poor offensive matchup
the Warriors defense. And this is prior to Jimmy's arrival.
They really understand how to orsh the Rockets into things
they don't want to do offensively, you know, playing in
traffic and playing in crowds. It's not a coincidence. It's
happened all six times they've played them this year. I mean,
the one game we point to where their offense really

(49:12):
got going was the game they fell behind by thirty
one points. They scored one hundred and twenty one points
after about eighty of them after they were down by
thirty one because their own defense, Tarry Easton was orchestrating
this mass hysteria of creating turnovers and getting runouts and
getting fast break points, which led to offensive flow, which
led to pushing the ball and pushing pace. And that's

(49:34):
an element of this series that I don't know if
we're ever going to see, but I hope.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
It comes as soon as tonight.

Speaker 6 (49:40):
If you rebound as well as they do, and this
is defensive rebounding, they have got to push the pace.
They have to get more opportunities before they're playing mucket
up half court basketball, which Trading State wants.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
Yeah, trying to get the ball into shingoon to post
up with seven seconds on the shot clock.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
That's not a recipe for success.

Speaker 6 (50:01):
That's a great way to say it, because I'm not
even necessarily saying you got to run. You just have
to push the pace a little bit. There's no reason
to walk it up every single time, there's no reason
to you know, get it within thirty feet of the
basket after the shot clock is at twelve.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
Well, for the first time, if you.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
Don't have an elite offensive player on your roster, which
they don't, then you have to do that because if
you don't, the mucket up Like that's a perfect way
to put it. Like you said, the Warriors want to
do that, and the Warriors had this success they did
against the Rockets this season. I'm just primarily so focused
on this year because so much has changed.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
Yeah, but like it's something really concerned with Andrew Boget's
illegal screens anymore. I'm not leaving Klay Thompson's gonna hit
seven threes in a row, no.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
And Jajah Paculia is not going to injure anybody by
stepping on.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
Their He's not walking through that door. No. Either is
Kawhi Leonard for that for that matter, in a Spurs uniform.

Speaker 5 (50:52):
But you've just just solely focused on That's why they
were able to get the victories they were.

Speaker 6 (50:58):
It wasn't because Steph Curry was going on off. It
wasn't because you know, they got a huge game from
Jimmy Butler in the game that they won. He did okay,
but it wasn't like he was like scoring fifty on them.
And that's why I would combine that with the Rockets defense,
their ability to defend, let's put it that way, because
you still have to do it in the postseason at home.

(51:21):
You should even up this series tonight.

Speaker 5 (51:23):
They're not all this like, there's not this gap between
the Warriors and the Rockets. We're oh my gosh, we're
just an uphill battle. They're just so much better.

Speaker 6 (51:31):
It's not like that now is it so much better
in the final four minutes though, And that's why I
think you might see a little bit different because I
totally agree there's not that much difference. That's the reason
why they keep playing all these close games. But if
the spread, if an extra wins and who has the losses,
it becomes even wider than it already is. Technically, it's
four to two over the six games they've played this year,
and it's one nothing in the only games that are important.

(51:53):
I mean a little bit of it as veterans. A
lot of it is these guys, at least two of
the five players that are going to be out there
They've been playing Steve curR basketball forever. They've been playing
Steph Curry basketball forever since twenty fifteen here at Toyota Center.
In the playoffs, I would expect their execution is probably
a little bit better. But the thing that's much better
is they don't just have one go to player, they

(52:16):
have two. If the balls in Jimmy Butler's hands on
the final three or four possessions of the game, Golden
State would be awesome, This is great, this is just
what we wanted. Or if it's in Steph Curry's hands
in the final few possessions of the game, same thing,
And there's just really nobody on the other side. That's
what separates these two teams. And maybe we'll see that
in some of the other series. And it's not always
fool proof. I mean, just look at the Nuggets. They

(52:38):
basically had the ball in Jokic and Murray's hands the
entire end of their last game, and they blew it,
most notably Jokic blew it. Just a myriad of mistakes
down the stretch. It's not a given and it's not
a guarantee that those guys make it happen. I do
think the Rockets group needs to see it happen. Getting
that first win is again, mathematically it's kind of important,
can't win the series, but I do think there's a

(53:00):
mental aspect of getting that first win in this series.
Slide back to a little Baseball Talk and we'll talk
about the fans in another city in Major League Baseball.
Doesn't sound like a good situation, but that's okay. We're
here for you on the A team.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
The Aight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (53:25):
So when you start thinking about the different sports leagues
and how they bring their product to their fans, because
that's what it's all about, right. You can't expect to
have loyal fans to your product unless they can see
said product.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
In an efficient and in some.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Cases affordable way, right Like, and that's the criticism that
we launch at different places, Like the NFL's got it made.
But the NFL's just it's it's almost like its own category.
It's so far above everything else because it's baked into
the product that ever everybody in this country loves it,
so they're going to find a way. But on the

(54:04):
flip side of that, wex I don't think the NFL,
even though it's on multiple platforms, some of them are streaming. Now,
would you agree it's probably the easiest to consume, not
just because of the relative lack of games, Like the
schedule makes it a must see every week, but there's
not fifty different ways you have to try and seek

(54:24):
it out.

Speaker 6 (54:25):
The National Football League, Yeah, I mean it's getting that
way now. Sunday over the air. Yeah, Monday still over
the air, I guess Cable, Well, but that's streaming, is
it not not? You can I believe that. I believe
the NFL allows them to also stream that game.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
Amazon's the streaming only on Thursday, right every week of
the year, most of the weeks of the year.

Speaker 6 (54:48):
Then you have the specialty games with Netflix now coming
aboard with even more football that's now also only streaming.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
But yeah, the general Sunday over the air, where in
the past it wasn't necessarily Monday Day was over the air,
but Sunday Night was on ESPN once upon a time.

Speaker 6 (55:03):
Right now it's NBC, so it isn't. But that pills
in comparison to the NBA, which is getting further diluted, right,
but they can charge more on their advertising. And then,
like you said, there's far fewer games. It's it's a
money maker, yeah, huge, and obviously major League Baseball, Like,
how many times do you hear a fan of the

(55:24):
Astros say, Hey, I can't watch the games because of
this blackout situation. Fire up the iHeartRadio app, make Sports
Talk seven to ninety number one on your presets and
listen to us.

Speaker 5 (55:35):
Okay, so a lot of people are cut a cord cutting,
that's no secret. It's been happening for a long long time.
And the Orioles are one of those teams that they
are giving their fans the option to subscribe to a
streaming service that allows them to watch said games without cable.
They recently, the Orioles unveiled a platform that's supposed to

(55:56):
cost eighty nine to ninety ninety year. But it's a
problem because so if you wanted to, you could get
the subscription for nineteen ninety nine a month or you
do the eighty nine ninety nine a year, And it
makes more sense to go with the annual option if
you plan on watching most of the games, because it's
going to pay for itself after the fifth month, as
opposed to doing on a monthly basis. However, if you

(56:19):
move a decimal point and you're trying to charge a
team eighty nine ninety nine, you could accidentally charge them
nearly nine grand.

Speaker 6 (56:27):
Yeah, you move the decimal point twice, you go from
eighty nine to ninety nine to eight hundred and ninety
nine to ninety to eight thousand, nine hundred and ninety
nine dollars and zero cents. That's the figure that some
were charged.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
That is now, if you're going back to the original point.

Speaker 6 (56:44):
I'm a huge, huge fan of the American League team
with the absolute worst er at five forty eight.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
I've got to have my Orioles fix. How much did
you say? Sign me up?

Speaker 6 (56:57):
Nine K, nine thousand, big ones, by the way, you
can have it.

Speaker 5 (57:01):
I love my birds, gimme the O's. When do we
ask the question? Is their windows shut?

Speaker 4 (57:07):
Now? I know it's not.

Speaker 6 (57:09):
Well, it sometimes plays out the way you think, and
in this case, for a month of the season it has.
And I can't believe what the Orioles let happen to
their pitching staff with all that offense and young talent
they have. And I cannot believe what they did with
their pitching staff, with all that offensive talent and youth
that they have, but they did, and they having a
hard time winning because they can't keep the other team

(57:30):
from scoring. So it's exciting eight nine and ninety nine
dollars of baseball that they're producing for everybody. By the way,
how Santan they are doing. He's here in town this weekend.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
Ye oh, I didn't realize that.

Speaker 6 (57:43):
Yeah, I mean he and his team are playing the
team game. Oh, you're not gonna hit Weldon. I'm not
gonna hit either.

Speaker 4 (57:48):
Let's go. We can hang together. That their team wouldn't
hit it, He wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
He would not be worth the money that the Astros
and others were inevitably going to be asked to fork
over to have him in their life.

Speaker 6 (58:00):
He was very like, he's much much better player, much
much better career than Jack Peterson. But Jack Peterson had
a career year in like his fifteenth straight contract year.
He finally had one a good year where he had
a nine hundred ops and he got paid very good
money by the Rangers. Anthony Santandre has been an oriole
from the time he got in a Major League baseball

(58:21):
an Astros killer, so he was set for free agency.
Finally became a first time All star, had his first
season of more than thirty three homers hit forty four,
had his first one hundred RBI season.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
Forty of those came against the Astros.

Speaker 6 (58:36):
And if you're not counting his thirty seven game COVID season,
he had his first ops season of better than eight
hundred this year, it's five sixty nine worth every penny.

Speaker 4 (58:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (58:48):
By the way, ac the window for the Orioles probably
slightly more open than that Southwest team that we talked
about all.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
The time that just trade away the best player.

Speaker 9 (59:00):
Oh well, okay, but younger players that they just are
buying into that.

Speaker 4 (59:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
But like like we were calling them the baby Astros,
and it was pertinent because they had the former Astros
front office lieutenants of Jeff Luno running the team. They
still do have them running the team.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
But what did they.

Speaker 9 (59:16):
Do in Houston that they haven't done in Baltimore. They
haven't gone after that big time pitcher outside of the
one year of Corbyn Burns. Yeah, and you that young
talent they have in the farm system. But you know
what the other difference is. It's a big one and
it's very noticeable, is it that they play in the
Al East. No it's that Gunner Henderson is the only
Astro like young player that they have.

Speaker 6 (59:38):
The Astros had five of them. Jordan Kyle, they all hit,
Alex George Carlos, all of them came up, all of
them were Bollihood, Ballyhood, and all of them succeeded to
the extremely high degree correct Atlie Rutchman's a nice player.
Jackson Holliday might become a nice player. They have some
nice young prospects that are made leaguers. Currently, none of

(01:00:02):
them other than Gunner, have been great, and they currently
aren't even close to being called great.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07):
They're barely called good.

Speaker 6 (01:00:10):
That in addition to their poor pitching, their offense has
been very, very poor. Considering who these names are that
they have.

Speaker 9 (01:00:17):
I'll argue aadly, and then if you get me a
healthy Colton Cowser, I can at least make the conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
But I agree with you for the most part in
that sense.

Speaker 6 (01:00:24):
I mean, Kowser obviously is hurt right, and he had
I mean, honestly, I couldn't believe how little he was.
He was an everyday player last year to me, and
somehow the Orioles kind of treat him like he wasn't.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
Oh treating like he was a death peace don't.

Speaker 6 (01:00:39):
I couldn't figure that out. He was awesome last year.
He was on the verge of following Gunner Henderson, and
I still believe that he will. But you're just not
gonna get that this year. Maybe you get part of
the year with him, if there's time for him to
do that. But he was the next guy to do it.
Now that's worthwhile to note that's probably their second best,
could have been their second best offensive player. Shouldn't be,

(01:01:00):
but certainly could have been. The way he was playing
in the way nobody else is and he's not playing,
he's not out there.

Speaker 9 (01:01:05):
I'll argue he should be the third best, and he
was acting like the second best, which is a major
problem when it comes to the hitting of Adley Rushman.

Speaker 6 (01:01:11):
It continues every time these other teams do whatever it
is they do. What the Astros did is hard to do.
It's not just Jeff Luno made the right calls. The
players have to make the right things for themselves. They've
got to have the right development people in place, and
the players have to be the right people driven to succeed.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
Figuring out more ways to succeed.

Speaker 6 (01:01:33):
And these were all different guys because Bregman's at one
end of the spectrum of man, I didn't hit well
five minutes ago, I better change my swing, I better
shave my I'm gonna change it again. Yeah, and he
had time to do it because it's where he spent
all his time, working on a swing, working with his
hitting coach, grinding, grinding, grinding other players. I mean, I
don't not to portray in any way that they work

(01:01:54):
at some drastically different level on their craft, but I
really don't think Alex Bregman could walk out of bed
after a three week stint away and go out and
hit three hundred and slug five hundred. Jordan Can. Yeah,
that's just who he is and what he does before
this year. But it's just one after the other after
the other.

Speaker 4 (01:02:12):
The Astros n You got like five or six guys.

Speaker 6 (01:02:16):
That not only produced, they just constantly produced in the
regular season, and everybody but Tucker was a plus level
postseason performer, big time plus level performer. This all time
list of home runs in postseason history, it's not just
because the Astros have a seven year, eight year run
of being there. It's because they're producing. If it's not

(01:02:36):
Altuve at the top of the list, then the next
guy's Bregman, and then the next guy's Kara and Cores.
Got all these RBIs and George is the one who
won MVP because he homered every day in the World Series.
I mean, it's so many. That's where the Orioles aren't
quite there yet. I need the Astros to make the
postseason one more time, at least so al two they.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
Can get that mark, because.

Speaker 5 (01:03:01):
The fact that he still gets booed everywhere he goes
is just laughable. And the fact that I saw his
name on a graphic as the third most hated athlete
in all of sports is an absolute joke.

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
It just shows you how stupid.

Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
American society is from a sports fans standpoint in gen
it's not even it's not.

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
Going to change that it was the problem. Yeah, I know,
but at least, at least if he gets that mark
over Manny.

Speaker 5 (01:03:27):
Who was not likable of ten billion times less likable
than Jose Altuve, at least you can point to that
as a you know, he's at the top of that list,
which is littered with Astros.

Speaker 6 (01:03:41):
We'll talk a little bit more Baseball, our weekly visit
with our Astros insider and host of the Crawford Box Cast,
Chris Gordy. He joins us next here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:04:01):
It's the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (01:04:02):
It's Sports Sox seven ninety, Space City Home Network, wexac
Cole Thompson and Chris Gordie in studio. The Astros simply
cannot be stopped looking for the sweep of the admittedly
not all that great Toronto Blue Jays, but you know what,
I don't care.

Speaker 4 (01:04:18):
A win is a win is a win.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
And uh, as you I was talking about this with
Wax earlier, as you look forward to the series with
the Kansas City Royals coming up this weekend, who are
I would say underperforming? Yeah, just get well, because I
feel like that's what this series has been for the
Astros in a lot of ways. They're already great pitching,
especially Hunter Brown, but the offense is getting some I

(01:04:40):
don't call them gimmes, but they're taking advantage of what
they're being presented.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
Well, I'll tell you this.

Speaker 13 (01:04:44):
Two pitchers that you faced in this series so far,
Chris Bassett and Kevin Gossman, were off to great seasons, right,
both of them. So for you to get after him
like you did, I think that's fantastic. Maybe not, you
didn't really get after basket put, you know, fifth inning
or later. It's fine you turn the offense on, But no,
I mean, there's no shame and beating.

Speaker 4 (01:05:04):
That's a good Blue.

Speaker 13 (01:05:05):
Jays team that has a nice record in the Al
East coming in. So that I'm not saying by any means, oh,
you're taking out the trash.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
No, that's a good Blue Jays team that you're beating.

Speaker 13 (01:05:15):
So you know, we'll see if they can do what
they haven't done what all year, and that's sweeping opponent tonight.
But you know, to your point, yeah, that you go
to Kansas City this weekend. I was talking Abou Buddy,
who's a big Royals fan, yesterday and he was like, dude,
if you can score two three runs, you'll beat the Royals.
We can't score right now. I was like, well, the
Astros have had that trouble too, so that will be interesting.

(01:05:38):
But yeah, the way the Astros pitching staff has been
pitching lately, you feel good about those arms going up
to KC again. Hopefully this offense keeps riding this wave.
Man seven runs the other night, five runs last night.
Keep doing this.

Speaker 6 (01:05:50):
Just on offense because he brought up those two teams
and now the Kansas City Royals. Does it seem like
offense is down? Major League Baseball? Offense is down. You
can see the Astros catch a couple of days of
you know, ten of thirty as a team, and they
go from twenty eighth to twenty second and they're hitting
two whatever, and they're not in last place. And there's

(01:06:11):
other teams. I can't believe there's worse offenses. But to me,
it seems like offense is way behind the pitching right now.

Speaker 13 (01:06:17):
It feels that way. I mean, the Chicago Cubs have
scored like one hundred.

Speaker 6 (01:06:21):
And fifty kld Tucker. That's not fair, right, Tucker's hitting
at another monster. I'm the man game tying eighth inning homer.
That's what he does in the regular season. When was
he ever? Was he ever clutch?

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
Here do we go? Man?

Speaker 6 (01:06:34):
Yeah, Tucker's We were just talking about the Orioles last segment.
That was one of the biggest hits of that season,
when he hit a ninth inning, go ahead grand slam
after a huge battle with the Orioles closer. That was
a pretty big one.

Speaker 13 (01:06:45):
I just think when I think back to like legendary
Tucker moments he's had, but like ten total.

Speaker 4 (01:06:52):
He had a two home run game in a World
Series game. I was trying to knock him down.

Speaker 13 (01:06:56):
I'm just saying like, it felt like like the way
people talk about him leaving is like he was, you know,
the great Bambino here, like, oh my god, i'd you
let him walk out the door.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
My goodness.

Speaker 6 (01:07:06):
Shouldn't you say that about a top ten offensive player,
which he is and was he is.

Speaker 13 (01:07:10):
I just never felt that, like, especially in the playoffs.
I think that's the problem is I put the onus
of big moments in the playoffs. A Wednesday night game
against the Oakland A's a clutchhit.

Speaker 6 (01:07:20):
Okay, for five six months, he's a top ten player.
It's still in baseball now where not everybody makes the postseason.

Speaker 4 (01:07:27):
It does still matter, it does.

Speaker 13 (01:07:29):
But again, good for the Cubs. He has them that
the Yankees are slugging like crazy, So you know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
Yeah, but day have been Rice, Well, yeah they got it.
Their lineup's good.

Speaker 13 (01:07:39):
But you're to your point, Yeah, I mean over half
the league is barely over one hundred runs on the season. Yeah,
it feels like most nights when you look at the scoreboard,
it's a four to two ball game.

Speaker 6 (01:07:50):
How do you feel about the sustainability of what their
bullpen has done so far through a little less than
a month.

Speaker 13 (01:07:56):
It's not sustainable for a whole year, but I feel
like they can get They're doing their job and they're
getting by. Like Steven Oaker gonna have one of the
best eras in baseball at the end of the year.
Probably not, He'll probably have a month where he struggles.
Taylor Scott's already had a couple of moments where he's struggled.
The Brian King thing is just amazing to me. I
interviewed him on our pregame show on Sunday, and that

(01:08:16):
dude's just.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
He's awesome, easy to roof for.

Speaker 13 (01:08:19):
I'm like, his stuff is just I mean, he's like,
I throw the fastball occasual change up and I get
guys out. It's just he goes out there and has
an eight pitch hitting and it's a scoreless inning.

Speaker 6 (01:08:28):
I mean, but when you consider what the I think,
what the I don't say it was the weakness of
this team, but it was weak.

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
It was going to be weaker going into this season.
Where would you be without that game?

Speaker 13 (01:08:40):
It was just new new faces, I mean, new guys
you come to rely on. You lose Presley, you lose
this hairct Neurius, you lose you know, guys that you've
had over the years that have been reliable.

Speaker 4 (01:08:49):
At least I know you laugh because ners wasn't reliable.

Speaker 6 (01:08:51):
Well no, no, I laugh because I'm having a hard
time believing it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
But he's on his what team since they let him
go the first time?

Speaker 5 (01:08:58):
He just got again, Yeah nineteenth by the way, at
least forgetting the as advertised and as paid for Josh
Hater this season, yes, yeah, ridiculous.

Speaker 13 (01:09:07):
I mean more and more shows that last April was
just an anomaly. Now they weren't pitching him in a
lot of like two to two games as opposed to, hey,
we have a three run lead, go protect it. But
he did have his moments where he blew saves and
all that. But he has just been I mean, from
the backstretch of last season through now.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
He has been one of the best closers in baseball.
It's awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:09:25):
Chris Gordy in here with us on the A team
as he is each and every week, usually Wednesdays, at
three thirty, Astros will get out on the road with
the Royals, trying to finish up what is now a
four and one home stand, hope to get it to
five and one. They definitely caught, like I said yesterday,
caught a break with Christians Walker's RBI single in the first.

Speaker 4 (01:09:44):
But he had a three hit day. Jeremy Pania had
a three hit day.

Speaker 6 (01:09:48):
The best of his three hits he was out on
when he got an unfortunate bounce off the top of
the manual scoreboard on the padding was thrown out trying
to stretch it into a double. It didn't seem like
he should have been stretching it. It's just like, of course,
this is a double. I absolutely crushed this off the wall,
and I'm the fastest guy on earth. But anything for you,

(01:10:09):
Christian Walker that looks different, better, consistent. I feel good
about this or we got a ways to go.

Speaker 13 (01:10:17):
I wouldn't overreact to last night, and I mean, look,
it was good. He did his thing, three hits. But
remember over the weekend he hits the big home run,
Everybody's like, oh, he's coming out of the funk and
what do you do on Sunday night, Oh for four
or three strikeouts?

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
Like you know.

Speaker 13 (01:10:30):
So, I think it's gonna continue the ups and the downs,
but hopefully he continues to have more ups than the
downs as the season goes along. But yeah, it's it's
what I talked about last week, like people were starting
to get a little bit scared about, Oh god, we
just did this with a bray you this the guy
really like his best days are behind him and now
he's just gonna fall off the face of the earth
baseball wise, here in Houston. But I think he's gonna

(01:10:51):
be I think he's gonna be fine. But I just
don't think it's gonna be Oh, the next three weeks,
he's just gonna crush. He will turn it around eventually.
But like in baseball, these things go about a month.
Like it's always weird how it works with months. It's
like when you turn that calendar, suddenly a guy goes
into a slump, Suddenly a guy gets red hot. It's
just really strange how it happens, because it's almost just
like when you start the new month, you start fresh. Look, Tuck,

(01:11:13):
I think he'll be fine. Walker will be find the
rest of the rest of April. But I you know,
wouldn't surprise me at all if he come into May.
It's a red hot may form or red hot June
and he starts crushing. So I think he'll be fine though.
But yeah, that's the thing is like, guys, if the
if the L two vase continue to do what they're
doing and you get something, you know, Paina wants to
have a nice resurgent year, that's awesome. Uh, Gordon's gonna

(01:11:34):
come around eventually and become the one of the feared
hitters in baseball again. Uh, I think I think Walker.
I think Walker's due for a big month sometime coming soon.

Speaker 6 (01:11:44):
Well, I mean it's you mentioned how Tuvan. I was
just telling Wex they have to go to the postseason one
more time so he can be at the top.

Speaker 4 (01:11:51):
Of that home runs list.

Speaker 13 (01:11:53):
Well, hopefully they go to the playoffs multiple more times.

Speaker 4 (01:11:56):
But well, yeah, I have five more years with him,
I guess.

Speaker 5 (01:12:01):
I just yeah, but I just think about how last
season started, how this season started, and the roster turnover
and everything else. You know, who knows what will happen,
but I would like to at least see that opportunity.

Speaker 6 (01:12:12):
Appreciate the time. We've got Astros baseball coming up for you.
A little bit before we're done, we'll have the Astros
on deck show for you. Six point forty first pitch
Astros and Blue Jays the finale of this home stand
coming your way right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:12:25):
Good. Thanks for the time, Chris anytime.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Fellas the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
Thanks again to Chris Gordy for joining us last segment.

Speaker 6 (01:12:46):
Appreciate him coming in studio from down in the hall
where he works.

Speaker 5 (01:12:49):
Well, it was a very long journey and dangerous at times.
There's people with hot coffee walking around here. There's apparently
somebody's I don't want to say that they're microwaving fish
because I'm not trying to make accusation.

Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
How far away that is from here, unless it's in
our garbage can, we can't smell it.

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
That's not true. If you microwave the studio, that's when
you smelled it.

Speaker 5 (01:13:08):
If you microwave fish in an office building in America,
if you're within the front doors difference a distance, you
are going to smell that.

Speaker 6 (01:13:17):
Bleep you say so and let you know the next
time I do. Oh, you asked me what they had
the other night at Toyta Center fish.

Speaker 4 (01:13:24):
Was it really one of your options? Multiple options?

Speaker 6 (01:13:27):
Typically they do have multiple protein options, and they did.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
Barbecue was one of the others.

Speaker 5 (01:13:32):
By the way, at WrestleMania, people are like, oh, look
at your seat, you're on the roof. Yeah, and I
paid zero dollars and they fed us. The first night
they had tacos, which were very good. The second night
they had like a like a stir fry chicken situation.
But if you didn't want that, there was a tofu option,

(01:13:53):
which one of the Clanton marriage participants consumed.

Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
That crap.

Speaker 6 (01:13:58):
So the food you just mentioned, what's what does that
beginning of the word sound like?

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
Tofu? Yeah, you're toes. I'm not interested. You think that's
what tofu tastes like? Would you be surprised you've had
toes before? I mean, I'm not interested. No, let's go
back to that part. Have you had toes? Like, I'm
gonna give you give you a hint.

Speaker 6 (01:14:20):
Feet in most instances are disgusting, right, So toe food
sounds awful?

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
Hold up, say it again, to food that's what he's
calling it.

Speaker 9 (01:14:32):
Okay, just making sure that he's calling it that and
doesn't think that that's the actual name.

Speaker 4 (01:14:35):
Disgust.

Speaker 6 (01:14:36):
I mean, it's a since an alternative food. It's a substitute,
if you will. I'm not interested in the substitute. Not
to go really off the rails here, but we will.
That's why I try to like understand or at least
try to understand people's quirks. Let's just leave it at
that in any sense, but especially that kind of I'll

(01:14:57):
never understand people that are like, oh man, I'm a
what but the thing is with that that you're talking about,
which I did not intend to continue on, and we're
gonna food. I can like what I like, and I
can dislike what I It applies to lots of things
we should be.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
That's great. We're not all supposed to be the same.

Speaker 5 (01:15:16):
But when it comes to this, we are because they're dirty.
They're dirty, they're what you walk on.

Speaker 6 (01:15:21):
Okay, you want care of your own needs by not
needing them.

Speaker 5 (01:15:27):
I want other people to not need one. Why it
has no impact because.

Speaker 6 (01:15:32):
It's weird, it's exactly, but it's not relevant.

Speaker 5 (01:15:36):
Who according to you, No, according to normal people, human
people don't.

Speaker 6 (01:15:40):
I don't view Rex Ryan as less of a football
analyst or coach.

Speaker 4 (01:15:44):
I do, but I don't. That's the difference between us. No, see,
I'm middle ground here.

Speaker 9 (01:15:50):
I view him less as a person, but.

Speaker 4 (01:15:54):
But I look him.

Speaker 6 (01:15:56):
I'm just then he did the whole thing, and so
it was very easy to make your front of football
well he's not.

Speaker 4 (01:16:01):
He's here for the feet. He's here for the foot.

Speaker 6 (01:16:03):
And then to make a video, to make a video, oh,
it's all part of the playing video, part of your
individual makeup.

Speaker 5 (01:16:11):
Like as if to say in twenty twenty five, which
that's not when this happened. This was like way back,
like you wor but he yeah, he's like, oh, I'm
just gonna make a video where I just happened upon
a woman who just happened to have a foot hanging
out her car window and just happen to walk up
to her and say, oh, you have really nice feet,
as if that would happen to anybody that wasn't your wife,

(01:16:32):
and you wouldn't get a frying pan hit in your face?

Speaker 4 (01:16:35):
Why would that?

Speaker 9 (01:16:35):
Why would your wife not hit you in the face
of the frying day exactly?

Speaker 6 (01:16:39):
And now I have questions about her character weird hell,
they're together, all right, here's what.

Speaker 4 (01:16:43):
I want to do.

Speaker 6 (01:16:44):
You down, yeps, clearly like come on a match. There's
lots of people on the earth. Find one weirdos for weirdos, right,
people that aren't like you, No weirdos.

Speaker 5 (01:16:57):
There are people that aren't like me, and then there's
weirdos and therein ladder category.

Speaker 6 (01:17:01):
They're not in the studio and they're not. I know,
I'm saying you don't. You don't have to worry about it, Rex, Rex,
what were you thinking? I encountered his brother, very normal
guy in Miami with the long hair. He's the normal
one he is in this case. I don't know about that. Well,
I don't know about his sexual fetishes. Well, that's just
one part of who he is. How about all the

(01:17:21):
parts of him that he's just completely out of control
about those parts?

Speaker 9 (01:17:25):
Wex do you think that Rob Ryan would ever unveil
those sexual innuendos live in person?

Speaker 5 (01:17:32):
By the way, Look, he just made call with me.
I know you're learning on the fly. This is when
he's irreparably uncomfortable.

Speaker 6 (01:17:38):
If you went out at the Super Bowl one of
the Knights leading up to it, after a long day
on radio row.

Speaker 4 (01:17:48):
Out?

Speaker 6 (01:17:48):
What was it called one of the Ryan brothers? With
which one would the Knight become wilder? And with which
one would you be more concerned about what might happen?

Speaker 4 (01:17:59):
See, I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:18:01):
I don't know that absolutely positively is not didn't make
that video.

Speaker 4 (01:18:06):
There's no harm in that. There is harm in that.
That's what I'm trying to make you see.

Speaker 9 (01:18:11):
That's personal, Okay, who's the one that might make you
have who's the one that you will have a better
story with, and who's the one that you're gonna be
sitting up late at night wondering what it's.

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
Different different stories.

Speaker 6 (01:18:21):
You're gonna get a better story with Rex if that's
your answer, because of who probably came over to your
table and who he knew and who you got to
hang out with. But you're gonna get a better story
from Rob if that's what you think the answer is
because something you've never been a part of before, never
seen before, trouble you've never been in before, wildness you've
never encountered before, total chaos.

Speaker 4 (01:18:40):
That's your story and I sign up for that. I'd
much rather again personal preference.

Speaker 5 (01:18:45):
What's important is we went to that deli every single day.

Speaker 4 (01:18:48):
Close by and tasty. What was it called?

Speaker 6 (01:18:51):
Ah, Hi, I'm a convenience store, but in the back
we sell killer sandwiches.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
It was basically a bodega. Yes, it was awesome. But
what was it called? Where was it in Miami? Miami?

Speaker 5 (01:19:02):
For the Super Bowl? Like on South Beach? We were
basically staying on South Beach, but just kind of often.

Speaker 4 (01:19:06):
I would have been able to answer that, but I
have no idea what Miami.

Speaker 14 (01:19:08):
I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:19:08):
It was a hole in the wall, but it had
everything we needed. Yes, it did every single food. We
were only there for a few days. We were there
for a week and we went there every day. Wex.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
I was like, why don't we branch out? Remember the
time made you go to the Versachi mansion.

Speaker 6 (01:19:22):
Yeah, we saw floor. No, we saw who it was.
It was it?

Speaker 4 (01:19:26):
Maybe No, it wasn't Flo Rid your name a song
by that?

Speaker 7 (01:19:29):
Was it?

Speaker 4 (01:19:30):
The floor Ryder was? It would have been at the
Gronk party. Had somebody else he was, Yeah, yeah, we
saw when Gronk arrived for his one thirty one forty
five slate Versachi Mansion mansion, very memorable. He's like, why
do you want me to go here? Again.

Speaker 6 (01:19:44):
I'm like, because at the time, it was the the
mini series, the Fox the FX mini series had just
come out about Yeah, yeah, and uh Andrew Kunanan is
that his name?

Speaker 4 (01:19:54):
Yeah, Kunakan, sometthing like that. I know who you're talking about. Though.
He was a serial killer. Yeah he was.

Speaker 5 (01:20:00):
That had just come out and I was like, all right,
let's go see. It was an impressive place WEX thought, so.

Speaker 4 (01:20:06):
No, this is it.

Speaker 6 (01:20:07):
Okay, that's exactly what he said. Said I was telling
you know what's funny. I was just telling Teresa the
other day how much fun it is to fly places
with you with me? Yes, because all it is.

Speaker 5 (01:20:19):
Yeah, you guys have to know WEX off air is
like a billion times more entertaining, trust me.

Speaker 4 (01:20:24):
I got to bring that to the show. That's what
we're here. We're here to.

Speaker 5 (01:20:27):
Entertain off the show. It's like Mystery Science Theater three thousand.
You're just making observation, very funny observations about everything we
see around us.

Speaker 6 (01:20:36):
Well, we'll be videoing our next station sponsored trip. I
have a feeling or our trip to San Francisco. When
we all go, we'll talk NFL draft. We'll entertain you
with that. Jeff Risdon of NFL Draft Wire. He joins
us on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your team.

Speaker 3 (01:21:07):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 6 (01:21:15):
Our number three of our Wednesday program begins now. Adam
Wexler and Adam Clinton here with you on the A
Team NFL Draft Talk. That's what we've done at four
o'clock each and every day beginning last week and running
through now today. A little bit different today, though, we're
not going to tell you who the Texans could draft
for the twenty fifth pick for another fifteen minutes, although
our guests Jeff Risden of the NFL Draft Wire and

(01:21:38):
Lions Wire could certainly lend his thoughts on that discussion.
But Jeff, I appreciate you joining us. I'd rather start
here because there's a couple of names of interest to
us locally. You wrote a piece the other day about
boom bust prospects. Why would a guy like Luther Burden
wide receiver out of Missouri and Nick Skirt and the
edge from Texas A and M why do they fit

(01:22:00):
in that category?

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
For you?

Speaker 7 (01:22:01):
You know, I think there's such a wide range of
outcomes with both of them, and you kind of saw
it with both of them in their college career. They
both had spectacular twenty twenty threes Burden at Missouri, and
then you know with s Gorton when he was still
at Purdue, they both changed and didn't play as well
in twenty twenty four. Some of that was the roles

(01:22:21):
that they were in. Some of it in Gorton's case
was he got a lot bigger and it didn't suit
him very well. It didn't didn't help his game. So
you're gambling that the player that was there two years
ago is going to be the one that you're drafting
instead of the most recent edition that you watched. And
that's look. Sometimes that does happen that there are plenty
of examples of successful cases of that, but you also

(01:22:43):
have to watch and be careful that they that that
track of not being as good as they were continues.
And like you know, again, both of these guys preseason
were in top ten in mock drafts. I don't think
you're going to see either of them in many first
rounds becoming the mock drafts that are coming out now.
I think they're both solidly twenty five to forty overall,

(01:23:05):
but you know that's that's a little bit different. So
they they are certainly players who, you know, again high ceiling,
but the floor is probably a little bit lower than
what a lot of fans would like to admit to.

Speaker 6 (01:23:15):
The boom bust comp you use for a wide receiver
for Luther Burdens should paint a very clear picture of
the ends of the spectrum. Could be the next time
on Ross Saint Brown or the next Laviska channel. I
think that perfectly encapsulates what you have just told us.
I'm curious about another player who they're varying opinions on
because of his last most recent season, although in his
case it was due to injury. How do you view

(01:23:38):
Josh Simmons the tackle as he heads into this draft,
all things considered, and especially since you're not drafting him
for just this immediate season, but for his long term future.

Speaker 7 (01:23:50):
You know, as long as his knee gets back and
it was a pateeller tendon and tendon injuries are worse
than the ligament injuries you tear an ACL I don't
want to say that it's but it's a lot easier
to recover from that than a tendon. Tendon's take longer
to heal, and they don't always you know, the surgery
isn't always as successful if he wasn't hurt. He's the
best offensive lineman in this class. In my opinion. I

(01:24:11):
think he's better than Will Campbell. I think he's certainly
better than Calvin Banks.

Speaker 6 (01:24:15):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:24:16):
He proved that at Ohio State. And you know, just
his his ability to lock down any style of pass rush. Uh,
that that that's what makes him fantastic. So I I
I still think he belongs in the top twenty and
if he's there for Houston at twenty five, and not
to jump ahead a little bit, but he's got to

(01:24:37):
be under consideration that it sounds like he will be
cleared to play this year. But again, you know, coming
off of an injury, you have to wonder, you have
to have that trepidation in your in your draft room.
But man, he's I love the guy I think he
is before again, before injury, he was a top five
player for me.

Speaker 6 (01:24:56):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:24:56):
With the injury, that drops him down a little bit
and you have to you have to wonder, but my god,
that that guy is a special tackle talent. And I
wouldn't overlook that.

Speaker 5 (01:25:06):
Jeff Risden of NFL Draft Wire joining us here on
Sports Talk seven ninety. Jeff, just your thoughts on what
the Texans were trying to accomplish with the Laramie Tunsel
trade and just what you're in other words, who's the
best guy that will be available to them or they
could go and get to try and solve what is

(01:25:27):
kind of a Rubik's cube right now when it comes
to the Texans. I feel like there's all this talent,
but yet the most important position group that's not the
quarterback is clearly what they need to address.

Speaker 7 (01:25:37):
Yeah, and you know they certainly need I think they
give you some wide receiver help as well. But that
offensive line, They've got some pieces, but how do they
all fit? Where do they fit? When do they fit together?
That's where Josh Simmons would come in. You know, Banks,
You're gonna have to You're gonna have to move up
to get Kelvin Banks and could there is firepower there?

(01:25:58):
He certainly makes a lot of sense as I think
he's a left tackle only and I see a lot
of people, you know, want to move him into guard.
My question with that is the biggest detriment to his
game is that he plays way too narrow. That doesn't
help inside, That doesn't get better when you move inside.
That's a that's a bigger problem inside. But he can
certainly be your starting left tackle right away. There are

(01:26:19):
you know, if you want to wait around, you can
get out like ariante Ursery, you can get that. There's
a few second round tackles, and I will say Donovan
Jackson from Ohio State, who's who kicked outside and took
Josh Simmon's spot, and after giving up two sacks against
Penn State in the in his first game playing left

(01:26:39):
tackles since he was in high school, he didn't allow
a pressure or a hit throughout the entire college Football Playoff.
Think about that, this was a guy who was a
left guard was going to be a really good one,
and he was literally perfect in the biggest stage at
left tackle. I think that should mean something. He's a
guy that I would very strongly encourage the Texans to

(01:26:59):
look if Nick Cassario was looking for Ohio State players,
He's certainly one that I would consider it. Twenty five
I'll do. I do think that's probably gonna wind up
being a little bit earlier than what you see him go.
But man, if you can finagle that somehow out of
a second round pick, that'd be spectacular.

Speaker 4 (01:27:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:27:15):
I think maybe a move up in the second round
from where they are currently at fifty eight might allow
that to happen somewhere, probably before forty if they were
going to do so. They don't have to look very
far for him, considering he's from Houston, and it would
mark a third consecutive draft where Nick Cassario has plucked
a player from Ohio State CJ. Stroud and Kate Stover
before him, And there's a real good chance they will
do it again because we haven't even mentioned a mechag Buka,

(01:27:37):
who certainly seems like he might be a good fit
for this offense, playing alongside Nico Collins and obviously playing
once again with CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:27:46):
Stroud.

Speaker 6 (01:27:46):
Do you view him a little bit like Jackson from
where he fits in the draft maybe twenty five's a
touch too high, or do you think that might be
an actual sweet spot for where you might see some receivers.
You might see that top tier of receivers and then
this might be the place to take him.

Speaker 7 (01:28:03):
Yeah, the receivers in the fests are weird, you know,
because I think we've come to the conclusion now that
Matthew Golden is going to be gone in the top
fifteen or so, and it feels like Ted McMillan is
going to be in that range as well. And then
then you're looking at at Egbooka, probably the next best
guy for most teams, and I have had him in

(01:28:24):
three of my four mock drafts at twenty five to Houston.
I love the fit for all the reasons you just said.
You know, he's got the chemistry built in. He is
a He's not going to be an alpha dog, but
you kind of don't need that. Like he can play
so well off of those types of guys. This guy
who's played with incredible talent around, who understands how to

(01:28:44):
be part of an ensemble, who understands how to do
the little things to help not just himself but his teammates.
Very tenacious blockers, very smart, savvy guy. I would love
it if he were there as a teaser. He is
the pick in my mock drat my final not draft
for the Texans at twenty five. I see no reason
to change that. That was something that look talking to

(01:29:06):
Houston folks down at the combine in Indianapolis. That was
a popular pairing back then. And look, obviously there's offensive
line needs. I do think it's weird to say this.
I think the draft might be deeper at offensive line.
That is a wide receiver in terms of getting immediate
impact guys. And look, this is a Texans team that
can win another division title and win playoff games plural

(01:29:28):
next year. If you can get a booka to be
part of that, that certainly helps that that that status
going forward.

Speaker 4 (01:29:35):
No, I can't.

Speaker 5 (01:29:36):
I mean that is music to my ears, and Wex
would tell you as we talk about this draft, I'm like,
if the Texans took nothing but offensive lineman, even though
that's crazy to think about, and a draft where you
have so many picks, I'd be happy with that. But
since you brought it up in the wide receiver situation,
do you have a guy that you feel like would

(01:29:56):
fit well with CJ. Stroud over others because we kind
of had this debate yesterday about a couple of guys.

Speaker 7 (01:30:03):
Yeah, either Iowa State guy honestly, Jalen Nole or Jayden
Higgins I think are both good fits there. Tory Horton
from Colorado State is a guy who can be He
doesn't necessarily fit with Collins all that well, but I
think Straut would would love him. If you're looking a
little bit deeper, I'll go to a guy I live
in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. I'll go to a

(01:30:23):
guy in my backyard, Isaac Taslaw, who started at Hillsdale
D two school onund up at Arkansas. He can play
the power slot, he can play outside. He's big, but
he is he doesn't play like a big guy. Uh.
He's a fun guy that he can get late in
the draft, probably fourth or fifth round. Incredible family, wonderful worker,
very tenacious blocker. There's a lot of those sorts of

(01:30:45):
role players. You want to go real deep and you
want to get a slot receiver Fton Chisholm out of
Eastern Washington, my goodness, or Hobart from Texas State, another
guy from from you know familiar he down there. Those
guys are always open from like five to eight yards
down the field.

Speaker 8 (01:31:02):
C J.

Speaker 7 (01:31:03):
Strout can use that.

Speaker 6 (01:31:05):
Certainly, something to consider beyond just where everybody discussed the
first round, and there are three picks that'll come on
Friday night. See if any of those names pop up.
I have a feeling that they will. Jeff, we certainly
appreciate the time. I've already enjoyed your coverage, and we'll
keep it tuned in there over the next handful of days.
Jeff risdon joining us here on the A team. Jeff,
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 7 (01:31:24):
Well, that's Putters, thanks for having me on. Guys, appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:26):
You got it.

Speaker 6 (01:31:27):
The Texans currently four picks in the first two days,
one of the first, one of the second, two in
the third, and I do think as most have said,
without even needing to make the phone calls and checking
in with their sources. Of course, Nick Cassario is inquiring
about moving up. Of course Nick Cassario is inquiring about

(01:31:49):
moving back. He's doing all those things because he does
that every year, because he then executes them. You can't
pull off a trade with the Arizona Cardinals to land
the third pick in the draft on Draft night, if
that's call number one to Monty Austin Fort. You put
all this in place so you can execute these trades.
That's what Nick is doing right now as I speak.

Speaker 1 (01:32:11):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:32:25):
It is the A team.

Speaker 5 (01:32:26):
It's Sports Sox seven ninety at Space City Home Network.
Thanks again to Jeff Risden of NFL Draft Wire for
joining us last segment. We still have plenty more by
way of guests Tom Tolbert who joined the station earlier.
We will play a portion of that conversation next segment,
And of course Wex is gonna mock because that's what

(01:32:48):
he does. But told you that fresh off of Jeff's
segment last segment because we threw a bunch of stuff
at him from a Texans draft perspective, but we've been
giving you a crystal ball look into who the Texans
are actually going to draft with the twenty fifth pick
should they pick at twenty five.

Speaker 4 (01:33:09):
And by the way, have you.

Speaker 5 (01:33:10):
Changed your mind at all, one way or the other
that the betting the betting odds, since he does this
almost every single year, are that Nick Cassario will move
up or down tomorrow night.

Speaker 6 (01:33:22):
I mean, you're asking me specifically about this one and
only pick, and that's a little constricting. But there's some
scenarios that I think are very very possible where they
draft two offensive linemen in the first two rounds. It's
going to take the draft falling a certain way. It's
going to take another team being willing to allow them

(01:33:43):
to move up, because the only way that's going to
happen is if they, in my opinion, is if they
hold at twenty five and have the player there that
they want to pick, and are able to take fifty
eight and something else and move up somewhere in the
top forty, probably to take the second. I do think
there's a scenario where that happens, but that's going to

(01:34:05):
be totally dictated on where these other offensive linemens start
to go off the board. I mean, Kelvin Banks is
projected at ten or twelve, and all of a sudden,
we're forty minutes later, and where it picks sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen and is still on the board. Well that that
probably also means other teams weren't picking other offensive linemen
over him, but rather they were taking other positions over him.
And now maybe there's four or five offensive linemen that

(01:34:27):
would make sense for the text and still sitting there,
and you can sit there and not have to trade up.
But I actually do believe what's being suggested a lot
of articles. The last couple of days and a lot
of rumors that I've heard as well that they're not
just making phone calls in an attempt to move up
to see if it's a possibility, but rather this is
what they want to do. There is a player that

(01:34:47):
they are targeting, and they believe it's in this group
of picks. So these particular teams are the ones they're
talking to. Not only that that's where they need to
get him, but that's where they need to get him
before somebody else does what they're trying to do and
goes up to get him. And yeah, I believe that
player is Calvin Banks. So we shall see for our
purposes here we're on number eight. Possible player could be available,

(01:35:09):
might be their selection at twenty five. We do it
every day around this time. Who will the Texans take
at number twenty five? Would be bit picked in the
twenty twenty five draft.

Speaker 9 (01:35:23):
The Houston Texans select Tyler Booker, offensive lineman the University
of Alabama. He is to me, of all the players
we've brought up, and that's Donovan Jackson, Walter Nolan, Luther Burden, Greys,
Abel mechag Buka, Kelvin Banks, and yesterday Josh Connery.

Speaker 4 (01:35:44):
This is player eight.

Speaker 6 (01:35:45):
Tomorrow will be player nine, and I think this will
still be true after player nine comes up tomorrow at
four o'clock. Tyler Booker, to me, fits more of the
words that are on the walls in the buildings at
Energy Stadium than any other player we talked about.

Speaker 4 (01:36:01):
Leader makeup culture.

Speaker 6 (01:36:05):
This is who we want in our locker room and
it's twenty five. I think it's a really nice player
to add from a talent perspective.

Speaker 5 (01:36:13):
How about a dimensions perspective, because you know I love
the dimensions and that's what I call him.

Speaker 6 (01:36:17):
He's on the bigger side for an interior player.

Speaker 4 (01:36:20):
Although it's five one.

Speaker 6 (01:36:22):
Yeah, I don't know what they'll again ask him to
play at. And if you've seen him, because he's six',
five he does not look at least to, me he
doesn't look like he's a three hundred and twenty pound interior.
Alignment the way his body's, built he looks.

Speaker 5 (01:36:36):
Great, well three hundred and twenty one pounds spread out
on a six' five frame six a, Little, bit.

Speaker 6 (01:36:41):
Yeah six five is usually not standing there in front of.
Your quarterback he's usually on the edge blocking your. Edge,
rushers yeah So It's.

Speaker 4 (01:36:49):
Tyler booker.

Speaker 6 (01:36:50):
Good dude is that reasonable enough to say for a
team captain There?

Speaker 4 (01:36:54):
At, ALABAMA yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:36:55):
I mean let's just start off. With that one of
the few things that we Know about nickosio is he
likes that leader. Ship Role tyler booker was a team
captain two Years, in arona two year starter for a
team that Made The College football playoff and was a
play away from going to a. National championship one of
the few things that stands Out of. Baz game he's
a great downhill. Run blocker and when you have a
running Back Like joe mixon and you want to make

(01:37:16):
sure that he is your, bellcal bruiser you got to
have the opportunities to create those.

Speaker 4 (01:37:21):
Running lanes so that's what. He does so you have
mentioned two things that fair.

Speaker 6 (01:37:26):
OR unfair i Feel Like laramie tonsel was criticized for.

Speaker 5 (01:37:30):
He was the second part is. Not unfair he was
not a good. Run blocker the first part was up.
For debate what level of leadership you got out of
him and what kind.

Speaker 6 (01:37:40):
It, was yeah his leadership came from the fact that
you had a lesser talented group. With him everybody other
than these last two Years. With shack he's got the
respect of his locker room for what he's done in,
his career but he's not the Talent that, laramie Is
And titus howard is similar that he absolutely has the
respect of the. Locker room heckets his offensive line. Right

(01:38:01):
now that is his group with all the newcomers and
the lack of continuity from.

Speaker 4 (01:38:05):
Last year it's.

Speaker 6 (01:38:06):
His group but it's got to come from leading by
example on, the field leading by example in so many.
Other places the respect, was THERE but i don't know
that the leadership angle was quite where they. Needed it
i'm still not gonna sit here And go their room,
was toxic and this is you, just, said ah we
got to, get everything we got to clean it. All
up they needed more talent and they needed. BETTER coaching

(01:38:28):
i mean that couldn't be much more simple. Than that
and again on, the interiors where the biggest, difference is
you're comparing Him To laramie tunsel and from a run,
blocking perspective how about compare him to one of the
three players he'll, be replacing whoever that turns out.

Speaker 4 (01:38:42):
To be on, the interior they didn't have a.

Speaker 6 (01:38:43):
SINGLE player i don't think capable of doing anywhere NEAR
what I think booker's capable of doing when they when
they want to run.

Speaker 4 (01:38:50):
The BALL and i saw some when we knew.

Speaker 6 (01:38:52):
These numbers with some Numbers On, joe mixon here's about
four or five different areas of his game where this
was the best he's played since twenty twenty or since,
twenty nineteen or since, twenty eighteen more explosive runs and
more yards. After contact and then some other numbers that
were the worst he's had in his career.

Speaker 4 (01:39:08):
Since twenty eighteen or.

Speaker 6 (01:39:09):
Twenty nineteen but those were how many yards did he get,
before contact not?

Speaker 4 (01:39:13):
After contact and it.

Speaker 6 (01:39:14):
Was such a small number because there wasn't anywhere for
him to go on way too many of. His Runs
how about running behind your linemen on the interior more
than three yards behind the line, of scrimmage how about five?
YARDS downfield, I mean booker can.

Speaker 9 (01:39:28):
Do that let me, tell, you guys on this he
was the number one run block of the last two
years in college. FOOTBALL combined, i mean if that does
not tell you that you're gonna get better play from
somebody who was going to upgrade, that interior which is
a major fault and was a major fault in both
pass pro and. Run blocking how is that not a.
Selling point the other thing that's also really important is
that the. Leadership standpoint Remember That nick saban walked out,

(01:39:50):
the door and a couple, of players blue, chip guys
decided to.

Speaker 4 (01:39:54):
Follow through.

Speaker 9 (01:39:55):
He didn't he was all Invested, in alabama and that's
SOMETHING that i think does stand out when the go,
gets tough especially in a Location like houston where you have.

Speaker 4 (01:40:04):
To have that leader in. The trenches he's.

Speaker 6 (01:40:06):
THE player i would suggest would have my scenario play
out sitting on the board at, twenty five not too
much of, a reach very likely that he could. Be
there you take him at, twenty five he's one of
your three starting interior offensive linemen in twenty twenty five.
And beyond and then you start thinking about and watching the.
Draft unfold what is it going to take with which

(01:40:26):
team that has picks between, you know, thirty two, thirty four,
five six somewhere in, that neighborhood probably after thirty two
outside of the, first round that we can package together
with fifty eight and move up and then whichever other
tackle they like, the most if it's maybe A Sliding
josh simmons for the Reasons that jeff.

Speaker 4 (01:40:45):
Just discussed Maybe It's josh.

Speaker 6 (01:40:47):
Connery because he's not necessarily viewed as a first, round
talent but maybe a. Second round that's THE way i
could actually. See THEM and i keep saying it. This
way they don't need players on their. Offensive line they
don't need new talent on their. Offensive line they need
to build their, offensive line and you build your offensive
line the right way with. Young talent they need, more than,

(01:41:08):
if possible more than one player a year to, do
THAT and i think this is the way they can
get two in twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:41:15):
Twenty FIVE can i.

Speaker 9 (01:41:16):
Counter real fast and JUST say i agree with, your
SENTIMENT but i do believe you were going to go down.
That pathway it feels like because of the way that it's,
Been scouted booker is the one that would fall to
where you would move up with the, Draft compensation so
outside of the, first round and then You take simmons at,
twenty five that to me feels more likely for. Some

(01:41:36):
reason and if you were to miss out On A,
Tyler Booker donovan jackson also could be in play somewhere
in that forty thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:41:44):
Nine RANGE so i think.

Speaker 6 (01:41:46):
Probably the OTHER player i think they would end, up
SELECTING and i think it's fair to say from what
we've heard and who we've, talked To THE texans i
think would be completely fine Heading into sunday post Draft
With donovan jackson on their. Football team doesn't mean, they're
taking but twenty five doesn't mean they're hoping he falls to.

Speaker 4 (01:42:04):
FIFTY eight i.

Speaker 6 (01:42:05):
Think there's a lot of scenarios they've played out on
their own private mock drafts That Have donovan jackson Becoming
A houston texan following this. Weekend's work very easily see
that we've got one more with the twenty fifth pick
that comes your. Way tomorrow COLE and i will take
you through the evening On Our sports talk SEVEN Ninety
nfl draft coverage Presented By academy tomorrow evening all the

(01:42:28):
way through everything you need to know about What the
texans take.

Speaker 4 (01:42:31):
Care of, tomorrow NIGHT.

Speaker 2 (01:42:34):
The a Team On sports talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:42:41):
About an hour away from us getting you Ready For.
Astros baseball we'll Have the astros on deck show for
you at five.

Speaker 4 (01:42:47):
Point thirty wexton ac here, with you also getting you
Ready for Rockets.

Speaker 6 (01:42:51):
And warriors very important Game two warriors ninety five Eighty
Five winter sunday night in, game one couple of, days
off both teams, practice yesterday around for each today and
now on back Over To toyota center for the late
tip eight. Thirty tip you can hear it Over On
news radio seven FORTY k trh until After the. Astros
game we'll combine them and you can catch them via

(01:43:12):
a simulcast on. Both stations we'll have pre and postgame
coverage for, you there and you also Have the astros
obviously right Here On sports talk seven ninety right after
we wrap up With the Astros on, deck show but
To the Warriors. And rockets our radio analyst For The
Golden state warriors And Former Golden state, Warrior Himself, tom
tolbert Joined The Matt thomas Show with ross earlier today

(01:43:34):
specifically to talk about. This series so it's about eight
seats to my left for his broadcast Or to AC's
left this evening for. Their broadcast we'll see how it shakes.
Out tonight his initial, thoughts here and by, the way
if you want to catch this interview in, its entirety
you know where to. Find It sports talk seven ninety
dot com or Via the iHeartRadio app right there on our.

(01:43:55):
Podcast page his thoughts on, this series beginning specifically with
how number thirty is still.

Speaker 4 (01:44:03):
Doing It.

Speaker 14 (01:44:04):
HE'S steph, i mean there's really no other way to.
Put it it's just he's one of one when it
comes to that kind. OF stuff, i mean he hit
three shots in the second Half of game one that will.
Just absurd, of course the One Over jalen green where
he's fall at, a bounds drifting right and drills. That
one then he drilled the probably thirty five footer from the,

(01:44:29):
right side and then he drilled one with a shot
clock was running out where the ball was in his hands,
nano second just like plipped it up there and that
thing went. As well and nothing really surprises me. With
Him and i've always Said with steph that he makes,
the extraordinary. Like ordinary i've seen it so many times

(01:44:50):
over and over and, over AGAIN and I guess i'm a,
little JADED just i don't get all that phase by what.

Speaker 4 (01:44:56):
HE does, i mean.

Speaker 14 (01:44:57):
Those three shots were, pretty wild even though this one's,
you know raise my voice a, little bit but that's
just who. HE is, i mean he, does it and
he does it over and over and. Over AGAIN so
i just kind of shake my head, and Go.

Speaker 7 (01:45:12):
That's.

Speaker 15 (01:45:12):
Steph, Yeah unfortunately i've called so many on the other side.
OF that i have the exact, Same Opinion tom tot
Whethers Here Fron. Warriors, radio tom when you found Out
That jimmy butler Interest In, golden state your, initial THOUGHT
and i would have to assume even though he has been,
Really good jimmy has as a. Playoff guy he's had

(01:45:33):
his issues in a variety of places over the years that,
you're thinking how long is this honeymoon affair going?

Speaker 16 (01:45:39):
To?

Speaker 4 (01:45:40):
Go well so far it's gone very very well for
Him Wearing golden.

Speaker 14 (01:45:43):
State, GEAR yeah i mean because they were Interested, in
Durant and durant made it clear he didn't want to,
come here and then they kind of shifted their Focus.
To BUTLER so i don't even Think the warriors knew
what they were getting Exactly With. Jimmy butler AND when
i found out, about it my initial, thought was, you,

(01:46:03):
KNOW okay, i Mean jim butler's a, good player how's
he going to fit? In here, you know he doesn't
really stretch, the court doesn't give him another guy to
shoot and then you watch him play. Every day and
that's THE thing i always try to. Impart on people.
Like it it's so funny when YOU like mvp voting
and all that kind, Of stuff like you really never

(01:46:24):
know how good a guy is until you see him.
Every day, you know you don't know, as flaws you
don't know, his strengths and there may be a lot
of things that don't show up in the box score
that make the player who.

Speaker 2 (01:46:35):
He, is Well That's.

Speaker 14 (01:46:36):
Jimmy Butler jimmy butler is like having Another dram on
like character on the team in that they get, the
game they're ahead of the, chains mentally they make the
right play way more often. Than not and he didn't
really have to stretch. The court like he. Doesn't shoot
he's he shot decently, like recently but it only shoots

(01:46:56):
me one or two threes. A game but he gets
to the. Free line you watch him make the, Right
pass you watch him switch off at the right moment,
on defense he gets the ball ahead when he rebounds
it like it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
JUST now i.

Speaker 14 (01:47:11):
Get IT like i watch him plans LIKE now i.
Get it and he's really, good too like the. Tangible
stuff he's still. Really good at that But under egodalo
is probably the best in the league at that where
he'd have eight point, four rebounds four assists and be
a plus eighteen consistently because.

Speaker 4 (01:47:29):
Plus minus gonna.

Speaker 14 (01:47:30):
Be one, you know that could be an, aberration once,
you know once every now, and again or maybe if
he added, A weekly but when it's, his, career like
That's who, igadala WAS and i see a Lot Of, Jimmy,
butler like there's a lot of stuff that you don't
see in the box score that shows up and helps
you win. Basketball games He's been he's been, really good
a lot BETTER than i thought he.

Speaker 4 (01:47:50):
WAS gonna i gotta, Be.

Speaker 17 (01:47:51):
Honest russell do you as, Well, here tom and just
curious your observations game, number one things that you saw
maybe offensively different defensively rotations and anything that surprised you
and that you're keeping an eye On for.

Speaker 14 (01:48:05):
Game, two, WELL look, I Mean jalen Green And van
bleed are gonna shoot the, ball better and that's just.

Speaker 4 (01:48:13):
And lob. Of Averages jalen Green.

Speaker 14 (01:48:16):
SEALING green i think the words did a great job
of keeping him to his left then let him get to,
his RIGHT and i think for him he was kind
of stuck in between she had to shoot it or
try to get all the way to. The rim and
when he tried to get all the way to, THE
rim i Think the words did a really good job
of collapsing on him and forcing. Tough shots, and then,
you know sometimes you get in your own head a,

(01:48:36):
little bit and the playoffs. Are different playoffs are a,
different feel and there's a little more pressure to each phosess.

Speaker 4 (01:48:43):
When it comes to.

Speaker 14 (01:48:44):
The playoffs so you get up to a, full start
sometimes it's kind of tough to dig itself out of.
That Hole and i'm sure he felt. The pressure, and,
then like let's, Be Honest van bleedern haide it well.
ALL season i mean she's in for forty from two,
OR overall i, should say and shoots run thirty five.

Speaker 4 (01:49:02):
From three but you know he's going to shoot.

Speaker 14 (01:49:04):
IT better i have no doubt. About that offensively on,
the glass they Killed the warriors, killed THEM and i
think they beat.

Speaker 4 (01:49:11):
Him up pretty good this.

Speaker 14 (01:49:11):
YEAR too i want to stay in the five games they,
played previously they averaged seventeen second chance Points of words
average ten And the words are pretty good, up, intive,
rebndingning too But, the rockets who's dominated.

Speaker 4 (01:49:23):
That game so the question, for Me.

Speaker 14 (01:49:25):
And i've had this With the rockets all, season long
is do they shoot it? Well enough are they team
they can shoot it well enough that once they get
to the playoffs and teams can really lock down on
them and really formulate a game plan, on them because
that's not something you really do during the. Regular season
are they going to be able to hit enough shots?
From outside they were seven for thirty seven outside the

(01:49:47):
Paint in. Game one you can't win, that way you just.
You can't nobody can couple.

Speaker 6 (01:49:52):
Things there before he hit the, brake here, He, said
oh they're just definitely going to.

Speaker 4 (01:49:55):
Shoot better you just know.

Speaker 6 (01:49:56):
They WILL and i know what he's trying, to say
but even he couldn't also stopped there, and, said yeah
but they haven't shot well all year and they haven't
shot Well, AGAINST yeah, i know that's kind of. The
point that's what's so maddening. About it it has been
a season long thing specific to Playing Against. Golden state
and one other Thing that tom Mentioned About, jimmy butler
what do you think this? List Is, Joel, Embiid jannisnotakoumpo,

(01:50:19):
Shay Gilsis, Alexander, luka Doncic And JIMMY butler.

Speaker 4 (01:50:23):
Mvp candidates it's.

Speaker 6 (01:50:26):
The five players who have had the most free throw
attempts per game over the last. Five seasons the, other guys.
NO question i Would say Shay and Luca and Giannis.

Speaker 4 (01:50:38):
And Joel not. JIMMY though i.

Speaker 6 (01:50:40):
Don't think people realize he barely shoots. The ball he's
taking eleven shots per game For, the warriors but he's
constantly going to the free.

Speaker 4 (01:50:49):
Throw, line yeah and he did it the.

Speaker 5 (01:50:51):
Other night the best part about Listening To tom tolbert,
by far he watches, the games you, can tell not Just,
the Warriors. The rockets he absolutely has Watched the rockets
this season to say some of the things he did.

Speaker 2 (01:51:03):
About them we.

Speaker 5 (01:51:04):
Will continue here On a wednesday Edition OF The a
team when we come back more MOCKING.

Speaker 2 (01:51:12):
The a Teen On sports talk seven.

Speaker 5 (01:51:14):
Ninety eight team continues Here On sports talk seven To
ninety just looking back for a second that Conversation With,
tom tolbert you mentioned it, as well ASSUMING or, i
guess Guessing That jalen green will. SHOOT better i put

(01:51:38):
a little bit more faith. IN that i never Know
what i'm gonna Get with Fred. Van vliet as far
as shooting, THE basketball i know he's gonna be a
steadying influence on. THE offense i know he's gonna make fantastic,
assist DECISIONS and i know more often, than not he's
probably gonna not gonna turn the ball over as much
as maybe he Did in.

Speaker 6 (01:51:54):
Game ONE but i don't know if he's gonna shoot
better in this series because he hadn't done it all
year two, for twelve six for fourteen or five, for
sixteen three, for thirteen one. For eight that's eleven. Made
shots that's what he Made Against golden state this year
and four games in the. Regular season but you could
do that for every team and it he'd probably. BE
similar i don't think so why? Pick One, uh okay see,

(01:52:19):
All Right Oklahoma city thunder's just go to the top of.
The list he also played them, four times ten, for
nineteen four, for nine five, for nine and the, other one.

Speaker 4 (01:52:30):
Which was he went three. For, FIFTEEN okay i mean
those aren't those are? Better numbers fifty two of.

Speaker 6 (01:52:36):
The, games yeah he was a disaster ball in, all
games including now the Postseason Against.

Speaker 4 (01:52:41):
Golden state so.

Speaker 5 (01:52:42):
It's because of the awesome defense that his counterpart was playing. Against,
him no it's the awesome defense that he's trying. TO
play i brought this up. EVERY day i actually. THINK
it i definitely think. It matters guess why you don't shoot. The,
ball well what do we say during? The season, oh
man these guys didn't get. Enough rest they're playing it back.
To back their legs aren't. Underneath them they just played
a double. Overtime game They're Chasing steph. Curry AROUND and

(01:53:03):
i know nobody Ever says fred's Job on steph as
if he doesn't get switched on to him all. Game
long just watch, the game go Out To toylet, center
tonight flip on the tube Over On Space City, home
network or Listen to Matt and adam.

Speaker 6 (01:53:18):
This evening Fred's defending. Curry plenty it's a, physical battle
more for him because that's how he tries to. Play
it but, A, Man tari Jalen, and fred those are
the four players that are going to or maybe aeron
tonight a.

Speaker 4 (01:53:32):
Little bit but they have to chase. Him around they've
got to hug and.

Speaker 6 (01:53:34):
Grab him they've got to see how much they can
get away with from a, physical nature and then they
go to the other end and try to have their
legs and try to shoot the. Ball well and For
both Fred and jalen they just have not against, this
TEAM and i can't.

Speaker 4 (01:53:46):
LOOK at i do think they move their feat.

Speaker 6 (01:53:48):
Tremendously well they don't Let the rockets get to, their
spots especially their shooters when they are creating. For themselves
but When the rockets are able to drive and kick
or draw the defense and, swing there he hadding good
enough looks that they should be making more than.

Speaker 4 (01:54:02):
They have and these two in.

Speaker 6 (01:54:04):
Particular Standout tarry easton was zero, for four but that's just.
A game i don't think it's any kind of serious issue.
With Him amn thompson's not, shooting Threes And dylan brooks
was not Launching like. Fred, Was Heck jalen green wasn't
Launching like. Fred was he only took four threes in.
The game fred.

Speaker 5 (01:54:21):
Took, thirteen yeah that no matter who you're playing and
no matter what you're doing on the, defensive end has.
To change but just from the standpoint of even if
his legs have been, underneath it he hasn't been a
good shooter. This year that's just been His mo, this
year he has not made. The, outside now there have
been games where he has where he hit seven threes

(01:54:43):
and they win, by thirty those have been few and.
Far between and that's honestly the biggest difference in This
year's rockets team versus, last year's which has been negative
because most everything else has been, a positive a jump
in the, right direction the trajectory, going up whatever you
want to. Call It but fred was way better of
a shooter last year from the three point line than
he is. This year and that's without looking up the

(01:55:04):
numbers or any of. THAT stuff i KNOW because i watched.
The games he ain't making them this year for.

Speaker 6 (01:55:09):
Whatever reason and it's not just Against, the warriors although
as you, put out it's a little. BIT. Better yea
his first Season, with houston he had his best three
point shooting season in, four years and he was still
a high volume three point shooter eight or more per
game in all of. Those seasons he dipped slightly underneath
that this year to seven point seven and had, you
know he went from thirty eight point seven to thirty four.

(01:55:31):
Point five that's a pretty significant. Drop off one was
well above his. Career numbers and the one this year
was well below his.

Speaker 4 (01:55:37):
Career, thirty eight his.

Speaker 6 (01:55:38):
Borderline elite he shot the, ball less he missed more
games this. Past year he missed twenty two of. Their
games he was less of a focus of. The offense
all these things should have lent to. Better numbers but
he also played as a thirty YEAR old nba player
and then thirty one Back in february for the first
time in.

Speaker 5 (01:55:57):
His Career, but jalen he has shot the ball better,
this year like you've just seen it.

Speaker 4 (01:56:06):
Relative to the rest of.

Speaker 5 (01:56:07):
His CAREER but i just expect more of him offensively
because of who he is and his athleticism and where
he's at in.

Speaker 4 (01:56:14):
His, career yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:56:15):
Best shooting percentage of his career from three, point distance
and he was even better than that over the last
two months leading into. This postseason but you're not playing.
The league you're only playing, one team right and against that,
one team he's had zero strong, offensive games even the
one where he went nine. For nineteen it all came
a result of his. Play late the other ones are

(01:56:36):
still unbalanced in the. Opposite direction, YOU know i. SAID
this i did an Interview On san francisco radio before the,
series STARTED and i still think. IT'S true, i Mean
If jalen green shoots the, ball Well If jalen green
scores twenty five to thirty averages THAT and i said
this before, THE series I think i don't really think
there's much else. To Analyze the rockets, are, advancing.

Speaker 4 (01:56:58):
Yeah yeah and he didn't do That in game one and.

Speaker 6 (01:57:00):
THEY lost i think they can win, without, It, though
YEAH but i think are definitely going to win it
if they.

Speaker 4 (01:57:07):
Get it if he's Got and i'm gonna talk about
this in the.

Speaker 5 (01:57:10):
Pregame tonight if he scores twenty or, more tonight they're
gravy to, put it, you know a, certain WAY don't
i don't think they lose this. Game Tonight if shingoon
has a similar Performance and jalen scores, twenty points.

Speaker 4 (01:57:23):
That'd be interesting to see if they play him the.

Speaker 6 (01:57:25):
SAME way a lot more single Coverage, for shingoon weren't
running two guys. At him he also didn't post up
in the. Traditional sense he was faced up a lot
MORE than i thought he. Should be so Maybe the
rockets did something To Help golden state and how they,
played him.

Speaker 5 (01:57:39):
We'll, See yeah and one thing we have not talked
a lot about simply JUST because i don't think. It
was it didn't, factor IN but i think it will
before the series. Is over Just the Shenanigans That draymond
green was trying Again against shingoon Again in.

Speaker 4 (01:57:57):
Game, ONE yeah i.

Speaker 6 (01:57:58):
Don't don't the only way that matters if the referees
decide to give points to another team at the free
throw liner send somebody to. THE showers i don't think
it's gonna affect. HIM mentally i don't think it's a
churning point in. THE game i don't think it's a wake.
Up call draymond Woke the, rockets up why are you poking?
The bear or he takes somebody out with these antics
where both players. GET ejected i just don't see this

(01:58:18):
advancing to, that stage certainly not In a, game two
especially with all the. TIME off i just don't think
it's gonna be much of a part of this. SERIES
period i think, both teams we definitely talked about it
in the last.

Speaker 4 (01:58:30):
Two years if.

Speaker 6 (01:58:32):
You walked around the league and talked to a bunch,
of analysts and certainly if you talk to other players
and ask you can play play any team IN. The,
nba yeah you're playing, three games you're, playing tonight which
one do you think you're more likely to get into
a chippy?

Speaker 4 (01:58:45):
Game With the rockets are gonna be at the top of.

Speaker 6 (01:58:47):
Everybody's List the rockets with people Around the rockets are.

Speaker 4 (01:58:53):
Very physical they bring that to the court. Every night
don't back down.

Speaker 6 (01:58:56):
From anyone they, getting skirmishes dust ups all.

Speaker 5 (01:59:00):
The, time no it's the only reason IT'S a i
guess maybe under the microscope a little bit Is because.
Draymond's involved but you're Talking About draymond Green And dylan
brooks on the. Same floor then you're talking About A,
Men thompson then you're Talking About, tarry easan then you're
Talking About. Steven adams i'll let you KNOW when i
get to, Another warrior i'm. Gonna mention i'm not saying
they don't, do it but all these guys On the,

(01:59:21):
rockets side they absolutely want.

Speaker 4 (01:59:23):
To throw hands, with you so.

Speaker 6 (01:59:25):
TO speak, i mean the only one that kind of
did it this year Was.

Speaker 4 (01:59:29):
A men he didn't. Throw hands he threw that raged.

Speaker 6 (01:59:32):
ALL down, i mean there weren't punches Thrown by rockets
in either of the Past.

Speaker 4 (01:59:37):
Two also all of those GUYS that, i mentioned a
men is by far the.

Speaker 6 (01:59:41):
Nicest guy they didn't even throw punches With DeMar DeRozan
two seasons ago when he begged them to with this
ridiculous Foul On, jalen.

Speaker 5 (01:59:47):
Green another team that's not advancing in the playoffs with
him as one of its.

Speaker 4 (01:59:51):
Focal points tell me if you've heard.

Speaker 5 (01:59:53):
That before we will continue next here On a wednesday
edition of.

Speaker 4 (01:59:57):
The program we're gonna mock. IT up i promise.

Speaker 16 (02:00:05):
Day team football at five underway here On a wednesday
edition of, the program just before the twenty TWENTY Five.

Speaker 5 (02:00:21):
Nfl draft, right Now the texans are in the twenty.
Fifth Slot Should nick cassario move up or move back
in the draft remains to. Be SEEN but i do
think that, you know as you look at you know
some of the guests we've had on today and throughout,
the week some of the conversations, we've had and you

(02:00:44):
heard it, earlier today like offensive line is. A given
i don't, know, THAT people, i mean do you do
you look At the texans and think wide receiver? RIGHT
away I Know tank dell. GOT hurt I Know stefan diggs.
IS out i just like Sometimes maybe i'm giving the
Fact That nico collins exists a little too.

Speaker 4 (02:01:05):
MUCH credit i feel like he's. That good do you
think he makes the? Shot? TONIGHT yes.

Speaker 6 (02:01:10):
I do if he makes, The Shot nico collins will
be Taking the rockets first shot to night to win before,
the game if you. Might be they lose connected on
the First shot sunday Night for, game one they did.

Speaker 4 (02:01:24):
Not Win Did clay walker sing the?

Speaker 6 (02:01:26):
NATIONAL anthem i COULDN'T even, i mean we've been to
a Lot of rockets home games last handful. Of decades
i'm sure, it's HAPPENED but i don't Remember clay walker
ever singing the.

Speaker 4 (02:01:36):
National anthem that'd actually be funny if.

Speaker 6 (02:01:38):
HE did, I mean, I mean i wouldn't want him
singing any of his original music like it's basketball Time.
In HOUSTON but i guess he could wanted to awful
concept for. A song, uh yeah the. Wide receiver look at.
Their room They Added justin Watson And, braxton barrios but
they're not expected to. Be contributors they're expected, to compete

(02:02:00):
and one, of Them in, burios's case may still be
more of a special teamer than a. Wide receiver but
you're on, the roster and you're on the game day,
active roster so there's an opportunity potentially for you to see.
Some snaps, but then what do you Have after nico
first game of, the season when you're on the Road
at Indianapolis or Jacksonville. Or tennessee who else are you
throwing the? Ball, to yeah you're not throwing It. To
take you're not throwing Just. To diggs You, have Mechi Have.

(02:02:24):
Xavier hutchinson but wouldn't you also like to have not
just for that, first game but for all of the
games for the next, four seasons somebody from this year's
wide receiver. Draft class and the answer is. Emphatically yes
so do you think just this is the most simplistic
way of looking? At things do you think that the
thinking is you can get just fine offensive line talent in,

(02:02:47):
later rounds but you can't get amazing wide receiver talent
in this particular draft in, Later rounds and that would
be the thinking behind so many people mocking a wide
receiver To the texans in this.

Speaker 4 (02:02:58):
PARTICULAR draft i really don't think that's, the, answer personally did?

Speaker 6 (02:03:01):
You?

Speaker 9 (02:03:01):
COOL no I thought jeff brobts some, good, points though
when he said that this feels like a deeper draft
when it comes offensive lineman versus plug and play, wide
receivers which, leads, to well if you can get a
guy and. Give UP and i personally think that one
of the picks that they got In The laramie tunsil
trade is going to be Moved on day two to
move up in the.

Speaker 4 (02:03:16):
SECOND round i believe that fullheartedly at. This point so
do you think that you can.

Speaker 9 (02:03:21):
Land A, josh Connerley A, donovan jackson maybe Even A.
Tyler booker i'd say thirty eight thirty nine With the
bears are Picking, the patriots, you're picking.

Speaker 4 (02:03:30):
And so get your wide receiver one or wide receiver
two in, This.

Speaker 6 (02:03:32):
SENSE yeah i don't Think the texans are coming out
of this draft with a player that anybody's looking at
as a potential wide. Receiver ONE and i don't think
there's many in. This draft you ain't. Find one you
might accidentally, get one and obviously it Happened With. Nico
collins you moved up to draft him four. Drafts AGO
and i don't, think Anybody even nick expecting it to
be a wide receiver one one that's getting an extension

(02:03:54):
before his original four year contract, even expires but. YOU
did I think Ted McMillan matthew golden are the guys
that line up to, be THAT and i don't Think
the texans are drafting either one. OF them i don't
think you have To Draft luther Burden or agbuka at twenty.
Five either to find somebody to Pair With nico collins
for the next. FOUR seasons i Think a Noel or

(02:04:15):
higgins who we've. MENTIONED royals i do think, THE list
i personally think the list is a little THINNER that
i think. MOST do i don't think they're gonna get
a wide receiver that's impacting the Twenty six texans super
positively after their first three picks. TOP eighty i don't
think there's another player that you. REALLY like, I mean

(02:04:35):
i can't believe this guy's. Still here maybe a, good
TALENT but i just don't think that's quite the.

Speaker 4 (02:04:41):
Depth of this wide.

Speaker 6 (02:04:42):
RECEIVER class i think there's a tremendous amount of depth
before the draft. Is OVER but i don't think those players.
ARE man i really think we got. SOMETHING here i
think they're good parts of. YOUR roster i think they're
part of your wide. RECEIVER group i don't think these
are players that, are drawing, you know sixty five snaps
in a game at maybe any point of career where
they're one of your.

Speaker 4 (02:05:01):
Top targets BUT they're nfl.

Speaker 6 (02:05:02):
Caliber players there are people that probably aren't even your
fifth guy in, the room maybe. The fourth But the
texans have those. Players already they need someone who's. Number
two they need somebody who's at least, as talented as
at least as bright a future As What christian kirk
turned in in the early portion of his career is
obviously on the back side of it now playing for
his third. Team thirty but that's the answer, to question

(02:05:26):
will so you throw on the ball to the? Answers
him but it can't just. Be him by, the WAY
since i boll guarded things last segment with a, basketball
talk are we still?

Speaker 4 (02:05:33):
MOCKING here i mean we.

Speaker 6 (02:05:35):
CERTAINLY can i feel like, we should especially since you
went to all the trouble of singing.

Speaker 4 (02:05:39):
The intro yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:05:40):
We can let's just. Play This.

Speaker 4 (02:05:58):
See i'm. PLAYING it i don't know that. You're playing
let's hear. YOURS again i wasn't. Playing anything you were.
Hitting too at the, Same, time no It wasn't it wasn't.

Speaker 6 (02:06:07):
My, end well why are you scrambling all the buttons
just to peeal behind the curtain a? Little bit would
you welcome into my. Watch this i'm gonna push, one
button and one button only doubts and if it if
it does not, fire properly then we Know it's. Clinton's
fault my fist full of scouts got the forty.

Speaker 8 (02:06:28):
Years, pitch yeah if you Pass, his hell if you
think you all, pick a you gotta see the.

Speaker 4 (02:06:35):
Wonder LICK.

Speaker 6 (02:06:49):
LEGENDARY espn Nfl Writer, peter schrager who's been there for,
five minutes has his one and, only mock which he.
Released today spent a lot OF time. Nfl network i'm
mocking the. Mocking here so his top four is as
everybody else is at this point, in time a little
bit over a day from, The draft ward To, The,

(02:07:12):
titans Hunter, The browns carter To, The giants campbell To.
THE patriots i brought this scenario up a couple, days
AGO and i really think it's going, to HAPPEN and
i don't.

Speaker 7 (02:07:21):
Like it.

Speaker 6 (02:07:22):
He Agrees ashton genty is going to be the fifth
pick in, the draft and he is going to be
drafted By THE Texans afc south Mates. In jacksonville that
is one really really good way to take the pressure
off of your. BLONDE quarterback I think genty is as
talented as a running back as we've seen enter the

(02:07:43):
draft in quite a, long TIME and i do think
he can have that kind, of impact not just, this
year but throughout the length of at least the Seven
years jacksonville should be able to. Keep him you're roll
on through the rest of. The draft not a whole
lot is different than a lot of what. We've seen
maybe a little bit earlier for, this player a little
bit late for that Player Like, tyler booker who is
drafted by a team that plays their Football.

Speaker 4 (02:08:05):
In texas just not here and.

Speaker 6 (02:08:08):
Nowhere near falling to, twenty Five The dallas Cowboys select
Alabama Alignment. Tyler booker definitely don't ex. DO that i
don't expect that for the. Twelfth pick If the cowboys
wanted him and wanted to, MOVE back i could. See
It calvin banks goes fourteen To, the bears who were
in a. Trade situation According, to Pete With indianapolis colts

(02:08:31):
moved up to Grab the, bears PICK which i actually
think is one of those Teams, the bears who are
if someone is trading a, top pick top half of the,
DRAFT pick i put my money On the bears trading
back and they're. At ten this is a trade that
he has For the colts to go After the michigan,
Tight End.

Speaker 4 (02:08:48):
COLSTON loveland i think that's the pick no matter what,
at ten whether It be Chicago.

Speaker 6 (02:08:51):
Or indianapolis and note that that's the second tight end off,
the board and most people would agree The rankings Warren,
To loveland warren going seventh to Who the Jets So
justin fields can miss him with. His Passes, walter nolan
one of, our guys suggested he's off the board. Of
eleven banks is off the board, At fourteen zabels off

(02:09:13):
the board. At eighteen agbuka's off the board. At twenty
and then one of the players we suggested during our
with the twenty fifth pick segment Is A Texan donovan
Jackson Guard. Ohio, state however If the Texans Draft donovan
jackson at number, twenty five does he take snaps this

(02:09:37):
offseason during their offseason program during rookie, Mini camp probably
not much matter because they'll probably have about thirty, Players
there but is he taking snaps initially at multiple spots
at guard or at?

Speaker 5 (02:09:51):
Tackle, guard well so is this gonna be where nobody
is up in arms because they take a guard in the.

Speaker 4 (02:09:59):
First round that's indeed what they end up doing.

Speaker 6 (02:10:01):
Back third of the first round is of. No concern
the fifteenth overall pick is of. Greater concern and That's
what nick did a couple of years Ago With. Kenyon
green usually when you, do that nobody questions it because
that player is so, Obviously awesome like he'd be a
player that most people would put their a player, a
guard you an. Interior linement if he was draft in the,
top fifteen that's likely a player that's in the top

(02:10:22):
five on most people's. Draft board the overall talent like
not where he's gonna, Get picked Like cam ward's not
the number one player on. Anybody's board he's just the number.
One pick he's not the. Top talent he's not even
a top. Five talent but an offensive lineman on the
interier that's gonna get drafted, that high at say, at
Fifteen like green Was, with nick he'd probably have been
regarded as one of the five to eight best talents in,

(02:10:45):
the Draft And kenyan.

Speaker 9 (02:10:46):
Green Wasn't quentin nelson was the number six, overall pick
and most thought he was the best player In, the,
yeah twenty it would have.

Speaker 4 (02:10:51):
To be that's when you're not up in arms. About it,
hey see let me let me calm you down for.

Speaker 9 (02:10:55):
A second the best center IN, the nfl for, my
money was drafted twenty. Fifth overall the, best center the,
best center and it's an interi your. Offensive lineman that's
the POINT that i was just trying to make is
that the interier offensive lineman you get them at, twenty
five you're not complaining as much because if you expect
them to be, quality starter maybe, probo caliber you're not

(02:11:17):
expecting all pro the way that when you are in the,
top fifteen you better have that elite attribute that stands
out about. Your tape, and again in some of the
players we're, talking about because of their body or what
they literally did for whichever school they were, playing for
there's some clear. Positional flexibility Before the texans go all
out and trying to create, positional flexibility there, are players,

(02:11:40):
You know jackson was somebody we mentioned because not just
because Of the simmons injury with, his teammate but appears
that playing at either spot is something that different teams might.
View differently booker seems much more likely to. Stay inside
zabel as a stay. Inside guy banks is a.

Speaker 6 (02:11:55):
True tackle not everybody is forced to be manipulated to
whatever fits best, For you but there are a handful
of Players the texans are definitively interested in that would
provide that, for them because look at who they. CURRENTLY
have i don't Know Where titus howard. IS playing i
assume he's playing on, the INTERIOR because I Assume blake
fisher is, a TACKLE and I Assume cam Robinson Or
trent brown starts at the other. Tackle position not knowing who,

(02:12:17):
THEY'RE drafting, I think I Assume jared patterson is first
in line among, THE centers, i think And Then juwe
scruggs is battling for playing TIME somewhere, I guess. I
mean and there's no Way That cole popovich has a
clear picture of what this is easier either their new offensive.
Line coach they none of these players went on the

(02:12:38):
field at any time during their seasons last year and
played so well at their, spot that of course he's
playing there. Next year some of those guys, were elsewhere
but most of those guys were here and nobody played,
So well, they're like we gotta have him here because
we know what we have and we.

Speaker 5 (02:12:54):
Like it, All right we are going to manage to
get a little bit more football conversation in before before
we Transition into Astros.

Speaker 4 (02:13:02):
On deck we'll do that when we return.

Speaker 1 (02:13:06):
The Eighteen On sports talk SEVEN, ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:13:19):
A, team continues we are a segment Away from Astros,
on deck getting you ready for the sweep at the
hands of your astros Over The Toronto blue jays before we.
Do that tell me if you've heard, this before Wex
a titans legend who never Played in nashville is the
focal point of a situation regarding.

Speaker 6 (02:13:43):
That team, All right so There's There's, Dan Pastorini There's,
bruce matthews, Uh Huh, Mike Munchak, Kenny Burrows, Curly Culp.
Elvin bethay several of These Are Pro football Hall of fame.

Speaker 4 (02:13:56):
Caliber talents.

Speaker 8 (02:13:58):
You.

Speaker 5 (02:13:58):
Haven't missed you haven't made one mention of An actual
Hall of famer Here that i'm speaking of Of.

Speaker 6 (02:14:05):
The hall i've Mentioned some hall. Of famers she's not
the one. YOU'RE speaking i Can't say, STEVE McNair i
Can't Say. Eddie george they, did done they Split time.
Titans Uniforms so i'm gonna put the. Pieces together so
he's how did? You describe he's at the center of.
A controversy it's, a situation center of. The situation so
he's in a situationship With. The titans apparently. That's right

(02:14:26):
i'm gonna guess, pretty clearly correctly because it seems. Rather
obvious It's a titans legend who never, played there And
the titans could only be in the news because they
hold the number one pick in.

Speaker 4 (02:14:38):
The draft it's going to be.

Speaker 6 (02:14:39):
A quarterback so that brings me to one of the
brothers in arms Here.

Speaker 4 (02:14:43):
In Houston That's.

Speaker 6 (02:14:44):
WARREN moon I Know warren moon has had a relationship With,
the TEXANS but i know he has a relationship With,
the titans being that that is the franchise he.

Speaker 4 (02:14:54):
Played for so does he disagree with?

Speaker 6 (02:14:58):
Their, choice no does he disagree with the direction the
franchise is heading in with all their Movement of rabel
out And ran, Carthon out, AND no i don't know. About,
that okay but it's not related. To that so it
is related To. Cam, Ward, HUH well I guess i'll
let you. Tell US but i have one. More guess

(02:15:18):
we'll go ahead and. Guess it is it?

Speaker 4 (02:15:20):
Costume, related yes so it's his.

Speaker 5 (02:15:23):
Jersey number he's not he's not wearing a costume because
he's not a manager of a.

Speaker 4 (02:15:26):
Baseball team they don't have one of.

Speaker 6 (02:15:27):
Those There So warren moon made the number one very
popular in the h And. In minnesota some would say
it still is, it IS and i Suppose cam ward
would like to do.

Speaker 4 (02:15:38):
The same.

Speaker 5 (02:15:39):
He, is uh if he's wanting to wear that number With,
the Titans Then warren moon would consider allowing him to
wear the jersey number that he never wore as a
member Of.

Speaker 4 (02:15:53):
The Titans that's That's what i'm.

Speaker 5 (02:15:55):
Getting, at yeah that's Not How paul kaharski entitled his article.
On this, he said If cam ward wants to wear
number one With, The Titans warren moon will.

Speaker 6 (02:16:04):
CONSIDER it i added. Some, Context now i'm not tight With.
The titans not up On my. TITANS history i Know
the titans haven't Won Any.

Speaker 4 (02:16:17):
Super bowls.

Speaker 2 (02:16:17):
THEY haven't i.

Speaker 6 (02:16:19):
Know they have a reasonably poor football history that hasn't
gotten much better since They. Left houston they were in
the championship game of. The conference they were in back
to back Seasons As. HOUSTON oilers i haven't done That, as.
Titans though they have reached The super bowl with their, incredibly,
talented savvy smart mustachio Head Coach. Jeff fisher but do

(02:16:44):
they have a bunch of zero through ninety nine's that
are off limits or Something that?

Speaker 4 (02:16:50):
I'm missing are?

Speaker 11 (02:16:51):
They?

Speaker 6 (02:16:51):
Retired Number Is warren moon's? Number retired here's.

Speaker 5 (02:16:55):
THE thing i don't Even think i'm aware of whether
or not that's. THE case i would have assume that
they would have at least. Considered, it well they have six?

Speaker 4 (02:17:04):
Numbers retired who? Are they eight?

Speaker 9 (02:17:06):
Numbers retired, My Apologies, Warren moon, Steve McNair, Eddie George,
Earl Campbell, Jim Norton, Mike Munchak, alvin Bethea And.

Speaker 4 (02:17:16):
Bruce, matthews well so.

Speaker 6 (02:17:19):
Ten years With, The titans i'm Sorry, the oilers and he,
was great a ton, of touchdowns a ton. Of yards
seven of those, ten years the Number One warren Moon
Led houston oilers made the playoffs and seven consecutive years
they didn't make it to the conference. Title game his

(02:17:41):
jersey was retired almost twenty. Years ago we have a
franchise here That Gives red jackets out and they've Got
a ring. Of honor there's two people, in it neither
of whom played in a conference, title GAME Either jj
Watt And.

Speaker 4 (02:17:55):
Andre johnson They're.

Speaker 6 (02:17:57):
Probably bob McNair is, in there and he definitely didn't.
PLAY people i. Meant, players okay he's probably been. To
one i'm sure one Of the hunt family invited him
to one of the games at. SOME point, i mean
he knows the, owners are, they're friends he works on committees. With,
HIM hey i got an extra seat in. My suite
you want to come up here for?

Speaker 4 (02:18:13):
This grace.

Speaker 6 (02:18:14):
He's, here, uh well during the time where the invite
might have, BEEN offered. I don't i don't know that
she might have been a little. Bit Younger Plus kansas
city probably wasn't hosting the games even at.

Speaker 4 (02:18:22):
THE time.

Speaker 6 (02:18:24):
I guess this is more Normal than i'm probably giving
teams credit for the idea that they have To be oh,
my god this is like the greatest player in the
history of. The, league well to get their. Number retired
if you look at the Group that cole just, rattled
OFF and i basically had mentioned all, of them they
were Awesome in, euler's uniforms not Very awesome titans.

Speaker 4 (02:18:45):
Necessarily not he will. Consider it so what does?

Speaker 5 (02:18:48):
That mean So What paul, kaharski wrote and we foud
him on the show, several times he wrote two things,
of note the team would have to be willing to.

Speaker 4 (02:18:55):
Unwrap it that's the phrasing.

Speaker 5 (02:18:57):
He used and then unwritten hiring numbers is not, unheard
of Which it isn't?

Speaker 6 (02:19:04):
You mean like If pat riley drafted somebody in this
year's draft and they wanted to wear, twenty three they
Would Unretire michael jordan's Twenty three, heat, jersey well which.

Speaker 4 (02:19:14):
Is, retired yeah that's that's just. As different did that
go outside?

Speaker 5 (02:19:18):
The, box yeah that's different because that's just an example
Of the heat.

Speaker 6 (02:19:21):
Being stupid so what If the, texans draft they move
up And Draft matthew golden at number eight and despite
not wearing IT at U of H, or texas, HE
says i want to. WEAR eighty i need Eighty or
i'm not, playing here, trade me. Trade them I've Hired

(02:19:41):
eli manning's family as. My agent i'm not going to,
play here and he's going to help, orchestrate that?

Speaker 4 (02:19:48):
Oh Sir, FOR ski i.

Speaker 6 (02:19:49):
Don't care it seems LIKE a i wouldn't really want
to be in the business as an organization of unretiring numbers,
For anybody.

Speaker 5 (02:19:57):
Well unless You're, the celtics and then you probably have
to because you're. Running, out no. You're not have you
ever Been? To boston they got a billion.

Speaker 6 (02:20:03):
Retired numbers we also go double zero zero all the
way to. Ninety nine it's now becoming. Pretty, normal well
like fifty numbers are, retired, There right but it's becoming
pretty NORMAL for nba players to get issued. A jersey
in the fifties or sixties, or seven it used to be.
Much more the officials don't have the right number of
fingers on their hands to display to the official, scorers

(02:20:24):
table so they need. Lower, numbers yeah but like, one
thing well two eighty to retire, a number you, have
enough RIGHT that i.

Speaker 4 (02:20:31):
Know of especially when it Comes.

Speaker 5 (02:20:32):
To houston no one's ever going to wear number thirty
four For, the rockets and no one's ever going to
be wearing number.

Speaker 4 (02:20:37):
Twenty three For, the, Bulls right so at what point
is have they gotten to? This level you're. Never unretired
i'm fine.

Speaker 6 (02:20:42):
With this the only time you need that many numbers
for your team is, during camp during the, off season
before you play. Real games so it's also okay for
more than one player to have the. Same number and
whereas you can't wear one or, thirty four or you
can't wear, but ay or you can't wear, those numbers.

Speaker 4 (02:20:58):
That's, Fine yeah and we're talking about The, stupid titans
and we're talking About.

Speaker 6 (02:21:02):
Cam ward not of no offense To, cam ward but
he just happens to be the quarterback they're drafting with
the number.

Speaker 4 (02:21:07):
One pick can we?

Speaker 12 (02:21:08):
Move?

Speaker 4 (02:21:08):
On, please yeah we can. Move on we're gonna get
It to Astros.

Speaker 6 (02:21:11):
On deck we got baseball, To discuss we got ball
games to play right Here On sports talk Seven ninety
SO The a team With the Astros on deck show comes.

Speaker 4 (02:21:20):
Your, Way NEXT

Speaker 1 (02:21:22):
The a Team On sports talk seven ninety