Rocky Start For Astros, Rocky Start For Nick Caserio With Joe Mixon

Wex and AC can't beleive that the Astros lost by more than ONE to the Colorado Rockies with Hunter Brown on the mound, but they're even more upset that Joe Mixon is expected to miss time on the NFI list. How much time? Literally no one knows!....or won't report on it. Sam Khan from The Athletic joins to fix college football and Astros pitcher AJ Blubaugh stop by to talk about his 30 second date with Hello Kitty....oh and baseball!

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Raised, my Girl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan Multipi. The magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports.
Chill lge down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
Talking Your Teams? Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the

(00:33):
A Team.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
A Ross VIIa O texting me in the first minute
of the show from vacation.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Come on, Ross, look at the time. I think he's
in a different time zone than I saw. I'll give
him a pass.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
I'll text Ross back after this opening segment because we
have a lot to get to on the show today.
It is a Wednesday edition of the program. Wex is
over there ac right here. Cole Thompson is our producer,
and we'll have you until six o'clock tonight, at which
point we will make way for Astros on deck, where
they will be trying to win their first game of

(01:18):
the series against the Colorado Rockies. Why is it that
guys with inflated eras and little experience relatively speaking, tend
to dominate the Astros no matter who they are or
what team they play for, but especially when they play
for historically one of the worst teams in the history
of Major League Baseball, because.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
That's what happened last night.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
They had no problems getting hits off of Hunter Brown
and taking advantage of mistakes that were being made, and
no shortage of runs crossing the plate. You'redon Alvarez's return was,
I'd say lackluster from the standpoint of They clearly did
not want to pitch anywhere near the zone against him,
at least in his first two appearances at the plate.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
Smartly, but that was a whole bunch of suck last night.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Wex I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, and I'm not panicking
over one game. I'm just pissed off that they rolled
over and died against the worst team in baseball.

Speaker 6 (02:09):
Done it about thirty times this year, there was probably
another ten more to come. Rockies have won thirty seven
games before last night. Now they have thirty eight. They
drew within fifty six games of five hundred with the
victory last night. They're not gonna be able to get
there before the end of the season or anytime soon.
Both starting pitchers allowed six hits in last night's game.

(02:29):
Both starting pitchers did not need to overcome an ending
double playball. Potentially that was the Astros pitcher, and he
couldn't do it. I got worse as he continued in
that inning could have been a nine pitch inning, cost
him eighteen pitches and cost the team four runs on
a flip from Duban catching fire from Jeremy Pane, which

(02:49):
turned into a double error for Jeremy Pania.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
Four runs would score in the inning. Two more runs
would come later in the game.

Speaker 6 (02:56):
Either of those runs scoring innings were more than enough
to handle the Astros' home run. They hit a solo
home run. In last night's game twenty seven outs. Astros
had a solo homer and five other hits that led
to nothing. They're in the same position this morning as
they were the day before and have been many times
during this long, long stretch of playing very under performing baseball, substandard.

Speaker 5 (03:25):
Not up to par. That's what Jeff Van.

Speaker 6 (03:28):
Losing. The Astros are twelve games over five hundred. They
have been as many as eighteen games over five hundred.
In mid July, I rolled through Los Angeles with that
unexpected but overwhelming sweep, but as late as July twenty third,
after winning four in a row, to close out their
first road trip of the post All Star Break portion

(03:50):
of their schedule. There were sixty to forty two. They
were eighteen games over five hundred. They promptly lost five
in a row, and they've basically been going back and
forth and of sitting at that spot. Losing five in
a row put some thirteen games over. There are twelve
games over today. They're an average baseball team for a
very very very long period. Basically almost the entirety of

(04:13):
the post All Star Break portion of the season, and
nearly all of it spent teams looking up at them,
and that continues to be the case. Mariners had an
interesting night of their own by giving up a five
spot in the first inning, then hitting two three run
homers and the fifth inning to take the lead in
that game against Dylan Cec, who thankfully is not pitching

(04:34):
for the Astros for two months, and then leaving to
pitch poorly somewhere else. And then the Padres came back
and got a pair of runs off of former Astro
Caleb Ferguson, and the Mariners again an opportunity at home
to take a game off of the Astros lead, they
did not so as they begin play in about an hour.
They still sit a game and a half back of

(04:56):
Houston and the Astros hopefully will with fromber vald is
definitely being looked at in this situation as a they
gotta get this. You can't lose the series, you can't
lose a third game in a row, and you will
have completed that full trip through the rotation, starting with
that road trip in Baltimore where you won the first three,

(05:17):
and then we're giving the ball to Raghetty, Hunter Brown
and from ber Valdez. Presumably you're gonna keep winning and
it absolutely has not happened. Day game tomorrow to close
out the series, and then they finish the home stand
with seven more games, the Angels and then the Yankees.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
Clearly we'll get into a few of the things.

Speaker 6 (05:37):
Last night a huge dud and nothing, no thud from
the return of Jordan Alvarez, not really any fault of
his own. Hit one to the wall, grounded out, and
was pitched around twice. Pitching around him is something I
think teams will do no matter what astro on the
current roster is behind him, So I'm not real concern
that Christian Walker was that person last night, although he

(06:00):
has done this most much of the season. But you,
like I said, I don't think we're gonna see a
whole lot of yord On Alvarez batting fourth. I thought
yesterday made a lot of sense for him to do so,
and I split up of their left handed bats in
the lineup and an additional left handed bat with Kartini
catching four Hunter Brown. But nonetheless, that's what teams are

(06:20):
going to decide to do. I'm not sure when we'll
find out if the real Jordon has arrived, but often
teams will do what they did last night. If he
bats in front of Korea, maybe Korea makes them pay more.
If he bats in front of Altuve, maybe he makes
him pay more. But I don't think it's going to
change a whole lot of how teams attack the Astros.
There's eight other guys in the lineup that's just got
off of a road trip through Baltimore where they scored seven,

(06:42):
ten and nine runs over a three day stretch.

Speaker 5 (06:45):
That's twenty six runs.

Speaker 6 (06:46):
This three day stretch following that will conclude with tonight's game,
and unless they put twenty three runs on the board tonight,
they will come up just shy of the twenty six.
It's the same Rocky. We've said from or at least
I've said from that jump. This team scores runs when
they homer when they slug. It's not always true with

(07:06):
every team, it's definitely true with some teams.

Speaker 5 (07:09):
It's true with the Yankees.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
They happen to slug a lot more than Houston, so
they score a lot more than Houston. Today is a
great example. They're in the fifth inning of their game
looking for their seventh home run of the afternoon. The
Astros aren't quite that, but when they show a little pop,
a little extra base power, not only talking about home runs,
then they're a much better team. And they have a
roster that should be doing that a little bit more often.

(07:31):
So I'm not telling them to do something they're not
capable of, and they certainly are capable of taking two
of three now the best they can do against the
Rockies and keeping the Mariners exactly where they are. A
couple days of practice for the Texans today and tomorrow,
then a weekend off. They'll be in game week next week,
so our opportunity to catch up with Nick Cassario and

(07:52):
Demiko Ryans earlier today, along with three players who made
the initial fifty three man roster. Some teams have already
made announcements releases of who they have added to their
practice squad. And like we explained yesterday, over the last
five years, the rules have changed dramatically, and not everyone
has followed along. A fifty three men, initial fifty three
men roster used to actually truly matter and talking to

(08:14):
guys the day after about how awesome it is to
make the team and recognizing how you really better have
put your roster together, really really well. You only got
eight guys on the practice squad and they're only allowed
to come up a very very small number of times.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
That's not what the NFL is in anymore.

Speaker 7 (08:29):
Now.

Speaker 6 (08:29):
Texans is gonna have seventy players available to them every week.
They're gonna have a sixteen player practice squad. They're gonna
have an international player available to them. They have many
more activations available to them with those players. So the
initial fifty three a it's not even gonna be the
fifty three they go into the Rams game with. But
you're not limited to fifty three players. Nick Cassero helped

(08:50):
I hope explain that a little bit today, as I
have here but he did not help explain other than
their very very firm plan is anything with on Joe Mixon,
that's the path they've chosen. They've been extremely clear about it.
The way they're handling mix In only is slightly different
than any other injuries, and that it did not happen
in season, it did not happen on site. So there

(09:13):
is a little bit more of a question about it
because we don't know what it is from them. There's
been reporting on some of the parts of it, but
some very very lengthy answers as to their reasons why
they deal with it in this manner as they did
today with us. Many questions asked of Nick about it,
many questions asked of Demico about it, and their explanations

(09:33):
we're happy to share with you, but there is any
more clarity on it other than they're making sure if
you want to speculate, and that is something we're going
to do. They're making sure if you want to speculate
that much more than four games will be missed or
ten games will be missed, all seventeen games plus postseason
games will be missed. The door is absolutely open for

(09:54):
that speculation, not only because they haven't given us the
information that they have have to refute it. But they're
even answering questions like no, we'll see you, we'll see
we don't know, So it's it's it's it's an interesting decision,
and they do acknowledge one thing.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
Not all teams do this.

Speaker 6 (10:13):
Yeah, the teams that don't encourage and fuel the speculation.
You're asking us to take our four hour show us
specifically and just call it a day after three hours? Like,
what is it that you want us to do? Not
talk like you're you're you don't have to talk about
it in this way. And I also understand we're not

(10:35):
do certain information. I don't blame them necessarily for how
they want to handle certain things. I really don't, and
I've said that many times. This goes for all of
the teams. But you can't then also expect us to
just leave it and just not say anything and not guess,
because that's what you're asking, is what you're you know,
tell me tell me this without telling me that that's

(10:55):
what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
No, I like, I agree, I think it's but you know,
I make the joke, but it is I do kind
of mean it when I say it.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
We're weathered. We're seasoned veterans of this approach.

Speaker 6 (11:06):
Yeah, I only hate this discussion because it's the Astro's fault,
totally avoidable. I'm the Texans aren't doing anything wrong. I
don't believe with how they handle injuries. The Rockets aren't
doing anything wrong with how they handle injuries. I'm talking
about how they handle the injury. Talk about it right,
not how they deal with it in the media, none

(11:26):
of that. They're two totally different things. But the Astros
have mishandled injuries clearly, definitively, no question about it. And
then on top of it, the manner in which they've
gone about describing some of those things. It just the
hole gets dug a little bit deeper in some instances.
And you know, Dana and Joe, I think oftentimes are
put in an extremely unenviable position, whether it's their decision

(11:49):
to be the front of all this discussion about medical
talk or not, that is where they are. Like Joe
was yesterday, like Dana was today right here on Sports Talks.
We'll hear from Dana Brown as he made his weekly
appearance on The Sean Salisbury Show, and you can hear
it in his words. Both about the activities yesterday on
the ball field, the return of your on and other things. Again,

(12:11):
they're past some of those, but in the Astros case,
the additional part of it is this didn't happen for
the first time a couple of weeks ago. Is season's
worth of extremely questionable decision making regarding the health of
their players, internal handling of how to get players healthy
and back on the field, and all the time they've

(12:31):
got an owner who likes to be exceptionally involved, which
can be a very very good thing, and in his case,
with all the winning, I'd say Jim Crane's heavy involvement
and how this team is run has been a good thing.
And yet he's kind of just standing idly by watching
this athletic performance staff and multiple general managers and multiple

(12:53):
managers deal with things that you would think of someone
investing this amount of money in his baseball players individually
and as a whole would say, well, this is wrong,
Well we're not doing it right.

Speaker 5 (13:05):
Dealing with it, and that change correct.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
And I think, honestly, not from anything I know, not
from anything you know or anything we've heard, I just
think process of elimination that changes this offseason.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
I would hope so.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Anyways, because I really don't want to do this again
in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
After the parade, they can go ahead and do that.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
Well, after the parade, I would say that most owners, did.

Speaker 5 (13:27):
You just get here?

Speaker 8 (13:27):
Did you?

Speaker 6 (13:28):
Were you listening to the radio station last night? During
Astros Baseball a parade?

Speaker 5 (13:34):
Yeah? The parade? You know, you you win the division,
you get the two seed because Toronto falls apart, you
get the week off, you handle the DS, you handle
the CS, and then you handle the padres in the
World Series. I was going to go down a parade.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
I was going to go down a very different road
in which I was going to say, well, surely Jim
Crane wouldn't fire anybody of importance after winning a championship,
but he's already done that before. Anyway, Yeah, we will
hear or we will talk more about, particularly the division
that the Astros are in as it pertains to I
don't even know what to make of it. You could,
I could, I could listen to two different schools of

(14:08):
thought and maybe we'll talk about those. But we'll definitely
talk about that, and we'll hear from Nick Cassario on
the aforementioned Joe Mixon situation. When we return on a
Wednesday edition of the program The.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (14:36):
The fact what you're here on the eight team of
on a Wednesday edition of the program, leaden to Astros baseball.
As per usual, they've got the Rockies again tonight seven
to ten. First pitch, so Astros on deck, coming your
way at six o'clock. We'll hear from both Dana Brown
at three o'clock and Brian Bogus seven five point fifteen,
we'll talk a little football with Sam Cohn, junior covers

(14:58):
college football for the Athletic We'll do so with him
at three point thirty.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
Our own SEC.

Speaker 6 (15:03):
Insider and Crawford box cast host Chris Gordy will join
us in studio at four o'clock, and in about ten
minutes we'll have a conversation with Astro's pitcher aj Blueball.
He will join us on the show today in advance
of the Astros second game of their ten game homestand
against the Rockies. Obviously, we open the show with both

(15:23):
the Astros and the Texans. The Astros conversation I will
continue the Texans conversation is very much hitting a brick
Wall as it pertains to a player who's not going
to play against the Rams or the Bucks, or the
Jags or the Titans over the first four weeks of
the season. Joe Mixon may or may not play against
the Baltimore Ravens. He will, like the rest of the team,

(15:45):
take off Week six because they don't have a game
that week. We don't really know much about the rest
of the season. We know who's on the current roster.
Most of the reporting Aaron Wilson among others, noting what
is usually the case with Nick Cassario and the practice squad,
good camp with the Texans, you come back as part
of their practice squad. Thirteen of those spots have been
reported by Aaron that I am aware of, and all

(16:08):
thirteen of those are Texans that we're here in camp,
including Harrison Bryant, which gives them at least three tight ends.

Speaker 5 (16:15):
Bryant's probably gonna end up on the.

Speaker 6 (16:17):
Roster versus the activations only because you get three of
them before the player would then either have to be
waived or put on the active roster. So I imagine that's
where they are headed with that, and nothing's gonna change
in the running back room. I don't think with who
was available except for maybe one player, and it was
reported yesterday. We definitely will get into that, and there

(16:37):
may be others. Not a lot of quarterback movement after
players that were waved. We'll see if anything changes with
the Texans carrying a third. It's Tommy DeVito, the long
quarterback that was actually claimed off of waivers. No longer
a New York Giant, so probably not going to carry
with him the nickname Tommy Cutlets. But we shall see
the commentary. Obviously, because of the magnitude of the player.

(17:00):
Were talking about Joe Mixon, and looking around the league
we've talked about this, there aren't that many teams who
are expected to be without somebody important among their skill
position players no offense to the offensive lineman. Quite a
few of them have unfortunately gone down. But Joe Mixon
is one of the more high profile players whose availability

(17:20):
for the season is currently unknown, not just from a
timetable standpoint, but much more unknown than any other player
probably out there, maybe other than Micah Parsons, who apparently
is getting a second opinion on his back injury, which
could additionally lead to angst this season because he's really
good at football and that could keep him off the field,
not just the contract controversy going on in Little d

(17:42):
but Nick Cassario on Joe Mixon. Sure, that was first
thing in the morning. Demiko Ryans on Joe Mixon. That
came a little bit later in the afternoon, and each
of them had extended thoughts about how the Texans handle
their injuries, both describing it as a protect the player idea.
But initially, we'll just let you get started on Dimiko

(18:03):
Ryans on the Joe Mixon timeline.

Speaker 9 (18:06):
For Joe's situation, sorr As, we just take it one
day at a time, and you know, Joe has played
a lot of football. Whenever that time comes for Joe
to be back and get back in the fold, it
won't be anything revolutionary that he hasn't seen before, he
hasn't done from the football perspective, Joe's outstanding football player.
So whenever that time comes, I feel like he'll have

(18:27):
a very easy transition.

Speaker 6 (18:29):
Back to Yeah, the question why he answered it that
way was about if there would be any difficulty in
the fact that he has not practiced while Nick Cayley
has been the offensive coordinator for this team and as obviously.
Dimiko said, of course not. He'll be fine. He's been
around long enough and he'll be fine. That's not of
any concern for them, and I wouldn't have thought so either.

(18:49):
But again about the timeline, not really much of a
when he's ready, he'll be ready, right, Demko.

Speaker 9 (18:54):
Mike'spectation is for Joe, we're taking it one day at
a time, and when he's ready to be back, he'll
be back.

Speaker 6 (19:00):
And that was a more specific question about the timeline.
I had one for him later, and it's more of
the same. And like I said, I get it because
they're telling us this is what we want to do,
and it just does open the door for I mean,
we're not reporting anything incorrect. I don't plan to, uh,
but we can certainly speculate on it. And our speculation

(19:22):
could absolutely be incorrect.

Speaker 5 (19:25):
Why wouldn't it be well, a couple of times correct.
But we'll be guessing.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
Reading the transcripts from his answers from you know what
Nick Cassario said about this, hat said about this will
continue in all likelihood to say about this. It was
nothing that I didn't expect. But here's the other thing,
and this is true about any situation, whether it be injuries,
whether it be depth chart, whether it be depth chart

(19:52):
affected by the injuries or anything else. If the Texans
come out and win three out of four or go
four and zero or whatever, and the running game specifically
looks just not even great. It's just it's it's they're
getting the job done. You won't get Joe Mixing questions.
You just won't because there's gonna be too many other
good things to talk about. Uh well, I don't think

(20:13):
you'll get a Joe Mixing question. You You won't for
four weeks?

Speaker 5 (20:17):
Yeah, I will. Why because you know he's turning back.
I don't know that.

Speaker 8 (20:22):
You don't.

Speaker 5 (20:22):
You do know the exact amount of time that he's
not gonna play, Yes, you.

Speaker 6 (20:25):
Do, four weeks, yes, But during that four weeks the
opportunity to practice exists. Is he practicing well, then maybe
there's the idea that we're gonna open up the twenty
one day window for him to return to the team.
Is he not practicing well, He's definitely not coming back
to play against Baltimore because he hasn't even seen the
field yet, so will have some information because of where
he currently sits on their roster. Which is on the

(20:45):
reserve pup list. I don't care how the team does
without him. That does nothing relevant to me, Like.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
He's he's partly don't care how the team does without
the number one running back on the depth chart.

Speaker 5 (20:55):
Well, it doesn't.

Speaker 6 (20:56):
I don't care to the point that I'm not gonna
ask about Joe Mixing because they can run the Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
But the point is, like even if he's, even if
it's about a practice situation, what I'm saying is, if
if the team is playing well, I don't think there's
gonna be a ton of Joe Mixing questions. Whereas if
they're if they win one of their first four games
or first three, you know that he misses and the
running game is just abysmal, you're gonna get a plethora
of those questions.

Speaker 5 (21:20):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (21:21):
Yeah, I think that's definitely fair. And clearly, they're not
playing any games.

Speaker 5 (21:25):
I didn't communicate it effectively, what it was.

Speaker 6 (21:28):
They're not playing any games right now. They haven't played
any games since January. It's August, right, so there aren't
any games to discuss, and I'm certainly not gonna talk
too much about how the players. They just released how
they performed in the preseason games. But yeah, Joe Mixon
hasn't been a part of this team since Nick Kayley arrived,
since Chris Strasser was fired. He hasn't been a part

(21:50):
of the on field product of this team. He's been
at the facilities obviously tried to get back on the field,
but he simply has not been able to do so.
In the timeline of when they signed Nick Chubb paints
very seemingly clear picture of free agency was open for
weeks and months and no outside running back of note
was added to this team until basically the end of
OTAs and that's when Nick Chubb was added. Because clearly,

(22:13):
I would think I keep saying clearly because it seems
so obvious it was a neat area and that's how
they've attacked it. Obviously, they had already drafted Woody Marks
and had other players under contract, and we'll see where
it goes from here. There is much more to hear
from them, and some of it at length. Will try
to give that to you before we get to the
three o'clock hour, but also want to get some time
in for aj Bluebaugh, Astro's pitcher back with the team

(22:36):
as of yesterday, and it's performed quite well in his
recent opportunities.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
He joined us here on the A Team, next.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (22:51):
Back here with you on the A Team on a Wednesday.

Speaker 6 (22:54):
Adam Wesler and Adam Clinton here with you as we
get set to talk a little bit more Astro's Baseball
off of last night's game and the continuation of the
ten game home stand. Please to be joined by Astros
pitcher aj Blueball here on the show.

Speaker 5 (23:07):
Back with the Astros.

Speaker 6 (23:09):
And you know, Aj, I could say this has kind
of been an up and down season, and I wouldn't
necessarily be referring to your performance, but has it felt
a little bit like a roller coaster at up and
down season? And that you've been in sugar Land, You've
been with Houston, You've been in sugar Land, You've been
in Houston, and you're back with the Astros.

Speaker 10 (23:26):
Now, Yeah, definitely. I mean I'm kind of just trying
to look at it as every time I get the ball,
I take advantage of the opportunity to compete, and no
matter where that is, I'm going to approach it the
same way.

Speaker 6 (23:39):
Were you a little bit more locked in on that
maybe this last time out, knowing that the odds were
pretty good they would need you and they would need
you for length, And then you went out there and
did that when you were in Baltimore.

Speaker 10 (23:51):
Yeah, I mean we talked about it before the game.
You know, I understand the job they need me to do,
and if that's what I need to do to help
the team win, that's what I'm.

Speaker 11 (24:00):
Going to do. Now.

Speaker 6 (24:01):
I didn't know i'd have this on the table for
me to ask you this until early last night before
the game began. But you said, every time you take
the ball, you get the ball, you want to compete.
The last time you got the ball in an Astros
uniform was, in fact, yesterday, with the ceremonial first pitch
thrown to you by Hello Kitty. In any way you'd
like describe that opportunity yesterday.

Speaker 10 (24:24):
Well, I mean I was honored. I mean, she she's
more famous than than I would ever be. So the
fact that I was able to do that and end
up shaking her hand after, you know, I was I
was in shock. Honestly.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Those jerseys that I'm sure you saw around you in
the stadium were like, these are high value items. These
were highly sought after items. Did you have anybody hit
you up for one like I did?

Speaker 10 (24:50):
No, But I know my girlfriend wants a Hello Kitty purse,
so I might have to talk to people see if
I can get one for her.

Speaker 5 (24:57):
I think you could probably handle that. You know, talk
about getting the job done.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
You talk about just trying to do your part, your job,
And that's so much a part of what baseball is
because it is such a team game, and especially for
a pitcher, because there's so many things that are out
of your control, even though you do seemingly control what's
going on in any half innings. Has there been any
pressure in your mind because of who you're doing it
for or who you're trying to do that job for,

(25:23):
and the recent success of this particular organization that you're
a part of.

Speaker 10 (25:30):
I would to say pressure is the right word, because
and the way I look at it is, right now,
I'm trying to be a vessel for the Lord and
I'm letting him work through me on the mound though
you know, whether I do good or do bad, and
He's still going to love me. And as long as
I get his message across, I think that's the wind
in the big, big schem of things. Now, I think

(25:52):
the more that I trust and believe in him, the
I like to say that it reciprocates on the field.
So I think if if I check one box, the
other box get checked.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
If that makes sense, No, absolutely, And I think that
that would certainly be a very effective way of taking
any sort of pressure that would be on you in
any sort of situation. This has been I feel like
we have interviewed so many of guys that are, like you,
just young guy. You're twenty five years old, if I'm
not mistaken, just so much youth that has had that

(26:25):
has contributed and had to contribute because of the injury
situation to what is still a first place team in
the AL West.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
Do you ever look around and think, how are we
doing this?

Speaker 4 (26:35):
Or are you guys just so focused on it that
you kind of block out any sort of noise or
any sort of you know, internal I guess comprehension of
what you guys have been able to do with all
of these injuries.

Speaker 10 (26:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think it was pretty evident the
first time it came up that this is a pretty tight,
tight knit group of men here. You know, they're they're
very accepting they I feel like they don't look at
me as a rookie, and I don't think they looked
as anyone else as a rookie. They look at more
as like you can help us win. I mean, you know,
Carlos and Jose they both came up to me. I
look up to those guys. I mean, those are some

(27:09):
of the best players in the game right now, and
they walk up to me and said, Hey, what's up.
First thing, you know, And you know, just seeing that
they look at me as one of their teammates that
don't look at me is look down on me at all.
So like just seeing that, that's the confidence, you know,
and the coaching staff they have confidence in me, or
else they wouldn't be giving me this opportunity.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
So like.

Speaker 7 (27:28):
All these people who.

Speaker 10 (27:29):
Believe in me, as well as everyone back home and
everyone from college, you know, I feel like that all
adds up. And if I just go out there and
do what they know I'm capable of, what I know
I'm capable of, and what the Good Lord knows I'm
capable of, and I think the rest will take.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
Care of itself.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
So talk with aj Blueball here of the Astros, they've
got the Rocky Tonight over at dyke In Park right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety uh. The year you
get drafted twenty twenty two, you become an Astro, you
sign a professional career, you begin your baseball career. It's
the same year the Astros won their most recent a
World Series as you entered the organization and they claimed
the championship. In the years maybe that have passed since,

(28:06):
do you think about how you've been a part of
a team that won immediately upon your arrival at the
big league level and they're still there as you're trying
to help them do it again.

Speaker 12 (28:17):
Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 8 (28:19):
It's so cool.

Speaker 10 (28:20):
I mean I remember being I think I was visiting
my brother in college when they won the World Series,
and it was just a super cool feeling knowing that, like,
I'm with this team. I'm with the team that has
been successful for so many years now. I mean, I
don't know how many PAL Championships we want to row,
but I don't think we've lost since twenty seventeen or

(28:43):
something along those lines. And so just to be a
part of such a winning organization, and obviously they know
what they're doing, they're doing something right and as someone
who came out of college kind of i'd say maxed out,
Like I feel like I still have so much to
learn the mental side of things, the physical side of things,

(29:05):
Like I feel like i've I've barely stepped into baseball,
but I've also feel like I've I've been in baseball
forever since I've been here. So like, it's it's pretty
exciting not knowing how much farther this can take the end,
and I'm glad to be a part of this organization
to take me there.

Speaker 6 (29:20):
Well, if I have this correct AJ from back in
high school, you've been a cult, You've been a panther,
You've been a woodpecker, a tourist, a hook a space cowboy.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
Now you're an astro.

Speaker 6 (29:30):
What has the pitching arsenal been like from the high
school days to where you are today? What do you
like about what you've been able to cultivate in your
arsenal of pitching?

Speaker 11 (29:42):
Uh?

Speaker 10 (29:42):
Well, I mean I really didn't pitch a lot growing up.
Growing up, I was mainly a knuckleball thrower. I didn't
throw hard, and then once I got to think sophomore
junior year of high school, I started experimenting with multiple
different arm slots, so I would throw from up top
arm slot, a sidearm arms slot, and a submarine arm slot,

(30:04):
and then I would throw four different pitches from each
of those arm slots. So it's pretty much a junk
ball thrower. And then one bullpen junior year, Milwaukee came
and watched me, and I threw the hardest I have
ever thrown. I think it was like eighty nine, and
you know, along with different arm slots, and I think
they took me on as a project pitcher. Coach Bigler

(30:26):
was there, and then once I got there, we know,
the fall of college, freshman year of college, we experimented
with the arm slots, and then I think it was
the winter of twenty nineteen, I had a meeting with
them and they were like, hey, we think you could
be pretty good if we if you just focus on
the up top arm slot, you know, put on the weight,

(30:47):
get stronger. And then next a year later, I hit
ninety five for the first time, and that's when I
really stepped into like, you.

Speaker 5 (30:57):
Know, a hard thrower reliever.

Speaker 10 (31:00):
And then obviously once I got to the Astros, they
they decided to make me a starter and you know,
linked them me out a little bit and refine my
off speed pitches, and that pretty much takes the seit today.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Have you had a chance to sit down and have
any conversations with astro's radio color analyst and fellow knuckleballer
Steve Sparks by any chance, I have.

Speaker 10 (31:26):
A little bit. I don't know if he knows I
threw an uncle, but I would love to talk to
him about it. I don't know if it'll ever come
out again, but if it does, I want to say
I'll be ready, but I'm not too sure.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
Well, he's one of the most entertaining individuals we've known,
so I think either way you'll have a good conversation.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
You probably already know.

Speaker 12 (31:44):
That, though.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
Well, AJ, we appreciate the time, and thanks for joining us,
and good luck the rest of this season helping this
Astros team hopefully win yet another division championship and a
nice long playoff run. All right, thank you very much,
absolutely the AJ Blue Ball here on your home for
Astros Baseball Sports Talk seven to ninety.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Well react to that.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
We'll talk a little bit more about Joe Mixon and
so much more as we wrap up the two o'clock hour.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Gonna clean up your looks with all the lazen the
books to make us.

Speaker 9 (32:20):
It is the A team.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Sports Talk seven ninety. We'll begin to simulcast over on
Space City Home Network coming up at three o'clock, six
o'clock we will step aside to get you ready for
Astros and Rockies game two of a three game set
at dik And Park later on tonight. First one not
going so well. We heard from aj blue Baugh, Thanks
again to him. Last segment. He joined us on the

(32:42):
phone lines talk about what's going on with the team,
what's going on with him and you know, just down
the stretch of what is really becoming a I don't
know what to make of the AL West. We were
talking about this off airwex is the AO West the
worst division in baseball or the most competitive division in baseball?

Speaker 5 (33:01):
And I only say that because.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
The Astros just simply collectively rolled over and died last
night just because of who they were playing. How it
unfolded everything that you didn't expect from a Hunter Brown
outing from the return of Jordan. I mean, I wasn't
expecting him to hit a bomb in his first at
bet necessarily, and when you don't get a pitch to
hit two played appearances in a row, that's not gonna happen.

(33:26):
But I just, I guess expected more competitiveness against that team,
and as has been the case so often this year,
they seem to play down to teams like that. But
the Mariners sucked too. They can't hold a lead. They
come back, you said it, two three run bombs in
the sixth inning to take the lead, and they squandered
it the very next half inning and San Diego was

(33:48):
able to hang on as the Mariners dropped one at home.
Now losing to the Padres even at home. There's no
shame in that. But it just doesn't seem like any
time the Astros are like here take the division, Seattle
doesn't ever take it from them.

Speaker 6 (34:00):
I mean, I guess from your question you could answer
it this way. They have the best last place team
in baseball, right, so the worst team in the division
is not a pushover, and have played almost like the
other four teams for about two months now. The Athletics fell,
you know, many games under five hundred a couple months
into the season, and they've stayed there because they've played

(34:20):
good baseball since then. They've played better baseball since then,
to the point they are only ten games below five hundred.
They are eleven games out. I mean that's a lot,
but the A's are only eleven games out. With the
Astros having put all but thirty games under their belts.
They have the same number of wins as the Angels.
They only have five fewer wins than the Rangers. They

(34:41):
only have ten fewer wins than Houston. But on the
flip side, they have two teams over five hundred, neither
one of them is more than twelve games over. That
is the least productive top of a division that any
of them have. You know, the Dodgers are nineteen games over,
the Brewers are thirty three games over, the Phillies, who
are sruggling with injuries, are twenty games over, the Tigers

(35:03):
are twenty two games over, and the Blue Jays are
twenty one games over. Astros are a mere twelve games over.
And like you said, of those twelve games over five hundred,
they are thirty five and twenty seven against teams whose
record is above five hundred, which means they're only four
games over five hundred against teams whose record is below
five hundred, and normally, teams in the first place, no

(35:24):
matter what their record is, they perform a little bit
better against lesser competition. And the Astros have not really
done that at any pocket of the season or overall
for the season. It's been their downfall. You know, the
Mariners are much more in line with that. You know,
the Rangers are just completely imbalanced with regards to that.
The Rangers are seventeen games over five hundred when they

(35:47):
play teams below five hundred, But they can't beat anybody
that's good. They can't even come close. They're one of
the worst teams in baseball. They have twenty five wins
against teams over five hundred, same as the White Sox.
That's more normal for a team who's not great. It
shouldn't be anywhere near what the Astros are against teams
below five hundred. And I just I wish I could

(36:09):
stop saying it, like who pitched last night, It doesn't
matter who's pitching tonight. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter
if Brandon Young is pitching against the Astros. One time
he took a perfect game into the eighth inning. The
other time they ran them off the field. With multiple
runs in the first three innings. Last night they pitched against,
they batted against. It doesn't matter, and tonight they're doing

(36:32):
the same thing. These guys are carrying eras that are
bloated for a reason. Other pitchers like Garrett Crochet, they've
hammered the same pitchers that handled them in Baltimore or
in Houston. For Baltimore couldn't handle them at all in Baltimore.
When the Astros take advantage of mistakes, I think, in
my opinion, when they're more aggressive, they're better. And I

(36:54):
know there's a lot of people out there, man, why
are they always swinging at the first pitch because it's good.
They're not always swinging at the first pitch that's at
their head, that's in the dirt, that's way outside. They
should be swinging at the first pitch if it's good,
and there's some players that don't. And I think that
was care He takes perfect strikes all the time, right
down the middle. And Jacob Melton, I'll give him a
break because he's a kid. He does it constantly, and

(37:18):
it's you're these are the best pitches you're gonna get
either you weren't ready for it. Or the pitcher won
with something deceptive, or you're expecting something else, whatever the
case may be, it is still situational. Like if the
pitcher had a two and two count on a batter
and he threw two balls and walked him, and then
he threw four consecutive balls to the next batter and
walked him. Do you go up to the plate guessing, well,

(37:40):
he's gonna try to find the strike zone, or do
you say this guy doesn't have it, he's not throwing strikes.
I'm going to see if he even can before I
gift him potentially a double play ball or an out,
or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
So it's not a standard here's what you should do.

Speaker 6 (37:55):
But I think, generally speaking, especially against some of these
pitchers who have been hit around, when they give you
a pitch to hit, swing at it and see what happens.
And maybe we've seen games where they have done that,
and all of a sudden, Brandon Young is deep into
the game and you hit fifteen groundouts and no hard contact.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
It is gonna happen. But the names on.

Speaker 6 (38:14):
The back of the jerseys for the group that's at
least batting one through seven most nights these are legitimate
major league hitters. They shouldn't have as many of the
lifeless offensive performances against. It doesn't matters as they have
so far this season because last night's pitcher and tonight's pitcher.
To me, you could trot the same guy back out
there and you're gonna see totally different results for no

(38:36):
reason at all.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
Yeah, that's the way it goes with baseball especially.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
It's just it's unlike any other sport when it comes
to like I was telling what I wasn't telling him
here he knew this, but talking to aj blueball, like
you are in control of a lot of things as
a starting pitcher, and you're not in control of so
many others. So like tonight are we getting and you

(39:01):
love this bad fromber again?

Speaker 5 (39:03):
I mean, why are we limiting it to him?

Speaker 8 (39:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (39:06):
I love one.

Speaker 6 (39:07):
Last night, one little error behind him, one run was
scored potentially because of it. It left you with first
and third instead of the inning ending, or maybe you
got one out and he only needed one more out.

Speaker 5 (39:18):
He couldn't get out of the inning.

Speaker 6 (39:19):
After that, there were eighteen more pitches faced, four more batters,
They scored four runs, gave up a home run granted
to their best hitter. But you know that's that's a
terrible inning. And he was absolutely cruising through the game
at that point, pitching where he wanted, executing the way
he wanted, getting guys hit into outs, blowing people away
with swinging miss stuff. And he had one bad inning

(39:41):
that's like vintage what everyone you know hits fromber with
one would have.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
Known that it was going to go the way it did.

Speaker 4 (39:49):
After the first inning of Hunter Brown's outing last night,
he was like, I don't even think he threw five pitches.
I mean it felt like he didn't. I know it
was more, but he was awesome. And then just stupid
stuff happen because baseball.

Speaker 6 (40:01):
Yeah, in that situation, you'd like to think a starter
of that caliber picks up the team when they make
a mistake behind him, which they don't do often. It's
still a very good defensive team, especially on the infield.
That was a gold glover flipping it to a goal
glover who should have caught it and thrown it to
a goal glover. Instead, you got two errors on the
play and four runs would end up scoring in that inning.
Aces normally and often pick the team up. I need

(40:22):
to punch out here. I got the stuff to do it.
They do it, they go back to the dug out,
and they forget it ever happened. Instead, six runs are
on Hunter Brown's ledger by the end of the day.
He did pitch them into the seventh inning, probably could
have finished the seventh inning. But starting I think Jose
and the pitching staff starting to feel very good about
Steven Okert again. Maybe he has a kind of caught it,
caught up with himself a little bit from how much

(40:43):
he's been used, because this is the most he's ever
been used as a Major leaguer. But he looked awesome
again last night. Ort handled business and you just never
got any offense. It's a shame you gifted them an
inning and it was all it took to beat you.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
I was looking this up and another eleven runners left
on base last night? Are they and I'm looking I'm
looking it up now as we speak. I feel like
they'd have to lead the league. I know they don't though,
like it just always it always seems worse than it is,
and they're you know, they're twenty second, But that's such
an arbitrary stat.

Speaker 6 (41:17):
I just well, when you have runners on base and
you hit a double, you score twice or three times.
When you have runners on base and you ground out,
you're like, what a waste of ours? So we spent
all this time putting all these runners on base and
we can't get the big hit.

Speaker 5 (41:31):
The other team got the big hit.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
That's why I always say I would almost I feel
like you would know where you stand more if if
you just didn't get them on base.

Speaker 5 (41:39):
It's such a tease, But I digress.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
We will get to the televice portion of the show
and some of what Dana Brown had to say about
losing to a team like the Colorado Rockies when we
start three o'clock, three o'clock hour.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Next the ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your Team.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckfler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
A welcome into our number two of the A Team.
It's Sports Talk seven to ninety and now sim willcast
on Space City Home Network if you want to stare
at us for the next three hours, because that's how
long we will be here up until six o'clock tonight
and then Astros and Rockies getting together for the second
of their three game series. Did not go so well
last night for the home team, Hunter Brown giving up

(42:35):
six runs but only two of them were earned, and
the Astros dropping a just a really ugly opener to
the Colorado Rockies. We already had a conversation with aj
Bluebaugh in the two thirty segment. You can check that
out on the Twitter's sphere, the social media, the website
and see what he had to say. We will hear

(42:56):
from Dana Brown shortly, but kind like we were talking
about segment as we get back into a new hour here,
you know, and Dan's going to.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
Talk about this.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
You would hate to look back in a tight division
race and say, well, geez, I wish you could have
maybe swept the Rockies or you know, not just one
two out of three against this other.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
I know there's one hundred and sixty two. I know
we always go round and round.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
About this, but I hate losses like last night in
the tight division race.

Speaker 6 (43:22):
And I think the losses where you outplay a team
for three hours are worse, much worse. You go to
the ninth inning with a three run lean, you don't
walk out with a victory. Spend all that time and
effort out playing them. The starting pitcher pitch well, the
bridge guys pitched well, you need three more outs. Ball
games over, and it's happened against Seattle so many times.
It's that much more magnified. Those are the ones that
would make me more upset, and I think the ball

(43:44):
club more upset. Just didn't do anything yesterday. They weren't close,
they didn't put a stretch together, they didn't have a
big inning that just wasn't enough. They just didn't do anything,
and they were handled rather easily by other professional baseball players,
the worst professional baseball players in baseball, but professional baseball
making the last.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
He wears them out no matter what uniform he wears.

Speaker 6 (44:03):
I still can't, especially looking at last night's game, I can't.
I can't really figure out some of the things that
some of the teams that sit at the bottom of
the standings do. And Colorado and in that instance, so
Mickey Moniac had been bouncing around and landed in Colorado
and all of a sudden started tearing the cover off
the ball.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
He's been really, really.

Speaker 6 (44:24):
Good for the Rockies, and he's a former top prospect.
There's a lot of people that continue to believe in him,
even though it wasn't quite working out for him, and
he's a Rocky still, why why would you not send
him somewhere that needed a player that could hit well.
And Jimmy Herget who pitched last night and has thrown

(44:44):
seventy one innings this year, seventy one innings out of
the bullpen for the Rockies who are awful and pitching
a hitter friendly ballpark half of their season, and he's
supporting a.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
Two fifty four era.

Speaker 6 (44:58):
He's a lengthy reliever, not a bull but someone who
can get you four or five six outs in a game.
Why is he still on the team. I mean it
hurt last night because he pitched well against Houston and
got him four outs. He was pitching well early in
the year, the first several months. He's pitched well in
the months that have followed the deadline. He's not part
of your future, just like he wasn't part of Cincinnati, Texas's,

(45:18):
Los Angeles or Atlanta's future. So when you find someone
who's doing well and you stink and he's a veteran
and people are calling about him and asking about him,
you move him.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
They didn't.

Speaker 6 (45:30):
They'll probably stay where they are no matter what realignment is,
last in whatever division they're playing in.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
He was Moniac was a free agent, and I was
texting with somebody last night about how much I despised
him and hated him with all the sports hate in
the world, and I tweeted as much in pictures that
you posted on social media of us. He started with
the Phillies and then I remember him just always getting
on base against the Astros in the division. When he
was with the Angels, he just always did. He was annoying,

(45:57):
He was pesky. He has an extein quality to him
in my opinion, because it's just annoying how much he's
always he isn't and look he's on the Rockies. They're terrible.
It's not like he's changing their fortunes. But I just
knew last night, Ah, here we go. And every time
he got up there he did something good for the Rockies.

Speaker 6 (46:15):
A Hunter Brown against Mickey Moniac has been bad for years,
and it was bad again yesterday. Moniac was a free
agent for two days. It was with the Angels after
being traded there and was released right before the season began,
and the Rockies signed him two days later. And the
last I mean this month after they didn't trade him,
he's been awful the two not only was he kept

(46:36):
at the deadline, just maybe for this time being since
we're we're watching the Astros take on this team to
beat them last night.

Speaker 5 (46:45):
Mickey Moniac.

Speaker 6 (46:46):
In June he hit three hundred, had an eleven twenty
four ops. He's probably one of the ten best months
around the National League.

Speaker 5 (46:54):
July he was better.

Speaker 6 (46:56):
He hit three sixty four at roughly the same ops,
hit eleven home runs two months and they still didn't
get a deal they wanted. And I guess they believe
in his future there for whatever reason. The months that's
around that he's been a player that's been released by
or has played for multiple different teams. He doesn't even
have a six hundred.

Speaker 5 (47:14):
OPS this month. Nah, we don't want to move him
while he's hot. That's for them.

Speaker 6 (47:18):
Astro's issues again, it doesn't matter who's hitting, doesn't matter
who's pitching for the other teams. They've hit well against
the guys they shouldn't. They've hit poorly against guys they shouldn't.
That's who they are this year by this point in
the season, even with jord On back, even with the
possibility that after a couple of days, maybe a weekend
in Sugarland for Jake Myers, who will be in their lineup,
presumably this evening. I'm sure that will be confirmed later

(47:41):
this afternoon. I don't think that's gonna change because when
Myers was here earlier, and when Jordan was here for
the first five weeks, they did that then too. That's
who this year's team is, even with the new additions.
That's who this team is. You got the first Dike
in park Homer from Hey, sus Sanchez, and he didn't
get anything else.

Speaker 5 (47:59):
Yeah, I was, and so to that end.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Dana Brown joining the station earlier today, and one of
the first questions he answered was on if a loss
to a bad team like Colorado can help derail your
playoff hopes.

Speaker 12 (48:11):
No, you just have to flush it. You know, you
know you're a good team. You come back out today,
you love your chances again, you have Fromber going, so
you feel good about this game. And then tomorrow, you know,
we don't want to look ahead, but tomorrow we have
Alex Andrew who's four and on his last four starts.
So we got to rebound and win the series, because
that's what it's all about you've got to win the series.

(48:32):
Today's a new day and if you dwell on the
pass and we'll bite you.

Speaker 13 (48:35):
Dan, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but
I was talking about the numbers looking at you know,
the analytics of since July seventh, sixth and fourteen at
home hitting two ten, the strikeout to walk a bucks
seventy five to fifty nine. This I'm talking about the
Astros and the starters at four eight one ERA and
Bolton era almost six and a half that since July
seventh and home six and fourteen. Is there should we

(48:58):
be looking into this? I mean, should this bother us?

Speaker 14 (49:01):
Yes?

Speaker 13 (49:02):
But is there something deeper than just the fact that
you just didn't have it those those twenty games.

Speaker 12 (49:07):
Yeah, here's what I would say. All teams go through
this downward spiral during the course of a season and
you just have to spin out of it. Right, You've
got thirty games left, You're still up in first place
by a game and a half. Your opponents that are
right behind you, they have a pretty much a tough schedule.
You have to start winning baseball games, and you know,
you know, we've talked about this a couple of weeks ago,

(49:29):
I said, the team that makes the least amount of
state mistakes, we're going we're going to finish on top.
And you know, last night we made a mistake that
cost us. You have to uh, you know, cut down
on your mistakes. You're going to make them in baseball.
It's just the way the world goes in the in
the in the game of baseball and the game of sports.
But you have to make at least amount of mistakes

(49:49):
as possible. And that's where you know, last night it
got us. But look, we're still uh, we control our
own fate. We're still in the driver's seat. We're you know,
a game and ans up. We still have to play
Seattle as well. And so the next thing is to
get this series right. You've got to keep the main
thing the main thing. And that's what it's all about tonight,

(50:11):
when tomorrow, when the series.

Speaker 13 (50:14):
Dana, this team is obviously talented, but are they cape
just looking at the numbers for the season, and I
know you're you're the GM, of course they're capable in
your eyes, but from a vantage point, is somebody who's
not around it from the vantage point looking at it,
you know, one hundred and thirty games, and you kind
of understand who a team isn't it can go on
a run, but have they been consistent enough to go

(50:35):
on the run that you desire? Offensively? Is this team
capable of rolling off twenty and ten or eighteen and
twelve the next thirty games.

Speaker 12 (50:45):
Yeah, this team is absolutely capable, you know, and we
just have to get the job done. There comes a
time where you know, you got to really get the
job done. And we're at that point where it's like, okay,
let's get the job done. You know, we need to
win some baseball games in a row. We need to
go on an eight game run in a row. Certainly
to line up. If you look at our lineup, particularly

(51:06):
with you know, Jordan coming back, the lineup's really good.
You know, we got two big time starters at the top.
So we're built for the postseason. We just have to
go on our run, win this division and go deep
into the postseason. And it's all right in front of us.
It's right there. It's a game and a half up
with thirty to go with a good team, a good ten,

(51:29):
good defense, and so you know, good rotation, and it's
right there. We just have to take it right and
I mean, then nobody's going to hand it to us.
You have to take it. And that's where we are
right now. I think this team for sure is certainly
good enough. We have, you know, a combination now three
lefties in the lineup. You know, at times when we

(51:50):
need to do it, we have some really good hitters
in this lineup. I think it's all about taking it
and not expecting anybody to hand it to its.

Speaker 13 (51:58):
How would you you're you're a pitcher, you're a manager
on another team, how would you pitch the Jordon judge
and you're playing the Astros? How would you pitch him
these last thirty games?

Speaker 12 (52:07):
Yeah, I wouldn't want to pitch the Jordon, you know.
You know, it's just like Jordon's pretty good. You know,
like you saw a little bit of it last night
with the two Walks. You know, they pitched around them.
You know, think about it, he zoo for two with
two Walks because they pretty much pitched around him. They
wouldn't give him anything to hit. And then and that's

(52:27):
how it's going to be. You know, we're going to
have to make sure that some of the other guys
may have to pick pick us up because if they
continue to pitch around them, which it seems like they're
going to do, could it could make it make things
a little bit more difficult. But I think we have
enough guys in this lineup where there's really no escape,
right and so, but they're gonna I really see that

(52:48):
they're going to pitch around them. Maybe the guys coming
in at the end of the game that are throwing
real hard, you know, they may go right at them.
But some of the starters, I think is going to
pitch around them.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
Pitching around Jordan Alvarez and making a teams pay for
said act. That could be the name of the game
down the stretch. So many times last night Christian Walker
I thought he was gonna come through, and it was
quite the opposite.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
On a Night World.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
There was a lot of disappointment considering who they were
playing and considering what was going on in the division race.
But again, Seattle did their part. They're not going to
keep bailing you out though, at least I don't think so.
There in the middle of a series with San Diego,
so you hope for the best, but you got to
take care of your business. As WEX has worn out
here on this show. It's all about taking care of

(53:33):
what you have in front of you. We will continue
here on a Wednesday edition of the program scrap Heap
options to help spell Joe Mixon. One of them was
already picked up, but there could be others we'll discuss
when we come back.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (53:57):
Just started from Dana Brown, and it's pretty much normal
common sense. They need to go out there and take
this division. They're in the position to do so. They
hold the lead, they have games against the team trailing them.
You take care of that. You're headed back to the postseason.
Simple as that. Easier said than done. Should see a
lineup shortly out from Diykin Park to face Dollander like

(54:18):
it matters with from ber Valdez on the mound, and
we will see a different roster twenty six man roster
for the Astros this evening. Saysar Salazar will be on
the roster this evening, likely indicating there's an issue with
one or both of their catchers, but a corresponding move
will be announced, I'm sure in the next few minutes,

(54:39):
or when Joe Spada meets with the media, or when
the game notes get released. But each of the reporters
out there you hear from quite a bit both here
and elsewhere, Matt Tags and Chandler all reporting that Sasar
Salazar is once again an Astro, although unlike the first
time lengthy period of time he was with the Astros,
it's because they might actually need him to play, because

(55:01):
there may be an issue with one or both of
their catchers. You know, late in the Baltimore series hit
by pitch for Ianter Diaz Victor Krarattini in last night's
game maybe shaken up a little bit with the ball
off of his mask. Wouldn't otherwise expect them to play
this long period of time without a third catcher and
then all of a sudden get a third catcher unless

(55:21):
there was a reason.

Speaker 5 (55:22):
And I mentioned this yesterday.

Speaker 6 (55:24):
Janer Diaz essentially is the catcher for Hunter Brown, pretty
much catches every one of his starts. He did not
catch last night's start, and they did throw a right
handed pitcher. You did get Krotini's left handed bat into
the lineup. There certainly could have been something to that,
But did find it odd that, you know, the guy
that catches for him every game and is still a
pretty good offensive player. It's not like Keratini is unbelievable.

(55:47):
I thought that was not as it normally would be,
so there could be an issue there.

Speaker 5 (55:51):
But it wasn't.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
It had nothing to do with his lack of effectiveness
performance last night either, in my opinion, I don't think
that having a different catcher back there was any reason
why he ended up with six runs on the Ledger,
even if they weren't all earned.

Speaker 6 (56:04):
He threw the ball well except for a handful of pitches,
and he got clobbered for it. And what he has
done in the past as an ace is, you know,
not let too many innings get away from him. It's
why he was one of their most effective pitchers. I
have to keep Jason Alexander in mind. But this month
of August, Hunter Brown looked very much like the guy
who is going to be among the final three finishers

(56:25):
for the cy Young And for the dumb voters, they'll
they'll look at his RA from last night. It didn't
change now. He went six to two thirds, gave up
two earned runs. His RA was in the two threes before,
it'll be in the two threes after. He must have
pitched great. Yeah, from a statistical standpoint, because the four
runs that count in the scoreboard and in the fact
that you got beat by five, Yeah, they matter. And

(56:46):
you know, pitchers certainly could have done more of his part.
And when you're that high up in the hierarchy, he's
not their fifth starter, he's not their eighth starter. He's
not somebody who's pitching a double A. He's their ace.

Speaker 5 (56:57):
And an inning got lost with him on the mound.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
Even if even if things go rogue in some way,
shape or form. For Fromber tonight, I just have you
heard Dana talk about it. Will we feel good because
we have Fromber on the mound going tonight. You probably
felt good because you had Hunter Brown going on the
mound last night too.

Speaker 5 (57:16):
You'll know better how they're pitching.

Speaker 6 (57:17):
You're always gonna feel yeah, But baseball says otherwise, you
gotta get it done. Rockets feel good when Kevin Durant,
Amen Thompson, Alpera and Shingoon, Fred Van Vliet and the
rest of their healthy players on the court, and they're
going to win because of it. Because basketball is different.
The Texans will feel good when their healthy players are
out there because they're good, they're gonna win ten out
of their seventeen home regular season games or maybe eleven,

(57:39):
they're gonna win their home playoff game. It just doesn't
work that way. And baseball, not just from the marathon standpoint,
but the nature of the sport. I mean, if you
knew that these teams were going to I mean ten
and six, that's a really that's a pretty good football season.
Before they went to seventeen games. What's one hundred win
baseball team. That's an unbelievable season for baseball season. That's

(58:01):
one of the three or four best teams, if not
the best team in baseball. You win one hundred games
this year in the American League, are gonna be the
number one seed by far. And you win ten games
in a football season before they went to seventeen games,
you're probably probably almost assuredly going to the playoffs, but
odds are you're playing on the road to start and
that's your only playoff game. Very very different, and just

(58:21):
the nature of the end game stuff. Obviously, I've gone
over so many times. I don't feel the need to now.
Hunter Brown could have the best stuff he's ever had
in his whole career and could lose three Nothing.

Speaker 4 (58:31):
I do think there is something like I saw this
a lot last night on social media, playing down to
their competition when you're talking about the things you're talking about,
which means there's so many variables in tangibles, whatever bowls
you want to throw in there, because it's baseball. I
do think though, that it's like you're looking at the
Yankees today. The Nationals are a team that I feel

(58:55):
like they grabbed a win from the Astros at some
point this year.

Speaker 5 (58:58):
I know it wasn't a sweep.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
There's very I don't think there's any quote bad teams
the Astros swept this year.

Speaker 5 (59:06):
I don't think so. I might be wrong on that.

Speaker 4 (59:08):
I know they didn't sweep the White Sox again, I
know they're clearly not going to sweep the car the Rockies.
But I feel like on a daylight today, where the
Nationals are getting just destroyed by the Yankees, and I'm
not asking them to hit six home runs from six
different guys against the Rockies, although they probably could. I
just wish these were the type of games like last night,

(59:29):
where whatever happened, regardless of.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
The reason, you don't wind up with an l in
a close division race. Astros are undefeated against four teams.
They're all good. I bet the Phillies. Phillies are one
of them.

Speaker 6 (59:42):
Beat them all three games in that series, where the
Phillies mustered a run. That's the only guess I've got
absolutely dominated Toronto outscored them fifteen to two, sweeping them.
They've got them coming up here soon for the final
three games of their six during the season, and one
is playing much better. One of them is obvious because
it was so idly discussed. Oh, the Dodgers crushed the
Dodgers in a three game series, scoring twenty nine runs. Yeah, well,

(01:00:06):
the Dodgers suck and only allowing six. Dodgers are in
first place, Phillies are in first place. Toronto's in first place.
And then you also swept the Diamondbacks. Yeah, it's not
just playing down, they play up as well. Being swept
as from a season series, sandpoint, I'm only talking about
the current season series statistics. The only team they have
not beaten and is the Giants from the very very

(01:00:27):
very very.

Speaker 5 (01:00:28):
Second beginning of the season of the year.

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
And oh, by the way, last night's lost to Colorado
not their first.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
They lost in Colorado. They did what was that series
What month was that June? Yes, that now in matt
all over again? Why because I thought they had swept
them up. There wasn't it a two game series?

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
They are two and two against Colorado this season. Ah,
so they did play three games. I don't even remember
that it was in July. Was the first three days
of July? I thought the first three days of July
was when they were playing the Dodgers. Now that started
on Day four, aj blue Ball's birthday. Oh, that's right,
The Friday was the fourth, that's right. I forget.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
That's why because I was on vacation that week. No
wonder I forgot. Well, you know, from aer going tonight,
I'll take my chances. I just don't at some point
he's not going to pitch like he's terrible. This month,
he's pitched like he's terrible. Yeah, that we easily be
the night.

Speaker 6 (01:01:26):
A heavier right handed hitting lineup out there for the Rockies,
which means no Mickey Moniac at least to start, but
I'll obviously be available.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
Things are looking up well.

Speaker 6 (01:01:35):
The Astros have a lot of lefties in their bullpen still,
even though so many have gone down that maybe there's
a little bit of an equalizer there. But nonetheless, you
would like to think your season series with the Rockies,
who are thirty eight wins, they're gonna get to one
hundred losses. It looks like before they get to forty wins,
it's a race got ninety four losses if you like

(01:01:56):
to think you can help.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
Them get there in the next two nights.

Speaker 6 (01:01:58):
Because Jason Alexander pitch well enough to believe in him
at this point, he obviously gets to start for the
afternoon finale on Thursday, and Fromber's still for the course
of the season. If I told you you were sending
out a picture with a three thirty two era and
the number of strikeouts that he has on his season,
you'd feel fine. If I told you almost none of
that goodness came this month, you'd feel less fine.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
It would be accurate, though.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
We didn't get to any of the scrap heap options
to spell Joe Mixon name one segment, Well, who is
the guy? Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:02:27):
Why would you want to If they're on the scrap heap?
They're worse than the people you have according to your people.

Speaker 6 (01:02:33):
There's people that tell me there's a running back out there.
You think that would get playing time for the Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
Well, there's people that get picked up every year that
nothing is expected of them, and then they'll end up contributing,
even if it's not all year or it's not over
the top. I mean, you can't get an Arian Foster
off the practice squad every single time.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
Well, I mean he was with you throughout. Yeah, that's true.
You didn't get you once you saw what you had.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
He's like, well, listen, was he all drafted out of
Tennessee See for some reason? I thought he was and
then was cut in camp or something like that.

Speaker 6 (01:03:02):
I didn't realize that they were also at the I'm
not looking for them to find an Arian Foster looking
for them if you're telling me there's somebody out there
that could find their way into giving this team a boost.
Nick Chubb's gonna get the first carry of the season.
Damian Pierce and dari and Gumbawally are going to be
active and likely will play a part in their running
game in the opening game of the season. In the
first few weeks of the season, Wood he marks. I

(01:03:22):
think it'll be interesting to see if he's active right
out of the gate. If he's I think given them
a Reasonab believe he can help him on special teams,
then they probably will have him active. Otherwise, it's maybe
three running backs that are active. Maybe British Brooks factors
in a certain way. I asked British if he felt
like he was there short yardage back or if he
viewed himself as that.

Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
He said, whatever they want me to do, I'll do.
I don't know that. I don't even know how to
answer that.

Speaker 6 (01:03:44):
But they did use him in that fashion quite a
few times during this preseason, and he's clearly built for it.
He is he looks like a fullback, quite honestly, and
he was obviously a tailback coming into the Texans organization
for Carolina. But you've also unofficially added Juir Jordan back
to the practice squad. All the options that they gave

(01:04:05):
everybody who carried the ball during the preseason other than
JJ Taylor is back with this team, and somebody's third, fourth, fifth,
sixth running back was released or unsigned to a practice squad.

Speaker 5 (01:04:17):
That's the guy, right. They're not likely to be better
than who you have.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
No, No, I'll tell you who is better than anybody
else out there, Sam Con and he will be our
guest on the phone lines coming up next to talk
a little college pick skin as we shift gears when
we return here on a Wednesday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:04:48):
On the A team Adam Waxler Adam Clinton here with
you is shift into some football chatter on the college grid.
Iiron coming up this week at a huge week one
after a moderately interesting Week zero this past week Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Football in store for us this coming week and from
the athletic Sam Cohn Junior joins us here on the program.

(01:05:09):
Been way too long since Sam has joined us here.
And you know, Sam, well, I welcome you, and I
already know the answer to the obvious question is college
football broken? And the answer is yes. But my real
question is does it matter? And since it's broken, what
does that really mean?

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
Uh?

Speaker 14 (01:05:29):
Thanks for having me, by the way.

Speaker 15 (01:05:30):
I you know, here's the thing, and I've talked about
this with coaches, administrators, people are on the sport. We
do spend a lot of time in the off season
belly aching about what's wrong with the sport. And to
be sure, there is a lot that needs to be fixed.
But on fall football Saturdays, it still hits and it's

(01:05:51):
still really good. And this weekend is going to be
excellent because you get some really premier games. You get
Texas and Ohio State, you get LSU and cums In.

Speaker 14 (01:06:01):
You get Alabama and Florida State. The list goes on.

Speaker 15 (01:06:05):
So I to me, when this time of year arrives,
we are reminded at how much fun.

Speaker 14 (01:06:13):
It is and how.

Speaker 15 (01:06:14):
Enjoyable it is, and how great the players are, and
how good some of these programs are. Even this last
Saturday of the week zero games. You know, we only
had five games at the FBS level, and I had
a ball watching a lot of those. I thought Farmageddon
was a little sloppy, but you know, you had two
good quarterbacks and two good teams that I think are
going to contend for a.

Speaker 14 (01:06:34):
Big twelve title.

Speaker 15 (01:06:35):
And you know, we had some other fun stuff throughout
the day. But I think at the end of the day,
it's going to take a long time to get to
where we need to get.

Speaker 14 (01:06:43):
But I think the ball is still really good at
the end of the day.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
I'm reading your bio on X and it says covering
college football, roster management and transfer portal, did you ever
think you would be putting something like that in your bio.

Speaker 5 (01:06:59):
Even ten years ago on this very.

Speaker 15 (01:07:01):
App there was no such thing as roster management ten
years ago. You know what roster manager list? Ten years ago,
you signed twenty five high school recruits, maybe you added
a transfer to that had to sit out a year
and make sure you keep your roster, replenish actor seniors.

Speaker 14 (01:07:18):
Graduated, or you had guys go to the draft.

Speaker 15 (01:07:22):
So it is really representative how much the sport changed
is that, you know, I'll give you an example. Three
weeks ago, I was in Nashville, Tennessee for a symposium
for recruiting and personnel staffers, GMS, scouting directors, personnel directors.

(01:07:42):
All of ninety percent of those positions didn't exist ten
years ago.

Speaker 14 (01:07:45):
And when I went to the convention three weeks.

Speaker 15 (01:07:47):
Ago, there were eleven hundred people from across college football
that hold those positions that were there. And that thing
started about seven years ago and there were probably about
one hundred people there that for the first one. So
the whole roster movement, transfer portal industry has really fundamentally
changed the sport because your team changes. No longer do

(01:08:09):
you build a program for two three years down the line,
you are building a roster for next year, and then
after that year's over, then you look to the next
one yo.

Speaker 6 (01:08:19):
You could say to us or anybody you're talking to, Yeah,
I talked to a general manager the other day, and
we would automatically assume you're talking about an NFL team
in a football sense.

Speaker 5 (01:08:26):
But that clearly is no longer the case.

Speaker 6 (01:08:28):
We had Craig Way on yesterday and we were talking
about arch Manning and he had said something like, yeah,
the million dollar question with arch Manning, and then he
corrected himself and he says, well, in the nil era,
it's the six million dollar question with arch Manning. Have
we just moved from a we are the teams that
will hush hush under the table pay people more than
anyone else can, And now we're all the teams that

(01:08:50):
will pay more than anybody else can, but everybody knows
about it. And we're still having that separation. The big teams,
the big programs, the big conferences, just getting further away
from everybody else.

Speaker 14 (01:09:02):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 15 (01:09:03):
It has been interesting though, because what you have seen
is while the well resourced programs still do well, the
ease of player movement via the transfer portal has made
it to where it.

Speaker 14 (01:09:17):
Is harder to build a super team, So.

Speaker 15 (01:09:20):
You can't stack talent anymore if you're in Alabama, Georgia, Texas.

Speaker 14 (01:09:25):
That actually, Texas done a pretty.

Speaker 15 (01:09:26):
Decent job, but it is hard to stack talent over
years of time because if guys are not playing, they're
going to go somewhere they can play, and oh, by
the way, also get paid in the same vein so
and it also has opened the door for some other
programs that want to be aggressive that maybe are outside
the traditional power structure. Texas Tech is a perfect example

(01:09:47):
of this. They are not a program that's even played
for a Big twelve championship in the almost thirty year
history of the league, but they went and spent it
twelve million dollars on a transfer portal class this offseason
and twenty five million on their roster in an effort
to try to get there. They were able to beat
out SEC and Big ten teams for transfers, which you
would have never been able to say that in the
recruiting world for Tectives Tech seventy years ago. So while yes,

(01:10:11):
Ohio State Texas They're going to move further further away
from the pack. The red share era in the Anile
era has leveled a playing field to some degree with
programs that have well, deep pocketed boosters and that are
willing to pay for players.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
Talking to Sam con Junior, he is a senior writer
for The Athletic. Of course, he covers college football, roster
management and transfer portal. Hey, this Texas Ohio State matchup, we,
like Wex mentioned, we were talking to Craig Way yesterday
about it. I first of all could not believe and
we were talking about this last night later on that
the Longhorns have not been to the Horseshoe since that

(01:10:51):
epic game back in two thousand and five.

Speaker 5 (01:10:53):
Undefeated in the Shoe. Yeah, Wex keeps saying there.

Speaker 4 (01:10:56):
I want to know, just from a personal preference, like,
if you were going to go to that game, would
you have preferred it be at night like the one
twenty years ago? And do you think that affects how
either team performs in this game, especially given all the
hypesurrounding it.

Speaker 15 (01:11:15):
I absolutely would prefer to be a night game, just
because they're in college football. There's just something different about
a night atmosphere. You give everybody more time to get
inebriated and get excited, get fired up, and it creates
a really incredible atmosphere.

Speaker 14 (01:11:34):
I do me personally as a reporter. I love Newton
games because guess what that means. I can spend the
rest of the day watching the rest of the games.

Speaker 7 (01:11:40):
But yeah, I think fans.

Speaker 15 (01:11:43):
Would tell you, Especially an eleven o'clock kick and if
you're getting to a stadium that holds one hundred thousand people,
it's hard to get everybody there because of the traffic
and everything.

Speaker 14 (01:11:52):
You guys know that even going to.

Speaker 15 (01:11:55):
Houston Texans games or you go to Kyle Field, like,
trying to get into a game means that means you
got to get up early, you got a tailgater, you
got to do all that.

Speaker 14 (01:12:02):
And well, there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 15 (01:12:04):
I think there's something special about a big night game
and you get the whole day to build up to it.
I think the teams themselves. You ask a lot of
coach I think a lot of the coaches love the
day games, especially the early kickoffs, and particularly if you're
on the road, because if you have a night game
on the road, you get back on a team playing,
you're getting back at like four or five in the morning,

(01:12:24):
and that can really kind of disrupt you the next
couple of days. So I know a lot of coaches
love the early kickoffs for that reason, but the atmosphere,
no doubt, in my.

Speaker 14 (01:12:32):
Opinion, is better for a night game.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Well, having left Kyle Field last summer after a George
Strait concert and the leaving of the facility was one
of the worst experiences of my life, I know exactly
what you're talking about. Sam, We're out of time. We
appreciate it. Well, you need to catch up with you
again later on in the college football season. Enjoy the
games this weekend and all season long, and let's do
it again soon.

Speaker 14 (01:12:54):
No problem. Thanks for having me, y'all.

Speaker 4 (01:12:55):
Take care all right, Sam con Junior of the Athletic
here on Sports Talks seven ninety will react to that,
and I will tell wex how the New York Post
is already burying your Houston Texans when we return.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:13:17):
Back at it here on the eighteen Sports Talk seven
ninety Space City Home Network Wednesday edition of the show.
Xac Cole Thompson with you taking you up until six
o'clock tonight Thanks again to Sam con Junior with the
Athletic who joined us last segment. We transition here from
the college game back to the pros. I am always

(01:13:41):
amused when I see articles like this, especially considering who
the headline is talking about, not just Joe Mixon.

Speaker 5 (01:13:51):
It says Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
GM's comments spark worries Joe Mixon could miss whole season.
That is the headline in the New York Post. From
Eric Richter to the.

Speaker 5 (01:14:05):
New York Post.

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
Just take everything aside and concentrate on just only what
Nick Cassario has said about this situation. What part of
that has it all made you think you would missed
the whole season?

Speaker 6 (01:14:21):
Well, he was asked if he'd be ready to play
this season for the Texans, and he said, my computer.

Speaker 5 (01:14:27):
One day.

Speaker 9 (01:14:29):
This year.

Speaker 5 (01:14:30):
Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 16 (01:14:31):
I mean we'll take it one day.

Speaker 6 (01:14:32):
We'll see, he said, we'll see. So that makes Eric
with the worry. I told you this at the beginning
of the show. If you don't give more information, then
they're going to think what they hear and run with it.
And when you ask if he's going to be available
this season and you say we'll see, what do you
want people some people New York Post Caliber people who

(01:14:53):
also opened that story up. Sounds like you have an at.
I mean, I wouldn't call them a joke, but they
are to be laughed at. Joel Sherman's rag right, things
are looking bleak in Houston is the first line of
the artist.

Speaker 5 (01:15:06):
That's what I wanted to get to.

Speaker 6 (01:15:07):
So he did say we'll see when when asked the
third question in a row about his availability and how
you've handled the rostering of it and the reserve VP
and things like that, and he said, we'll see, and
we'll see where he is after four weeks. I mean,
that's why I asked Dimiko that essentially the same question
I asked Nick Cassario a variation of that question about

(01:15:29):
you know, you feel comfortable at this point, saying you'll
he'll be available to you at some point this season.
And Dimiko's answer is not. He wasn't even related to
the question I asked. He said when, when he's ready,
he'll be ready. So they say they don't want to
have people, you know, get the story wrong and have
no repercussions, and they want to, you know, show respect

(01:15:51):
to the players. The manner in which it was described
by Nick when he was asked specifically, you know how
you handle injuries, why do you do it this way?
And he immediately the first three words were protect the players.
They feel like this is protecting the players. They feel
that way. They've told us this many many times over.
This is not year one of them explaining their philosophy
on public discussions with them about their players. They don't

(01:16:13):
like having them, they don't feel the need to have them.
They don't feel it does justice to the player. They
feel it's protecting the player by giving almost nothing, and
in this situation, truly nothing about this particular injury.

Speaker 5 (01:16:25):
That's how they view it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:27):
But they are also pretending that that is where every
single person who has a job to do will leave it. Like,
of course the New York Post isn't going to write
anything about Joe Mixon. I don't believe if they say, well,
that's why we put them on reserve pup. We think
there's an opportunity for him to get on the practice

(01:16:48):
field and then we'll see after that or at some
point this season.

Speaker 5 (01:16:52):
Yeah, I think it's reasonable to say, you know, it
could be back.

Speaker 6 (01:16:54):
But if none of that's true and he is, if
he's out for the season, and this is the how
they've attacked it. Would that be better just from how
they've handled that situation? Would you look at it that
way at the end of the season, if we're into
week twelve, we're into week fourteen, and rather than tell
us in week before week one, ten days out from
their opening game, if they just came out and said, well,

(01:17:16):
we don't feel like we don't know if he's going
to be back this season. You ask, and here's what
we say. You know, your guest is as good as ours.
I don't think they praise it that way, but the
ankle injury is a delicate situation. There have been some setbacks,
and where we are today, it's too early to make
a call on whether or not he'd be available. There's
a number of ways, and I'm throwing out all these answers,

(01:17:38):
these hypotheticals, and I don't know enough about his health
situation to even offer them as reasonable things for them
to say. Because they have the information, they know what
a reasonable thing to say is. Their position is, yeah,
we're not going to say anything, and in our mind,
that protects the player, and we don't like people trying
to be first and ultimately getting wrong, and you know

(01:18:00):
reporters can do that nowadays.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
It's not old school reporting.

Speaker 6 (01:18:03):
Demiko saying things like he just doesn't believe there's any
repercussions for reporters anymore for getting things wrong and they
just take it down or whatever. And I think in
some cases, I think the perception is that's the case.
I think media in many cities and this is no different.
You have many people who are bossless. There is no

(01:18:24):
one to reprimand them. There's no one to say we
just can't have you anymore here. But there are other
people people that work here, people that work for the Chronicle,
people that work for ESPN and many other entities, lots
of them that they have to answer to their bosses.
They have to answer to the team if they've done
something so egregious that brings a lawsuit against them for

(01:18:44):
having something that, if having something incorrect, or their bosses
merely feel like, well, we don't want our beat reporter,
we don't want our columnists without the facts. You said
something against wrong. We can't have that. It could absolutely
cost someone like that their job. But I think we
have a lot of other people, Like I said, I
don't think it's it's a Houston thing at all. I

(01:19:04):
think it's just where we are, where you have access,
you cover the team, or sometimes you don't cover the
team but have a following, and there definitely are no
repercussions for it. And I think part of that has
filtered into how Demiko views information in the media.

Speaker 2 (01:19:21):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:19:21):
The article goes on to talk about the four running
backs they have and what's essentially wrong with them the
way they're phrasing it here, you know, just it talks
about Chubb suffering two of the most gruesome leg injuries
seen on the football field in recent years. Damian Pierce,
who's seen his production dip Daria guombal A Gwoombala Wally
easy for me to say, yeah's brother profiling as more

(01:19:46):
of a passing down back and uh and then what
he marks just essentially being a fourth round draft pick.
But the interesting part, and I didn't even know this,
are the Jags really shopping Travis at.

Speaker 6 (01:20:00):
T Are the Cowboys interested in trading Micah Parsons to
the Packers?

Speaker 4 (01:20:05):
See, that's the thing. Even if they are, why would
you do that in the division?

Speaker 6 (01:20:09):
And this does go to what we brought up earlier
There are running backs in the NFL that could make
this running back room better, but they're rostered. You would
have to trade for someone if you want someone of
that caliber talent. This is a perfectly good suggestion for
a team that doesn't compete with them and consistently beat
them and keep them from going to the playoffs. They're

(01:20:30):
not going to trade Travis at enter tank. Pigs be
here unless they think that player stinks, and they play
them because they're their best two running backs. They maybe
feel like they have a surplus, but I wouldn't if
I were them, especially with the fragility of running backs. Yeah,
I wouldn't expect a trade to improve this running back room. Sure,
but not with this team for one of those players.
Any're on division.

Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
Yeah, anyone who does get some work in Houston will
be doing so behind the worst offensive line in football,
according to Pro Football Focus, this article has everything you
love about national coverage of the Texans.

Speaker 6 (01:21:03):
Well, the Texans having the worst offensive line in football
is according to the twenty twenty five PFF Offensive Line Rankings,
wherein they say the presence of veterans Laramie Tunzell and
Shack Mason prevented an already shaky Texans offensive line from
being even worse in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 5 (01:21:23):
And it goes on to say.

Speaker 6 (01:21:24):
Nothing of value because I just read you the first
part the alluding to Shack Mason equals good player.

Speaker 5 (01:21:33):
Bye.

Speaker 6 (01:21:34):
Don't know what you're talking about in any way, shape
or form, but yes, thirty two out of thirty two,
so says pff, let's write about it in the post.

Speaker 5 (01:21:45):
So we did.

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
The ad on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking
your team's Adam Clinton and Adam Wetfler are the a team.

Speaker 4 (01:22:09):
Four o'clock hour underway here on Sports Talk seven ninety
wex ac Cole Thompson. No Daria Goomba Walle but I
can say that name, I promise. But Gordy is here. Gordy,
you're asking during the break if we would like to
talk about astros or college football, and I said yes,
So you choose which we go first with because it

(01:22:31):
means just a massive, massive matchup, one of many this
weekend in a college football game. But it's we don't
have to wait until nighttime. We were talking with Sam
con Junior about this last time the UT Longhorns were
in the Horseshoe was back twenty years ago, relatively early
in the season, but it was a night game. I
asked him the same question I'll ask you, would you

(01:22:51):
prefer that game to be at night? Given the circumstances.

Speaker 17 (01:22:54):
I want all Marquee games at night. If I'm not
invested in on either team. I just think the bright
lights of a of an awesome stadium and fans have
all day to get liquored up. Like I think a
night game is the best game there is now for Texas.
I think, like, if I'm a Texas fan, I'd rather
go play at eleven am. Sure, Ohio State fans just

(01:23:14):
rolling out of bed waking up, Yes, I would like
that as opposed to them having all day to get
fired up and the nighttime crowd and all that. So again,
you know, does it make a huge difference either way?
I mean, go look at all the upsets in the
SEC last year. Almost every one of them was on
the road at night in a hostile environment. So I
think I think it matters on.

Speaker 5 (01:23:34):
The road at night, hostile atmosphere.

Speaker 6 (01:23:37):
So LSU is going to lose the home opener again
or excuity the season opener again this year.

Speaker 5 (01:23:43):
I've just said that, I heard you.

Speaker 6 (01:23:44):
They're on the road, hostile environment LSU at Clemson night game.

Speaker 5 (01:23:49):
It's over.

Speaker 17 (01:23:49):
The folks in Vegas have them as the underdog, and
I presented as this and I look, I lump Texas
into this group as well.

Speaker 8 (01:23:58):
We can't we can't go.

Speaker 17 (01:23:59):
Man's an awesome game for Texas to go play on
their own Ohio State, LSU to go on the road
at Clemson, and then smack them in the face if
they lose the game, because ninety nine percent of the
country would lose those games, like they're to top ten teams,
top five teams having to go all the road to
play at Clemson and all the road at Ohio. State

(01:24:19):
of the country lose those games. So I made a
rule this week. I said, look, if you're a team,
if you're a team like Florida and you're opening with
Long Island, if LASH loses to Clemson, you.

Speaker 8 (01:24:29):
Don't get to talk trash to them because they went
out of their way and scheduled a tough game.

Speaker 6 (01:24:34):
Well, it's mandatory, according to the recent announcement by the SEC,
when they go to nine conference games, you must schedule.

Speaker 8 (01:24:42):
That's been a rule that's it just.

Speaker 6 (01:24:44):
Happens to come in week one where you didn't play them.
Maybe in week two or three, it does.

Speaker 17 (01:24:48):
I just think, stop scheduling these in week one because,
especially in the transfer portal error, LSU's brought in, you know,
over half their rosters new transfer portal guys that are
going to be playing their first game for LSU.

Speaker 8 (01:25:00):
I'd rather you open with two high.

Speaker 17 (01:25:03):
Schools, get your beargs under you, develop a big S
word chemistry, and then go play your tough game. I mean,
Oklahoma is playing Michigan next week. Then open with Illinois State,
get your bearings under you, and then play these tough games.
I think that's been Brian Kelly's detriment is he's had
these new teams with new pieces, and they're trying to
work it out against USC, against Florida State, against Clemson. Like,

(01:25:24):
stop scheduling these. Schedule Southeastern Louisiana, get your bearings and
then go play a tough game.

Speaker 6 (01:25:30):
This weekend is being billed as this great weekend because
of these two games we have here on our family
of networks, beginning with the Longhorns at ten am right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
But the schedule for this weekend is awful. It's it's
all on what you make of it. Like, look, Fran Brown,
you guys got the interview at the Bear bron Awesome.

Speaker 17 (01:25:49):
He's an awesome coach. Syracuse might give Tennessee some trouble.
That's another early game. It's going ahead with Texas, Iia
State son, who's gonna watch it? But but yeah, I mean,
like I think because Tennessee's working in a new quarterback,
that could be trouble. Alabama at Florida State we just
found out today. But Alabama's out without a third starter.
Now at Florida State, they got tied.

Speaker 5 (01:26:09):
They're good.

Speaker 4 (01:26:10):
Any everybody knows he's going to be great. First big start,
I mean, it's Alabama could be in trouble. That could
be a field goal game at halftime.

Speaker 17 (01:26:18):
You know, we'll see people keep saying Florida State, Oh,
it's two and ten too and ten.

Speaker 8 (01:26:22):
Look at their roster.

Speaker 17 (01:26:23):
It's completely different from the two intend team last year. Literally,
the entire offensive line is different, all the receivers are different,
a new quarterback. So by the way, Florida State's quarterback
RD Rodello Williams, former Alabama running back you don't think
he wants to stick it to his former team. So yeah,
I think there's danger spots across college football, particularly in
the SEC, that we could come out Monday and go,

(01:26:45):
what a freaking blood bath for the SEC and a
slap in the face of this is the same conference.
It's going two straight years with how playing for a
national championship.

Speaker 6 (01:26:53):
How do you view Friday nights SEC game with Auburn
and Baylor, and that Auburn is the favorite at Baylor.
I think Baylor's gonna win.

Speaker 8 (01:27:02):
It's a massive game for Hugh Freeze. He has to
win this one.

Speaker 17 (01:27:06):
I've talked with a couple of people in the know
that cover Auburn who think Auburn wins by double digits.
They think Auburn is going to come in and smack
around Baylor. We'll see what happens. When you just said
they were wrong again, I don't want to like, Baylor's
been very up and down under David rant Sorry, Robertson's
a great quarterback, but like, those defenses were not good

(01:27:27):
last year, and that's supposed to be a Randa specialty.
So I literally I put the game in a fifty
fifty right now. Like it's a coin flip. To me,
is Hugh Freeze on the hottest seat.

Speaker 8 (01:27:36):
Of all the coaches in the SEC?

Speaker 7 (01:27:38):
Eh?

Speaker 17 (01:27:39):
I think Sam Pittman is up there. I think Florida
billion napier of Florida. When they start losing games, I
think they're gonna realize, Look, last year was a nice run.

Speaker 5 (01:27:46):
But the schedule's brutal.

Speaker 17 (01:27:48):
Like so, I think I think he could possibly be
out if the John Mattier thing at Oklahoma doesn't work out.
I think Brent Vnables could certainly be on the hot seed.
You know, there's been already some talk to some folks
at Oklahoma calling Nick saying, hey, what would it take
just one year? One year, We'll give you a massive amount.

Speaker 5 (01:28:04):
Of money that's never going to happen again.

Speaker 8 (01:28:06):
No, but it's just fun to talk about.

Speaker 17 (01:28:08):
But yeah, I think like Hugh Freeze is definitely I've
been told by somebody who said they no matter what
happens this year, they're not buying them out. This is
the reality of the new revenue sharing model in college
football is paying massive buyouts. No one wants to do
it anymore because it's it's a loss of money from
the past.

Speaker 8 (01:28:27):
Coach.

Speaker 17 (01:28:27):
It's a loss of money on the new coach and
his whole staff. You're a lot better just sticking with
who you got, even if they're underachieving.

Speaker 6 (01:28:34):
Have not probably spent nearly enough time talking about coach
Elco's team this year in college station. They have a
very important non conference game in Week three. They'll play
Notre Dame at Notre Dame, finish the season at Texas,
have a trip to LSU. South Carolina's on their schedule,
Florida's on their schedule.

Speaker 5 (01:28:53):
Tell me they're not going to be eight and four.

Speaker 17 (01:28:56):
I think they're gonna be in a good spot like
they were last year of like at the top of
the SEC halfway through the season. But how do you
get through the back half of that schedule where there's
some tough games in it. But yeah, look go open
with UTSA. I think we're gonna see that ground and Pat.
I think Daggie's there's a chance they may have the
best offensive line in the country. I mean, if everything's healthy.

(01:29:17):
I know what Ruben Father is banked up, but Levi
and Moss they said he's good to go. I don't
even think we need to see a ton of him
because you got a Mario Daniels, you got Ruben Owens.
There's a kid out of Memphis who's a freshman that
they brought in who I was told like he's been
impressing at camp. And oh, by the way, I think
like fifth string is Emmett Smith's son. So like, you know,
they just they have a loaded backfield. The key though,

(01:29:39):
will be how much Marcel Reid progresses these first two weeks. Okay,
you show us what you do with your legs. Now,
let's see it as a passer. We got concepts, you know,
from NC State. We got Mario Crat Fromsissippi State. I've
heard good things about Bethel Roman and obviously Terry Bussey.
So they got weapons. I think they're going to try
to air it out a little bit. You know, they'll
probably be fifty to fifty ballance through the first two weeks,

(01:30:00):
but get some confidence in the passing game.

Speaker 8 (01:30:02):
Before you got to go up to South Bend, Florida.

Speaker 5 (01:30:04):
DJ Lagway full time.

Speaker 6 (01:30:07):
He's the starter, appears to be ready to go to
start the season health wise. Yeah, is this a year
where even as a younger player because he got some
experience last year, he's in a pretty good spot to
carry them to a promising season.

Speaker 17 (01:30:20):
Well, if you watch the Netflix documentary, I mean I
was ready to run through a wall for the kid.
I'm like, I am buying a DJ Likeway T shirt
and I'm riding with this kid. I I look, I've
interviewed him at SEC met Days. I think the world
of the kid. I think he's gonna be a future superstar.
We just can't put the cart before the horse. He's
got to develop. Look, they open with Long Island and
then they play us F and wait two WAK three,

(01:30:40):
they got to go on the road to Baton Ruge.
I think I'm gonna be at that game. That is
a tough, tough early test. And then you still got
to play Texas. You gotta. I mean, like the schedule
is just brutal.

Speaker 6 (01:30:50):
For a non conference visit to Miami is the following
week after LSU.

Speaker 17 (01:30:54):
You can start two and oh and everybody's going yay,
and then you lose to it a round you're two
and two. I mean, that's how quickly this thing could
come down, crashing down. That's why I say Billy Napier
may may be on the hot seat, make it fired,
but Lagway. There's no denying his his uh, his talent.
But I did somebody did tell me this. They said,
watch what happens with Napier because the Willis kid there's
a school up their own college station and maybe calling

(01:31:16):
in the off season going hey, we'll pay you whatever
you want, come on over here. So Marcel Reid, it's
important he develops. We'll see what happens with Billy Napier
and Florida and DJ Lagway. But the kid's a freak athlete.
I mean, he's he's incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:31:27):
If that Netflix documentary made you want to run through
a brick wall, what did the Cowboys want to do
for you?

Speaker 17 (01:31:32):
I haven't watched it yet. I've been putting it off
just because I know I'm gonna hate it, but you will.

Speaker 8 (01:31:37):
I just.

Speaker 17 (01:31:39):
I hate Jerry, He's just he gives me a migraine.
But I'll watch it eventually, learn about all they are.
You sure Ken Burns didn't direct it. He doesn't documentaries.
I mean it's like, look at those Cowboys Super Bowls.
God dust the that's the dust or dust all the
dust off those trophies.

Speaker 5 (01:31:57):
It reminds you how long it's been.

Speaker 4 (01:31:59):
Just quick speaking of migraines astros last night against the Rockies.

Speaker 5 (01:32:03):
That wasn't great.

Speaker 8 (01:32:04):
Yeah, it's it's fine.

Speaker 17 (01:32:06):
I did see they snapped what they had a home
win streak against the Rockies dated back to twenty eighteen,
so that got snapped. The big news are just coming out.
Then I'm a little worried about Chandler Rome pointing out
that they're calling upstays our salads are And that got
me word a little bit because ninth inning on Sunday
we saw Janner Diaz takes that Craig Kimbrel pitch off

(01:32:27):
the wrists. He's in thriving in pain, stays in the game.

Speaker 12 (01:32:31):
It was.

Speaker 8 (01:32:31):
It was the ninth inning, and then didn't play last night.

Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
I checked in on it. There's no broken bones, okay.

Speaker 8 (01:32:37):
But I mean, but it's not great news. Still missing time.

Speaker 17 (01:32:41):
Yeah, this is a guy that you know, was maybe
starting to heat up a little bit with the bat,
as much as could be said. And then Carotene's taking
balls off off the mask, like just stay healthy, guys, you're.

Speaker 5 (01:32:52):
Coming in concussion protocol.

Speaker 8 (01:32:54):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:32:55):
So that's the little grief man.

Speaker 8 (01:32:56):
So Diz okay, I.

Speaker 6 (01:32:58):
Do Diaz probably needs a little time. Thus, salas Dar
probably maybe a day or two plus yesterday, so two or.

Speaker 8 (01:33:05):
Three, so let's go. You're playing all week.

Speaker 4 (01:33:07):
The good news is, as we usher you out the
door here, Fox and YouTube have come to an agreement.
Oh good, there were it's breaking news. Cole passed along.
You know, some of you guys might have been worried
about that kind of thing.

Speaker 8 (01:33:18):
That was a big deal.

Speaker 5 (01:33:18):
All right, thanks for checking in, Gordy. You do it
each and every week.

Speaker 4 (01:33:21):
We will continue here on a Wednesday edition of the
A Team Sports Talks seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:33:26):
Big suspension in the NFL. We'll tell you about it next.

Speaker 1 (01:33:30):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:33:38):
Run through a bunch of different interviews in the last
hour or so, hearing from Dana Brown from his weekly
visit on the morning show The Sewan Salisbury Show. Give
you a little bit of the flavor of Dana Brown's
commentary this morning, Sam con from the Athletic on college
football a little less than an hour ago, and obviously
just wrapping up Chris Gordy are astros insider and college

(01:34:02):
football insider. End of the segment, we noted that, according
to reporters out on site at Dyke and Park, Saysar
Salad Will Saysar Salazar will be in the lineup tonight
and catch for the Astros, catch for from er Valdez
because the gyer Diaz is smarting a little bit from
taking that pitch off.

Speaker 5 (01:34:20):
The wrist.

Speaker 6 (01:34:20):
Was unavailable if all possible last night and now may
be unavailable again tonight. Probably just needs a couple of
days and doesn't need an al stint. On the other hand,
into concussion protocol goes Victor Caratini, after what he went
through over the weekend and in yesterday's game when he
caught for Hunter Brown. So that's the roster move they'll

(01:34:41):
need to make in advance of trying to at least
maintain their division lead. Mariners are playing afternoon baseball, so
since the Astro Padrez the field last night with their
own loss, they've seen the Mariners lose once. They lost
last night to the Padres seven to six. If they're
going to see the Mariners lose a second time before
they finish up their game tonight, it will take a comeback.

(01:35:03):
You Darvish on the mound bottom of the fourth inning,
allowed a single to Julio Rodriguez. He walked Josh Naylor
and then he served up the forty second home run
of the season to Ajaneo Suarez.

Speaker 5 (01:35:14):
They already held.

Speaker 6 (01:35:15):
A one nothing lead over the Padres, so now it's
four nothing Mariners in the bottom of the fourth inning
against the San Diego Padres. Obviously, the zero means the
Padres haven't gotten anything done offensively in this game. They
actually seem like they could have put even more on
the board in each of their last two games against
the respective starters for the Mariners. Today, however, as I've

(01:35:37):
said throughout the season, he's shown that to be true.
They're facing the best Mariners starter who's given up two
hits through four very strong pitch count. As always, he's
thrown at least six innings and one hundred percent of
his starts this year, has the longest freaking major League Baseball,
and would find it unlikely they would get to him,

(01:35:58):
but it has happened.

Speaker 5 (01:36:00):
Castillo's just a guy.

Speaker 8 (01:36:01):
Now.

Speaker 6 (01:36:01):
He gave up so many base runners at the beginning
of that game the other day, I don't know how
he got through five innings with all the traffic that
he had, and you know, obviously the five running to
open this thing up.

Speaker 5 (01:36:11):
And George Kirby is not invincible anymore.

Speaker 6 (01:36:13):
Kirby has had a far too inconsistent a season, I'm
sure for anybody's liking, especially him. He is very Scott
Service like with the redness in his everywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:36:22):
Well, he can't have ears that look like that and
be that way, he choose one or the other.

Speaker 5 (01:36:26):
Yeah, he's kind of a jerk coming into the season unhealthy.

Speaker 6 (01:36:29):
Maybe it's just kind of thrown off his ability to
kind of find his own. He's had some really awesome starts,
but just not a full season's worth, which is most
of what the Astros have seen. And you know, Logan
Gil was probably the same way. His injury just came
more towards the middle portion of the season and all
that time missed. He's had some excellent starts, then had
a thirteen strikeout game, but hasn't had the kind of

(01:36:49):
consistency that pretty much all those guys showed last year.
Bryce Miller got a win in his second start back,
though I wouldn't say he pitched particularly well. But their
arms are healthy now and that's just a huge, huge
difference with what the Astros have. I mean, aj Blueball,
who joined us at two thirty he's an astro because
they don't have anybody they can count on after their

(01:37:09):
top two, and this month of August, one of your
top two's Fromber with his seven plus era You're going
into just because of how the rotation lined up as
they moved into a six man rotation. You don't want
Hunter Brown and Fromber Valdez pitching back to back, and
you certainly won't want Brown, Valdez and Alexander going three
days in a row or three games in a row,
because then what are you gonna do with the other

(01:37:30):
three games? Because you have Aragetty, Javier and Lance mccullors. Hey,
Eric's gonna be fine. I hope his last doubting just
proved it. He's gonna be great.

Speaker 4 (01:37:39):
He did pitch pitches in the sixth inning after the
first inning. That is helpful to a team whose bullpen
will rapidly be on fumes if they can't do that,
you know. But okay, so this will be Christian Xavier's
third start upcoming his next time out. That is when
it clicked for arag Getty. I'm not saying they're anywhere

(01:37:59):
near this. They're completely different styles all that kind of stuff.
What I am saying is you can't replicate, just like
we're talking about, you know, going up against major league pitching.
For these hitters, you can't replicate facing legit major league hitters,
not that the Rockies have those, unless it's Mickey Moniac
and he's playing the Astros, in which case he turns.

Speaker 5 (01:38:19):
Into Babe Ruth.

Speaker 4 (01:38:20):
But I'm cautiously optimistic, hopeful what I always believed in Arraghetty.
It was not looking good there for a couple of starts,
and then it really wasn't looking good in the opening
frame on Sunday, but he settled in and I just
Christian Javier has like ice water in his veins. He

(01:38:41):
doesn't get he doesn't appear to get rattled. I don't
think he's ever had an emotion in his life. He
looks like a cyborg.

Speaker 6 (01:38:46):
He doesn't look like he's rattled, and I don't know
that he pitches like he's rattled.

Speaker 5 (01:38:51):
But he's not pitching very well.

Speaker 4 (01:38:52):
Well, this is like, you know, I always used to
rush to the defense of Jose or Keaty because of
what he had done in a World Series game. Well,
he didn't throwing no hitter in a World Series game,
or be a part of multiple no hitters in that season.
I just believe in Christian Xavier. He's coming back from

(01:39:12):
an insane injury.

Speaker 5 (01:39:14):
Yeah he has. He has had a hard time throwing strikes. Yeah, insane,
But so is Rogetty.

Speaker 6 (01:39:22):
I think it's been a longer problem for Javier, just
going back to when he got her a handful of
you know, most of the season leading into that part
of well, obviously he was out after that, but all
those starts leading up to that, he's just unthrown off strikes.
Sixty five pitches and two innings is almost unheard of.
I mean, I can't remember the last time any Astros
pitcher did that, and that's why they had to lift

(01:39:42):
him after two innings.

Speaker 5 (01:39:44):
It'll be his fourth start. He's thrown ten innings. Yeah,
four started. Yeah, that's not good.

Speaker 4 (01:39:51):
Well, he was sick for one of them, though, so
I'm not I'm gonna give him a pass on that one.

Speaker 6 (01:39:54):
Yeah, it only took him. You know, he got through
three innings on only fifty pitches. He probably had another
inning or two. It was a hell of a cold
or whatever. I don't doubt that he was sick.

Speaker 4 (01:40:04):
He had a doctor's note and everything. So, uh, why
do I why should I? Why do I not get
as excited as I think I should be when the
Chief's best wide receiver is going to miss the first
six games of the season.

Speaker 6 (01:40:18):
So you think that for sure, just out of curiosity,
you think he's their best wide receiver.

Speaker 5 (01:40:22):
I'm not saying he isn't.

Speaker 8 (01:40:23):
I'm just as I.

Speaker 4 (01:40:24):
Think he has the talent to be on any given Sunday.
I think I know what you're saying, like it's It's.

Speaker 6 (01:40:30):
Mean Brown's coming into this season far healthier than he
was the year before. Obviously, Xavier Worthies played a whole
season with uh Pat Mahomes in that offense, and and
Rice clearly was productive, very productive.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
Are you expect a lot from Juju Smith Schuster? Absolutely nothing? Okay,
that answers that question. So because because that's fourth on
the death chart, maybe.

Speaker 6 (01:40:51):
I mean it matters now because if you were not
aware she Rice was handed down a six game suspension
which will start with the opening game of the season,
and so one of the several Marquee primetime standalone matchups
that they will have he will not be a part of.
But it also means the final eleven weeks he will
be eleven games he'll be available to the Kansas City Chiefs.
One of those eleven games is against the Houston Texans,

(01:41:13):
and it should hurt them.

Speaker 5 (01:41:15):
He is a top receiver.

Speaker 6 (01:41:16):
It's perfectly reasonable to say, yes, I think he's their
best receiver. And the reason will be eleven games he's
gonna be out there. You're gonna be looking at a
player who I think is gonna be super productive.

Speaker 5 (01:41:24):
That's totally fair.

Speaker 4 (01:41:25):
Yeah, But the reason I wouldn't just jump to it
like you would any other team, like oh Nico Collins
definitely the best receiver for the Texans because much like
Brady did. And no, it's not sacrilege to say this.
Patrick Mahomes makes guys who are just guys better. And
I'm not saying he's just a guy. I'm just saying,
whoever's out there for him, he'll find you.

Speaker 8 (01:41:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:41:45):
That's maybe more about can they handle the loss? And
I think you're right they can. Rice in his first
season I think showed to be he needs to be.
He's built like plays like, has the skills of what
should be their true number one at wide receiver. Tyreek
Hill was a true number one, their number one pass
catcher and target for him has obviously not been a

(01:42:07):
wide receiver for several years, all of the years since
Tyreek Hill left because of Travis Kelcey Kelsey. I would
guess just based on what I think he put into
this offseason versus what I think he did not put
into last offseason, regardless of his age. I don't think
his age last year to this year means a whole lot.
I don't think there's just some massive drop off. I
think he's gonna end up having a more productive regular

(01:42:29):
season this year than he did a year ago.

Speaker 5 (01:42:31):
But I can't.

Speaker 6 (01:42:31):
Ignore what Rashid Rice did as his rookie season continued.
He was a part of the offense when the year began,
and then he bumped into the starting group with the
wide receivers. I think it was week seven of his
rookie season. He was exceptional after that. Not all NFL,
not all pro, not like that, but a huge bump forward.

(01:42:53):
And he started the season last year the very same way.
He had a three hundred yard games in the last
four that he played with Pat Mahomes. But he hasn't
played since week you know, three of his second season.
Now he's not going to play till week seven of
this third season, really good player?

Speaker 2 (01:43:09):
It is?

Speaker 5 (01:43:09):
It is a loss?

Speaker 4 (01:43:10):
Is uh, the Travis Kelcey drop off going to continue?

Speaker 6 (01:43:15):
I just said I don't believe that it is. Well
just said, I think he's going to have a very
good regular season.

Speaker 5 (01:43:20):
But I don't. I don't agree with that.

Speaker 4 (01:43:22):
I mean, he was they were so I don't know
if mediocre was the right word on offense last year.

Speaker 6 (01:43:28):
That's the right word, but that he was the biggest
reason why. I mean, I think it was probably I
would probably say Pat was the.

Speaker 5 (01:43:35):
Biggest reason why. You would think who mahomes like?

Speaker 6 (01:43:39):
Just because Kelsey wasn't all world that all of a
sudden the whole you got mahomes like. You're just trying
to say he can make anyone look good.

Speaker 5 (01:43:45):
That's true. Not last year.

Speaker 4 (01:43:47):
Last year, it was their defense carried them, like I
don't know what six seven weeks of the season.

Speaker 6 (01:43:51):
I mean, maybe my reluctance to say a drop off
is coming again for Kelsey is just a reminder of
how little he did lastlast year.

Speaker 5 (01:44:00):
So the bars low is what you're saying.

Speaker 6 (01:44:02):
He didn't even average nine yards of pop. That's incredibly,
incredibly low.

Speaker 5 (01:44:07):
You thought it was the haircut, didn't you. Well, it
made him look fat or or him being fat.

Speaker 4 (01:44:13):
Him fast said, yeah, that'll be interesting to see.

Speaker 5 (01:44:17):
All right, when we come back, What are you doing,
Bill Belichick? We'll explain.

Speaker 1 (01:44:23):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety a little help
over the hump with some Wednesday Bs, two.

Speaker 5 (01:44:33):
Adams, and a whole lot of bit stealing.

Speaker 1 (01:44:35):
Bits stealing with the bit Steelers better known as the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (01:44:41):
All right, let's get to it on a scale of
one to ten, one being just no interest whatsoever and
ten being can't miss must see TV on a Monday night.
How much are you looking forward to the tar Heels
and horn Frogs on Monday September?

Speaker 6 (01:44:57):
First, there's no NFL game, there's no other college games.

Speaker 5 (01:45:03):
It will be very heavily viewed. Is there an Astros
game that night? Their series continues? Yes? Who are they playing?
The New York Yankees?

Speaker 12 (01:45:13):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:45:14):
I forgot all right, here's why I wanted to get
to this.

Speaker 6 (01:45:18):
I mean, it's a pretty big good name, you know,
first ever college football game.

Speaker 5 (01:45:26):
Yeah, but that's not what I want to get to here.
So that's what you asked. I'm just answering question.

Speaker 4 (01:45:30):
My favorite part of this whole article about Bill Belichick. Oh,
they're finishing with the Angels on Monday. I'm sorry, that's
what I thought, because that's.

Speaker 5 (01:45:40):
What they played on Monday.

Speaker 6 (01:45:41):
I forgot that it was a four game series with
Los Angeles and.

Speaker 4 (01:45:46):
It wouldn't be Yankees because that's that's a weekends. Of course,
we don't have a show.

Speaker 6 (01:45:52):
We will be preempted by the Astros and one of
our wonderful colleagues as a post game duties that day,
the tenth Inning Show, which would normally appear presumably during
our time slot.

Speaker 5 (01:46:05):
Do what he wants. Give him full credit because he's
working in a holiday. Ross's co host will be doing
the tenth Inning Show. We love you for that. I
love you for that.

Speaker 4 (01:46:13):
So moving along without mentioning his name, Bill Belichick and
his twenty four year old girlfriend, jordan On Hudson, I
refuse to call her anything else. They have filed trademarks
for certain phrases. Multiple phrases. Yes, this is fantastic. Okay,
just the first of all. I'm not going to go

(01:46:35):
with the obvious one. We'll save that for last. The
bellustrator is one of my favorites.

Speaker 5 (01:46:42):
What how do you think that would be utilized? That word?

Speaker 6 (01:46:46):
Well, when Jordan and I are at home after dinner
and we shovel off to bed, I like to use
the bellustrader.

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
Here's what we're going to do. Now, we're going to
do it.

Speaker 6 (01:46:56):
So they've filed some trademarks and that is one of
the phrases or words that their trademark application has gone
in for.

Speaker 5 (01:47:04):
Okay, bellustrade or what else?

Speaker 4 (01:47:05):
The Belichick way, which is basically the Patriot way, but
without Tom Brady.

Speaker 5 (01:47:09):
And the Texans still can't do it.

Speaker 6 (01:47:11):
I'm so dumb that my memory is gone. It's probably
happened within the last twenty four hours. And maybe it
was a conversation with you or Cole or somebody last
night at Big City Wings, so very recently. I still
can't place who said it and what the context was,
And maybe it was on the air with the guests
we've had now. They were talking about Belichick and he
has a way of you know, scheming things up and

(01:47:33):
doing things defensively and put it together a team that.

Speaker 5 (01:47:36):
Yeah, he had Tom Brady. I get it. That's all
it is. Some people really think that's all it is,
and well, it's the most important thing.

Speaker 6 (01:47:43):
It's hard, it really is hard to argue against because
of how much winning they did together and now much
less winning he did without him, and now it's a
smaller period of time.

Speaker 5 (01:47:52):
But I okay with that.

Speaker 4 (01:47:53):
Matt Castle did get a nice contract out of that
one year that he played for the Patriots as Brady
was injured, So you could play to that.

Speaker 5 (01:48:01):
A bunch of games and then even make the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:48:04):
That's what you're always gonna come back to. So that
was the Belichick way.

Speaker 5 (01:48:08):
No days off.

Speaker 6 (01:48:10):
No days off seems pretty popular around every sport, and
that that might be a lucrative trademark to have, not
necessarily for him specifically, but knowing that others would want it.
Trail of salty tears, that's a tough one. How does
that apply? Why is this Belichick and his significant other?

(01:48:30):
Why are they searching for a trademark on trail of
salty tears?

Speaker 5 (01:48:34):
The trail of.

Speaker 4 (01:48:35):
Tears is the obvious tie in. But why salty tears?
I guess because you lost, so you're salty about it
because you're gonna lose them some Yeah, I don't, I
don't get it.

Speaker 5 (01:48:45):
Why so for them? Chapel Bill.

Speaker 6 (01:48:49):
That's pretty clear he's been called that from a pretty
much moment one of his association with North Carolina.

Speaker 4 (01:48:54):
And my favorite, considering we're talking about not just Belichick
but both seventy three year old Belichick and twenty four
year old Jordaan gold Digger, I can't even believe that's
up for being trademarked. Hasn't it already been trademarked by
somebody else?

Speaker 1 (01:49:13):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:49:14):
Guess not so.

Speaker 4 (01:49:16):
Darren Rovel, one of our favorite people, is the one
who reported this the trademarks.

Speaker 6 (01:49:21):
The filing was first reported by trademark attorney Josh Gurbin.

Speaker 5 (01:49:25):
And then Darren ran with it well.

Speaker 6 (01:49:27):
He notes that in his article of course the very
very bottom, as most people.

Speaker 4 (01:49:31):
Do, trademarks have been filed with the intention of creating
a line of both jewelry and key chains.

Speaker 6 (01:49:40):
I think about the gold Digger key chain. Absolutely, that'll move.

Speaker 5 (01:49:48):
So hot.

Speaker 4 (01:49:49):
Women presumably in their young you know, early twenties or so,
are gonna run around with key chains that have gold
Digger on them. And when they slap that down at
the bar, and the old guy with all the money
that sees it is gonna be like, yes, just sign
me up.

Speaker 5 (01:50:03):
Be upfront.

Speaker 4 (01:50:05):
I guess which a lot of them are. I thought
that's what OnlyFans was for. Well, I mean, do you
up front? I mean you're trying and you almost got me.

Speaker 5 (01:50:15):
But you didn't. It's so close. Do you have a
working definition for gold digger?

Speaker 10 (01:50:22):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:50:23):
Well, they're primarily female. I don't know. The slang definition
is this urban dictionary?

Speaker 12 (01:50:30):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:50:31):
Okay, go, I mean you can.

Speaker 6 (01:50:33):
Do you want me to go with just Ai or
do you want me to go with Wiki?

Speaker 5 (01:50:37):
Which one? I kind of want you to go with
Urban Dictionary because I think it'll be saltier, good luck.

Speaker 6 (01:50:43):
Gold digger is a person who forms a relationship with someone,
typically a wealthy individual, with the primary motivation of obtaining
money or expensive gifts, often through deception or exploitation. For example,
the Wiki definition better, a gold digger is a person,
typically a woman, who engages in a type of transactional

(01:51:04):
sexual relationship for money and social status rather than love.
That's what you were looking for. I think that's what
it is. Why we don't know that.

Speaker 5 (01:51:12):
Yes we do.

Speaker 4 (01:51:13):
We don't because twenty four year old attractive female would
be with him for what reason?

Speaker 6 (01:51:19):
If it weren't very for the strong individual. He's a
man of great conviction, power and success. There's lots of
people like that that don't look frumpy.

Speaker 5 (01:51:28):
I mean, he's not a young.

Speaker 6 (01:51:30):
Man, cuts off the sleeves on hoodies, rips them off,
not hulk style, but they don't look very well manicured.
I know people who cut up shirts and T shirts
and things, and it usually looks a lot better than
what he does.

Speaker 5 (01:51:42):
Yeah, I'm married to one.

Speaker 4 (01:51:43):
I'm aware she's not a gold digger, by the way,
and if she was.

Speaker 6 (01:51:47):
I also don't think he's going I don't think he's
going her route. I don't anticipate seeing him in any
North Carolina backless T shirts anytime soon, right.

Speaker 4 (01:51:57):
And I mean, we don't all make Ross's co hosts
money here at seven ninety either.

Speaker 6 (01:52:03):
Part of that, I can see the term being so
useful from a trademark standpoint. The fact that it's the
two of them as part of a seventeen term filing,
that they are the ones who did it is I mean,
it's it's not even fitting.

Speaker 5 (01:52:18):
It's just weird.

Speaker 4 (01:52:19):
The company that filed the trademark TCE Wrights Management LLC. Yeah,
you get those letters in under Hudson's direction.

Speaker 6 (01:52:27):
It's a company owned by Bill and managed by her.

Speaker 4 (01:52:31):
Filed seventeen trademark applications in a week earlier in twenty
twenty five, including the ones we mentioned, among others. And yeah,
they're going to monetize this weird relationship.

Speaker 6 (01:52:43):
And the television program following them around this season. Maybe
not what you thought it would be or on what
network you thought it would be, but it's a go.

Speaker 5 (01:52:51):
It's happening.

Speaker 4 (01:52:52):
Yeah, and he's like excited about it, or at least
is acting like that excited about it. Right, He's like,
we're looking forward to that. He definitely pushed that decision anyway,
Good luck with that, Bill.

Speaker 1 (01:53:04):
The Eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:53:13):
I tell you.

Speaker 4 (01:53:16):
Sometimes I watch games like what's going on between the
Mariners and the Padres, and I'm like, I don't feel
so bad. The Padres are doing their best Astros impression
right now. They had two men on and squandered that
opportunity last inning. They got two men on right now
and they're doing their best to squander this one.

Speaker 5 (01:53:31):
Unless Gavin Sheets can be a hero, I'm not confident,
I mean, at.

Speaker 6 (01:53:36):
Least in their case, Unlike the Astros case yesterday, the
picture they're facing is actually good good.

Speaker 5 (01:53:42):
Yes, not Tanner Gordon, Yes, not Tanner Gordon.

Speaker 4 (01:53:47):
Tanner Gordon looked like he was sacking groceries last week.

Speaker 5 (01:53:50):
He looked like a twelve year old. Maybe he was.

Speaker 4 (01:53:53):
No, only Kurt Warner can do that and then be
so awesome afterwards in his sport, like Tanner.

Speaker 5 (01:54:00):
Was last night.

Speaker 4 (01:54:01):
Yeah, that was unfortunate. Astros will try to bounce back
again tonight. Have we heard the corresponding move for I.

Speaker 6 (01:54:08):
Would assume Victor Carrattini's stint on the concussion protocol takes
him off. When did he get that concussion from taking
one off the mask more than once over the last.

Speaker 5 (01:54:17):
Couple of games? I believe so it was a slow burn.

Speaker 6 (01:54:21):
I mean I would I hate to think he could
have already been suffering.

Speaker 4 (01:54:26):
Will Smith took it fall right to the face last night?
Did you see that in the Dodgers game?

Speaker 5 (01:54:31):
I did not see that. He didn't get concussed.

Speaker 6 (01:54:35):
Well, that's what their masks are for. Sometimes it helps,
and it probably did help, just not enough.

Speaker 4 (01:54:41):
I guess I'm thinking about like Taylor Tremmell, it's super
obvious when not once but twice in as many games.
You take a fall or a run into a wall
and it's like, oh, yeah, that guy's definitely going into
concussion protocol because he just ran into a wall.

Speaker 5 (01:54:56):
It was just more obvious I thought.

Speaker 6 (01:54:58):
I mean, he was being a value waited for a concussion.
He didn't go into concussion protocol. I don't believe that's
what I meant to say. Okay, there is a difference. Yeah,
I mean, although there's no tent for baseball players.

Speaker 5 (01:55:08):
Well they don't. Yeah, they leave the field, they go
back inside.

Speaker 6 (01:55:13):
Maybe there should be Well it takes a long time,
and there's no clock's and he's also I mean it
could be between innings.

Speaker 5 (01:55:20):
I suppose there is a clock.

Speaker 6 (01:55:22):
But usually when you get hurt in a baseball game,
you're taken out. You're not coming back. A football player
can come back, so they want to evaluate him on
the sidelines if possible, so they can come back.

Speaker 4 (01:55:32):
Totally off topic, but since you brought up clocks and
it is an injury, the whole Zach Wheeler thing, that
was a shoulder injury.

Speaker 5 (01:55:41):
It's thoracic outlet syndrome. Oh never mind, I'm thinking of u.

Speaker 6 (01:55:44):
Nate Uvaldi rotator cuff issue and he just officially went
on the IL. The Rangers made that transaction today.

Speaker 4 (01:55:51):
Even if we find out that it is indeed because
of the pitch clock, MLB would never admit it, right, Like,
it's easy to say, oh, look at all these Tommy
John injuries and look at all this, look at all
that as more serious and in this case, season ending
injuries continued.

Speaker 5 (01:56:07):
Do you think that he.

Speaker 6 (01:56:08):
Had a season ending injury in the second last month
of the season.

Speaker 4 (01:56:11):
Yeah, But if he still had it and they need,
they're not going to win the World Series without Zach Wheeler.

Speaker 6 (01:56:17):
Well that's different. I don't think that has anything to
do with pitch clock.

Speaker 4 (01:56:20):
And you're right, the Rangers weren't going to do anything anyways,
but he was one of their best pitches.

Speaker 6 (01:56:24):
Are getting people confused, it's only it's a fifteen DAYIL
stint for Evaldi. They haven't I don't even Chris Young,
I don't think say that he was out for the season.
All the timeline was was probably unlikely. And then so
thoracic outlets syndrome. I don't know that we attach ever
had that. Well, that's what BENNETTSUSA had and cost him
the twenty four season.

Speaker 5 (01:56:44):
Really, I don't remember that. That's why I didn't pitch.
I just don't remember that.

Speaker 6 (01:56:52):
The reason they weren't sure how what was going on
with him is, uh, spring training was going on and
they determined that that was what he was suffering from
and it cost him the entire season.

Speaker 5 (01:57:02):
Huh.

Speaker 4 (01:57:04):
Anyway, I still think I mean, it's it's an easy
it's an easy attacking anywhere. No, it's not what I
don't think there Ever, why do you you're convinced of it.
There's I can't refute it, and there's definitely evidence. I
don't know how much or enough of it this yet
nobody has because it's it's kind of I don't know.

(01:57:25):
It seems ridiculous, Yeah, but just just eyeballing it. You
don't have any numbers in front of you, in other words,
how I do things.

Speaker 5 (01:57:31):
Wouldn't you have.

Speaker 4 (01:57:32):
To think that the number of sheer pitching injuries has
shot up just since they implemented the clock.

Speaker 6 (01:57:40):
It feels that way, But again we're covering the team
that's number one by a lot. Like remember when they
had like eight pitchers down and those are four more
and then they added three more after that yeah, it's
a miracle. They have a few pictures occurred, and king

(01:58:01):
obviously fromber and Hunter who have taken the ball when
asked every and Brian A Brady for that matter. So
it's it is outrageous what the Astros have obviously been
through and we are it doesn't The perception I have is, yes,
there are more injuries. I know the Dodgers have been
sunk by that to a certain degree, and elsewhere around
baseball it does seem like more than than your usual amount.

(01:58:25):
But I really, I mean, I'm not sure that you're
ever gonna get an acknowledgment of it. And I don't
even think you're gonna get outside studies that suggest this
is the reason. I think most people will still fall
back on what I think is the reason, the development
of these pictures, the handling of these pictures coming up.
Can't more than throw more than six innings. You can't
do this, you can't do that. But while you're developing

(01:58:47):
as a kid, oh my god, you can throw eighty
five miles an hour, you can throw ninety five miles
an hour. Well, how about if you throw one hundred
and one? Just throw it as hard as you can
don't develop your other pitches. Don't worry about the strain
it puts on your arm if you can throw a
hundred one miles an hour like a bunch of people
are doing in Major League Baseball for the first time ever.

Speaker 5 (01:59:04):
Who did we talk to?

Speaker 6 (01:59:05):
Let's just go ahead and move them, move you along
and advance your career and control doesn't matter and health
doesn't matter.

Speaker 5 (01:59:11):
Oh, I know who it was.

Speaker 4 (01:59:12):
It wasn't who we talked to Billy Wagner's interview last
weekend or whenever. That was the weekend before on the
radio side of things. So I'm Sports Talk seven to
ninety in the booth. He I can't remember who it
was coming up, and they it might have been Darker
n It couldn't have been Durker. Maybe it was. I

(01:59:32):
can't remember who it was that he said told him this,
but they said, hey, throw harder, and it worked for him,
so he did it.

Speaker 5 (01:59:40):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:59:40):
I don't remember Billy Wagner having like all these serious injuries.

Speaker 5 (01:59:44):
But I don't know. You're right.

Speaker 4 (01:59:47):
It is very it's like subjective, and it's almost like
arguing a case with circumstantial evidence. You're never going to
be able to necessarily tangibly prove that that clock was
the reason that this guy's hurt and this guy's hurt
and this guy's hurt.

Speaker 6 (02:00:01):
Yeah, we've talked to Brian boga Sevik about it, and
many others involved. Steve Sparks similarly, Jeff Blum, And you
have too many different answers, So put it all together,
you're not gonna be able to pull one of them
out and say this is the reason. Pitchclock probably does
contribute to it. The way pictures are being developed probably
contributes to it. The way pitchers are handled at the

(02:00:21):
major league level probably contributes to it, and the minor
league level for that matter. And so I think you
have too many different pieces that are all leading to
the ultimate negative, which is too many pitchers are missing time,
and it's creating some unbelievable roster manipulation that.

Speaker 5 (02:00:37):
The teams have to do.

Speaker 6 (02:00:38):
I mean, I've said it before, the Astros working through
their forty man roster, like all of the players on it,
and then some and then some and then some, and
the amount of DFAs they've had to go through this
year because they've had to sign guys that they belong
in the minors to begin with, they belong on minor
league contracts, but then they've got to be added to
the forty and someone else has got to be Like
Sean Dubin should should still be an Astro, I mean

(02:00:58):
forced Whitley for crying out, should probably still be an Astro.

Speaker 5 (02:01:01):
But they got to a certain point in time where
we don't even have that.

Speaker 6 (02:01:04):
We don't have time to figure it out because your
spot is so valuable here. I know the options are
the real reason they're sent away. But Sean Dubin can't,
you know, step to the side for five games he
catch his breath after just coming off the il. No,
he can't. We need somebody to pitch, and you're not
available to us.

Speaker 5 (02:01:24):
And welcome to the twenty twenty I go, yeah, I
there's a lot that's gone into it.

Speaker 4 (02:01:29):
I listen, I'm not asking for no injuries next season
for the Astros, but I kind of am. I mean,
if any team has earned that right, it would be
the twenty twenty five Houston Astros. All right, we'll see
if Brian bogus Sevik was asked about the pitch clock
at any point today, I doubt it. You'll have to
find out, though, a little bit further into the five
o'clock hour, because coming up next it's football at five.

Speaker 2 (02:01:53):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety. Clinton and Adam
Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 11 (02:02:05):
A.

Speaker 6 (02:02:10):
No surprise, Still a lot for us to discuss here
in the five o'clock out before we gets to the
Astros on Deck show this evening over at tike In Park,
You're home for Astros Baseball, Sports Talk seven to ninety
and over there on the Tube on Space City Home Network.
Fifteen minutes from now, we'll check in with Brian Bogus
seven of Space City Home Network. You joined the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Ross earlier today a little

(02:02:33):
bit of his thoughts on where things are kind of
headed or have been for the Astros, who are probably
not that locked in in the clubhouse right now watching
the Mariners see their lead cut in half. The Padres, though,
did leave the bases loaded in the top of the
sixth inning push two runs across on a an RBI
single and a bas is loaded hit by pitch, so

(02:02:53):
the Mariners lead for too in that game. Astros opened
the day game and a half lead. It clearly will
be different when they begin play today, and we'll be
even more different when they finish play today, also have
an opportunity to send you out to see the opener
of the college football season for your University of Houston
Cougar's It's Tomorrow Night Over at TDECU Stadium. We got

(02:03:18):
a pair of tickets to that game we'll give away
in the final segment of the show to one of
our lucky listeners who's been paying attention here in the
five o'clock hour. Is something that we have said we
will ask you about that, but a pair of tickets
to see the Koogs and SFA. We'll also have a
pair of tickets to see where the party at that
tour reaches the Woodlands Pavilion September fourth, Nelly Jaw Rule
and Eve performing. So look forward to that in the

(02:03:40):
final segment of the show. Of course, in case you
missed it, some items that need to revisit or something
that we did not bring up at all from a
Texans perspective. As expected and as reported by Aaron Wilson,
dot yet confirmed by the team via a release or
the NFL's transaction site, the vast majority, if not all,
of the players on the Texans practice squad will be

(02:04:01):
players that participated or were rostered for training camp. I
have to amend that comment to rostered because Trent Brown
did not participate in training camp or the preseason for
the Texans, but rather spent the entire time on their
pupp list, but then was released, and now we'll be
expected to sign on their practice squad Jack Johnson, Brown Net,

(02:04:25):
Luke Leche and Harrison Bryant the other two tight ends
that aren't Earth Smith, who is headed to the injured reserve.
But two tight ends on the active roster, two tight
ends on the practice squad, and three tight ends on
the field when they take on the Rams for the
opener and every week after that, Very very very very
very unlikely the Texans are going to enter a game

(02:04:48):
with only two active tight ends. Nick Cassari's talked about
this as the rules have changed. I don't mind approaching
it this way. You might run into trouble weeks into
the season, just a couple weeks if you're constantantly going
the activation route at the same position over and over
because you can't you're not allowed to.

Speaker 5 (02:05:05):
You can do it three times.

Speaker 6 (02:05:07):
So at some point this season, either Harrison Bryant or
Luke Liche or somebody else is probably going to need
to be on the roster because those guys can't be
on the practice squad.

Speaker 5 (02:05:15):
All year when you need them all year on game day.

Speaker 6 (02:05:17):
Additionally, Miles Bryant and Nick Cassaria I think unintentionally mentioned
his name during his talk with us this morning, which
gave a really good indicator that he expected to be
a part of this team, and he's possibly one of
the other players they will activate off practice squad or
elevate off the practice squad for this opening game of
the season because they're.

Speaker 5 (02:05:37):
Light on the active roster.

Speaker 6 (02:05:38):
They have eight players on the active roster that play
in the secondary, and one of them is ce Dad Gardner.
Johnson Casearia additionally talked about CD what they call him
and what he calls himself on Instagram. A lot can
happen in ten days. I don't think they're ready to
rule him out for the opener yet, but the possibility
has remain that he is unavailable for the opener. It
would definitely require them to elevate somebody, and Brian could

(02:06:00):
play both corner and the slot and a safety position,
so I think there's a real good chance that that's
one of the biggest reasons why he is back with
this team on the practice squad, wide receiver Jared Wayne,
linebackers Casey Olsai, Jackson Woodard, a couple of d linemen
to Junior Taffoona, Solomon Byrd and Bussi, who was their

(02:06:20):
international player, so he's exempt from the roster. That's why
the Texans can have seventy and as expected, Juar Jordan,
the running back that was among their final releases and waves.
He gives them an additional player should any week call
for it, should anyone be unavailable, he's there to be activated.
That's how they'll go through the majority of the early

(02:06:43):
portion of the season, and again with limited knowledge about
the when and if of Joe Mixon's availability. That's just
an entire position cun underum in and of itself, but
they claim and they've set it now on multiple occasions.

Speaker 5 (02:06:57):
The group that they have they're fine with.

Speaker 6 (02:06:58):
They did not make any other additional moves to trade
for somebody. Adding somebody from somebody else's roster that they
let go is not the answer. Adding somebody from a
roster where they are a good enough player to be in,
at least in the top three on their depth chart.
That's a different story, and they didn't go that route.
Only a handful of trades were made. Obviously, Nick made one,
trading Austin Deculus to the Chargers. I thought there was

(02:07:21):
a real good chance because of the Charger situation. And
then yesterday with the Atlanta Falcons putting Caleb McGarry a
right tackle, but in the Falcons case, the blind side
tackle for their left handed quarterback. I thought there was
a possibility they would be interested in Cam Robinson. Robinson's
a lifetime left tackle. I'm not sure if that impacted
their desires, but Cam Robinson is currently a Texan. Blake

(02:07:44):
Fisher is a text and Titus Howard is a Texan.
Trent Brown's on the practice squad, and Ariante Ursery is
on the Texans. That's five tackles or a half a tackle.
As Nick described Titus Howard today, he'll be a full
tackle for the opener and for the foreseeable future because
his their starting right tackle.

Speaker 5 (02:08:02):
Unannounced.

Speaker 4 (02:08:03):
Unannounced. Yeah, do you like depth charts?

Speaker 8 (02:08:07):
Now?

Speaker 6 (02:08:08):
It will be the same as before. The team is
not really issuing it. It will appear in their game notes.
But Dimiko doesn't sit down and make it, nor does
Matt Burke, Nordes Nick Cayley. Made by the same people
who made the unofficial depth charts, and it will be
listed as an unofficial depth chart.

Speaker 5 (02:08:24):
But I also know what the depth chart is have
been a practice. I don't need it.

Speaker 6 (02:08:27):
I can tell you what it is, and I can
tell you what they've written on it that is inaccurate,
and I'll be happy to do so Tuesday of.

Speaker 5 (02:08:32):
Next week, when the game notes are released.

Speaker 4 (02:08:35):
Which of the Tom Brady related stories do you think
is more ridiculous yet necessary?

Speaker 5 (02:08:40):
All right?

Speaker 6 (02:08:41):
So, which state other than Kansas and Missouri because they're obvious,
had the most excitement based on percentage of total tweets
about yesterday's football.

Speaker 5 (02:08:52):
Related engagement gosh?

Speaker 4 (02:08:54):
And which state or states had the least care at
all based on engagement or posting game Well, I would
assume Kansas and out of the question, they finished one
in two least expect guys aren't following along, and I
think ac is I completely ignored what he said about
Brady and went straight to Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 18 (02:09:14):
Alaska.

Speaker 6 (02:09:16):
Alaska is near the bottom end. I wish I lived
in Alaska. When the news came out they're forty eighth.

Speaker 4 (02:09:23):
It would make it would make on the right track,
though it would make me further away from both of
these people who I absolutely abhor.

Speaker 6 (02:09:29):
Idaho's a terrible guess. Hawaii was a great guess. Really,
Oh oh, Hawaii, I just.

Speaker 5 (02:09:34):
Gave it away. Hawaii doesn't care. Nobody in Hawaii's posting
about this. Nobody cares.

Speaker 6 (02:09:39):
Idaho's the middle of the middle of the pack. Texas
your state, ac it is my state, bottom ten, don't care.

Speaker 4 (02:09:46):
Good, way to go, Texas, just something else we do
better than a lot of other people. Not care about
those two jerks. Thank you Cole for backing me on
that forty second out of fifty. Don't care good. I
want to form in front of that.

Speaker 18 (02:10:00):
Here's number two.

Speaker 5 (02:10:01):
I want to five in front of it.

Speaker 9 (02:10:02):
Number three.

Speaker 6 (02:10:03):
My apologies, number of your apologies. Tom Brady's football home,
I guess you could say Massachusetts.

Speaker 5 (02:10:08):
I thought it was Florida. Well, he played in Florida
for what a.

Speaker 18 (02:10:12):
Tiny thought was his actual home in California, Rhode.

Speaker 6 (02:10:15):
Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut. All those places up in the same place.
We're all near the top.

Speaker 4 (02:10:20):
Tom's big house. In that documentary, he lives in Florida,
does he not? I mean I would live in Florida. Now,
well he was living there all life up there though, Yeah,
but he was. He had a place there even before
he came to the bus.

Speaker 6 (02:10:32):
I mean, I'm super duper rich, I look like a model.
I've never had plastic surgery, and I'm about to make
a ton more money. I'm definitely gonna stay in the
East and live up there in the in the Massachusetts,
New England, a greater Northeast area, as opposed to an
awesome sunny mansion in Florida, where.

Speaker 5 (02:10:50):
Farre when you're anywhere like that, where far more.

Speaker 4 (02:10:53):
Avocados are readily available with which to make my ice cream?

Speaker 6 (02:10:57):
All right, Brady stories you pick, I don't care, all right.
So this is like a new thing that another new
TB twelve company, No no, no, no, No, Fox.

Speaker 4 (02:11:11):
Is allowing him to do the whole meet the pregame
show meetings, the production meeting, production meetings remotely, which.

Speaker 6 (02:11:21):
Because his schedule doesn't allow for him to travel on
a Friday for a Sunday broadcast, well, if you think
about it, because Friday is a normal time to have
production meeting.

Speaker 5 (02:11:29):
TB twelve is not going to run itself. I'm pretty
sure he's not a hands on owner. Like you think.

Speaker 4 (02:11:39):
Funny the Vision run themselves funny, you should mention that.
So Brady's role as part owner of that very team
led to plenty of pearl clutching, so to speak, amongst
people who thought it was a conflict of interest or
at least a potential And so the last these restrictions

(02:12:02):
were designed to prevent Brady from passing inside information to
the Raiders, which I cannot even get out with a
straight face. What's the restriction to give him a potential edge? Well,
he was He could not criticize officials on air. Remember
that we talked about this on the show.

Speaker 5 (02:12:16):
Yeah, but that has nothing to do with production meetings
and you're an owner of the Raiders.

Speaker 4 (02:12:19):
He was banned from attending practices or entering the facilities
of other teams, and could not speak with coaches and
players during those production meetings where members of the broadcast
team gather intel ahead of the game they're covering.

Speaker 6 (02:12:32):
Yeah, when you said some people in pearl clutching would
think it's they're one hundred percent right.

Speaker 5 (02:12:38):
He he is a that's his team. He's not even
the first time team part.

Speaker 6 (02:12:43):
Of the Raiders right he runs is helped sling them
run their organization. He has no business in production meetings
unless the teams decide, well, your production meetings are no
longer useful. All the stuff you want to say on
the air, were no longer going to tell you any
of this stuff.

Speaker 4 (02:12:59):
The It's funny the article which was in The Athletic
talks about the fact that Kevin Burkhart and other people
who sat in on the production meetings he wasn't allowed
to They were allowed to relay the information that was
shared to there. As he put it, exile coworker, which
is so stupid. You can't go, but they can tell
you what was said. He probably liked it better the
old way.

Speaker 6 (02:13:19):
Actually, well everybody else for every other year that everybody
else has been doing it. I mean, Chris Collinsworth could
have called anybody he wanted in the league. He could
have called the Bengals, he could have called the Texans. Hey,
here's what I talked about with the team you're about
to play.

Speaker 8 (02:13:31):
In a week.

Speaker 2 (02:13:31):
I wish he'd call his agent and retire the A
T on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:13:42):
Well before we play you some of Brian bogas Sevic's
thoughts on your Houston Astros. As we've been teasing all
day long, you should probably let you know that not once,
but twice the Padres flew out to the warning track
in the exact same spot to not put a dent
in that four to two lead that the Mariners.

Speaker 6 (02:14:01):
Have six outs away from victory. They lead for to
bottom seven. Just does Seattle, might.

Speaker 5 (02:14:06):
I want to beat the Rockies tonight, Astros, just saying.

Speaker 6 (02:14:09):
Take care of your own business and the lead will
remain the same or get better if we see a
crazy comeback.

Speaker 4 (02:14:15):
If you're a team in the NL West that has
managed to pass the Dodgers and the standings, maybe you
should play like it today.

Speaker 6 (02:14:22):
I mean yes, and no passed them and then got passed,
and then passed them and then got passed. Their game
back going into play today.

Speaker 4 (02:14:29):
Well, they're about to be more back. They're about to
be in dead place, as they say on Anchor Man.

Speaker 6 (02:14:33):
Well, Cincinnati could also say something about that when they
take on the Dodgers later on this evening. Not everybody
gets to play a ninety four lost team.

Speaker 5 (02:14:39):
Only one team gets to do that. That's Houston. Well,
they didn't make much of it last night, now did they. Well,
now it's their second day in a row of playing
a ninety four lost team.

Speaker 4 (02:14:47):
Well there you go, all right, So let's get to
Brian Bogusvic's thoughts on, for example, among other things, hey,
how do you protect Jordan Alvarez from being automatically walked?

Speaker 7 (02:15:00):
Well, you got to have run producers behind him, right,
If you're pitching around somebody, that inevitably means there's going
to be opportunities with runners on base behind him. And
you know, Christian Walker had those opportunities yesterday didn't work out.
You know, if you look at the body of work
for Christian Walker over the last two months, basically, he's

(02:15:20):
his numbers are very similar to what they were last
couple of years in Arizona. The guy we thought we
were getting. You know, he drove in a bunch of
runs on the road trip. Did it happen yesterday?

Speaker 12 (02:15:30):
No?

Speaker 7 (02:15:30):
But you know, as of right now, he's the guy.
He's the guy who, you know, before Jordon came back,
was your best option as a run producer. So now
you stick him behind yord On and hope that a
couple of chances he can cash in on it, and
then all of a sudden you got to pitch the
jord On.

Speaker 17 (02:15:45):
Yeah, that's I was gonna say, Brian. I mean, you know,
Walker was so encouraging in that Baltimore series. He was,
you know, hitting home runs, and it was like, all right,
maybe he's getting going here. And then you know, an
zero for three night last night. I just you know, again,
maybe it was just you went up against a pitcher
that feel himself right now. It's so funny. I was
looking at Tanner Gordon, what do you give him? Like
ten runs two weeks ago to Arizona and then he

(02:16:06):
goes one run against the Dodgers, one run against the Astros.
So sometimes you just run into a guy who's just
pitching well. But I think that's the biggest thing. The
Matt's point is, Okay, Rdon's back, great, but yeah, if
teams are gonna walk him, you need somebody you're driving
those runs. But Christian Walker has just been so inconsistent
all year. I'm just I'm worried about him being the
guy behind your arm.

Speaker 7 (02:16:28):
Maybe, but I certainly have to give it more than
one game to really dissect it. I mean, if you
look at the opportunity. Yesterday, he hit a ball I
forget which inning, it was, maybe the fifth or sixth inning.
He lined out to left field to end the inning
with runners on basis. The ball had an expected batting
average over nine hundred. It was just a good play
right out of guy. So you know, you can't just

(02:16:50):
say you went over. It's not working when the guy
you know hit a line drive that could have easily
gotten down his first at that the inning that, you know,
the end of the first inning, it was a good
pitch to hit. He barreled, it just got undered, it under,
it flew out the center field. You know, as long
as it's not looking overmatched, as long as it's not, hey,
they are targeting you and attacking you one specific way

(02:17:11):
because they have found a weakness that they know they
can go to time and time again.

Speaker 14 (02:17:16):
If he's you know, in a.

Speaker 7 (02:17:17):
Good spots swing wise, if he's getting good pitches to hit,
let him go out there for more than a couple
of games and really see, because you know he's he's
produced runs better than most guys on the team. I mean,
I think there's you know RBI's with two outs, he's
at the top of the American League. He's got, you know,
a high percentage of RBIs to games over the last

(02:17:39):
two months or so, so he's been getting it done,
but certainly didn't yesterday starting pitching.

Speaker 17 (02:17:46):
It's it's a weird time right now. Look, we know
Howvier is working his way back into form. Lance is
still trying to work his way back into form. Arraghetti
verycouraged from his last outing, you know, after a dismal
outing before it So okay, starting to maybe these guys
running in the form, but if this team's gonna do
anything in the postseason, Brian It starts with Hunter Brown
and starts as from Ravaldez and Hunter Brown. Last night

(02:18:07):
an uncharacteristic weird night where yeah he only gives up
to earn, but you still give up six runs and
you lose six to one. I look at tonight with
Fromber and this is a big start for him. I'm sorry,
I mean, I guess it's it's Colorado. But at seven
thirty three ra this month Fromber's been bad the last
four starts like, I've got to see good vintage s

(02:18:28):
Fromber here, feel good about myself and if he's not, man,
I'm starting to hit the panic button because I'm going
my two automatics Fromber and Hudder Brown. If they can't
get it done, like you really start to get a
little bit worried.

Speaker 7 (02:18:40):
No, absolutely, I mean this team's playoff hopes hinge around
kind of bookending a game. Right, it's starting pitching, and
it's back of the bullpen, and it starts with the
two big guys at the top of the rotation. You
had the two big guys at the back of the bullpen.
You're already down one of them. So that's of those
four guys that are out of the mix now with
hitter being down, So it became even more important to

(02:19:01):
be getting quality start after quality start from from Hunter
and Fromber and for Fromber. We got to see the
stuff look like it's supposed to do. And there's going
to be times when you get hit a little bit,
especially a guy who gives a big round ball. Pitcher
balls are going to find holes all that stuff. But
his curveball two of his last three starts has not

(02:19:21):
looked right. You know, he hasn't been getting ground balls
at the same rate that he typically does. There are
some mechanical things that are affecting the stuff and if
he doesn't have that high end stuff and they don't have,
you know, a big two at the top of that
starting rotation, it's going to be really difficult to go
out there and try to run through a couple series

(02:19:42):
in the playoffs, and you know you'll be able to tell.
You'll be able to tell today because when his curve
ball is working, it's a really high swing and miss pitch,
and the Rockies swinging miss more than anybody in baseball.
So if he's not able to rack up with with
that curveball today, it's still not right.

Speaker 5 (02:20:00):
I hope it is right.

Speaker 6 (02:20:01):
And he did mention something Brian did there earlier in
the commentary last night. There were quite a few balls
hit with an expected batting average of at least seven hundred.
Nobody walks around in baseball with seven hundred batting average.
If you have a three hundred batting average, you're among
the elite, like Jeremy Pania. Of those ten seven to
forty or better expected batting average, all of them were

(02:20:26):
base hits, except for the one he noted from Christian Walker,
which had a nine to thirty expected batting average, one
of the highest bat speeds of the game. Exavilla wasn't
quite there, and he unfortunately lined out with runners on base.

Speaker 4 (02:20:40):
Yeah, the best part of when Christian Walker has something
like that happened to him is that you can't tell
at all what he's thinking by the look on his
face every time.

Speaker 6 (02:20:48):
Pretty sure, if we were watching correctly from our seats
at the Marquee location of Big City Wings when that
at bat took place and the camera correctly went wound
up back on Christian Walker's face, I don't think he
said a nice word.

Speaker 5 (02:21:04):
He didn't say the Lord's prayer.

Speaker 4 (02:21:05):
He did not he There is nobody that looks more
deflated and is definitely saying cuss words in his mind
more after a whatever happens fill in the blank than
Christian Walker in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (02:21:18):
Now, if you were paying close attention to last night's game,
you know that two balls were hit over the fence,
right heyesus Sanchez hit the first one, and no doubter
and Hunter Goodman hit the second one, also a no
downor uh maybe the expected batting average on those two
balls was what quite obviously a thousand.

Speaker 5 (02:21:40):
One of them.

Speaker 6 (02:21:41):
Yes, hayesus Sanchez is one hundred and twelve mile an
hour off the bat, home running thirty out of thirty
ballparks win like the tenth row was an expected batting
average of a thousand, it'd be one thousand batting average
no matter who where he was, in Major League Baseball
or in the two exhibition style parks. Hunter Goodman's home
run would have been a homer in three ballparks he had.

(02:22:04):
It wouldn't even qualify as a hard hit ball because
it was only at ninety four point two off the
bat and expected batting average for a ball that, under
no circumstances could ever be caught at dyk In Park
because of where it landed in the over the fence,
in the very high wall. There are no Major leaguers
that are thirty feet tall or thirty feet tall with

(02:22:26):
their arm extended and a glove on it. His expected
batting average on a home run.

Speaker 5 (02:22:31):
Was one ninety. That's why you can't.

Speaker 4 (02:22:36):
You have to take expected batting average with the biggest,
hugest bushelful of salt, the dead sea of salt, the
dead sea of salt. I get what expected batting average?
Oh my gosh, I had hit four hard hit balls.
I had expected batting average of seven to fifty combined.
How to I go over four?

Speaker 6 (02:22:56):
Well, somebody else said a home run and expected batting
average was you're we don't want you here anymore. The
ball went over the fence, but they expected batting averages.
We put all those numbers together in all our ballparks.
Was your one ninety hitter and we're going to have
to DFA. You so recognize that when I believe in
a lot of the advanced numbers, and clearly thirty of
thirty major league teams do also. But there's times when

(02:23:19):
you have to realize, Okay, let's fix this. Let's not
want to be married to it too hard.

Speaker 4 (02:23:25):
You want to think one of the things that I
miss the most, and it's something else that Manford screwed
up because he's a jerk.

Speaker 5 (02:23:30):
The shift. I miss it so much.

Speaker 4 (02:23:33):
I miss seeing like the entire roster on the left
side of the field or the right side of the field,
depending on who's hitting.

Speaker 5 (02:23:38):
And I loved it. Well, you're gonna put your feet
on the dirt.

Speaker 4 (02:23:41):
Why because you're not good enough to hit against that
defense that we've I mean, it's just, hey, take everything
good about the game, ruin it and call it a league.

Speaker 5 (02:23:53):
That's what Manford has done.

Speaker 6 (02:23:54):
You wanted to see more of Jose al Twoba throwing
out guys from the outfield, even though he was technically
still the second basement playing.

Speaker 5 (02:24:01):
Shallow right field, very shallow, but it worked.

Speaker 6 (02:24:04):
The astro has had as much data and belief in
it as anybody else in Major League Baseball.

Speaker 5 (02:24:08):
In case you missed it, next.

Speaker 2 (02:24:09):
Here on the A Team, The A Team on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:24:18):
It is time for in case you missed it.

Speaker 6 (02:24:20):
In case you missed it, Texans are being very tight
lipped about the injury situation with Joe Mixon. Could mean
he's back in for after the first four games sometime
during the twenty one day window. They could activate after
those four games, or it might mean he's not going
to play at all this year.

Speaker 5 (02:24:35):
We really don't know, and they really are not willing
to say.

Speaker 6 (02:24:38):
They've made unofficially most of their practice squad signings. One
player that the Texans let go was actually signed to
an active roster. Nick Neeman, one of the linebackers that
was signed in free agency. Pretty nice deal for him
by the Texans that he walks away from with the
guaranteed money and now he will be with the Packers.
Texans kept six linebackers, but he was not one of them.

(02:25:00):
None of their players were claimed on waivers, and they
did not make any waiver claims. Remember the Texans, it's
all based off of last year's season, so they're at
the very back end of things.

Speaker 5 (02:25:09):
I believe they had the twenty fifth claim.

Speaker 6 (02:25:11):
I wanted to pass along one player that's been added
to a practice squad.

Speaker 5 (02:25:16):
Elsewhere in the league.

Speaker 6 (02:25:18):
The Cleveland Browns have added Bailey Zappi to their practice
squad per Jeremy Fowler, which to me says, when old
Joe Flacco gets hurt, and he will early in the season,
they won't turn to Dylan Gabriel or Shodour Sanders, but
rather not very good but still experienced veteran in Bailey Zappy.

Speaker 4 (02:25:43):
And when that happens, and by that I mean the
part where they don't turn to Shaduur Sanders, how sad
and upset and mad and wailing of gnashing and teeth
and all that is ESPN going to do well.

Speaker 5 (02:25:55):
You can't turn to your third stringer. You got to
go to the second string.

Speaker 4 (02:25:58):
Shoot, see third string. According to this, he should be
the next Coming of Christ.

Speaker 6 (02:26:02):
Someone last night at Big City Wings walked by and
they were wearing a number twenty one jersey. Obviously it
was a Sudur Sanders jersey because it said Sanders on
the back and immed the Atlanta Falcons.

Speaker 4 (02:26:14):
You mean it wasn't a number twenty lions jersey with
Sanders on the back because Monica McNutt would have been stumped.

Speaker 14 (02:26:20):
All right.

Speaker 4 (02:26:22):
Few other things, by the way, Also, in case you
missed it, Josh Naylor is still fat.

Speaker 6 (02:26:28):
They're into the very very late stages of the San
Diego Padres Seattle Mariners game. You almost out first for
the Padres if they want to rectify this situation, they
trail four two, top eight, one down.

Speaker 5 (02:26:41):
All right, col The rest is yours.

Speaker 11 (02:26:43):
So, Nick Asario, what are your thoughts on the running
back room in general? Now that you don't know when
you're gonna get back a healthy Joe mix in? Are
you looking at other options? Are you looking at maybe
Nick chubbed to be the guy, because the question that
was actually asked him was.

Speaker 18 (02:26:58):
Hey, how do you feel about the running backroom in general?

Speaker 16 (02:27:01):
Would fill the players that are on a team right
now can help us?

Speaker 5 (02:27:03):
Otherwise it wouldn't be here.

Speaker 16 (02:27:04):
So you know, whoever's got to play, we're gonna probably
need everybody at some point. So the players that are
on the team, we're gonna need them. The players on
our practice squad, we're gonna need. Who's everything in the building.
The expectation is that you're gonna prepare each week, get
ready to play, and that you could help our team.
I mean there's multiple players that have been off a
roster on a practice squad who we've activated for games
and they have gone out there. Tommy, we just talked

(02:27:25):
about him, like nobody was talking about Tommy told yeah
last year at this point either and he's going out
there playoff games and actually helped us win. So whoever's here,
the expectation is, we're gonna get theirself ready to play.
There's a better option out there for us, we'll consider it.
If there's not, then you know, then we won't got it.

Speaker 5 (02:27:43):
Did he slip into an accent there when he said Tommy. No,
he's just said Tommy, it's okay. If he did, most
people do. He didn't. I do it when I talk
about Cole's dad.

Speaker 6 (02:27:52):
Tommy has also brought up specifically multiple times during our
interviews with both the general manager and the head coach
before we then interviewed three players that were provided at
the podium. Tommy was one of them, so the British
was another. A series of questions asked about those players
in light of the fact that people probably were going
to generate content about those players.

Speaker 5 (02:28:14):
British.

Speaker 4 (02:28:15):
His teammates and coaches and everybodied in his life call
him well, like nobody calls us Adam.

Speaker 6 (02:28:21):
Well, if you've got a team with a bunch of
players who go by the same name or literally have
the same name, they're called Jalen, do you got to
come up with something else?

Speaker 8 (02:28:30):
Do you have to?

Speaker 6 (02:28:31):
Why would you not call him British governor? Hey, British,
great play, British, British, get out here, you're out here.

Speaker 5 (02:28:38):
I'd call him a Britge.

Speaker 6 (02:28:39):
We're looking at a film. We got to look at
this British. You just did a great job. Locked like
Hard Knocks is going right now. And there's a kid
from the that they brought in middle of camp. He's
playing some linebackers, some special teams work. He's from the
UH Armed Forces, that's where he played his college football.
They call him Army his name's Jimmy Army.

Speaker 5 (02:28:59):
Since his name's British, why don't you just call him redcoat?

Speaker 4 (02:29:01):
I would call him crumpet. I mean you want him
to look Come on, Crumpet, get out there. Like Jalen Smith,
they call him Jay Rock, Jay Rock. You've got another
Jalen in the secondary, that's hurt. You've got another Jalen
in the secondary that's a safety.

Speaker 6 (02:29:17):
And obviously you've got Jalen Knowle and Jaden Higgins and
on and on and on. Jalen Mills was released. He
was also in the secondary.

Speaker 5 (02:29:24):
This run on Jalen's is a menace to society. It's
too many.

Speaker 6 (02:29:29):
Will be very easy because they all have last names,
and other than the one whose name last name is Smith,
which is also shared by a teammate in the secondary,
Tremon Smith, I think will be just fine.

Speaker 8 (02:29:42):
What else, so the.

Speaker 11 (02:29:43):
Indian Alis cults are eventually gonna fire Chris ballor to
your liking, but the.

Speaker 5 (02:29:46):
Rest to my liking, because it's good for the AFC
South Southern.

Speaker 11 (02:29:49):
Teams to your like his friends and families not liking
to your liking of calling him a terrible general rator
because at this point it's very clear he is and
just to make more insop in and twist the knife
even harder into the back of Indianapolis Colts fans instead
of just admitting that Anthony Richardson is not the answer
and that Anthony Richardson should not be a part of
the long term plan. When asked during Wednesday's press conference

(02:30:12):
on would they end up listening to trade offers, the answer, now,
we're not trading him. It's easy to say, Okay, he's done.
I don't agree. I believed in numerous times that I
do not agree with that statement. I think overcoming challenges
and obstacles along the way are good for anybody. I do.
I am proud of Anthony for where he is, how

(02:30:32):
far he's come. He's come miles. We're not trading him
at this time.

Speaker 5 (02:30:36):
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 6 (02:30:37):
So, Kenny Pickett's been traded multiple times, four times, and
the most recent trade netted the Browns. What basically what
they gave up together a fifth round pick?

Speaker 8 (02:30:46):
Is that right?

Speaker 18 (02:30:46):
I think it was a sixth round pick pick that
was a Day three pick.

Speaker 6 (02:30:49):
What's Anthony Richardson going to net you in trade if
they trade him before the opener of this season? Next
ten days and some team wants to put him on
their fifty three man roster. Trade for him?

Speaker 5 (02:31:00):
What are you getting in return for former top five
overall pick?

Speaker 18 (02:31:05):
At best?

Speaker 11 (02:31:05):
I would say a late day two selection, and that's
at best. Probably you get a fourth.

Speaker 5 (02:31:10):
Round pick, So a fourth round pick somewhere in the
you've got a fourth round pick for Anthony Richardson. That
is a steal.

Speaker 6 (02:31:16):
It's at that point I think the opposite way, and
it's reasonable, I think to think either way. He's barely
played in the NFL. Now when he has played, he's
thrown the ball so unbelievably poorly. There doesn't appear to
be any end right site. But he's played so infrequently,
and I think he's played through unfortunate injuries all along
the way, like arm related, throwing related.

Speaker 5 (02:31:39):
Do you think they should get a higher draft pick
for him?

Speaker 6 (02:31:41):
I'm saying, why would you want to move him for
that rather than just see if things still could potentially
help your team, or.

Speaker 11 (02:31:50):
Get desperate to make that trade because that's another thing
that could happen.

Speaker 6 (02:31:53):
Later on, Like the team adding him is not going
to play him either. He's a poster, stars hurt. It's
just they're not going to be willing to give up
much of something for a backup quarterback. He would be
traded as a backup quarterback. He's not starting for any
team in the league because the Saints are the only
team that would start him and they're not trading for him.

Speaker 4 (02:32:11):
Some people think Chris Ballard is terrific. Kenny town I know.
And by the way, who should they have drafted there
if not him? If you had to redraft, I don't
even remember who was taken after him.

Speaker 6 (02:32:21):
But there wasn't a positional need the quarterback, right, they
should drafted higher.

Speaker 11 (02:32:27):
The guy who went fifth overall actually made sense for
a positional meeting, but it wasn't as important.

Speaker 6 (02:32:32):
It's just not a quarterback though. But yeah, from a
positional need, they had enough holes they could have found somebody.
But I didn't think it at the time. So I'm
not going to revision his history right now.

Speaker 4 (02:32:40):
And you were the same we thought, Oh I want
I thought he was great because I'm an idiot.

Speaker 18 (02:32:43):
I thought he was QB one at one point.

Speaker 5 (02:32:46):
And there you have. I love CJ.

Speaker 6 (02:32:48):
You go giveaway tickets to see the University of Houston
Cougars tomorrow night.

Speaker 5 (02:32:51):
At TDCU Stadium when we come.

Speaker 2 (02:32:53):
Back the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:33:04):
All right, appreciate everybody listening, and one way we can
show our appreciation, does it offer you something fun? The concert,
maybe football game, Maybe got tickets to go see the
University of Houston Cougars open up their season. It's tomorrow
night when SFA will be in town for the Lone
Star Stampede, the home opener tomorrow night, seven o'clock. Kick

(02:33:25):
Uhcougars dot com slash tickets if you like to find
yourself some tickets.

Speaker 5 (02:33:29):
We obviously are giving away.

Speaker 6 (02:33:30):
A payer here and you can go to go Coog's
or excuse me called seven to one to three, Go
Koogs to get your tickets as well. Come early, be loud,
where red and again the game is tomorrow night. Or
you can also win from us to pare tickets to
see where the party at tour September fourth, Woodlands Pavilion,
Nelly Joe Rule Eve, all performing.

Speaker 5 (02:33:50):
And tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster dot com.

Speaker 6 (02:33:53):
We give that away to our listeners on a regular
basis as we continue with the summer of fun, more
than a year's worth of it here and through all seasons,
but we'd like to have you listen to the program.

Speaker 5 (02:34:04):
We like that you listen to the program.

Speaker 6 (02:34:05):
It's something we talked about earlier today in this hour
is how you will win the tickets. Ask you a
question about something we discussed earlier today, in fact last
segment and at seven one three, two, one two five,
seven nine. If you know the answer, you can call
in and win those tickets the pair of your choice.
We mentioned that the AFC South Texans and at least

(02:34:27):
two other teams are very happy that one team employs
a very particular GM, at least in my opinion. So
which AFC South GM should you be saying? Yes, it's
great that he works inside this division. Clearly it's not
Nick Cassario. His team is good, but it's helpful to
Nick Cassaria and his team because this particular gentlemen we
mentioned last segment works and runs the personnel side for

(02:34:51):
that particular team. What general manager is that inside the
AFC South We talked about it last segment and many
times this offseason and like many more times this regular
season until maybe maybe the end of the season when
the Ersay family lets him go. Seven one three two
one two five seven nine.

Speaker 4 (02:35:10):
He answer to the opposite of what I want to do.
You make it so easy, it's ridiculous. I want to
do like stuff that we talked about two hours ago,
let alone just telling them what it is like you
just did. Hey, we're doing some trivia now to win
some prizes. Here's the answer. That's what you just did.

Speaker 5 (02:35:27):
That was actually normal for me, but totally unintentional for
a guy who not blanket on this show. You're way
too nice. I did not mean to do that. Good grief.
The Ersay family want you to spell his name on air.
It's not like Amy's gonna fire him.

Speaker 4 (02:35:42):
Doesn't say it rhymes with mish mallard. There, I don't
work on that show. Well, we already got the winner
and the other guy just got hired.

Speaker 5 (02:35:51):
He's not getting fired. And Chris Ballard sucks, doesn't he.

Speaker 6 (02:35:55):
I think he's put together a roster worthy of not
visiting the playoffs for an uh another season in a row, or.

Speaker 4 (02:36:01):
As like as you'd like to say. I think his
roster is stinky. It's substandard, substandard. You know what we
did not have in in case you missed it, this
one run. Oh, I thought you're talk about the is
SHOs game last night.

Speaker 6 (02:36:12):
Normally we don't have it in case you missed it
any days, and you would not have missed it had
you been listening to the whole show today. We didn't
have it for you last segment, and I will not
have it for you now.

Speaker 5 (02:36:24):
Sounds great.

Speaker 6 (02:36:24):
Maybe you'll get it during the Astros on Deck show
as we drive under eighty minutes until first pitch.

Speaker 5 (02:36:31):
The lineup? The lineup, Yeah, that's true, you're not, are
you sick? The lineup? I mean they been released.

Speaker 4 (02:36:38):
Yeah, you're supposed to predict this stuff normally two hours
prior to this point in our day for a seven
to ten first pitch.

Speaker 6 (02:36:45):
I understand there at least is some I guess hesitancy
to figure out how they want to play it. We
already know, says Arsalaz, there is playing tonight. I don't
know what other part of their lineup is under question,
or did something happen which I would hate to even suggest.

Speaker 5 (02:37:01):
But yeah, by the way, not up yet, definitely hitting
ninth right, I would think so, left handed, bat nine spot,
flip over the order. It's not really about what side
of the play he's standing on.

Speaker 6 (02:37:11):
It's I would be willing to say, as I did
yesterday predicting a base hit for Jordon Alvarez incorrectly, I
will predict a base hit for Sasar Salazar tonight.

Speaker 5 (02:37:21):
Well, it's not his fault.

Speaker 4 (02:37:22):
They wouldn't pitch anywhere outside of ten feet outside of
the zone.

Speaker 6 (02:37:27):
I do think that the Astros will consider what they're
doing with jord On from a protection standpoint as much
as they can, but it becomes a moot point if
those that bat behind him, whoever they are, Walker was
the first opportunity, he was behind him last. If they
don't do anything about it, then teams will just continue it.
And I don't even think I was surprised to see it.
Even though he hadn't played in a hundred games. He

(02:37:48):
was not very forceful with his you don't want to
pitch to me. For the first six weeks of.

Speaker 5 (02:37:53):
The season, stood there and took balls. I'm just saying,
what was you're pitching to?

Speaker 6 (02:37:58):
Twenty twenty twenty nineteen, twenty twenty four yard on Alvarez
last night, well, twenty twenty five yard on.

Speaker 4 (02:38:05):
Alvarez is not somebody you should fear, not when his
hand's broken, but when it's not broken. He's gonna launch
that thing. We shall say, put that anywhere in the zone.
I'm telling you right now, and this is just an
eyeball test. I was looking at him. He was gonna
pounce on it.

Speaker 12 (02:38:18):
You know it.

Speaker 8 (02:38:19):
I know it.

Speaker 5 (02:38:19):
Everybody in that stadium knew it. That ball was gonna
go over. I don't know it was gonna go out.

Speaker 6 (02:38:24):
Of stadium, even on the roof of shut I mean
he hit one to the nearly to the wall. And
watching a lot of the highlights of his swings during
his four game rehab stint, I actually thought, and I
had never put it side by side. I did go
back and watch how he was swinging the bat during
his Astros season prior to May third.

Speaker 5 (02:38:44):
I thought he looked much. I honestly thought there were
things I could.

Speaker 6 (02:38:47):
See that made his swing look more smooth, uninhibited, and
more like the yord On Alvarez were used to sing.
And at the time when he was popping out, striking out, meekly,
hitting out and drive having a slug or an ops
of in the low six hundreds, that's not what it
looked like to me. And you've suggested, and it's totally

(02:39:08):
reasonable that there was an injury, long before he even
acknowledged it, which wasn't until late April, long before he
went on the aisle, which wasn't until early May. That
throughout maybe the entire twenty twenty five season, that's all
of March in April, he just wasn't himself because there
was something already wrong.

Speaker 4 (02:39:23):
Well, when you've seen what he's capable of, and then
all of a sudden, it's just nowhere near that production.
And I'm not even talking about the production itself. I'm
talking about what you're talking about, the mechanics, the swing,
just the look, the comfortable comfortability in the box.

Speaker 5 (02:39:37):
Yes, the agomble wally of being in the box, that's
not very nice.

Speaker 4 (02:39:40):
But I those of you that were listening, I should
have asked that a goomble walle say it rolls off
the tongue.

Speaker 5 (02:39:45):
It's so easy. Now.

Speaker 4 (02:39:46):
I don't know what happened earlier, but yeah, bygones, be bygones.
And since you now the Mariners will be even closer to.

Speaker 5 (02:39:55):
You, maybe.

Speaker 4 (02:39:57):
That's not happening. I runs at the plate, brother, stupid
moon up. Best hitter is at the plate. Yeah, the
highly paid guy who came in field. Did you see
what he did earlier watching that he looked like Cody
Bellinger out there and write Cody threw a guy out
last night.

Speaker 5 (02:40:12):
He didn't against the Astros. Yes he did.

Speaker 6 (02:40:14):
He also had his circus act, but he did throw
a guy out during the Astros series.

Speaker 5 (02:40:18):
Nobody remembers the out.

Speaker 6 (02:40:19):
I mean this is a you special. Make a prediction
on tonight's Astros game, the very important one hundred and
thirty first game of the season, thirty third game of
the sea now the rock you sound like British Brooks.
He was asked a question today about what makes what
he does or a special teamer, you know, the kind
of player that they want on the field.

Speaker 5 (02:40:40):
What does it take to go out there and do
what you do? Violence? That was his answer, His whole answer. Violence.

Speaker 4 (02:40:47):
The best part of his role in Rocky three was
when they're at the outdoor press conference and he just
starts going in on Adrian hey woman, just starts saying hey.

Speaker 5 (02:40:55):
Woman or very inappropriate. Alone. Did not like that.

Speaker 4 (02:40:58):
He's like, well, I'm gonna fight him now he wasn't before. So, oh,
Lawrence BA barracas? What does the BA stand for? Don't
worry about it, all right, Astros beat the Rockies and
then four to three Seattle lead cut to one.

Speaker 5 (02:41:15):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (02:41:16):
I'm looking forward to them completing this comeback so that
the actually want to tune into the Astros on Deck
show for an update. Yes, all right, so that's coming
up next. We will be back with you tomorrow at
two o'clock the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety